This interview was published in Sustainability Index Magazine 2023.

How Can Sustainability in Business Look Like

Alice Schmidt is a global sustainability advisor who has worked in 30 countries on 4 continents with 70+ organizations across sectors, deeply passionate about creating opportunities across the social, environmental and economic spheres.

We discussed with Alice about her new book, „The Sustainability Puzzle: How Systems Thinking, Climate Action, Circularity and Social Transformation Can Improve Health, Wealth and Wellbeing for All”, and her insights on how systems thinking, circularity, climate action and social transformation can improve health, wealth and wellbeing for all.

1. You are the co-author of „The Sustainability Puzzle” book, a useful and accessible read for all those who want to understand the links between social, environmental and economic issues and solutions. It has a touch of optimism which is often missing from today’s sustainability conversations. How did you manage to invite your readers to zoom out and look at the bigger picture before zooming in again?

Most of us work in silos and focus on a rather narrow set of professional questions and responsibilities. In sustainability, this sometimes leads to outcomes that do more harm than good. In the book, we highlight this with lots of real-life examples and some graphic art as well. For example, electric cars can be a piece of the puzzle, but only if they’re powered by renewables and only where they do not replace perfectly functioning conventional vehicles and the materials they are made of are sourced sustainability.

More importantly, by looking at the bigger picture, we realize that cities of the future should function without cars. Sustainable mobility is about walking, cycling and public transport – not about e-mobility only. Therefore, another piece of the puzzle is designing cities in ways that make sustainable forms of transport more attractive through parks and green space, cycling infrastructure and appropriate incentives, for example.

2. In your opinion, piecing together The Sustainability Puzzle in organizations is vital: it’s about doing justice to the breadth and depth of sustainability and balancing a systems perspective with concrete solutions. What is the key element that business leaders should consider to ensure that they are starting their sustainability journey right?

As a first step, business leaders must make the connection between people, planet and profits. What many have yet to fully grasp is that individuals and businesses alike depend on ecosystem services, the services provided by planet Earth to us for free.

By polluting, emitting greenhouse gases and using non-renewable materials we are not actually destroying the planet – the planet doesn’t need us humans. What we’re destroying is the ecosystem’s ability to provide to us the conditions we need to thrive and survive.

3. As a keynote speaker, you often talk about topics such as multi-solving, planetary health, social impact, and especially sustainable business and ESG. Why do you think sustainability has become such an important component of strategic leadership thinking? How does your audience feel after hearing your insights on creating a better future by addressing global challenges today?

Indeed, both when giving talks and when advising my clients I emphasize that sustainability is not about putting social versus economic or environmental issues. It’s about finding win-wins – and sometimes triple wins – for people, planet and profits.

Let’s take the example of urban mobility again: investing in green space rather than roads improves people’s health and well-being. It makes them feel safer and more inclined to walk and cycle. By doing so, they contribute to saving taxpayers’ money that’s otherwise necessary for building and maintaining car infrastructure. At the same time, injuries through traffic accidents go down, and air pollution – a major problem in many cities around the world – decreases as well, improving people’s health even more. Moreover, all that walking, cycling and taking public transport keep people active and engaged with their communities, another important factor in their health.

So, there is a virtuous circle, as urban spaces become more attractive for pedestrians and cyclists, decreasing the need for car travel even more. Having cars in urban centres is very last-century I find, but many politicians have yet to discover this.

This is why sustainability has become so important for leaders: well, they are beginning to see the business case. Firstly, regulation is tightening, secondly, they feel pressure from suppliers and customers. Employees, too, are interested in sustainability and young people in particular want to work for sustainable companies – they’re even willing to accept lower incomes if they feel good about the company they work with. Banks and investors are also demanding transparency. All of this makes the business case even clearer. Real leaders recognize that in a context of rising pressure and increased transparency, greenwashing is not the answer. In fact, portraying yourself in a much greener, better light than you really come with considerable risks. True sustainability leaders recognize that they better invest resources in really scrutinizing their business models than only in green marketing, and they do not shy away from transformational change.

My audiences often tell me about “lightbulb” moments as they begin to make the connection between people, planet and profits. They welcome the evidence-based but optimistic approach, neither naïve nor lacking in seriousness.

4. In order to ensure success and profit, thorough research is necessary when setting up sustainability projects and programs. This involves analyzing stakeholders, identifying and assessing potential partners, and understanding the socio-economic or cultural environment. How does efficient monitoring look like? Why is it essential to see whether all elements are on track and to address those that are not?

Indeed, sustainability success requires keeping on top of evidence, setting goals and monitoring. Not all aspects of sustainability are straightforward to measure. Yet, you cannot manage what you do not measure, so measuring is essential. In order to do this effectively and efficiently, I usually recommend my clients to focus on a few, impactful levers, and to rather measure and monitor some key indicators well than to spread themselves too thinly. Importantly, they must look at outputs and impact rather than at activities and inputs only.

Sustainability has become a really hot market, so providers of certification and support have mushroomed all over the place. It is important for companies to choose wisely whom to partner with. Often, well intended is not the same as well done. At any rate, collaboration – across silos, sectors and industries – is essential for sustainability success.