How to create a Successful Sustainability Strategy – Think Like a Startup

I am constantly amazed and in awe of what small scrappy startups are able to achieve with no money, experience or resources.  Think of companies like AirBNB, Zip car, and Facebook who all transformed the way we do business everyday with nothing more than an idea. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard sustainability professionals say things like “if only I had more money and resources” or “our team is just a brave 1 or 2”.  Each of the startups I mentioned above started with little or no money and resources and the founders were just a brave 1 or 2 that had a vision and an idea, yet they succeeded despite the challenges. As sustainability professionals we are all in some way trying to disrupt our industries to becomes more sustainable.  This is a worthy and important thing to do but we seem to face challenges at every turn.  So how do a bunch of college dropouts with no resources or experience completely disrupt and transform entire industries? The answer is that they have a startup mindset.  So how can we as sustainability professionals learn to think like a startup to deliver amazing sustainability outcomes?  Here are three elements of a startup mindset that you can use to make changes today.

1. Ask Why.  Startups constantly challenge the incumbent way of doing things by questioning why? what if? which means?  Say your company owns a property portfolio and you want to implement a renewable energy project but the company requires a 2 year payback (50% ROI) on environmental initiatives yet for their building investments they only require a 10% ROI.  Why have different investment criteria?  What if the renewable energy project increased the property value?  What if we didn’t have to pay for the renewable energy system and simply purchased the electricity?
2. Solve a problem.  Startups are in the business of finding problems in a market that no one is providing a solution for.  Have a spare bedroom you want to earn some extra cash for – along comes AirBNB.  Successful startups actively seek out customer pain points and design solutions for these.  What pain points exist in your organisation that a sustainability initiative could solve?
3. Experiment with speed.  Have you heard of lean startup theory?  The basics of this are to conduct experiments of your new products and get feedback as quickly as possible and use this feedback to improve.  The idea is not to build the perfect product first but to simply build the bare minimum so you can get feedback.

These are just some of the lessons we can take from the startup world to deliver the sustainability outcomes you are so passionate about.  But in order to do this we need to change our thinking to a startup mindset and stop focussing on the lack of money, resources and experience.