Transformative sustainability can grow your brand

By Adriana Gallardo

As businessmen and entrepreneurs, it is not enough to worry only about growing our sales, building highperformance teams, among many other things. We must also take responsibility for the impact that our companies have on the environment and on society. And it is that long-term success will depend on our ability to operate in a sustainable and respectful way with the environment.

According to a study conducted by IBM in 2022 of more than 3,000 CEOs worldwide, it was found that, for most, the urgency to act is faced with the reality that it is easier to promise that they will turn their commitments into real results, than really do it.They face obstacles such as the difficulty in measuring the return on investment and the technological and data problems.

But it’s not all bad news. Some CEOs have found a way to make sustainability ideals a reality, without sacrificing growth. How did they do it? Changing their mentality, to perceive what others consider obstacles, in opportunities to invest in sustainability and thus optimize operations, boost the efficiency of their companies and embrace transformative sustainability. This happens when sustainability is already an integral part of a company’s business strategies and goes from being an initiative to integrating fundamental values.

To adopt a mindset that allows us to embed transformative sustainability, we must:

1) Be informed: learn about sustainability, climate change and other environmental and social issues. This can be achieved by following subject matter experts and staying informed of the latest sustainability trends and practices.

2) Long-term thinking: Think long-term and consider the consequences of our actions in the future, instead of concentrating on short-term solutions that can cause negative effects.

3) Creativity and innovation: to explore new ways to address environmental and social challenges. This may mean adopting new technologies, developing new business models, or seeking new ways to collaborate and engage with stakeholders.

The reality is that we have reached the point where sustainability has ceased to be a nice detail to be a real necessity. It is time for us to start taking responsibility, starting with changing our mentality in order to take action.

* Adriana Gallardo is an international speaker, author and leader of Adriana’s Insurance emporium. Business and Life Coach, author and producer. She is the creator of “Chingona Circle”, a group that empowers women and the series of conferences “Empodérate”, which help entrepreneurs and business owners to achieve their goals. She lives in California.