17 Jul Sustainability
These days everybody talks about sustainability. But what is sustainability exactly?
The tire producer Michelin has asked exactly this question in a recent European Rubber Journal article.
I ask this question often in my conference presentations. In this article, I want to give you my view on sustainability and what it means for Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin.
Sustainability
In the true sense of the word, “sustainability” means the “ability to sustain” over an indefinite period of time, maybe forever. What actions can we continue to do forever? Only those that do not deplete and destroy resources. Maybe even those that restore and rebuild resources.
Technology does not change the world, but humans who deploy technologies do (shameless plug: Best overview on recovered carbon black technologies here).
Logical levels
We all see the world we live in filtered by our values and beliefs, our habits and our culture. Our values and beliefs govern how we see ourselves, how we relate and belong to others and, finally, what our life purpose is. Values, identity, belonging and purpose make up our culture and internal world. Our external world, our skills, our behavior and our environment is a direct result of our internal world, our culture. This means that we can change our external world by changing our internal world, pivoting on our values and beliefs. This is the concept of the “Logical Levels” by Robert Dilts.
Core values
Knowing the importance of our values both in business and in private life, we come to the question “what are our values?”
When we google for “core values”, we find lists of up to 569 core values on the internet. Wen then can run through and mark core values that are important to us. In a second step we can group and “containerise” values, reducing all values important to us to only a handful or even only three core values.
What are the important core values for sustainability at Wolfersdorff Consulting Berlin?
Our core values: Love, growth and joy
Love is the most important value for all beings, nobody would deny that, right? We all need love from our partners, families and beings around us. Even animals and plants understand the language of love. But what could “business love” be? For me, “business love” is a container for important values in business life, including but not limited to respect, integrity, autheticity, care, service, paying forward, positivity and also quick payments of invoices 😉.
Growth is the inspiration and red line running throughout my personal career. As a chemical engineer I am motivated by scale up and large dimensions of processes. As a complex sales and B2B marketing expert I have used sales process growth hacking techniques since the year 2000, when nobody knew yet what growth hacking is. (Watch my growth hacking webinar free on Youtube to learn more!). But growth is a universal concept and it becomes clearer now, that there are limits to physical growth in the industrial world because that growth has a negative impact on our earth. I am motivated by mental growth and helping others to grow, both in their business and in their minds.
Joy in what you do makes you the best you can be, it is an inspiring positive energy for you and the world around you.
These three core values are the important tools I am using for working with clients, partners and the public on the topic of sustainability. They are what I look for when I select new clients, new business partners and new allies. And it is exactly for what I look for when I will hire colleagues one day in the near future.
And now?
What is sustainability for you? What are your core values?
#sustainability #ecology #technology