In the majority of cases, the largest impacts from a product occur up and downstream. Conversely, many sustainability practitioners focus their efforts on impacts which arise within the direct control of the company – which may be as little as 20% of the overall value chain impact.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

There is a growing requirement for considering sustainability in the context of collective value chain effort, for the simple reason (which is especially pertinent for retail) that the ambition for sustainability performance improvement of a retailer can only be delivered through the actions of other parties, not through their own direct control

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

In the near future, it's easy to imagine stores with smaller footprints that are little more than showrooms. You would make your selections using an automated system, receiving "service" from an AI or robot and then receive the merchandise at your doorsteps in a relatively short time, likely by drone I suppose. In the somewhat more distant future I think the showrooms will all be virtual and we'll be able to access them from the comfort of our homes. It's rather funny how prescient the Jetsons turned out to be. :)

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

3D printing is a current/ emerging technology which does share some aspects of this sort of vision. What are the implications for retailers? Enormous, it is possible that such technologies could totally decentralise the very concept of supply and demand, making the raw materials and the technology to assemble those central to the dynamics of the system. Likewise, the recipes, blueprints and designs gain currency too.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

The fashion industry is trying to understand the implications of creating clothing through 3D using individuals' own measurements and then building real time to be delivered within a day. This would mean that the retail stores would have much smaller footprints as mentioned above but also factory sizes would be much smaller.

urvi bhandari Connector | Disruption Cupid | Emotional Wealth Catalyst | Transformational Brand Leader

From our work with 3D printers, I think that it will be a long time (if ever) before we will have 3D printers at home that can print everything we need. At least in the short term, I think we'll see more of a Kinko's concept where they have multiple machines (one for metal, one for plastics, one for glass, etc.) and experts to run them. This in itself is a new retail model.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Is it preferable to have outlets in every mall in America or is online the environmentally preferable way to distribute merchandise?

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

There have been a number of LCAs done which show that in most cases online retail has fewer impacts than brick and mortar. But retail’s big impact is not environmental, it’s societal. It employs over 10% of our workers and it provides services used by everyone in society. Local businesses provide even more of a benefit, donating two to four times more to charity than chain stores. If we look at retail’s value to society from a monetary lens, the environmental impacts are way down in comparison with the societal impacts. So if you ask me which is better from a sustainability or ethical standpoint, I think a local hardware store wins out over Amazon any day, even though it may have a higher footprint.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

RILA is primarily a US institution and while their Retail Sustainability Initiative includes numerous educational programs, their focus is more on compliance. They help retailers navigate the patchwork of local, state and national regulations, they don't necessarily drive sustainability disruption or leadership. This gets to the core of culture vs. compliance.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

Making sustainable choices the norm, rather than the exception, is the major means by which sustainable intent will turn into sustainable action. Concepts such as the multiple capitals seek to address under-priced value, or the dissonance between sustainable value and economic price.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

We are downcycling a lot of material and still landfilling a great deal. The recycling markets are functioning poorly and appear to be getting worse as opposed to more fluid. Few retailers are employing circular concepts extensively. We need more companies like Patagonia who are willing to disrupt themselves by encouraging consumers to buy smarter and to return garments for recycling.

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

There are two telling omissions to the retail waste stream. The first is a disconnect between price and cost. Consumers see zero price impact at the register from buying throwaways. As an economist, when the price is zero for waste consumption then the result is a tragedy of the commons like a massive sea of plastic in our oceans. The second omission is an incorrect focus. Recycling is like trying to catch the critter after it has escaped its cage. The correct focus is on cradle to cradle product design. The obvious solution is to link price to values. When the economics of waste are sufficiently high then economic's "invisible hand" will create cradle to cradle product solutions. At some point, retailers must seek disruption rather than recycling. Or accept that at some point when the tragedy of the commons becomes too large for voters and governments to ignore, disruption will be imposed on retailers.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Companies should be more interested in their social utility - "is the world a better place because we exist?" - than social impact.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

I believe that without change in markets and financial norms – we will struggle to see wholesale changes in the sustainability of companies across the board.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

Bias is an economic distortion and an inefficiency. For bias to be successfully addressed by a business organization, the CFO must quantify and report bias impacts on revenues, costs and risks. Until bias is accounted for as a business risk and cost, it will never be effectively managed by a business.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Bias in terms of race, religion and sexual orientation generates the following costs: 1) Ineffectual business decision distortions that damages profits; 2) Brand devaluation measured by customer and revenue loss 3) Supply chain distortions measured in reduced quality control and increased costs 4) Legal/PR costs created when bias is adjudicated in courts and public opinion.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

When a company includes social responsibility in their mission statement and business plan, it becomes part of the DNA of the company.

Maria Leo Merchandising/Product Development/Retail Strategist

On corporate social responsibility: if you are "giving back", then you took too much

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

The emerging artificial intelligence (AI) marketplace will be driven by societal aspirations. The AI marketplace will convert our social media posts into societal procurement criteria. The consumer's aspirations will enrich AI's deep learning. It will generate values and value procurement decision making.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

I think we are far away from the point where we will understand whether AI is net positive relative to sustainability outcomes or not. I suspect it initially may not be so positive.

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

I would argue that brands should be active on issues (that align with their brand value/promise) because their consumers may expect it, but brands should stay away from politics - that is a fine line to walk.

Ushma Pandya Experienced in Strategy Development & Execution | Help Organizations Bring Ideas to Life | Independent Consultant

There is a very fine line and in some ways I think we might have to define "politics" -- in terms of candidates or parties vs human equity issues.

Alexandra S

Companies truly engaged in sustainability will need to undertake activities within their own direct spheres of control and influence, but also engage in wider activities designed to evolve norms, values and the rules of business.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

Assuming there are values, drivers and rules that we can adjust to accelerate sustainable business, how do we identify them? Once identified, how do we go about adjusting them? I think if there were processes to each of these steps, we could move much more quickly.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Citizen United creates two business leadership challenges: The first is morality; A second leadership issue arises when a competitor uses Citizen United to win competitive advantage.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Citizen United has legitimized lobbying as a business strategy for winning marketshare. An optimist would expect businesses to lobby for values that align with their customer's values. An economist would expect businesses to use the powers granted in Citizen United to win competitive advantage.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Companies are politically active all the time, and those of us involved in sustainability and responsibility may perceive many of these activities as being positive, or problematic/ indicative of the use of power for political ends.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

Is it only good activism if we agree with its goals or they align with our own agendas? Perhaps the distinction is between activism for private gain versus activism for the public good (which may also include private gain).

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

It is quite difficult to align political positions with the view of leaders, shareholders, employees and partners. Because those groups are often large and their own views are typically quite diverse, navigating that landscape is treacherous.

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

The omnipresent "business case" for CSR, i.e. sticking to issues with a clear nexus to the business, means that some of the most influential actors in today's world, namely large companies with enormous resources, will steer clear of situations where they might be able to do some real good.

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

To push the conversation a bit, if the company is privately owned and especially if family or founder owned, they have the right to support activism in any way they want. And in a free economy employees can be free to work there or not, consumers can also vote with their dollars.

Maria Leo Merchandising/Product Development/Retail Strategist

When advocacy aligns with the business goals, I think it makes sense and can be the ethical thing to do. But I don't think that a company that doesn't advocate is unethical. A person can be ethical without having to be outspoken about their values.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Consumers will buy more sustainable products because they cost less while also enhancing their welfare. Businesses will adopt sustainability because it grows revenues, wins market share and increases profit margins.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

The dynamism of technology changes cuts against some long-term planning. What is available today in terms of energy efficient products and services may not even resemble the marketplace 5-10-15 years forward. Businesses should create strategies that are based upon a high degree of flexibility.

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

Some of the worlds biggest, long-term investors (public sector pension funds) are using ESG indexes to avoid risks that could break capitalism through environmental or systematic failure.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

The structure, measures and norms of capitalism are all about shorter term risk and reward, bolstered by mechanisms such as the discount rate, which explicitly tells us that future value, by its very nature, must be discounted against present value.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

Does the aging population create a threat to sustainability because of the pursuit of yields, or does it instead lead to an ultimate private/public sector "sustainability contract", where society shifts its value creation measurement to long-term sustainability of resources and modest financial ROI.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

In terms of sustainability and environmental buy-in, the tail end Boomer generation and Millennials are more inclined to look long term for their children's sake

Alexandra S

I strongly believe that policy is critical for systems level change in behavior / business models

Ushma Pandya Experienced in Strategy Development & Execution | Help Organizations Bring Ideas to Life | Independent Consultant

The car industry lobbied against seat belts and airbags as costly add-ons that consumers would never pay for. Regulation, enabled by voter sentiments, pushed the industry to install seat belts. Initial consumer response was divided. Today of course, auto companies now market vehicle safety.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

I don't believe that disruptive technology is the only sustainable path. Disruptive culture is a different, and perhaps more sustainable path.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Sustainability’s path to being a cultural norm, and a growth business strategy, is to disruptively win on price.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Family owned businesses often have an innately multi-generational perspective baked into the culture, unlike listed businesses (which may have existed over decades or centuries) whose culture is dominated by market dynamics, which, with the advent of automated trading, has become sub-second.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

SC Johnson and Kohler are great examples of family-owned businesses prioritizing long term initiatives with long term payback. SC Johnson has been steadily improving its ingredients, reducing waste & working on social impacts. Kohler has implemented LCA in its stage-gate development process.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

A Life Cycle Assessment of the F150 found a small fuel efficiency increase from 17 mpg to 19 mpg, but the size of their US fleet resulted in more annual GHG emissions reductions than all hybrid and electric vehicles sold combined. So I would say this is a sustainability success.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Today’s sustainability practice says aluminum bodied vehicles are a sustainability success. But they're still fossil fueled vehicles that requires a massive expenditure of greenhouse emissions to manufacture, so it's an incremental success that pails in comparison to the global warming challenge.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Here's a list of critical elements for a sustainable scenario analysis of the future of retailing: 1. Mix of e-commerce v brick & mortar 2. Human interaction v AI, robotics, etc. 3. Responsible sourcing and its many challenges 4. Fast fashion (and variants) v heirloom products that last (Part 1)

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

Part Two of list of critical elements for a sustainable scenario analysis of the future of retailing: 5. "Mass customization" v mass production 6. Big box vs. localization, specialization 7. Competition v collaboration on sustainability 8. Transparency & disclosure 9. Millennial attitudes v the "OG"

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

Some deeper thinking on Bruce's list: 1a. What will e-commerce look like? Will Amazon & Ali Baba become more dominant (or even merge) or will Etsy, Walmart etc carve out spaces for themselves? 1b. Will the online retailers open up brick & mortar stores or take space in existing stores? (Part 1)

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Retailer scenario analysis must continuously prepare companies for emerging, conflicting consumer behavior, balancing individualistic trends such as big data personalization, retail everywhere, AR etc. vs collectivistic trends such as urbanization, radical transparency, the circular economy etc.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

It is hard not to think about the role of consumerism in discussing sustainability & ethics. Retailers could associate sustainability efforts with the basic drive to "consume" by pairing innovation, influence, creativity and self expression along with emerging trends tied to milestone deadlines.

Maria Leo Merchandising/Product Development/Retail Strategist

The emergence of blended digital/physical commerce highlights how sustainability impacts consumers’ individualistic vs. collectivistic behavior. Technology and big data/AI create the ability for very personalized offers, while increasing awareness of the tragedy of the commons drives collectivism.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

We've seen time and again where large legacy retailers (Walmart, for one), have set and met environmental goals while simultaneously influencing the rest of the industry to follow along. When a giant retailer sets a standard, there's no choice but to follow along.

Natalie Calhoun Environmental & Safety Manager at Delaware North

Does the sphere of influence have to start big? The combined actions of government policies, environmental groups, and other retailers pushed giant Starbucks to announce the dramatic sustainable goal of phasing out plastic straws. Could the same process work on other sustainable measures?

Natalie Calhoun Environmental & Safety Manager at Delaware North

Apple as a case study offers these specific steps for a legacy retailer: 1) Leadership 2) Consumer aspirations focus 3) Personal, value/values-added consumer connection 4) Authentic marketing voice 5) Disruptive change is the new norm.

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

We are starting to see the rise of values driven brands which are aiming to provide utility and customer satisfaction with the ethics “baked-in”.

Joss Tantram Sustainability expert, author & speaker. I help people plan & deliver strategies that build business value.

One of the many potential conflicts that will arise in the future is the need for more and more private information to enable effective machine learning

Bruce Klafter Vice-President, Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility at Flex

There is a massive gap in personalized retail customer service that creates a huge sustainability opportunity if sustainability professionals engage with the technology folks to populate a legacy retailer’s services & AI engagement with value/values triggers that behaviorial economics is documenting

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Leveraging the weekend breakfast and lunch crowd and evening dining crowd by co-locating with a restaurant and/or providing an inviting, fun experience while waiting for a table has the potential to keep sales and brand value high.

Lise Laurin CEO at EarthShift Global, New insights for Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and S-ROI

Kind of like at airports: sit at the table with a monitor, order food to be brought to your spot; why not the same with merchandise? Go to lunch with the family and have CVS bring toothpaste or deliver running shoes to the juice bar.

Maria Leo Merchandising/Product Development/Retail Strategist

An innovation mindset should be embraced more to achieve a greater level of success and to stay relevant for the future without being too disrupted and left behind

Joan Dharmadi Senior Business Development Manager

Facing an environment that is both complex and rapidly changing, requires agility. Rather than strictly trying to predict the future and invest accordingly, retailers are adopting the agile movement playbook!

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

Commercially, retailers must move at the speed of competition to innovate/simplify -- incremental change in today’s economy is “slow death.” Ditto for sustainability: it's achieving incremental change when massively disruptive innovation is required to address climate change, global obesity, etc...

Bill Roth Business Coach And Writer

Legacy retail has long supply chains, but the increasingly direct to consumer model eliminates the information gap, and consumers engagement also provides information back, creating a virtuous cycle, which enables democratization of sustainability, and that can only be a good thing.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach