After decades attempting to become a sustainable business by acting independently, businesses find that they can only advance by acting in concert with other industry actors. It is simply impossible to become sustainable by working in isolation. Although it is entirely possible to make incremental moves in areas that your business controls and directly influences your organization soon comes across challenges it cannot address on its own. A sustainable supply chain? Closing the circular loop on your products? Mobilizing customers on sustainable behaviours? All of these ambitions and more can only be tackled through industry collaboration.
Thankfully, a new guide has been published by Canada’s MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest urban innovation hub, whose mission is to help innovators create a better world. With funding from the Canadian government, MaRS created a guide for businesses who recognize they need to collaborate with industry partners—even peers and competitors—to accelerate sustainability solutions. “Business-led ESG Collaboration: How-to Guide for Business” is the preeminent business road map to starting or joining an initiative to co-create sustainability solutions and get out of the sustainability doldrums. (ESG stands for environment, social and governance. The guide was co-authored by the author of this article.)
