A few weeks ago I blogged about the idea that sustainability requires us to do more than just minimise our impacts. It requires us to generate a net increase in our resources, and the range of options we have moving forward.
The idea seemed impossible.
But now I have come across a company that is setting out to do exactly that.
Kingfisher plc is looking past being “just sustainable” to becoming “net positive”.
They are defining significant stretch goals for 2050, focusing on four key areas:
- Timber:
How to create more forest than they use - Community:
How every store and location will support projects that build local communities or equip people with skills - Energy:
For every store and customer’s home to be zero carbon, or to generate more energy than it consumes - Innovation:
To ensure that every Kingfisher product will enable a more sustainable, and ultimately net positive, lifestyle
Just imagine what the world would be like if every business did this. If we lived in a world where every organisation:
- Generated more ‘input materials’ than it used
- Ensured that every output product or service they provided was aimed at helping others to become ‘net positive’.
- Supported and trained the communities in which they operated
- Generated more energy than they consumed (both up and down the value chain, to customers and suppliers)
That would be a truly sustainable world. Because it would generate more resources than it consumed. And it would increase the range of options for moving forward each year.
That is the future I want. This is the future I choose to participate in creating.