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Since 2010, MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group have been charting how organizations have tackled sustainability-related challenges — from resource scarcity to customer demands for healthier products — with innovations that create business value. Our 2010 study found Sustainability Embracers, who firmly believe that sustainability is necessary to be competitive. In 2011, we probed the business dimension more deeply and discovered that sustainability had become a permanent element of many company agendas and a source of profit for some.
This year, the trend toward profit continued: Key measures bumped up and showed that sustainability is paying off for a growing number of companies. Overall, the portion of respondents reporting profit from sustainability went up 23%, to 37% of the total.
But perhaps most important: Nearly 50% of companies have changed their business models as a result of sustainability opportunities — a 20% jump over last year. As we will explore in detail, business-model innovation is the crux of sustainability profits. Companies reporting that it adds to their bottom lines leverage these innovations to translate sustainability opportunities and pressures into business value.