case study on sustainability

Top 10 Sustainability Case Studies & Success Stories in 2024

Environmental and social practices have a significant impact on the long-term success of businesses. Some businesses outperform others in this area, giving them a competitive advantage. We will present ten sustainability success stories to executives searching for methods to close the sustainability gap between themselves and outperformers. 

We take a holistic approach to sustainability when presenting these case studies, seeing environmental and social challenges as a part of maintaining a sustainable business (see Figure 1). We also recognize that, while technology can aid in the improvement of corporate sustainability, changing business processes can be just as successful. As a result, we will provide a variety of scenarios that fully demonstrate the ESG framework .

1. UPS ORION: Improve transportation efficiency

Transportation activities accounted for almost 30% of US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. (See Figure 2). For a company like UPS, which distributes goods across regions, transportation activities make up the bulk of GHG emissions. As a result, enhancing transportation efficiency is crucial for organizations like UPS to remain sustainable.

As a solution, UPS adopted an AI system called ORION which is a route optimizer that aims to minimize the number of turns during the delivery. Initiation began in 2012 and up today UPS has been working on developing it.

ORION saves UPS 10 million gallons of fuel per year, which means that in addition to the financial benefits, it decreases UPS’s carbon footprint by 100,000 metric tonnes per year, or the equivalent to removing more than 20,000 cars from the roads.

There are public cloud route optimizer systems which businesses can deploy without building hardware. These tools help firms to use their software as a service by paying a subscription cost.

To learn more about ensuring supply chain sustainability with technology you can read our Top 5 Technologies Improving Supply Chain Sustainability article.

Figure 2: US GHG emissions.

2. IKEA IWAY: Make business with ESG oriented corporations

Supplier code of conducts are established guidelines that require other businesses to demonstrate their operations’ social and environmental impacts. The objective is to reward companies that meet strong ESG standards. It is also one of the positive governance indications for organizations, as we highlighted in our ESG metrics article .

IWAY is the supplier code of conduct of IKEA forcing suppliers to meet certain environmental and humanitarian qualities to work with. The initiative has been in place for over 20 years, and over that time, IKEA has refined it based on their prior experiences. IWAY six is the most recent version of IKEA’s supplier code of conduct, which evaluates:

• Core worker rights.
• Safety of the working place.
• Life-work balance of employees.
• Water and waste management of potential suppliers.
• Prevention of child labour. 

3. General Electric digital wind farm: Produce green energy efficiently

Wind turbine productivity varies greatly depending on the design, weather conditions, and geography of the location it is deployed. Using IoT and digital twins to collect data on each wind turbine and simulate possible modifications such as adjusting the direction of the wind turbine can assist corporations in locating their wind turbines in a wind farm more effectively (see Figure 3).

Furthermore, the performance of wind turbines declines with time and may require maintenance; employing sensors and digital twins can assist in determining the appropriate time for repair.

Figure 3: How digital twins can optimize wind turbine productivity.

The General Electric’s (GE) digital wind farms are based on these two elements. GE optimized over 15,000 turbines using sensors and digital twins technologies. Each wind farm can create up to 10% more green energy as a result of the digital wind farm initiative, which helps to enhance our worldwide green energy mix.

4. Swire Properties green building: Minimize GHG emissions

Swire Properties is a construction company that operates in China and especially in the Hong Kong area. In 2018, the company built One Taikoo Place which is a green building that aims to reduce GHG emissions of Swire Properties in order to align with sustainability goals of the company’s stakeholders.

Swire properties use 3D modeling techniques to optimize the building’s energy efficiency. Reduce electricity consumption by using smart lighting systems with sunshine and motion sensors. A biodiesel generation system has been installed in the building, which converts waste food oil into biodiesel. Swire Properties additionally uses low carbon embedded materials and a lot of recycled materials in their construction.

Swire Properties was able to cut GHG emissions intensity throughout their portfolio by nearly 20% because of the usage of digital technologies and low carbon integrated materials.

5. H&M Let’s Close the Gap: Deposit scheme for gathering raw material

In 2021, we consumed 1.7 times more resources than Earth generates annually because our economic outlook is based on production, use and disposal. Such an economy is not sustainable and that is the reason why the concept of circular economy (CE) is trending nowadays.

The most basic principles of CE is to use trash as a raw material for production through innovation, recycling, or repairing and reusing existing products.

H&M’s “Let’s Close the Gap” project began in 2013 as a CE best practice that collects and categorizes discarded clothing from customers. If the garment is in decent condition, they will restore it and find a new owner for it. If a garment reaches the end of its useful life, H&M will recycle it and reuse the material in new goods.

Customers who bring in their old clothes are rewarded with tokens that can be used to get a discount at H&M shops. Incentivizing customers creates a complete CE loop.

In 2019, 57% of H&M’s raw materials were sustainable, according to Forbes. By 2030, the company hopes to improve it 100 percent.

6. Gusto: Hiring female engineers to close gender inequality gap

Gender inequality remains a major social issue despite all the improvements. There are two common types of gender disparity in the workplace. The first is gender pay disparity, which occurs when companies pay male employees more and provide better working conditions than female employees in the same position. 

The second is occupational segregation, in which women are hired for non-technical jobs while men hold the majority of leadership roles. This was the situation at software firm Gusto, where female engineers made up slightly more than 5% of the engineering team at the beginning of 2015. 

Julia Lee , one of Gusto’s first female engineers, claimed that other engineers did not accept her ideas because she was a “female engineer.” Gusto initiated an HR drive to reduce gender inequality by prioritizing the recruitment of female engineers, prohibiting female workers from scrolling, and deleting masculine job ads like “ninja rockstar coder.”

Gusto was able to improve its female engineer ratio to roughly 20% by the end of 2015 thanks to the campaign. The average ratio among software businesses’ engineering teams was 12% in 2013, therefore this was a significant improvement in a short period of time.  

7. HSBC: ESG concerned green finance

Finance companies can help speed up the transition to sustainable business practices by supporting initiatives run by responsible businesses. By the end of 2025, HSBC has committed to investing $100 billion in sustainability projects. HSBC already has funded sustainability projects that require more than $50 billion in investment as of 2019, indicating that the corporation is on track to meet its objective.

HSBC created an ESG risk evaluation framework to assure funding for green projects in 2019. Since then, the framework has been improved. In 2021, HSBC’s ESG practices were rewarded with an AA rating by MSCI.

HSBC is also working toward a goal of using 100% renewable energy as their source of electricity by 2030. Company reduces its consumption of paper, and single used plastics for coffee and beverages.

For more information about best ESG practices you can read our Top 6 ESG Reporting Best Practices article.

8. Signify light-as-a-Service: Enhance production stewardship

The product-service system ( PSS ) is a business model in which producers acquire a product over its lifetime and rent or lease it to the users. PSS ensures product stewardship since the product always becomes the asset of the company. It encourages producers to provide high-quality, repairable items in order to extend the product’s useful life. As a result, it helps to close the circularity gap by ensuring better use of natural resources.

Signify, a luminaire producer, adopts such a business strategy where it demands a subscription fee according to usage period of their lightning systems. PSS allows Signify claims that PSS allows them to produce 0 luminaire waste and drops maintenance costs around 60%.

9. Airbus additive manufacturing: Manufacture lighter planes with 3D printing

AIMultiple expects that additive manufacturing will disruptive for the airplane manufacturing since:

• It speeds up the manufacturing of parts compared to traditional molding techniques.
• It is cheaper due to effective use of raw materials and time reduction of production.
• It enables the manufacturing of lighter parts by up to 45% , resulting in lighter planes that burn less fuel. According to Airbus, additive manufacturing technology can reduce an A320 plane’s annual GHG emissions by around 465,000 metric tons, which is roughly the same as eliminating 100,000 automobiles from the road for a year. (An average car emits 4.6 tonnes of GHG per year). 

To effectively use 3D printers Airbus partnered with Materialise , a Belgium-based technology company  that specialize in additive manufacturing.

For more information regarding improving corporate sustainability by digital transformation you can read our Top 4 Digital Technologies that Improve Corporate Sustainability article.

10. Tata Power: Solar plants on the roofs

Rooftops offer a lot of empty space that can be used to install solar panels. Such initiatives have been taken in various parts of the world. Tata Power does it in India and generates green electricity by using idle places of buildings.

In 2021, Tata Power was able to spread their program throughout 90 Indian cities, producing 421 million watts of electricity, which is equivalent to nearly 40 thousand homes’ yearly electricity use in the US. (The average annual power usage for a residential utility customer in the US was 10,715 kWh in 2020, according to the EIA .).

We expect that in the near future the cooperation between energy and construction companies will enhance the use of idle places in buildings in a more effective way. Such an industrial symbiosis reduces both sectors’ ESG risk.

For more information on the top carbon footprint calculators, check our article, Top 7 Carbon Footprint Calculator Software/Tools for Businesses .

To learn more about corporate sustainability you can contact with us:

This article was drafted by former AIMultiple industry analyst Görkem Gençer.

Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month. Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider , Forbes, Washington Post , global firms like Deloitte , HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission . You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple. Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised businesses on their enterprise software, automation, cloud, AI / ML and other technology related decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization. He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider . Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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A wonderful collection of case studies on corporate sustainability. I enjoyed the read. I am convicted to delve into promoting sustainability in Africa.

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3 Business Sustainability Case Studies And Why They Worked

Here’s how big industry players like Lyft, Patagonia and Danone took up sustainable initiatives to elevate their businesses while helping the planet.

Founded in 2012, Lyft is now an $11 billion ride-hailing company, second in the industry to Uber alone. Lyft along with Uber has been criticized for contributing to emissions and increasing congestion , however, the company is taking steps to work towards better solutions. In 2017, the ride-sharing service shared its 2025 climate impact goals which also includes a switch to autonomous electric vehicles powered by renewable energy and reducing overall CO2 emissions in the transportation sector.

Riding Carbon Neutral

“Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce demonstrates how industry and the environment do not have to be at odds, and if we work to find the right solutions, the two can (and must) work together.” This excerpt from the Lyft co-founders’ carbon neutral announcement communicates the drive behind the company’s sustainable initiative.

To take their concern for the environment and communities one step further, Lyft also took on a multi-million dollar investment to make all their rides carbon neutral. Their carbon-neutral pledge directly funds emission mitigation efforts, including the reduction of emissions in the automotive manufacturing process, renewable energy programs, forestry projects, and the capture of emissions from landfills. By 2019, Lyft spent well over $2 million on carbon credits . This is equivalent to 2,062,500 metric tons of carbon – the amount Lyft estimates it emits across its entire operations.

Takeaway – Brand Image Harmony Earns Customers

The effort to go carbon neutral falls in line with Lyft’s larger marketing strategy. The ride-sharing app has consistently focused on friendly, easy-going community-based messaging. This marketing angle has largely contributed to its success. In 2017, Lyft was in control of a third of the US ride-sharing market while Uber was losing part of its own.

This initiative creates a strong association in the minds of the consumer – Lyft cares about offering its riders the best possible option. In turn, this large scale perception snowballs into greater customer retention and acquisition rates.

2. Patagonia

The founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, built the outdoor clothing brand with the clear vision to protect nature. Since the company’s advent, this steadfast mission has translated into cuts of their profits being donated to worthy environmental causes, switches to organic cotton, LEED Certified buildings, FSC Certification, 1% for the Planet Organization, and Common Threads Garment Recycling Program to name a few.

Buy Less, Use More

Patagonia’s Common Threads Recycling Program took back 45 tons of clothes for recycling from their customers and made 34 tons into new clothes. To build on this bold initiative to make all their clothes recyclable in 5 years, Patagonia launched their The Common Threads Initiative (2011) that encouraged consumers to repair and reuse their clothing rather than disposing of it, returning them for recycling or replacing them once worn out. The bold initiative sprouted from the insight that recycling is not the solution – reducing it. Marketing efforts for the initiative were geared towards encouraging higher quality products with longer shelf lives over those that might wear out quicker. For those that do wear out, Patagonia offered a free customer repair service that keeps their products in the loop for longer.

The brand put out “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ads that actively discouraged their audience from purchasing their products. The risky but refreshing angle earned them a massive PR splash. The marketing community expected the initiative to cause a steep decline in Patagonia’s sales.

Takeaway: Genuinity Earns Goodwill

Contrary to these predictions, the campaign was at the core of the greatest success the brand had seen in 2 years . The initiative repaired more than 30,000 items in 18 months . Sales increased by 30% to $540 million in the following year.

When questioned on the forces behind this success, Rob BonDurant (Vice President on Global Marketing) said “The discerning consumer targeted by Patagonia will be more likely to buy one of the company’s (relatively pricey) fleeces rather than those of its (mostly cheaper) rivals. And that fleece will last for years, so avoiding the need to buy replacements every other season or so. Patagonia even offers a free repair service to discourage you from chucking it in the bin liner as soon as it gets frayed or torn. Hence, while Patagonia itself sells more stuff, the argument goes, the overall volume of stuff sold goes down.”

Danone is a leader in a global food and beverage industry, offering product lines ranging from dairy and plant-based products to water. Danone also happens to be a brand with one of the largest plastic footprints , which has been heavily criticized. However, through meticulous efforts and conscious initiatives, the company has built a strong brand on sustainable food values. Given their wide product range, their sustainability policies are also varied enough to complement their widespread impact. “It is increasingly vital for companies and brands to realize that the path ahead is one of technological investment, sustainable development, and high quality in all aspects of product production, packaging included”, says the CEO Andreas Ostermayr.

Finding Sustainability Strategies That Work For You

According to Danone’s CEO, Emmanuel Faber, “Consumers are craving change. They expect large organisations like Danone to bring our scale of impact to change the world for the better.”  Danone took multiple strides in the sustainable direction in 2018. They introduced new plant-based products, made drastic changes to their packaging and announced their 2030 sustainable goals to green their products even further.

As of 2018, 87% of Danone’s total packaging (and 77% of its plastic packaging) was reusable, recyclable, or compostable. At Least 50% of its water volumes are sold in reusable jugs. The F&B giant is taking greater strides toward the circular packaging model with the following goals

Launch 100% recycled PET bottles in all our major water markets (by 2021)

Reach 25% of recycled material on average in plastic packaging by 2025, 50% on average for water and beverage bottles, and 100% for Evian bottle (by 2025)

Offer consumers bottles made from 100% bioplastic.

Beyond the packaging phase of implementing a circular economy, Danone has also emphasized the importance of investing in the infrastructure of waste management systems. Danone and the Danone Ecosystem Fund have launched projects to support waste pickers in 7 countries. Through this project, they have ensured safe working conditions, appropriate wages, and social protection. By 2018, close to 6,000 waste pickers were professionally empowered, and more than 45,000 tons of waste were recycled yearly. To further express their support for the circular economy model, they invested $5 million dollars in the Closed Loop Fund to finance the recycling and circular economy infrastructure across North America.

Danone’s annual progress report proves that their efforts to make sustainable improvements did not go unnoticed.

Takeaway: Environmental Impact Reporting is Key

The transparency with which Danone regears their supply chain and takes on new environmental commitments shows their dedication to delivering the best customer experience possible. Their effort to make their products and processes sustainable is driven home through their consistent communications. The in-depth reports and PR announcements on initiatives taken to help their consumers lead more sustainable lives help build the association of customer consideration. By keeping their consumers in the loop, the brand has established a deeper connection with them. The consumer has every reason to believe that the company really does want what is best for their own health.

The more Danone experiments with environmentally beneficial innovations and communicates the same with their consumers, the more appealing the brand grows. They have made commitments related to carbon emission reduction, sustainable product packaging, food security, sustainable agriculture, and more. The increasing number of commitments to newer environmental innovations serves as a testament to their higher vision of providing consumers with the best possible product and consumer experience.

It’s not just these huge companies that can incorporate sustainability into their practices. If you’re a small company but are passionate about the world’s sustainability progress check out our blog on Ways Small Businesses Can Win Big With Sustainability CSR here .

We have developed a solution to turn your business’s waste practices sustainable through our Plastic Neutral platform . For every kg of plastic you use in operations and packaging, we recover and recycle an equivalent amount with our verified impact partners. We also help you market your Plastic Neutral Certification so that you realize all the benefits of investing in sustainability as soon as you join us. Sign up for a 30-minute free consultation at www.business.repurpose.global/contactus and start your company’s journey towards Plastic Neutrality today.

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Discover how we assist clients in achieving sustainable outcomes and increased trust through the development of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies, responsible investing practices, and effective reporting methods.

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Sustainability is a rising priority of governments, investors, and consumers. So how should companies react to, and get in front of, the complex and evolving expectations of these stakeholders in ways that create value?

The following case studies are real-world examples of how we helped clients develop environmental, social, and governance strategies, responsible investing practices, and reporting methods that deliver growth and positive outcomes for society. See the full list of our related services

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The Top 10 Sustainability Case Studies You Need to Know in 2023

Sustainability has become a pivotal strategy for forward-thinking companies. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, 70% of executives view sustainability as critical to their organization‘s success. But why has sustainability become so crucial for businesses today?

Implementing environmental and social responsibility measures provides companies with a wealth of benefits. Sustainability practices can unlock cost savings through efficiency gains, attract and retain top talent, open up new revenue streams, minimize risks, and strengthen brand loyalty. As stakeholders across the board increase their focus on sustainability issues, leading companies are showcasing how strong ESG (environmental, social, governance) programs deliver tangible business value.

To help guide other organizations looking to make an impact, we‘ve compiled this list of the Top 10 Sustainability Case Studies & Success Stories. These examples demonstrate how companies across industries are achieving sustainability goals while driving business performance. We‘ll provide details on the solutions implemented, results achieved, and lessons learned from each case study.

1. UPS – Route Optimization Cuts Fuel Costs and Carbon Emissions

The transportation industry accounted for 29% of total US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019, according to EPA data. For global logistics leader UPS, transportation drives the majority of its environmental footprint.

• In 2019, UPS emitted 16.9 million metric tons of CO2e from its ground and air operations combined.

In 2012, UPS sought to reduce its fuel consumption and emissions through a new route optimization program called ORION. ORION leverages advanced algorithms to design the most efficient delivery routes possible. By minimizing left turns, miles driven and time idling, ORION reduced UPS‘ total miles driven in 2020 by 100 million compared to before its implementation.

• ORION is generating over $400 million in annual savings for UPS by enhancing delivery efficiency, per the company‘s 2020 sustainability report.

From a sustainability perspective, ORION delivered immense benefits by reducing UPS‘ fuel use and carbon footprint:

• ORION saves UPS 10 million gallons of fuel annually
• ORION decreased UPS‘ CO2e emissions by 100,000 metric tons in 2020 – equivalent to removing over 20,000 passenger vehicles from the road

Logistics companies like UPS play an outsized role in transportation emissions. ORION exemplifies how route optimization technology can drive significant progress in supply chain sustainability.

2. IKEA Enforces Strong Supplier Standards Through IWAY

Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA first published its supplier code of conduct, called IWAY, in 2000. IWAY outlines strict standards for working conditions, worker rights, environmental practices and governance that all IKEA suppliers must meet.

IKEA conducts over 1,000 IWAY audits every year to ensure compliance across its widespread supplier base. This rigorous oversight has enabled IKEA to cultivate an ethical, sustainable supply chain.

• In FY2020, 57% of IKEA‘s wood was sourced from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests
• 86% of IKEA‘s supplier facilities recycle or incinerate waste for energy recovery

Here are some examples of how IKEA suppliers improved their sustainability performance through IWAY compliance:

• Renewable sources made up 46% of IKEA‘s total energy use in FY2020, up from 41% in FY2019
• IKEA suppliers reduced water use per product unit by 7% from FY2019 to FY2020

Through two decades of enforcing IWAY, IKEA has made continual progress in responsible sourcing, waste reduction and renewable energy adoption across its far-reaching supply chain.

3. GE Leverages AI to Boost Wind Farm Power Generation

Wind power delivers immense sustainability benefits, but productivity can vary up to 40% based on location, weather patterns, turbine design and other factors.

General Electric deploys Internet of Things sensors and analytics tools across its global wind farms to collect real-time turbine performance data. This data feeds into AI algorithms that run complex simulations to model the optimal positioning for turbines within each wind farm. GE‘s digital tools also detect early signs of maintenance needs, minimizing costly turbine downtime.

• GE‘s digital wind farm technologies have increased wind farm energy production by over 10% on average
• 38,000+ wind turbines worldwide are now optimized using GE‘s AI capabilities

According to Greg Petrucci, Managing Director of GE Renewable Energy, "Our investments in leading digital technologies…are driving efficiencies across the entire renewables value chain.”

By applying emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, GE has made wind power infrastructure more productive and cost-competitive globally.

4. Swire Properties Cuts Building Emissions With Sustainable Design

The building sector represents 39% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, according to the UN Environment Programme. As a major real estate developer in Hong Kong and mainland China, Swire Properties recognizes its responsibility to reduce the environmental footprint of its portfolio.

Swire Properties extensively uses sustainable design principles and innovations to minimize its new buildings‘ emissions. A prime example is One Taikoo Place which opened in Hong Kong in 2018 and achieved the city‘s top green building certifications.

• One Taikoo Place was designed using advanced 3D modeling to optimize daylighting and energy performance
• The developers integrated high-efficiency lighting controlled by AI and IoT sensors

One Taikoo Place also utilizes a biodiesel generator fueled by waste cooking oil and low-carbon construction materials.

• Swire Properties reduced GHG intensity across its portfolio by close to 20% between 2017 and 2020
• The firm aims to reach net zero embodied carbon for all new developments by 2030

Jeremy Stibbe, Professor of Sustainability Strategy at the University of Edinburgh, remarked that, “Swire Properties‘ success demonstrates how green building capabilities can rapidly scale up to drive industry-wide transformation."

5. H&M Rewards Customers for Recycling Clothing

The fashion industry grapples with massive waste and pollution from clothing disposal. To combat this, fast fashion giant H&M launched its Take Care garment collecting initiative in 2013.

Customers can drop off used H&M clothing and home textile items at any H&M store globally to be recycled or reused. For every bag of items deposited, customers receive a voucher with discounts on future H&M purchases.

• Over 35,000 stores worldwide have collected garments since 2013
• H&M has taken in over 173,000 tons of textiles to date through this program

If donated clothes are in adequate shape, H&M resells them through its Second Hand business. For unwearable textiles, H&M recycles the fibers to produce new materials like fleece and denim.

This closed-loop process helped H&M increase its share of recycled materials from 0.2% in 2013 up to 16% in 2019. H&M aims to use 100% recycled or sustainably-sourced fibers by 2030.

6. Gusto Takes Aim at Tech‘s Gender Gap

The technology sector has faced criticism over deep gender disparities, particularly in technical roles. At HR software startup Gusto, the engineering team was 95% male in 2015.

Company leaders launched a major campaign to recruit more women engineers at Gusto. They eliminated exclusionary wording like ‘coding ninja‘ from job ads and mandated diverse candidate slates. Mentorship, training programs and networking groups were implemented to foster inclusion.

• Within one year, Gusto increased the female engineer share from 5% to 20%

This far exceeded industry averages – women held just 12% of computing roles in 2013, per National Science Foundation data.

Gusto also ran bias training for hiring managers and introduced flexible work policies to retain female talent. As Nisha Mody, Gusto Director of Engineering, explained:

"We fundamentally believe that diversity and inclusion stem from equal access to opportunity. By cultivating a workplace centered on psychological safety and growth, anyone can thrive at Gusto as their true, best self.”

Gusto‘s concerted push for gender equity has directly expanded opportunities for women in technical fields.

7. HSBC Unlocks Billions in Green Financing

The financial sector plays a pivotal role enabling the transition to a sustainable future. HSBC, one of the world‘s largest banks, set a target to facilitate $100 billion in sustainable financing by 2025 through loans and bonds linked to ESG criteria.

HSBC created a rigorous framework to qualify green financing recipients and ensure robust impact. By late 2019, HSBC had already arranged over $50 billion in sustainable financing – halfway to its goal in just two years.

To walk the talk on sustainability, HSBC also decreased paper usage by 26% from 2018 to 2019 and purchased renewable energy certificates to cover 100% of electricity consumed across its own operations.

Thanks to commitments like these, HSBC earned an ‘A’ rating from CDP and ‘Leader’ ESG designation from MSCI in 2019. As Daniel Klier, Group Head of Sustainable Finance at HSBC, stated:

“HSBC is committed to providing the financing to help the global transition to a low-carbon future. Our clients need more than money – they need expertise to navigate the rapidly evolving sustainable finance marketplace. We are mobilizing capital at scale on top of the technical know-how to accelerate sustainability progress worldwide.”

8. Signify Shifts to Sustainable ‘Light as a Service’ Model

With traditional sales of lightbulbs and luminaires, lighting companies have limited incentive to design durable, repairable products. In 2017, Signify became one of the first major lighting producers to pioneer a product-as-a-service model for illumination called ‘light as a service.‘

Rather than selling lighting products, Signify provides contractual lighting services and retains ownership of all hardware supplied. Clients pay subscription fees based on lighting usage and performance.

This circular business model motivated Signify to enhance product life spans and enable responsible resource use. According to Harsh Chitale, VP of of Strategy at Signify:

“We design products for multiple lives now. Everything is refurbished and reused to maximize utilization before being recycled at end-of-life. This service model revolutionizes how we innovate and operate.”

Signify achieves close to zero waste in Europe through take-back programs. Extended product lifetimes also drive enermous materials savings.

• Signify’s service model reduced material waste by over 1,500 tons in 2019
• Signify anticipates 90% energy savings for customers transitioning to its connected LED lighting systems

9. Airbus Prints Lighter, More Sustainable Plane Parts with 3D Technology

Aircraft manufacturing is resource-intensive, producing significant waste and emissions. Airbus believes additive manufacturing or 3D printing will transform aviation sustainability.

Unlike traditional subtractive methods, 3D printing consolidates many components into one printed part. This significantly reduces raw material usage, production time, and aircraft weight.

Lighter planes burn less fuel – Airbus estimates that 3D printed parts could reduce the annual emissions of an A320 jet by 465,000 tons of CO2. This is equivalent to removing nearly 100,000 passenger cars from the road for one year.

• Airbus currently 3D prints over 1,000 parts for the A320 cabin
• By minimizing manufacturing waste, Airbus aims to cut production scrap by up to 90% using additive techniques

Airbus also collaborates with universities to research sustainable 3D printing materials. As Gracia Ortega, Head of Sustainability at Airbus explained, “Additive manufacturing will be a key driver of our sustainability transformation in aviation.”

10. Tata Power Solar Brings Rooftop Installations to India

In India, Tata Power is rapidly scaling up rooftop solar installations to expand clean energy nationwide. As of 2021, Tata Power has deployed 421 megawatts of solar rooftop capacity on over 5,000 projects.

Rooftop solar avoids land use conflicts and grid transmission losses associated with large utility-scale projects. The distributed model also enables consumers and businesses to directly benefit from renewable power.

• Tata Power‘s rooftop portfolio powers the equivalent of approximately 40,000 U.S. homes annually
• The company has expanded its presence to over 90 Indian cities

"Rooftops offer vast untapped potential for solar energy across India‘s cities," remarked Praveer Sinha, CEO of Tata Power. "Our customer-focused approach makes the switch to solar PV systems simple and financially rewarding for households and companies.”

Tata Power handles everything from technical assessments to installation, maintenance and performance monitoring. By streamlining rooftop solar adoption, Tata Power is supporting India‘s clean energy transition.

Key Takeaways from These Sustainability Success Stories

This hand-picked collection of case studies demonstrates how leading companies are achieving meaningful sustainability progress across sectors. While the business contexts vary, we can draw several overarching lessons:

Sustainability drives financial results – Many of the examples showcase major cost savings from efficiency gains and waste reduction. Investing in ESG helps companies‘ bottom lines.

New technologies enable progress – From route optimization algorithms to 3D printing, emerging digital solutions are providing impactful sustainability tools.

Collaboration and commitment are key – Partnerships expand companies‘ capabilities. But internal buy-in across organizations is equally crucial to execute ambitious sustainability strategies.

Transparency and accountability matter – Programs like IKEA‘s supplier audits and HSBC‘s green finance framework verify performance and ensure integrity.

Solutions should be holistic – Companies need to look at sustainability from all angles, encompassing environmental protection, social responsibility and governance reforms.

While risks from climate change and social issues grow more urgent, these cases demonstrate that strategic sustainability initiatives can also cultivate resilience, competitiveness and innovation. By embedding ESG principles into their cultures, policies and processes, forward-looking companies are strengthening business performance while building a healthier future.

I am Paul Christiano, a fervent explorer at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and their broader implications for society. Renowned as a leading figure in AI safety research, my passion lies in ensuring that the exponential powers of AI are harnessed for the greater good. Throughout my career, I've grappled with the challenges of aligning machine learning systems with human ethics and values. My work is driven by a belief that as AI becomes an even more integral part of our world, it's imperative to build systems that are transparent, trustworthy, and beneficial. I'm honored to be a part of the global effort to guide AI towards a future that prioritizes safety and the betterment of humanity.

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This white paper outlines Google's viewpoint on Right to Repair legislation, a short description of Google's current repair capacities, and how R2R can advance Google's overall sustainability efforts.

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Co-published by BCG and Google, this report provides policymakers, corporate decision makers, and climate leaders with a clear and concise understanding of the role that artificial intelligence (AI) can play in climate action. More specifically, the report highlights AI's significant potential to help address our environmental challenges, sheds light on climate-relevant AI risks, and offers policymakers a streamlined framework for desirable policy outcomes. Throughout the report, we share examples of successful early applications of AI for climate and of instances in which policymakers have already taken the initiative to enable, promote, or guide the use of AI for climate action across sectors.

2023 Supplier responsibility

This report describes our efforts towards the elimination of hazardous chemicals in all Google branded consumer products, accessories, manufacturing processes, and retail packaging.

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This paper discusses the importance of advanced clean electricity technologies to creating secure, reliable, carbon-free electricity systems, and argues that companies can play a catalytic role by directing some of their clean energy purchases and investments to support the commercialization of these technologies.

2023 Phones

This report details the environmental performance of the Pixel 8 Pro over its full life cycle, from design and manufacturing through usage and recycling.

This report details the environmental performance of the Pixel 8 over its full life cycle, from design and manufacturing through usage and recycling.

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This report details the environmental performance of the Google Pixel Watch 2 over its full life cycle, from design and manufacturing through usage and recycling.

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This report details the environmental performance of the Pixel Tablet with Charging Speaker Dock over its full life cycle, from design and manufacturing through usage and recycling.

Google’s 2023 Environmental Report outlines how we’re driving positive environmental outcomes throughout our business in three key ways: developing products and technology that empower individuals on their journey to a more sustainable life, working together with partners and organizations everywhere to transition to resilient, low-carbon systems, and operating our business more sustainably. It features data, performance highlights, and progress against our targets from our 2022 fiscal year (January 1 to December 31, 2022).

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Making the Business Case for Sustainability

• 13 Apr 2021

Once thought to be opposing goals, sustainability and financial success now go hand-in-hand for many businesses. Some, however, may be skeptical of the claim that a business can do well by doing good. How can you make the business case for sustainable practices to skeptical decision-makers in your organization?

Here are key terms to use to frame your discussion, several ways sustainable business practices can pay off financially, and tools to leverage when pitching sustainability to stakeholders.

Access your free e-book today.

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Triple Bottom Line

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model in which for-profit companies seek to create social and environmental benefits while pursuing organizational goals. Whereas companies typically focus on the bottom line, or generating profit, socially responsible corporations focus on the triple bottom line.

The triple bottom line can be described as the “three Ps”: people, the planet, and profit. In other words, in addition to striving to succeed financially, socially responsible companies commit to measuring success through their impact on people—employees, customers, and society at large—and the environment.

It’s important to not think of sustainability initiatives as a financial trade-off, but rather, as a wise financial strategy.

“There’s good reason to believe that solving the world’s problems presents trillions of dollars’ worth of economic opportunity,” says Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson in the online course Sustainable Business Strategy .

Leading with purpose can positively impact both the planet and your business’s financials. Here are eight benefits of a sustainable business strategy you can use when making the case to your internal team.

8 Benefits of Sustainability in Business

1. drives internal innovation.

Making the switch to sustainable business practices provides an opportunity for new, innovative ideas to grow. Consider this your chance to question the way your organization operates. Are there inefficiencies in your production process? Are there alternatives to how you currently source production materials? What equipment or technology could make your internal processes and product delivery more energy efficient?

These types of questions reveal opportunities to save money on energy and reassess how ethically you source materials. They can also shake up your mindset of “this is how we’ve always done it” and prompt innovative ideas for new business opportunities.

Related: 23 Resources for Mobilizing Innovation in Your Organization

2. Improves Environmental and Supply Risk

Investing in more sustainable practices can pay off in the form of risk management. By using renewable resources—such as wind, water, and solar power—your company has greater security over its energy sources.

This can also offer financial benefits. For example, if your company switches from coal to clean energy, like ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s , you can avoid the hassle and cost when coal prices skyrocket.

3. Attracts and Retains Employees

Being a sustainable company can have a big impact on the talent you attract and retain. A recent survey conducted by clean energy company Swytch found that nearly 70 percent of employees report that their company’s strong sustainability program impacts their decision to stay with it long term.

The same survey reports that 75 percent of millennials—who will make up three-quarters of the workforce in five years—would take a decrease in salary if it meant working for an environmentally responsible company. Nearly 40 percent selected one job over another because of an organization’s sustainability practices.

Committing to sustainability puts your company’s values at the forefront, which can attract employees and job seekers who share those values. Hiring and retaining the right team can save your organization the time and money of having to rehire for multiple roles.

4. Expands Audience Reach and Builds Brand Loyalty

A focus on sustainability can not only help attract and keep the right employees, but build a broader, more loyal customer base.

Research in the Harvard Business Review shows that sustainable businesses see greater financial gains than their unsustainable counterparts. In addition, consumers’ motivation to buy from sustainable brands is on the rise. For instance, products with an on-package sustainability claim delivered nearly $114 billion in sales in 2019—a 29 percent increase from 2013—and products marketed as sustainable grew more than five times faster than those that weren’t.

Adopting sustainable practices and marketing appropriately can enable your business to reach new, sustainably-minded market segments while building brand loyalty among your customer base.

5. Reduces Production Costs

One of the simplest business cases for sustainability is that using fewer resources, or more sustainable ones, can decrease production costs.

Examining your supply chain, production process, and energy use at brick-and-mortar stores and office buildings can help identify places where cutting back on finite resources and switching to greener alternatives is a cheaper option.

“Some firms invest in sustainability because the business case is so glaringly obvious, they’d be foolish not to,” Henderson says in Sustainable Business Strategy.

6. Garners Positive Publicity

Another outcome of opting for sustainability is the positive publicity it can garner. Especially if it’s a divergence from your business’s previously established practices or industry standards, your switch to sustainability and investment in the environment can call for press releases and announcements.

Side effects of this positive publicity can be employee pride, sustainably-minded job applicants, and increased customer loyalty and referral rates.

7. Helps You Stand Out in a Competitive Market

In a competitive market, any way to differentiate your product and brand from your competitors is valuable. Sustainable business practices can be a positive way to stand out if your competitors haven’t adopted those practices themselves or match them if they’ve already made the switch to sustainability.

Calling back to research in the Harvard Business Review , consumers’ focus on brands’ sustainability practices is on the rise, and your business’s practices could be the sole reason consumers choose your product over your competitors’.

8. Sets the Industry Trend

Sustainability not only helps your company stand out against competitors but also influences their behaviors. If your organization is one of the first in its field to adopt sustainable practices, it could set your business apart as a trend-setting leader and prompt other companies to follow suit.

“The leaders, the firms who are driving real change and reaping the benefits of being first-movers are often as motivated by a driving desire to make a difference as they are by the wish to make money,” Henderson says in Sustainable Business Strategy.

If the sustainability trend continues, it could become the norm in your industry. When many corporations adopt sustainable practices, they have the potential to make a real impact on the world’s largest problems.

Tools for Pitching a Sustainable Business Strategy

When pitching sustainability to internal decision-makers, use the data, projections, and anecdotal evidence at your disposal. Here are a few tools to help you make your case.

1. Data Visualizations

Data visualizations are graphical representations of data. When making the case for sustainability, you may create a graph that shows the increasing prices of fossil fuels, a chart that shows consumer preferences for sustainable companies, or a visual forecast of what future revenue could look like if a piece of sustainable technology were purchased.

Some data visualization tools you can use are:

• Microsoft Excel & Power BI
• Google Charts
• Zoho Analytics
• Datawrapper

Visualizations are a clear, concise way to tell the story of why you should adopt a sustainable business strategy.

Related: Bad Data Visualization: 5 Examples of Misleading Data

2. Anticipated Return on Investment Formula

When advocating for specific sustainability projects or equipment purchases, it can be useful to calculate the anticipated return on investment (ROI) . Calculating the anticipated ROI shows internal stakeholders how much financial return the business can expect as a result of investing in the sustainable practices you’re proposing.

To calculate anticipated ROI, use the following formula:

ROI = (Net Profit / Cost of Investment) x 100

In project management, the formula is written similarly but with slightly different terms:

ROI = [(Financial Value - Project Cost) / Project Cost] x 100

3. Case Studies of Businesses with Successful Sustainability Initiatives

Real-world examples can go a long way when proposing new ideas. There are plenty of businesses that have successfully executed sustainability initiatives and put the triple bottom line at the forefront of their business strategies. A few examples include:

• Bank of America
• AstraZeneca
• Ben & Jerry’s
• Levi Strauss

Dig deeper into what made these firms’ efforts successful, and use that as fuel for your company’s strategy.

Furthering Your Sustainable Business Education

If you and your colleagues want a strong foundation for making the shift to sustainable business, consider taking Sustainable Business Strategy . The online course presents groundbreaking concepts using the HBS case method and asserts that sustainable capitalism has the power to influence the world’s most pressing challenges.

By bolstering your knowledge of the space, your organization could become one of the many success stories of those that create shared value from sustainable business practices.

Are you interested in leading your business to a more sustainable future? Explore our three-week online course Sustainable Business Strategy to become a purpose-driven leader.

About the Author

• About   General Information Permissions Company Collaboration Case Competitions Best Case Award Press Releases Access Options Submission Guidelines

Berkeley Haas Case Series

The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies created by UC Berkeley faculty

UC Berkeley Chou Hall: Can the TRUE Zero Waste Team Overcome Challenges to Achieve Top Certification?

University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business’ Chou Hall sought TRUE Zero Waste certification on a short timeline with limited resources. Stakeholders including faculty, students, custodians, and visitors needed to change wasteful habits and divert waste from landfills.

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage: Separating Fact From Fiction

In 2022, the United Nations stated "carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) can play a significant role in mitigating carbon emissions." Have decades-old pledges to stop fossil fuel use been replaced by capturing emissions?

Net Zero Climate Commitments: Realistic Goal or Branding Exercise?

Because there is no generally accepted definition of "Net Zero," many companies have decided on their own which metrics are included in tracking their commitments. As a result, many questions around the validity of these claims and their true impact on climate change have been left unanswered.

Corporate Greenwashing: Are Environmental Claims Just Empty Promises?

Trust in corporate entitles comes into question since consumers, investors, employees, and other interested parties can’t be certain which environmental claims represent real impact on addressing climate change, and which claims are inconsequential.

Cancel Culture: Corporations Flock to Carbon Offsets to Solve their Climate Problem, but do Offsets Truly Reduce Emissions?

Are offset claims a dangerous distraction because companies can continue business as usual rather than make fundamental changes to their operations?

Carbon180 in 2021: New Challenges for a New Era

President Joe Biden’s administration promised swift action to mitigate climate change, and Carbon180 was poised to capitalize on its mission with politics on its side.

Generation Z: Does Climate Change Concern Match Knowledge?

In Fall 2020, 144 MBA students at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business took a 4-minute 'pop quiz' with eight short questions gauging their general familiarity with climate change. While the quiz was not comprehensive, the results indicated students’ basic knowledge was limited.

Waste not, want not: Eliminating Patagonia's Pre- and Post-Consumer Textile Waste

Patagonia has set a goal of eliminating all textile waste by 2025. As a leader in the sustainable apparel industry, this includes not only the cut-and-sew scraps and the liability fabrics, but also the end of life for all of its garments.

Carbon180: Choosing a Winning Strategy for Carbon Removal

Carbon180 must weigh competing strategies to catalyze social change and make key decisions on whether a narrow or broad approach will best achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions.

Patagonia: Closing the Loop on Packaging Pollution

Wholesale change is urgently needed to create packaging that does not wreak havoc on our planet. Due to complicated and global packaging supply chains, the quest for viable and sustainable improvements requires collaboration, innovative technologies, forward-thinking companies, consumer demand, and new government incentives and laws.

Patagonia's Path to Carbon Neutrality by 2025

This case study describes Patagonia's goal to become carbon neutral by 2025 in an absolute sense -- that is to reduce emissions to zero while still growing the company. Patagonia also wants to achieve absolute carbon neutrality in such a way that other interested companies can replicate.

Reversing Climate Change Through Sustainable Food: Patagonia Provisions Attempts to Scale a 'Big Wall'

This case study focuses on Birgit Cameron, senior director of Patagonia Provisions, and several of her colleagues at both Patagonia Provisions and Patagonia as they attempt to increase the scale of sustainable agriculture.

Patagonia: Driving Sustainable Innovation by Embracing Tensions

This case study focuses on Patagonia's Durable Water Repellent (DWR) problem - DWR is a highly effective chemical treatment used to waterproof jackets supporting the quality objective, but it has by-products that are toxic and persist in the environment (undermining the sustainability objective).

General Mills: Driving Food Systems Change through Regenerative Agriculture

In 2019, global food company General Mills committed to advancing regenerative agriculture on one million acres of farmland by 2030.

Sustainability Through Open Innovation: Carlsberg and the Green Fiber Bottle

The case follows Danish brewer Carlsberg as it develops the Green Fiber Bottle, a beer bottle made of wood pulp, in collaboration with a startup, a small-to-medium sized enterprise (SME), and a Danish University.

Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value

This case describes how Kimberly-Clark is working to encourage consumer recycling of flexible plastic film packaging, which is wrapped around many of its products, including paper towels, toilet paper, and more.

Levi Strauss & Co.: Driving Adoption of Green Chemistry

This case examines the challenges and opportunities faced by Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) as it attempts to help establish a cross-industry sustainability initiative to eliminate hazardous chemicals in the apparel supply chain.

SUSTAINABLE CASE COMPENDIUM

In collaboration with a team of Berkeley-Haas students, the Center for Responsible Business has curated a suite of business cases and articles that are primed to be readily integrated into core MBA curriculum. These sustainable cases encompass the broadest sense of the word to include social, environmental, and economic considerations. This list features cases and articles hosted on the Harvard Business Publishing site, published within the last 10 years that tackle pressing sustainability and responsibility challenges within the corporate space. Learn more

The Berkeley-Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by Haas faculty. Our culture and vision at the Haas School of Business naturally offer distinctive qualities to the Series, filling a gap in existing case offerings by drawing upon lessons from UC Berkeley's rich history and prime location in the San Francisco Bay Area. We seek to publish cases that challenge conventional assumptions about business, science, culture, and politics.

Siemens Healthineers: A Digital Journey

Maersk: Driving Culture Change at a Century-Old Company to Achieve Measurable Results

Flourish Fi: Empowering Positive Money Habits

Just Climate: A New Investment Model?

Roche Pakistan

A new collection of business case studies from Berkeley Haas

The aim of the Berkeley Haas Case Series is to incite business innovation by clarifying disruptive trends and questioning the status quo.

Finding value in global sustainability

Using technology and human ingenuity to meet environmental goals and drive a powerful, sustainable future

5-minute read

Call for change

Three factors—Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)—are central to measuring sustainability commitments within any organization. Accenture is taking a holistic, integrated approach to sustainability and our  ","analytics-link-type":"engagement","xdm:linkURL":"/us-en/services/about/geographic-services","analytics-engagement":"true"}}">  team plays a vital role as we focus on evolving and inspiring environmental sustainability outcomes, for ourselves and our clients.

Providing business infrastructure and support solutions to complement local cultural and market needs, Corporate Services & Sustainability teams are well placed to provide the rigor and powerful force of change needed to meet our science-based environmental targets. Accenture  puts sustainability at the heart of our business —building capabilities and integrating our sustainability targets into everything we do. Working with our  Global IT  colleagues, Corporate Services & Sustainability plays an important role in bring sustainable innovation to Accenture. We’ve set  three clear environmental sustainability goals —to achieve net-zero emissions, to move to zero waste and to plan for water risk.

"We have an opportunity to change the business of business by putting sustainability front and center of our innovation efforts."

MARGARET SMITH / Accenture

When tech meets human ingenuity

As a global company with 721,000 people, we recognize the scope and scale of our environmental impact. Powered by technology, Accenture is already making progress with a suite of solutions in three core areas:

We’re working to achieve net-zero emissions

We are committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2025. Corporate Services & Sustainability, responsible for all our locations across the world, is active in our plan to meet our office energy needs with 100% renewable electricity by 2023—at the end of fiscal year 2021, 53% of electricity purchased for our offices and centers is through renewable sources. We are actively sourcing renewable electricity as part of Accenture’s participation in the RE100, the global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of large and ambitious businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.

We are also engaged in responsible buying practices, both inside and outside Accenture. To address remaining emissions, Accenture has announced investments in nature-based carbon removal projects which broadly align with our geographic footprint. Our projects will reforest land, rebuild biodiversity, make agriculture more sustainable, help to create green jobs and enable natural ecosystems to rebound and thrive—all while removing an estimated 13 million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

We’re moving to zero waste

All aspects of how we run our locations matter, which is why Accenture has committed to reuse or recycle 100% ofour e-waste, as well as all our office furniture, by 2025. To address e-waste, we are working with our global IT assetdisposition partners to implement an asset reuse program and manage our ongoing box program to remotely dispose of personal computers globally.

Data from our enterprise asset management system helps us to further manage our e-waste by spotting trends on specific product lines or locations and determining the effectiveness of a particular local waste management policy. We are working with our offices to eliminate single-use plastics by shifting away from single-use items; using non-plastic items, such as bamboo, when disposable products are offered; and providing water refill stations.

We’re planning for water risk

Aware of the broader impact we have on the communities around us, we are particularly conscious of water-stressed locations and have committed to develop water resiliency plans for our facilities to reduce the impact of flooding, drought and water scarcity in high-risk areas by 2025. We use the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Aqueduct tool to identify areas of water risk and impacts to local communities. In addition to developing water resiliency plans, we now measure and report the total percentage of water consumed in regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress.

Although Accenture is not a water-intensive company, we minimize our use of water wherever feasible, including responsible use, reuse, management and discharge across our office portfolio. In fiscal 2021, 37% of our company’s total water consumption occurred in high or extremely high baseline water-stressed regions.

A valuable difference

We continue to refine our technology solutions and work with our global locations with the guidance and support of our leadership.

Our progress through the end of fiscal year 2021:

Reduction in total emissions from our baseline.

Reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Reduction in emissions per unit of revenue.

Of our key suppliers* disclosed targets and 60% have disclosed actions to reduce their emissions.

Metric tons of carbon removals expected as a result of investing in nature-based carbon removals over the next 20 years.

Of electricity purchased for our offices and centers around the world is through renewable sources.

* Key suppliers are defined as vendors that represent a significant portion of our 2019 Scope 3 emissions.

Examples of where specific sustainability initiatives are having an impact include:

Thoughtful travel.  To equip our people to make climate-smart travel decisions—we launched our beta release aviation carbon calculator which shows our people the different emissions for specific flight alternatives for business travel at the time of booking. To further reduce emissions from travel, we introduced a program to encourage high-speed train usage instead of airplane flights in five countries—Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom—and will expand it to other regions.

Green IT.  Our global IT organization is cloud platform-powered first—when we cannot consume a cloud platform and need to write custom code, we use microservice architectures. This helps further reduce the consumption of servers via a traditional infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) approach. For our existing high-end workloads, we constantly evaluate our consumption through deliberate analysis of usage patterns, performance data and new cloud offerings to drive further efficiency that leads to optimal utilization and reduced emissions.

As Accenture continues to build on the momentum that emerged from COP26, Corporate Services & Sustainability is at the heart of how Accenture operates—and will continue focusing on addressing climate change through our actions to help reduce net-zero emissions, waste and plan for water risk. These sustainability improvements will impact our business and bring our commitments to life.

Meet the team

Margaret Smith Senior Managing Director and Executive Director – Corporate Services & Sustainability and Business Operations LinkedIn

Scott Wilson Managing Director – Corporate Services & Sustainability, Director of Operations LinkedIn

Lisette Smyrnios Managing Director – Global Workplace LinkedIn

• Harvard Business School →
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• September 2014 (Revised November 2017)
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Sustainability at IKEA Group

• Format: Print
• | Language: English
• | Pages: 21

About The Authors

V. Kasturi Rangan

Michael W. Toffel

Related work.

• August 2015
• Faculty Research

Sustainability at IKEA Group: Video Supplement

• September 2015
• Sustainability at IKEA Group: Video Supplement  By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Michael W. Toffel
• Sustainability at IKEA Group  By: Michael W. Toffel
• Sustainability at IKEA Group  By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Michael W. Toffel, Vincent Dessain and Jerome Lenhardt

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• Open access
• Published: 08 July 2022

A critical examination of a community-led ecovillage initiative: a case of Auroville, India

• Abhishek Koduvayur Venkitaraman   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8515-257X 1 &
• Neelakshi Joshi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8947-1893 2  

Climate Action volume  1 , Article number:  15 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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• Sustainability

Human settlements across the world are attempting to address climate change, leading to changing paradigms, parameters, and indicators for defining the path to future sustainability. In this regard, the term ecovillage has been increasingly used as models for sustainable human settlements. While the term is new, the concept is an old one: human development in harmony with nature. However, materially realizing the concept of an ecovillage is not without challenges. These include challenges in scaling up and transferability, negative regional impacts and struggles of functioning within larger capitalistic and growth-oriented systems. This paper presents the case of Auroville, an early attempt to establish an ecovillage in Southern India. We draw primarily from the ethnographic living and working experience of the authors in Auroville as well as published academic literature and newspaper articles. We find that Auroville has proven to be a successful laboratory for providing bottom-up, low cost and context-specific ecological solutions to the challenges of sustainability. However, challenges of economic and social sustainability compound as the town attempts to scale up and grow.

Graphical abstract

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Sustainability and social transformation: the role of ecovillages in confluence with the pluriverse of community-led alternatives

Reviving natural history, building ecological civilisation: the philosophy and social significance of the Natural History Revival Movement in contemporary China

The paradox of collective climate action in rural U.S. ecovillages: ethnographic reflections and perspectives

Introduction.

Scientists have repeatedly argued and emphasized for an equilibrium between human development and the basic ecological support systems of the planet (IPCC 2014 ; United Nations 1987 ). Human settlements have been important in this regard as places of concentrated human activity (Edward & Matthew E, 2010 ; Scott and Storper 2015 ). Settlement planning has responded to this call through visions of the eco-city as a proposal for building the city like a living system with a land use pattern supporting the healthy anatomy of the whole city and enhance its biodiversity, while resonating its functions with sustainability (Barton 2013 ; Register 1987 ; Roseland 1997 ). In planning practice, this means balancing between economic growth, social justice, and environmental well-being (Campbell 1996 ). However, the concept of eco-cities remains top-down in its approach with city authorities taking a lead in involving the civil society and citizens to implement the city’s environment plan (Joss 2010a , b ).

Contrary to the idea of eco-cities, ecovillages are small-scale, bottom-up sites for experimentation around sustainable living. Ecovillages resonate the same core principles of an eco-city but combine the social, ecological, and spiritual aspects of human existence (Gilman 1991 ). Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland is one of the oldest and most prominent ecovillages in the world and has collaborations with the United Nations and was named as a best practice community (Lockyer and Veteto 2013 ).

Another notable example is the Transitions Town movement that started in Totnes, United Kingdom but has now spread all over the world (Hopkins 2008 ; Smith 2011 ). The movement focuses upon supporting community-led responses to peak oil and climate change, building resilience and happiness. Additionally, it emphasizes rebuilding local agriculture and food production, localizing energy production along with rediscovering local building materials in the context of zero energy building (Hopkins 2008 ). Ecological districts within the urban fabric are also termed as ecovillages (Wolfram 2017 ).

Ecovillages are intentional communities characterized by alternative lifestyles, values, economics and governance systems (Joss 2010a , b ; Ergas 2010 ). At the same time ecovillages are located within and interact with growth-oriented capitalistic systems (Price et al. 2020 ). This dichotomy presents a challenge for ecovillages as they put ideas of sustainability transformation into practice. We explore some of these contradictions through the case study of Auroville, an ecovillage located in southern India. A discussion on the gaps between the ideas of an ecovillage against their lived reality throws light upon the challenges that ecovillages face when they attempt to grow. We begin by elaborating the key characteristics of ecovillages in the “Characteristics of ecovillages” section. We then present our material and methods in the “Methodology” section. Furthermore, we use the key characteristics of an ecovillage as a framework for analysing and discussing Auroville in the “Auroville, an ecovillage in South India” and “Discussion” sections. We conclude with a reflection on the concept of ecovillages.

Characteristics of ecovillages

The concept of an ecovillage is broad and has multiple interpretations. Based on a reading of the existing literature on ecovillages, we summarize some of their key characteristics here:

Alternative lifestyles and values : Ecovillage can be seen as intentional communities (Ergas 2010 ) and social movements which have a common stance against unsustainable modes of living and working (Kirby 2003 ; Snow et al. 2004 ). Ecovillages advocate for achieving an alternate lifestyle involving a considerable shift in power from globalized values to those internalized in local community autonomy. Therefore many ecovillages aspire to restructure power distribution and foster a spirit of collective and transparent decision-making (Boyer 2015 ; Cunningham and Wearing 2013 ). However, it is difficult to convince many people to believe in a common value system since the vision is to establish a world that is not only ecologically sustainable but also personally rewarding in terms of self-sacrifice for a good cause (Anderson 2015 ).

Governance : ecovillages tend to rely on a community-based governance and there is an assumption that the local and regional communities respond more effectively to local environmental problems since these problems pertain to the local context and priorities (Van Bussel et al. 2020 ). In a community-based governance system, activities are organized and carried out through participatory democracy committed to consensual decision-making. However, participatory democracy has its own set of problems. Consensual decision-making is time-consuming, and the degree of participation tends to vary from time to time (Fischer 2017 ). Participatory processes have also been criticized on the grounds for slowing down the decision-making process and resulting in a weak final agreement which doesn’t balance competing interests (Alterman et al. 1984 ).

Economic models in an ecovillages : ecovillages have attempted to combine economic objectives along with the overall well-being of people and have experimented with budgetary solutions appealing to a wider society (Hall 2015 ). As grassroots initiatives, ecovillages have advocated and practised living in community economies (Roelvink and Gibson-Graham 2009 ) and have influenced twentieth century economic practices beyond their geographical boundaries (Boyer 2015 ). Due to the emphasis on sharing in ecovillages, they can be considered to accommodate diverse economies (Gibson-Graham 2008 ) where human needs are met through relational exchanges and non-monetary practices, highlighting strong social ties (Waerther 2014 ). In some ecovillages, living expenses are reduced by sharing costly assets and saving cost on building materials by bulk buying and growing food for community consumption and sale (Pickerill 2017 ). These economic models have their own merit but are perhaps insufficient for the long-term economic sustainability of ecovillages (Price et al. 2020 ). Eventually, ecovillages might have to rely on external sources to import goods and services which cannot be produced on-site. This contradicts the ecovillage principles of being a self-reliant economy, reduction of its carbon footprint and minimizing resource consumption, thus implying a dependence on the market economy of the region (Bauhardt 2014 ).

Self-sufficiency : fulfilling the community’s needs within the available resources is a cornerstone principle for many ecovillages (Gilman 1991 ). This is often achieved through organic farming, permaculture, renewable energy and co-housing. Such measures are an attempt to offset and mitigate unsustainable development and limit the ecovillage’s ecological footprint (Litfin 2009 ). The initial small scale of the community often allows for this. However, as ecovillages grow in size and complexity, the interconnectedness and inter-dependence to the surrounding space become more apparent (Joss 2010a , b ). Examples include drawing resources from central energy and water systems (Xue 2014 ). Furthermore, ecovillages might turn out to be desirable places to live, with better quality of life, driving up land and property prices in the region as well as carbon emissions with additional visitors (Mössner and Miller 2015 ). Furthermore, in their role as catalysts of change in transforming society, ecovillages need to interact with their external surroundings and neighbouring communities, the municipalities, and the state and national level policies (Dawson and Lucas 2006 ; Kim 2016 ). This is particularly relevant in the Global South, where the ecovillage development has the potential to drive regional-scale sustainable development.

The characteristics of an ecovillage, however, do not exist in a geographical vacuum. Scholarly understanding of ecovillages as bottom-up efforts to drive sustainability transitions largely draw from the experiences of the Global North (Wagner 2012 ). Such ecovillage models often challenge the dominant capitalistic paradigm of post-industrial development, overconsumption and growth. Locating ecovillages in the Global South requires an expansion or re-evaluation of their larger socio-economic context as well as their socio-ecological impacts (Dias et al. 2017 ; Litfin 2009 ) .

To build upon the opportunities and challenges of ecovillages, locating them within the context of the Global South, we present the case of Auroville, an ecovillage located in southern India.

Methodology

We use the initial theoretical framework of ecovillage characteristics as a starting point for developing the case study of Auroville. Here, we draw from academic literature published about Auroville during 1968–2021. We also draw inferences from self-published reports and documents by the Auroville Foundation. Although we cover multiple interconnected aspects of Auroville, the characteristics pertaining to an ecovillage remain the focus of our work. We review the literature sources deductively, drawing on aspects of values, governance, economics and self-reliance, established in the previous section.

We triangulate the secondary data sources against our ethnographic experience of having lived and worked in Auroville for extended periods of time (2010–2012 and 2013–2014, respectively). We have worked in Auroville as architects and urban planners. During this time, we participated in multiple meetings on Auroville’s development as part of our work. We have discussed aspects of Auroville’s sustainability with Aurovillians working on diverse aspects, from urban planning to regional integration. Furthermore, living and working in Auroville brought us in conversation with several individuals from villages surrounding Auroville, employed in Auroville. For writing this case study, we have revisited our lived experience of Auroville through memory, research and work diaries maintained during this period, photographs as well our previously published research articles (Venkitaraman 2017 ; Walsky and Joshi 2013 ). Given our expertise in architecture and planning, we have also presented the translation of the key characteristics of an ecovillage, namely, alternative values, governance and economic systems and self-reliance, in these domains.

We acknowledge certain limitations to our methodology. We rely largely on secondary data to expand upon the challenges and contradictions in an ecovillage. We have attempted to overcome this by drawing from our first-hand experience of having lived in Auroville. Although our lived experiences are almost a decade old, we have attempted to compliment it with recently published articles as well as newspaper reports.

The next section presents Auroville as an ecovillage followed by a critical examination of its regional impact, governance, and economic structure.

Auroville, an ecovillage in South India

Foundational values.

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian philosopher and spiritual leader who believed that “man is a transitional being” and developed the practice of integral yoga with the aim of evolving humans into divine beings (Sen 2018 ). His spiritual consort, Mirra Alfassa realized his ideas in material form through a “universal township” which would hopefully contribute to “progress of humanity towards its splendid future”. Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, as a township near Pondicherry, India. Alfassa envisioned Auroville to be a “site of material and spiritual research for a living embodiment of an actual human unity” (Alfassa 1968 ). On 28 February 1968, the city was inaugurated with the support of UNESCO and the participation of people from 125 countries who each brought a handful of earth from their homelands to an urn that stands at its centre as a symbolic representation of human unity, the aim of the project. This spiritual foundation has guided the development of the socio-economic structure of Auroville for individual and collective growth (Shinn 1984 ). To translate these spiritual ideas into a material form, Mirra Alfassa provided simple sketches, a Charter, and guiding principles towards human unity (Sarkar 2015 ).

Roger Anger, a French architect translated Alfassa’s dream into the Auroville City Plan that continues to inform the physical development of Auroville (Kundoo 2009 ). The Auroville Masterplan 2025 envisions Auroville to be a circular township (Fig. 1 ) spread over a 20 sq. km (Auroville Foundation 2001 ). Initially planned for a population of 50,000 people, today Auroville today has 3305 residents hailing from 60 countries (Auroville Foundation 2021 ). Since its early days, there has been a divide between the “organicists” and the “constructionists” of Auroville (Kapur 2021 ). The organicists have a bottom-up vision of low impact and environmentally friendly development whereas the constructionists have a top-down vision of sticking with the original masterplan and realize an urban, dense version of Auroville.

A map of Auroville and its surrounding regions, with the main villages in the area

Auroville has served as a laboratory of low-cost and low-impact building construction, transportation, and city planning. Although the term sustainability has not been explicitly used in the Charter, it has been central to the city planning and building development process in Auroville (Walsky and Joshi 2013 ). Unlike many human settlements that negatively impact their ecology, the foundational project of Auroville was land restoration. The initial residents of Auroville were able to grow back parts of the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest in and around Auroville using top-soil conservation and rainwater harvesting techniques (Blanchflower 2005 ). While the ecological restoration has been lauded both locally and globally, Namakkal ( 2012 ) argues that it is seldom acknowledged that the land was bought from local villagers at low prices and local labour was used to plant the forest as well as build the initial city. At the time of writing this paper, the Auroville Foundation still needs to secure 17% of the land in the city area and nearly 50% of the land for the green belt to realize the original masterplan. However, land prices have gone up substantially as have conflicts in acquiring this land for Auroville (Namakkal 2012 ).

Governance structure

While the Charter of Auroville says that “Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole” (Alfassa 1968 ), in reality, it is governed by a well-defined set of individuals. Auroville’s first few years, between 1968 and 1973, were guided directly by Mirra Alfassa. After her passing, there was a power struggle between the Sri Aurobindo Society, claiming control over the project, and the community members striving for autonomy (Kapur 2021 ).

The Government of India founded the Auroville Foundation Act in 1988 providing in the public interest, the acquisition of all assets and undertakings relatable to Auroville. These assets were ultimately vested in the Auroville Foundation which was formed in January 1991 (Auroville. 2015 ). The Auroville Foundation envisioned a notion of a planned future, resulting in a new masterplan in 1994. This masterplan encouraged participatory planning and recognized that the architectural vision needs to proceed in a democratic manner. This prompted the Auroville community to adopt a more structured form of governance. The Auroville Foundation has other governing institutions under it, namely: The Governing Board which has overall responsibility for Auroville’s development, The International Advisory Council, which advises the Governing Board on the management of the township and the Residents’ Assembly who organize activities relating to Auroville and formulate the master plan. Furthermore, there are committees and working groups for different aspects of development from waste management to building development.

Auroville is an example of the ‘bottom-up’ approach, in the sense that developments are decided and implemented by the community and the state level and national level governments get involved later (Sarkar 2015 ). An example of this is seen in the regular meetings held by the Town Development Council of Auroville which also conducted a weeklong workshop in 2019 for the community which covered themes such as place-making, dimensions of water and strategies for liveable cities and community planning (Ministry of Human Reource Development Government of India 2021 ).

Conflicts often arise between the interpretation of the initial masterplan and the present day realities and aspiration of the residents (Walsky and Joshi 2013 ). This is often rooted in the initial vision of Auroville as a city of 50,000 versus its current reality of being an ecovillage of around 3000 people. Spatially, this unusual growth pattern has been problematic in Auroville’s building and mobility planning (Venkitaraman 2017 ). At the time of writing this paper, there is a clash between the Residents’ Assembly and the Auroville Foundation over the felling of trees for the construction of the Crown Road project inside Auroville (The Hindu 2021 ). While the Residents’ Assembly wants a re-working of the original masterplan considering the ecological damage through tree cutting, the Auroville Foundation wants to move ahead with the original city vision.

Beyond its boundaries, Auroville is surrounded by numerous rural settlements, namely, Kuyilapalyam, Edayanchavadi, Alankuppam, Kottakarai, and Attankarai. The Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG) aims to help the village communities to strive towards sustainability and find plausible solutions to the problems of contemporary rural life. In September 1970, a charter was circulated among the sub-regional villages of Auroville, promising better employment opportunities and higher living standards with improved health and sanitation facilities (Social Research Centre Auroville 2005 ). Currently, there are about 13 groups for the development of the Auroville sub-region. However, Jukka ( 2006 ) points out that the regional development vision of Auroville is top-down and does not sufficiently engage with the villagers and their aspirations.

Auroville’s economic model

Auroville has also strived to move away from money as a foundation of society to a distinctive economic model exchange and sharing (Kapoor 2007 ). However, Auroville needs money to realize its multiple land and building projects. Auroville also receives various donations and grants. During 2018–2019, Auroville received around Rs. 2396 lakhs (around 4 million USD) under Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) and other donations. The Central Government of India supports the Auroville Foundation with annual grants for Auroville’s management and for the running costs of the Secretariat of the Foundation, collectively known as Grant-in-Aid. Auroville received a total of Rs. 1463 lakhs (around 2 million USD) as Grant-in-Aid during 2018–2019. The income generated by Auroville during this time was Rs. 687 lakhs (around 91,000 USD) (Ministry of Human Reource Development Government of India 2021 ).

Presently, the economy of Auroville is based on manufacturing units and services with agriculture being an important sector, and currently, there are about 100 small and medium manufacturing units. The service sector of Auroville comprises of construction and architectural services and research and training in various sectors (Auroville Foundation 2001 ). In addition to this, tourism is another important source of income generation for Auroville. As per the Annual Report of Auroville Foundation, the donations and income have not been consistent over the years. In this regard, Auroville’s growth pattern in terms of the economy has not been linear and it does not mimic the usual growth patterns associated with the development of counterparts, in terms of capitalization, finance, governance, and on key issues such as distribution policies and ownership rights (Thomas and Thomas 2013 ).

Auroville also benefits from labour from the surrounding villages. The nature of employment provided in Auroville to villages remains largely in low-paying jobs (Namakkal 2012 ). It can be argued that the fruits of Auroville’s development have not been equally shared with the surrounding villages and a feeling of ‘us and them’ still pervades. Striving for human unity is the central tenet of Auroville (Shinn 1984 ), however, it has struggled to do so with its immediate neighbours.

Striving for self-sufficiency

Auroville has strived for self-sufficiency in terms of food production from local farms, energy production from renewable sources like solar and wind sources and waste management.

Many prominent buildings of Auroville have been designed keeping in mind the self-sufficiency principle in Auroville. For example, the Solar Kitchen was designed by architect Suhasini Ayer as a demonstration project to tap the solar energy potential of the region. At present, this building is used for cooking meals thrice a day for over 1000 people. The Solar Kitchen also supports the organic farming sector in Auroville by being the primary purchaser of the locally grown products (Ayer 1997 ). Another example is the Auroville Earth Institute, renowned for its Compressed and Stabilized Earth Block (CSEB) technique, which constitute natural and locally found soil as one of its main ingredients (Figs. 2 and 3 ).

Compressed earth blocks manufactured by Auroville Earth Institute

A residence in Auroville constructed using compressed earth blocks

However, it is important to acknowledge that Auroville does not exist as a 100% self-sufficient bubble. For example, food produced in Auroville provides for only 15% of the consumption (Auroville Foundation 2004 ). An initial attempt to calculate the ecological footprint of Auroville estimates it to be 2.5 Ha, against the average footprint of an Indian of 0.8 Ha (Greenberg 1998 ). Furthermore, though Auroville has strived for material innovation in architecture, it has not been successful in achieving 25 sq. metres as the limit to individual living space (Walsky and Joshi 2013 ). This challenges the notion of Auroville continuing to be an ecovillage if it aspires to be a city of 50,000 people and might end up having substantial ecological impact on its surroundings.

Urban sustainability transformation in a rapidly urbanizing world runs into the risk of focusing on technological fixes while overlooking the social and ecological impacts of growth. In this light, bottom-up initiatives like ecovillages serve as a laboratory for testing alternative and holistic models of development. Auroville, a 53-year-old ecovillage in southern India, has achieved this to a certain extent. Auroville is a showcase of land regeneration, biodiversity restoration, alternative building technologies as well as experimentations in alternative governance and economic models. In this paper, we have critically examined some achievements and challenges that Auroville has faced in realizing its initial vision of being a “city that the world needs” (Alfassa 1968 ). Lessons learnt from Auroville help deepen our understanding of ecovillages as sites of fostering alternative development practices. Here we discuss three aspects of this research:

Alternate lifestyles and values in the context of an ecovillage : Ecovillages are niches providing space for realizing alternative values and lifestyles. However, ecovillages seldom exist in a vacuum. They are physically situated in existing societies and economies. Although residents in an ecovillage seek to achieve collective identity by creating an alternative society, an ecovillage is embedded within a larger culture and thus, the prevailing ideologies of the dominant society affect the ecovillage (Ergas 2010 ) as seen in Auroville. This can be noticed between the material and knowledge flows in and out of Auroville. Furthermore, the India of the 1970s when Auroville was born with socialist values is very different from present-day India where material and capitalistic aspirations are on the rise. These are reflected in higher land prices and living costs in and around Auroville. Amidst the transforming political landscape of India in the 1970s, there were implications which were seen in the character of architectural production. Auroville welcomed and immersed itself into this era of experimentation. These developments form an integral part of the ethos of Auroville. To achieve its initial visions, Auroville depends on multiple external economic sources. In analysing ecovillages, it is important to critically examine the broader context within which they are located and how they influence and, in turn, are influenced by their contexts.

Even though Auroville’s architects and urban planners remain committed to their belief that architecture is a primary tool of community - building, decades later, the developments seem to have progressed at a slow pace. The number of permanently settled residents in Auroville has barely reached 2000 currently and the overall urban design remains fragmentary. Despite witnessing a slower rate of progress, it has been able to sustain a culture of innovation and Auroville remains utopian in its aim to create an alternative lifestyle (Scriver and Srivastava 2016 ).

Governance, economy, and self-sufficiency in an ecovillage that wants to be an eco-city : In growth-based societies, ecovillages present the possibility of providing an alternative vision of degrowth (Xue 2014 ). However, Auroville currently functions as an ecovillage that aspires to be an eco-city as per its initial masterplan. This growth-based model sometimes conflicts with Auroville’s vision of being a self-reliant, non-monetary society. Given the urgent need to remain within our planetary limits, ecovillages like Auroville could re-evaluate their initial growth-based visions and explore alternatives for achieving sustainability and well-being. The visions of ecovillages should thus not be set in stone, but rather remain flexible to evolving ideas and practices (Ergas 2010 ).

Similarly, governance structures might need a re-evaluation with changing priorities within the ecovillage as well as a need to be inclusive of regional visions and voices. It would be intriguing to explore on what kind of governance model/leadership is best suited to fulfil the aims of an ecovillage. Auroville seems to follow the elements of sustainability-oriented governance: empowerment, engagement, communication, openness and transparency (Bubna-Litic 2008 ), yet it is seen that conflicts arise. One solution to this could be greater external engagement with government and continuing to engage the external community about Auroville. Generally, intentional communities are organized by embracing the ideology of consensus, but it remains to be seen whether the consensus decision-making model works to its full potential in the context of alternative lifestyles. When individuals seek alternative lifestyles in the current world, there is a shift from globalized values towards local community autonomy, this shift demands a need for processes that allow for a different and more equitable approach to governance (Cunningham and Wearing 2013 ).

Ecovillages in the Global South : Situating ecovillages in the Global South requires a nuanced examination of the social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability that the ecovillage aims to achieve (Dias et al. 2017 ; Litfin 2009 ). In the case of Auroville, Auroville has helped bring back ecologically restorative practices in forestry, agriculture, and architecture in the region. However, the average Aurovillian has a higher standard of living than the neighbouring villagers. This in-turn influences the material consumption practices within the community. The lessons in sustainable living, in ecovillages located in the Global South, need not be unidirectional (from the ecovillage to the surrounding society). Rather, the ecovillage also stands to lean from the existing models of low-impact living.

Ecovillages in the Global South such as Auroville face similar problems related to Governance as seen in some other ecovillages in the developed world such as The Aldinga Arts Village in South Australia (Bubna-Litic 2008 ) and in Sweden (Bardici 2014 ). However, despite the issues related to consensus in Governance, the ecovillages are noted for their sustainable innovations.

Auroville’s sustainable measures have been endorsed by the Government of India as well. The Auroville Master Plan for 2000–2025 has been dedicated to creating an environmentally sustainable urban settlement which integrates the neighbourhood rural areas. The surrounding Green Belt, intended to be a fertile zone is presently being used for applied research in various sectors such as water management, food production, and soil conservation. The results promise a replicable model which could be used in urban and rural areas alike (Kapoor 2007 ).

To address the expansion and re-evaluation of the larger socio-economic context of Auroville and its socio-ecological impacts, as enunciated by Dias et al. ( 2017 ) and Kutting and Lipschutz (2009), a proposal for a sustainable regional plan was prepared in 2012 jointly by Government of India, ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency), INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) and PondyCAN (An NGO which works to preserve and enhance the natural, social, cultural and spiritual environment of Pondicherry). The report was prepared and aimed to be a way forward for unique and diverse communities to grow together as a single entity and to develop a holistic model for future development in this region. This report takes into consideration the surrounding villages and districts around Auroville: Puducherry, Viluppuram and Cuddalore (ADEME, INTACH, PondyCAN,, and Government of India 2012 ).

The concept of eco-cities in urban planning is defined as utopias, hard to achieve standards of human settlements. Ecovillages emerge as small-scale realization of the ideas of an eco-city. Over the years, the alternative practices of Auroville have served as an educational platform for researchers, students, and the civil society alike. However, realizing alternative ecological lifestyles, governance and economic system and self-sufficiency struggle with challenges and contradictions as the ecovillage interact with a larger growth-oriented capitalistic system. Although ecovillages are sites of experimentation, they are seldom insular space. Regional impacts of and on ecovillage are important in analysing their developmental trajectories. Finally, the vision of ecovillages needs to evolve as the ecovillage as well is surroundings grow and change. Experiments in ecovillages like Auroville remind us that alternative visions of human settlements come with opportunities and challenges and are a work-in-progress in achieving a more sustainable future. There is further potential to understand the consensus-based approach and the governance models in an ecovillage in a better manner.

It can be deduced from the findings that ecovillages as catalysts of urban sustainability have a lot of potentials and challenges. The potential is in terms of devising an alternate lifestyle based on an alternative style of governance while the challenges include the local ecological impact and the difficulty in consensus about certain things. There is a future possibility to explore other conditions which facilitate the mainstream translation of ecovillage practices and how future ecovillages can progress to the next level (Kim 2016 ; Norbeck 1999 ).

Availability of data and materials

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

ADEME, INTACH, PondyCAN, & Government of India (2012) Sustainable Regional Planning Framework for Puducherry. Viluppuram, Auroville and Cuddalore

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Koduvayur Venkitaraman, A., Joshi, N. A critical examination of a community-led ecovillage initiative: a case of Auroville, India. Clim Action 1 , 15 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44168-022-00016-3

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Managed Sustainability Strategy, ISCA assessment and bid response

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2013 Sustainable procurement strategy for Molson Coors across procurement teams in the UK, USA and Canada

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2015 Support across Network Rail's sustainability and procurement teams, tracking progress and performance on a quarterly basis

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Stockland approached Action Sustainability because they wanted to offer the most comfortable outdoor shopping experience to the patrons of their new open shopping centre in the Sunshine Coast, QLD.

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Monetising the value of sustainability is also what we do.

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MASTER OF SCIENCE IN SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

 suma 4100: case studies.

Over the course of the semester, sustainability masters students wrote case studies about an organization (public, private for-profit, private non-profit) that analyzed its efforts to incorporate environmental sustainability into its organizational structure and practices.  With this assignment,  our students addressed the fundamental challenges facing managers in operationalizing sustainability strategies within routine decision-making processes inside organizations.  These case studies identify best and worst practices for organizational management and make reasonable recommendations for integrating sustainability management into the organization. Additionally, the case studies addressed the applicability of these recommendations to other organizations. 

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What are you looking for?

Some topics you might be interested in, give orange: sgs takes conference giveaways in a different direction.

Everyone who attends a trade show, conference, or other event typically takes something away from their experience.

As a leader in digital trust, SGS will occupy Booth 4315 at the upcoming RSA Conference24. Our experts will be available to share significant developments in AI, information, and cybersecurity.

Like most industry events, part of our planning involves providing swag for attendees as a reminder of whom they met and, hopefully, the issues discussed.

However, SGS takes sustainability very seriously. As such, we have drastically reduced our use of single-use plastics and are taking steps to positively impact both the environment and the community at large. In addition to providing the crowd-pleasing rubber duckies that have become a favorite at various events, we have developed a new initiative whereby visitors to our booth will have the opportunity to direct the use of volunteer hours by our staff.

SGS prides itself on delivering solutions. Data privacy, AI, information, and cybersecurity are key areas in which we excel, as are sustainability and community engagement.

Signing up our staff members to volunteer for two hours at a time is easy, and the choice is tailored to reflect the interests of the visitor. Whether it involves a park cleanup or assisting at a food bank, visitors need only meet with one of our team members at our booth and complete the Give Orange forms provided. Our volunteers will then follow up with the visitor on the progress and impact of their donated hours.

The Give Orange campaign was initially piloted at a similar event in Canada in March and received favorable reviews from both the "donors" and those benefiting from this initiative.

Consider something new among your takeaways from this year's RSA Conference. Come visit our booth, #4315, this May in San Francisco, or contact us now to learn more about what SGS can offer.

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