Profit with Purpose
by Kassie Killebrew
“I’m going to have to think about this for a while before sending over the initial line of questioning… you have a lot to say,” Kerry expressed on a podcast guest discovery call. It’s about tech marketing leadership, but [naturally] I shifted the conversation to how we draw so much from the natural world in business. “Nature,” I said, “has been an expert in marketing for as long as there have been mating rituals. Just look to the vibrantly colored Bird of Paradise and their advert courtship dancing.” I tend to draw these comparisons where others don’t, and I eagerly enlighten my business partners and clients. If sustainability isn’t woven into the thread of an organization’s philosophy or mission, then there are missed opportunities and an absence of responsibility.
I have a unique perspective on building a better world and better businesses, and an endless curiosity around the concept of planet earth as a commodity. Rooted in my natural interests and expanded by my undergraduate coursework in Sustainable Community Development, I have contemplated how to integrate my passion for sustainability into my work at KNS Development Co., my external relations company. Upon discovering the program, pursuing a Master of Science in Sustainable Business nudged not only my desire to expand academically and intellectually but also activated my heart and soul desires. While I fancy myself an experiential MBA, I’ve always known I would only return to academia if it would enhance my ability to generate socio-economic and ecological impact.
The origins of keywords in business language derive from the natural world. Start-ups raise seed rounds, and we focus on business growth, investment horizons, adaptive strategies, and workflow. We praise systems-thinkers, observe business ecosystems, and are finally valuing diversity. Evidenced by trends like Bloomberg’s Sustainable Business Summit, investors devoting more resources to ESG investment goals, and making notable acquisitions of companies with sustainability metrics and growth engines, the future is no mystery if you follow the money.
Despite the obvious, we disregard the earth as the source solely responsible for not only our well-being but more relevantly, the singular entity that produces the raw materials and ecosystem services required to create businesses. The values of the felled old-growth tree that becomes lumber for our homes or the 610-year million-year-old mined cobalt that becomes our cell phone battery is not reflected within a company’s cost of goods sold. We cannot continue to take what’s convenient, borrowing attractive words and devouring natural resources, yielding immense profit, without evaluating the costs associated, and more importantly, accounting for them. Planetary health should be on Big Ag’s balance sheet, human health on Big Pharma’s profit and loss, and the earth incorporated, an eternally active LLC. We are not separate and apart from, and neither are our businesses. In contrast, the collective is interdependent.
Sustainability isn’t just about reduced resource usage and renewable energy. It’s an all-encompassing purview of circular economies, public health, economic inequalities, and environmental justice. We are at the forefront of a paradigm shift, and I have a fervent pursuit to emerge as a leader in this space to link sustainability performance to financial performance, because this is where we will see the real integration. At the intersection of the old guard and the new wave, I revel in my life’s work, my purpose. As Danny Meyer said, “the one thing you cannot change is your value system,” and while this is personally fundamental, it is precisely what I intend to change across the corporate landscape: A renewed sense of ethics in the context of valuing our planet, its people, and profit with purpose.