When is Growth sustainable?

„Sustainable Growth“ is one of those post-crash mantras. You can hear it wherever people discuss ways to move out of the crisis. I heard about “sustainable growth” just last week at an event in Munich were key note speakers from Nokia Siemens Networks, SAP, Nokia and other companies discussed the trends that would move the ICT industry out of the economic crisis. Oh, sustainable growth.

What do we actually mean when we put sustainability next to growth? In the contexts that I heard or read about “sustainable growth” it often meant nothing but “any growth”. These were the desperate contexts. In other contexts “sustainable growth” translated as “stable growth”, i.e. a kind of growth that is safe, reliable and comes without disturbing bumps. There is nothing wrong with that, yet I think the aspect of keeping growth in balance with the larger ecosystem is not fully expressed through stability.

Sustainability and growth are not easy bedfellows. If there is one thing that can be learned from the financial crisis then it is that too much growth is not sustainable. Therefore, the talk of "sustainable growth" is not credible without addressing this intricacy.

It seems important to get the priorities right. Would we limit growth for the sake of sustainability? And where is the tipping point? A question that is hard to answer.

Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor-apparel maker Patagonia has a pretty radical aproach: "I'm kind of like a samurai," he told FastCompany in an interview. "They say if you want to be a samurai, you can't be afraid of dying, and as soon as you flinch, you get your head cut off. I'm not afraid of losing this business." With that he wanted to emphasize that, in case of doubt, his vision for Patagonia ("to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.")will not be compromised, even if it would mean to make a loss.

In fact, Chouinard experienced that the more he did for the environment (like annually donating one percent of sales to environmental groups), the better it was for his company's financials. He encourages other companies to follow the same path: "I'm saying to other companies that every time we did the right thing for the planet, we made money on it. I'm telling them that not only do we have to change, but also that it will be a good thing economically." ( see interview)

That made me think. Is the economy ready for a samurai approach towards growth and defend sustainable values, even if that might (but does not have to) mean to lose shareholders, profits or clients?