Outgreening Delivers Sustainable Competitive Advantage

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In his chapter "Outgreening al-Qaeda," Friedman calls green a strategy for winning in many different contexts. He points to the "green hawks" movement in the U.S. military, which he describes as "trying to take away al-Qaeda's advantage of being a very distributed, low-energy guerrilla force against a concentrated, high-energy-consuming conventional army, by looking for a green solution."

In 2006, U.S. fuel convoys were targets for roadside bombs in Iraq. Significant loss of U.S. life was occurring in the process of transporting fuel and water throughout Iraq. The U.S. military didn't throw more of the same—transport vehicles, fuel, and security patrols—at the problem. Instead, the military went to work greening the army. The resulting innovations have increased security, improved the well-being of our troops, and reduced the impact of al-Qaeda in the region. Other benefits of these innovations include the discovery of renewable sources of energy that have saved dollars and moved the military and the U.S. toward energy independence. "This is typical of what happens when you try to solve a problem by outgreening the competition," Freidman writes. "You buy one and get four for free."

What these examples illustrate is that outgreening can be about much more than our response to a crisis: It is an opportunity, a set of behaviors integrated into an organization's culture. By shifting their mindset to sustainability, business leaders stop their workers from thinking about accumulating more or spending more than competitors. They stop thinking about today's needs and instead think about today's needs in the context of tomorrow.

They think in a way that simultaneously stimulates innovation (and value) in the short term while preserving legacy (and value) over the long term. Individuals, business leaders, companies, and countries that adopt that definition today will outgreen the competition tomorrow by embracing a strategy of outbehaving that interprets sustainability in its broadest sense: to create a world in which we can thrive while pursuing human endeavor for generations to come. Viewed in this light, sustainability is about much more than our relationship with the environment; it's about our relationship with ourselves, our communities, and our institutions.

By framing outgreening as behaviors, business leaders can help cultivate the collaboration throughout their ranks that is necessary to become more sustainable.

Indeed, nothing is more sustainable than a self-governing culture, which can withstand the loss of a best-selling product, the departure of key leaders, and the ability to deal with crises of all sizes. Self-governing cultures are created through a dedication and examination of how they do things rather than focusing only on what they do or produce.

Unless we think of outgreening in this light, we won't be able to fix our planet's biggest problems, reap the fruits of our problem-solving efforts or create businesses that are truly sustainable—that have enduring legacies and longstanding value.

Dov Seidman is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of LRN, a company that helps businesses develop ethical corporate cultures and inspire principled performance, and the author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life). LRN recently announced the acquisition of leading green strategy firm, GreenOrder.