Is this sustainability's man-on-the-moon moment?

Before Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon, JFK had to say "go."

Historians say the Apollo missions never might have happened had it not been for the success of the Soviet space program in launching Sputnik and sending the first human into space.

With pressure mounting on Kennedy to display America’s excellence in comparison to the Communist model, he announced in May 1961 that the U.S. would put an American on the moon by the end of the decade. It was then left to NASA to figure out how exactly they were going to do that.

We see this same shift — from why to how — happening today when it comes to private sector engagement in sustainability and CSR.

CEOs used to ask, "Why should I invest in sustainability? Where is the benefit in addressing social and environmental issues?"

Answering this question was an uphill battle for sustainability directors, who would spend a great deal of time and money to develop complex valuation models to determine the ROI from sustainability.

The results would be disappointing. We can identify hard savings figures for eco-efficiency projects, but more abstract value drivers such as brand loyalty and maintaining a license to operate always deliver fuzzy figures (despite what your ad agency might tell you).

And so corporate sustainability efforts remained lukewarm with a few leaders developing innovative approaches while the rest of the pack looked on.

Fast-forward to today and the business case has become much more clear, especially in the U.S.

Here are a few signals that show the business climate has changed:

• Regulators have woken up: 196 countries agreed to work together to limit the impacts of climate change at COP21 in Paris and the White House has published a report warning of the dramatic health consequences of climate change.
• Consumers expect more from companies: 87 percent of US consumers (91 percent globally) expect companies to do more than just earn a profit and the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer showed that public trust in businesses declined to its lowest level since 2008.
• Solid proof that you can make a lot of money off sustainability: At least nine companies, including Nike and GE, have generated over $1 billion from products and services that have sustainability or social good at their core.
• Peer pressure has forced a race to the top: Some of the most iconic rivalries in business — Target vs. Walmart, Kellogg's vs. General Mills, Unilever vs. P&G — are one-upping each other on CSR creds. Robust sustainability strategies are not a nice-to-have when your closest competitor already has one. Consumers can check out Oxfam’s Behind the Brands Scorecard to see this play out in real time.
• Faith leaders are heralds of the moral argument: 150 leaders including the pope, the Dalai Lama and representatives from the Muslim community are advocating for strong action on climate, setting an example for their billions of followers.

The business case for revenue generation, brand value generation and talent recruitment and retention has come into much greater focus. If you add up the factors above, one message comes through loud and clear: a more responsible economy is coming and there will be winners and losers when it arrives.

More and more CEOs appear to be seeing the evidence they need to shift their approach. In a recent PwC survey, nearly a quarter of CEOs said their company has changed its very sense of purpose in the last three years to take into account the broader impact it has on society; 45 percent of CEOs said their purpose already acknowledges this impact. And the WWF found that 60 percent of the Fortune 100 have set public sustainability goals.

So the question nowadays is not so much why should a business get involved, but how?

1. Do we need to redesign all our products to be sustainable? Where would we even start?
2. How do I illustrate to our investors that we are appropriately managing our ESG risks?
3. What does this mean for our existing philanthropy work? Is there a way they can complement each other?
4. Do we need to go carbon neutral? What the heck does "net positive" mean?

We at Futerra have noticed a significant uptick in the number of businesses knocking on our door for services that help them answer the questions above, but also how to "go big" once they figure it out.

Once you have a good understanding of the core set of social and environmental topics that matter most to your stakeholders and the future of your business, it makes sense to address those topics head on and in a big way.

Starbucks, for example, identified early on that the way it sourced coffee could have an outsized positive impact on the environment and the lives of coffee farmers. So it created the Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) practices and set a goal with Conservation International to source 100 percent of its coffee ethically.

And Cisco, with its videoconferencing and telecommunication technology, knows that it can enable the spread of knowledge and information to remote areas. So it uses its networks to expand access to quality healthcare and education around the globe, helping a million people annually gain the skills they need to excel.

To be clear, companies don’t have the luxury of addressing just one issue. Companies of this size have a responsibility to manage a host of environmental and social issues, but the point here is that there are only a few areas where companies have the opportunity to create a dramatic positive impact on society and/or the planet while gaining credibility with stakeholders.

It is these areas where, over time, private companies can leverage their unique capabilities and resources to make a lasting — and iconic — impact.

Here are four questions you can ask to get the discussion started about your company’s impact potential:

1. What issues are our consumers and stakeholders passionate about? 
2. What are our capabilities to create positive impacts — our strengths?
3. What are our major negative impacts — our hotspots?
4. How can we provide the greatest possible benefit to society and/or the environment?

Answering these questions will go a long way to positioning your company to deliver positive impact while providing strategic value to the firm.

It’s not easy to get it right, but then again at least you don’t have to put a man on the moon.