Humanity and our planet have reached a pivotal moment long in the making.
Before we dive into the five levers of change, it's crucial to discuss planetary boundaries and their profound impact on our lives.
Many are aware of the rising global temperatures caused by human-induced fossil fuel use; the consequences of these actions are becoming increasingly evident through extreme events worldwide.
While some governments and large businesses have pledged to reduce carbon emissions, aiming for targets like #NetZero or achieving carbon neutrality by specific dates, scientists have issued a final warning in March 2023 that the world is not moving fast enough.
Additionally, while carbon reduction is critical, other important issues also require our attention.
To appreciate why we need to change, we start with the planetary boundaries and their profound impact on our lives.
We must shift how we live, do business and develop as countries.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals and Doughnut Economics are new approaches shifting conventional wisdom. And yet, they can be hard to communicate and incomplete.
We have identified five levers to work in unison for us to create a truly sustainable world.
These levers are far easier to digest and communicate with all stakeholders.
In our assessment, one of these levers has the highest leverage to bring about sustainable change – a ‘purpose with profit’ approach to measuring businesses.
We’ll also introduce hands that can pull on these levers.
These levers can effectively apply to personal lives, business strategies, investment decisions, and governmental policies.
The levers are:
🍽️ Changing How We EAT,
🏠 Changing How We LIVE,
💹 Changing How We Measure BUSINESS,
🏦Changing How We INVEST,
⚖️ and Changing How We GOVERN
These levers empower us to drive meaningful transformation across society.
So, how does our work fit within this ecosystem of change?
At Purpose With Profit, we are dedicated to advancing genuine planetary sustainability through a business lens with enhancing Purpose, People, Planet and Profit strategies.
With the rise of the conscious consumer and impact capital, these strategies allow businesses to build tribes around a brand and provide the highest leverage with all levers.
In our advocacy work, we do nudge other levers as well.
e?
Now, let’s briefly discuss how we arrived here and dive into these five levers and hands!
Journey Here
In the early 2000s, scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRCs) identified nine planetary boundaries, three of which are natural—freshwater, biodiversity, and land systems change—while the remaining six are tied to human-generated waste, including greenhouse gases (GHGs), ocean acidification, ozone-depleting chemicals, novel entities like plastic and non-compostable materials, aerosol loading, and nutrient overload from fertilisers (nitrogen & Phosphorus).
From 2009 to 2023, we have gone from breaching three boundaries to overstretching six out of the nine.
We consume more resources and generate more waste than the earth can handle.
The consequences of this overstretching are dire, including mass human migration (climate refugees), natural resource crises, large-scale environmental disasters, erosion of social cohesion, societal polarisation, and extreme weather events.
Despite scientists sounding the alarm on these issues for over 15 years, there is still a pressing need for increased public awareness, corporate action, and government policies that match the situation's urgency.
In response to these global challenges, in 2015, the United Nations developed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) —'a blueprint for peace, prosperity, and planetary well-being, now and into the future'. Comprising 17 SDGs with 169 measurable targets, these goals have garnered the commitment of governments, institutions, and large businesses worldwide.
In 2017, The economist Kate Raworth published a book and an approach called Doughnut Economics, building on prior work by SRC, SDGs and other economists. Broadly, there are two themes.
1) Living below the planetary boundaries – per SRC
2) Social harmony – by having an equitable and just society
The social harmony attributes include energy, water, food, health, education, income and work, peace and justice, political voice, social equity, housing, gender equality, and networks.
The doughnut economics and the attributes can be seen below.
However, the sheer breadth of the SDGs and Doughnut Economics model can be overwhelming for both businesses and the public. Further, the public is largely disassociated with both the SDG’s and Doughnut Economics model.
In light of this, we've distilled our observations and expertise into five actionable levers of change that we can all apply.
Let's dive into each one of these five levers.
1️⃣ Changing How We EAT
Our journey begins with a crucial aspect of sustainability: our dietary choices.
There are three actions: plant-centric diets, alternative proteins, and regenerative farming.
Environmentalist David Attenborough and major environmental organisations, like Eat Forum and Project Drawdown, advocate for a significant shift towards a plant-centric diet.
Why is food such an important factor?
Based on 2015 data, our food systems produce about 34% of the total GHG. Then, 70% of freshwater use, 78% of freshwater pollution, biodiversity loss (69% of wildlife extinction since the 1970s, according to WWF), and 75% of land use. As the image above shows, of all the mammals on earth, only 4% are wildlife, 36% human, and 60% are livestock or animals that serve humans.
Let that sink in for a moment: just 4% of all mammals are wildlife.
One of the most comprehensive studies in Nature Journal, with over 55,504 participants, 570 lifecycle Assessments covering 38,000 farms in 119 countries found there would be a significant reduction in all the above areas by promoting a more plant-centric diet.
How are we progressing in Australia?
It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet - Margaret Mead
The average Australian and American continues to eat ~100kg of meat/per year. This is four times the recommendation in Eat Forum and three times the recommended meat intake by dietary guidelines.
With the rising affluence worldwide, meat consumption is expected to double by 2050, exceeding the earth's capacity for meat production.
To provide a more sustainable approach, we are seeing the rise of alternative proteins – made with plants, mushrooms, insects and even meat grown in a lab.
From a carbon perspective alone, Boston Consulting Group writes:
“In our 2021 Food for Thought report, we estimated that the shift to alternative beef, pork, chicken, and egg alternatives will save more than one gigaton (Gt) of CO2e by 2035—or about 0.85 Gt CO2e in 2030. This is equal to decarbonising most of the aviation or shipping industries or about 22% of the building industry.”
George Monbiot, the author of Regenesis - ‘Feeding the World, without devouring the planet’ summarises this in this video -
In summary, reducing meat consumption benefits true planetary sustainability in many ways. And yet, it’s the hardest topic to tackle.
In addition, increasing plant-centric food consumption supports better health, increases food justice and reduces zoonotic disease spread.
We must support sustainable alternative protein sources and regenerative agriculture to ensure the well-being of both people and all the elements of the environment.
PWP: We have focussed on growing plant-based businesses since 2017 because of the massive impact and to attract impact capital. Our CEO, Bob Sudharshan Ratnarajah, founded a plant-centric community of 2500 members, with a third of the audience being flexitarians (meat reducers). He understands motivations and the five reasons for behaviour change. He also speaks to conference organisers, industry bodies, impact investors and governments to create supportive environments.
2️⃣ Changing How We LIVE
In our daily lives, we can make substantial strides in reducing our ecological footprint through conscious consumption and living.
By supporting products and services aligned with circular economy principles—minimising waste and maximising resource utility—we can contribute to a more sustainable future. These can be summarised with the 5Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, and Recycle.
Our homes can be better built by applying the most robust sustainability standards.
From the utilities and waste perspective, these two can be used in a renewable and ecological way. Household organic waste can be turned into compost for a garden bed.
However, these choices can often be challenging, if not overwhelming, for the public.
Businesses and governments (levers) are vital in offering incentives and enacting legislation to make conscious consumption the default choice. Examples include compostable packaging, bans on single-use plastics, and certifications like NABERS for sustainable housing.
Businesses and governments (levers) play vital roles in offering options and enacting legislation to make conscious consumption the default choice. Examples include compostable packaging, bans on single-use plastics, and certifications like NABERS for sustainable housing.
3️⃣ Changing How We Measure BUSINESS
Historically, businesses primarily focused on measuring financial metrics. Due to the planetary crises described above, the world is finally changing to measure more than money.
Background
In 1994, John Elkington was the first to coin the term Triple Bottom Line (TBL) – to measure People, Planet and Profit for corporations to enhance their corporate social responsibility. However, this adoption did not have the consistency of measure and did not spread widely.
In 1997, the Global Reporting Initiative embarked on an exercise for large corporations to demonstrate accountability for the impact on the economy, environment and people. So effectively, still corporate social responsibility practices.
Following the global financial crisis, we at Purpose With Profit realised the current economic models were broken and started investigating new business models.
New ideas were seeded in the US, like ‘Shared Value’ and Bcorp structures.
Shared Value (Porter & Kramer) describes business addressing global planetary challenges commercially. We use Tesla or the solar industry as examples that are still highly commercial but better for the environment than the high carbon-producing fossil fuels.
Still, in the US, if you are an executive of a listed company (C Corp legal structure), you can be financially liable if you DO NOT focus on shareholder profits. A new structure and certification called B Corp (benefits corporation) was developed. This shows that the business applies People, Planet and Profit principles.
Today, over 7500 companies globally are Bcorps with over 700,000 employees.
Around the same time of the GFC, a new business term called social enterprise started to gain traction. These businesses are purpose-led to fulfil a need for humanity and/or the planet. In a broader sense, social enterprises are not new. With a greater mandate, social enterprises can include indigenous businesses, co-operatives and mutuals. These are all profit-driven vehicles that don’t exploit humanity and serve humanity and/or the planet.
The social enterprise sector in Australia was largely isolated, so that we couldn’t see their collective impact until 2022. We’ll continue to explore this topic in the Hands section below.
As the planetary crises worsen, businesses have started accelerating carbon footprint measurement and applying the many impacting reporting like the SDGs or GRI. Beyond traditional profit metrics, businesses are also embracing Environmental, Societal, and Governance (ESG) policies like Corporate Social Responsibility.
Two Massive developments in 2023
Since 2015, G20 Central Bank governors seeded a Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). This was to understand the financial risk of climate change for banks, investment and insurance.
In June 2023, a historic shift occurred as International Financial Reporting Standards introduced the International Sustainability Standards (ISSB) to complement the accounting standards incorporating the TCFD. This is for carbon only.
Accounting is changing for the first time in its history!
This will eventually result in all businesses starting to measure carbon reporting.
Then in September 2023, the Taskforce on Nature-Related Disclosures (TNFD) was also globally adopted. The TNFD enabled business and finance to move from nature-negative to nature-positive outcomes.
Due to humanity overstretching our planetary boundaries, corporate social responsibility (ESG) or carbon reporting is no longer enough. Biodiversity loss and the planetary boundaries will also be factored and reported.
While these standards have been developed from a business existential risk perspective, these SDGs elevate pure impact-related businesses.
PWP: Our advisory and consulting services empower leadership teams and businesses to implement pragmatic 'purpose with profit' business growth practices, encompassing societal and environmental impacts alongside financial gains.
In Australia, alternative protein and wholefood businesses can do much better to apply and then share these compelling reasons for adoption with various stakeholders.
Similarly, many social enterprises can attract more impact capital by balancing their ‘purpose with profit’ approach.
Impact measurement has always been a challenge. We are speaking to several impact software providers to ensure measurement practices are more robust and align with these global standards.
4️⃣ Changing How We INVEST
Capital is the most potent lever for change. But it needs a better purpose with profit measurement to be able to deploy.
One could argue the TNFD, ISSB and the growth of the impact measurement are guided by capital asking for standardisation when comparing businesses to measure the return, impact and risk of businesses.
By redirecting capital toward regenerative and impact-driven opportunities, we start addressing root causes rather than merely treating symptoms.
One long-term impact investor does not encourage ESG investing when one of the largest oil companies has a high ESG score.
Individuals can create an impact with their everyday banking, loans, investments and retirement savings.
Australia has a retirement savings of over 3 trillion dollars. Some industry super funds, like Hostplus, have started deploying capital to early-stage impact businesses.
Innovative funding methods, including impact platforms like Lend For Good, are emerging to support early-stage and provide a return for the impact investor.
Impact investing is growing rapidly in Australia, from $30B in 2021 to $59B in 2022. From a worldwide perspective, Global Impact Investing Network estimates that we crossed US $1 Trillion in 2022.
There's a BIG missing piece here: the conscious consumer does not have options to invest in impact businesses at fair value. It's still the territory of Venture capital, private equity, family offices and high-net-worth (HNW) individuals.
Capital can accelerate the shift toward a truly sustainable planet. Innovative funding methods, including impact investors like Lend For Good, are emerging to support early-stage impact businesses.
Impact investing is growing rapidly in Australia, from $30B in 2021 to $59B in 2022. From a worldwide perspective, Global Impact Investing Network estimates that we crossed US $1 Trillion in 2022.
PWP: Our services measure the ‘purpose with profit’ approach to support impact businesses to attract values-aligned impact capital to scale up their business.
We are happy to support impact offices to assess impact investments for their portfolio better.
We see a BIG missing piece here. The conscious consumer has few options to invest in impact businesses at fair value. It's the territory of venture capital, private equity, family offices and high-net-worth (HNW) individuals. We are speaking to ethical financial planners and impact capital leaders to create a vehicle to harness the collective capital – that of the impact capital and the conscious consumer investors.
Purpose With Profit is an intermediary for Lend For Good.
5️⃣ Changing How We GOVERN
Effective governance at all levels—Federal, State, and Local— is pivotal in driving sustainable change. In an ideal world, good governance needs to be equitable to the public, provide services fairly, and be transparent.
State governments are instrumental in the education from schools to universities and adult learning. Learning sustainability principles early in life empowers the public to accelerate the shift faster.
From a system change perspective, government can direct spending to impact businesses. They can also incentivise impact business and provide disincentives and legislate for change.
From an economic perspective, Governments are responsible for ~25% of GDP in Australia. By channelling the government procurement towards impact businesses, we can accelerate change to being more sustainable.
For emerging impact and regenerative industries, government incentives are critical for their success. US Tesla and Australian bionic ear company Cochlear’s success is thanks to government support. Funding towards government research bodies like CSIRO and Co-operative Research Centre Grants can further help accelerate the change.
Many local councils promote sustainability initiatives for householders.
Australia has committed to Net Zero Carbon by 2050, and by 2030 they expect to be 43% below 2005 levels. These targets set the benchmarks for all of Australia to follow. State Governments and local governments are setting similar plans. We look forward to seeing TNFD targets being incorporated as well.
Some government ministers are recognising the importance of measuring more than just financial metrics. In 2023, the Australian Treasurer wrote a paper about measuring more than money in February 2023, titled Capitalism After the Crises, arguing a more rounded measure of a country's success.
From a country perspective, new measures like the Gross National Happiness Index were developed after the GFC to move away from measuring countries success based on GDP.
In summary, the role of governments beyond the necessity of services is to ensure the well-being of its constituents. This can include elevating the conversations about the planetary crises so that every stakeholder can feel empowered to be part of the change.
Five Levers Of True Planetary Sustainability
👋🏽 Hands For the Levers
Each lever acts as a hand as well. We have listed a few hands, and we welcome your feedback here.
As described above, one of the most powerful levers and hands is federal, state and local government. Incentives and penalties can change the behaviour of consumers, institutions and businesses.
Similarly, governments are key to education, like shaping the food choices on our plates, better health practices, and better consumption for a sustainable future.
In this model, you are probably curious about not-for-profits (NFPs), religious bodies, industry bodies, education bodies, conferences, media, think tanks, and the public.
They are the hands for the levers to be pulled.
When these levers were conceived, we wanted to keep them secular. The pragmatic reality is that large parts of the global population are faith-based. For example, if the Vatican were to start advocating for any of these levers, large populations would likely shift to live more sustainably.
We consider a Religious Body a hand because they don’t apply to all.
Not-for-profits (NFPs) are needed when something is broken in the system. An NFP in one region may not be needed in another because a government or a social enterprise may do the work.
In Australia, Good for the Hood is a for-profit social enterprise encouraging sustainability practices for the consumer. Environmental NFPs usually perform this work.
However, global NFPs like Good Food Institute, Amnesty, Oxfam, and WWF are needed to create a better world. These NFPs are funded with impact philanthropy capital lever, both High-Net-Worth and grassroots-conscious consumers.
Industry bodies are largely in place to ensure the betterment of the industry. What if this is to the detriment of the public and sustainability of the planet? Industry bodies lobby and influence the government, media and the public.
Impact industries need to become better organised to influence the levers.
A positive development in Australia is the formation of Social Enterprise Australia in 2022 and identifying over 12,000 social enterprises, and 200,000 livelihoods, providing a $21 billion economic impact.
The Media & Think Tanks usually represent the view of those who fund these outlets. Most private mainstream media is based on advertising. Like social media, the consumer is the product. Public media is carefully governed. There are very few independent media outlets.
With empowerment, the public can be hands to demand better from businesses, capital and governments. The public consensus still needs to be harnessed, which takes the coordination from capital or government to act.
Stick approaches like taxes and fines can change the behaviour of consumers, institutions and businesses. Taxes on tobacco and fines for pollution come to mind.
Similarly, governments are key to education, like shaping the food choices on our plates, better health practices, and better consumption for a sustainable future.
Religious bodies can almost become a lever in itself. When these levers were conceived, we wanted to keep this non-sectarian. Pragmatic reality is that large parts of the global population are faith based. For example, if the Vatican Church was to start advocating for any of these levers, large populations are likely to make the shift faster than any other approach.
Not-for-profits (NFPs) are needed when something is broken in the system. An NFP in one region may not be needed in another because a government or a social enterprise may do the work.
In Australia, Good for the Hood is a for-profit social enterprise encouraging sustainability practices for the consumer. Environmental NFPs usually perform this work.
However, Global NFPs like Good Food Institute, Amnesty, Oxfam, and WWF are needed to create a better world so the global south is not exploited. These NFPs are funded with impact capital lever, both HNW and grassroots conscious consumers.
Industry bodies are largely in place to ensure the betterment of the industry. What if this is to the detriment of the public and sustainability of the planet? Industry bodies lobby and influence the government, media and the public.
Impact industries need to become better organised to capacity build. An example of this is Social Enterprise Australia forming in 2022 and identifying over 200,000 livelihoods in the sector. Social Traders is a certification to recognise social enterprises to validate businesses for good. The changes are happening.
The Media & Think Tanks usually represent the view of those who fund these outlets. Most private mainstream media is based on advertising. Public media is carefully governed. There are very few truly independent media outlets.
Again, the levers of capital and government play a large role here globally.
With enough empowerment, the public can be hands to demand better from businesses, capital and governments. The public consensus still needs to be harnessed, which takes the coordination from capital or government to act.
Alternate Protein Global Example
In China, the government has proposed a policy to cut meat consumption by 2030. Due to the strict nature of government in China, industry will likely follow this.
Whereas for Western democracies, it’s capital that influences the decision-making.
A recent study found the gigantic lobbying by the meat in the EU and the US. Australia tasted this with the Federal Senate Meat Labelling Law inquiry.
The role of championing diet change falls to NFPs like Pro Veg, meat-free campaigners, and local plant-based NFPs.
The following democracies now encourage plant-based and alternate protein adoption: UK, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Singapore, Israel, India and Brazil.
In Australia, we need several plant-centric food NFPs or social enterprises to accelerate the change.
At Purpose With Profit
At Purpose With Profit, we are at the forefront of supporting impact-driven businesses and impact business networks grow.
We are committed to helping these businesses by applying Purpose, People, and Planet strategies alongside Profit.
The urgency for action is clear.
Many SME impact businesses continue to follow the standard business-as-usual pathway and with slow growth plans.
In today's crowded marketplace, conscious consumers seek to understand how impact businesses differ from the mainstream.
Businesses that authentically embrace the purpose with profit approach will uncover rich content to communicate to stakeholders, including staff, conscious consumers, suppliers, values-aligned investors, and various levels of government - Bob Sudharshan
As part of our advocacy and enablement of the purpose-led economy, we support the other levers of change.
In Conclusion
We find ourselves at a crucial juncture in human history where our actions today will determine the destiny of humanity on our planet and the well-being of future generations. While the challenges are formidable, the opportunities for positive change are equally significant.
The once-distant concept of planetary boundaries has become a stark reality we can no longer ignore. The overstretching of six out of nine boundaries underscores the urgency of our situation.
The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and Doughnut Economics offer detailed markers for progress. Yet, the sheer scope of these goals can be overwhelming. That's where we come in with our five actionable levers of change.
Changing How We EAT, Changing How We LIVE, Changing How We Measure BUSINESS, Changing How We INVEST, and Changing How We GOVERN. These levers empower us to drive meaningful transformation across all levels of society.
Our consulting agency is dedicated to advancing genuine planetary sustainability through a business-focused approach. We firmly believe that measuring more than financial gains is a moral imperative and a strategic advantage.
The time for action is now. While some businesses may adhere to the well-worn path of business-as-usual reporting, true innovators embrace the purpose with profit approach.
Thank you for joining us on this journey toward meaningful change. We look forward to collaborating with you to positively impact our world.
Purpose With Profit is led by Bob Sudharshan Ratnarajah – your purpose-led business genie and CEO.
An award-winning senior financial practitioner and tribe builder, guiding leaders to scale their impact business and be Greedy For Good ™.
🎬 If you are an ambitious purpose-led brand with > 30 staff, that is not growing as fast as you deserve, let’s explore how we can build tribes around your brand so that you can lead your category.
🎬 If you are an impact intermediary (plant-based, social enterprise, impact, indigenous) that’s looking to grow your membership, we are happy to consult.
🌱Our social purpose is to grow the plant-based food economy. We are happy to consult with conference organisers, institutions, government bodies, impact capital to bring this to life.
📞 Let's have a virtual coffee to see how we can potentially help
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