Even those with their heads buried deepest in the sand must, by now, start realizing that the way we are treating the planet is not sustainable. It’s not only about CO2, but also about resources that are fast being depleted because of the escalating consumption. We have, as consumers, over the past 40+ years moved from a repair and maintain mentality, to a throw away and buy new mentality.
As a result of this development, the revenue growth of the industry is largely depending on this behavior with products having short lifecycles and cheaper to replace than to repair.
As, becoming more sustainable simply means reducing consumption of new products which in turn means reducing production of products most industrial companies will be faced with reduced growth in their existing business models.
This is a paradigm shift of significant proportions that is inevitable. Timing will vary between segments and unpredictable as it is governed by public opinion, awareness, environmental incidents, and political actions. No industry will be excluded. Not even those considered to be green today.
At Sjostrom we have experience from helping companies developing strategies for circular solutions and more sustainable business models to handle this paradigm shift.
