The argument for sustainable development as a path to success in the 21st century is widely documented. Companies with sound environmental management systems and corporate social responsibility policies and procedures outperform businesses that don't have either. Why? Because overall, the management of an organization that considers these issues is well-rounded, attuned to global challenges, and positioned to make ethical product design choices.

What challenges you may ask? Climate change, international strife, huge trade deficits, and growing income disparity are just a few of the developments that come to mind. Quite frankly, they're all bad for business prosperity in the long term. Fortunately, fresh ways of thinking and doing business are evolving.

Bettering Your Bottom Line

The most common area for a business to see immediate and tangible results from its implementation of green business practices is in cost savings. Reducing expenses clearly and directly impacts your bottom line, or net profit figure. Because cutting costs is the easiest sell for top management (if the suggestions are coming from some other area of the company, that is), this step is often perceived as the best place to start.

The term ecoefficient, coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, refers to a management philosophy geared toward producing goods and services that use fewer resources. Because fewer raw materials and energy go into the production process and less waste is produced, an ecoefficient company has a clear competitive advantage by cutting its costs.

Opportunities for ecoefficiency abound at all phases of your product and company life cycle. So how do you make the most of them? To embrace ecoefficiency, you need to look at three broad objectives and identify how each functional area within your business can achieve the following:

• Doing more with less: Looking at ways to decrease your business's use of energy, water, and land; improve product recyclability and durability; and close the loop on raw materials usage are all ways you can strive to do more with less.

• Reducing waste: Business waste is a cost that has no value-added capacity. Eliminating waste always contributes directly to an increased bottom line due to expense reductions.

• Enhancing product functionality: By focusing on selling your customers what they actually need, you can use fewer resources while maintaining the same (if not better) product value.

Identifying ways to make your company more ecoefficient isn't a take-it-or-leave-it mechanism, once-over, or series of rigid rules to comply with. It isn't even a framework, per se, but rather a way of thinking about how exactly you can deliver value to your customers while using fewer resources - or in other words, how you can strive for continuous improvement by using less.

Read about the increasing top-line trajectory and how sustainable business can foster a desirable workplace for top-notch employees.