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Conventional business models are all take, net positive business models give back more than they take. Photograph: George Doyle/Getty Images/Stockbyte
Conventional business models are all take, net positive business models give back more than they take. Photograph: George Doyle/Getty Images/Stockbyte

A seven step guide to net positive

This article is more than 8 years old

Here’s what we learned about the ambitious sustainability concept when experts joined us to take your questions

1. Net positive is about giving more than you take

“Net positive simply means putting more back into the environment or society than you take out,” says Forum for the Future’s chief executive, Sally Uren.

It aims to restore or regenerate ecological systems, explains Steve Downing, director of the Henley Centre for Sustainable Enterprise. This is different from eco-efficiency, which simply slows down the decline in ecological capital, and closed-loop systems, which only prevent further ecological decline.

2. Boundaries are important

Solitaire Townsend, co-founder of Futerra explains that the ultimate benchmark for net positive strategies are planetary boundaries (the boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive) and that goals and targets should always be developed within that framework.

Uren adds: “If your biggest impacts are societal, than that’s where you should focus. However, the principles that we have developed tell us that there should be no irreplaceable natural losses. A big positive societal impact then isn’t justified at the expense of a large negative environmental one.”

3. It isn’t just repackaged CSR

Net positive is far more transformative and ambitious than corporate social responsibility. It’s not just about reducing impacts here and there, rather it requires a systems-based approach and the involvement of the entire business.

It also allows businesses to engage employees and customers with a positive message around sustainability, rather than one of reduction. “When we advocate CSR, we’re often perceived as saying that business is inherently bad,” says sustainability consultant Sarah Holloway. “But net positive allows those who believe business is a force for good to get excited about sustainability.”

While it’s possible for a tobacco company to claim it is the most sustainable of its competitors, it should be impossible to claim it is net positive, says Townsend.

4. Greenwash is difficult

Genuinely becoming net positive requires companies to focus on their main areas of impact. Dax Lovegrove, director of sustainability and innovation at home improvement retailer Kingfisher, says the company’s main impact is forests, so it aims to create more forest than it uses. Its plan to become net positive includes sourcing timber responsibly, working with key suppliers and engaging governments in improving EU timber regulations.

There will always be greenwashers who exploit sustainability for marketing purposes, but Lovegrove says dubious off-setting initiatives under the guise of net positive will not go unnoticed. “Most of us can spot when a company is on the money and when it is avoiding the issues … Those largely seen as doing little on sustainability, such as those in the fossil fuel industries, would do well to avoid claiming to have net positive commitments,” he says.

For Gabi Zedlmayer, vice president and chief progress officer at IT giant HP, a set of internationally agreed upon standards for offsets would help prevent their use for window-dressing.

5. Fossil fuels and gambling are out

If fossil fuel companies can’t be net positive, what about other controversial businesses, such as alcohol and gambling? Bill Baue, co-founder of Sustainability Context, says some business models are predicated on a net negative impact and would have a difficult time justifying the consequences of their products and services.

Uren also struggles with gambling but doesn’t write off alcohol companies. “You could envisage a micro-brewery, nestled in a close-knit community, powered off renewable energy, with 100% sustainable sourcing, having a net positive impact.”

6. It can be a great springboard for entrepreneurs

Net positive feels like a large corporate agenda, but it’s also a great starting point for budding entrepreneurs. One example is condom brand Sustain, which according to its founder is focused on challenging negative attitudes to condoms among young American women.

For small and medium enterprises it can be harder to get the intellectual distance needed to critique your own business model, says Bruce Davis, joint managing director at renewables investment vehicle Abundance Generation. “I think that net positive SMEs are probably born rather than re-made,” he says.

7. Profit isn’t the measure of success

“We are very comfortable ‘borrowing’ from our future selves to finance our present wellbeing and less comfortable investing in others’ future wellbeing,” says Davis. In the future, instead of success being defined in terms of profit, as it is in the selfish shareholder model, the success of a business will be measured by its net positive impact.


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