Earth, Inc.

4

Sustainable Product Platforms

RULE 4

Leverage your value cycle as a product platform for scale, scope, and knowledge economies.

 

There is more to be gained by producing more opportunities than by optimizing existing ones.—Kevin Kelley¹

Building an economically viable value cycle, founded on a nontoxic, parsimonious materials pallet and energy-efficient process technologies, is a big achievement. Some companies may be satisfied to stop there, but that would be a mistake. Even greater gains can be had by leveraging the company’s value cycle as a platform for creating new products and attacking fresh markets. This is where the returns from sustainability are amplified and durable competitive advantage is built (see table 4-1). I’ve focused ...