What is a sustainable business? And why it needs rethinking.
Updated: Aug 2
When most people hear the phrase sustainable business, they think about the environment.
They think about reducing waste, lowering carbon emissions, sourcing materials ethically, or making decisions that have less impact on the planet.
All of those things matter deeply, and they're an important part of what it means to build a business responsibly, but as the conscious business movement continues to grow, another conversation needs to take place.
It's a conversation about sustainability that starts much closer to home.
Because a business might be environmentally responsible and still be completely unsustainable for the person running it.
It might be profitable, admired, and growing year after year, while requiring the owner to ignore their health, override their intuition, sacrifice their relationships, or push beyond their capacity just to keep it alive.
If that's the cost of success, it's worth asking a difficult question.
Is that business really, truly, sustainable?
Sustainable business for whom?
For a long time, we've measured business success by external outcomes:
Growth
Revenue
Market share
Visibility
Efficiency
More recently, we've begun asking whether businesses are sustainable for the planet.
But perhaps there's another question we need to add.
Are they sustainable for the humans building them?
This isn't about lowering ambition or choosing an easier path - building a meaningful business will always ask something of us, and there will always be seasons that require courage, commitment, and hard work.
The question is whether the business is asking us to stretch, or asking us to disappear.
There's a huge difference between building something that challenges you, and building something that slowly disconnects you from yourself.
A conscious business recognises that the founder isn't separate from the business.
The way you work, the way you make decisions, the way your energy is designed to move, the pace you grow at, and the relationship you have with yourself all become part of what you're creating.
These are the parts of marketing, business and offer development that we speak at length about in Kindred Founders, because they are where true sustainability is born, not for somewhere outside of self, but from within.
A business can't be truly sustainable if it depends on the founder becoming less sustainable.
What's a regenerative business?
Alongside conversations about sustainability, another word has started appearing more often: regenerative.
But for many people not involved in sustainability, it still feels a little abstract, a little like a strategic consulting buzzword. Which is why terms like "regenerative business" often get met with blank faces in networking rooms.
In simple terms, sustainability asks, "How do we avoid causing harm?"
But regeneration asks, "How do we leave things healthier than we found them?"
A regenerative business doesn't simply reduce its negative impact, it actively contributes something positive, strengthens relationships, nurtures communities, and creates value that extends beyond profit.
From a business perspective, regeneration isn't only about landscapes or ecosystems, although those matter enormously.
It's also about people.
Does your business leave your clients feeling more confident, more capable, or more connected than they were before?
Does it contribute positively to your community?
Does it create opportunities for collaboration rather than competition?
And perhaps most importantly, does your business leave you feeling more alive?
Because if your business grows by continually extracting from your creativity, your wellbeing, your energy, and your sense of self, it's difficult to describe that as regenerative.
Building a business that gives back
The businesses many of us are trying to create today are different from those we inherited.
We're not just interested in building profitable businesses, we want to build businesses that reflect our values, contribute positively to the world around us, and allow us to enjoy the lives we're working so hard to create.
And so much of this is about paying attention. About noticing when we're building from fear rather than trust, when we're slipping into old patterns of proving ourselves, or when success begins to require too much of the person creating it.
The goal isn't simply to build a business that makes money, it's to build one that nourishes.
Perhaps at the end of the day that's what sustainable business really means.
Not simply creating a business that can survive for years.
But creating one that allows everyone it touches - including you - to flourish.
Continue exploring conscious business
Explore Kindred Founders : A Conscious Business Village
If you’re longing to build your business in a more conscious, human, and sustainable way, Kindred Founders is a community for female founders who believe success doesn’t have to come at the cost of yourself. Join the free trial, book a cuppa with Lucy, or come and explore what it feels like to build alongside people who truly get it.
We'd love to be a space you can come home to.
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