In Antony Upward's thesis (Chapter 4) a number of other business model visual design tools are reviewed, mostly developed by practitioners, but a few with academic roots. The organizations and people who did this development work are firstly potential collaborators in and co-operators with our efforts; people who might be interested in joining us in the Greenhouse. But, of course, they may, despite best attempts, end up a competitors (hence the title of this page - co-opetitors). Since the thesis has been submitted for review, other organizations and academics who have design tools, methods and services in this space have also become apparent. Note none of these is explicitly strongly sustainable, and most are implicitly (at best) weakly sustainable. Below the current list... - In no particularly order
- Format of each entries is:
- For Practitioner works
- Organization name
- (location, people with links to Linkedin Profile, connection to members of SSBMG, if any)
- Description of tool, method, what paper etc. with URL.
- If this work was cited in Antony Upward's thesis (Chapter 4) a citation is provided.
- For Academic works
- Any comments on worth, value etc. from SSBMG members are sub-bullets of each entry.
Practitioners- The Business Model Foundry and its (profit-first) products and services:
- World Business Council for Sustainable Business Development (WCBSD) - Ecosystem services and biodiversity tools to support business decision-making
- First highlighted by Ben McCammon and comment on by Doug Gilbert as follows:
- Ben:This might be useful as a benchmark or reference, even though it isn't
specifically about business models, it does relate to sustainable decision
making by businesses. If you check out the 'interactive pdf' link,
you will also see one low-tech way to handle functionality.
- Doug: In reviewing the tool it appears to be aimed at the corporate CSR crowd.
That makes sense because that crowd is the constituency of the WBCSD. Although
I have not ventured much of a guess of a market definition for the SSBMG
project, I would say that the corporate market is tangential unless there is
something like the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development. Those arms
of companies might adopt the SSBMG approach to do project definition and
qualification.
- Various co-operative encourages:
- Between-Us in the Netherlands (contact to Jan van der Kaaij via Sebastian Straube): Globe-US tool based on BMC "Creating Shared Value: how to align sustainability and business strategy" - appears focused on the process / method for designing sustainable business models (like MoSO - see below)
- Business Models Inc. in the Netherlands (contact Patrick van der Pijl - a producer on Business Model Generation) has a growing conulistng business using the profit-first canvas - using the slogan "Designing Better Businesses"
- Shift Alliance (B Corp in Los Angeles): a tool and services to help with "m2∞™ - meaningful innovation" (another term is "authentic innovation")
- Parsey, T., & Topp, E. (2010). An Emerging Business Model:
Meaningful Value & Design Thinking (The Shift Alliance Business
Modelling Tool). Innovation Journal, 2010(Winter), 41-44.
- We Are Rising (based in Australia / Andrew Outhwaite, MSLS grad, appears to have had contact with Alex Osterwalder at some point, website now quite dated, no new activity ~since 2010, no response to my comments posted): See this slide share and these blog posts on a business model design and visual sustainable business model design.
- InstituteB a BC based Benefit Corporation focused on consulting and training to aspiring and exisiting benefit corporations
- B Revolution Consulting a SF based Benefit Corporation focused the legal services required to helping companies start-up or make the transition to the B Corp standard and / legal form.
- Studio Spark (based in the Netherlands, Stegann Vandist): See this slide share on the Sustainable Business Model Canvas, largely using Alex Osterwalder's "Triple Bottom Line" extensions to the BMC described in Business Model Generate, page 265 and referenced at Business Models Beyond Profit and the Business Model Hub Business Models Beyond Profit discussion group run by Sebastian Straube.
- Jansen, B. (2012). Introduction to Sustainable Business Model Design. (Presentation). Antwerp, Belgium: Studio Spark.
- Sustainable Business Strategic and Architecture Consulting (SBSA Partners, Boston Massachusetts, Alex Conn and Leo Leverdure, known by Stephen Davies): Great overview of their approach to including environmental and socal context to business architecture in this presentation.
- Laverdure, L., & Conn, A. (2010). Improving Business Sustainability: Adaptive Systems to Fit the Rapidly Changing Business Environment. Sustainable Business Strategy and Architecture Consulting (SBSA Partners, LLC).(Fig.8 p.15)
- Business Architecture Guild's (BAG) white paper by on Whynde Melaragno sustainability and business architecture "A Key Enabler for Sustainability Strategy Development and Implementation".
- Sustainability Solutions Group - a BC based worker owned co-operative
- New Next Moves and New Next Futures (the Natural Step affiliate in Portugal, João Sousa and António Vasconcelos)
- Cartanova (Hamilton, Ontario Andrew Holden): a template for "growing a sustainable business model".
- Global Organizational Learning and Development Network (GOLDEN, Steve Waddell, known by Bob Willard). As Bob reported "Their business model design and computer business simulation work, as well as their efforts to define a sustainable enterprise are intriguing".
- Forum for the Future's Sustainable Business Model Group (FftF, UK Based, David Bent and Zoe Le Grand, known by Bob Willard, Antony Upward): Not much available publicly, except this overview on their website,
- SSBMG have had a number of dialogs with them. Presentations available.
- In Sept 2013 FftF released a Sustainable Business Model Toolkit to enable the assessment of more and less successful sustainable business models. We have contacted them for an update.
- Chartered Quality Institute Deming Special Interest Group Model of the Sustainable Organization (CQI DemSIG MoSO, UK based, Alan Clark, known by Antony Upward): Lots of MoSO materials available on their website.
- Antony has presented to this group and we have more presentations available.
- This model is very process oriented, and complements the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas's functional / structural approach.
- Clark, A., Rose, T., Richings, D., Gall, M., Peterson, T., Korycki, T., .
. . Brown, T. (2009,2010,2011). Model of a Sustainable
Organization(MoSO). Retrieved 9/11, 2011, from http://www.thecqi.org/Community/Special-Interest-Groups-SIGs/Deming-SIG/The-Sustainable-Organisation/
- The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) produced a "consultation draft" dated April 2013, which includes process oriented business model (similar in many respects to the MoSO model). figure 3, page 11 of "Consultation Draft of the International <IR> Framework"
- SustainAbility (the firm John Elkington founded) has recently released a summary of a report on patterns of sustainable business models based on some case studies (contact is Lindsay Clinton via Antony Upward)
- My Social Business Model (MySBM) has developed a canvas specifically for social purpose business (via Alexandre Joyce)
- Growth Wheel is tool (with certification) for business advisers to help entrepreneurs get focus, set agenda, make decisions, and take action.
- While this tool can be used by entrepreneurs directly it is unusual at being targeted at encouragers - and suggests that encouragers should get certified in the use of this tool
- Future Proof Inc. from the Netherlands, founded by TNS Netherlands associate Edwin Janssen (known to Bob Willard) has developed a service offering based on the TNS FSSD which positions a consulting service based on the value of sustainability driven innovation.
AcademicThe full list of works cited and consulted in the development of Antony Upward's thesis is available on this refshare website.
Other works, several of which take an implicitly strongly sustainable stance include:
- Cavagnaro, E., & Curiel, G. H. (2012). The Three Levels of Sustainability. United Kingdom: GreenLeaf. (Fig.1 p.2)
- See Cavagnaro, E. (2007). Services and Sustainability. In F. Bosker (Ed.), Services and Sustainability: A travelers guide (pp. 1-26). Leeuwarden, The Netherlands: CHN.
- Cloverleaf Model of Sustainable Industrial Development
- Jorgensen, H. B. (1993). The "Green Account" of the Danish Steel Works Ltd. Social & Environmental Accounting, 13(1), 2-6. (Fig.1, p.6)
- Describes the "cloverleaf business model" for sustainability. The earliest work found that links business models and sustainabuility
- This work was then used by
- Birkin, F. (2000). The Art of Accounting for Science: A Prerequisite for Sustainable Development? Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 11(3), 289-309. DOI: 10.1006/cpac.1999.0367
- Grassl, W. (2012). Business Models of Social Enterprise: A Design Approach to Hybridity. ACRN Journal of Entrepreneurship Perspectives, 1(1), 37-60.
- Michelini, L. (2012). Social innovation and new business models: creating shared value in low-income markets. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-32150-4
Michelini, L., & Fiorentino, D. (2012). New business models for creating shared value. Social Responsibility Journal, 8(4), 561-577. doi:10.1108/17471111211272129
- Senge, P. M., Seville, D., Lovins, A. B., & Lotspeich, C. (Unpublished, 1999). Chapter 1: The Four Basic Shifts. Systems Thinking Primer for Natural Capitalism (Fig 1, p. 6)
- Stead, W. E., Stead, J. G., & Starik, M. (2004). Sustainable strategic management. Armonk, New York, U.S.A.: M.E. Sharpe (Fig 5.3, p.84)
- Stubbs, W., & Cocklin, C. (2008). Conceptualizing a “Sustainability Business Model”. Organization & Environment, 21(2), 103-127. doi:10.1177/108602660831804 (Fig.2 p.124)
- Yunus, M., Moingeon, B., & Lehmann-Ortega, L. (2010). Building Social Business Models: Lessons from the Grameen Experience. Long Range Planning, 43(2-3), 308-325. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2009.12.005 (Fig.3 p.319)
Design Principles for Strongly Sustainable Business
In addition there are a large number of works which are useful when considering design principles for strongly sustainable businesses. This topic, started in Antony Upward's thesis (Chapter 4 and 7) is also under active development, since thesis was submitted by members of the SSBMG. See this blog post for an initial view and the thesis for further details. - Marcus, J., Kurucz, E. C., & Colbert, B. A. (2010). Conceptions of
the Business-Society-Nature Interface: Implications for Management
Scholarship. Business & Society, 49(3), 402-438. doi:10.1177/0007650310368827
- This is a critical paper that supports the strongly sustainable approach
- Missimer, M. (2013). The Social Dimension of Strategic Sustainable Development. (PhD, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden).
- This is a critical update to the social science on strong sustainability required to help create design principles.
- An abstract of this paper is available here, and the full paper can be downloaded here
- A webinar presentation of this work can be watched here.
Tools for Designing Business ModelsThere is a good summary of current on-line versions of available tools in this presentation by Christoph Plamper here:
Measurement of Strongly Sustainable BusinessIn addition there are a large number of works related to the measurement, benchmarking and reporting on sustainable business. |