A ‘Systems Approach’ to elevate sustainability: Lorne Michael Cousins

In conversation with Lorne Michael Cousins

Lorne Michael Cousins is the Founder & Principal of Fulcrum Point Consulting, as well as the Program Director for The Conference Board’s China Sustainability Leaders Council. He is also a Senior Fellow at TCB’s China Center.

With more than 25 years of experience working with multinational corporations, Lorne has served as an environmental auditor, project manager, and both an environmental and management consultant. He holds Practitioner status with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and is an Accredited Advisor with Future-Fit Business, an organization focused on helping businesses achieve the extra-financial break-even point across 23 sustainability goals, ensuring they protect both people and the planet.

Lorne is a firm advocate for collaboration as the key to driving sustainable change. He believes that our mission to democratize sustainability knowledge can best be achieved by partnering with organizations and individuals who share a similar vision. “Together, we can Aspire, Adapt, and Amplify our collective impact to create a brighter, more sustainable future,” explains Lorne.

Lorne shares his thoughts on the future of sustainability in China and more:

China’s Sustainability Landscape in the Coming Decade

Over the next decade, China is poised to become a dominant player in the global economy, becoming the world’s largest economy. China’s approach to sustainability is unique, balancing ambitious goals with the realities of energy security.

China has mastered large-scale production of renewable energy sources, including batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels, deploying these technologies at an unprecedented rate. The government’s dual carbon goals — peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality — reflect its ambition to lead in sustainability. However, despite these advancements, the country faces significant challenges. The renewable energy infrastructure is constrained by outdated grid systems, making it difficult to distribute energy efficiently across the nation. This has become a priority for the government, which is working on modernizing the transmission grid to support renewable energy.

At the same time, China’s commitment to energy security remains non-negotiable. As a result, the country continues to invest heavily in coal-fired power plants, sometimes right alongside renewable energy installations. This juxtaposition reflects China’s pragmatic approach to energy needs: prioritizing immediate power demands over long-term sustainability goals. While the decommissioning of some older coal plants is underway, the balancing act between sustainability and energy security remains a significant challenge. China’s practical approach to scaling up energy production, including a reliance on coal, complicates its path toward carbon neutrality, leaving the “how” of achieving their carbon goals an open question.

Challenges Multinationals Face in China’s Sustainability Landscape

Multinational companies operating in China encounter a unique set of challenges when trying to implement sustainability practices. The complexity of navigating China’s regulatory environment stands out, as MNCs often find themselves between a rock and a hard place, balancing the expectations of their global headquarters with the realities of operating in China.

For instance, multinational companies may commit to not procuring from a Chinese cotton supplier due to concerns about forced labor, but this can create tensions with the Chinese government, which may view such actions as discriminatory. Multinationals must navigate these sensitivities carefully, as they risk alienating both their home country’s regulatory bodies and the Chinese government. The situation is further complicated by China’s stringent data security laws, which make it difficult for companies to access critical information about their supply chains, for instance, at the farm level.

Despite these challenges, companies in China are held to the highest standards of environmental performance due to the scrutiny they face. However, the complexity of sourcing in China means that companies must also manage supply chain transparency, traceability, and data availability — all while complying with local laws. The intersection of global sustainability commitments and China’s regulatory environment creates a difficult balancing act, with multinational corporations striving to uphold their values while meeting local demands.

Achieving Future-Fit Business: A Strategic Approach to Sustainability

As an accredited advisor for Future-Fit Business, Lorne explains that achieving the “extra-financial break-even” — or the point where businesses no longer impose negative externalities on society — involves taking a “systems approach to sustainability.” Unlike fragmented approaches that focus solely on carbon emissions or water use, Future-Fit provides a more comprehensive framework that covers various sustainability aspects, including product communications, greenwashing, and product safety.

Future-Fit offers companies a strategic management tool that helps leaders align their sustainability efforts with 23 specific goals. Not all of these goals will be relevant to every organization, but the framework encourages companies to identify which goals are most material to their operations and to make progress toward them. For example, companies in the fashion industry might focus on sustainable sourcing, while those in the tech sector might emphasize reducing e-waste.

The system allows companies to benchmark their current performance and track progress over time. It’s not about achieving perfection immediately but about setting a clear destination and ‘moving the needle’ towards these material, science-based goals. This glass panel or “system” view of sustainability is critical, as it moves beyond just reporting to truly transforming the organization’s approach to sustainability. Companies must ask important questions about their products, from their sourcing and manufacturing processes to how they are marketed and communicated to consumers.

The Role of the Private Sector in China’s Environmental Transformation

The private sector plays a crucial role in driving China’s sustainability and environmental transformation. Innovative private companies are leading the way in tackling pressing environmental issues such as textile and food waste.

Private companies are able to address specific, localized challenges that state-owned enterprises cannot. For example, social enterprises are making strides in areas like rural education and poverty alleviation. However, for private companies to succeed in China, it is essential that they align their operations with the government’s strategic goals. Issues such as rural development are critical areas of focus, and companies that address these priorities effectively are more likely to receive support from the government.

While foreign private entities face challenges in understanding and aligning with China’s strategic goals, those that do will find opportunities for growth. It is not enough to push against the national agenda; instead, companies must seek alignment with the country’s long-term plans to thrive. China’s unique blend of government control and private innovation requires businesses to navigate a delicate balance of policy, regulation, and sustainability goals.

The Role of Business Leaders in Driving Sustainability

In today’s business world, leaders face the challenge of balancing economic performance with environmental goals. The first crucial step for leaders is understanding that sustainability isn’t a mere checkbox activity—it’s a transformational journey requiring a systems-and-science-based approach. Sustainability must be embedded across all departments, not just assigned to a small team of sustainability experts who are often overworked and under-resourced. Leaders must foster cross-departmental collaboration, ensuring that sustainability becomes part of every individual’s role within the company.

For example, when product designers begin considering sustainability, they look beyond cost to factors like carbon footprint, material reuse, and product lifecycle. This approach calls for collaboration across functions like marketing and procurement, fostering a unified vision for sustainability. Leaders must ensure that everyone, from HR to procurement, is aware of how sustainability relates to their specific role and is fluent in the language of sustainability. With this alignment, transformation becomes achievable and quicker.

Leaders who understand the importance of sustainability and its integration into all aspects of the business can motivate their teams, driving meaningful and lasting change.

Successful Sustainability Initiatives

Sustainability initiatives in corporations often vary in their scope and impact, but some stand out due to their innovative and community-centric approach. One such example is Ant Group’s “Ant Forest” project in China. This initiative is embedded within China’s Alipay app and gamifies carbon offsetting by enabling users to earn virtual energy for low-carbon activities like online payments and public transit, which then funds the planting of real trees in China’s arid regions. The program’s success hinges on its seamless integration with a massive pre-existing user base, leveraging the addictive nature of gamification and social interaction to drive widespread participation in environmental action. Crucially, Ant Forest transforms abstract concepts of sustainability into tangible, personalized rewards, thereby creating a sense of ownership and motivating lasting behavioral change towards lower-carbon lifestyles.

Companies across various sectors are pursuing innovative Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects, such as literacy campaigns and connecting local farmers to broader markets via technology. However, Ant Forest remains a shining example due to its ambitious goals, clear results, and community involvement. Such projects show the potential for combining social responsibility with environmental sustainability, achieving meaningful results for both the environment and local communities.

Emerging Sustainability Trends and Innovations

In the realm of sustainability, the global landscape is evolving, with Asia leading the way in mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting. While Europe and North America are experiencing a step back in ESG legislation, Asia, especially China, is intensifying its focus on sustainability. China’s strict ESG laws and the growing demand for transparency in sustainability reporting are driving companies to adapt and integrate these practices into their operations.

This trend toward mandatory and standardized ESG reporting reflects a global momentum toward greater sustainability. As countries harmonize their expectations for reporting, companies that proactively address sustainability will be better positioned to meet these regulations in the future. This shift represents a significant opportunity for businesses to gain a competitive advantage by aligning their strategies with evolving global standards. Those that continue to invest in sustainability initiatives, despite political and regulatory shifts, will ultimately lead the way in the future of responsible business.

The Future of Sustainability Consulting

Sustainability consulting is undergoing a transformation, particularly in regions like Europe where regulatory frameworks are evolving. The market has seen a surge of ESG practitioners, but the true challenge lies in finding consultants who can demonstrate business value alongside sustainability expertise. As sustainability becomes increasingly integral to business success, consultants must combine scientific knowledge with a clear understanding of how to create tangible business value through sustainability initiatives.

The future of sustainability consulting lies in the ability to blend science-based approaches with practical business applications. Consultants who can demonstrate how sustainability leads to long-term profitability, rather than viewing it as a cost center, will stand out in the industry. As companies integrate sustainability into roles such as procurement and HR, consultants must be able to articulate how these efforts contribute to business success. The consultancy industry will likely undergo a shakeout, with the firms that thrive being those that can clearly demonstrate the connection between sustainability and business performance.

The Conference Board is a global, nonprofit, member-driven think tank that provides insights for what lies ahead. It conducts research and facilitates discussions among business leaders across industries and regions, focusing on key areas like economics, corporate governance, human capital, sustainability, and marketing. It is renowned for producing widely-cited economic indicators, such as the Consumer Confidence Index and Leading Economic Index and offers peer-to-peer learning through councils, conferences, and executive programs.