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Not Everything That Can Be Sustained Should Be Sustained

Not Everything That Can Be Sustained Should Be Sustained

The missing question in sustainability is not “Can we continue?” but “Should we continue?”

Imagine a company discovers a business model that is highly profitable.

It can repeat the model year after year. Customers keep buying. Profits keep growing.

Is that sustainable?

Perhaps.

But what if those profits depend on exhausting employees, exploiting suppliers, misleading customers, misusing personal data or damaging the environment?

Suddenly, “sustainable” doesn't sound so sustainable.

Sustainability Needs Ethics

I like to define sustainability simply:

Sustainability is doing something again and again because it continues to create value for yourself, others and the world.

But there is an important question hidden inside this definition:

What do we mean by “value”?

Something can create financial value for me while destroying value for somebody else.

That is why ethics matters.

  • Sustainability asks: “Can we continue?”
  • Ethics asks: “Should we continue?”

True sustainability requires us to ask both.

Four Questions for Sustainable Value

Before making an important decision, leaders and boards can ask:

  1. PERFORMANCE — Does it create value?
  2. PEOPLE — Does it create value for others, not just ourselves?
  3. GOVERNANCE — Are we doing it responsibly?
  4. ETHICS — Is this something worth continuing to do?

This brings us to perhaps the most important distinction:

Sustainability is not merely doing something again and again.

It is doing what is worth doing again and again.

And ethics helps us decide what is worth sustaining.

From Sustainability to Sustainable Value Creation

This is exactly why we created Sustainable Value Creation: Balancing People, Performance and Governance for Long-Term Success.

It is not another course filled with ESG jargon.

It is a practical one-day programme about how leaders can make better decisions and create value that lasts, for the organisation, its people and the wider world.

16 October 2026 | 9am–5pm | Hotel Grand Pacific, Singapore

If you believe sustainability should be more than reporting and compliance, join us. Don't just build something that can last. Build something worth lasting. 

Find out more and register for Sustainable Value Creation at here https://asiatrainers.org/svc

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