Mission StatementThe mission statement is the most important part of a business plan: it communicates the organization’s purpose and identifies its goals, aims and values. It makes clear to all stakeholders exactly why the company is in business and what it intends to offer to people. It describes the standard to which the company will hold itself and is a clear statement that stakeholders can use to hold the company accountable.

The significance of the mission statement within the sustainability dialogue is that it sets the stage for the company’s plan. If the company intends to engage in sustainable practices, it will say so in the mission statement. For example, Tesla’s mission statement is: “to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible” (Tesla, 2013). By building its brand around the idea of sustainability, Tesla identifies both a market and a product for its aim. Its intention is to bring, in essence, the practice of sustainability to the lives of everyday consumers. The method that Tesla chooses is to do this is through the manufacturing of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles can reduce harmful emissions into the air that cause pollution and harm the environment as well as the health of people who have to breathe in these toxic fumes. In this way, by making and selling electric...

It is engaging in sustainable practices, which it places at the core of its mission. As Evans (2017) notes, “sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” From this perspective, Tesla is meeting the needs of consumers who require cars to get them around; but it is not doing so at the expense of the planet or of future generations. Cars that are safe for the environment mean that the next generations will not inherit an earth that is too polluted to live in.
This is also Patagonia’s aim—to meet the needs of consumers without sacrificing the planet at the altar of consumerism. In fact, the founder of the company was so intent on sustainability that he worried his own company might be leading to overconsumption so he reached out “to customers to reduce their consumption” (Reinhardt, Casadesus-Masanell & Kim, 2010, p. 1). His concern was to put people and the planet before profits—and that is the sign of a company that truly cares about sustainability. But of course, this kind of behavior is exactly in line with what RILA (2017) states is the job of a sustainable corporation: “the leading companies go one step further by engaging consumers and other stakeholders…