I recently participated in Sustainable Life media's Sustainable Brands international conference in Miami. It was an assembly of savvy sustainability consultants, designers and thought leaders, all primed to discuss sustainability's future. For me, the conference was one of those definable change moments, the birth of sustainability 2.0

The sustainability debate has been positioned all wrong - as an environmental problem, as something business needs to account for, a risk to be managed or a tax to be paid. The business community has been going along with this to an extent, but it doesn't sit well. And now, in a volatile global economy and competitive environment, sustainability is being pushed aside as a luxury while business focuses on efficiencies, and the bolder ones look to innovate their way out of recession.

But it's not an and/or situation. The answer is and/and. Sustainability 1.0 - compliance, CSR, reduction, limits, is over. Sustainability 2.0 is here. Sustainability 2.0 is an outcome-focused all encompassing approach. It's a process that builds prosperous businesses creating innovative products and services; businesses founded on good financial results, responsible use of resources, and community well-being.

So we put this idea out there, and a cool thing happened; a lot of people agreed. I liked Tamara Giltsoff's point of view (formally of LiveWORK and OZO lab) who said her "favorite take-out from the conference is that sustainability finally translates as business strategy in the brand and business community. It's not a report, it's not what you do well/good/responsibly, not a message, not a campaign or not a lone product innovation. And that is a profound journey."

It's time to change the game, the approach and the message. And it's time to stop stopping and start starting. This requires new thinking, design thinking. Long live the evolution.

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