As anyone who’s ever used a compass knows, mistaking “magnetic north” for “true north” can put you alarmingly off course, very quickly.

Yet for many companies striving to become more sustainable, navigating via magnetic north—making incremental moves toward cleaner, greener, more socially responsible business—seems to be the default setting for their journey. That may well be better than business as usual. But it’s by no means enough.

Indeed, there’s a yawning gap between what science is telling us we need to do to ensure sustainability for people, planet and profits—an orientation we call True North—and what most companies consider to be progress. In fact, by almost every objective measure of sustainability, most industries and companies are already headed in the wrong direction. Perhaps even more worrisome, many are not even aware of the True North orientation and, equally important, that there is money to be made by embedding this approach to sustainability in their business model.

See full Press Release: http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2013-holistic-inclusive-robust-sustainable-systems-drive-business-value.aspx