SustainAbility Looks to Asia for Growth

Founder also launches Volans Ventures, two firms to collaborate

By Dennis Schaal 

SustainAbility plans to open an office in India and also will begin collaborating with Volans Ventures, a new initiative of SustainAbility founder and Chief Entrepreneur John Elkington.

In other developments, which were to be announced Feb. 27 at a SustainAbility symposium in Washington, D.C., the group revealed it is creating the SustainAbility Foundation “to provide a more robust platform for critical, deep and actionable research that can be widely used by corporations, activists, the media and the policy community to drive step-change toward a more sustainable world.”

With existing offices in Washington, D.C., New York, London and Zurich, SustainAbility’s move into Asia with an office in India is a response to “the rapidly expanding influence of emerging market companies and growing demand in the emerging economies for advice and counsel on sustainable practices,” the company said.

Plans call for SustainAbility and Volans Ventures to share resources and key staff as they work jointly to leverage their diverse capabilities, SustainAbility stated.

Elkington, a SustainAbility board member, plans to continue to work on SustainAbility’s research and consulting activities, in addition to devoting his energies toward Volans Ventures, said Mark Lee, the SustainAbility CEO.

SustainAbility clients include executives from Shell, Ford, MasterCard, Nestle, BP and DuPont.