There is the noun ‘sustainability’. There is the adjective ‘sustainable’. But what does sustainability actually do? What is the verb, the action word? Sustain doesn’t quite cut it. So much that is written about sustainability is, as a friend of mine would say, ‘blah blah’, and one of the main reasons is that it is packed with abstract nouns, and short on doing words.

The question of ‘what does sustainability do?’ was raised by John Simmons in a recent conversation. John’s passion is creativity in business writing. Through the training courses that he runs and the books he writes, he shows people a different way to use language and thus a different way to look at the world.

One of the exercises that he uses in workshops is specifically designed to cut through abstract nouns and get clarity of thought. He poses the question to people, ‘Who is the god of (insert job title here)? He then invites people to write their own story about the god. This both releases the imagination and gets you thinking about specifics. So if you were to write the story about who is the god of sustainability and what does he or she do, what would you say?

My initial take on it was that maybe the god of sustainability would be Inspiros (suitably Greek sounding anyway). Sustainability is such a broad field, encompassing everything a company does, from the product designers to the engineers to the people on the factory floor to the marketing people, and it needs everyone in the company on board. Inspiros can not possibly do everything himself. Therefore what Inspiros does is to inspire people with a vision of a different future, with a better quality of life for all – including a meaningful work life for all. If people can see how what they do contributes to the bigger picture, to the planet, to their own well being, then they will begin to take action.

And what would people be doing once they are inspired by Inspiros? To think – to think about the consequences of their actions – now, next month, in ten years time – and then act accordingly; and to look afresh – what could be a different way of doing things that would better meet the needs of the world around me. And then individual verbs will vary depending on what job role you are in.

So, who would your god of sustainability be? And what would they do? We’d love to hear your action-packed stories.

John Simmons’ most recent book is ’26 ways to look at a blackberry: how to let writing release the creativity of your brand’. He is a director of The Writer (www.thewriter.co.uk)