At this spring's furniture fairs from Milan to Manhattan, nearly
everyone wanted to be vividly green. One of the truest green outfits in this sector is IceStone, which makes countertops
and tile from recycled glass and concrete. IceStone brings bonafides worthy of
a reality show: it employs dozens of Tibetan refugees in a repurposed Brooklyn factory that recycles its own water, and lines
up biodegradable cups at its holiday party. That's a lot to admire, even before
you get to how one artistically skillful staffer hangs a painting of each employee of the month in the break room. But do the techniques that boost IceStone's virtue also lower its
growth prospects? What looks brilliantly green can lose luster if it can't get
to scale.
IceStone's growth potential looks formidable on a tour of the company's spacious
factory, where laborers once banged ship boilers into shape. You enter to open
shelves holding huge bags of ground-up glass, sorted by size and color. A "batch
plant" in the center of the floor pours glass, concrete, pigment and secret
ingredients into molds. Staff members (who arrive by subway or bike) cure it
in kilns (powered with off-grid electricity). Other workers then run it
through a polisher, inspect it, and prepare it for a truck pickup. This
process, on-site water recycling and all, has enabled IceStone to reach a staff
of 62 and divert millions of pounds of landfill waste since its first year in
2003.
But that's also created a barrier to expansion, co-CEO Miranda Magagnini
told me on a December visit. Moving through the Brooklyn Navy Yard's cobblestone
streets might feel kicky to a visitor (the maze of buildings contains a Noah's
ark of small manufacturers and tech shops), but it's untenable for a guy
dragging a pallet. "We don't make potato chips," Magagnini said: a bump means a
break. So to produce more, Magnanini and co-CEO Peter Strugatz have to transfer
IceStone's values beyond their watchful eye.
Doable, but fragile. And IceStone's culture, which advances
the green ethic by investing in workers' ingenuity, seems similarly fragile.
You see postings of Toyota's
Lean Manufacturing principles in English, Spanish and Tibetan, as staff move
from entry-level "batching" to management. Floor supervisor Francis Filippi
says people brainstorm ways to save energy and cost because they see a higher
purpose. "We have people saying: we need to label it, wrap it, take pictures,
and inspect the trucks," says Filippi, who came to IceStone from a bomb
manufacturer. "It is easier to train people in green skills here than in a
standard process with no deviation."
But there's a discernible endpoint to this collaboration. Magagnini
still delves into all hiring and design decisions, meaning the company's
product line and lineup reflect her preferences. The founders acknowledge the need
to back off--IceStone just hired a COO whose writ includes documenting ideas
from all staff, and it's testing small work groups that Magnanini says can
stoke entrepreneurship. Yet she says she needs the right "fit" for a tile color
or a receptionist. Which restates the dilemma. IceStone's familial closeness constrains its ability to pursue a new, clean form of manufacturing. What happens
to the "fit" when it grows?
Magagnini, laudably, doesn't pretend to know. "As the world turns, there are more
and more impostors out there," Magagnini told me. IceStone has joined B Corp.,
a coalition promising fealty to social and sustainable "bottom lines." (Other
members include a travel agency, a bookstore in Bellingham, Washington,
and a coffee shop.) This creates impetus to creatively value investments in,
say, water recycling. But the impostors' wasteful habits are surging around the
Navy Yard walls. Which threatens the glow of IceStone's example.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Related Stories: | Topics:Design, Ethonomics, icestone, green technologies, product design, triple bottom line, Miranda Magagnini, Miranda Magagnini, Brooklyn, Francis Filippi, Manhattan, Milan |
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
Recent Comments | 5 Total
May 29, 2009 at 9:04am by Jay Coen Gilbert
We appreciate Alec Applebaum’s terrific article on IceStone. And that you point out Icestone’s bonafides as a Certified B Corporation, meeting rigorous third-party-verified standards of social and environmental performance.
You do sound a bit dismissive though when you parenthetically talk about other B Corps including ‘a travel agency, a bookstore and a coffee shop’. While we are appropriately proud of Untours (recipient of Paul Newman’s award for Most Generous Business in America), Village Books (one of the few remaining independent bookseller in the US and a leader in one of the most successful and large-scale efforts in the country to create a local living economy), and Moka Joe Coffee (one of only about two dozen 100% fair trade coffee companies in the country), it seems a curious editorial choice to omit the fact that among the 200 Certified B Corporations are many more recognizable names which have achieved the scale you correctly point to as part of creating meaningful social and environmental impact. These 200 leading companies from over 30 industries represent over $1 billion in collective revenues and $6 billion in assets under management.
Many of these B Corporations should be familiar to Fast Company since many have been recipients of your Social Capitalist Awards. In fact, 40% of the for-profit SoCap Award-winners were Certified B Corporations: Betterworld Books, New Leaf Paper, Seventh Generation, and ShoreBank. Each of these has achieved impact at scale, and 3 of the four have done so for 10, 20, even 30 years.
Others SoCap Award winners like Acumen Fund, Root Capital, and Developing World Markets are working with B Lab (the nonprofit which certifies B Corps) and the Global Impact Investing Network to use the B Corp standards to create an impact ratings system which will drive investment capital beyond traditional SRI screens to high impact direct investing both in the US and in the developing world.
None of the above, or the related work with policymakers interested in using these same performance standards to implement government sustainable procurement programs would be possible without the leadership of companies like IceStone and the ‘travel agency, bookstore, and coffee shop’, which collectively are setting a new corporate standard for accountability, transparency, and social and environmental performance.
Scale is important, as is impact and leadership. Thanks for your continued excellent coverage of companies using the power of business to make money and make a difference.
June 2, 2009 at 4:36pm by S P
I never heard of this company icestone before but it looks like they are doing a great job to be triple bottom line company and to protect the environment. I would like to share this information also about a bank just like icestone company. They are establishing just based on this idea to be green environmental and sutainable.http://www.e3bank.com e3bank.com
June 3, 2009 at 9:28am by Ken Alston
Also missing is mention their product is Cradle to Cradle Certified by MBDC: http://c2ccertified.com
June 16, 2009 at 4:32pm by Kelsi Boyle
This article touches on how important it is to staff with the right "fit" of employees (i.e. receptionist, tile color...). But even more important for the long-term future of a company is having the right "fit" in an investor and potential board member. A values-aligned company needs funders that believe in maintaining the original mission of the business, otherwise, they could wield their power to sacrifice some of its integrity.
Investors’ Circle, a network of investors dedicated to supporting sustainable business, helped fund IceStone in its early years and continues to seek enterprise with a focus on people/planet/profit. The next chance to present at an IC Venture Fair will be this fall. http://www.investorscircle.net/for_entrepreneurs/call-for-applicants
As for the question of scale, opportunities emerge as companies get more creative. I believe IceStone will be able to grow while keeping their mission, especially with the help of supporting infrastructure like BCorp and our collective consciousness shifting towards all things "green." More thoughts on maintaining mission can be found here and I welcome your thoughts: http://theinvestorscircle.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/making-%E2%80%9Cselli...