This month seems to be the season for corporate gatherings, particularly in the sustainability world. Perhaps the “green” enthusiasts prefer to gather when the weather is warmer. Two weeks ago, I participated in the Sustainable Brands (SB) ‘09 conference in Monterey, Ca. This was my third SB conference and I noted a very big transition from those that I had previously attended.
In prior years, the SB community was sometimes susceptible to hosting a series of sessions where big businesses spouted out about their current “green” strategies and highlighted the one or two socially responsible initiatives they were spearheading. The sessions could almost be mistaken for corporate green washing. However, it was also obvious that many companies were still figuring out how to maneuver in this new, greener space.
This June, the entire conference had a much different feel as the session content shifted toward greater transparency and authenticity. I was very impressed as thought leaders and corporations presented real life examples of changes in their companies.
One extraordinary example was from Kaiser Permanente who shared with us how it has created organic farmers markets outside of its medical centers. To date it has developed 30 of these markets, which promote not only the growth of the local farmer, but also demonstrates Kaiser’s understanding of the relationship between healthy food and the prevention of downstream disease.
After all, don't we need our customers alive and healthy in order to create wealth and purchase our products? That is a simplistic capitalist view of things, but reality.
This week, at the LOHAS Forum in Boulder, Co., I look forward to hearing author Robyn O’Briendiscuss her book, The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick - And What We Can Do About It, and her thoughts regarding why big businesses need to understand the importance of growing healthier and more sustainable consumer bases.
Make sure to stay tuned as I will be sharing my thoughts on that gathering with you all next week.
Last week I had the benefit of meeting the team that is revolutionizing the way restaurants will look at their waste. The group is Fox Pollutions Systems from the UK and Germany and I met them in the corporate offices of Ted’s Montana Grill. They have developed a unit which is installed in restaurants to capture the food prep and table scraps that would otherwise be hauled off with the garbage. In the case of some dense communities (such as Manhattan), the cost of hauling off food waste is attached to a tip fees in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
This device (called the FoxSMB2) is like a small dishwasher size stainless unit that fits under the sink (similar to a disposal). The machine will reduce the waste by over 60% of its original weight, minimizing costs to dispose while creating a sustainable product that could even be used as waste to energy. Imagine the day when a city such as New York could be powered via food waste. The water “squeezed” out of the scraps is then treated to reduce methane (a major global culprit of climate change) and sent to the city’s waste water treatment facilities along with other used water.
I first heard about this group from Annie White, the director of Global Green USA’s CORR (Coalition for Resource Recovery) program, who told me that more than 1,100 tons of food is sent to waste EVERY DAY in New York City. That is about the same as paper, metal, plastic and glass combined. Using a tip fee of $100, the costs to tax payers and businesses for disposing trash is roughly $450 million a year.
Enter the FoxSMB2 unit and you have a solution for reducing the waste and the cost by more than half, and creating a material which can solve energy issues. In areas where the waste materials is not needed for energy, it can simply be composted.
The technology isn’t new. It has been used in Europe on ships by both the UK Navy, Cruise lines and other merchants for years. We are finally getting around to using this technology to solve social and environmental issues AND save money (the leading driver these days). I give great kudos to the team developing this technology and to Annie White and her colleagues who are bringing it to the restaurant industries. Ted’s Montana Grill has been testing it in their Midtown Atlanta location and hopes to test downtown where the conditions more closely resemble those of a New York restaurant. If all goes well, I hope we see these devices in every food preparation station in America or the World.
This response to my recent posting on Jack Welch and Conscious Capitalism deserves a post all unto itself. The author is Scott Seydel. He writes:
It's interesting that most of the Wal-Mart critics have said that the company's success has rested solely on it's badgering of supplier manufacturers and underpaying employees. I've been involved with the WMS Sustainable Value Network now for over half a decade and have found that and "cost" and "price" are contributive factors in serving the big box's customers, it's the inventory, brand names, greeters, convenience, and efficient service that differentiated Wal-Mart and Sam's stores from Sears and K-Mart.
In initiating the Sustainable Value Network, Lee Scott found a way to reduce costs further by
taking "head space" out of packaging --- and got lower freight costs, more shelf space, and reduced product packaging expense off the ledger in the process ...
specifying laundry detergents with twice the washing power --- with the same effect on size and space, plus more washing per bottle and less "water" as a standard diluter.
packaging that recycles at high values so that baled spent wholesale packaging can be sold rather than having to pay for sending it to the dumpster and landfill
prohibiting non-recyclable and other packaging that contaminates recycling streams (PVC and Styrofoam) or poison the atmosphere in production, and in doing so, increasing the fluidity of the value chain ..... (as example, the fresh protein tubs and platters can be sent back for recycling versus the yellow expanded polystyrene trays that float around at landfills).
I could go on, and on, and on with a long list but you get the idea.
Every penny that WMS saves or makes in these changes is going to reducing costs, easing recycling, or better serving to their customers (why carry home a four pound jug of Tide when concentrated a two-pounder will wash more clothes?)
The impact has been startling for those of us who are struggling to effect some of these changes without the commercial clout that WMS holds as "the" major buyer. The Sustainable Value network has altered the way all packaging is being considered for every buyer ..... not a bad service for the retail trade since they have also seen reduced costs of packaging, freight, and through added shelf space.
The effect has also contributed or been the primary driver in building new business concepts and products ...... food trays made from corn-based plastic and fruit and nut trays made from palm frond wastes in Malaysia .......... kickstarts for a big company (Cargill/NatureWorks) and a startup (EarthCycle).
When I asked if the WMS shareholders were happy with all of these efforts to trim costs, streamline product flows, and recycle spent materials, all I got was a blank stare. The answer was, in fact, "many if not most of our clients are the hardest working people in the world, who often have two jobs and still earn total wages that are less than what our government characterizes as the poverty line, and every penny we can shave off of our cost of delivering products to them raises their standard of living to levels you and I take for granted."
Yes ... I agree that at Wal-Mart, it's the "low prices .... always" but if this were really the only element in the WMS success, every street vendor selling sunglasses on Manhattan's boulevards would rapidly become a major retailer. WMS knows it clients, loves everyone of them, treats them like family, and is the ultimate guardian of their living standard.
I concur in you observation, and know a dozen other companies that fit that customer focused model.
Scott Seydel is President of The Seydel Cos., which develops, manufactures and markets textile process chemicals. He is also the President of EvCo. Through EvCo Research, he has also made significant contributions to the recycled food packaging product industry in more than three dozen countries. Seydel has also founded the Manhattan Prospect, a venture which will be announced at the awards. He is also the Chairman of the Board for Global Green, USA. To me, he is a mentor and friend.
Right now, denizens of young corporate leaders and entrepreneurs who are fighting the good fight – getting investors and their corporate leaders on board with new and more sustainable ways to view business – are perking up at the recent words from former GE Chairman and CEO, Jack Welch.
If you have been reading my blog, you have followed my discussions of sustainability as a part of corporate consciousness for the past months. Today, I was pointed towards the latest word from Mr. Welch, publicly stating that it was “a dumb idea” for executives to focus so heavily on quarterly profits and share price gains.
Wait, wasn’t it Welch who originally created the “shareholder value movement” in the early 80s? When and where was this statement made? Click here for the full article in the Financial Times. The big quote was this: “It is a dumb idea,” he said. “The idea that shareholder value is a strategy is insane. It is the product of your combined efforts – from the management to the employees.” Welch also says, “our main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”
Welch’s statement fits perfectly within my view that corporations must shift from a shareholder-centric business model to instead embrace a stakeholder-centric model, which values the relationship to employees, customers, vendors, suppliers and community citizens. Back in November, I wrote a blog entry – “Sustainable Strategy Goes Mainstream” – in which I quoted Jeff Immelt, current Chairman and CEO of GE.
I had just seen Immelt speak at the Business for Social Responsibility conference in New York where he said that he believed the modern corporation (or at least GE) has four major tenants for future operation.; the big take away from his talk was his belief that corporations can and should exist to solve social and environmental issues as a result of their operations, products and services. As a point of interest, the person who sent me the FT article was Jeff Klein, executive director of FLOW Idealism.
FLOW was created by a group of corporate leaders (John Mackey, Whole Foods Market Founder included) who believe just what Immelt stated above. This is the concept of Conscious Capitalism. Quite simply, corporations can and will exist to serve the people who keep them in business. After all, aren’t corporations in existence to provide some product or service for humanity, not the other way around?
A great example is Whole Foods Market’s Whole Planet Foundation which provides $200 (or less) microloans for budding entrepreneurs world-wide (many of whom reside in third world communities). I just learned about the program last month when I was in the Whole Foods in Columbus Circle (NYC) and was asked if I wanted to donate $1 to the cause. This type of program is beyond philanthropy; it is a way that our consumerism can shift communities, changing lives and whole countries. With programs such as the Whole Planet fund, we can begin to return to being world citizens from our most recent role of mere consumers.
It is encouraging to see a corporation take inspiration from the brilliance of Professor Muhammad Yunus, the recipient of a 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his creation of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank – a pioneer of microcredit and a tool to empower the poor. Now, GE just lost their AAA rating, so maybe Welch was brought back in to the media arena in order to restore investor confidence, rather than out a true belief in shifting the corporate model. We shall see.
Regardless of intent, his words are bound to have a ricochet effect throughout the corporate world. I look forwarding to watching and listening. How about you?
I continue to be intrigued by some very interesting innovations that companies are presenting to consumers in an effort to further promote sustainability education and transition. Once such tool that has captured my attention is Energyville, an online game created by The Economist Group (the publishers of The Economist) and Chevron to educate the public about energy options.
Energyville invites participants to create a fictitious simulated town with varying levels of decisions regarding energy choices: biomass, coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, petroleum, solar and wind.With each passing level of the game you move forward 15 years and witness the results of your energy purchasing decisions.In the end, your decisions are weighed against three criteria of impact: economic, environmental, and security.As I played with it more and did my own research, I found that this tool is designed to show the viewer that in the end oil and nuclear are not so bad in terms of cost and environmental impact, and wind and solar may not be as efficient as we would hope. Energyville is a good idea, but with an agenda from a large Energy company.I completely support the growth of corporations within sustainable practices, but we have a responsibility to help solve social and environmental issues as a result of our work, and not just those issues that benefit our company’s bottom-line. This is the heart of Conscious Capitalism. There is a way to create realistic tools which both support the needs of the company and provide authentic learnings for our customers.I do encourage the creation of more tools such as Energyville when they are designed to help a wider audience learn about sustainable choices in a fun and interactive way.However, consumers themselves do have a responsibility to self-educate. I am concerned that if they don’t, they may accept some of the learnings from games such as this as fact or as the only option.I would love to see the development of an improved Energyville addressing the needs of a “real” USA, where players can choose energy alternatives based on the geographic capabilities. For instance, wind and solar would prevail in the mid-west and west, while pockets of geo-thermal could be tapped into nationwide. Such a tool could provide Americans with a real-life look into how companies are currently powered and what choices realistically can be made to improve upon those options.In addition, realistic dollars could be applied to each round of the game based on government stimulus or corporate and private investment.Who wants to help me build this tool and get it into the hands of school students nationwide? After all, these are the people who will be making these decisions for our nation over the next 50 plus years. Our environmental future depends on them and it’s our job to help them make informed choices.
The real measure of my embracing of sustainability is been in my behavior changes.Two years ago, as my awareness was raised around the amount of garbage I was sending to the landfill, I decided to compost.This has led to a greater degree of recycling and hence much less garbage leaving my home. More recently, this past summer I purchased a Prius to replace my dying Volvo. Soon, my awareness of my gas consumption heightened.Not only was I more conscious of the frequency for filling my tank, but ultimately, it made me much more mindful how often I was driving, and how and when I could reduce those patterns – carpooling, walking (I live in a Neighborhood where everything I need is within a mile), or just staying at home.
Beginning in the late sixties, the conversation of land pollution became topical and we demanded our corporations stop dumping waste in landfills.We also demanded they stop dumping waste in oceans, rivers and lakes.Over the past few years, companies have been pushed to report the Carbon position.If a company has not developed a statement regarding their carbon footprint and divulge a set of goals for reduction, they are truly behind the mark for being a strong corporate citizen and for being a viable and competitive corporation in this modern ago of the 4 R’s of sustainability (renew, reduce, reuse, recycle).
And then there’s the issue of water. When I first saw the documentary film Water at the Gaiam film festival in Boulder last summer, I thought, “Great, one more thing to think about.Other films have entered the market, such as Flow (http://www.flowthefilm.com/) which addresses the huge environmental impact of corporations on our world-wide water supply.This is a MUST see for those wishing to learn more about this issue.
I look at my own company, Mohawk Industries and the tremendous efforts it takes to reduce the amount of water it takes to make a square foot of carpet. In fact, Mohawk succeeded in doing so by 50 percent between 1995 – 2003. During the severe water drought in Georgia last year, Mohawk made an even more conscious effort to create better ways to reuse the water and not draw from local reserves.
It’s our responsibility to take a stronger position with water that’s not just about water pollution (that position should be table stakes to any corporation in business in the world today), but more about ready and available sources. It’s about a desire to reduce our TAKE from the total supply;our responsibility to not draw water from sources which cannot be replenished or taken from communities who have no other source of clean available water and turn around and sell it back to them.
This week in the Wall Street Journal, Alexandra Alter wrote an excellent article about looking at your “Water Footprint.”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123483638138996305.html#.Like carbon and electricity reduction, water reduction measures can save companies big dollars. Among other case examples, the article spotlights the $26 million annual savings Unilever PLC was able to realize as a result of their water reduction measures from 2001 to 2007.Next week, a consortium of consumer goods manufacturers are meeting in Miami to discuss water tracking and reduction issues.
I’m looking forward to what might result from this “meeting of the minds” and I will continue to write on the topic of Water as it is one that is vital for human – and now, business – survival. In fact, in April of this year, I am hosting an event at the downtown Atlanta W Hotel along with Disney and Brita to address and educate patrons about Water concerns.Meet me there.
As I reach out to my partners in the world of corporate sustainability directors, we are all asking how we can provide our corporations with truly ROI-driven sustainable programs. And, how can we bring these projects to our companies in a timely manner to yield immediate returns in the form of corporate profits.
Traditionally, the role of the sustainability director has been to help create efficiencies within the business model. Especially with today’s economy as it is, now we are being asked along with everyone in the organization to more directly align ourselves with income-producing activity.
So, when sustainability is aligned to marketing and sales it can help a company better position themselves in a down market. Heck, in any market. In today’s business world, a company who is not actively embracing new ways to save money through sustainable initiatives is quickly being left in the competitive dust. AND a company who is not actively embracing this not-so-subtle change toward a realigned and sustainable world is most certainly going to be disengaged from its desired audience.
Green efforts and programs have not gone away because budgets for marketing have been cut. So what do we do as business innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders? We look for direct ways to engage these partners in change. We ask our customers and other partners about their needs, immediate and long-term. Where are they living, working, developing and building? We ask them HOW we can better align with those needs. And then we adapt to those needs. It is truly that easy. We ask, we review, we adapt, we develop and then we spend wisely to create partnerships that realign our businesses to more sustainable programs for future security and growth.
In a previous blog posting I discussed EcoScorecard.This technology has been embraced by the building/ interiors finishes community as a great way to tailor LEED and other environmental rating system searches to a company’s product offerings.It is a tool which directly impacts the customers’ needs, on a project-by-project basis.
The Beverage Industry has always been a leader in responding to product needs with both product development and packaging.So have big-box retailers.Wal-Mart, for example, worked with Radio Flyer to change the design of their tricycle to eliminate parts, time to construct and overall package waste.This partnership was developed because a Wal-Mart executive was aware of the amount of waste and shelf space produced by the old design.Another win-win for sustainability.
So change is upon us as we get into the minds of our partners.Get ready folks, for it is sure to be a bumpy and interesting ride. And if you choose to approach you this innovation from a place of joy, you’ll have a lot of fun in the process.
January launched many new beginnings for our country. One I want to highlight today is the launch of theMother Nature Network (www.mnn.com), a website created by marketing guru and veteran Joel Babbit, and tree farmer and music industry legendChuck Leavell(keyboardist for the Rolling Stones).
But it’s more than just a Web site. MNN has received significant press so far and I don’t want to simply repeat what’s already been said, but rather begin to talk about the importance of this site as a strong way for us all to story-tell as we message about change to new audiences. For years now, I have been waiting for an online source like MNN.
Babbit and his team set out to create the very online tool and community we need to further advance information and knowledge sharing about our current retooling of our world. It’s a true best of breed for the new media audience. In the same week where I learned Plenty and Domino Magazines have shuttered their traditional print publications, we have to ask: is this a trend? Will online magazines and media replace the old school format? Indeed, I believe we all know that the answer to both questions are “yes.” Will this create an influx of online clutter? Probably.
What MNN does is take all of the online resources out there and present them in a very reader friendly/ engaging new media or web2.0 experiential format with videos, blogs, advice columns and more. As Babbit says, there was no one place to gather information on thegreen movementlikeWebMDwas for Medical information when it first emerged. MNN is like theUSA Todayof Sustainability.
My interest in having a site like this goes back a ways. Several years ago, I stumbled upon a GREAT site byDaryl HannahcalledDaryl Hannah Love Life(www.dhlovelife.com). This site houses web broadcasts capturing Daryl’s messages about various environmental-related scenarios, from bio-diesel to an organic mushroom farm toRichard Branson’s Necker Island. Not long after, I stumbled upon another terrific site,Treehugger.com, an exhaustive resource for green design, sustainability and other environmental information. It’s great in many ways and certainly the best information source that existed, until MNN was launched three weeks ago. I’ve met the Treehugger founder,Graham Hill, and admire his foresight with getting his vision online in this way (and for getting bought by theDiscovery Channel).
But the best of breed is truly MNN (thank you, by the way, for not calling it GREEN something-or-other…). I have had the privilege of meeting with Joel Babbit and his team to learn about their plans for this site. With weekly advice from filmmaker, activist and organic gardener, Vanessa Vadim, an upcoming partnership withCaptain Planet(if you have read my previous blogs, you KNOW what I fan I am), a cast of dozens reporting on all aspects of the movement (from Daron Joffe, Richard Branson’s organic farmer, to Josh Dorfman, the Lazy Environmentalist), plus even more exciting news Joel has yet to share, this site is sure to take us all by storm. And what perfect timing with a new administration that promises more programming for the media world on sustainability. We need to talk, we need to share and we most certainly need to highlight the many ways people are getting on board and making change in this world to save our planet and re-tool our companies in the process.
Heck, they even have a farmer video blogging. Now that’s cool! I’ve been saying that the organic farmer is the new rock star.
Regardless of political leanings, for most of us, we agree that this has undoubtedly been a significant week in history.I have contemplated all week about how I could speak about this momentous transition and not just be one more blog entry about Barack Obama. Clearly, our country is poised for change. Yet, this change does not simply surround financial stimulus or halting terrorism or overhauling healthcare. Yes, these are mission critical endeavors, but so is the change we will begin to see around innovation and design as we all embrace a new perspective on our current situation, and apply hope and human potential.
Last night, I had the benefit of attending an event hosted by Metropolis Magazine and Steelcase called: Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism.The session was led by Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-chief of Metropolis -- an award winning New York-based magazine focused on architecture, culture and design, and Bryan Bell, author of the book Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism.Bell is also the founder of Design Corps, whose mission is to create positive change in communities by providing architecture and planning services.
I was very interested in Bell’s wisdom as he addressed the many of the same issues in his discussion of design and architecture as I have in previous blog entries on business.It is the shift from working for one goal of profit to a larger goal of solving social and environmental issues through our work.And as Szenasy said, “here we begin to use wisdom and logic to create change.”
A question posed to the Expanding Architecture panel and one that I continue to ponder is this: how will the new Obama administration affect design and innovation?Our future, it seems, is rooted in history.
Consider Roosevelt’s’ New Deal and the WPA (Workers Progress Administration).The goal of the WPA was to employ most of the unemployed people on relief until the economy recovered. Over$11 billion was spent on highways, roads, bridges, street projects, and public buildings, and publicly owned utilities.Design and innovation solving socials issues.A movement that created jobs.That sounds recent and familiar. Look to the work of Van Jones and his Green For All organization.Van Jones, as many of you are familiar, has proposed that the “green” movement is poised to create thousands of jobs (green collar jobs) each year.
There is another precedent with the Kennedy administration, which established the Peace Corp Act of 1961.The Peace Corps sends volunteers around the globe, to more than 70 countries, to work with governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in the areas of education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment.Creation of jobs, innovative design, ability to solve social and environmental issues.We’ve been here before and moved forward with great success.
As Bell explained some of the architecture and design projects outlined in his book, he spoke of design that addresses climate issues, natural disasters, issues of water scarcity and safety.We are already seeing great stride in our own countries embracing the Green Building Movement with LEED Platinum projects in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth ward and in Greensburg, Kansas.If history is any indicator, and is most always is, we will be seeing a large advance in the area of design innovation in this country.I look forward to watching it expand beyond architecture and into all aspects of product and service offerings that face and meet the needs of a rapidly changing world.
In the upcoming first 100 days of the new presidency, the world will be watching our new President and his administration as they tackle many dire issues facing our country.Many of the benefits of this influence will not been seen for a while.I encourage us all to think and move with an innovative spirit but remember that the seeds are being planted today which will springboard a new country for future generations.Each of us can do our part in pushing and encouraging not only innovative design, but also innovative implementation.
From a high-level perspective, partnerships become more sustainable for corporations when the very nature of collaboration is mutually beneficial. No one company has to re-invent the wheel and can also leverage dollars across multiple channels. Partnerships within industries reinforce the idea that GREEN is not a competitive advantage, but a collective movement where we are all stakeholders in the outcome.
Back in the Fall, I wrote a blog entry encouraging Corporate leaders to continue investing in sustainable initiatives despite – or perhaps it’s in spite of – this tough economy. In this regard, we are at a critical point: as our economy begins the healing process and a new administration begins its work in Washington, both corporate and personal lives will have a tendency to return to “status quo.” Here is where creativity is critical. In the worst – and the best – of times, we must remain committed to sustainability. And in order to engage our customers and employees in a more human approach to how we do business, partnerships and collaboration are more pivotal now than ever before.
A great example of a company leading collaboration for the benefit of sustainability is EcoScorecard (http://ecoscorecard.com).This technology was developed by a group of innovators who saw the need for an online solution to make environmental building much easier.In fact, this tool is a calculator of sorts, which quickly reviews an architect or designers’ products and project needs.It then calculates and lists all available products and their environmental specifications across multiple “green” rating system – the most significant one being the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
This tool was born out of a need for interior finishing manufacturers (furniture, flooring, lighting, etc…) to easily access a simple tool to help make life easier – their own and that of their customers.It reduces sample production and shipping.It reduces multiple phone calls for sales reps.It reduces paperwork.And it saves time and money.The collaborative nature of the tool brings all players in the interiors space into a collective “green” world – providing one-stop shopping for specifying “green” for sustainable building projects.Eventually, we would love to see this tool expand across all product needs for the green building architect.
A new year for many is a time for reflection, but also a time to look forward to a fresh start. I’m sure you share in my hope that 2009 brings health, happiness and wealth for all. I encourage each of us to look at how we can incite our partners (both internal and external) to transition our core business operations to become more sustainable – decreasing a dependency on materials and increasing our time.In these types of partnerships, we offer solutions to maximize efficiency, and efficiency means less time and less money.This is sustainability.Additionally, when costs are shared and not taken on entirely by one side of the equations, we all win. But when the economy rights itself and all is good in the world again, our sustainable initiatives shouldn’t stop or even lessen – they should continue to grow. Our future depends on it.
