In my last blog entry, I wrote about the 2009 Newsweek Green Corporate Rankings. Soon after this issue was published, I had the good fortune of spending some time with HP's Director of Environmental Sustainability, Bonnie Nixon, on a recent trip to Northern California. After seeing HP on the "Newsweek" list at number one, I was very interested to learn about the woman behind its corporate shift. What was confirmed to me is that behind every major corporate transformation story is a truly heroic man or woman. While I am sure HP has a team of hundreds who have contributed strongly to this position as number one on the "Newsweek" list, I was certain after spending more time with Nixon that she was an integral part of it.
According to "Newsweek," HP leads the pack because of its "strong programs to reduce GHG emissions. The first major IT company to report GHG emissions associated with its supply chain." As more companies review the impact of GHG across their entire supply chains and learn how to make significant reductions, we can expect companies such as HP to serve as a road map to how to best transition their processes to lower emissions. What makes Nixon's story so interesting is that not only was she responsible for HP's transformation, but she has had an enormously positive influence on many other industry sectors as an active participant in multiple cross-sector consortiums. When she was given the reigns at HP for supply chain social and environmental sustainability, she deeply analyzed the practices of companies such as Nike, Levi Strauss, Gap, Disney, McDonalds, Tylenol, Nestles and Exxon.
She was able to define their sustainability stories and also acquire a deeper understanding of what was required of companies who had to manage stakeholders' expectations during difficult times. To avoid HP falling down the same path, Nixon leaned on her previous professional experiences to guide her through her current challenges. While HP was not in a crisis mode, Nixon had the foresight to see that HP could face a crisis regarding the GHG impact, toxic materials in products or global manufacturing practices if it did not prepare to address these issues.
Bonnie's experiences in environmental work run deeper than her time with major corporations. During our meeting Bonnie shared that during her collegiate years in Pennsylvania she experienced the 3 Mile Island event of 1979. This incident marked her significantly and she spent the next 20 years of her career fighting social and environmental injustices - first for the Boston Harbor Clean Up and then by creating her own environmental mediation, planning and communication firm in California. Along with her partner, she was instrumental in tackling major issues in transportation, utilities, hazardous waste and the protection of California's water systems. She was recently asked to represent the Institute of Business and Human Rights as their lead for Global Water Justice. This experience with large public sector environmental projects allowed her to better understand the impact of all forms of energy - hydro, natural gas, oil, nuclear and transportation - knowledge that would later help her drive HP's macro understanding of its GHG emissions impact.
"Fast Company" has always been my favorite business magazine as it highlights innovations in corporate design, leadership and practice. I can't imagine a better innovation than bringing a person with Bonnie's experiences to the table to help mediate and develop policy for vendor relations which address both social and environmental issues globally. Her work style and dedication have led to her trusted relationships with NGOs, vendors, customers and other stakeholders who could have blocked HP's leadership in environmental and social justice. Early on she understood that an adversarial approach to problem solving just simply did not work. Bonnie's work has directly led to a standard code of conduct and implementation measures--developed during her time at HP--for the entire electronics industry. Companies, such as Apple, IBM, Dell, Xerox, Sony and Phillips now all use this set of guiding principals and assurance system. She understands that her role is bigger than just HP or even her industry. Her dedication is helping to change the way business is conducted on our planet and will have a long-lasting effect on global impact.
Bonnie also understands that if she ran her division with a shareholder-centric model alone, the company would not have made many of the decisions which ultimately led to its current leadership style. It was only through her understanding of all stakeholders in the vendor and supply chain relationships that HP was able to advance better conditions for both the environment and the individuals making the majority of electronic products we Americans use in our homes and businesses.
So what was the HP GHG emission reduction? Over 40 percent. For this reason, it is no surprise to learn that HP leads the Green Corporate List in 2009 and will most likely maintain that position when benchmarked against other Fortune 500 companies. With all that has occurred in our country over the last 12 months, it is easy for many to find fault with big businesses role in economic, social and environmental issues. For that reason, it is always reassuring to find a company like HP who has made conscious capitalism a part of their mission and found a leader like Bonnie Nixon to drive change.
Yesterday (September 22), President Obama addressed the United Nations Climate Change Summit with a speech focused on how the United States is "determined" to combat Climate Change. While the Waxman-Markey bill has been held up in the Senate, and the president's attentions have centered around Healthcare reform, many of us have been left wondering where we stand on the issue, eight months into this new administration.
As many of you are aware, the House bill which passed earlier this year would first set mandatory limits on greenhouse gases and then develop emission reductions from 17 percent by 2020 and an ultimate goal of 83 percent by 2050. As our country looks to HOW we are going to achieve these goals, I am inspired by a very small nation the size of Kentucky, a mere 2500 miles from the United States: Iceland.
Recently I visited Reykjavik, Iceland for business and experienced first-hand one of the world’s cleanest cities. This arctic capital boasts the use of many eco-innovations including: city parking spots designated for electric cars (complete with recharging outlets); an antibiotic-free meat and dairy industry; and a city composting plant (still in development) which will process all commercial food waste and generate renewable energy through waste-to-energy techniques.
However, I was most struck by the way Iceland powers and heats its buildings. In the capital alone, 26 percent of the energy comes from the country’s five major geothermal plants. And where, you ask, does the other 74 percent of energy come from – perhaps gas, coal or maybe even solar? Surprisingly, the majority (73 percent) comes from hydro-generated power plants with 1 percent being derived from fossil fuels; and overall, 71 percent of the domestic energy is from renewable sources. In fact, because of the abundance of natural geothermal resources available on this volcanic island, 87 percent of the country’s heating and water requirements are met.
During my visit I had the opportunity to visit one of the five geothermal plants that heats the city called The Pearl or Perlan. Home to the large hot water holding tanks that supply the city’s heat, this green landmark, has also become a major tourist attraction for those visiting as the location boasts an observation deck, Concert Hall, a Viking Heritage Museum and five star restaurant that resides in the pearl-like dome on top of the water tanks.
At this point some of you might be wondering if sourcing this amount of energy from the Earth will eventually have an impact on it; and the answer is no. Since the system was first adapted in 1944, CO2 emissions have been reduced by up to 110,000,000 tons, delivering savings of up to 4 million tons of CO2 every year. Additionally, possessing the world’s largest geothermal heating system of steam heating has allowed for Reykjavik to acquire substantial financial savings - roughly 4 billion U.S. dollars. And according to research, it is estimated that the country’s annual savings benefit of geothermal over oil is approximately 140 million U.S. dollars.
The great news is that Iceland is not alone. Many regions of the world boast a similar capability for geothermal capture. Since Iceland has a high concentration of volcanoes, it is an obvious choice for this country of only 300,000 residents – 250,000 of which live in or around Reykjavik.
What impressed me the most about my visit was learning that Icelandic leadership has long seen the potential for this alternative energy source. The structure was first investigated in the 1930s with development of the system beginning after WWII. In the late 60s, an Energy Fund was created to advance the development of geothermal use, both on a large and small scale. Given the country’s recent economic troubles, the strength of its utilities provides some peace of mind to a country otherwise in a state of transition.
When I returned to my laptop, I reviewed a map of U.S. geothermal locations. While the investment may be significant given the drilling required to reach the heat, geothermal may well prove to be one of the more significant sources of future energy, power and heat in our country. Did you know that the entire United States has the geothermal capacity necessary to power these heat pumps? And on the U.S. Department of Energy Website, you can view which regions maintain the greatest opportunity for geothermal energy.
While I am not a scientist by trade, I do recognize that we have tremendous untapped capacity that we should explore in our quest to diversify our renewable energy options and decrease our dependency on foreign oil. I encourage companies to review how these resources could be utilized in their manufacturing efforts – particularly those processes which require steam. A great example of that would be the textile industry, which involves the use of steam cleaning and steam turbines.
From my research I have learned that companies such as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) have already made investments in geothermal energy in Europe. J&J uses geothermal energy to heat and cool its 7000 square foot manufacturing facility for orthopedic surgical supplies and appliances in DePuy, France. In addition to the systems elimination of carbon emission, air pollution, noise and odor that would have been generated from the previous natural gas system, the DePuy operation has also recorded an annual savings of 9,000 Euros since 1999.
Based on what I learned on the Department of Energy's Website, the majority of the Western United States maintains geothermal temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius, many regions in the
Midwest and Texas have temperatures of over 150 degree Celsius and an mentioned above, all of the United States is capable of maintaining geothermal heat pumps. It would seem to me that we have vast untapped resources we need to be considering as an immediate fix to our energy and climate contributions in this country.
I welcome comments from readers regarding other ways geothermal is being used or can be used in the United States.
Note: research sourced from the C40 Cities Website, in partnership with Clinton Climate Initiative: http://www.c40cities.org/
This morning, I attended a private tour of the new Eco Office at Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. Southface is an organization who works in green building advancement. Long before the USGBC began gaining momentum through its LEED certification platform, Southface was already tackling issues pertaining to superior sustainable design in both commercial and residential applications. Today’s new Eco Office was created not only to house the organization’s staff, but also to serve as a model for how commercial building can and will work in the future. The space boasts many efficiencies, such as daylighting window shading, linked to the heating and cooling of the building, rainwater harvesting, solar energy, and the latest technology in composting toilets. And, like many environmentally advanced buildings, much of the technology for energy is captured by an electronic dashboard, allowing users of the building to monitor usage of water and energy down to the minute.
One of the members of the tour asked a very critical question. How do we take this knowledge, relate it to the dollars saved and share it with the larger business audience looking at the return on investment connected to capital improvements to existing buildings. The savings is there. Any where from 10% - 70% savings in energy and water dependent on what measures are taken. A simple cost analysis can illustrate the benefits and timeline for realizing the true ROI of the investment.
But the even better news is that is there are now government incentives in place to make these improvements to our existing buildings.
Today’s business climate around going green in regard to internal energy efficiencies feels a bit like a gold rush as the Department of Energy moves significant amounts of money to the state level. This past week, I attended a monthly sustainability roundtable, which serves our community to educate stakeholders on various environmental programs throughout the region. This month’s topic was presented by the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA), the governmental body tasked with doling out the hundreds of million dollars for energy efficiencies in our state. Here in Georgia, our dollars are allocated to various funding categories – from water, sewer, and energy efficiency to renewable energy programs – all a result of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a.k.a. The Stimulus Bill.
The reason I draw attention to this Act and the subsequent dollars is because the amount of business and innovation anticipated to be created from out of these funds is staggering. Business Loans and investments into green energy technology are a significant part of the final bill. In fact, of the total $288 billion dollars $63 billion is allocated for Energy.
In the past few months, I have spoken to numerous consultants in energy and other issues of sustainability who are working with companies, big and small, to help manage the process of how we re-tool our energy usage to renewable sources and create greater efficiencies in the process. Over the next several weeks, I will highlight businesses that are taking advantage of this time in our history to better their businesses for a sustainable future.
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.
