Robbie Vitrano, Co-Founder, NakedPizza, and Eric Quick, SVP Operations, Revolution Foods, presented at the 2010 Sustainable Brands Conference in June, not only bringing attention to the growing harmful consequences of fast food, but also providing innovative and real solutions.

By Michael D Tam

Sustainable Life Media recently held their Sustainable Brands Conference in Monterey, CA.  From sustainability executives, to designers and innovators, the event brought together today’s most innovative minds in the business of simultaneously being responsible and profitable, “building the discipline to continually observe, re-design, measure and communicate.”

With technology as advanced as it is today, and products and goods sourced from all over the world thanks to globalization, it is easy to forget those issues closer to home.  Simpler goods and services, in this case, fast food, have been largely ignored.  Despite its pervasiveness in today’s fast paced lifestyle, we have turned a blind eye to its effects and the potential to create profitable yet responsible businesses within the industry.  Fast food has been automatically linked to convenience and cheap, affordable food, but seemingly provides, out of its control, an unhealthy diet.  But what if the industry could retain these qualities of convenience and affordability, at the same time, provide a variety of healthy options of nourishment?  This is the challenge Robbie Vitrano of Naked Pizza and Eric Quick of Revolution Foods have set out to overcome.

First, let’s examine the effects of fast food.  Childhood obesity has been on the rise.  Among children aged 2 to 5 years, obesity has increased from 5% between 1976 and 1980 to 10.4% between 2007 and 2008.  Among 6 to 11 year olds, obesity has increased from 6.5% to 19.6%, among 12 to 19 year olds, it has increased from 5% to 18.1%, both during the same period.  While this can be linked to a variety of reasons, fast food cannot escape as one of the culprits, if not the main culprit.  And on the other end of the spectrum, the consequences of obesity are far and wide, from the most obvious, the health of those affected, to the less conspicuous, with obesity having been labeled as a national security issue due to the health of many new military recruits.

Now one may believe that getting rid of fast food will help in the battle against obesity, however, fast food is so prevalent in today’s society that another approach must be considered.  And with American children seeing more fast food commercials according to this Businessweek article, the approach seems to call for a more adaptive take on fast food.  This is what NakedPizza and Revolution Foods have decided to tackle.

According to Eric, Revolution Foods will serve 5 million meals to kids this year, meals that align with their food philosophy of natural and real, right size, not super size, balance, etc.  By serving a more balanced and healthy diet to kids in school, Revolution Foods is addressing obesity early on in a child’s life, changing behavior with a healthier foundation and raising school standards on what is acceptable for food and drinks, something the First Lady has gotten involved with as well. Revolution Food’s key goal has been to change how the supply of food arrives to the end consumer and address the nutritional benefits or lack of, in the food itself.  And they are not to be taken lightly as they have already established partnerships with organizations such as Whole Foods and Stonyfield.  The benefit of serving healthier food to students lies not only in the nutritional aspects but also in the students’ studies as healthier lunches can lead to better behavior and grades in school according to Eric.

NakedPizza has added to this movement by creating a healthier pizza, with a “proprietary crust recipe [that] contains 12 whole grains, nuts, and roots.” And according to Robbie, NakedPizza is about 98% Dominoes business model, 2% social mission, in its effort to spread healthy fast food in the form of pizza.  And with that 2% social mission, NakedPizza has already experienced more than 5,000 requests for franchises, had 10 case studies performed on their business, and recognition from media such as its highlight on the NY Times.  Rather than labeling fast food as the cause of obesity, they are transforming it into a solution.  With its goal to make the fast food industry healthier, NakedPizza seems to have the right idea, the support, and the execution as proven by their success thus far.

And so NakedPizza and Revolution Foods have taken on the large yet necessary task of creating a healthy America and have managed to make money doing so.  Let’s hope, for the sake of our children’s health and our own health, that they succeed.

Photo Courtesy of Jacque Stengel

© 2010, Michael D Tam. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Companies are attempting to motivate employees to do the “right,” or sustainable, thing when at work by increasing environmental and sustainability education and awareness and it is paying off with increased profits. Complementing education with incentives to engage a diverse workforce with varying levels of engagement and social consciousness motivates employees to take action.

Mary Modney, Editor-in-Chief, GreenNurture. Follow her tweets at @OrganicJournlst and @GreenNurture, and read more about the business case for sustainability on the GreenNurture blog.

Sustainability initiatives within large companies can increase profits by 38 percent, according to 2010 study by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF).   [See The Business Case for Environmental and Sustainability Employee Education.] And in order to have a successful sustainability initiative, employees must be involved and engaged. But how do you do this? How do you engage employees in something that, for most, is not part of their job function? And, worse, how do you engage the 71 percent of employees that a Gallup study shows are not actively engaged?

Many are turning to environmental education to do just the trick. Companies are attempting to motivate employees to do the “right,” or sustainable, thing when at work by increasing environmental and sustainability education and awareness. Take Johnson & Johnson, for example. The pharmaceutical tycoon with nearly 120,000 employees worldwide has created environmental literacy programs to change the employees’ viewpoint or feelings toward the environmental with hopes that this knowledge will translate to action within the workplace. In fact, 92 percent of its facilities implemented a literacy campaign in 2007, according to the company’s website. Johnson & Johnson does not formally track the results of these efforts, other than receiving anecdotal feedback, but claims “great success among employees.” The program is centered around discussing “successes and progress and going after their hearts a bit,” as reported to NEEF.

But what happens when trying to change employees’ opinions and feelings toward the environment does not work? When grasping at heart strings leaves you empty handed? When education and awareness does not influence them to walk out the front door a wasteful worker one day and return a staunch environmental steward the next?

Though environmental and sustainability education is an integral piece to fulfilling the corporate social responsibility puzzle, it seems it may not be enough. The truth is some employees might feel morally compelled to act, but most will not. There are two main drivers for sustainable action: The first is moral obligation, and on the flip side, the second is a self-serving—or “what’s in it for me”—reasoning. One best practice that has been shown effective is to complement education with incentives to engage a diverse workforce with varying levels of engagement and social consciousness.

And surprisingly enough, employees may just be hoping for such a program. A series of Towers Watkins studies on employee engagement and incentives revealed what drives employee engagement and what drives employees away. One such study found 65 percent of employees were seeking more frequent communication about reward and benefit programs.

What’s more, most companies were said to find such rewarding practices advantageous, but three specific types of organizations were shown to reap the greatest performance benefits:
•    Those with weak employee performance

•    Those undergoing cultural change (merger or acquisition, layoffs)

•    Those with a focus on people, in general

Considering human capital goes hand-in-hand with companies looking to become more sustainable, as they will need to address PEOPLE, planet and profits. It could be said then that sustainable-minded companies will have some of the greatest success implementing an incentive plan for employee engagement.

An example of such a company is organic yogurt company Stonyfield Farms. From day one, the company has taken commendable steps to include the planet in their business plan. But in 2008, they knew that they needed to do more to decrease energy consumption in their facilities. The company needed to reward their employees for engagement in sustainable practices. The incentive plan was simple: The amount of money saved from decreased usage was tied directly to paycheck bonuses. And the proof is in the pudding, or in Stonyfield’s case, yogurt: They decreased their usage by more than 22 percent that year, as reported to NEEF.

Prior to the employee engagement incentive plan, the company had found that 10 percent of its employees were managing 95 percent of their environmental impact. The incentive plan seemed to pull in the rest of the workforce. It just goes to show that even the most sustainable companies can find success with incentives: engaging some by pulling heart strings and engaging others by answering “what’s in it for me?”

© 2010, Mary Modney. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

An introduction to  the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14000 family of standards that have been developed for organizations to operate in way that sustains the environment, that explores how “greenthink” can be applied to project management in support of aligning with these standards.

by Andrea Krasnoff, PMP, TSPM and Tom Mochal, PMP®, TSPM, ITBMC, TenStep, Inc.

Overview

The world is going green and it appears that the United States is starting to get the message as well. We are collectively realizing that we do not have an unlimited amount of air or water or space to continue to utilize resources as we have done in the past. The pending concern over global warming merely serves as the central rallying point for an environmentally friendly movement that has been underway since at least the 1970s.

Some ways that we demonstrate our support of the environment are through neighborhood recycling programs, the type of automobiles we purchase, or our attention to carpooling. However, our profession seems to be in its infancy in applying green standards.  At first glance, it appears that any project team could take steps to recycle and reduce the use of resources. This may include reducing the amount of documentation that is printed, and where companies have invested in enterprise project management systems, leveraging these systems and any workflow capabilities to receive approvals (eg, on Project Charters, scope change requests, etc). Project team members may be required to shut off computers and printers nightly if this reduces electrical use.

We believe that this is the beginning of getting project teams, sponsors, key stakeholders, and others to think green about each project. “GreenPM” (green project management), coined by Tom Mochal and Andrea Krasnoff, is a concept in its infancy with a goal of incorporating an organization’s environmental aspects into project management processes. It is a model where we think green throughout our project and make decisions that take into account the impact on the environment, if any. It is a way to ingrain “greenthink” into every project management process.

The point about green project management is not that we make every decision in favor of the one that is most environmentally friendly. The point is that we start to take the environment into account instead of ignoring it. You might make most decisions the same as you do today. But there might be some decisions you would make differently.

We organized this white paper to introduce the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 14000 family of standards. These were developed for organizations to operate in way that sustains the environment. We then investigate how “greenthink” can be applied to project management in support of aligning with these standards.

“GreenPM”: Supporting ISO 14000 Standards Through Project Management Processes
Since the 1990s we have seen an increasing focus on sustaining the environment. The International Organization for Standardization, established ISO 14000 standards for the environmental field in 1996. Most recently revised in 2004, these standards are voluntary and global. There are an increasing number of companies becoming ISO14001 compliant. It is also common for these companies to request the same from their supply chain partners.

Like the more mature ISO 9000 standards for quality management, the environmental model follows a continuous improvement process. Both follow Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model. As opposed to a defined environmental performance level, the ISO 14001:2004 environmental standard provides a framework for organizations to act in a manner that enables each to comply with its environmentally defined standards. ISO14001:2004 defines a set of elements that comprise an Environmental Management System (EMS), to help an organization improve its overall environmental performance. The EMS describes an approach for how a company will conduct itself in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.

People in our profession can learn from their company’s approach to environmental awareness and consider how environmental management applies to project management. It is possible that new questions could be asked or new decisions could be made if everyone involved in a project (project manager, sponsor, team members, key stakeholders, etc) participated in “greenthink”. Environmentally friendly and sustainable thinking can be applied to all projects, although we cannot expect all projects’ outcomes to have the same level of environmental performance or gain.

A Closer Look: Applying “Greenthink” to Project Management Processes

“A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Third Edition” from the Project Management Institute (PMI), commonly referred to as the PMBOK®, identifies nine areas of project management which are commonly covered in a project management methodology. Here we provide examples of how “greenthink” is applicable to each of these areas.

Integration Management
The most likely part of Integration Management that can incorporate “greenthink” is Integrated Change Control. This is the process where all changes are evaluated and their affects on other project management processes are considered. The environment should be an aspect that is evaluated with each change and factored into each decision making process.

Project Charters infrequently (or never) contain a section on environmental concerns. Therefore, most project managers never give it a thought as they are defining the project. It is likely that few project sponsors give it a thought either. But perhaps there are ways that your project can be greener if you would only think about it. For instance, if you are upgrading your network infrastructure, it is likely that some of your equipment will be obsolete. Ten years ago, you might take the old equipment and bury it in the middle of a big dumpster. However, maybe the better choice is to seek out a recycling company. You know what – it might even cost you a few bucks. However, if you identify the recycling need up-front you can build the cost into your estimate.

Scope Management
Today your scope change process takes into account the business value of the change and the impact to the project. Let’s now add a third factor – impact on the environment. All we are proposing is that the impact to the environment be considered along with value and project impact.

There are a couple of possible outcomes.

• There are no real environmental impacts. In this case, the process is the same as today. This will be the outcome of the vast majority of instances.
• There is an impact on the environment, but the scope change is approved as is because of the business value. Again same process as today, but the environment was considered.
• There is an impact on the environment, and the sponsor makes a different decision because of it. Perhaps the scope change request is modified to lessen the environmental impact. Perhaps the scope change request is not approved.

You see that in some percentage of cases, the sponsor might make different decisions on scope change requests if they only knew the impact of the change on the environment. Therefore, let’s bring this information to the people who need to make project decisions, so they can at least consider environmental impact when they are making decisions.

You may also add new work packages to your WBS for demonstrating performance-related gains that align with your company’s environmental policy. For example, if you are manufacturing a new widget, you may want to demonstrate that you are decreasing the amount of scrap that has been historically measured in the manufacturing plant.

Time Management
Time management describes the processes related to the project schedule, from definition to creation to change control. Adopting a green project management methodology may now include activities in support of your company’s environmental policy or EMS. Plan the time for these activities into your project schedule.

Cost Management
Your projects can include costs for environment-related processes or activities on the project.

Quality Management
There are two levels of quality management programs – each of which can accommodate GreenPM concepts. One is focused at an organization level and one is focused on a project level. Quality initiatives at an organizational level include Six Sigma or the Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI). Individual project teams don’t implement large scale quality programs such as Six Sigma on their own. This is normally done at an organization level.

It makes sense that if you have a Six Sigma initiative in your organization; you are going to need to adopt Six Sigma principles on our project. Similarly, if you are practicing GreenPM you should first look to see if your organization has an Environmental Management Policy (or something similar). If so, then you should make sure that your project aligns to these environmental policies and standards as well.

The second aspect of quality is the specific quality criteria that make sense for your specific project. The project Quality Management Plan focuses on the stakeholders’ expectations (requirements) of quality and the resulting activities needed to meet these expectations. If you are practicing GreenPM, you should seek to expand this discussion of quality to discuss the environmental considerations of the project. This does not mean that every project will have environmental considerations. However, if you start to ask the questions and start to raise awareness, you might be surprised to learn that there may be green areas of interest to your stakeholders.

When you understand the environmental expectations of your customer, you can take these into account as project quality requirements. These can be addressed through your project as you address all other requirements that you have gathered.

Project quality assurance and project quality control may also include activities in support of the environment. For example, a quality audit may confirm that the processes performed are in support of the company’s environmental policy.

You may incorporate a quality control checklist to validate deliverable quality. Perhaps it makes sense for your checklist to include questions that tie in environmental aspects to the deliverable you are building. One idea could be to ensure that you use recycled paper to create your project paper-based deliverables. This is a small thing but could have a large impact when multiplied over hundreds or thousands of projects.

Human Resource Management
If practicing GreenPM, educate project team members on the processes that consider the environment. It is also an opportunity to educate them on your company’s EMS. Since project team members are often involved in analyzing situations and alternatives and providing recommendations, their introduction to “greenthink” could help them recognize environmental impacts in their work.

Communications Management
When planning project communications, you look at the stakeholders involved in your project and determine the type and frequency of communications needed for the various stakeholder groups. How often do organizations currently identify any environment-related stakeholder groups (internal or external) as a part of a communication plan? Many organizations now compliant with the ISO 14000 family of standards may have individuals responsible for and/or participating in their Environmental Management System processes. These individuals may represent a new stakeholder group who would be interested in your project’s alignment with the environmental policy. Your communication plan should include activities to increase these stakeholders’ awareness of your project.  [Six Tactics for Selling Your Sustainability Strategy to Stakeholders] and [See The Business Case for Environmental and Sustainability Employee Education]

You should include project-related environmental actions in status reports.

Risk Management
Risk Management includes identifying risks and determining their probability and impact on a project. When applying “greenthink”, your project team may now analyze each risk’s impact on the environment, and how it relates to their organization’s environmental policy. With GreenPM, you may identify some risks that are defined with a different impact level and therefore a different risk rating and risk response strategy that may not have been considered previously.

For example, your project may be prototyping a new technology. If the new technology does not prove to be a solution, you may then resort to an existing technology. Prior to GreenPM, you may have considered the risk to be associated with a schedule and/or budget impact. By considering the environment, you may recognize that additional resources (electrical power) were used for you prototype that otherwise would have been avoided. If your company’s environmental policy is looking to reduce its use of such a resource, then the prototype results may now include an environmental impact in addition to a schedule and/or budget impact.

Another example may be a schedule risk if you cannot rely on overtime as an alternative for getting a project back on schedule. While this has never been a recommended best practice in project management, overtime is often a reality based on project constraints (eg, schedule, scope, and budget). If your company’s environmental policy includes an objective to maintain or reduce its use of natural resources, then overtime could impact this project objective by requiring additional electrical power and water usage. Now, your Sponsor may determine that the project team should not work overtime.

Procurement Management
Educate vendors on your company’s EMS and use of GreenPM. Vendors should follow your GreenPM methodology and focus on the environment in their work for your projects.  [See Greening Your Company’s Procurement] and [Buy it Ethically: Embedding CSR in The Procurement Function]

Summary

Applying GreenPM enables everyone to be more cognizant and better stewards of potential environmental impacts in their decision making processes. It does not mean that all resulting project decisions will change from what may have been prior to incorporating “greenthink”. Ultimately it is up to the sponsor and client organization to make the final decisions. Over time, we may begin to understand how many decisions might be made differently if the environmental impact (if any) is taken into account. These different decisions, multiplied by tens of thousands each day across the world, can make a difference.

We are barely scratching the surface on GreenPM techniques and processes. The point is not to invent (many) new project management processes. The point is to adopt GreenPM into our existing project management methodologies. Green thinking is part of the ISO 14000 standard. Since companies are now applying this thinking through their environmental policies and EMS, the question is how best to apply it on your projects in support of your company’s environmental direction.

As green becomes more routine within the world of project management, we will further understand how to best apply and adapt current project management processes into a structured, proactive approach for managing environment-related aspects to our projects, and contribute to our organization’s environment policies and goals.

Tom Mochal is President of TenStep, Inc., a company focused on methodology development, training and consulting.  He is an expert instructor and consultant on project management, project management offices, development lifecycle, portfolio management, application support, people management and other related areas. He has spoken extensively around the US and around the world. Work experience at Geac Computers, The Coca-Cola Company, Capgemini, and Eastman Kodak.Mochal as been awarded the 2005 Distinguished Contribution Award from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is the author of Lessons in People Management, Lessons in Project Management and all TenStep, Inc. products.

© 2010, Andrea Krasnoff. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

In a recent interview, Annie Lesroart of eBay, shared with us how eBay implemented a fast, ambitious and effective strategy to go green. From forty employees, the program expanded to hundreds of thousands of eBay buyers and sellers (including people who don’t even work at eBay!) How did this happen? And how can it happen for you?

by Chris Jarvis, Senior Consultant for Realized Worth, Follow Chris on Twitter @RealizedWorth

The change began over pizza and soda. A group of employees from a company known for its innovation and leadership could not help but notice the irony of the styrofoam cups in their hands. Turns out that styrofoam constitutes as much as 30% of landfills worldwide. A discussion ensued around what it means to be green, each of the employees deciding something had to be done. Without approval, mission or mandate, and with very modest ambitions, these employees formed the “Green Team.”

Their first endeavor? Eliminate styrofoam cups from the break room.

From this modest beginning, the eBay Green Team has grown to include more than 2,300 employees in 23 countries. As a recent judge on a panel for the 2010 JustMeans Social Innovation Award, I had the privilege of reviewing the eBay Green Team’s application. Not surprisingly, the Green Team won the award for ‘Best Employee Engagement Strategy’ – and show no signs of slowing down. Take a look at the website to see just how impressive their work is: http://www.ebaygreenteam.com/green-at-ebay

Recently, at the Ceres 2010 conference in Boston, I enjoyed a fascinating conversation with eBay’s Annie Lescroart about the project. She outlined four key steps that enabled the eBay Green Team to succeed. I recommend these steps to any group of employees wanting to see their company become more green and sustainable.

Just Do It

The group of forty employees who decided to take action didn’t wait for permission. They determined the steps that could demonstrate their easy ability to go green and allowed the program to grow itself.

Look For Quick and Easy Wins

Lescroart said that after an handful of initial successful projects, the company was open to bigger projects. Recently, with the leadership of the eBay Green Team, eBay has constructed the largest solar panel in San Jose, CA. It is San Jose’s largest with some 3248 panels.

Make The Business Case

At some point, the Green Team needed to demonstrate that going green and buying solar panels made business sense. At that stage, the executive level leadership was able to support the effort and fund the program with proof in hand. And remember it’s far more convincing when you make the case on both an emotional and rational level. Using only numbers won’t convince anyone to change; using only a great story won’t offer clear direction. You need both. For more about how to help change happen, read Switch.  [See The Business Case for Environmental and Sustainability Employee Education]

Tie It To Core Values

eBay prides itself on innovation and creativity. The company also has a strong sense of the inherent ‘goodness’ of their people and the need to allow everyone in the company to contribute in meaningful ways. The Green Team built their approach utilizing these values and before long the CEO was challenging all 15,000 employees to submit more ideas on how to make eBay a greater company.

The Outcome So Far Has Been Pretty Substantial:

• 8,200 lbs of e-waste collected at SJ e-recycling drive in May 2009
• Employees in North America rode over 3,500 miles during Bike to Work Week in May 2009
• 650 kW San Jose solar array takes 18% of our energy consumption at that campus off the grid; green building features at same site deliver energy savings of approx. 39%, smart irrigation system expected to save at least 8 million gallons of water, or 25-35% of the building’s irrigation needs – all innovations and impacts directly attributable to Green Team actions.
• Supporting a Net Metering bill that was signed into law in Utah; the bill allows businesses and residences to sell excess power generated from reusable resources back to the local utility.

In addition, the eBay Green Team has looked for ways to influence their community of buyers and sellers (over 90 million strong) towards similar activities. One key strategy has been social media. Utilizing Facebook (3,079 fans), Twitter (3,000 followers) and, of course, eBay (110,000 Green Team members), the message to “buy, sell and think green every day” continues to gain momentum.

What do you think? We’d love to hear from you.

Email Chris at chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com

© 2010, cjarvis. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

There are a number of areas within procurement that can be enhanced to consider the environment and help you establish a green procurement approach. including requiring that they meet any defined environment criteria for deliverable completion, using audits for validation; having the vendors inform you as to how they will align their processes to your organization’s environmental focus; and re-evaluating how environment requirements are weighted.

by Andrea Krasnoff, PMP, TSPM, Director of  TenStep Consulting Services

Green Project Management (GreenPM) integrates environmental thinking into all of the project management decisions. It is a way to ingrain “greenthink™” into every project management process. The point about green project management is not that you make every decision in favor of the one that is most environmentally friendly. The point is that you start to take the environment into account during the decision-making process. You might make most decisions the same as you do today. But there might be some decisions you would make differently.

Procurement

Procurement refers to the aspects of project management related to obtaining goods and services from outside companies. This specifically refers to vendors and suppliers. Procurement is an area that project managers definitely need to understand at some level, and it is an area into which the project manager will give input. However, in many, and perhaps most companies and organizations, procurement is an area that the project manager does not own. The project manager normally does not have the authority to enter into contracts on behalf of the company, and he normally is not asked to administer the contracts once they are in place.

If you are purchasing goods or services on your project, you should determine your project procurement strategy and plans. In some cases, you will simply follow the procurement contracts and plans that are already established by your company or your organization. For instance, you may purchase hardware from companies using a standard company contract. You may acquire contactors using your company’s preferred vendor list under prior master contractor agreements. In some cases, you will need to work with your Procurement Department to establish your own project-level vendor management plans.

Green Procurement

An organization that follows GreenPM can add environment considerations into its procurement process. Since Procurement is often “larger” than a project or project manager, an organization initially needs to determine where green procurement resides.

If the organization is adopting a green procurement approach to all of its purchases, green procurement may be owned, defined, and deployed through a Procurement department. When practicing GreenPM on specific projects you should first look to see if your organization has an Environmental Management Policy (or something similar) and green procurement processes aligned to your environmental standards. If so, then you should make sure that your project aligns to these environmental policies and green procurement processes as well.

Green procurement also relates to the specific purchases that we need for our project. Beginning with the Procurement Management Plan, it is important to understand and note any organizational policies and standards you are adopting on your project. The Procurement Management Plan describes how items will be procured on your project and the approach you will use to managing vendors. If a project manager is practicing GreenPM, he should describe the aspects of the project’s procurement management process that will consider the environment. For example, you may identify how you expect vendors to adhere to your environment processes (such as GreenPM) or meet your environment requirements.

There are a number of areas within procurement that can be enhanced to consider the environment and help you establish a green procurement approach. Following are some ideas:

* Plan Procurements – As you gather and rank the needs against which you will evaluate vendors, you can now include environment criteria that the vendors need to meet. You can also establish the weighting factors for these needs and ultimately rate the vendors on their ability to meet your environmental requirements.

* Obtain Seller Responses –In your RFP, you may include information on your organization’s environmental focus (such as describing your GreenPM processes) and have the vendor comment on how they will align to these, or make a general inquiry regarding the vendor’s use of green project management processes. Each vendor should be able to explain and demonstrate how they can accomplish your environmental goals, possibly describing how they have completed similar goals previously.

* Select Sellers – Map the vendor capabilities against your requirements and weighting factors, including the environment requirements that you have established. Using GreenPM, it is possible that your vendor selection may result in a different vendor. For example, if your environment requirements are weighted high, it is possible that there is a vendor with a significant focus in this area who perhaps would not have been your top ranked vendor without environment requirements. Therefore, if you did not consider environmental factors in your evaluation, you may not be determining the vendors who can meet your top needs. Then again, it is possible that the environment requirements and weighting factors may not have any impact on the vendor results and your vendor selection.

* Administer Procurements – You should validate that the vendor is proceeding as planned and agreed throughout the project. This includes confirming that the vendor is following green project management processes (GreenPM) and meeting any defined environment criteria for deliverable completion. Procurement audits can be one approach to validating the compliance to your expected standards and processes.

Procurement is not simple and organizations seek to continually streamline and improve their procurement approaches. It is possible that green procurement is in its infancy and may add another dimension or complexity to improving procurement processes. However, if the results have a positive affect on the environment and possibly achieving your organization’s environmental policy, isn’t it worth the effort?

© 2010, Andrea Krasnoff. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

There is an increasing emphasis of supply chain management in creating the proper ingredients of a successful business strategy. The concept of a green supply chain is gaining interest among operations practitioners as a sustainable and profitable undertaking. A green supply chain can be thought of as a supply chain that has integrated environmental thinking into core operations from material sourcing through product design, manufacturing, distribution, delivery, and end-of-life recycling.

by Dave Meyer, Sustainable Economic and Environmental Development Solutions (SEEDS) Global Alliance (Northwest Operations) and SVP of Greenbridge International, LLC. Follow Dave on Twitter @DRMeyer1 and LinkedIn.

Well, can the economic tides be turning?  In my former home base of San Diego, they had a saying: “It takes a long time to carefully turn an aircraft carrier around”.  Capgemini Consulting’s new study of 300 leading companies across Europe, US, Asia-pacific and Latin America states that economic recovery has surpassed economic downturn in the list of business drivers for 2010.

Some key findings of note from a supply chain perspective:

• Over 58 percent of the supply chain managers say their main business driver for 2010 is “Meeting (changing) customer requirements”.  (Well, I guess that is a no-brainer, as a successful business should be nimble and always responsive to customers’ needs to succeed in the marketplace)
• More than 50 percent of the participating companies indicate they will start up or continue with operational excellence / LEAN.  Another obvious direction – reduces waste, optimize resources.  This should translate into bigger profits and competitive position.
• Sustainability is the second most important business driver for 2010 — up 16 percent over last year. However, the survey results suggest that this has not yet directly translated into a significant increase in supply chain sustainability projects.  Well, remember that aircraft carrier quote that I just mentioned?

These findings really suggest that while the road to recovery is long, that much foundational work remains.  But the trend from survival to revival is in play now.

Perhaps the biggest take-away from this report is the increasing emphasis of supply chain management in creating the proper ingredients of a successful business strategy. And coincidentally, the concept of a Green Supply Chain is gaining interest among operations practitioners as a sustainable and profitable undertaking. A Green Supply Chain can be thought of as a supply chain that has integrated environmental thinking into core operations from material sourcing through product design, manufacturing, distribution, delivery, and end-of-life recycling.

The implementation of Green Supply Chain initiatives has evolved from strictly a compliance issue into a means of generating value. Traditionally, companies incorporating green projects have focused solely on cost avoidance by assuring compliance, minimizing risk, maintaining health, and protecting the environment. In the emerging value-creation model, implementing green initiatives along a company’s supply chain can raise productivity, enhance customer and supplier relations, support innovation, and enable growth. The Green Supply Chain is no longer exclusively about green issues, but also about generating efficiencies and cost containment. As organizations restructure to reduce their company’s environmental footprint, supply chains have increasingly become a key area of focus. Improvements in transportation efficiency, operations, raw material selection and packaging are all topping the list of “green” supply chain initiatives.

Green Supply Chains enable organizations to:

• specialize and concentrate manufacturing efforts in a way that manages environmental risks and costs of compliance with existing or new regulations;
• improve product, process, and supply quality and productivity.
• make innovative decisions that respond to “green economy” requirements;
• gain access to key markets through ISO 14001 registration or other certifications;
• improve or create brand differentiation and customer loyalty by offering unique capabilities to address environmental related requirements and expectations;
• reduce customer pressure and even gain preferred status; and

The ISO 14001 Certification / Supply Chain Nexus

Over the past several years, studies have been performed worldwide comparing ISO 14001-2004 and its value in development of green supply chains.

• One recent study found that more than 75% of manufacturing executives surveyed had ISO 14001 certification or were in process in order to enhance their competitive supply chain position,
• Companies that are already ISO 14001 certified are 40% more likely to assess their suppliers’ environmental performance and 50% more likely to require that their suppliers undertake specific environmental practices,
• Preference in market share is often given to suppliers that have attained ISO 14001-certification,
• Consumer preferences are increasingly important drivers for many companies to improve their supply chain environmental activities,
• Procurement officers increasingly use ISO 14001 certification as a required vendor qualification,
• Suppliers without an environmental management system will feel increasing pressure to modify their practices or risk losing customers, and will be subject to higher costs for licenses, inspections and insurance.

Questions and issues to consider when developing your Supply Chain/Value Network:

• Will the service provider enhance the cause of sustainability both upstream (i.e., primary customer/end customer) and downstream (i.e., all tiers of supply base, including logistics service providers)?
• Will some relationships drive significant redesign of the supply chain, including product innovations and modifications (e.g., collaborative development of decomposable packaging material?
• Is your supply chain implementing progressive environmental management systems to manage their environmental footprint?
• Establish a more cohesive collaborative model in transport, warehousing and distribution that will drive efficiencies up and incremental costs down, while reducing environmental impacts throughout the supply chain.

The Green Economy Post assembled a number of Green Supply Chain studies to assist you in your efforts to understand and address these issues in your business (15 Green Supply Chain Studies You Should Know About).

Environmentally responsible procurement, in alignment with your company’s environmental sustainability values, is critical for organizations that desire to manage their environmental risk and maintain a competitive advantage.

Not only does this mean that businesses must choose their suppliers well, they also have to ensure that suppliers comply with the standards they claim to meet.

© 2010, Dave Meyer. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Were you unable to attend Sustainable Brands 10?  Do the next best thing; read our SB ‘10 news round-up of posts from around the Web.  Help us keep this compilation up-to-date.  If you have a new post on the Sustainable Brands ‘10 Conference, or we missed your post, drop us a line, so we can include it. We will continue to to provide daily post-SB ‘10 coverage in the coming days.  See a preview of that coverage at the bottom of this post and check back  to stay updated or subscribe.

Our Snapshot of This Year’s Sustainable Brands Conference -  Kirsty Saddler, planning director at BBH Hive shares the five challenges and opportunities to the progress of sustainability within brand strategy and business development, based on what her team took from all the presentations, panels and discussions at this year’s Sustainable Brands conference.

Business Pressures Driving Change and Innovation in the Supply Chain – Julie Urlaub , Founder and Managing Partner of Taiga Company provides readers with the key points of informative presentation she saw by Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies,.  Winston shared with the group his insights how the difficult environmental, economic and supply challenges that business and industry face, have changed that game and how those challenges are presenting opportunities.

My 20 Favorite Quotes Heard at Sustainable Brands 10 Conference Brooke Farrell of Recycle Match has compiled a list of her favorite quotes and comments she heard last week at Sustainable Brands ‘10.

Sustainable Brands ‘10 Photo Album a collection of images chronicling the entire Sustainable Brands’10 Conference.

Sustainable Brands and Authenticity - Reachscale reports that real initiatives that are making a difference, shifts in fundamental thinking at the C-level in major enterprises, innovators inside and outside companies working together. It restores some hope in our global future. Three themes emerged from that conference that can enable all of us to act and innovate more authentically: license to operate; license to operate; and responsible profit.

CSR Updates: Justmeans Interviews Jason Saul from Mission Measurement at Sustainable Brands 201o (Video)

It’s Emissions Reporting Time – Why The Days of Spreadsheets Should be Long Gone Duncan Bradford, a panelist for the ‘Getting Beyond the Spreadsheet: New Tools for Measuring Impact’ session – reviews a vision for helping organizations to report in a more efficient and automated fashion.  Topics covered include: tracking multiple sources, spanning multiple contributors; verification, audit and scalability of data collection; and just in time reporting.

Nature’s Path: A Quirkily Beautiful Shift Towards Sustainable Branding -  Cecilia Lu, Founder and Co-owner of Kiwano Marketing breaks down the points of Nature’s Path Organic, breakthrough sustainable brand campaign that has yielded impressive sales results while fomenting cultural change.

Sustainable Brands 2010 Re-Cap, Part 1: Consumer Engagement
A three part series on consumer engagement, business trends and social justice issues and strategies that were address at Sustainability ‘10 written by Andrea Learned.

Microgrid Energy Rules the Sustainable Brands Innovation Open – Anya Kamenetz, a staff writer for Fast Company magazine  gives her report on the companies competing at the Sustainable Brands Innovation Open

CSR Updates: Justmeans Interviews David Wilcox from ReachScale at Sustainable Brands 2010 (Video)

How Starbucks Strives for a Better Cup – David Ferris, Editor at The Matter Network wrote about the presentation that Starbucks made at SB ‘10 explaining the redesign of Starbuck’s cup to be  100 percent recyclable or reusable by 2015.

Green Marketing: Motivating Mainstream Consumers to Make Sustainable Choices -  Sofia Ribeiro, founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing provides an overview the the presentation made by Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of Shelton Group, who shared her insights on how do mainstream consumers ACTUALLY make decisions about which green products to buy.

Who’s Tweeting Sustainable Brands ‘10 – See Our Top 85 SB’10 Tweeters List -  I compiled a list of the attendees of Sustainable Brands ‘10 who were sharing their experiences and analysis of events via Twitter throughtout the entire event.  Include is information about what they do, how many followers they have, how many lists they are on, links to their web sites and links to their Twitter pages.

CSR Updates: Justmeans Interviews with HIP Investor founder and CEO R. Paul Herman at Sustainable Brands 2010 (Video)

TetraPak + Bottled Water Still Equals Greenwashed Nonsense by Nick Aster of Trple Pundit – After praising the SB’10 crew for the lack of Greenwash in their program, Nick Nick Aster, founder of TriplePundit.com, shares with readers with readers his analysis of why h2O Natural Spring Water by Terrapak, which was distributed to attendees, is practicing green wash.

A Random Collection of Thoughts from Sustainable Brands - Karen Barnes, Director of Insight, at the Shelton Group shares a few quick thoughts from SB ‘10, providing readers with a synopsis of the sessions that she attended at the conference.

How to Drive Change the IDEO Way.  Andrew Winston, author of Green Recovery, provides a summary of a SB ‘10 session focused on how you drive change presented by Bruce MacGregor, Managing Partner of design giant IDEO on the Harvard Business Review web site.

Live From Sustainable Brands ‘10: Selling Green to Consumers - Bill Roth, Founder of Earth 2017 and Author of The Secret Green Sauce shares with readers his report on some of the main themes of Sustainable Brands’10 which was how to sell to consumers when consumers are confused upon what is green and who is green.

15 Cool Things I Learned at Sustainable Brands 2010 Amie Vaccaro, CEO of Cobblestone Solutions shares what she learned at Sustainable Brands ‘10 on Triplepundit.  The list includes: open innovation, trends in sustainable brands, social innovation at the corporate level, and design for behavior change.

CSR Updates: Justmeans Interviews Julian Holman from Janan (Video) – Sustainable Brands 2010 Video Interviews from Justmeans: Julian Hollman, Janam

Inspired by the Journey – Kelli Peterson, head of business development for the Innovation studio at Cheskin shares the experiences she had at SB ‘10 and explains how the presenters effectively used the art of storytelling.

Timberland’s Road to Recovery Paved with Earthkeepers - Jen Boynton, Managing Editor of Triplepundit.com relays the story  of how Timberland emerged from a stumgling brand with a significant loss in sales and how they used sustainability to turned the brand around.

Sustainable Life Media Recognized by Governor Schwarzenegger and California EPA Secretary as Sustainable Brands ’10 Opens in Monterey - 3BL Media reports on Secretary Linda Adams of the California Environmental Protection Agency honoring of Sustainable Life Media’s President/CEO KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz with Certificate of Appreciation at the company’s annual Sustainable Brands 2010 (SB ’10) conference.

Implementing Cradle To Cradle Strategies For a Cleaner World – Sofia Ribeiro, founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing breaks down how the presenters showed how sustainable business practices build value for an organization including reduced risk and liability, brand differentiation, enhanced reputation and competitive advantage. Also introduced was the idea of moving past “meeting regulations” and achieving the minimum requirements to efficiently and effectively using natural resources, designing systems to eliminate the concept of waste, and leadership within one’s industry for design excellence.

The Hot Eco-Fashionista Five Principals of Good Design -Summer Rayne Oakes, fashion/interior design sustainability strategist and the woman named “Hottest Eco Model, OK Only Eco Model by Grist in 2006 made a presentation at Sustainable Brands ‘10  last week.   Jen Boynton, Managing Editor of Triplepundit.com presents the The 5 design principals she outlined have relevance far and beyond the fashion world, for anyone who cares about sustainability.   They include: Good design is invisible, solves problems, considers life cycle, is transparent; and mimics nature.

Innovate With Empathy – Marc Stoiber, VP of Green Innovation at Maddock Douglas shares with readers of The Huffington Post his experience listening to psychologist and communications specialist, John Marshall Roberts speak at Sustainable Brands ‘10 last week. He explains how his theories apply extremely well to innovators who want to tap the unconscious needs of their target.

CSR Updates: Justmeans Interviews SDialogue Co-founder Beth Bengtson at Sustainable Brands 2010 (Video)

The Power of ANDvantage: Increased Profits by Solving Relevant Global Social Issues -  Sofia Ribeiro, founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing shares what happened at the Sustainable Brands ‘10 opening night event, which featured an eye-opening presentation by Bill Marquard, founder of Marble Leadership and author of Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World. He introduced the audience to ANDvantage strategies, which help companies generate increased revenue and profits in their core business by solving relevant global social issues.

How the Monterey Bay Aquarium Is a Model of a Nimble Business – Jen Boynton, Managing Editor of Triplepundit.com explains how the Monterey Bay Aquarium shifted their business model away from purely showcasing the beauty under the se,a to also work to preserve and rebuild fish populations, as well as improve the oceans.

SB’10 Welcome to Monterey – The City of Monterey and the Monterey Conference Center welcome the SUSTAINABLE BRANDS CONFERENCE 2010 with this video.

Keep a look out over the coming days as we post our daily follow-up coverage of Sustainable Brands ‘10.  Topics will include the following: Sustainable Brands And Consumer Attitudes; Moving from Corporate Responsibility to Responsible Profit; Consumers Co-Create a Better World Through Desires; Where do Disruptive Sustainable Business Ideas Come From; Results of Sustainable Brands Innovation Open; Re-Defining the Metrics of Success: The Emerging Measures of Qualitative Growth; the Drive to Radical Corporate Transparency; The Green Exchange Case Study; CSR Reporting Case Studies and Best Practices; New Tools for Measuring Impact; Applying BioSphere Design Rules to Business; Influencing Consumer Choice Toward Sustainable Consumption; the Sustainable Brand Perception/Reality Gap; Building & Measuring Online Cause Marketing Campaigns; Marketing Without Greenwashing; The Next Frontier in Sustainable Brand Communication; The Food Revolution: Rethinking Fast Food; Making Reuse Cool; and Driving Sales to Your Sustainable Brands and Advice From the Experts on Social Media Engagement. More

Read Our Coverage of Some of Sustainable Life Media’s Sustainable Brands Bootcamps. They include: Ecological Footprint: Are We Too Late to Make a Change?, Transforming Your Company Through Sustainability, The Changing Green Consumer Marketplace, Sustainable Product Design Basic Best Practices, Building a Balanced Sustainable Brand Strategy One Case at a Time, How Leading Companies are Pioneering Innovation in Carbon, Water and Waste, and Incorporating Sustainability into Innovation Processes.

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The Sustainable Brands ‘10 conference opening night event, featured an eye-opening presentation by Bill Marquard, founder of Marble Leadership and author of Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World.   He introduced the audience to ANDvantage strategies, which help companies generate increased revenue and profits in their core business by solving relevant global social issues.

by Sofia Ribeiro, founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing.Sofia can be found on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook

A few days ago, at the opening night of the Sustainable Brands ‘10 conference, I attended to a magnificent presentation by Bill Marquard, founder of Marble Leadership and author of Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World.   Marquard walked attendees through the traditional OR mentality, where senior managers were lead by economic leaders, such as Milton Friedman, who believed you can only have profits OR philanthropy. Instead, businesses should use the revolutionary power of ANDvantage.

ANDvantage strategies help companies generate increased revenue and profits in their core business by solving relevant global social issues. According to Marquard, successful sustainable businesses are able to focus on profits, people and on the environment, bringing the triple bottom line to the core of business strategy. There are dual benefits of social innovation: market development, product innovation, operational efficiency, culture building.  ANDvantage fosters innovation by asking tough questions: How can my business provide environmentally AND socially responsible products and still be competitive in terms of performance, quality and price?

“If Sustainable Brands is the answer, what’s the question:- How do we find the AND between social issues & business value,”  inquired Marquard.

Marquard’s laid out the  four stages that business  go through to get to the stage where they obtain business value from tackling social issues:
1. philanthropy
2. strategic philanthropy
3. strategic sustainability
4. find the advantage embedded in core business

Marquard showcased some best practices case studies.  French dairy food firm, Danone entered in a joint venture with a firm called Grameen, teaming up with local experts to build a yogurt factory to produce nutritional yogurt that would address some of the malnutrition in the poor people of Bangladesh. With 50% of children in the country suffering from malnutrition, the company’s priority was not only to maximize profits, but the health of their customers in the regain.  Not only is the malnutrition issue addressed, but the local community benefits in other ways in that 250 area farmers supply milk to the factory at a rate that is a little more than they would receive from their regular customers.  Because many of the people in the region cannot afford to chill their food,special nutrients, designed to keep fresh for up to a week outside a refrigerator,are added. A network of women then take bags of the yogurt around to local villages.

One cup of yogurt provides 30% of the recommended daily intake of nutrition for children.  When introducing the product to the the villages,a Danone representative from Danone, will accompany the women to the who explains its nutritional benefits . A costumed Lion also visits the villages with the team to help generate interest.  The effort is done on a small scale, to limit risk and to enable Danone to learn how to market food the the South Asia market.  The potential benefit is significant as it helps Danone determine whether the lucrative market of neighboring India
Danone made a profit of more than $1bn in 2008 and expects that to rise by 10% this year, despite a downturn in sales in Europe.  They are currently in talks to other companies discussing the idea of  starting up similar joint ventures in Bangladesh.

He also used Walmart as a good example of how tackling social issues can be profitable. In 2008, Walmart teamed up with the global relief and development organization Mercy Corps, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Guatemalan nonprofit,Fundación ÁGIL (Fundación Apoyo a la Generación de Ingresos Locales) to launch of an alliance to improve the lives of small-scale farmers in Guatemala, called Inclusive Market Alliance for Rural Entrepreneurs.  The purpose of the alliance is to address Guatemala’s persistent rural poverty, by introducing the farmers to training and making available market connections. Farmers  participate in training on crop diversification and good agricultural practices, processing and post-harvest techniques to meet national and international agricultural standards, and business and management skills including the use of critical pricing information. They will also receive assistance to buy tools, equipment and other agricultural resources.

The three-year effort is working to build the capacity of small-scale farmers to help them move from traditional corn and beans production to demand-driven production to supply major retailers like Wal-Mart in Central America.  These farmers are supplying retailers with targeted crops like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and onions.   Guatemala’s overall poverty rate stands at 51%, with nearly three-quarters of the poor living in rural areas and working in agriculture. With the resources provided by the Alliance, small-scale farmers in these rural areas are able to grow into entrepreneurial producers of premium horticultural products. It is expected that higher, more consistent incomes will lead to increases in education, health and food security for their families and communities.

Marquard challenged business leaders to quit using OR and to embrace the the power of AND; solving social problems through core business will lead to innovation.  It will be interesting to see how his presentation – and challenge – will impact companies working toward sustainability.

© 2010, Sofia_Ribeiro. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, kicked of day two of the Sustainable Brands 2010 conference with an informative talk on how the difficult environmental, economic and supply challenges that business and industry face, have changed that game and how those challenges are presenting opportunities.

by Julie Urlaub , Founder and Managing Partner of Taiga Company. Follow Julie on Twitter @TaigaCompany
Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, kicked off day two of the Sustainable Brands 2010 conference with a wealth of information. Winston is the author of Green Recovery, a strategic plan for using environmental thinking to survive hard economic times and the co-author of Green to Gold, the best-selling guide to what works – and what doesn’t – when companies go green.

According to Winston, one of the biggest environmental challenges this year is energy: “Where are we going to get our energy from?” Seventy-five percent think humans are behind global warming and five of the greatest sustainability challenges we currently face are: chemicals and toxins, biodiversity, water, energy, and climate change.  US Chamber of Commerce says biz opposes climate policy-but the market for climate change and environmental technologies is forecasted at $2 trillion. GE now earns more revenue from wind turbines than from gas turbines. China is spending $9 billion on cleantech a month; whereas the US spends that a year after stimulus. The US is losing 12 to 1.

What does he think is needed?  Transparency.

“Transparency is one of the driving forces keeping the green and sustainability waves moving,”  says Winston.

It’s a theme he touches on in his new book, Green Recovery. He believes that we’re rapidly entering an era of radical openness, driven both by regulation and the rising demands of employees and customers. (See Rising Transparency — One Way to Avoid Massive Market Failure.)

Andrew recommends giving Good Guide your organization’s data. Founded in 2007 by Dara O’Rourke, a professor of environmental and labor policy at the University of California at Berkeley, GoodGuide is a web based rating and recommendation engine. The site provides authoritative information about the health, environmental and social performance of products and companies so that consumers make purchasing decisions that reflect their preferences and values.

Many companies are starting to set tougher standards for their suppliers. Companies such as IBM, P&G, Pepsi, Ikea, Ford, and Kaiser Permanente are leveraging the supply chain as a means to getting involved in sourcing and telling each other how and where they can source. This takes us back again to transparency. It’s about taking life-cycle data and publicizing it. Interesting how big success stories aren’t covered in the news. With these high profile companies raising the bar, other large value chains will feel pressured to do that same if they want to remain competitive. Winston feels this trend will impact companies of all sizes in every sector.   For instance, WalMart will no longer source beef or soy from cleared Amazon land. It was a big story, but nothing was mentioned in mainstream press.

Additionally, the Carbon Disclosure supply chain group is asking for more disclosure on carbon.  P&G and IBM are both requiring data and transparency of environmental management systems of suppliers. The data requested is not only for transparency but also to “cascade” it to their suppliers. Pressures are coming from business and those pressures are more powerful than governmental intervention. The result? These are ripples profoundly changing business in upcoming years. In fact, 58% of big companies are poised to deselect suppliers based on carbon exposure.

Andrew asks compelling questions of business. “How can our products improve our environment?” How can Base of the Pyramid (BOP) be a source of innovation to the rest of the world? Innovation upward is the change we need. According to  Winston, by focusing on the bottom of the pyramid, firms are coming up with entirely new ways to provide products and services.

“More companies will realize that a “bottom of the pyramid” strategy isn’t just about serving a new market; it can help you radically rethink your business, said Winston.  “It’s a dramatic new source of innovation,” He added.

Additional Resources from Andrew Winston

• Follow Andrew Wnston onTwitter @GreenAdvantage
• Read Andrew Winston’s weekly Harvard Business Online column on green business strategy
• Read Andrew Winston’s Column on TheHuffington Post
• Subscribe to Andrew Winston’s Eco-Advantage Strategies  E-letter
• Read Andrew Winston’s Blog
• Read an excerpt from his bo0k, Green Recovery called  “Green Cost Cutting“

© 2010, Julie_Urlaub. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The Sustainable Brands ‘10 session “Sustainability Leadership: The Making, Marketing and Thinking Behind Cradle to Cradle Companies and Products” took a look at the importance of measures of ingredient toxicity and material recyclability in branding products as healthy and sustaining.They introduced the idea of moving past “meeting regulations” and achieving the minimum requirements to efficiently and effectively using natural resources, designing systems to eliminate the concept of waste, and leadership within one’s industry for design excellence.  They also explained how sustainable business practices build value for an organization including reduced risk and liability, brand differentiation, enhanced reputation and competitive advantage.

by Sofia Ribeiro, founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing. Sofia can be found on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook

I’d like to draw attention to a great workshop that took place today, at  Sustainable Brands 10 titled,’Sustainability Leadership: The Making, Marketing and Thinking Behind Cradle to Cradle Companies and Products”.  It was presented by Jay Bolus, VP of Technical Operations, MBDC and Jessica Switzer of Blue Practice. They provided  great insight into the way we see design.  They presented the concept of moving past “meeting regulations” and achieving the minimum requirements to efficiently and effectively using natural resources, designing systems to eliminate the concept of waste, and leadership within one’s industry for design excellence.    Bolus and Switzer also discussed the importance of measures of ingredient toxicity and material recyclability in branding products as healthy and sustaining.  They also explained how sustainable business practices build value for an organization including reduced risk and liability, brand differentiation, enhanced reputation and competitive advantage; and how the pursuit of a positive vision can inspire investor and customer confidence and strengthen employee commitment, and improve relations with public and private stakeholders.

Until recently, product and service design was often based on a traditional, cradle-to-grave mentality: products are created and used and, once the product becomes obsolete, we throw the product away (Jay Bolus had a great remark: “Away where? We still don’t know, but it’s out of our way”). Well, not anymore. Case in point, the Pacific Gyre, home of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex is a gyre  of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean.    Many scientists think that the patch extends over an area ranging from  the size of the state of Texas to one larger than the continental United States. The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of plastic, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.   In a recent study by MBDC, high concentrations of benzine and other chemical products were found on Polly Pocket, the famous children toys’ brand.

“We need to take a really hard look at the way we make stuff,” says Bolus. “Breast milk of women living in industrialized countries is so toxic that it could not be sold in shelves in North America!”

This brings us to the concept of Cradle to Cradle, an innovative way of creating products. Cradle to Cradle strategies introduce us to the concept of ecological intelligence: Does it make sense to make this product in terms of its impact on the environment? How about the impact on consumers?

“Cradle to cradle is a strategy of hope, it’s about sharing the resources and the planet we have,” said William McDonough, co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, in a video presented during the session. “It’s about rethinking our role in our planet and on the environment.” Cradle to cradle takes us to the concept of eco design, where the goal is to minimize the negative impact of manufacturing such as pollution and workplace hazards. It’s a design moduled on Nature and inspired by Nature, where every component of a product has a high potential of being recyclable, compostable or reused.

“But it’s not enough to be eco- efficient -  we need to optimize,” says Bolus. Cradle to cradle strategies are based in three key principles:

1. Waste equals food. The ultimate goal with CTC is to eliminate the concept of waste. This is achieved through:

- Safe, healthy ingredients

- Product design for recyclability and/or compostability

- Systems for complete recycling/composting

- Reorientation of design principles

2. Use of current solar income. Since waste elimination is the goal, businesses must shift from  oil-based electricity to reneweable sources of energy, such as solar or wind.

3. Celebrate diversity. Diversity is a must in any healthy environment.

“Products can drive behavior change,” says Switzer. Through cradle to cradle strategies, businesses are now ready to embrace the new generation of sustainability.

The bottom-line? Businesses nowadays must be responsible AND innovative not only on how they manufacture, but also on how they use their facilities in the course of their business operations.

Additional Resources

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. The authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete. They offer several compelling examples of corporations that are not just doing less harm–they’re actually doing some good for the environment and their neighborhoods, and making more money in the process.

Video on The Points of Cradle to Cradle Design Protocol Presented by MBDC CEO Ken Alston

Green Products Innovation Institute Cradle to Cradle® Certification Program Information
Jay Bolus is responsible for the development and implementation of MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle Product Certification program.  Read about the Institute launch on the Blue Practice blog.

Design for a Cradle to Cradle Future
Booklet by Steve Bolton presenting an executive vision and management strategy to realize eco-effectiveness. May 2010.

Sustainable Business: Minimization vs. Optimization
White paper outlining MBDC’s perspective on moving from a focus on eco-efficiency and cost savings alone, toward eco-effectiveness, enhanced reputation, innovation and leadership through sustainability.

© 2010, Sofia_Ribeiro. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

We have a busy live blogging schedule today.  The Green Economy Post team will be reporting on 11 sessions. In addition to our live blogging team,  we will be streaming commentary from 0ver 70 SB ‘10 attendees. Topics include: key market drivers, the best green brands, the metrics of qualitative growth, responsible profit, incfluencing consumers, drivers behind sustainable brand innovation, GreenXchange and eco-Innovation, CSR best practices, CSR Reporting Case Studies, tools for measuring environmental and motivating mainstream consumers to make sustainable choices. See our live blogging schedule for today below.  Click on the session title in bold to view the live blog of the event.  Don’t forget to post your questions and comments.

Note: Schedule subject to change.

09:00 am – 09:15 am. Welcome and Morning Kick Off
Gil Friend  CEO/Founder, Natural Logic, Inc.
SB’10 opens with a look at some of the key market drivers and trends shaping today’s sustainable business marketplace.

09:15 am – 09:30 am. The Unfolding Green Brands Landscape: Notes on the Trendline
Annie Longsworth  President, SF, and Global Sustainability Practice Leader, Cohn & Wolfe
Updating research presented at SB’07, SB’08 and SB’09 Cohn & Wolfe will present new research that explores specific behaviors and attitudes that are driving (or preventing) purchase of sustainable products, as well as the latest public perception about which brands are the best at being green.

09:30 am – 09:45 am.  Re-Defining the Metrics of Success: The Emerging Measures of Qualitative Growth
Hazel Henderson  Futurist & Economics Iconoclast, Ethical Markets Media
Hazel Henderson, a well known and globally respected futurist, economist, syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development presents some of her newest thinking on why GDP is no longer a serving us as the ultimate measure of progress, and offers a look at some of the significant initiatives taking place to define what comes next, including EU’s Beyond GDP project and President Sarkozy’s Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.

09:45 am – 10:00 am. Responsibility AND Profit: From Corporate Responsibility to Responsible Profit
Jason Saul  CEO, Mission Measurement
Measuring corporate social and environmental responsibility is difficult, time-consuming and often produces meaningless data that hard-nosed business leaders find underwhelming or hard to believe. However this is not necessarily so, according to Mission Measurement CEO, Jason Saul. Saul argues that the key to measurement is effective strategy. Based on his forthcoming book, Social Innovation, Inc., Saul will outline five types of social innovation that turn social change into powerful business strategy. Combined with experience-based best practices in impact measurement, these innovation strategies make measuring the business and social value of CSR program practical, timely and relevant to your company’s most pressing business objectives.

10:00 am – 10:15 am: Design for Behavior Change: Helping Consumers Co-Create a Better World
Bruce MacGregor  Managing Partner, IDEO
Across industries, we see a growing gap: On the one hand, immense technologic and informational shifts have fueled people’s desires for their long term well-being, financial security, and positive environmental impact. On the other hand, only a few businesses have stepped in to offer products and services to help people shift their habits in order to support their emerging aspirations. IDEO has deep experience in the area of behavior change, and has curated a set of insights, perspectives and designs that illustrate the untapped market opportunity to participate in people’s desire for change and deliver solutions towards progress. We’ll explore the tremendous opportunity for goods, services and new business models that not only survive in change, but thrive on it.

10:15 am – 10:45 am. Today’s Data Explosion and the Drive to Radical Corporate Transparency
Paul Herman  Founder/CEO, HIP Investor
Dara O’Rourke  CEO/Founder, GoodGuide
Cynthia Figge  President, COO and Co-Founder, CSRHUB
Mary Capozzi  Senior Director Sustainability, Best Buy
Jim Sullivan  Strategic Advisor, SAP
One of the prime drivers behind sustainable brand innovation at the moment is the explosion of new data initiatives that promise increased clarity to all stakeholders on the comparative sustainability of various materials, suppliers and brands. This session will highlight just a couple and spark further conversation about how you can/should be preparing for what’s coming down the road.

11:30 am – 11:45 am. GreenXchange AND the Effort to Speed Eco-Innovation
Charlie Brown  Business Development Lead, GreenXchange, NIKE
GreenXchange, spearheaded by 10 companies and social enterprises including Nike, Yahoo!, IDEO, Mountain Equipment Co-op, salesforce.com, the Outdoor Industry Association, and others, is a groundbreaking initiative geared to empower companies working to protect the environment to share their research — legally — for social good and mutual profit, and at a time when businesses everywhere are allocating larger shares of their investment dollars to social innovation. This effort, and other emerging radical collaboration efforts reflect another driver ensuring the pace of sustainable innovation is not letting up any time soon.

02:00 pm – 03:00 pm. CSR’s Seven Best Practices
Perry Goldschein  Founding Partner, SDialogue LLC
As current market conditions demand that companies deploy sustainability initiatives, many organizations have never engaged with all of their stakeholders in a systemic way or set up a sustainability management system. This session takes a complex, rapidly evolving field and puts it in to a digestible order for attendees. The session identifies the top seven practices every organization should be considering as well as explains how these tactics work together. In addition, the session explores how organizations can use these practices to thrive in the years ahead.

02:00 pm – 03:00 pm. Telling Your Story: CSR Reporting Case Studies Unwrapped
Dale Hart  Partner / Creative Director, Methodologie
Lewis Fix  VP Brand Management & Sustainable Product Development, Domtar
Kindley Walsh-Lawlor  Vice President, Strategic Planning & Environmental Affairs, Gap, Inc.
How can CSR reports service the needs of stakeholders, customers, and company employees? This panel will explore case studies and best practices in transparency and the evolution of social (responsibility) reporting.

03:15 pm – 04:15 pm. Getting Beyond the Spreadsheet: New Tools for Measuring Impact
Will Sarni  Founder/CEO, Domani
Christina Siun O’Connell  President – Americas, Credit360
Joel Riciputi  Director of Marketing, Hara
Duncan Bradford  Vice President, ecoSoftware, Energy & Sustainability Solutions, CA Technologies
Carbon industry software leaders will examine the current and projected market for carbon management software. Issues such as why companies need to move beyond short term carbon accounting spreadsheets and harness the analytical capabilities of current software providers and the need to integrate carbon, water and energy data. As businesses move to operating in a low carbon and in general a low “resource footprint” world, carbon software capable of supporting robust analyses and decision making are no longer optional.

03:15 pm – 04:15 pm. Motivating Mainstream Consumers to Make Sustainable Choices
Suzanne Shelton  President and CEO, Shelton Group
Mainstream consumers are complicated. They know just enough buzz words to make you think they know more than they do, and most don’t actually go green to save the planet. This interactive session will reveal how mainstream consumers ACTUALLY make decisions about which green products to buy.

Tune in tomorrow for more

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

As manufacturers continue incorporating  sustainability practices within their product manufacturing processes and supply chains, the retail industry – as the main customer point of contact – bears the responsibility of educating consumers about the sustainability choices available in the market.

by Jennifer Rice, Principal with Fruitful Strategy. Jennifer is presenting “Building the Credible Sustainable Brand” at the Sustainable Brands’10 Conference. Follow Jennifer Rice on Twitter.

Recently I was in the market for a new laptop, so I headed over to Best Buy and a few other places to check out their selections. And of course since I’m in the business of sustainability, I was looking for a bit of education on “green” electronics: which manufacturers were leading and lagging in this area, and which PCs I should be considering for energy savings, recycled materials and recycling programs, and reduced or eliminated toxic material like PCBs?

Sure, I could have just checked out Greenpeace’s Electronics Report, but I wanted to go through the typical buyer process and see what I could learn. To my surprise, Best Buy had no information on the subject… not on signage, and not when I asked an associate. While I later found a program on their website called “Greener Together” buried in their Corporate Responsibility section, I didn’t see any evidence of it in store. At the other end of the spectrum, it wasn’t hard at the Apple store to learn more about “the world’s greenest lineup of notebooks.”

I often hear from executives, “we don’t think the market is ready for sustainability. It’s not coming up in our research as an important purchase attribute.” I’d suggest that consumers can’t care about something they know nothing about. It’s the role of retail to help consumers make educated choices. Leading manufacturers should not only be demanding sustainability from their supply chains, they should also be pushing retailers — as their main customer point of contact — to help educate the market on the choices available.

A few retailers are paving the way. Marks & Spencer in the UK is probably one of the best-known examples, although US retailers are beginning to gain traction. Home Depot is my favorite US example with Eco Options, which includes a product certification program covering over 3,000 products, product labeling, in-store signage, and even a magazine. They’ve done an excellent job evaluating the entire customer experience and enabling customers to make informed purchase choices.

Other good examples are Whole Foods, the earliest pioneer in careful product selection, Staples EcoEasy program, and REI’s Ecosensitive labeling (although it’s hard to find from the home page). As much as Wal-Mart is doing in sustainability, I’m not seeing much action in customer-facing labeling or education… that said, I don’t live near one, so if you happen to have information on what Wal-Mart is doing in the customer experience I’d love to hear it.

Bottom line: embedding sustainability into the customer experience is crucial for moving the ball forward on these issues with customers. No one cares about a press release; they care that you’re making an effort to help them make smarter choices. This is how you not only attract existing values-driven buyers, but expand the entire market.

Oh, in case you’re interested, I ended up with a 15″ MacBook Pro. I’d like to say it was for all the information they provided on environmental considerations, but it’s just an unbelievably cool computer. Bye bye PCs!

Photo Courtesy of Laura Leavell

Jennifer is presenting “Building the Credible Sustainable Brand” at the Sustainable Brands’10 Conference. Green Economy Post Community discounts for the conference are available through 6/7/10.  Use code grnecosb10 and receive a 20% discount on All Event and Conference Only passes. Contact Nick Life to register, 415.626.2212.  For more information or to register online visit, www.sustainablebrands10.com

© 2010, Jennifer_Rice. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The Sustainable Brands 10 Conference, held in Monterey, CA from June 7-10, is probably the hottest ticket in town for people working with sustainability issues.  Over 700+ business and brand strategists, designers, sustainability executives,  and communications experts will attend this 4th annual gathering of business innovators focused on building brand value through sustainability.  Unfortunately, not all of us will be able to attend.  While we cannot get you there, we can do the next best thing…  Live blog Sustainable Brands 10 for you.

So, join us next week when we live blog the entire event.  Our team of seven sustainability experts will be providing analysis, tweeting, reporting, uploading images, conducting interviews, showcasing videos from the event each day.

To stay on top of all the coverage, sign up to receive our daily updates of of SB 10. You can also stay up to date with the Green Economy Post Sustainable Brands 10 Live Blog RSS Feed or follow along on twitter @greeneconpost.

Our coverage starts on Tuesday, June 8 at 9:00 am.

Tune in to our virtual coverage of Sustainable Brands ‘10 to get the inside scope on the following sessions: OPENING NIGHT; Welcome and Morning Kick Off; The Unfolding Green Brands Landscape: Notes on the Trendline; Re-Defining the Metrics of Success: The Emerging Measures of Qualitative Growth; Responsibility AND Profit: From Corporate Responsibility to Responsible Profit; Design for Behavior Change: Helping Consumers Co-Create a Better World; Today’s Data Explosion and the Drive to Radical Corporate Transparency; Open Innovation: An Apropos Paradigm Shift for Sustainable Brand Innovators; GreenXchange AND the Effort to Speed Eco-Innovation; Solutions Innovation to the Rescue: Making the Waste = Resource Connection; Telling Your Story: CSR Reporting Case Studies Unwrapped; CSR’s Seven Best Practices; Getting Beyond the Spreadsheet: New Tools for Measuring Impact; Collaborating To Protect Our Oceans; Today’s Top Disruptive Sustainable Business Ideas; Applying BioSphere Design Rules to Business ; Influencing Consumer Choice Toward Sustainable Consumption;Future Vision: 3 Snapshots of the Possible; Examining the Sustainable Brand Perception/Reality Gap; Thursday Welcome and Morning Kick-off; The Food Revolution: Rethinking Fast Food; You Are Where You Work: Making the Most of Your Office as Brand; The Path Toward an Abundant AND Sustainable Future: Making Reuse Cool;  and SBIO Winners/SB Leadership Awards/Call to Action: Brands & the American Dream

Tune in to our onsite coverage of Sustainable Brands 10 to get the scope on the following sessions: Green Brands, Global Insights – Lunch Session; Designing NGO/Brand Partnerships for Maximum Reciprocal Value; Motivating Mainstream Consumers to Make Sustainable Choices; Culture Shifts and Brands  ;Transparency vs. Secrecy: When to Talk & What to Say; Getting Beneath Consumer Segmentation: Attitudes and Values and Their Impact on Behavior; Zero $ Marketing: Building a Leading Sustainable Brand, “Organically”; Re-Balancing Your Communications Strategy for Today’s Communication Environment; Beyond Cause Marketing: The Next Frontier in Sustainable Brand Communications; The Sustainable Brands Community: Selling Ourselves (AND Other World Views, Too); How Many Ways Can You Say Green AND Eco AND Solar?; and Lessons From the Field: Driving Sales.

Follow the top Twitters attending Sustainable Brands ‘10 using our Sustainable Brands ‘10 Twitter List, to keep abreast what’s going on at the conference as it happens.

Schedule subject to change.

If you are covering Sustainable Brands 10 via Twitter, blog , video, or podcast drop us a line so that we can follow your coverage and notify our readers.

Green Economy Post Community discounts for Sustainable Brands 10 are available through 6/7/10.  Use code grnecosb10 and receive a 20% discount on All Event and Conference Only passes. Contact Nick Life to register, 415.626.2212.  For more information or to register online visit, www.sustainablebrands10.com

Meet Our Sustainable Brands Live Blogging Team

In March 2009, she decided to combine her technical and career management expertise with her passion for the environment, and with her husband, launched the Green Economy Post. Her sustainability and cleantech articles have appeared on SmartCompany.com, Reuters Green Business, The Matter Network, Environmental News Network, Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, Cleantechies.com, and Chem.Info. Follow Tracey on Twitter

Cecilia Lu is the founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing, a green marketing agency dedicated the development of sustainable businesses and practices. As the Networking Ninja of Kiwano Marketing, her passion is forging relationships through a mix of public relations and social media.

Cecilia has worked primarily with startups and non-profits in the past, and is well-versed in taking a big idea and small budget to the next level. Her years of experience in the ever-growing social media field provide valuable expertise for small businesses in both the strategy and implementation stages.

The Ninja’s drink of choice is a good single malt whiskey.  Get social: Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook.

Sofia’s articles are regularly featured in industry publications and she’s a contributor writer at The Green Economy Post. Sofia also volunteers with Stanley Park Ecology Society, Canadian Cancer Society and Metro Vancouver. Sofia was runner-up for the New Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009. Sofia also manages the Kiwano Green Marketing Blog. Sofia can be found on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook

He is also Entrepreneur.com‘s Green Business Coach and founder of EARTH 2017. Bill has been a pioneer in sustainability including participation in such marquee accomplishments as launching the first hydrogen fueled Prius as a proof of concept, developing solar power systems using emerging technologies and the design of Real Time Pricing that has enabled consumer acceptance of conservation technologies. His public service includes serving as a corporate sponsor of California’s pioneering legislation capping Green House Gas Emissions, serving on California’s Hydrogen Highway Task Force and serving as an expert witness on solar energy

Simply a student of the subject, he is interested in the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in building businesses that are profitable, but can help society in ways never before considered. Michael is striving to use this opportunity to share what he learns with like-minded individuals and hopes that he can add to the innovating discussion.

Naimish Upadhyay

Given his research and project experience, Naimish is eager to build a professional career in the areas of business sustainability, environmental management systems, sustainability assessment and reporting, and corporate social responsibility. Naimish looks forward to reader feedback.

Today, as a sustainability consultant, Julie speaks, writes, and advises clients on a variety of issues related to the intersection between environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices, and sustainable living. Visit Taiga Company’s website www.taigacompany.com.

Follow Julie on Twitter @TaigaCompany

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Numerous consumer polls proclaim increased spending on green products, but they fail to provide much insight into the actual purchase trends or specific decision drivers behind consumer choices. Instead of relying solely on such generalized market surveys, adoption of a strategic market research process will help businesses boost their revenue, reputation and competitive advantage from sustainability.

by Jennifer Rice, Principal with Fruitful Strategy. Jennifer is presenting “Building the Credible Sustainable Brand” at the Sustainable Brands’10 Conference. Follow Jennifer Rice on Twitter.

I’m a big fan of analogies; one of my favorites is equating customer relationships with personal, romantic relationships. If you ask a woman about the kind of guy she wants to marry, she might say, “handsome, rich, successful and exciting.” Fast-forward a few years and we see whom she actually marries: maybe a nice, average, middle-class bald guy who happens to be the best listener and makes her feel special. Perhaps these attributes that tipped the scale were ones that she didn’t anticipate or know how to value until she experienced them.

It makes intuitive sense that what people say is important isn’t always what motivates them at the moment of choice. And yet we read poll after poll that trumpet astonishingly high percentages of consumers who say “green is important” or that they’d spend more money on green products. This is like saying that 77% of all women want to marry a rich guy. I’m sure we all recognize that this statistic is neither realistic nor helpful.

What’s more reasonable is looking at actual purchase trends of green products.  Unfortunately what’s lacking here is the answer to why consumers made the decision for one brand over another. In a recent post I wrote about sizing your total available sustainability market (TASM); in other words, how many women are in the market for a nice guy. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, this market sizing isn’t based on what consumers say but what they actually do. We look at how many women are actually dating nice guys now.

After we identify and size the market, we then seek to understand what is driving their decisions in the moment of choice. Again, this isn’t based on what they say is important, but through research techniques that unveil the top attributes that actually motivate their choice. In the dating world, the top 3 attributes that motivate choice of a nice guy could include listening, thoughtfulness and “makes me feel special.” In the sustainability space it might be education, toxin-free and “makes me feel like I’m making a difference.”

So now you’ve figured out your market and what matters most to these buyers, whether specific attributes or emotional benefits. Now the question is, how does your business rate versus other alternatives in the market? You might find that you rate quite low on the #2 purchase driver, but you get high marks for the #4 purchase driver. This tells you what to promote in marketing today while addressing the sources of dissatisfaction that may be hindering sales.

This isn’t an easy process. But what you’ll get out of it are quantifiable steps to boost revenue, reputation and competitive advantage from sustainability.

Photo Courtesy of Andrzej Gdula

Jennifer is presenting “Building the Credible Sustainable Brand” at the Sustainable Brands’10 Conference. Green Economy Post Community discounts for the conference are available through 6/7/10.  Use code grnecosb10 and receive a 20% discount on All Event and Conference Only passes. Contact Nick Life to register, 415.626.2212.  For more information or to register online visit, www.sustainablebrands10.com

© 2010, Jennifer_Rice. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

An Excerpt from “Management Models for the Future” The EFQM Excellence Model helps us to: Ensure we have a clear and constant purpose; to focus on the delivery of results; focus on customers and how we can create value by better meeting their needs; focus by systematically applying processes and fact-based assessments to manage our business and to make us strategic decisions; identify what we need to do to develop our people and maximize their potential; derive value from meeting our responsibilities to the communities we serve; and archive sustainable excellence.

by Nikos Avlonas and John Swannich.  Nick Avlonas is leading the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence(CSE) 3rd North American Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Certification Workshop on June 17 – 18, in San Francisco, CA.

There is a coherent business approach which brings together all facets of corporate responsibility – leadership, values, policy and processes, people, customers and society – to deliver improved performance. The EFQM Excellence Model help us to:

• Ensure we have a clear and constant purpose, it help us to focus on the delivery of results.
• Focus on customers and how we can create value by better meeting their needs.
• Focus by systematically applying processes and fact‐based assessments to manage our business and to make us strategic decisions.
• Identify what we need to do to develop our people and maximize their potential.
• Derive value from meeting our responsibilities to the communities we serve.
• Archive sustainable Excellence.

The EFQM CSR Framework, based on the EFQM Excellence model, is more suited to its purpose than other CSR specific frameworks as it more obviously:

• Is business driven;
• Aligns corporate responsibility with business strategy;
• Aligns with balanced scorecard strategic and tactical priorities;
• Delivers intrinsic internal and external benchmarking opportunities;
• Facilitates stakeholder engagement at all levels of the organization.
• Links self‐assessment, improvement activity and external reporting.

The areas for improvement, identified in self‐assessment against the Framework, are translated into prioritized objectives and key performance indicators developed to measure performance against these objectives. Working with colleagues across the business, bringing their particular knowledge and expertise to bear on the process, those objectives will inevitably reflect key business unit priorities.

The intention for Lloyds TSB is to deliver corporate responsibility performance that reflects the key strategic priorities of the business and aligns the organization’s corporate responsibility priorities with the business strategy to deliver value.

1. A value based approach to corporate responsibility
Lloyds TSB is a major banking and insurance group, predominantly UK‐based, but with operations in some 25 countries around the world. At the end of 2006, we were Europe’s 13th largest bank by market capitalization.
We have nearly 63,000 employees worldwide, serving a franchise comprising some 16 million personal and business customers. Our operation in the UK is probable the largest in terms of distribution reach, serving urban and rural communities through a network of over 2,000 retail outlets in addition to other mainstream channels such as Internet and telephone banking.

Since the merger between Lloyds Bank and TSB Group in 1996 we have more than doubled profits, built significant market shares in the provision of retail financial services, and our cross‐selling ratio of products per customer is industry leading. In 2006, our post‐tax return on average shareholder equity was 26.6%.

This has been accomplished against the background of a huge amount of change in the UK financial services industry. Competition is intensifying, and the UK financial services market is facing up to the impact of ever increasing regulation and price controls.

But managing a multi‐billion pound operation comes from having total focus in what we do:
• Strategies and governance that deliver sustainable business growth – profitable growth – for our shareholders;
• Offering good products at the right price backed by a relentless pursuit of superior service and accessibility for customers;
• Developing a committed and engaged workforce operating at recognized global high performance standards.
Against this backdrop, how exactly does corporate responsibility fit into our business strategy?
In our view, there are three approaches to corporate responsibility:
• A way of doing business, ethically as a good corporate citizen. It’s about a value system with an agenda being driven from the top and absorbed throughout the organization…
• A disparate collection of policies and practices across different areas of business operation that have been bought together as part of an externally driven agenda to define a business’ social responsibilities…
• Conscious pursuit of a business strategy that recognizes that the development of a brand and a reputation which reflects the expectations of all stakeholders will create real business value.

They are not mutually exclusive. They are three points on a continuum that take us from corporate philanthropy at one end of the spectrum to value‐based corporations at the other, where external expectations demand a very hard focus on margin, productivity and investment performance.

That is the value‐based approach to corporate responsibility: a business strategy that recognizes that a brand and reputation, which reflect the expectations of all stakeholders, will create real business value. Corporate responsibility is no different from any other investment in the strategic assets and capabilities that drive business performance.

2. Integrating corporate responsibility in the business strategy
Our corporate vision is to make Lloyds TSB the best financial services company, first in the UK then across borders. Our CSR strategy is to support our corporate vision by helping to build a great place for our people to work, a great place for our customers to do business and generating great returns for our shareholders. In so doing, we believe we create value for all our stakeholders through:

• More effective risk management;
• Enhanced brand perception, consideration and commitment;
• Increased employee engagement;
• Increased customer satisfaction;
• Improved responsiveness to changes in patterns of customer behaviour;
• Supporting development of new markets and innovation in existing markets;
• Delivering competitive advantage through better corporate responsibility management.
There is a coherent business approach which brings together all aspects of managing stakeholder relationships and delivering value. We have been using the European Foundation of Quality Management’s Excellence Model for some ten years. Its greatest value to us comes from the framework it provides:

• The model helps us to ensure we have a clear and constant purpose; it helps us to focus on the delivery of results;
• It helps us to focus on customers and how we can create value by better meeting their needs;
• It helps us to focus by systematically applying processes and fact‐based assessments to manage our business and to make our strategic decisions;
• It also helps us to identify what we need to do to develop our people and maximize their potential;
• And it helps us to derive value from meeting our responsibilities to the communities we serve.

3. The EFQM Excellence Model

The EFQM Excellence Model is the most widely used organizational framework in Europe, Being used by at least 30,000 organizations across more that 20 European countries. There are similar approaches in the United Stated and Japan. The EFQM Excellence Model is based on eight fundamental concepts of Excellence – a set of axioms that define excellence for European organizations. Corporate responsibility is one of these concepts: “Excellence is exceeding the minimum regulatory framework in which the organization operates and to strive to understand and respond to the expectations of their stakeholders in society”.

We know from the research amongst UK businesses conducted in 2005 by the University of Leicester for the EFQM and British Quality Foundation that companies which adopt and embrace the Excellence Model are more likely to create wealth and shareholder value that those that don’t.

The research clearly demonstrates a direct relationship between adoption of the Excellence Model and an improvement in overall business performance. The primary message is that the Excellence Model has a very important role to play in improving UK productivity and competitiveness but the opportunities are still not being exploited to the full. Key findings from the research include:

• When the principles of the EFQM Excellence Model are effectively adopted, performance improves in both the sort and long term
• Adopting the Excellence Model significantly enhances company value for all stakeholders.

The EFQM Framework for CSR provides a complete CSR picture, while working within a framework that is about achieving organizational excellence. In essence, the EFQM Excellence Model is an organizational tool used to drive performance and continuous improvement, and the EFQM Framework for CSR signposts the key CSR fundamentals inherent in the tool.
The framework recognizes that, although the outcomes of an organization’s social and environmental policies may belong, very properly, under society results, the successful implementation of those policies depends upon how well it performs in all of the criteria. It is affected by:

• The effectiveness of leadership at all levels of the organization;
• Alignment of the organization’s policy and strategy with its overall mission and vision;
• How partnerships and resources and processes are managed;
• The awareness and commitment of people, as well as the way they are managed.

Success can be quantified by measuring people, customer, society and key business results. Together with the RADAR (Results, Approach, Deployment, Assessment & Review) scoring methodology, organizations are able to use the framework to assess themselves – to identify the strengths they should build on and the areas where they need to focus on improvement.

Furthermore, the framework helps organizations to report performance by optimizing the use of available information in a coherent approach which directly links inputs and outputs. The identification of all the appropriate stakeholders and the understanding of their potential needs and expectations is a crucial starting point for organizations that want to be more socially responsible.

The EFQM Framework for CSR enables the organization to:

• Research who all the stakeholders are;
• Understand what their expectations are;
• Understand which measures are needed to meet these expectations.

It is a comprehensive, systematic and regular review by an organization of its activities and results referenced. The self‐ assessment process allows the organization to discern clearly its strengths and areas in which improvements can be made and culminates in planned improvement actions that are then monitored for progress.

The primary purpose of undertaking self‐assessment is to better understand the status, the CSR maturity, of the organization and to drive continuous improvement. It can be linked to other management processes within the organization, primarily strategy development and business planning, particularly where the organization uses a common approach to these processes.

The EFQM Framework for CSR is far more suited to its purpose than other emerging corporate responsibility specific frameworks as it more obviously:

• Is business driven;
• Aligns corporate responsibility with business strategy;
• Complements balanced scorecard type approaches;
• Delivers intrinsic internal and external benchmarking opportunities;
• Facilitates stakeholder engagement at all levels of the organization.
• Links self‐assessment, improvement activity and external reporting.

The framework integrates CSR with stakeholder engagement in every activity and with many of the performance indicators of the organization. It focuses not only on direct results, but also on the causes and how to get there. And, since it is a management framework, not a standard, organizations can easily integrate existing standards (e.g. ISO 9000 and ISO 14000) into the framework.

Lloyds TSB has been integrally involved in development of the EFQM Framework for CSR. It was represented on the working group which devised it and was the first organization to test it through high‐level self‐assessment, in 2003.

There were a number of drivers behind Lloyds TSB’s involvement.

• The value‐based approach which it takes to corporate responsibility dictates that the company’s corporate responsibility strategy should be aligned with the strategic focus of business. That means that the corporate responsibility management model had to fit with the primary means of driving the company’s strategic and tactical priorities – the Balanced CSR are ideally suited as the model is, in itself, a balanced scorecard and there are clear synergies in the stakeholder focus of both approaches.

• Lloyds TSB’s corporate responsibility steering group of senior executives clearly wanted to develop a corporate responsibility management system that could be integrated throughout business and owned by individual business units rather than the central Corporate Responsibility team. Firstly, this reflected the complexion of the steering group which, although including heads of relevant functional disciplines such as Human Resources, Risk Management and Investor Relations, is fundamentally led by business unit leaders. Secondly, it ensured that responsibility is devolved throughout the business to key line management. Widespread familiarity with the EFQM Excellence Model across the organizations, its fit with the Balanced Scorecard and the essential business nature of the Framework, facilitated this objective.

• The company had ground‐breaking and award‐winning programs in corporate responsibility areas such as training and people development, equality and diversity, work‐life balance and community investment. But it recognized that this was not enough and had already indentified the need for a systemic approach which meant both developing programs in areas where it was not as strong and creating a commitment to continuous improvement where it was. This involved identifying and incorporating a range of corporate responsibility Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across the business building on existing Balanced Scorecard objectives within individual business unit. Working with individual business units to identify and implement improvement activity against agreed KPIs is inherent in the broad‐based self‐assessment and improvement focus of the EFQM approach.

4. Implementing the EFQM approach

In 2004, the group’s corporate responsibility team undertook a full‐company self assessment against the framework. In 2005, a number of representatives from key business units contributing to the group’s corporate responsibility profile participated in a more comprehensive self‐assessment. We identified areas for improvement which have been built into the balanced scorecard priorities of the corporate responsibility team. They included:

• Undertaking a self‐assessment across the business against the EFQM Framework for CSR
• Use existing data collection processes to inform the self‐assessment
• Use existing data collection processes to inform the self‐assessment and relate to external reporting
• Analyze performance and perception of performance against the framework and identify strengths and key areas for improvement
• Identify improvement priorities and improvement activity that aligns with Balanced Scorecard objectives for each business unit
• Set Key Performance Indicators and targets based on these priorities aligned with specific target measures under the Balanced Scorecard of individual business units
• Review progress with business unit on an ongoing basis and globally with the Corporate Responsibility Steering Group
• Share results and progress with relevant networks of employees throughout the business, to both highlight achievements and gain buy‐in to supporting improvement activity in individual business units.

In early 2007, the CR team undertook a series of review meetings with enablers to review progress against the identified areas for improvement. Progress against the objectives is detailed in the relevant sections of this report. From this review, and the self‐assessment
incorporating review evidence undertaken in March 2007, we have now developed a coherent set of strategic focuses to frame our primary objectives and actions going forward.

These are:
• CR management development;
• Better communication;
• Focused key stakeholder engagement;
• Confronting climate change;
• Increasing financial inclusion;
• Supporting brand positioning.

5. Results

Already we are seeing significant results from this process in our key focus areas:

5.1 Communication

Fundamental to our communications strategy is the belief in a corporate responsibility business case premised on the impact of our reputation on employee engagement. That is, not just in terms of employees’ perception of our social, environmental and ethical performance but, equally, in a greater understanding of how that responsibility is a feature of all our business operations. This employee “CR proposition” recognizes that effective communication of the link between business strategy and CR priorities will increase employees’ awareness and understanding and ultimately raise levels of engagement, commitment and advocacy f the organization as both an employer and provider of financial services.
In September 2006, as part of our communication segmented by stakeholder audience approach, we published an employee‐focused CR report for the first time. Workout reflected the key CR issues our employees told us they thought important in a series of focus groups in 2005 – responsible lending, people development, local community engagement and the environment – in a lively and engaging format. It was published as a supplement to our employee magazine, UpFront and circulated to all employees.

UpFront magazine itself is published monthly and contains a range of features and news stories on key CR events and issues. It builds on a daily intranet news service, UpFront News, which featured over 250 CR related news stories in 2006. This “bulletin” news stories are supplemented by extensive CR information, regularly updated, on the group’s corporate responsibility intranet site which is also linked to CR information on other business units’ intranet sites.

Our customer CR leaflet, “honest, trustworthy…who cares?”, containing case studies of our commitment to various stakeholder groups, was available from branches throughout 2006 and by early 2007, nearly 200,000 had been distributed.

5.2 Stakeholder engagement

Our interaction with communities through local opinion formers, community organizations, local authorities, as well as major local employers and the wider business community, is a critical platform for developing our brand and reputation with key stakeholder groups.
An estimated 20,000 Lloyds TSB employees are involved with these local stakeholder organizations in some form. For example, we employ around 1,500 school governors and hundreds of local councilors and magistrates. Much is represented by personal volunteer activity but there is also significant interaction on behalf of the company or in time supported by the company.

Some of the relationships are based on operational issues – maintaining our “license to operate” as a local business. Others reflect local business development priorities – the development of business introducer networks or building profile in critical local markets, for example.
Supporting local stakeholder engagement was a key CR objective for 2006. Over the year we have undertaken both qualitative and quantitative research amongst local branch directors, senior business mangers and Corporate Bank relationship directors. This has allowed us to develop a simple diagnostic tool for local managers to identify their own priorities, and a database of case studies illustrating the wealth of business best practice across the group.

We have also supported personal development activity in this area. The leadership and management curriculum of the University for Lloyds TSB includes a range of courses which can include short‐term “secondments” or interim management “consultancy” with external organizations. The approach is designed to both test individuals’ skills and competencies in a different environment and provide performance development in key stakeholder engagement approaches including networking and influencing skills. In 2006, such courses were part of the support to those people in the organizations moving from managing “self” to managing others and managing managers.

5.3 Climate change
The UK Government has stated its belief that climate change is the greatest long‐term challenge facing the world today. Measures to tackle climate change will have potential implications for regulation, taxation and public policy and will carry both risks and opportunities for companies and the public.

In respect of our own direct environmental impacts, our immediate priority is to reduce our carbon emissions. We have introduced a five‐year carbon management program, which, through a series of energy saving projects and other initiatives, will reduce our carbon footprint. We have a target to reduce property‐ related emissions and identified other opportunities in relation to waste reduction and business travel.
While our direct carbon intensity is relatively low compared to other industry sectors, we still need to fully understand the potential financial impact of climate change on others that we may lend to or invest in, so that we can manage the risks and identify business opportunities. We established a group‐wide Climate Forum, led by the deputy group chief executive, to develop a holistic approach to managing climate‐related risks and opportunities.

Using 2002 as the baseline, we have set a target to reduce our CO2 emissions by 30% by 2012. Having set this reduction target, we will offset those emissions we cannot reduce, commencing in 2007. This will make our operations carbon neutral.

5.4 Financial inclusion
Community finance initiatives offer a range of loans covering diverse requirements from debt refinancing, to home improvements and business start‐ups. We have supported a number of the early pilots with staff secondments and funding, using our expertise to develop appropriate processes. Lloyds TSB has also been involved in a wide range of projects on both a commercial and semi‐commercial basis, providing capital for loan funds which are on‐loaned to business start‐ups, micro‐business and social enterprises.

With our involvement in Change London, the Local Investment Fund, Bridges Community Ventures Fund, South Coast Money Line and Hampshire Community Banking Partnership, Lincolnshire Loan Fund, One London Limited, Wessex Development Fund, Prime, South West Investment Group and Arrow Fund, around GBP 10 million was committed to the sector in 2006. This is in addition to our normal commercial lending direct to small businesses in the most deprived areas.

South Coast Money Line (SCML) is a community development finance institution, providing a mix of unsecured personal and micro‐enterprise loan, and home improvement loans which are secured. This year, SCML launched a financial capability initiative called “Smart Money” to provide money and budgeting skills. SCML also provided a lead role in the development of a Community Banking Partnership for South Hampshire, in partnership with Portsmouth Housing Association and Lloyds TSB who are funding a project manager.

The SCML model of working in partnership to deliver a comprehensive financial inclusion project is also helping them become financially sustainable. Since commencing trading in May 2000, SCML has lent customers loans to the value of GBP 2 million. For the financial year ending March 2007, SCML will generate sufficient income from interest income and other contractual relations to cover up to 70% of its operating costs. These contracts are with housing associations, local authorities and Government. SCML now operates, either by directly delivering services or in partnership with sub‐contractual arrangements, in Hampshire, Devon and Sussex. To improve their sustainability still further SCML is working with the original funder Lloyds TSB and Community Finance Solutions from the University of Salford.

In 2006 we set up a Financial Inclusion Fund to finance research and development activities in promoting the long‐term sustainability of community finance and enhance the commercial attractiveness of lending to the sector.

5.5 Brand positioning
By the end of 2006, the group’s refreshing of its brand positioning saw the development of our “for the journey…” concept. This underpins the long‐standing commitment in our Group Code of Business Conduct (see www.lloydstsb.com/corporate_responsibility) to maintaining long‐term relations with our customers and the premise that honesty and integrity in our dealings with customers are prerequisites for a sustained and successful relationship. This, and Lloyds TSB’s sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympic and Paraolympic Games, with its legacy issues around economic regeneration, skills development social inclusion, community investment and youth, offers a tremendous platform for increasing the contribution of corporate responsibility to Lloyds TSB’s brand identity.

Co-Author, Nick Avlonas is leading the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence(CSE) 3rd North American Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Certification Workshop on June 17 – 18, in San Francisco, CA. Green Economy Post readers who mention Green Economy when registering to receive a 25% discount off of the regular rate for participation. For more information please visit the The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence web site or  contact Nick Andrews at nick@cse-northamerica.org or call 773 714 5065.

About Nick Avlonas: Nikos Avlonas is an Adjunct Professor of Management at the American College of Greece (the largest American educational organization in Europe). Among his areas of expertise are corporate social responsibility (CSR), and total quality and supply-chain management. He lectures for executive MBA programs at the French International College of Business and Management (ESCEM) and at the Sheffield Hallam University in the U.K.

As a management consultant specializing in business excellence performance, he has carried out numerous projects for leading organizations in Greece and Europe, including Fortune Global 500 Companies such as BP Consumer Europe, Dell Computers, McCain, LLoyds TSB, TNI, Eurobank Ergasias, Deutsche Post, and Famar, as well as with the 2003 European Quality Award Winner and Role Model Organization, CocoMat.He has served as Special Advisor and Senior Assessor for European organizations developing CSR supported by the European Commission and United Nations.

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence(CSE) is launching its 3rd North American Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Certification Workshop on June 17 – 18, in San Francisco, CA, USA. The workshop is a two-day intensive program for all professionals responsible for the management of Sustainability, who may acquire the skills and competencies required to become Qualified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioners and earn an internationally recognized business qualification. The workshop is recognized by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA). 

Green Economy Post readers who mention Green Economy when registering to receive a 25% discount off of the regular rate for participation.

The Accredited Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Workshop is designed for professionals within the following fields: General Management, Environmental Services, Public Relations, Human Resources, Marketing and Communications. Participants will gain an advanced understanding of Sustainability (CSR), acquire appropriate skills and knowledge leading to added value and authenticity to their organizations, as well as earn an internationally recognized business qualification.

This  workshop acts as a stepping-stone for organizations that want to progressively implement sustainability into their operations. At present, more than 120 professionals have attended the workshop  in Athens, Brussels, Chicago and Dubai. The Practitioner’s workshop has been designed for all professionals responsible for the management of Sustainability, CSR, Marketing, and Public Relations activities of their organizations.

Sustainability Roundtable Event

The CSE Sustainability Roundtable Series Event will follow day one of the IEMA training. The CSE and TerraPass, the well-respected offset provider based in San Francisco, are proud to host this no fee event. On June 17, at 5:30pm the CSE will host a roundtable discussion around the topic of sustainability in the supply chain, titled, “Measuring & Addressing Environmental Impacts throughout the Entire Life Cycle and Supply Chain”.  The roundtable event is an effort to engage business professionals responsible for implementing Sustainability into their operations and supply chains.  All interested professionals must RSVP at info@cse-northamerica.org.

Trainer: Nikos Avlonas & Visiting Experts

Key issues to be covered:
This  2-day course enables participants to acquire the skills and competencies required to become qualified CSR practitioners. Through specialized, detailed, and highly focused training, it provides them with the tools and necessary practical framework to improve CSR decision making, manage risks, measure performance, and to create and leverage partnerships.

The value of CSE training events comes from the small group workshops that are held over the two days. This approach allows participants to learn of the experiences and approaches of their peers working in the field, while also taking direction from CSE trainers.

Upon completion of the course, the trainees are able to apply their knowledge in all levels of Sustainability and CSR from the development and implementation of effective CSR strategies, to reporting and communication.

Course programs and agendas can be provided upon request.

The key topics to be covered include:

* CSR AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS
* GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE
* FUTURE TRENDS AND LEGISLATION OF CSR AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE U.S. AND WORLDWIDE
* THE STAKEHOLDER APPROACH AND CSR
* GREEEN AND SOCIAL CAUSE RELATED MARKETING
* GLOBAL STANDARDS/MODELS/GUIDELINES AND TOOLS FOR PRACTICAL CSR INTEGRATION
* CSR AND SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
* CSR ACTION PLAN FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION (PREREQUISITE FOR PRACTITIONER QUALIFICATION)

The next Sustainability CSR Practitioner Workshop will take place in Washington D.C., U.S.A on September 13-14, 2010.  Green Economy Post readers who mention Green Economy when registering to receive a 25% discount off of the regular rate for participation.

About Centre of Sustainability and Excellence
CSE is a training, advising organization & Think Tank with offices in Chicago, Athens, Brussels and Cyprus specialized in providing sustainable development solutions to various corporations and institutions. CSE is a GRI organizational stakeholder since 2007 and a GRI certified training provider. CSE represents the outcome of the cooperation between experts and scientists, who deal with, apply and provide support in the most advanced practical methodologies towards sustainability, while adhering to social and environmental criteria. Through its network of international partners, CSE offers coaching in a vast array of advising services promoting Sustainability & Excellence to Organizations, Society and Governments. CSE is operating in more than 10 countries.

For more information please visit the The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence web site or  contact Nick Andrews at nick@cse-northamerica.org or call 773 714 5065.

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Although globalization can help create additional value and increased efficiencies for national economies, it has an obvious negative impact in terms of the ecological costs of transportation. However, global trade’s more severe but less-understood threat to sustainability is its incompatibility with the carrying capacities of our natural ecosystems.

by Asheen Phansey, President of Quaking Aspen, LLC and Adjunct Professor, Babson College.  Read Asheen’s Blog.  Follow Asheen on Twitter.  Asheen is presenting “Working With Biomimicry as an Innovation Framework” at the Sustainable Brands’10 Conference.

Modern economics says that global trading can often create additional value for all involved. A country’s economy will function more efficiently if it produces an excess of goods that are easier for it to make and trades these for other goods; that’s a basic extension of the concept of division of labor. The obvious negative impacts of global trading are transportation costs, both financial and ecological; but if we can develop cleaner modes of transportation, surely the positive economic effects outweigh the ecological costs?

I had thought as much, until Professor Ben Linder of Olin College of Engineering made me rethink my assumptions. In a sustainability workshop that I’ll be chewing on for a while, Ben said that global trade’s real threat to sustainability has to do not with transportation costs, but with carrying capacities.

First, a brief ecology lesson. Picture a world of three tribes: the Sumerians, Babylonians and Phoenicians. For simplicity, these ancient people need only three things to survive: stones (for building houses), barley, and fruit, say one unit per person. Each tribe practices an internal division of labor and produces some of each resource.

Each tribe’s skills and geography are differently suited for producing each resource, but all three resources are equally necessary for survival, so for each tribe only one resource is the limiting factor to growth. Let’s say in our case, Sumer is always scrounging for stones; the Babylonians are often bereft of barley; and fruits are few and far between in Phoenicia. If each tribe can make 1000 units of its scarce resource, but can make 2500 of the other two, each can still only support 1000 people; so the world population is 3000.

Now the tribes discover trade. Each tribe barters some of its two excess resources to the one deficient in each, so now the resources are distributed evenly at 2000 each of stones, barley, and fruit. Now, each tribe can support 2000 people. Without producing any new resources, the population of the world has doubled! And with further specialization, production will likely increase as well. Clearly, the more tribes you can trade with, the fewer your resource limitations to growth.

So why is in-tribe division of labor a good thing, but cross-country trading detrimental to the planet? Because ecosystems can’t trade natural resources. A tribe’s ecosystem is resilient as long as its resources don’t flow out, but the earth can’t ship fertile soil to Phoenicia in exchange for some cleaner water elsewhere if Phoenicia depletes all of its crop nutrients. Yet that’s surely what will happen if the whole world demands Phoenician fruits from land that wasn’t evolved to support the needs of the trade-burgeoned domestic population, let alone the entire world.

This was happening long before the world “flattened”. Ben is fond of telling the story of the collapse of the Atlantic cod population, a resource that put Boston on the world map. Over the last few centuries, “tribes” from around the world traded their resources for Atlantic cod and literally fished it out of George’s Bank. There are cod species elsewhere, but since George’s Bank can’t exactly trade for this top-tier predator, its entire food web is now going through an unstable flux known as a trophic cascade in the cod’s absence. (Read the fascinating history of George’s Bank.)

There are other ways that global operations can stymie sustainability, such as introducing lags into the feedback loops for optimal production, but this argument of carrying capacities seems to be the main challenge. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it, though.

Photo Courtesy of Rafael Ortman

© 2010, aphansey. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Sustainable Life Media kicked off Sustainable Brands Boot Camp – Seasons 2 with an in-depth presentation, “Understanding Ecological Overshoot”, on the world’s ecological balance sheet.

by Aysu Katun, Green Economy Post

Susan Burns, sustainability expert and CEO of Global Footprint Network, gave an in-depth presentation on the world’s ecological balance sheet in the first session of Sustainable Life Media’s Sustainable Brands Boot Camp – Season 2.

The session, “Understanding Ecological Overshoot”, focused on the looming problem facing businesses and societies in an increasingly resource-constrained world as many developing and developed nations are increasing their consumption, and becoming “Ecological Debtors”, countries where national consumption has outstripped their country’s biological capacity.

The Global Footprint Network uses a tool called the “Ecological Footprint” to determine which nations are ecological debtors and which are ecological creditors. The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of biologically productive land and water to meet the demand for resources a population consumes and absorb the corresponding waste. It compares human demand on nature with the biosphere’s ability to regenerate resources and provide services. By doing so, it is possible to estimate how many planet Earths it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle and examine to what extent a nation uses more (or less) than is available within its territory.

According to the Global Footprint Network, 81 percent of the world’s population lives in countries that use more resources than what is renewably available within their own borders. These countries rely for their needs on resource surpluses concentrated in ecological creditor countries, which use less biocapacity than they have.

Burns stated that turning resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources is what causes global ecological overshoot, depleting the very resources on which human life and biodiversity depend. According to moderate UN scenarios, if current population and consumption trends continue, there could be a large-scale ecosystem collapse by the middle of the century since at that time we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us. Ecological overshoot also contributes to resource conflicts and wars, mass migrations, famine, disease and other human tragedies.

Since we do not have two Earths, how do we create a society where all people can live well within the means of one planet?

Burns suggested that three changes need to be made by 2050:

1. Moving the bars: getting more out of the planet (e.g. enhancing bio-productivity)
2. Limbo-dancing: discovering how we can have sustainable consumption, eco efficiency and closed loops
3. Leap-frogging: developing solutions that improve people’s quality of life without the old trend towards resource consumption

To make these changes happen, the Global Footprint Network has developed the following programs that are designed to influence decision makers at all levels of society to bring about new solutions and spark a global dialogue about ecological limits.

• The Ten-in-Ten campaign engages national governments to establish the Ecological Footprint as a prominent, globally accepted metric as ubiquitous as the GDP.
• Programs for cities support cities in planning their adaptation for an ecologically constrained future. The Ecological Footprint tracks a city or region’s demand on biocapacity, and compares their demand with the amount of biocapacity available. This sheds light on the region’s constraints or future liabilities, and identifies opportunities to defend or improve the local quality of life.
• Programs for businesses provide data on ecological constraints and help the world’s business leaders predict risks, and see opportunities in leading the charge for a resource-efficient future.
• Programs for countries assist national governments in assessing the value of their country’s ecological assets, identifying the risks associated with ecological deficits, setting policy that makes safeguarding resources a top priority and measuring progress toward their goals.
• The Sustainable Human Development initiative is developed to define what it really means to meet human needs while maintaining natural capital.

Programs like these are expected to redirect investments toward making sustainable human development a reality.

“It is possible to develop solutions and pathways that take us on-track to a sustainable world by 2050 through major and mutually supporting changes in how we run our societies, industry, economy, policy, lifestyles and values” said Burns.

The full presentation including questions and answers, video, and PDF slides are available on-demand to participants of the Boot Camp Series.

© 2010, Aysu Katun. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

With the Sustainable Brands 2010 Conference quickly approaching, consumers are asking more and more the same questions: What is a sustainable brand? How are they different from the rest?

by Sofia Ribeiro, Founder and co-owner of Kiwano Marketing, Read Sofia’s Blog.  Follow Sofia on Twitter.  Sofia is presenting a free webinar, Turning Green Into Gold: Green Marketing Tips For Sustainable Businesses on May 25, at 1:00pm PST / 4:00pm EST.

Back in 2008, Delia Bonfilio asked the same question when writing for Fast Company. Back then, the term ‘sustainability’ was only connected with the growth potential of a given brand.

Nowadays, the definition of what makes a sustainable brand is broader, and is commonly associated with green and/or ethical businesses. Sustainability now stands for the triple bottom line: planet, people, profits. Nonetheless, sustainable, green or ethical brands (whichever term is more alluring to you) must still meet the old-fashion sustainability requirements in order to survive.

So How Do We Define A Sustainable Brand?

In order to own a truly sustainable brand, businesses must integrate environmental, social and economic sustainability across the 3 brand elements:

Products/Services: the products or professional services that the company offers and the markets/clients that it serves.

Business Standards: the unique tools, processes, business strategies, delivery methods, knowledge base, core values and techniques that the company brings to a project.

Company Style: the organization’s personality, the way that businesses communicate and relate to the marketplace, and the distinct flair that the company possesses.

But this is not enough. To own a sustainable brand, businesses must also:

1. Have a policy in place, documenting all the values and standards the business stands for and acts on.
2. Incorporate the principles of environmental, social and economic sustainability into each of the business decisions.
3. Supply environmentally and community friendly products or services that replace the demand for the non-sustainable versions of the same product/service.
4. Be greener and more socially responsible than traditional competition.
5. Make an enduring commitment to environmental and social principles in its business operations.

Where To Start

It can be a daunting task to implement sustainable practices across the multiple areas of a company. A practical example of how to build a sustainable brand is brought to us by Unilever and its Brand Imprint Process. The Brand Imprint Process provides a structured framework for brand teams to understand and assess how sustainability issues impact – and are impacted – by their products. The process and its metrics help integrate sustainability considerations into the everyday business processes of the categories and brands. This holistic architecture helps organizations integrate social and environmental sustainability into the corporate business strategy.

Unilever's Vitality Framework

Taking Sustainability To The Next Level

Nowadays, sustainable organizations can no longer afford to implement eco and socially responsible practices only within their business – organizations must now look upstream and downstream, and assess if these practices are being put to work by the company’s partners, the partner’s partners and even by the organization’s clients. A company today isn’t just responsible for the product it sells anymore; it’s also accountable for all the components that go into that product, and how the product is managed across its lifecycle, including when the product becomes obsolete.

Impacts and Influences of a Sustainable Brand

For instance, Nestlé was heavily criticized for doing business with Sinar Mas, the largest producer of palm oil in Indonesia. Sinar Mas supplies many food, drink, cosmetic and biofuel companies worldwide, and is breaking Indonesian law by clearing protected forests for its palm oil plantations. When Nestlé went under fire for doing business with such an unsustainable company, the famous food company cancelled all its contracts with Sinar Mas. But despite the contract cancellations, palm oil from destroyed forests still remains in Nestlé’s supply chain: the other Nestlé suppliers still buy from Sinar Mas. The result: stronger criticism.

Another example of how demanding customers and communities are nowadays is the increase of legislation demanding companies to implement take-back programs. Businesses now are legally bound to implement processes to repossess products at the end of their lifecycle, hence decreasing the amount of waste that end up in landfills. We’ve seen this trend especially in the electronics markets, with Nokia and HP leading the way.

The Bottom-Line

In order to build a sustainable brand, businesses must develop a brand that is positioned to grow, consistently integrating environmentally and socially responsible values across everything the company does, from operations and its supply chain to its products and services, clients, partners and even investors.

© 2010, Sofia_Ribeiro. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Justmeans, in cooperation with The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), announced last week: ‘The Emerging Voice’ Sustainability Blogging Competition. As a main media sponsor of The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency, Justmeans will be giving away two tickets to this year’s GRI conference taking place on 26 – 28 May, 2010 in The Netherlands. The competition is designed to attract social media enthusiasts looking to grow their network of followers by providing global exposure through the Justmeans network of over 150,000 socially responsibly companies and clients.

The contest winners will also be given the opportunity to blog at the 2010 GRI Conference with the task of covering the pulse of the debates on the future of reporting. These daily blog submissions will be featured on the Justmeans’ website along with special speaker interviews taken place during the conference.

What is the Award?

One 3-day pass to the 2010 GRI Conference (valued at 1600 Euros) plus travel and accommodation reimbursement of up to 1000 Euros (travel Visas are the responsibility of the winners).

To Apply:

Contest participants should submit one article or blog related to one of the many conference session topics in the fields of CSR and Sustainability. For more information on the Challenge or to submit an entry, visit: http://www.justmeans.com/take-action/GlobalReportingInitiative

For more information contact Deb Berman at dberman@justmeans.com

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Increasingly more companies are starting to publish sustainability reports, which as a management tool for businesses can have significant benefits.

by Aysu Katun, Green Economy Post

As a result of regulators requiring environmental and social reporting, and growing interest from customers, partners, employees, and other stakeholders in their company’s impact on its surrounding environment, increasingly more companies are starting to publish sustainability reports.

Sustainability reporting is designed to provide information on a company’s environmental, social and economic performance and impacts and the initiatives for improving performance in these areas. As stakeholders of organizations demand more transparency from profit and not-for-profit entities, environmental and sustainability reporting is a means to address this demand. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSB) defines sustainability reports as “public reports by companies to provide internal and external stakeholders with a picture of corporate position on activities on economic, environmental and social dimensions.” Effective sustainability reporting quantifies, measures, and tracks environmental and social performance in the same form it tracks financial performance: with metrics analyzed over time.

The benefits of sustainability reporting as a management tool for businesses can be significant. The process of reporting highlights weaknesses and calls attention to areas of improvement that actually enhance their performance if management acts on this information.

The measurement and tracking procedures that must be put in place to gather data enable analysis of energy, water, waste, and purchases. These data are in turn accessible for making decisions on capital expenses, retrofits, and programs. Sustainability reporting prompts continual improvement and better data management, which in return improves business performance, operational efficiency and cost savings.

The utility of conventional financial reporting is increasingly disconnected from what stakeholders need and expect to make informed decisions. Sustainability reporting provides critical information for business analysis that is normally absent from financial reports and it facilitates financial reports with forward-looking information that could enhance the report users’ understanding of such key value drivers as human capital formation in the company, corporate governance, management of environmental risks and liabilities and the capacity to innovate.

Sustainability reporting also:

• Supports company strategy and shows commitment to sustainable development
• Serves as a guide to CSR and environmental programs, which facilitates continuity in the face of turnover and organizational shifts
• Enables companies to identify and address business risks and opportunities. Understanding risks and dealing with those risks appropriately saves companies time, money and avoids loss of reputation
• Ensures transparent communication and engagement with stakeholders in respect to the company’s sustainability performance and provides the consumer and other interest groups with all the relevant information to make informed choices. Thus sustainability reporting improves communication, trust and reputation with all stakeholders, including investors, credit agencies, customers, employees, and business partners.
• Helps to attract capital from green investors by identifying new markets and business opportunities and
• Demonstrates the long-term, sustainable financial value of an organization.

To help companies make informed choices when developing their sustainability reports, Deloitte has identified six best practices to consider based on a review of some of the country’s leading reporters:

Adopt appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs): Leading companies rely on internationally recognized KPIs to measure the performance of their corporate responsibility programs. In addition to aligning their report with standardized guidelines, these companies are increasingly adopting leading indicators to track performance, which aids in the design of their reporting infrastructures, the standardization of multiple business units and the adoption of an enterprise-wide reporting system.

Involve numerous stakeholders: To ensure corporate policies and reporting remain responsive to stakeholder needs, many companies are creating corporate responsibility advisory panels that bring together independent and sometimes adversarial stakeholders to advise the company and share their views on corporate responsibility practices and reporting.

Obtain third-party verification of non-financial information: Robust corporate responsibility programs include measures for non-financial information. As reliance on these reports by stakeholders such as the investor and financial communities continues to increase, so do the risks related to data quality and integrity. Leading organizations are increasingly managing this risk by obtaining third-party assurance on relevant non-financial performance information.

Leverage reporting efforts to further embed corporate responsibility across the organization: The development of a corporate responsibility report takes a significant amount of time, effort and resources. Leaders in corporate responsibility are effectively leveraging the intensive efforts of producing reports and are using the information to assist in informing and shaping their corporate responsibility strategies.

Cross-reference hard copy reports to corporate web sites: To reduce the amount of paper they use, many organizations produce short hard-copy reports that refer readers to more detailed information online. Often, the information available on corporate web sites allows stakeholders to drill down to details of particular interest to them.

Keep abreast of reporting innovations: Some industries display ongoing creativity in their reporting practices. Mining, forestry, and oil and gas companies often disclose corporate responsibility information at the individual site level. For their part, financial services organizations have begun to address sustainability from an investment standpoint. For organizations striving to create both social and business value through their corporate responsibility programs, there is always room for improvement.

Has sustainability reporting helped to improve your organization’s bottomline?  If so, tell us how in the comments section below.

Photo Courtesy of Daniel Wildman.

© 2010, Aysu Katun. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Whereas corporate sustainability refers to the balance of the financial, social and environmental aspects of an organization, exponential sustainability is the achievement of such a synergy on a society level. This happens when companies begin to reach out and look beyond their own perceived interests. Companies are increasingly building coalitions and partnering with non-profits in order to achieve this goal, and in the process, realize several associated benefits.

by Anna Clark, President of EarthPeople and Author of Green, American Style: Becoming Earth-Friendly and Reaping the Benefits. Follow Anna Clark on Twitter.

As the business sector searches for new and better ways to go green, a strange but wonderful phenomenon is emerging.  Increasingly, companies are partnering with non-profits and building coalitions with each other to further green initiatives.  A good partnership can help participating entities maximize resources, grow their client base and enhance visibility.  We used to call this synergy.  Yet, the outcomes of such arrangements can be so far-reaching that “synergy” doesn’t describe it.  I propose a new term: exponential sustainability.

If corporate sustainability is the balance of the financial, social and environmental aspects of an organization, achieving this balance at a society level can lead to exponential change, hence exponential sustainability.  This begins to happen when companies reach outside themselves to pursue green initiatives that go beyond their own perceived interests.

Numerous case studies illustrate the ripple effect of positive partnerships and coalitions.  A good example is the Clinton Climate Initiative.  The William J. Clinton Foundation has created an arrangement among four energy service companies and five global banking institutions that will result in major environmental upgrades in 16 of the world’s largest, most polluted cities.

Collectively, the banks, which include Citigroup, Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, JP Morgan Chase & Co., UBS AG, and ABN Amro, will commit $1 billion to finance energy efficient building upgrades in municipal buildings in participating cities.  “They’re going to save money, make money, create jobs and have a tremendous collective impact on climate change all at once,” Mr. Clinton said of the partners in the initiative in a prepared statement.  That is exponential sustainability in a nutshell.

Another coalition leading to sweeping change is the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). The group’s mission is to urge the federal government to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60-80 percent and to create business incentives.  The 22 USCAP member companies, including GM, Shell and Dow Chemical, represent industries critical to slowing climate change.  The corporate partners join six non-profit advocacy groups in this mission.

Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense says of the USCAP, “We chose a cap-and-trade approach because it guarantees the emissions cuts we need, while it unleashes cash and creativity from the private sector. This plan is a jobs winner as well as an environmental winner.” By teaming up with non-profits, big businesses are able to proactively shape and promote creative solutions before they must face potentially less- favorable regulations.

Even just one company together with one non-profit can change the course of an industry.  One example is the partnership between Allianz Group, one of the world’s largest insurance providers, and WWF, a global leader in environmental conservation.  The partnership seeks to address the growing impact of climate change-induced damages, such as flooding, forest fires and storm damages, on the insurance industry.

Allianz started the project to protect the interests of its customers, as climate changes could make insurance unaffordable for customers in high-risk areas.  In fact, in states vulnerable to hurricanes, insurance rates are already increasing and in some cases, insurers are exiting these markets altogether.  In the process of addressing the possible consequences of climate change, this partnership has been engaging governments and regulators to work with the insurance industry to find solutions.

The business sector used to focus purely on financials, leaving the job of curing societal ills to non-profits.  However, one recent survey revealed that 81% of MBA students polled said that business should work toward “the betterment of society.”  As more large companies embrace sustainability as a strategic goal, they recognize that non-profits may have superior experience in the business of “betterment.”

Partnering with non-profits was once a philanthropic endeavor.  Today, companies are discovering that by partnering with non-profits on green initiatives, they can gain expertise, resources and recognition without the costs of going green alone.  Such partnerships represent more of a symbiotic, rather than subordinate, relationship between the business and non-profit sectors.

As the threat of global warming becomes reality, sole focus on competitive advantage is giving way to cooperation among industry contenders, many of which are now building coalitions for the greater good.  Can this paradigm shift be the silver lining to climate change?

The concept of exponential sustainability may still lie at the far end of the sustainability spectrum.  Most companies would do well just to start evaluating their emissions and improve energy efficiency within their own walls.  But if you decide that exponential sustainability belongs on your company’s strategic horizon, the right partnership can rapidly propel you there.

Where does a company source partnerships opportunities?  How does a company begin to build a coalition?  Large companies are more likely to be approached by groups than small and mid-sized companies, although exponential sustainability can work for any-size enterprise.  Smaller companies can hire a sustainability consultant to help them craft a sustainability strategy that includes finding partnerships within their industry or community.

If you are the owner of a smaller company, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel if you can join an initiative in your town or neighborhood that is already gaining steam.  Seek out opportunities to support local programs spearheaded by your community or city council.  By adding your resources and contacts to the effort, you gain visibility and standing among the very people you would like for customers and clients.

Small businesses may find that by tying green initiatives to their communities, they can inspire employees and existing clients to participate. Even small-scale partnerships and collations can create momentum around sustainability.

I can’t help but think of the recycling container at my daughter’s school, filled to capacity every week by moms eager to see the school reap financial rewards from their refuse.  Yet, moms all over Dallas, when left to their own devices, often fail to put out their recyclables every week if the relatively low recycling rate in our city is any indicator.  My point: people will work harder when coming together to reach a collective goal than they will when acting alone.

Economist Milton Friedman said, “The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.”  In the scheme of impeding climate change, partnerships and coalitions based on this principle do more than benefit the partners; they give hope to us all.   Now that is what I call exponential sustainability.

Photo Courtesy of Svilen Milev.

© 2010, Anna Clark. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Sustainable Brands 2010 – Where the Sustainability & Brand & Design Communities Come Together to Build Brand Leadership. Monterey Conference Center, June 7-10. Join 700+ sustainability executives, business and brand strategists, designers, and communications experts who are building brand value through sustainability.

Join market-making companies such as Hewlett Packard, Bumble Bee Tuna, IDEO, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia, Coca-Cola, Clorox, Nestle, 3M, Life Technologies, Williams Sonoma, SAP and many others at SB’10.

Come to SB’10 for in depth pre-conference workshops on Day 1 and thought provoking keynotes, panel discussions, and afternoon breakouts filling three exciting days of extraordinary conversation, inspiration and insights…

• Full Tracks focused on the core tenants of a successful sustainable business innovation cycle: Observe, Re-Design, Measure, and Communicate
• Sustainable Innovation Open: a unique opportunity for emerging sustainable businesses to pitch their ideas to potential investors, partners and peers
• Research Round Tables: leading sustainability and brands researchers present just released studies on brand awareness, consumer expectations, and market trends
• World Oceans Day celebration at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and many other exciting networking events

View the entire Conference Program Government rates. Volunteer opportunities. Registration is now open and seating is limited. Monterey Conference Center, June 7-10.

Who Should Attend

Sustainability Executives - find new ideas, partners and tools
Sustainability and CSR leaders come to Sustainable Brands to find new ideas, partners and tools to help them prioritize, manage, measure and communicate their corporate CSR/sustainability initiatives to better business advantage.  Learn more

Brand Strategists – build authentic, transparent brands
Brand managers come to Sustainable Brands to learn how leaders are building authentic, transparent sustainable brands that leverage the core strengths of their business while responding to changing stakeholder expectations. Learn more

Designers & Innovators - better product and service design
Designers come to Sustainable Brands to be inspired and equipped to apply their design skills and thinking to help solve some of the most pressing needs of the day through better product and service design. Learn more -

Marketers & Communications Pros – tools and language to talk about sustainable innovation
Communications Professionals come to Sustainable Brands to learn how to use the right channels, tools and language to talk about their company’s sustainable innovation in a way that is impactful, transparent and powerful, and leads to stronger sales, happier employees and more engaged stakeholders.  Learn more.

Register for SB’10 by May 16th to receive Best Prices, which are 20% below Full Price (beginning 5.17).

View the entire Conference Program

Note: Green Economy Post is a Sustainable Brands Media Partner

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

A newly-released Pew Center report “From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency,” documents that US companies are increasingly pursuing innovative energy efficiency strategies to boost productivity and cost savings, while reducing their carbon footprint.

by Debbie Van Der Hyde, Green Economy Post

From the manufacturing shop to the management suite, companies focused on energy efficiency initiatives report billions of dollars in savings and millions of tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.

Published by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the report “From Shop Floor to Top Floor: Best Business Practices in Energy Efficiency” documents that US companies are increasingly pursuing innovative energy efficiency strategies to boost productivity and cost savings, while reducing their carbon footprint. The Pew Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing credible information, straight answers and innovative solutions in the effort to address global climate change.

“Energy efficiency is smart business,” said Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “In addition to dollar savings, companies that get serious about energy efficiency often realize other important benefits including improved corporate reputation, productivity increases, better worker morale and employee retention.”

The report includes the findings of the Pew Center’s 65-question energy efficiency survey, which was distributed to nearly 100 companies to gather quantitative data and discover trends in corporate energy efficiency. A key finding is that climate change has reframed corporate energy strategies.

“Companies that take on carbon footprinting and reduction strategies quickly come to see their energy use in a whole new light,” says Claussen.

According to the report, when companies calculate their carbon footprint, they typically find that their energy consumption accounts for the great majority of their directly measurable emissions impact. “Viewed in this light, energy efficiency becomes a sustainability imperative,” Claussen adds.

The report also contains seven core elements of an exemplary corporate energy efficiency strategy and best practices in internal operations, supply chain, and products and services that have proven to be salient among the best energy efficiency strategies. Companies that have achieved the greatest success with their energy efficiency strategies share several key attributes, according to The Pew Center report. These attributes include:

• A commitment to energy efficiency must start at the top. Strong leadership from senior managers, including the company CEO, is essential to getting an energy efficiency strategy started and sustaining it over time.
• Results can be maximized by expanding efficiency efforts to suppliers and customers. Many companies have found that much of their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions occur outside of their own direct operations. As a result, companies are reaching out across their value chain to tap into even larger energy savings opportunities.
• An emphasis on energy efficiency can lead to broader innovation and process improvements within a company. As companies in this study have found, the benefits of energy efficiency go beyond dollars saved and carbon emissions reduced; it can also lead to product quality and productivity improvements.

The report features six in-depth case studies of the energy efficiency efforts of Dow Chemical Company, United Technologies Corporation, IBM, Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America, Inc., PepsiCo and Best Buy.

According to the report, these companies have achieved dramatic energy savings by following a relatively simple set of principles. The Pew Center says it hopes other companies will learn from the best practices and implement or strengthen their own efficiency initiatives.

The report was developed over nearly two years of effort, including a detailed survey of the Pew Center’s Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC) members and other leading companies. Established by the Pew Center in 1998, the BELC is comprised of mainly Fortune 500 companies in energy, automobiles, manufacturing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, metals, mining, paper and forest products, consumer goods and appliances, telecommunications, and high technology. Individually and collectively, these companies are demonstrating that it is possible to take action to address climate change while maintaining competitive excellence, growth, and profitability.

Additional inputs for the report include a series of workshops on key energy efficiency topics and broader research in the corporate energy field.

© 2010, Debbie Van Der Hyde. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Sustainable Life Media is kicking off Sustainable Brands 2010 in Monterey, CA on June 7-10, 2010 with the “#powerofAND” online campaign, a search for stories that combine two ideas to create a powerful concept with AND.

Three winners will get a virtual event pass to the leading sustainability conference of the year, a prize valued at $595. The pass is a full-access streaming live video of opening night and all of the plenary sessions. Virtual attendees can ask questions to the speakers, via the virtual chat link. After the conference winners will have access to all session materials, and will also be included in the private, online community of Sustainable Brands alumni.

“At SB 10, we are looking to break the tendency to say ‘but.’ We want to inspire a community of business leaders who look for solutions through a systemic approach,” said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, CEO of Sustainable Life Media. “I see the ‘Power of AND’ as a bridge between two dissimilar parts converging into one strong whole. For example, sustainable design is both function and aesthetic with the two together it creates something capable of driving change.”

Cohn & Wolfe, a global communications agency, will select one inspiring and original example per week and give the author a free virtual conference pass. Winners who want to attend the conference in Monterey have the option of trading in the virtual pass for a significant discount on full conference registration. Winners each week will be announced on all our social media channels the following Monday

Example:

Home Greening & Government | The power of home greening AND the government work together to make San Francisco a more efficient and healthy place to live. [Robert Jones]

For more examples and to share your “Power of AND” story please visit: bit.ly/powerofAND

About Sustainable Brands Conference

Sustainable Brands 2010 will convene over 700 brand leaders, top executives from the global brands leading sustainable innovation today, all types of designers participating in this global shift, and an unprecedented list of others. Speakers and sessions will provide techniques and best practices as economic realities, corporate responsibility and the environment come together to create a new strategic business imperative. :http://www.sustainablebrands10.com

Note: Green Economy Post is a Sustainable Brands Media Partner

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The Corporate Responsibility Salary Survey, now in its third year, for the first time, has a global emphasis.   The results show a rising prominence of climate change and carbon as top priority for corporate social responsibility professionals.  Other trends revealed in the study are increasing salaries for middle-level professionals, a growing sense of job security and a new generation of CSR professionals who are for the first time, have not transitioned from other occupations, but have worked exclusively in CSR field.

by Tracey de Morsella, Green Economy Post

The Corporate Responsibility Salary Survey, now in its third year, for the first time, has conducted the survey globally. Authored by Acre Resources Limited, Acona, and Ethical Performance, nearly 600 CSR professionals from around the world participated provided us with the first ever detailed insight of the international corporate social responsibility job market.  In the two previous years, the survey was focused on the UK. This year,while the majority of the respondents came the UK (46%,) a quarter of the respondents were from North America, 16% from the rest of Europe and the remaining 13$ representing respondents from the rest of the world.

The highest percentages of in-house respondents work in Banking & Finance and Consumer Goods (14 per cent in each), followed by Technology and Retailing (9 per cent in each).  Ninety per cent of respondents were full-time employees, with the remainder split equally between freelancers/contractors and those working part-time. Freelancers/contractors were overwhelmingly employed within consultancies. Three-quarters of those working part-time were female.

Job Function

The rising prominence of climate change and carbon over the past few years has had a major impact on the corporate social responsibility for both consulting firms and in-house, resulting in it being a top five activity for this sector. Across the sample, reporting and performance Measurement are the top activities for both in-house employees and consultants globally. The the top  activities for those working in-house are (in order of importance) reporting, environment, community investment, climate change, and stakeholder engagement.  For consultants, the top activities are (in order of importance) reporting, audit/assurance, stakeholder engagement, climate change, and external marketing.  Community investment and philanthropy did not feature highly in the activities of respondents based in North America, whereas, in the UK, environment was the top activity (being selected as first choice by 20 per cent of respondents), marginally ahead of community investment.

Corporate Social Responsibility In House Activity

Corporate Social Responsibility Consulting Activity

Compensation

CSR In-house Salaries and Bonuses

CSR Salaries and Bonuses for Consultants

Overall salary levels have been static over the last three years.  Salaries for the most senior employees – both in-house and consultants – have fallen back slightly over the last 12 months, while salaries for the middle ranks have increase.

In this year’s survey, as in previous years, consultants were not paid as generously as those working ‘in house’.  Study researchers assert that if consultants are to compete on salary in the future, it is likely that they will need to move from providing technical advice and services, to providing management consulting around sustainability.  In North America the salaries of consultants and in-house professionals are more equal.

For senior people working in-house (Directors/Heads of CSR), it would appear that the highest salaries are commanded by those working for the biggest companies (in terms of number of employees), who have responsibility for the largest CSR teams and have control of the most generous budgets.

The research suggests that for CSR professionals, the construction & property and technology sectors offer the highest salaries. This is particularly true in North America where the average salary in technology is $162k. The relatively low level of salaries of those working in banking & finance is,  Survey researchers see this trend resulting from  the more widespread economic problems that have affected the sector over the past few years.

Average In-house Salaries by Sector and Region

Job Satisfaction

Around 80 per cent of respondents are satisfied with their jobs.  This is consistent across the board, regardless whether people are working as consultants or in-house, no matter what the gender. Ninety-five percent of participants would recommend a career in the sector, which researchers see as an alignment between personal values and the work undertaken.

Job Security

Overall, more than 80 per cent of respondents in the United State and the UK felt that their job security had improved or remained the same over the past 12 months, and this applied both to consultants and people working in-house.  50 per cent were more confident about job
security and only 6 per cent felt it had declined.

Job security in the corporate social responsibility sector is at an all time high, as 84% of CSR professionals feel their job stability has improved or remained the same in the last 12 months. In the previous year’s survey, which was conducted at the peak of the downturn (November 2008), the equivalent figure was 70%.

Researchers cite these and other trends, including a a rapid pick-up in the CSR job market, as an indication we have just started to emerge from the recession. This data reinforces the results of Sustainability Recruiting’s CSR Jobs Report that was published back in March, which noted that after a drastic 68% decline in CSR job postings, they increased by 33% over the past few months.

Benefits

In addition to higher salaries and bonuses, those working in-house receive more generous. Overall, the most widespread benefit was a pension, either contributory (where the individual funds the pension in whole or part) or non-contributory (where the employer is solely responsible for funding the pension), with 93 per cent of those working in-house and 63 per cent of consultants in receipt.

Overall, just under 70 per cent of respondents were provided with medical cover. In North America the number rises to over 75 percent compared to only 50 percent in the Rest of Europe. The researchers see the differences in how these benefits are dispersed as a reflection of the different approaches to the provision of pension and healthcare in these regions.

Education and Career Path

The CSR field has well-educated employees who on average have been in this field for 14 years. However, many did not start of in CSR as their first job and have switched to CR from other roles in academia, consultancy, corporations and others.  Although the survey shows that 90% of respondents have arrived at their current positions from other spheres of activity, this means that one in ten has never actually worked in any other area. However, there is an emerging generation of corporate responsibility professionals who have only ever worked in the field.

Gender Split and Pay Differences:

While women working in CSR continue outnumber men by about 2:1, there is a significant pay gap.  This trend of pay inequity is common in a number of industries.  Women seem to dominate in the community investment roles while men work in areas related to climate change and the environment.

Roles and Salaries

The authors identified a number of generic roles with composite descriptions both for in-house employees and consultants.  Read the full report to see information on  salary and bonus, descriptions of the educational qualifications, career histories and other personal characteristics that would most likely attach to these roles.

In-house

Director/Head
This is the most senior CSR person in the organization and is more likely to be male than female. This individual will control an annual budget of between $500k to $1m. They will have been in full time employment for 15-20 years and there is an even chance that this was their first role in CSR.

Manager
People in this role will report to a more senior individual who has a specific and overarching responsibility for CSR within the organization. They will have been in full-time employment for 10-15 years though not necessarily in CSR (if they are from a CR background they will probably have around seven years’ experience). They will control an annual budget of between $250-$500k.

Advisor/Analyst
This role sits within the larger CSR team and reports to the Manager or Director/Head described above. Probably a female graduate (non-CSR related discipline) with, on average, 10 years in full-time employment, they are unlikely to have worked in CSR before this current role. If they have, it would have been for about five years.

Assistant/Team Member

This is a junior and usually an entry-level role that provides support to others within a team across a range of CSR activity. The individual concerned is just as likely to be a male or female graduate. Though they may have been in full-time employment for between 5-10 years, it is unlikely they have worked in CSR before their current role.

[If you are considering a career in corporate social responsibility or sustainability, and want to learn more, check out Considering a Career in CR or Sustainability? or What Skills are Needed to Succeed as a Sustainability Professional? ]

Consultants

Director/Senior Partner/Senior Manager
This could be the owner of a smaller consulting firm, its directors and senior partners, or the most senior individual within a CSR-focused team of a larger consulting organization. Twice as likely to be male as female. They will have been in full-time employment for between 15 and 20 years and probably worked in the sector before their current role, racking up about eight years of experience in CR. They will control a budget of $250-500k.

Senior Consultant
This role is performed either by someone with an in-depth knowledge of a particular area (Environment, for example) or more wide-ranging knowledge of CSR. This role would be occupied by a male or female who has been in full-time employment for over 10 years and almost certainly worked in the sector (for about eight years) before their current role.

Consultant
This role is occupied by someone with limited experience of CSR who works under the guidance and supervision of more senior colleagues. More likely to be female than male, with around eight years in full-time employment and experience working in CSR before their current role for five years.

For more information about the Corporate Responsibility Salary Survey, visit the Survey web site.

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

As part of Sustainable Life Media’s mission to be a bridge to better brands, they are presenting the Second Annual Sustainable Brands Innovation Open,  an early stage business competition focused on connecting the existing global brands and socially responsible investor communities to the most innovative new product and service solutions being brought to market by today’s social and eco-entrepreneurs.

Those in the Idea Stage will be self or family funded with a solid business plan and limited operational experience. The second category, Early Stage, seeks companies that are operating to plan with less than $1 million in outside capital invested. Entries are sought in both consumer and business-to-business categories (those providing solutions supporting the growing sustainability industry).

“SB’IO supports innovation in sustainability from consumer brands AND those companies helping facilitate more sustainable practices inside existing companies,” said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, CEO of Sustainable Life Media. “The SB’IO gives ten emerging companies a platform to showcase their early stage company and build a network of supporters that can accelerate their route to market.”

Selected New Ventures will receive the following benefits:

• Publicity on Fast Company.com, SustainableLifeMedia.com, as well as via our social media network and extensive network of media partners
• The opportunity to pitch on June 7 at a pre-conference event to a group of green/social investors, executives from leading companies, top sustainability and brand consultants and peers
• Shared exhibit space in the Sustainable Solutions Showcase at SB’10, as well as VIP admission to the full conference
• Relationships with and counsel from the judges and other members of the SB’10 community
• A day-long hosted tour/brainstorm and consultation at IDEO headquarters, PLUS
• The top 2 companies will be given an opportunity to present to the entire conference delegation during a conference plenary session.
• Further benefits under development

Companies who fit the above criteria and have a sustainably preferable (environmental or socially innovative) value proposition relative to their competitors are invited to submit a 1-2 page business summary. Again, submissions will be accepted within the categories mentioned above, in two primary tracks: 1) ventures focused on the launch of a sustainable consumer brand, and 2) ventures offering solutions to large companies to help them improve their sustainability story.

To be considered for this opportunity, please attach a 1-2 page business summary through the Business Summary submission field at the on the Sustainable Life Media web site, here by May 8, 2010.

All submissions should include the following:

• Company description
• Company focus/commitment to sustainability
• Business Opportunity
• Current status (conceptual, pre-revenue, operating)
• Team (including key partners)
• Marketing and sales
• Competition
• Financials

Judges will review each submission, and select winners based on the following criteria:

• Commitment to sustainability coupled with demonstrable metrics (for example, “our product innovation will result in a 50% reduced carbon foot print than the mean in our market”, or “our product will facilitate our customers by helping them manage their cash by keeping it in the communities wherein their local outlets operate”)
• Team quality, particularly as it relates to demonstrated understanding of systemic issues of sustainability
• Growth and impact potential

Winners will be notified no later than May 25th.

Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SB Innovation Open) is not another Clean Tech event. This new venture showcase is focused on identifying and promoting innovative new consumer brands, AND ventures that support existing corporations in achieving their sustainable brand innovation goals.

Submissions will be considered in two categories: Idea Stage – must have a complete business plan and no more than $100k in invested friends and family money, or Early Venture Stage – must have no more than $1M in external capital invested.

10 start-ups will be selected to participate in the exchange from an expected group of as many as 100 submissions by a panel of judges to include: Steve Bishop, Sustainability Practice Lead, IDEO, Boyd Cohen, serial entrepreneur and entrepreneurship professor, Jonathan Greenblatt, Founder, Ethos Water, faculty, social entrepreneurship at UCLA Anderson and operating partner, Satori Capital, R. Paul Herman, Founder, HIP Investor, Fast Company staff writer, Anya Kamenetz, Kelly Lauber, Director, Sustainable Business & Innovation, Nike,Stuart Rudick Founding Partner, Mindful Investors, KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, Founder/CEO, Sustainable Life Media, and Andrew Winston, author, Green to Gold.

To be considered for this opportunity, please attach a 1-2 page business summary through the Business Summary submission field at the on the Sustainable Life Media web site, here by May 8, 2010.

About The Sustainable Brands ‘10 Conference: Sustainable Brands 2010 will convene over 700 brand leaders, top executives from the global brands leading sustainable innovation today, all types of designers participating in this global shift, and an unprecedented list of others. Speakers and sessions will provide inspiration, techniques and best practices as economic realities, corporate responsibility and the environment come together to create a new strategic business imperative.  For more information, visit the The Sustainable Brands ‘10 Conference web site.

*Green Economy Post is a Sustainable Brands 10′ Conference Media Partner.

© 2010, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

It may seem like big businesses are the only companies getting buzz for going green, but for small and medium-sized enterprises, there are countless ways to reap rewards by adopting sustainable practices.

by Anna Clark, President of EarthPeople and Author of Green, American Style: Becoming Earth-Friendly and Reaping the Benefits. Follow Anna Clark on Twitter.

The “greening” of America is not just the latest trend; it’s a cultural revolution. What does this phenomenon mean for the business sector? Even if you’re not yet sold on the science of climate change, it’s hard to ignore the changing tide of public perception.

Magazines as diverse as Glamour, Fortune, and even Sports Illustrated are publishing green issues. Green has gone mainstream and smart business owners are looking for ways to capitalize on this phenomenon.

An aerial view of sustainability shows us a principle with the power to preserve our world intact for our grandchildren even as we consume resources today. When we apply this principle to business, we get “corporate sustainability,” which strives to balance the financial, social, and environmental aspects of an organization.

A company’s corporate sustainability strategy depends on such variables as its size and industry. Applications of sustainability can range from retrofitting facilities with energy-efficient features to integrating recycled and/or biodegradable materials into product design and packaging. Other applications exist and many more are still at the conceptual stage.

Large green companies, such as Starbucks and Whole Foods, experience remarkable consumer loyalty and earn a fortune in media attention. But to small and medium- sized enterprises, or SMEs, it may seem like big businesses are the only ones getting the buzz for going green.

Does sustainability offer any real advantages for SMEs? If so, how does the small business owner or even the executive management team of a mid-sized corporation apply such a lofty ideal to daily operations? There are many methods but only one formula: leadership, an inquiring mind, and creativity. For those pioneers eagerly embracing sustainability, the payoffs of going green are significant and the risks are minimal.

One way to describe how to green the SME is by example. Hot Lips Pizza in Portland has earned a reputation as “the most sustainable pizza parlor in the U.S.” Hot Lips’ pizza is made with locally-grown organic ingredients and is delivered in eco-friendly vehicles. Hot Lips pizza has been covered in print and broadcast media nationwide.

You don’t have to operate on the West Coast to cash in on going green, either. Even in Dallas, a town known for its culture of conspicuous consumption, successful strategies for sustainability are at work. Fashion designer Laura Chapuis uses organic fabrics for her line Habitude. She has been featured in magazines such as Shape and Town and Country — without the expense of a publicist.

Alan Hoffmann, a Dallas-based homebuilder searching for a better way to build, discovered insulated concrete forms, or ICFs, arguably the most energy-efficient type of home construction available. The Alan Hoffmann Company is now selling custom homes before the designs are even drawn and has earned media coverage in numerous regional and industry publications.

Good P.R. isn’t the only payoff to going green. Companies should consider the cost savings available through energy efficiency. The Energy Star website is rife with case studies of SMEs that have retrofitted their facilities with energy efficient features, recovering their investment within three years and saving thousands of dollars a year on operating costs. Adding wind power to your energy mix can also earn you points with your customers. Companies taking these measures can also earn recognition via EPA programs such as Climate Leaders.

Companies that want to start small can capture some of the market by adding a green product or service. Identifying opportunities can be a fun and creative process. Retailers, for example, can introduce an organic line or offer customers recycled bags. Banks can add loan products for green building. The possibilities are endless.

And, let’s not forget our most valuable resources — the human ones. Training employees on sustainability leads to material savings and increases efficiency, productivity, and loyalty in the workplace. The Human Rights Initiative completed such training through the company that I run, EarthPeople, a Dallas-based sustainability consultancy. CEO Cannon Flowers said his staff enjoyed the training seminar in energy efficiency, and added, “We’ve identified ways to reduce our operating costs through conservation. We’re also pleased to be able to set an example of environmental responsibility that other organizations can follow.”

Leadership is the key to successful implementation of sustainability initiatives, no matter the size of the company. For SMEs, going green is largely a voluntary action dependent upon the vision and conviction of one or a few individuals. One advantage is that SMEs are free to experiment with sustainability without the pressures of meeting compliance regulations or pacifying activist groups. Enterprising companies with a flair for promotion can earn immediate recognition from stakeholders and the media for their efforts.

Challenges arise when well-intentioned individuals lack the leadership ability to sell their CEOs on their vision. Moreover, most CEOs lack the time, interest, or expertise to manage sustainability initiatives, which they often deem ancillary to the company’s primary purpose. What’s a SME to do? Revisit the formula: greening the SME calls for personal leadership, an inquiring mind, and a little bit of creativity. For those lacking in one or all of these areas, a sustainability consultant is the best solution.

The moral of the story is that sustainability, while not for the faint of heart, is a strategy that SMEs can apply with phenomenal speed and success as long as the commitment is there. Smart SMEs will embrace the changes and recognize the process as evolutionary. Stagnant SMEs may give green a nod, but without commitment and consistency, it will never stick.

The business landscape in the 21st century offers some rich rewards to sustainability pioneers who can muster the courage to reach for the brass ring. The best part is that, in this game, we all win.

This article originally appeared on earthpeopleco.com.

© 2010, Anna Clark. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Here is a list of some of the best practices in carbon management outlined by a joint CDP and IBM study, a Deloitte paper on carbon management and a Verdantix report on energy efficiency.

by Aysu Katun, Green Economy Post

My recent post on a Verdantix report covered how increasing oil and electricity prices, the hidden cost of carbon and board-level climate change compliance issues make energy efficiency a critical issue for companies. Increasingly, more companies are beginning to realize that the need to account for the economic impacts of carbon in income statements, and changes in the regulatory environment, make the development of a carbon management strategy an emerging imperative.

While some companies have taken the lead in carbon management, there are thousands of other organizations, ‘carbon novices’, that are measuring emissions for the first time, or are required to comply with early emissions legislation, but do not know where to start or what to watch out for.

Here is a list of some of the best practices in carbon management outlined by a joint CDP and IBM study “Making Advances in Carbon Management”, Deloitte’s paper on “CFO Insights: Do you have a carbon management strategy?” and Verdantix’s report on the “Energy Efficiency Imperative”, which ‘carbon novices’ may find helpful. These best practices are based on successes achieved and lessons learned by leaders in carbon management. As the joint CDP and IBM study states, they may serve as a guide to any company wishing to implement a successful carbon management strategy.

Setting Targets

• Consider monitoring carbon emissions for a period before setting targets
• Set targets and measurement criteria
• Prioritize the areas of carbon emissions that you want to control and target areas where reduction in emissions will have a high impact on the overall measure e.g. energy consumption. Priorities need to be made which are consistent with organizational goals.
• Allow for growth and change in the business when setting targets. ‘Carbon intensity’ targets, which express emissions relative to increases in output or scale of operations, are preferred to absolute targets or percentage reductions in energy use.
• Incorporate carbon management targets into general business key performance indicators.
• Avoid including data from suppliers, outsourced processes, and other operating countries at the outset, because  there are issues surrounding the ability to acquire consistent and accurate information in a timely way from them.

Engaging with stakeholders

• Get board level sponsorship and accountability for the carbon management task. The commitment of the executive team demonstrates that emissions reduction is central to the future of the company.
• Develop a framework that clearly clarifies the roles, responsibilities, requirements and decision rights across different stakeholders in carbon management planning, execution and risk management.
• The commitment to managing emissions needs to be shared by first tier managers who play a more direct role and take leadership in the day-to-day operations of their business units.
• Since it is harder to gather carbon data from remote operations, local champions are needed to offset the impression that carbon management is an ‘HQ’ initiated idea.
• Where appropriate, setting business-unit level targets can generate enthusiasm, participation, and commitment
• Involve employees in a focus week on carbon, the environment or CO2 reduction
• Set up a climate change action group led by a senior manager and representatives from people in the business, not just HQ functions
• Help customers understand the risks and implications of climate change
• Don’t dictate – get buy-in from parts of the organization and suppliers before setting targets
• Report back to business units on how they can improve their performance
• Engage with industry organizations to discuss best practice and agree on standards

Carbon Information Management

• It takes time to identify and improve the accuracy of your carbon dioxide and GHG emissions data; allow at least 2-3 years to allow the data to settle.
• Clearly define terms and boundaries and use templates to make data collection easier and more consistent.
• Develop the template with business units to ensure buy-in.
• Establish a carbon data ‘archive’, which can support the ever increasing range of inquiries and reporting requirements.
• Adopt internationally recognized methodologies for calculating emissions to bring credibility to organizational communications and to demonstrate that an organization’s targets are credible and respected.
• Consider using an external auditor to verify your approach and to get guidance on your next steps.
• Split the task of data gathering and data management across sensible business units.
• Piggyback on existing data streams where possible, and automate whatever can be automated.
• Implement a system to remind people to complete their carbon data submissions to save time and a great deal of effort.
• Capture and log energy bills. This helps verification.
• Predict the impact of new climate and waste legislation on business risks and costs. Be sure to include in group audit or other risk assessment functions
• Consider engaging external organizations such as the Carbon Trust and other industry organizations for their expertise ans assistance.

Energy Efficiency

• Concentrate on energy reduction in the short term, travel in the medium to long term.
• Request more detailed energy billing from landlords and utility providers.
• Use cost / reward incentives on different modes of carbon intensive travel with the aim of broadening the range of travel modes available.
• Consider increasing mobile working and using meeting technologies such as video conferencing to reduce travel: show their adoption and use in your reporting.
• If you run a fleet, use available technologies to measure individual vehicle efficiency.
• Replace inefficient assets with more efficient ones.
• Set funds aside for bigger energy efficiency projects, like voltage power optimization and variable speed drives, that provide bigger absolute savings.

Alignment of Carbon and Financial Management Strategies

• Consider cost of CO2 emissions as part of capital investment reviews – as a return on investment calculation.
• Understand the carbon implications of existing and planned investments, and account for carbon costs in all future investments.
• Assemble a multi-functional team within finance (including treasury department, tax, controller’s office) to begin planning for the best ways to integrate the management of carbon with the finance organization.
• Assess how changes in climate and regulations are likely to impact the demand for products and services,the cost of delivering products and services, and value and supply chain relationships.
• Due to the uncertainty in regulations, adopt scenario planning to assess and plan for alternative contingencies.
• Companies will have to guard against non-compliance and frame the core risk control and compliance processes around carbon, so be sure to identify risks of non-compliance.

To obtain more details on how to implement some of the strategies listed above check out the “Making Advances in Carbon Management,” a CDP and IBM study ,  “CFO Insights: Do You Have a Carbon Management Strategy?”, a paper prepared by Deloitte and Verdantix’s report on the “Energy Efficiency Imperative.”

© 2010, Aysu Katun. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The idea sounds simple enough.  Create a team of volunteers from existing employees.  Have them focus on ways to green the business and culture.  In turn, create cost savings, attract top talent due to an improvement in brand recognition, and increase market share from the new found brand image, possibly even innovative product and services.  The idea and the goal sound simple, while the execution and plan of attack seem a bit more complex.  How can an individual or company go about implementing this team of sustainability focused volunteers?  Resources and guides may be abundant and abound.  The report, “Green Teams: Engaging Employees in Sustainability,” released by GreenBiz.com and Green Impact, provides a good starting point that captures the business case for these green teams, how to get started, four key areas behind best practices, and a breakdown of 10 best practices in developing green teams.

Challenges of Developing Green Teams

While advantages can be expansive, companies will encounter challenges.  Monitoring metrics and results of green team efforts is imperative in proving the worth of investment resources.  There are software tools now available to help with this.  Engaging business units can prove difficult if unable to articulate a clear business case for these green teams so be prepared to apply the purpose of green teams to all departments.  Finding a balance between linking green team efforts to overall corporate strategies or grassroot objectives is crucial in maintaining the functioning of green teams.  Ensure employees that their volunteered time will not impact their job stability as they still have their actual job responsibilities to manage.  And finally, balance the creative energy with the corporate structure needed to create progress.

As stated by the report, understand that this a learning process for all companies and, “Engaging employees is more art than science, very dependent on a company’s culture and governance style…harnessing the power of green teams and aligning their efforts with corporate goals is a learning edge for most companies.”

© 2010, Michael D Tam. All rights reserved. Do not republish.