NEW YORK, March 31, 2008 -- More than half of chief financial officers and finance executives in a recent survey believe their companies will boost revenue, investor returns and employee retention through sustainability.
CFO Research and commercial real estate and money management firm Jones Lang LaSalle surveyed 175 top finance executives for the report, "The Role of Finance in Environmental Sustainability Efforts." The executives represented Herman Miller, Dow Chemical, Bank of America, Weyerhaeuser and American Electric Power.
The survey found that regulatory compliance was the highest priority objective for incorporating sustainability into company initiatives, followed by improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and operations-related environmental impacts.
The difficulty in measuring the effects of sustainability on shareholder value and on financial performance proved to be the greatest barriers to incorporating sustainability into financial strategy.
CFOs, though not chiefly responsible for fueling sustainability initiatives, can play a role in using sustainability to improve financial performance, the survey found.
"Most CFOs believe sustainability can lead to cost savings, increased revenues, greater customer retention and a competitive advantage, so clearly this is an opportunity that can not be ignored," said Lauralee Martin, global chief operating and financial officer at Jones Land LaSalle. "The question each of us should ask is whether we are taking an aggressive enough position, given the rapidly approaching tipping point of this issue."
From Greenbiz.com
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Patagonia Shares Eco-Footprint of Select Products With Consumers
OAKLAND, Calif., March 25, 2008 -- Patagonia unveiled last fall a microsite that examines the footprint of select products as part of a consumer education experiment. The company plans to track the paths of 10 more products this year, sharing what it has found as it looks at each product's environmental footprint from the design studio to its distribution center in Reno, Nevada, according to Fast Company magazine.
http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/footprint/index.jsp
http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/footprint/index.jsp
B Corporations: Verified Sustainability
Companies that pride themselves on being sustainable have a new badge they can present to show their commitment to the environment, society, and corporate governance. B Labs, a non-profit based in Berwyn, Penn., has created a third-party certification for "B Corporations." More than just supplying a sustainable product or service, B Corporations "create a public benefit" as an integral core of their business plan.
Corporations dedicated to the good of the people aren't a new idea. In fact, in the country's first decades, the newly created United States granted corporations charters to operate only if the corporations were considered for the public good; for example, helping create infrastructure such as bridges and roads. Corporations are still granted charters by state governments, giving them special rights and privileges. However, the modern consolidation of corporate wealth and power has overshadowed the public role for corporations originally envisioned by the U.S. founding fathers.
Started in June 2007, B Labs has already certified more than 80 corporations spanning over 20 different industries from coffee to clothing to media marketing. The "B" stands for the public benefit that B Corporations create through their products, practices, and profits. According to B Labs, over 700 companies have been through the B Ratings System.
B Corporations include Dansko, King Arthur Flour Company, Seventh Generation, and method. Although all of the B corporations are privately owned, they represent a $650 million marketplace. The 80 B Corporations are relatively evenly distributed along the spectrum from near-term public market businesses with $100 million or more in revenues to medium-size growth companies with $10-100 million in revenues to small businesses, local businesses, and sole proprietorships with less than $5 million in revenues.
"More and more investors want to go beyond screening bad companies out of their portfolios, focusing instead on investing in the highest-impact businesses, whether in the U.S. private equity and public markets or through microfinance and SME investment in the developing world," said Andrew Kassoy, co-founder of B Lab. "The B Corporation brand gives investors comparable standards by which to measure the social and environmental net impact of their investments. This transparent data is the critical first step in driving larger pools of institutional and retail investment capital to high impact businesses."
To become a B Corporation, companies must meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards. Companies also have to think beyond serving just their shareholders, to changing their corporate articles to consider all stakeholders in the business. Businesses, lastly, have to agree to be part of the collective voice of the B corporation brand. B Labs' Standards Advisory Council oversees the B Rating System.
Companies that sign a licensing agreement with B Labs are agreeing to abide by its legal standards. The legal standards were created with the help of lawyers from four national law firms, including Linklaters and Jones Day. B Labs and their lawyers have engaged in an 18 month state-by-state research and analysis process, documenting the corporate legal statutes and judicial precedent in all fifty states.
In February 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation the awarded B Labs a grant though the Rockefeller Impact Investing Collaborative, which works to create infrastructure for social capital markets. "B Corporations are an excellent synthesis of the best innovative thinking of how enterprises can be better organized for both financial return on investment and greater transparency and accountability for social and environmental outcomes," said Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation. "We're delighted to be working with B Lab's founders, who themselves are experienced and successful entrepreneurs and investors."
"The Rockefeller Foundation grant, together with recent grant support from the Halloran Foundation and Panta Rhea, allows us to continue to move the B Corporation work forward, most importantly by putting their imprimatur on our mission and sharing their support of our work within the various communities and business sectors where it's vital for people to understand what we're doing and how they can become a part of it," Kassoy told SocialFunds.com.
Lateral Line, a maker of fishing apparel, is a B Corporation. Brandon White, "chief angler" and co-founder of the company said after reading the B Corporation site, he thought Lateral Line was a natural fit. Lateral Line gives 2 percent of its gross revenue to fishery conservation projects and initiatives through their non-profit arm, The Lateral Line Foundation.The Foundation supports grassroots fisheries conservation initiatives, projects, and research that support recreational fishing and enable and facilitate sustainable fisheries ecosystems. "Our goal is that we can better understand the fish, the ecosystems in which they live, how we humans affect the ecosystems, and how we can minimize our impact," said White. "If we integrate these components, we can learn from the past and better develop practices to assure we don't wipe out fish populations and can restore the ones that have been over fished or are near death as a result of human impact," he added. B Labs is currently working on the creation of the BX public stock exchange for B Corporations with the help of the Social Stock Exchange based in the U.K. Kassoy explained, "We are focused on the development of a private equity exchange and, eventually, a public equities market, that could allow for mission-aligned investors to identify and invest in high impact businesses while maintaining more liquidity than is currently available in the market."
One of the most important activities of B Lab is building capital markets infrastructure that can direct capital efficiently to high impact businesses. B Labs is working with financial services businesses like banks, private equity funds, venture capital funds, and other investment intermediaries to become B Capital Partners, committing themselves to using the B Ratings System as a screening tool for investment decisions. Many financial services businesses are also becoming B Corporations themselves.
By: Anne Moore Odell, SocialFunds.com
Corporations dedicated to the good of the people aren't a new idea. In fact, in the country's first decades, the newly created United States granted corporations charters to operate only if the corporations were considered for the public good; for example, helping create infrastructure such as bridges and roads. Corporations are still granted charters by state governments, giving them special rights and privileges. However, the modern consolidation of corporate wealth and power has overshadowed the public role for corporations originally envisioned by the U.S. founding fathers.
Started in June 2007, B Labs has already certified more than 80 corporations spanning over 20 different industries from coffee to clothing to media marketing. The "B" stands for the public benefit that B Corporations create through their products, practices, and profits. According to B Labs, over 700 companies have been through the B Ratings System.
B Corporations include Dansko, King Arthur Flour Company, Seventh Generation, and method. Although all of the B corporations are privately owned, they represent a $650 million marketplace. The 80 B Corporations are relatively evenly distributed along the spectrum from near-term public market businesses with $100 million or more in revenues to medium-size growth companies with $10-100 million in revenues to small businesses, local businesses, and sole proprietorships with less than $5 million in revenues.
"More and more investors want to go beyond screening bad companies out of their portfolios, focusing instead on investing in the highest-impact businesses, whether in the U.S. private equity and public markets or through microfinance and SME investment in the developing world," said Andrew Kassoy, co-founder of B Lab. "The B Corporation brand gives investors comparable standards by which to measure the social and environmental net impact of their investments. This transparent data is the critical first step in driving larger pools of institutional and retail investment capital to high impact businesses."
To become a B Corporation, companies must meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards. Companies also have to think beyond serving just their shareholders, to changing their corporate articles to consider all stakeholders in the business. Businesses, lastly, have to agree to be part of the collective voice of the B corporation brand. B Labs' Standards Advisory Council oversees the B Rating System.
Companies that sign a licensing agreement with B Labs are agreeing to abide by its legal standards. The legal standards were created with the help of lawyers from four national law firms, including Linklaters and Jones Day. B Labs and their lawyers have engaged in an 18 month state-by-state research and analysis process, documenting the corporate legal statutes and judicial precedent in all fifty states.
In February 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation the awarded B Labs a grant though the Rockefeller Impact Investing Collaborative, which works to create infrastructure for social capital markets. "B Corporations are an excellent synthesis of the best innovative thinking of how enterprises can be better organized for both financial return on investment and greater transparency and accountability for social and environmental outcomes," said Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation. "We're delighted to be working with B Lab's founders, who themselves are experienced and successful entrepreneurs and investors."
"The Rockefeller Foundation grant, together with recent grant support from the Halloran Foundation and Panta Rhea, allows us to continue to move the B Corporation work forward, most importantly by putting their imprimatur on our mission and sharing their support of our work within the various communities and business sectors where it's vital for people to understand what we're doing and how they can become a part of it," Kassoy told SocialFunds.com.
Lateral Line, a maker of fishing apparel, is a B Corporation. Brandon White, "chief angler" and co-founder of the company said after reading the B Corporation site, he thought Lateral Line was a natural fit. Lateral Line gives 2 percent of its gross revenue to fishery conservation projects and initiatives through their non-profit arm, The Lateral Line Foundation.The Foundation supports grassroots fisheries conservation initiatives, projects, and research that support recreational fishing and enable and facilitate sustainable fisheries ecosystems. "Our goal is that we can better understand the fish, the ecosystems in which they live, how we humans affect the ecosystems, and how we can minimize our impact," said White. "If we integrate these components, we can learn from the past and better develop practices to assure we don't wipe out fish populations and can restore the ones that have been over fished or are near death as a result of human impact," he added. B Labs is currently working on the creation of the BX public stock exchange for B Corporations with the help of the Social Stock Exchange based in the U.K. Kassoy explained, "We are focused on the development of a private equity exchange and, eventually, a public equities market, that could allow for mission-aligned investors to identify and invest in high impact businesses while maintaining more liquidity than is currently available in the market."
One of the most important activities of B Lab is building capital markets infrastructure that can direct capital efficiently to high impact businesses. B Labs is working with financial services businesses like banks, private equity funds, venture capital funds, and other investment intermediaries to become B Capital Partners, committing themselves to using the B Ratings System as a screening tool for investment decisions. Many financial services businesses are also becoming B Corporations themselves.
By: Anne Moore Odell, SocialFunds.com
Monday, March 24, 2008
Selling Sustainability
For the past two years, media attention around companies "going green" has mounted to a crescendo. Are we finally reaching the long-awaited critical mass?
Not even close. The scientific case for climate change may be sealed but the majority of business leaders are still suspicious of sustainability. The source of their inertia may surprise you. Their primary concern isn't "Why should I?" as much as "How do I?" In my experience, the real issue lies in the question they are often afraid to ask: "How do I sell sustainability?"
Let's begin with an example of how not to sell it. I was invited by a local mayor to deliver a speech on the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement to his town council. More than 700 mayors in 50 states have now signed the agreement, making it one of the most significant grassroots movements to reduce emissions in the U.S. I was sure the town would sign it. The mayor even drives a hybrid Lexus. When I arrived at the town council meeting, I immediately sensed that people saw me as a pot-stirring outsider. One council member even went on record to oppose my speech before I began. The mayor became strangely silent. Not only did the town refuse to sign the agreement, several people followed me into the parking lot trying to convince me that climate change isn't real.
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=36639
Not even close. The scientific case for climate change may be sealed but the majority of business leaders are still suspicious of sustainability. The source of their inertia may surprise you. Their primary concern isn't "Why should I?" as much as "How do I?" In my experience, the real issue lies in the question they are often afraid to ask: "How do I sell sustainability?"
Let's begin with an example of how not to sell it. I was invited by a local mayor to deliver a speech on the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement to his town council. More than 700 mayors in 50 states have now signed the agreement, making it one of the most significant grassroots movements to reduce emissions in the U.S. I was sure the town would sign it. The mayor even drives a hybrid Lexus. When I arrived at the town council meeting, I immediately sensed that people saw me as a pot-stirring outsider. One council member even went on record to oppose my speech before I began. The mayor became strangely silent. Not only did the town refuse to sign the agreement, several people followed me into the parking lot trying to convince me that climate change isn't real.
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=36639
Starbucks Sows Carbon Farmers
The coffee giant wants to help farmers tap into the fast-growing $70 billion carbon credit business.
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Ever heard of 'ecosystem services'? It's one of the most exciting concepts kicking around the corporate-environmental world these days. The idea is that nature produces valuable products and services that we often take for granted, such as clean water, timber, medicines from plants, habitats for fisheries, pollination and carbon storage. The question is, how do we repay nature so we can continue to enjoy these benefits?
Some Fortune 500 companies are seeking answers. Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500), for example, has an expansive, expensive global program to protect and generate fresh water, sometimes in unorthodox ways: Coke and a bottler pay farmers in the highlands of Guatemala to use more ecologically-sound farming methods to protect watersheds which feed the MesoAmerican reef. They're even supplying the villagers with more-efficient wood stoves, so they don't have to cut down as many trees.
Is this charity? Or smart business, since Coke needs fresh water to deliver its products?
I've heard too that Marriott (MAR, Fortune 500) is contemplating a program that would help preserve forests in the Amazon. They haven't disclosed details, but the Marriott people know that forests sequester carbon, which helps prevent global warming. The travel industry, of all businesses, has a compelling interest in protecting nature's beauty since it's provided "free" of charge to tourist destinations around the world.
Now comes Starbucks. On Wednesday, the coffee giant ventured into the world of ecosystem services with its longtime partner, Conservation International. For years, Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) and Conservation International have worked together to develop what are called CAFÉ standards for Starbucks' growers, which reward those coffee farmers (with higher prices) who adhere to best environmental and social practices. Now Starbucks and Conservation International want to help protect the land surrounding places where coffee is grown. (Here's the press release.)
The new project is intended to help the farmers get a piece of the fast-growing $70 billion carbon finance business. "They can become carbon farmers as well as coffee farmers," says Glenn Prickett, a senior vice president with Conservation International. "By protecting and restoring forests, Starbucks and the coffee farms will do their part to mitigate climate change."
Here's how the project would work: Starbucks will finance Conservation International's efforts to work with local partners and coffee growers to protect the landscapes around the coffee growing areas. The growers, on their own or in partnership with local governments, would agree to preserve forests as they are or to replant trees. They would then become eligible, in today's world, to seek carbon credits from companies that are voluntarily offsetting their emissions. (Many companies now do so, among them Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500))
Many people believe that such forestry projects will become part of climate-change legislation when it is enacted by the United States as well as part of the Kyoto framework when new rules are written for the post-2012 period. That would mean the farmers would be generating carbon credits that are even more valuable because they could be used by companies that are required by law to reduce their emissions.
The plan now is to get started at sites in Sumatra, Indonesia, and Chiapas, Mexico. If all goes well, the program will spread to coffee-growing regions elsewhere in Latin America, Asia and Africa. It will be good for the economic livelihood of the coffee farmers, good for the local environment, good for their crops, good for the planet and good for Starbucks, which can tout the project to its customers and workers.
Howard Schultz, newly re-installed atop Starbucks, got this project rolling a few months ago when he called Peter Seligmann, the chairman and CEO of Conservation International. Both men live in Seattle, so they know one another. The former CEO of Starbucks, Orin Smith sits on Conservation International's board.
A final word on ecosystem services, this from a group called the Ecological Society of America:
Have you ever considered that the cereal you eat is brought to you each morning by the wind, or that the glass of clear, cold, clean water drawn from your faucet may have been purified for you by a wetland or perhaps the root system of an entire forest? Trees in your front yard work to trap dust, dirt, and harmful gases from the air you breathe. The bright fire of oak logs you light to keep warm on cold nights and the medicine you take to ease the pain of an ailment come to you from Nature's warehouse of services. Natural ecosystems perform fundamental life-support services upon which human civilization depends.
By Marc Gunther, senior writer Fortune
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Ever heard of 'ecosystem services'? It's one of the most exciting concepts kicking around the corporate-environmental world these days. The idea is that nature produces valuable products and services that we often take for granted, such as clean water, timber, medicines from plants, habitats for fisheries, pollination and carbon storage. The question is, how do we repay nature so we can continue to enjoy these benefits?
Some Fortune 500 companies are seeking answers. Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500), for example, has an expansive, expensive global program to protect and generate fresh water, sometimes in unorthodox ways: Coke and a bottler pay farmers in the highlands of Guatemala to use more ecologically-sound farming methods to protect watersheds which feed the MesoAmerican reef. They're even supplying the villagers with more-efficient wood stoves, so they don't have to cut down as many trees.
Is this charity? Or smart business, since Coke needs fresh water to deliver its products?
I've heard too that Marriott (MAR, Fortune 500) is contemplating a program that would help preserve forests in the Amazon. They haven't disclosed details, but the Marriott people know that forests sequester carbon, which helps prevent global warming. The travel industry, of all businesses, has a compelling interest in protecting nature's beauty since it's provided "free" of charge to tourist destinations around the world.
Now comes Starbucks. On Wednesday, the coffee giant ventured into the world of ecosystem services with its longtime partner, Conservation International. For years, Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) and Conservation International have worked together to develop what are called CAFÉ standards for Starbucks' growers, which reward those coffee farmers (with higher prices) who adhere to best environmental and social practices. Now Starbucks and Conservation International want to help protect the land surrounding places where coffee is grown. (Here's the press release.)
The new project is intended to help the farmers get a piece of the fast-growing $70 billion carbon finance business. "They can become carbon farmers as well as coffee farmers," says Glenn Prickett, a senior vice president with Conservation International. "By protecting and restoring forests, Starbucks and the coffee farms will do their part to mitigate climate change."
Here's how the project would work: Starbucks will finance Conservation International's efforts to work with local partners and coffee growers to protect the landscapes around the coffee growing areas. The growers, on their own or in partnership with local governments, would agree to preserve forests as they are or to replant trees. They would then become eligible, in today's world, to seek carbon credits from companies that are voluntarily offsetting their emissions. (Many companies now do so, among them Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500))
Many people believe that such forestry projects will become part of climate-change legislation when it is enacted by the United States as well as part of the Kyoto framework when new rules are written for the post-2012 period. That would mean the farmers would be generating carbon credits that are even more valuable because they could be used by companies that are required by law to reduce their emissions.
The plan now is to get started at sites in Sumatra, Indonesia, and Chiapas, Mexico. If all goes well, the program will spread to coffee-growing regions elsewhere in Latin America, Asia and Africa. It will be good for the economic livelihood of the coffee farmers, good for the local environment, good for their crops, good for the planet and good for Starbucks, which can tout the project to its customers and workers.
Howard Schultz, newly re-installed atop Starbucks, got this project rolling a few months ago when he called Peter Seligmann, the chairman and CEO of Conservation International. Both men live in Seattle, so they know one another. The former CEO of Starbucks, Orin Smith sits on Conservation International's board.
A final word on ecosystem services, this from a group called the Ecological Society of America:
Have you ever considered that the cereal you eat is brought to you each morning by the wind, or that the glass of clear, cold, clean water drawn from your faucet may have been purified for you by a wetland or perhaps the root system of an entire forest? Trees in your front yard work to trap dust, dirt, and harmful gases from the air you breathe. The bright fire of oak logs you light to keep warm on cold nights and the medicine you take to ease the pain of an ailment come to you from Nature's warehouse of services. Natural ecosystems perform fundamental life-support services upon which human civilization depends.
By Marc Gunther, senior writer Fortune
Friday, March 21, 2008
Xerox: Smarter Paths Toward Sustainability
Despite the incontrovertible importance of sustainability, many organizations today still struggle to justify a meaningful investment in green initiatives, because they perceive the efforts will generate added costs, not concrete business benefits.
This misperception presents a major problem for global progress because it's impossible to launch and maintain a substantive green improvement program in a profit-oriented organizational structure unless it delivers a definable ROI.
This quandary leads some companies to engage in green initiatives that lack real substance. Since these efforts run the risk of being labeled greenwashing by watchdog environmental groups, the investment can do more harm than good, considering the potential for a public relations backlash and damage to the brand.
There is a pragmatic solution to this problem, however. Case studies from virtually every industry show that it's possible for businesses today to develop green initiatives that will make a quantifiable contribution to both the environment and the bottom line. What's more, these efforts often deliver other qualitative benefits, including improvements in employee morale, customer loyalty and brand image, to name a few.
All of these valuable business results are definitely within reach when you take a disciplined, pragmatic and committed approach to the development and implementation of a smart green strategy. In addition, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that companies with a proven commitment to the environment tend to outperform other companies in terms of their stock value.
Smarter Ways to Green: Seven Keys to Sustainability Success in Your Business
But how do you develop a green initiative that will pay off for your business?
Based on our long history of green innovations at Xerox, here are some of the keys to our success:
1. Explore the entire value chain of your business Don't narrow your focus to one functional area. Open your mind to improvements and innovations that could reduce environmental impacts throughout your value chain, from beginning to end. When you take time to consider all of the working components of your value chain, you will dramatically expand the playing field for smart green initiatives.
2. Use disciplined, quantitative analysis to identify your best opportunities. Analytical tools and methodologies developed for proven quality management programs like Lean Six Sigma can help you identify problems and opportunities that will produce the biggest benefits in the shortest time frame. Pareto charts, for example, help focus attention on the small number of sources that cause the biggest problems. The chart is a tool based on the famous Pareto Principle -- best known as the "80-20 rule," which was named for Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist who noted that 80 percent of the income in Italy went to 20 percent of the population. A number of organizations have also developed environmental calculators to help businesses and consumers assess their environmental impact on a number of key factors, including paper use. These calculators provide information that can facilitate the development of smart green projects.
3. Make sure the proposed improvement or innovation will deliver both economic and environmental benefits In today's highly competitive business environment, quantifiable benefits are an essential requirement for any "smart way to green." So it's important to assess the win-win potential of any project before you begin active development. In a world where the effective utilization of resources is of paramount importance, there's simply no substitute for a disciplined analysis of costs and benefits prior to project development and launch.
4. Look for easy wins that will deliver a fast payback You may find ways to make a bigger impact down the road. But in the beginning, you need to win broad-based support for your efforts from senior leaders and other stakeholders. Projects that produce a quick, concrete ROI will prove the value of sustainability inside your company and set the stage for more ambitious undertakings in the future. Here are a few suggestions for quick easy wins that every company can take advantage of today:
Cut paper use in half through duplex (double-sided) printing and copying.
Replace hard-to-manage desktop printers, copiers and scanners with one efficient multifunction system that can reduce energy use by 50 percent.
Use the scan to e-mail capabilities of modern multifunction systems to reduce the need to print and mail hard-copy documents.
Switch to solid ink color printers (if it is the right application to suit your printing needs) to reduce waste up to 90 percent and eliminate the need to recycle toner cartridges.
Use recycled paper or sustainable stocks. Look for papers with certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. These papers are made from trees harvested in a way that protects endangered forests.
Use Lean Six Sigma tools and methodologies to analyze your enterprise-wide document infrastructure and identify ways to optimize it in terms of environmental sustainability, operating costs and efficiency.
Outsource document management to experts who will help you improve quality, lower costs and reduce energy and paper use by taking advantage of industry best practices and the latest technology.
5. Think "partnerships" To maximize your opportunity for success, you need to team up with suppliers, customers, outsourcing providers and other partners. At Xerox, for example, we work with all of the partners in our value chain to reduce waste, energy use, greenhouse gases and our overall environmental impact. It's all part of our effort to achieve one of our long-standing company goals: We want to operate waste-free manufacturing facilities that produce waste-free products that help our customers create waste-free work environments. Partnerships with leading environmental organizations can also be beneficial in advancing the cause of sustainability. After all, these organizations often have information and best practices that will help you reduce your environmental impact. They can also encourage your suppliers to adopt green policies and processes.
6. Be innovative The necessity to reinvent our global lifestyle is driving innovation throughout the world. Renewable energy, green chemistry, design and construction and green manufacturing are all examples of what may some day be viewed as one of the most creative engineering periods in history. In some cases, these innovations represent dramatic breakthroughs. The rapid commercialization of wind farms, geothermal energy sources and solar fields is an obvious example. In other cases, green goals are inspiring evolutionary improvements in the way we approach virtually every business process, from the design of efficient factories and packaging and the development of new products to the optimization of document processes and the creative use of by-products and waste. No question about it. Innovation is a vital cog in the big green machine. So when you begin working on green initiatives, think outside the box. Take a fresh look at the way you operate throughout your value chain. And look for opportunities to innovate. It could lead to breakthrough results—for the environment and your business.
7. Win people over with your passion, energy and inspiring determination There's one more key to success that needs to be included on this list: the importance of bringing spirit, enthusiasm and determination to the task of leading any green initiative. It's easy to do that when you consider what's at stake. Smart green initiatives can help you reduce costs, improve your efficiency, drive innovation, build employee morale, and enhance your brand image, all of which add tremendous value to the bottom line. They also make a valuable contribution to the future of the world. After all, scientific projections show that efforts to stabilize carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will significantly slow the pace of global warming and help prevent environmental catastrophes.In a very real sense, it's a privilege to be involved in work of such far-reaching importance. If you let that sense of mission inspire you, you will bring a deep sense of commitment and determination to your efforts, which will inspire those around you. That, in turn, will help you become even more effective as a champion of smart green sustainability in your organization.
Patricia Calkins is vice president of environment, health and safety for Xerox Corp. This column was excerpted from Calkins' white paper, "Smarter Ways to Green: How to Make Sustainability Succeed in Your Business."
This misperception presents a major problem for global progress because it's impossible to launch and maintain a substantive green improvement program in a profit-oriented organizational structure unless it delivers a definable ROI.
This quandary leads some companies to engage in green initiatives that lack real substance. Since these efforts run the risk of being labeled greenwashing by watchdog environmental groups, the investment can do more harm than good, considering the potential for a public relations backlash and damage to the brand.
There is a pragmatic solution to this problem, however. Case studies from virtually every industry show that it's possible for businesses today to develop green initiatives that will make a quantifiable contribution to both the environment and the bottom line. What's more, these efforts often deliver other qualitative benefits, including improvements in employee morale, customer loyalty and brand image, to name a few.
All of these valuable business results are definitely within reach when you take a disciplined, pragmatic and committed approach to the development and implementation of a smart green strategy. In addition, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that companies with a proven commitment to the environment tend to outperform other companies in terms of their stock value.
Smarter Ways to Green: Seven Keys to Sustainability Success in Your Business
But how do you develop a green initiative that will pay off for your business?
Based on our long history of green innovations at Xerox, here are some of the keys to our success:
1. Explore the entire value chain of your business Don't narrow your focus to one functional area. Open your mind to improvements and innovations that could reduce environmental impacts throughout your value chain, from beginning to end. When you take time to consider all of the working components of your value chain, you will dramatically expand the playing field for smart green initiatives.
2. Use disciplined, quantitative analysis to identify your best opportunities. Analytical tools and methodologies developed for proven quality management programs like Lean Six Sigma can help you identify problems and opportunities that will produce the biggest benefits in the shortest time frame. Pareto charts, for example, help focus attention on the small number of sources that cause the biggest problems. The chart is a tool based on the famous Pareto Principle -- best known as the "80-20 rule," which was named for Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist who noted that 80 percent of the income in Italy went to 20 percent of the population. A number of organizations have also developed environmental calculators to help businesses and consumers assess their environmental impact on a number of key factors, including paper use. These calculators provide information that can facilitate the development of smart green projects.
3. Make sure the proposed improvement or innovation will deliver both economic and environmental benefits In today's highly competitive business environment, quantifiable benefits are an essential requirement for any "smart way to green." So it's important to assess the win-win potential of any project before you begin active development. In a world where the effective utilization of resources is of paramount importance, there's simply no substitute for a disciplined analysis of costs and benefits prior to project development and launch.
4. Look for easy wins that will deliver a fast payback You may find ways to make a bigger impact down the road. But in the beginning, you need to win broad-based support for your efforts from senior leaders and other stakeholders. Projects that produce a quick, concrete ROI will prove the value of sustainability inside your company and set the stage for more ambitious undertakings in the future. Here are a few suggestions for quick easy wins that every company can take advantage of today:
Cut paper use in half through duplex (double-sided) printing and copying.
Replace hard-to-manage desktop printers, copiers and scanners with one efficient multifunction system that can reduce energy use by 50 percent.
Use the scan to e-mail capabilities of modern multifunction systems to reduce the need to print and mail hard-copy documents.
Switch to solid ink color printers (if it is the right application to suit your printing needs) to reduce waste up to 90 percent and eliminate the need to recycle toner cartridges.
Use recycled paper or sustainable stocks. Look for papers with certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. These papers are made from trees harvested in a way that protects endangered forests.
Use Lean Six Sigma tools and methodologies to analyze your enterprise-wide document infrastructure and identify ways to optimize it in terms of environmental sustainability, operating costs and efficiency.
Outsource document management to experts who will help you improve quality, lower costs and reduce energy and paper use by taking advantage of industry best practices and the latest technology.
5. Think "partnerships" To maximize your opportunity for success, you need to team up with suppliers, customers, outsourcing providers and other partners. At Xerox, for example, we work with all of the partners in our value chain to reduce waste, energy use, greenhouse gases and our overall environmental impact. It's all part of our effort to achieve one of our long-standing company goals: We want to operate waste-free manufacturing facilities that produce waste-free products that help our customers create waste-free work environments. Partnerships with leading environmental organizations can also be beneficial in advancing the cause of sustainability. After all, these organizations often have information and best practices that will help you reduce your environmental impact. They can also encourage your suppliers to adopt green policies and processes.
6. Be innovative The necessity to reinvent our global lifestyle is driving innovation throughout the world. Renewable energy, green chemistry, design and construction and green manufacturing are all examples of what may some day be viewed as one of the most creative engineering periods in history. In some cases, these innovations represent dramatic breakthroughs. The rapid commercialization of wind farms, geothermal energy sources and solar fields is an obvious example. In other cases, green goals are inspiring evolutionary improvements in the way we approach virtually every business process, from the design of efficient factories and packaging and the development of new products to the optimization of document processes and the creative use of by-products and waste. No question about it. Innovation is a vital cog in the big green machine. So when you begin working on green initiatives, think outside the box. Take a fresh look at the way you operate throughout your value chain. And look for opportunities to innovate. It could lead to breakthrough results—for the environment and your business.
7. Win people over with your passion, energy and inspiring determination There's one more key to success that needs to be included on this list: the importance of bringing spirit, enthusiasm and determination to the task of leading any green initiative. It's easy to do that when you consider what's at stake. Smart green initiatives can help you reduce costs, improve your efficiency, drive innovation, build employee morale, and enhance your brand image, all of which add tremendous value to the bottom line. They also make a valuable contribution to the future of the world. After all, scientific projections show that efforts to stabilize carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will significantly slow the pace of global warming and help prevent environmental catastrophes.In a very real sense, it's a privilege to be involved in work of such far-reaching importance. If you let that sense of mission inspire you, you will bring a deep sense of commitment and determination to your efforts, which will inspire those around you. That, in turn, will help you become even more effective as a champion of smart green sustainability in your organization.
Patricia Calkins is vice president of environment, health and safety for Xerox Corp. This column was excerpted from Calkins' white paper, "Smarter Ways to Green: How to Make Sustainability Succeed in Your Business."
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