Survey: Leading Organizations ‘Embrace’ Sustainability, Create “Cultures of Innovation”

On the heels of my most recent post (Surveys Lift the Lid on Innovation & Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Uncovering Value & Leadership Traits http://bit.ly/h941Jb) comes another survey by the MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group.  Like the Aberdeen and Capgemini studies, Sustainability: The ‘Embracers’ Seize Advantage uncovered two distinct camps of companies: “embracers” — those who place sustainability high on their agenda — and “cautious adopters,” who have yet to focus on more than energy cost savings, material efficiency, and risk mitigation.

According to the MIT/BCG study , the survey indicated that many companies view sustainability as eventually becoming “core,”; however the more advanced “embracers” were already acting on the belief that the sustainability ‘business case” was already a functional, core element of its organizational risk management and efficiency strategy. Embracers were also seeing the “payoff of sustainability-driven management largely in intangible advantages, process improvements, the ability to innovate and, critically, and in the opportunity to grow.”  Plus, and this is no surprise, embracers were found to be the highest performing businesses queried in the study.

Key MIT/BCG Findings

Several interesting findings emerged that synced up well with the Aberdeen and Capgemini studies, from an innovation and leader/laggard perspective:

1. Embracer companies are implementing sustainability-driven strategies widely in their organizations and have largely succeeded in making robust business cases for their investments.
2. All companies — both embracers and cautious adopters — see the benefits of strategies such as improved resource efficiency and waste management.
3. Embracer companies are assigning value to intangible factors (employee engagement, stakeholder concerns) when forming strategies and making decisions.
4. Embracers are more aggressive in their sustainability spending, but the cautious adopters are catching up and increasing their commitments at a faster rate than the embracers.
5. The sustainability-driven management approaches of embracer companies — which claim to be gaining competitive advantage via sustainability — exhibit seven shared traits that together suggest how sustainability may alter management practice for all successful companies in the future.

From a supply chain perspective the study found that embracers appear to be able to make a more compelling business case for sustainability, developing and integrating sustainability strategies in “everything from procurement and supply chain management to marketing and brand building.”

The MIT/BCG study discovered seven practices or characteristics that “embracers share. They are:

1. Move early — even if information is incomplete. Embracers tend to be bold and see the importance of being a “first mover” from a competitive perspective. What the study found most compelling was that embracers generally accepted that they need to act before they necessarily have all the answers.

“Embracers are not paralyzed by ambiguity, and instead see action as a way to generate data, uncover new options and develop evidence iteratively that makes decision-making increasingly effective. Movement diminishes uncertainty”.

2. Balance broad, long-term vision with projects offering concrete, near-term “wins.” Leading companies find a way to balance corporate visions with concrete, action oriented projects that will produce short-term successes.

“Smart embracers balance those aims with narrowly defined projects in, say, supply chain management, which allow them to produce early, positive bottom-line results. They exhibit relentless practicality”.

3. Drive sustainability top-down and bottom-up. Embracers find ways to engage its organization vertically and horizontally early and creating champions that can collectively ensure the 360-degree perspective that’s vital to sustainability.

4. Aggressively de-silo sustainability — integrating it throughout company operations. Embracers openly encourage cross-functional problem identification and problem solving and seek ways for more open innovation, group-think and collaborative action.

5. Measure everything (and if ways of measuring something don’t exist, start inventing them). I am not certain that I would measure EVERYTHING, but rather look for key performance metrics that matter to the core vision of sustainability that organizations seek to satisfy.  Measure what matters, don’t just measure just for measurements sake.

6. Value intangible benefits seriously. Embracers are clearly distinguished from cautious adopters in their readiness to value intangibles as meaningful competitive benefits of a sustainability strategy. However, embracers accept that it takes time to develop their ability to measure — or even to understand fully — intangible advantages, and they need to make their investment decisions on the basis of a combination of tangible benefits, intangibles and risk management scenarios.

7. Try to be authentic and transparent — internally and externally. Finally, companies leading the charge on sustainability are fundamentally realistic. They do not overstate motives or set unrealistic expectations, and they communicate their challenges as well as their successes.

The Evolution of a Sustainability Mindset- From Laggard to Innovator

The results of all three studies compare well with Peter Senges and Bob Willards remarks in several of their books, mirroring the development phases in organizations toward a sustainability culture, governance and business strategy. Willards model shows how as companies progress toward being sustainable enterprises, they can be roughly nested into a five-stage sustainability continuum. They evolve from an unsustainable model of business in Stages 1, 2 and 3, to a sustainable business framework in Stages 4 or 5. Willard explains that “executive mindsets also evolve from thinking of “green,” “environmental,” and “sustainable” initiatives as expensive and bureaucratic threats in the early stages, to recognizing them as catalysts for strategic growth in the later stages.”

Source: Bob Willard- Fives Stages of Sustainability

As leading organizations implement more efficient, creative, less resource intensive and wasteful practices, they quickly can realize direct and indirect financial and brand benefits. Truly innovative, agile and resilient companies with a leaning toward change management tend to ‘embrace’ this new paradigm as part of organizational ‘core values’ as successes rack up…it’s like a snowball effect.   The more that is achieved in the name of sustainability, the greater and larger the positive benefit.  Sustainability can become positively addicting!  At the same time, the chasm between the leaders and followers tends to widen, and the followers have to spend much more time, energy and resources to play catch up…if they catch up at all.

With the MIT/BCG and other two studies,  one common thread that is clear to me (and hopefully you) is that organizational dynamics have a lot to do with how well companies adapt to change, especially when it involves issues surrounding the three legs of sustainability.  The MIT study hit the nail on the head when it stated that “Where companies struggle when it comes to making sustainability an integral part of the business is often not so much with the technical side of things but with the human dimension of managing it.” In fact it was Peter Senge (in The Fifth Discipline), who states that a learning organization is one in which “people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.”

Seeing business from a  “whole systems”  perspective is truly what characterizes innovative, leading organizations from the competition.  Embracing organizations typically are more agile, adaptive, and (ultimately) more productive.  As businesses seek stronger competitive positions and reach outside their four walls to integrate innovations across supply chains, one critical, intangible element will still remain- the “human dynamic”.

Upcoming posts  will dive into management and organizational culture, its effects on driving the sustainability business case, and approaches to drive “cultures of innovation” and leadership beyong “the four wall” and throughout the value chain.

Lean, Green Manufacturing Intersects with Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Creates Value

An efficient manufacturing process is the essence of sustainability…and is by its very nature, green.  This was the gist of the business case that I posted last year and that is captured in an article published in the MIT Sloan Management Review.   MIT presents two ways of thinking:

• Old Thinking: Companies have long mistakenly thought that adopting environmentally friendly processes adds costs.
• New Thinking: Green practices like recycling, reusing and reducing waste can cut costs because they make a company more efficient.

Recalling Michael Douglas’ character “Gordon Gecko “ in the 1987 film “Wall Street” statement that “Greed is Good”, MIT Sloan’s basic message is a bit of a twist- “Green is Good”.  Manufacturing is showing with increased frequency, that companies incorporating lean practices in manufacturing, are (by design or accident) becoming more “green”.  In fact a 2009 study by a research group suggested that “lean companies are embracing green objectives and transcending to green manufacturing as a natural extension of their culture of continuous waste reduction, integral to world class Lean programs.”  This is especially true for companies that integrate a number of proven methods e.g. ISO quality and environmental management systems, to meet environmental compliance and stakeholder needs.  This is more rapidly accomplished with a dedicated corporate commitment to continual improvement, and incorporating ‘triple top line’ strategies to account for environmental, social and financial capital.

What is “Lean”?

‘Lean’ Manufacturing is a set of continuous improvement activities closely connected with the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Just-In-Time Manufacturing systems.  One emerging working definition of Lean is “The elimination of waste everywhere while adding value for customers”.  This definition is a natural fit with sustainability and the “Lean and Green” business ethic.  Lean manufacturing has demonstrated how companies have saved or avoided enormous operating and maintenance costs and significantly improved the quality of their products.

Lean manufacturing looks at manufacturing from a systems perspective, which includes a thorough evaluation of upstream and downstream process inputs and outputs.  Viewed this way, suppliers and customers play a critical role in successful lean manufacturing.  Heavy emphasis is placed on design and innovation and obtaining  input of from supply chain partners, individuals and organizations through a process called ‘value-stream mapping’ (hey that’s my blog name too- ironic?…not).

The Lean, Green and Supply Chain Intersect

As I have previously said, even without specifically targeting environmental outcomes, lean efforts have been demonstrated to yield substantial environmental benefits (pollution prevention, waste reduction and reuse opportunities etc.). However, because environmental wastes and pollution are not the primary focal points, these gains may not be maximized in the normal course of a lean initiative. This is because lean waste is by its nature not always in sync with typical environmental wastes.[1] I argue that by looking deep into your your value chain (upstream suppliers, operations and end of life product opportunities) with a ‘green’ or environmental lens, manufacturers can eliminate even more waste in the manufacturing process, and realize some potentially dramatic savings

Where ‘lean’ creates a positive view (future state) of a process without waste, ‘green’ creates an alternative view of a sustainable future for organizations that play in the global marketplace or offer a unique disruptive innovation.  Lean and green approaches to manufacturing not only leverages compliance issues but also puts companies on the path to going beyond compliance. The graphic below from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency applies the key ‘lean waste’ types in an environmental context, and crosswalks how lean waste issues can have direct environmental impact on an organization.

Using an example set by Subaru of Indiana,the MIT study shows how there are many proofs to the axiom that prevention of pollution and continually improving efficiencies with an environmental benefit works even in lean economic times. Subaru found that:

1.      Profits come by increasing efficiency and reducing waste—but they don’t always come immediately.

2.      Management’s leadership is vital in setting goals and getting departments to cooperate.

3.      The front line workers have to be engaged to spot opportunities to reduce, reuse, recycle, and find other ways to create efficiencies.

4.      Sustainability initiatives achieve maximum benefit from involvement of their supply chain.

5.      All waste by-products are potentially new products

6.      Green initiatives foster creativity and can enhance competitive advantage.

 

Source: Green, Lean, and Global Supply Chain Strategies, Univ. of Tennessee

As previously mentioned, becoming a green organization as part of a lean initiative occurs sometimes by design, and sometimes by accident.  A research study from the Sustainable Supply Chain Group at the University of Tennessee, College of Business Administration found some interesting results when evaluating how lean manufacturing, sustainability and supply chain management may at times be complementary.   The study found, among other things that: 1) Firms tend to have more sophisticated lean strategies than green strategies, and because of this awareness of ‘sustainability’ in supply chain management circles is less mature; and 2) Lean and green initiatives overlap, where projects that meet lean objectives often provide unanticipated green benefits.

Extending Lean and Green to the Supply Chain

Establishing initial goals for manufacturing efficiencies include maximizing parts, machine and material utilization, human movement and of course reducing waste. This series of continuous improvement steps offer a cornerstone for reaching both a green and efficient supply chain. But how can manufacturers work beyond the ‘four walls’ of their organizations to green their supply chain?  A green focus in supply chain management requires working with upstream suppliers and downstream customers, performing analyses of internal operations and processes, reviewing environmental considerations in the product development process, and looking at extended stewardship opportunities across the life-cycle of one or more intermediate or final products.

Lean Tools You Can Use

So far, I’ve laid a foundation for Lean Manufacturing and the intersection with supply chain management. This next section presents a couple of widely accepted practices that are used in Lean design and manufacturing, which can be modified to capture supplier network considerations.

Value-Stream Mapping

A strategic approach to mapping  environmental and lean opportunities would be to map the ‘value-stream’  of one or more products as a way to seek where the greatest waste  reduction and environmental impact reduction opportunities are. Value stream mapping arrived on the business process landscape with the emergence of Lean engineering, design and manufacturing.  A process-and systems based methodology, value stream mapping can help organizations to identify major sources of non-value added time and materials resources i.e. waste that flow into the manufacturing of a particular product or (even) service; and to develop an action (or “Kaizen”) plan to implement less wasteful practices and processes.   From an environmental perspective, practitioners can also look at processes from an environmental, health and safety point of view, focusing on processes tending to use great amounts of resource inputs and that generate waste outputs.

To illustrate what I mean, a value-stream map example (presented below) in a report issued by the U.S. EPA on Lean and the Environment depicts how supply chain vendors can interact in the production of a product and the resource waste that can result.  The areas noted in green represent interaction points with environmental, health and safety and related environmental loads associated with intermediate production steps.  Clearly the four vendor points of interaction can carry their own environmental footprints just in the trucking and distribution of raw materials and products (air and waste emissions for instance).

Typical steps in value stream mapping include:

1. Select a product or process(es)
2. Through interviews and work observations, collect data on the ‘current state’ of the value stream (inputs and outputs)
3. Using a cross functional team (CFT) of knowledgeable staff, develop a ‘current state’ value stream map; focus on identifying over consumptive or waste generating activities
4. With the CFT in place, brainstorm ideas to improve resource use, production flow, waste capture and reduction, reuse and off spec material reuse, and labor/time management
5. Create a future state’ value stream map that identifies areas, targets and key performance metrics for continual improvement.
6. Develop a implementation plan, complete with authorizes and responsibilities
7. Develop continual improvement measurement and monitoring program
8. And last but not least…get started!

 

Vendor Survey and Qualification

Manufacturers also supplement their Lean efforts by surveying their supply chain partners and  asking a series of questions designed to identify where the resource consumption and waste management opportunities may lie.  These  questions will help determine if technology, operational practices,  enhanced training and awareness or other tools can make their company  more sustainable and lead them down the path to make the decision that  best meets their business needs. These questions include but are not  limited to:

1. How can I leverage my manufacturing capabilities and processes in a way that optimizes per unit material resource consumption?
2. Can I reduce waste generation through improving material use, scrap/off spec reuse and improved equipment maintenance?
3. Can  I work collaboratively with my intermediate parts or materials  suppliers to use life cycle design practices and manufacture parts with  lowered environmental footprints?
4. How  can I encourage suppliers to increase equipment efficiency, reduce  manufacturing cycle time, reduce inventories, streamline processes or  seek quick returns on investment?
5. Can I improve my sales and operations planning to optimize production runs and reduce resource loads or generated wastes?
6. How  can I work more closely with logistics and transportation partners to  optimize shipment schedules, customer deliveries, warehousing, routing  and order fulfillment?
7. Can  I work with my customers and product designers to improve packaging to  optimize space reduce materials use and improve load management?
8. How can I collaborate more closely with customers to enable reverse logistics and profitable product reusability?
9. What  types of value-added training and development programs can I develop to  promote lean and green opportunities with my suppliers?

Lean-Green Synergies Are Not Without Challenges

The  same University of Tennessee authors who explored the intersect of  lean, green and supply chain also discussed found that some potential  conflicts with certain types of lean strategies leading to changes in  supply change management.  For instance, they noted that  “lean strategies that require just-in-time delivery of small lot sizes  require increased transportation, packaging, and handling that may  contradict a green approach. Introducing global supply chain management into the green and lean equation increases the potential conflict between the green and lean initiatives.”

So  as companies begin to implement lean and green strategies in supply  chains, especially large and complex global supply chains, manufacturers  need to explore the overlaps and synergies between quality-based lean  and environmentally based ‘green’ initiatives, and understand the  various trade-offs required to balance possible points of conflict.  If  your organization been reluctant to engage your supply chain or  implement or maintain environmental initiatives in your product  manufacturing because of the perception that you can’t afford it, then  think again.  It is more likely that you cannot afford to ignore it.

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[1] Typical classifications of environmental ‘waste’ nodes include: Energy, Water, Materials, Garbage, Transportation, Emissions, and Biodiversity

Seeking Links Between Supply Chain Sustainability, Logistics & the U.N. Climate Conference (COP16)

As the world’s nations converge on Cancun this week for the two week UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) a few statistics are in order to put the supply chain and related logistics industry into perspective.  It’s a pretty sure bet (given poor results at COP15 in Copenhagen and recent Congressional elections here in the U.S.) that it’s unlikely that any major binding agreements will be reached on setting measurable and verifiable targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts for industrialized nations.  What is at least hoped for is that there will be some progress on establishing more robust means to appropriate and distribute micro-finance funds to support development of technologies in developing countries that lack the dollars themselves to manage their own greenhouse gas footprints.

Logistics and Transportation Share a Big Piece of the Carbon Pie

But the fact remains that logistics is a major source of CO2 emissions, accounting for 13.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) – although, this figure also includes passenger transportation.  The “transport sector’ sector as a whole is responsible for 24% of global CO₂ emissions!  So as the logistics industry grows and expands to respond to the ever changing demands by global commerce, so will energy consumption and GHG emissions related to daily logistics.  To that end, in a report issued this fall by Deutsch Post/ DHL, “Delivering Tomorrow: Towards Sustainable Logistics”[1], a study of more than 3600 companies found that “two-thirds, i.e. 63 % of business customers, believe companies will regard transportation as a key lever to reduce their carbon footprint”. And while the report suggests that low-carbon logistics solutions and flexible transport modes are not yet widely available, there are a few market-ready technologies or solutions today that can meet the specific needs of the transport and logistics sector.

“We want to take a significant step forward to improving carbon efficiency and do our part to facilitate a low-carbon economy,” says Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Post DHL Frank Appel. Deutsche Post DHL was the first logistics company worldwide to commit to a carbon efficiency target – 30 percent improvement by the year 2020 compared with 2007.  Other companies such as UPS and FedEx are implementing similar programs designed to optimize operations in a sustainable manner.

The report also cited that “70 % of respondents believe that legislation is needed in order to bring about a substantial shift towards a sustainable logistics industry.” The study shows that carbon pricing mechanisms can likely accelerate a market-based dynamic toward more sustainable solutions. Once there is a real price tag attributed to carbon emissions, the environment will be an integral part of investment decisions.    Customers in Asia in particular appear quick to accept that sustainable solutions may cause higher prices, according to the study. For example, 84 percent of consumers in China, India, Malaysia and Singapore say they would accept a higher price for green products – compared to only 50 percent in Western countries.  This type of hesitancy on the part of Western countries falls in direct line with the ‘foot dragging’ that has occurred at past climate conferences.

The report concluded by suggesting seven key developments that are likely to take place that can largely be influenced by the ways that logistics can affect global commerce:

1. Logistics counts – it is not a commodity. Logistics is not only a chief catalyst of global trade and a defining component behind value creation – it is also a business of strategic importance in the move towards a low-carbon economy.

2. Technological change will be achieved through a concerted planning and implementation effort between private companies, governments and financial institutions.

3. Collaboration will increasingly be seen as an enabler to attain sustainability even between perennial competitors. This will especially be the case as greenhouse gas emissions reduction becomes a priority for suppliers, business customers and logistics companies.

4. Business models of logistics companies will change as sustainable innovations and technological advances create new opportunities.

5. Carbon labeling will become standardized. Carbon ‘tags’ offer ways for customers to compare environmental impacts of products. This increased product ‘transparency’ can raise confidence among logistics customers and end consumers when making climate-friendly choices.

6. Carbon emissions will eventually have a price tag, whether it’s mandated by law or not. Already, carbon accounting has become part of companies accounting, decision making and corporate reporting practices in many market sectors. Increasing movement in this direction, with possible government or free market intervention will only increase the demand for a price to be attached to CO2 emissions.

7. Carbon pricing will lead to more stringent regulatory measures.  However companies will only accept a price tag on carbon emissions if governments ensure a level playing field across industries (and more challenging will be across economies).

Companies are not Waiting Around

Already, big product manufacturers and retailers like Unilever and Walmart are reaching deep into their supply chain to stock shelves with less harmful products.  Gavin Neath, senior vice president for sustainability for Unilever says that this approach not only helps the company cut costs, but create new products that are less impacting to the environment and expand in developing-world markets that are likely to be hit hard by global warming, he said. With efforts to secure a global climate treaty barely inching forward “big companies like ours, which have very extensive supply chains, reaching across all continents and 60, 70 countries, can make a difference,” Mr. Neath explained.

That brings us back to COP16.

UPS Carbon Neutral Shipping Program (courtesy Logistics Management Magazine)

It’s been suggested by some practitioners and policy makers that at COP16, a binding agreement is more likely to occur when countries take ownership of their entire life-cycle emissions and when such agreements are based on data that attributes emissions fairly.   It’s also been proposed that national inventories be generated by adopting measurement tools that follow the principles established by existing carbon accounting methodologies already used by corporations and at a product level.   Supply chain wide carbon accounting (at the product design, manufacturing and distribution levels) is a vital ingredient to achieve this result.

I’ll be watching COP16 developments closely in Cancun these next two weeks and will offer additional insights about what potential policy driven outcomes these negotiations may have on supply chain logistics.

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[1] The study on sustainable logistics was developed with experts from MIT, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, National University of Singapore and the Technische Universität Berlin, Deutsche Post DHL, and manufacturers/retailers like Fujitsu, Henkel, HP, Unilever, and Walmart.

Sustainability, Peter Senge, and the Necessary (Supply Chain) Revolution.

I just finished reading an interview with Peter Senge in the October Harvard Business Review.  Senge, for those of you that are unfamiliar, founded the Society for Organizational Learning, is a faculty member at MIT Sloan School of Management, and the author the The Fifth Discipline and The Necessary Revolution.  Senge maintains that to make progress on environmental issues, organizations must understand that they’re part of a larger system. Senge also makes a great point that companies will be in a better competitive position if they understand the larger system that they operate within and to work with people you haven’t worked with before. And while these two skills might seem distinct, in practice they’re interwoven. This is generally because systems are often too complicated for one person to grasp, crossing over many boundaries, both internal and external.  It’s these external boundaries that supply chain management issues begin to become apparent.

According to Senge, and as I mentioned last month in an earlier post about Starbucks, supply chains support whole systems thinking because they focus on the “nature of the relationships”. In the HBR article, Senge maintains that in most supply chains, 90% of them are still transactional.   Manufacturer or retailers still pressure upstream suppliers to get their costs down and little incentive is given toward innovating together.  This in turn erodes trust, however, as I have mentioned in this space, changes are everywhere.  Some companies like Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Walmart are also partnering with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and working in an open source manner with industry associations to innovate.   Successful ventures like Walmart/Environmental Defense Fund, Unilever/Oxfam and Coca-Cola/World Wildlife Fund are taking a collaborative approach to problem solving that drives innovation, breeds trust and industry “cred” and offer NGO’s a wider voice in addressing social, environmental performance issues in the supply chain.

But success in levering supply chains to impact environmental performance ultimate resides with corporate leaders.  Senge maintains to successfully engage thousands and thousands of people around the world from multiple organizations, you’ll need technical innovations, management innovations, process innovations, and cultural innovations.  And to effectively achieve these innovations take bold, often heretical leadership.  Organizations need to often take a step back from the details and “see the forest for the trees” (and hopefully not just see more trees!)

Research and practice in supply chain management is beginning to prove once and for all that supply chain as a “practice” offer unique learning opportunities related to triple bottom line based sustainability.  Learning experiences can range from relatively simple, incremental modifications to a current knowledge set – for example, new environmental regulations like REACH and RoHS – through to complex new approaches which will involve experimentation, small scale piloting and larger scale adaptation (such as those designed to help transporters manage their carbon emissions).

How does your company use “whole systems” thinking to manage supply chain issues? In coming weeks I will begin exploring supply chain learning and management through a sustainability lens, and share some findings from various manufacturing sectors.  It’s my hope that readers can then begin to understand how to apply whole systems approaches across enterprises in the supply chain.  It’s my grand plan that these ideas will gel into practical steps that add value and become a core operating principle in your company.

What Really Matters in Business Happens at the Edges- Take the Lean and Green Challenge!

Is the economic downtown turning a corner? Well, yes it is…just which corner it’s turning no one really knows…yet. In the meantime, most companies are sitting tight, private capital is hanging on the sidelines, and the “green” natives are getting restless. So it was with great interest that this week an article was published in the MIT Sloan Management Review which echoed the sentiment that I have carried forward with my clients for years. Recalling Michael Douglas’ “Wall Street” character’s statement that “Greed is Good”, MIT Sloan’s basic message is… “Green is Good”.

MIT presents two ways of thinking:

–Old Thinking: Companies have long mistakenly thought that adopting environmentally friendly processes adds costs.

–New Thinking: Green practices like recycling, reusing and reducing waste can cut costs because they make a company more efficient.

Using an example set by Subaru of Indiana, there are many proofs to the axiom that prevention of pollution and continually improving efficiencies …one idea that focuses on environmental improvement, and the other on business economics, works even in lean times. Subaru found that:

1.Profits come by increasing efficiency and reducing waste—but they don’t always come immediately.

2.Management’s leadership is vital in setting goals and getting departments to cooperate.

3.The front line workers have to be engaged to spot opportunities to reduce, reuse, recycle, and find other ways to create efficiencies.

4.Sustainability initiatives achieve maximum benefit from involvement of their supply chain.

5.All waste by-products are potentially new products

6.Green initiatives foster creativity and can enhance competitive advantage.

Let’s all be honest…that last point…competitive advantage is what really motivates business. So company sustainability initiatives cannot and should not be viewed through strictly an environmental lens, but through the balanced “sweet” spot of the Triple Bottom Line.

To paraphrase Guy Kawasaki in his book, Rules for Revolutionaries, what really matters happens at the edges. The action is not in the centers or areas of sameness. Organizations must challenge conventions and change the way products and processes are thought of and delivered.

So take the Lean and Green challenge…do what Subaru has done and get to work innovating and creating.

Economic Stimulus…The “Sustainablity Lens”, Technology Investments, and Enabling the Green Workforce

Investment decisions are increasingly impacted by climate change information, based upon new research by the Carbon Disclosure Project (http://www.cdproject.net).  Over 80 institutional investors (three-quarters of those surveyed) that signed the information request sent out by CDP said they factor climate change information into their investment decisions and asset allocations.  This once again demonstrates the value-added impact of looking at operations and organizational decision-making processes though a “sustainability lens”.  As more companies take the time to examine their work practices and explore ways to implement cost-effective technologies with a fairly secure return on investment, the more financially secure they will likely be in weathering this financial downturn.  Further, it’s these forward thinking companies who will emerge out ahead of the pack when the economy does in fact make its turnaround.  So ask yourselves, is your organization a “game changer” or just willing to get by and instead “follow the leader”?

Meanwhile, positive flow for the green economy, energy and the environment as the $789 billion stimulus bill was hammered out this week by Congress.  These gains represent about 10% of the total in the stimulus package and contain several items toward advancing a sustainable future, notably:

• $8.4 billion for mass transit;
• $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways;
• $6.4 billion for clean and drinking water projects;
• $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobs”;
• $13.9 billion to subsidize loans for renewable energy projects;
• $11 billion toward renewable infrastructure including a smart electricity grid to reduce waste;
• $6.3 billion in state energy efficiency and clean energy grants;
• $5 billion to weatherize modest-income homes; and
• $4.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient.

This indicates of a positive direction and recognition that the Obama administration and Congress is taking appropriate steps in creating a climate of creativity, innovation and reduced reliance on a carbon-based economy.  Susan Hockfield, President of MIT noted in the Boston Globe that “the United States must go beyond the priorities of the stimulus package…[and] invest in the kind of research and innovation that will ultimately spin-off millions of jobs by building a new economy. This includes investing in early- and later-stage research on the most promising technologies; funding new R&D centers to accelerate critical breakthroughs; equipping research labs with state-of-the-art instrumentation for advanced research, prototyping and demonstration of emerging technologies; and training a new energy talent base.” http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/13/the_next_step_in_stimulus_long_term_economic_growth.  How?  Perhaps in the form of tax credits, public-private partnerships, etc?

Here in Washington State, $64 million is being targeted to train unemployed workers for new jobs.  It’s been my observation as a seasoned EHS and sustainability practitioner that what is lacking to date is a “boots to the ground” work force that is trained and certified as green workers.  I recognize that there are a myriad of public and private institutions that offer targeted programs designed to retrain traditional tradespersons into a retained work force.   But something is missing.   In my mind, it is paramount that in order for skilled trades to effectively ‘brand” themselves to gain those higher paying jobs,  that there be concentrated programs in place to provide the education, certification and immediate job entry opportunities necessary to make meaningful contributions to the economy and to support individual growth and professional development.   Here is hoping that some of those training funds will be directed toward development of such curriculums.