Sustainability Leads to Economic Viability

Posted on January 17, 2012 by corporatesustainabilitytraining
Most corporate sustainability strategies were started by sustainability managers and public relations professionals within an organization, in an attempt to get an edge on the market and increase efficiency and transparency. Now, stakeholders and investors are starting to understand the need for corporate sustainability. They view sustainability as a major component toward economic viability. If they are going to invest their time and money in an organization, they want it to be sustainable / economic viable!

A study from Brighter Planet revealed a 10 percent increase in shareholder pressure on corporate sustainability, making it the fastest-growing motivator for sustainability initiatives. Ernest & Young also found a 40 percent year-over-year growth rate in sustainability shareholder resolutions and predicted that fully half of all shareholder resolutions this year will be sustainability-related.

With this increase in pressure comes an increase in legitimacy as well. Gone are the days of companies green-washing their marketing to look environmentally friendly. Now that the shareholders are paying attention to an organization’s sustainability strategy, and measuring its effectiveness in yearly reports, we can expect to see a shift from green-washing to robust sustainability management, operations, and reporting.

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What Binds Facebook and Corporate Sustainability

Posted on January 12, 2012 by corporatesustainabilitytraining

Ah, Facebook – the frosting to my cupcake, the key to my board, the smart to my mouth. Everybody loves Facebook. It wasn’t always this way. Private individuals were hesitant to participate because they didn’t want to publicize their every move on the Internet, and companies were apprehensive about participating because they were unsure of the return on investment (both in terms of time and money). Alas, social media marketing was born and has grown to be a highly coveted form of marketing.

What does this phenomenon have to do with corporate sustainability, you ask? Well, there is certainly a relationship between the two processes. When introduced, both Facebook and corporate sustainability created waves of excitement and hesitation among consumers. Innovative thinkers and adventurous spirits wanted to participate immediately, simply because they wanted to be one of the first to do so.

Others, however, bounced around questions like “Should I do this?” “How will this benefit me?” “What are the risks?” “How much does it cost?” “Who should be involved?” “Why are professionals in the industry promoting this?” “To what extent must I participate?” “When will I see a return on investment?”

Corporate sustainability long existed as a mysterious and vague buzz word. Environmentalists and building professionals wanted to learn more about it but never knew what concrete steps to take. In recent years, green jobs training organizations like Everblue answered the demand and developed corporate sustainability training that explicitly discusses the steps one would take to lower costs and save a company’s bottom line. Such training focuses on the factors that contribute to corporate sustainability, sustainability reporting, and successful corporate case studies.

Now, much like Facebook, companies have adopted and embraced corporate sustainability as a standard business practice. After some apprehension, and much research, the return on investment has become clear. Marketing professionals participate in Facebook because it allows them to address customer service issues in a new way and also enables them to establish real relationships with their customers. Sustainability managers promote corporate sustainability because it improves brand image, saves money, increases employee morale, allows for greater product innovation, reduces risk, enhances stakeholder relations, and provides new sources of revenue. Check and check.

Ah, corporate sustainability – the money to my maker.

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Occupy Wall Street from a Sustainability Standpoint

Posted on January 9, 2012 by corporatesustainabilitytraining

Regardless of your feelings toward the members of the Occupy Wall Street protests, you might find it interesting to analyze their arguments from a sustainability standpoint. Whether or not these individuals realize it, their arguments have a strong foundation in corporate social responsibility, which is often associated with corporate sustainability.

Is this thought process too big of a leap? No, and here’s why: the Occupy Wall Street protesters are essentially campaigning against apathy and corporate irresponsibility. Corporate sustainability challenges these same characteristics; you cannot be apathetic about implementing a sustainability strategy within your organization or else it will not succeed or prove effective! Corporate sustainability relies heavily on organizational responsibility and transparency, which becomes evident through marketing campaigns and comprehensive sustainability reporting and analysis.

Occupy Wall Street protesters are angry because they feel citizens have been too apathetic toward corporate activity. Individuals are either too caught up in themselves or believe corporate transactions are over their heads, so they choose not to follow and understand the actions of major corporations. This issue comes to head when CEOs try to dodge blame when environmental disasters, such as oil spills, take place. The protesters simply want transparency and responsibility on the part of major corporate players, just as everyone else is expected to be responsible for their actions.

Similarly, when businesses adopt transparent business procedures, it stands to reason that customers, stakeholders, and other individuals can easily learn about unethical and unsustainable business practices. Corporate sustainability has been hailed by customers and stakeholders alike for various reasons. These individuals want to trust the companies they are investing in, and it makes them feel more loyal to a company that they respect. Corporate greed and wastefulness simply has to go.

If you haven’t participated in the Occupy Wall Street discussions, please know that the movement represents a number of different causes. It’s just interesting that corporate sustainability has found its way into the argument, in some capacity. We now have an environmentally-educated, entrepreneurial, and sustainable society. They expect the leading corporations to represent them and make educated decisions on their behalf. Needless to say, when corporations do not align their business practices with the expectations of their customers and stakeholders, there is going to be an issue.

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Sustainability Motivates Employees

Posted on January 4, 2012 by corporatesustainabilitytraining

Research has shown that employees feel more engaged and motivated upon participating in a corporate sustainability strategy. There is a synergistic relationship between sustainability and employee engagement, in that they support and advance one another.

Corporate sustainability is a common goal that employees can share, no matter where they are on the totem pole. It encourages them to better their situations and enables them to feel as though they are contributing to their organization on a profound level.

On the other hand, companies need employees to be supportive and participatory in their corporate sustainability strategies. The organization’s sustainability manager cannot implement a strategy and expect it to succeed if there is no backing behind it.

The importance and relevance of corporate sustainability needs to be communicated to employees at all levels. The employees, in turn, appreciate being included in the decision-making process and will be more likely to support the strategy after becoming more educated on the reasons behind it.

Some of the best employees are the ones who take an active interest in the company they work for. Why shouldn’t corporate sustainability feed into this pattern? An active employee will feel that much more satisfied with their company when they see how passionate and committed the organization is to reducing its carbon footprint and global impact.

Regardless of where you fall in your organization, sustainability is a concept that affects everyone. It goes beyond the building you work in. You can apply sustainability to your overall way of living. Click here to learn more about how you can make a difference and contribute to a corporate sustainability strategy.

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McDonald’s Sustainability Strategy?

Posted on December 28, 2011 by admin

I came across an interesting press release on MarketWatch about McDonald’s 2011 sustainability strategy. The document attempted to describe the fast food chain’s “commitment to mainstreaming sustainability for customers through the company’s actions and collaboration with suppliers, experts, and the food industry as a whole.” Just as we’ve done (briefly) here, the press release quoted significant lengths of writing from McDonald’s 2011 Sustainability Scorecard.

I assume the decision to directly quote the scorecard is related to the idea that the scorecard doesn’t go into much detail about McDonald’s real sustainability efforts. Reading through the quotations, I have difficulty determining what McDonald’s plans to do and how that relates to corporate sustainability. For example, the first important citation about McDonald’s sustainability plan discusses how the company intends to include fruit in every Happy Meal served in the U.S. and Latin America. Boy, McDonald’s was really hit hard by Morgan Spurlock’s documentary “Super Size Me” — yes, serving fruit will be healthy, but how does that relate to sustainability?

Perhaps we need to take a step back. What is sustainability? In most references, people associate sustainability with steps toward environmental preservation. I think McDonald’s uses sustainability as it was originally intended – that is, the capacity to endure. OK, that makes sense. McDonald’s executives were worried after “Super Size Me” came out that McDonald’s business would go out the window. To make the company more sustainable, they came out with healthier food options. To prevent customers from worrying about calories and health-related issues (and corresponding decline in sales), McDonald’s started pushing healthier meal plans to encourage customers to continue eating there. OK, I’ll give them that.

Then we get to the part about Environmental Responsibility. The press release indicates that McDonald’s has “developed stronger energy-related metrics” and that “nine major markets made significant improvements in energy data gathering and reporting capabilities.” Unfortunately, that’s all that’s said about that bullet point. I’d be interested in learning about these energy-related metrics and data gathering. What factors are they measuring? What results are they seeing? How is that changing supply chain procedures? What results are they seeing, based on these changes? Where are they publishing these reports?

The next bullet point about environmental responsibility discusses that “more than 90 pieces of more energy-efficient equipment” has been available to McDonald’s. I’m not entirely sure what that means. Perhaps more important, the press release notes that “the company made available for purchase” these 90 pieces of equipment. Who are they selling the equipment to? This is poorly phrased. This bullet point goes on to say that the restaurant is making simple improvements like using “energy-efficient lighting with newer tools such as occupancy sensors.” OK, there we go. We finally get a little bit more information. Unfortunately, that’s where it ends.

In conclusion, McDonald’s executives want the company to last. They have assembled a 2011 Sustainability Scorecard that vaguely highlights the actions the company wants to take in five priority areas, three of those being environmental responsibility, employment experience, and community involvement. Upon reading the citations under the latter two categories, it sounds like the action items are surprisingly detailed and potentially effective. It’s peculiar that the environmental responsibility category is so vague. It makes one think that McDonald’s isn’t too familiar with environmental sustainability, too far beyond energy-efficient lighting. There are certainly other steps to be taken to achieve environmental sustainability. Hopefully the 2012 Sustainability Scorecard will go into more detail, in regard to environmental responsibility.

I feel confident that McDonald’s will stick around. Providing healthy food options, promoting diversity among employees, and participating in community service will certainly benefit the company’s overall sustainability. In terms of environmental responsibility, I hope to see some improvement in the future. Now is the time for companies to tackle environmental sustainability head-on and make a difference. Once McDonald’s gets a good grasp of corporate sustainability, it will be unstoppable.

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Understanding GRI Reporting

Posted on December 20, 2011 by corporatesustainabilitytraining

If you are a certified Sustainability Manager, you have likely heard of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is an organization that provides prevalent standards, called indicators, for sustainability reporting. Organizations complete a GRI Report, which makes public their economic, environmental, and social performance. The purpose of GRI Reporting is to standardize corporate sustainability in such a way that sustainability managers from all kinds of companies can compare their progress and impact to other organizations.

The GRI indicators are widely used, as evidenced by the 1,500 organizations from 60 countries who have produced the sustainability report. The reason why GRI Reporting is so successful is because it provides corporate businesses, public agencies, smaller enterprises, and non-profit organizations an outlet for measuring, tracking, and improving their performance on specific issues. For many, corporate sustainability is much easier to manage when it is being effectively measured. In addition, the GRI guidelines were created through a multi-stakeholder, consensus-seeking approach, so they have been deemed as the most credible and trusted framework for corporate social responsibility.

Stakeholders appreciate the GRI Report because it demonstrates transparency and accountability for the organizations they support. Public pressure has proven to be a successful method for promoting transparent behavior when it comes to sustainable business practices. Companies do not want to get caught green-washing – that is, publicizing false green activities. GRI Reporting makes it easy for any individual to research an organization’s sustainable business practices and compare the organization’s procedures on an annual basis.

There are so many GRI Indicators that guide sustainability managers who are completing the GRI Report that the entire process can be rather overwhelming. Not all of the GRI Indicators are required, so navigating the list and determining which ones are important can be quite the task. Certified Sustainability Manager training introduces individuals to all the GRI Indicators and helps them determine which indicators are most appropriate for their organization. Students completing the Certified Sustainability Manager course typically feel more confident about approaching a GRI Report after taking the training.

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UL Environment Launches Sustainability Quotient Program

Posted on December 15, 2011 by corporatesustainabilitytraining

UL Environment, a business unit of UL (Underwriters Laboratories), recently announced the launch of its Sustainability Quotient (SQ) program, which is a comprehensive system of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability initiatives of corporations at an enterprise level. The SQ program is based on a series of auditable standards, including UL 880: Sustainability for Manufacturing Organizations, with the first edition being released today, and UL 881: Sustainability for Service Sector Organizations, which is in development.

“Similar to the promise of electricity in the late 1800s that helped launch UL’s science-based approach to standards development and testing, sustainability is on the cusp of widespread public adoption and the spur for innovation. Nonetheless, there remains confusion over what ‘sustainability’ means,” says Stephen Wenc, president of UL Environment. “We established the SQ program to foster adoption of a standardized language and rating platform for corporate sustainability that may also be used in risk mitigation, streamlining operations, and early action in anticipation of future regulation.”

This is exactly the push toward corporate sustainability that the industry has needed. All along, individuals have taken an interest in sustainability. They have needed an organization to define sustainability and provide guidelines on how to measure its successes and pitfalls. Having measurable standards and scales to define success will surely help standardize sustainability and make it more mainstream.

Learn more about Corporate Sustainability now.

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Writing Effective Corporate Sustainability Reports

Posted on December 12, 2011 by corporatesustainabilitytraining

More and more organizations are completing sustainability reports based on the Global Reporting Initiative requirements. Many of these reports are filled with facts and figures, showing where and how the organization has achieved its sustainability goals. In large part, the corporate sustainability report is primarily meant to update stakeholders on an organization’s progress. In reality, most stakeholders do not read the report due to the dull content.

SustainAbility and KPMG conducted a survey in 2008 and found that 450 of 2300 respondents claimed not to read the sustainability reports that were given to them. These are surprising results, assuming that these respondents held jobs that required them to track corporate performance. From an organization’s perspective, some sustainability professionals assume that since reports are only read by stakeholders, if they are a bit boring, that’s fine. Is this the appropriate mentality toward corporate sustainability reports? Of course not!

Unfortunately, reports are usually defensive communication and neither reader nor reporter sees them as a serious attempt to engage. Organizations look at reports as something they have to do, and stakeholders look at reports as something they feel obligated to read. Naturally, there won’t be any motivation to interact or push the subject further.

The most effective corporate sustainability reports are the ones that present information in visual ways and other ways that appeal to the emotions. Stakeholders and other individuals will pay attention to a report if it makes the effort to resonate with them. Basic human psychology tells us that emotions and ideas precede intellectual engagements, which is to say that it is much easier to affect someone emotionally than it is to affect them intellectually.

One obstacle to interactive corporate sustainability reports is the GRI reporting process in general. Sustainability managers, and those who participate in the reporting process, must meet a variety of criteria, and for their purposes, sometimes it is easier to offer up the information devoid of emotion, color, and interest. They just want to complete the rigorous reporting process. The next step would be to consolidate the comprehensive knowledge in the GRI report into a brief, interactive version for stakeholders.

Sure, this creates extra work for the sustainability managers responsible for the GRI report, but in the end, if these individuals are truly interested in the work they are doing for an organization, wouldn’t their passion for the industry motivate them to repackage the information in an entertaining and informative way for stakeholders? Those of us who truly care about corporate sustainability do not just want to report the bare minimum results; we want to make a difference. If you want your sustainability reports to be read by your stakeholders, make an effort to make them interesting! The content itself is interesting. You just need to follow these steps: jazz up the report with visuals, omit dull or repetitive content, change industry terms into layman’s terms, and create parallels to the information that appeals to the reader’s senses.

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Corporate Sustainability a Key Factor for Consumers

Posted on December 8, 2011 by corporatesustainabilitytraining
I recently read an article debating whether or not companies should embrace corporate sustainability. What stood out most in the article was the point that consumers are now looking for corporations to implement sustainable business practices. Consumers do not appreciate green-washing, however. They expect to see real facts and metrics indicating that a company cares about the environment and is working toward reducing its environmental impact.

In that regard, the “customer is always right” mentality rings true even when applied to corporate sustainability decisions. The average consumer is now knowledgeable about global warming and the impact environmental decisions may have on agriculture and human health.

Consumers take into account human health when making their purchasing decisions. Individuals with kids are especially sensitive about health and protection. Because the number of individuals with families is such a large segment of the population, companies should not ignore consumer preferences. If consumers look at corporate social responsibility as an influential factor for determining whether or not to support the company, then the concept should not be taken lightly.

There are a number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and other indexes that enable consumers to quickly measure and identify a company’s commitment to sustainability. These reports also detail, in length, exactly what steps the company is making to improve the environment. This prevents an organization from being labeled a “green-washer.”

Companies that do not support sustainability, or who have made no decision to fall into line yet, risk losing market share. I recently heard a certified Sustainability Manager say that some companies are only pursuing corporate sustainability to stay in the competition. Although corporate sustainability should be altruistic, sometimes it comes down to protecting (or should I say sustaining?) the brand.

In order to maintain their competitive advantage, many companies are hiring certified sustainability managers to define and implement a sustainability initiative within the company. Sustainability is a concept that translates to many and can easily trickle down to every employee in the company. It just takes a knowledgeable and experienced individual to get the ball rolling – someone who can educate others within the company and influence change for the company as a whole.

To learn more about corporate sustainability, please visit Everblue Training Institute’s webpage on Corporate Sustainability Manager training.

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Looking for Corporate Sustainability Leaders

Posted on December 5, 2011 by corporatesustainabilitytraining
The Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA) hosted its 23rd annual Awards of Excellence ceremony October 19. The VRCA serves over 700 general contractors, trade contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers in the non-residential construction industry in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.

The Awards of Excellence event celebrates businesses and people that have incorporated their success into their promotional strategy and in their dealings with prospective clients. Corporate sustainability developed into a strong theme throughout this year’s 200 entries and 55 projects.

Tony Everett, chairman of the awards judging committee, said that of the 55 projects, about one-third were attempting to gain LEED Certification. Nearly all entries had some degree of sustainability in their design.

VRCA awards committee chairman Brian Martin noted that it wasn’t the size or cost of the project that mattered in the judging process but rather the achievements of the company in working toward their goals. He said that the committee looked at the quality of workmanship, unique problem-solving approaches, and innovation on the job site.

Martin’s sentiments lead us to believe that it’s not an extensive laundry list of sustainable practices that gives a company a competitive advantage; it’s commitment and dedication to a project (or projects) that a company really believes in that matters. The skilled individuals who demonstrate unique problem-solving strategies and innovation are the ones who have proven work experience is a sustainability-related field and have acquired forward-thinking notions on how to improve or expand a company.

Undoubtedly, behind each project entry in the VRCA’s Awards in Excellence was some kind of sustainability coordinator. Behind the LEED-registered projects was undoubtedly a LEED Green Associate or LEED Accredited Professional with specialty. More and more companies are bringing aboard a certified Sustainability Manager to organize the development of sustainability-related projects.

Everblue Training Institute is passionate about the integration of sustainability into existing business practices. The company not only want to further an individual’s professional development with industry certifications, but the ultimate hope is that this enhanced knowledge will allow an individual to incorporate sustainable practices into his or her career or business.

Companies, large and small, are looking for corporate sustainability leaders to help define and implement their organization’s sustainability strategy. The benefits of this position include having the ability to affect change within your organization, setting an example for others in your organization, becoming an influential representative of your organization to the outside world, and ultimately assisting your organization in leveraging its environmental stewardship to its competitive advantage.

Everblue’s LEED training and Corporate Sustainability Manager training courses prepare professionals with the knowledge and technical capacity to complete LEED project requirements and corporate social responsibility reporting. Learn more about becoming a Certified Sustainability Manager here.

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