A New Kind of Progress

We can reconstruct the corporate policies and practices of our work environment, but we can’t reconstruct the natural environment that supports us.

Influencing your corporate environment is a terrific way to protect the environment and our fellow inhabitants. For companies thirsty for innovation, sustainability initiatives can refocus the workforce and improve profitability.

Demand for complete supply chain data is increasingly valued. Whether you are a manufacturer, or directly serve the end consumer, the value placed on understanding how and where the product was constructed and the materials that were used is growing. Better understanding your process and its environmental impact can help your company identify areas for improvement.

This improvement translates to not just a mitigated environmental impact but also greater efficiencies and profit, particularly if a company is willing to invest in new, more environmentally friendly technology, appreciating the long-term gains that come with it.

Short term gains in efficiency can pay for larger measures, but new and innovative thinking can lead to products that feed into growing demand for green products. You will be responsible for new revenue generation. Immediate savings generated from more efficient lighting, for example, can be plowed back into solar and wind power generation, or advanced water treatment systems. Small initial wins can lead to ever increasing savings. Ultimately, more disruptive changes can be a terrific way to galvanize the company. In turn, greater degrees of leadership are afforded, and the virtuous cycle of education and innovation can find momentum.

When GE first attempted to base emissions on the Kyoto Protocol, they “went from spending 100MM to saving 100MM”, as Jeffrey Immelt expressed relayed to us at the Net Impact Conference last year.[i]

Companies can also bring in diverse sets of viewpoints, which will spark ingenuity. This not only helps companies to properly implement sustainability initiatives but also to broaden their consideration of approaches, techniques, products, and services that can improve profitability.

Companies can also frame environmental metrics in fun ways and create competitions to see what individuals or groups can improve their environmental impact the most, whether it be carbon footprint or water use.

Companies can create a separate fund completely devoted to sustainability initiatives. Where employees might previously have been discouraged to bring innovative ideas to the table due to cost concerns impacting their own team’s profit & loss performance, they now are excited to have avenues for their potentially very yield accretive ideas, regardless of how long term in nature they might be.

[i] Immelt, Jeffrey, CEO, General Electric, Panel Discussion at Net Impact Conference, November 2009.