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“Building a Culture for Sustainability”- A New Book

July 23, 2014 By greatgreeneditingadmin Leave a Comment

by Alison Lueders

From sustainability to employee engagement to profitability

Research shows that sustainable business initiatives create more engaged (happier) employees, which lead to more profitable companies. Specifically:

  • Gallup research shows that companies with  more engaged employees are more profitable.
  • Research from Harvard Business School shows that “sustainability initiatives are highly appealing to employees.” At Caesar’s Entertainment, for example, “customer loyalty and satisfaction – their overall experience and willingness to return to one of its hotels or casinos– is directly linked to employees’ level of participation in sustainable activities at work.”

But how?

Building a Culture for Sustainability profiles 9 companies.

Building a Culture for Sustainability profiles 9 companies.

Companies often struggle with the “how.” How do you build a culture for sustainability in your particular company? Jeana Wirtenberg’s new book,  “Building a Culture for Sustainability,” helps answer that question.

She spent 2 years profiling 9 companies in depth about their sustainability programs and practices. These are not “the usual suspects” like Whole Foods or Patagonia. These companies are big guys who have been around, in some cases, for over 100 years. They want to become more sustainable, but have a lot of history and baggage to deal with.

Culture is key

The list below captures just 1 program or practice from each company. It doesn’t do justice to the full book, but it may persuade you to take a peek. If your business is in one of the industries covered, read that chapter. Better yet, pick a company in an industry different from yours. It’s an easy way to get a fresh perspective for your own sustainability journey.

  • Alcatel Lucent is a telecom company built on the proud history of Bell Labs. They embrace a “triple bottom line” approach to business. To reach their sustainability goals, they organized “Green Touch” – a consortium of telecom companies whose goal is to make the global network “1000 times more energy-efficient by 2015.” To do that, companies share data that used to be proprietary. Cross-company collaboration is essential to get us where we need to go, and it’s a big culture change for many.

 

  • Alcoa mines and manufactures aluminum – the “infinitely recyclable metal.” Alcoa has a “measurement culture.” Their A3 process – “assess, aspire, act” – is used to measure all kinds programs, not just sustainability ones. As Laurie Roy, HR director said, ” If you’re not measuring it, how do you know you are making progress?” Setting science-based goals, and measuring progress towards them is a key element of a sustainable culture.

 

  • BASF  is a company that believes “chemistry is what enables the transition to a sustainable society.” For example, they developed Green Sense concrete mixtures, which save water, energy and CO2 emissions compared to conventional concrete. This material is used, among other places, in the Freedom Tower in New York City. Sustainability is integral to their business – not bolted on to the side.

 

  • Bureau Veritas is a world leader in testing, inspection and certification in over 140 countries.  Their work with clients inspires them to reduce their own environmental footprint through energy, water and energy conservation programs. In addition, safety is ” not a priority, but an absolute.”  That means 100% of employees receive ongoing training and communication about safety issues. From working safely at heights to safe driving, the focus is on prevention.

 

  • Church & Dwight owns Arm & Hammer (the baking soda people) and a variety of other brands. They’ve been using 100% recycled board in their baking soda boxes for more than 100 years.  They also offer full ingredient disclosure on many of their consumer products – a kind of transparency that truly sustainable companies will embrace.

 

  • Ingersoll Rand has been in business for over 140 years.  It’s a family of brands including Schlage and Trane. They’ve had great success building a sustainable culture using  Green Teams.  The number of teams doubled from 25 in 2010 to 52 in 2011 and doubled again to 110 in 2012. Each team focuses on improving their own facility’s environmental performance and on educating colleagues on “triple bottom line” issues. Locations with Green Teams have higher employee engagement scores than locations without Green Teams. ‘Nuf said.

 

  • Pfizer is a global health care company. Their Global Health Fellows program places employees in 3 to 6 month stints abroad. This donation of people-expertise to countries with little to no health infrastructure builds trust in international communities. The Fellows get first-hand knowledge of areas where Pfizer can tweak its business model to better serve local people. And Pfizer builds employee engagement by offering this very popular program, where numbers of applicants far outstrip the number of slots.

 

  • Sanofi is another health care giant. When you “put the patient first,” it’s a short step to seeing how sustainability supports that goal. Sanofi estimates that “13 million deaths can be prevented each year by safeguarding our environment.” Their CSR Ambassador Program enables employees from any department to volunteer for this role. Ambassadors learn about sustainability from in-house experts, and share that knowledge with colleagues. At Sanofi, this peer-to-peer approach is taking off.

 

  • Wyndham Worldwide –  This global hospitality company has a program called “Caught Green Handed.” It’s a recognition program that started in one business unit and spread to all the rest. Employees receive a certificate with their name and a description of their green contribution. This kind of program energizes employees and helps get the word out to others.

A treasure trove of examples

There are many ways to build a culture of sustainability.  If you want your business to perform well into the future, sustainability is your path to superior results.

Building a sustainable culture is not about annual events and lip service. It’s about tapping into the power of all your people to re-imagine the core of your business in sustainable ways. That’s an exciting mission for people at all levels.

So if your company is struggling with the “how,” grab a copy of Ms. Wirtenberg’s book.  It offers detailed examples of what companies are doing. It is also frank about the challenges they’ve faced. These companies don’t have some secret sauce that makes the transition to green easy. But you can learn from the road they’ve already traveled, and build a sustainable culture that suits your organization.

 

Filed Under: Alison Lueders, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Corporate Sustainability Report, Energy Efficiency, Green Business, Re-use, Recycling, Sustainable Business, Uncategorized

A Simple Green Success Story

May 12, 2014 By greatgreeneditingadmin 12 Comments

Last month, I ran into a business that doesn’t bill itself as “green” but really is – through and through.

It’s Simple Green Smoothies. The word “green” here doesn’t mean “eco-friendly.” It means that all the smoothies contain spinach or kale – 2 green veggie powerhouses. And the smoothies taste fantastic.

An "eco-friendly" company, that doesn't preach "green."

An “eco-friendly” company, that doesn’t preach “green.”

When I found their website, I saw something very deft – a green business that doesn’t preach “greenness.” Instead, they focus on health and feeling great and getting your kids to “drink their veggies.” They made me a convert.

This website does a lot of things right. It has:

  • a sense of fun. When you see the pictures of Jen and Jadah holding green “mustaches” to their faces, you can’t help but smile.
  • a focus on health, something most people want, rather than on “being green.”
  • a friendly vibe. When you read that Jen and Jadah are “two friends on a mission to spread the love of green smoothies,” you understand that right away. It’s simple and authentic.
  • lots of lovely images. A picture of a green smoothie looks – to the uninitiated – like “green sludge” (Jadah’s words, not mine). So instead, they photographed the ingredients. Berries, bananas, mangoes – beautifully arranged – look colorful and healthy and enticing.
  • lots of “how to” information. Everything from how to blend a smoothie, to what ingredients you can substitute, to where to find the right kind of blender. They make it easy for people like me –a former non-smoothie person – to try this.

The site promotes “green behaviors” without calling them that

Instead, they describe them as:

  • Ways to save money. For example, in the FAQ, there’s a section on how to do smoothies on a budget. Every tip that follows could be lifted from a page titled “How to Grocery Shop in a More Eco-friendly Way.” But instead they focus on another customer value – saving money – that has both broader appeal and matters to their audience.
  • Friendly suggestions. A second place they sneak in “green”  behaviors is on the “Essentials” page.  They suggest using mason jars, stainless steel straws, and re-usable travel cups. These are all wildly eco-friendly tips. They are simply suggested as the best way to drink your smoothie – as Jen and Jadah do.

A successful, profitable green business

Simple Green Smoothies is a profitable, successful business. More than 500,000 people have taken their green smoothie challenge. They focus on health, feeling great, and losing weight through the power of green smoothies. But they also model and encourage “greener” behaviors in their business and among their fans, without calling them that. And that’s OK.

In more ways than one, their site helps people adopt “greener” behaviors in a “smooth” and enjoyable way (sorry – bad pun.) It’s a model many other businesses can emulate.

Filed Under: Alison Lueders, Food, Green Business, Re-use, Uncategorized

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