At yesterday’s State of Green Business 2010 Forum presented by GreenBiz, Microsoft Chief Environmental Strategist, Rob Bernard, acknowledged that the company is working with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), SAP and Accenture on a new tool.  The tool, expected to go “live” in about a week, will streamline carbon reporting to the CDP and allow companies and investors to easily benchmark their performance vs. their competitors.

We hope that streamlining the process will allow the nonprofit CDP to broaden its reach and send out requests for climate information to more companies.  Further fueling the drive to more disclosure is last week’s “interpretive guidance” from the Securities and Exchange Commission, reminding companies they must disclose business risks associated with:

• climate regulation
• indirect consequences of regulation
• potential competitive disadvantages that might result from changes in demand for carbon-intensive products
• the risk of physical impacts of climate change

Companies that choose not to track and report the impact of climate change on their business — and the impact of their business on the environment — risk getting caught flat-footed and on the defensive.

Tags: business benefits of going green, businesses going green, carbon reporting, corporate sustainability, environmental reporting, LinkedIn, Sustainable Business

It’s 2010!   As we leave the decade of the “oughts” behind, we wanted to take a look back at some of the trends we’ve seen emerge in sustainability.   The emphasis on sustainable business has intensified during this time as the changes in our climate have left an indelible mark.    

Here are some of the notable trends :

• Sustainability became a career path.  Job titles with the word “sustainability” in them are on the rise, and the LA Times reports that increasingly, the responsibility for sustainability initiatives is moving into the executive suite.   Over the past five years universities have added sustainable business degree programs -  Sustainable Industries  listed 22 such programs just on the west coast, and they are becoming prevalent nationwide.
• Green Teams have come into existence, creating change in the employee ranks in support of corporate sustainability objectives.   Employees have become empowered to implement programs and provide a grass-roots, bottom-up engagement model.  Check out GreenBiz report on Green teams
• Businesses have started to see cost reductions through energy efficiency and supply chain efficiencies, and a corresponding potential for increased market share.  Wal-Mart models this trend by requiring suppliers to report on their supply chain, as do other industry leaders like Philips, Proctor & Gamble, and Coca-Cola.
• Carbon measurement and management software is finally taking off, providing companies with a broad selection of tools to use to track emissions and report environmental impact easily.  SAP’s purchase of Clear Standards may presage an acquisition spree.
• Cleantech investment continues to be strong even in a recessionary dip:  from $500M in 2001, to $5.6B in 2009, according to Cleantech Group.
• Companies have begun formalizing  their sustainability communications by reporting to third parties like the Carbon Disclosure Project  (from 235 in 2003 to 2204 in 2008) and the Global Reporting Initiative(from 175 to 1226).

Clearly, there is a lot of activity, and a lot of good news.  Despite this, few standards have emerged, and confusion reigns about exactly how companies should characterize their “green” efforts.  Companies are in a quandary about when, what, and how to communicate about sustainability.  Fear of being tagged with labels like “greenwashing” leads to “green-shushing,”  a new term that describes a company’s desire not to go public with their green messages lest they be exposed and found wanting.

No doubt these trends will continue.  If your organization is ready to measure and report on the impact of your sustainability efforts, and you’re not sure where to start, we can help.   Drop us a line or give us a call to start the conversation.

Tags: business benefits of going green, businesses going green, corporate sustainability, environmental reporting, environmental sustainability, Green Marketing, green teams, LinkedIn, Sustainable Business

I attended yesterday’s virtual press conference announcing the debut of the monthly Green Confidence Index (GCI). It’s a very clever idea, developed by reputable research company, EarthSense, and its Chief Research Officer, Amy Hebard. Most business execs are familiar with the often cited Consumer Confidence Index, a component of the leading economic indicators from the Conference Board. The GCI aspires to a similar following and it just might achieve it.

The initial report on the GCI is offered free-of-charge at www.greenconfidenceindex.com with monthly reports available on an annual subscription basis. There are several interesting tidbits in the first edition, including the fascinating graph of which sources of environmental information consumers report using and how confident they are in those sources. There’s a fairly high level of trust in green blogs and websites but relatively low usage. Of course, consumer trust is likely to vary depending on the particular blog or website. I’m guessing that sites from reputable non-profits and established media organizations like Greener World Media (a co-sponsor of the GCI) would be seen as more trustworthy.

For consumers, corporate blogs and websites are neither widely used nor widely trusted as sources of environmental information. So what are the communications implications for consumer-focused businesses?

• Don’t strain credibility by making environmental claims you cannot substantiate.
• Don’t “hide your light under a barrel.” Publicize your progress through trusted consumer media. Be transparent and acknowledge the limitations of your product’s “greenness.”
• Use certified eco-labels on your products. An excellent list of eco-labels is available at Consumer Reports GreenerChoices.org.
• Remember that your stakeholders also include environmental activist groups, NGOs and investors – all of whom are seeking credible information from you. Reporting corporate-wide information to the Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Reporting Initiative, the Climate Registry or other organizations.

And, lastly, you’ll want to stay abreast of consumer “green” perceptions – both general and specific to your brand. For the latter, check out the EarthSense Business Indicator service. Your company may already be included in the list of those tracked.

Tags: corporate sustainability, Green Marketing, LinkedIn

Results of a poll released today by BSR.org show that climate change tops the list of priorities for CSR (corporate social responsibility) executives. 41% of executives polled at this week’s BSR conference in San Francisco rated climate change a “5″ in priority on a scale of 1 to 5. Other sustainability issues that topped the priority list included: water availability/quality and sustainable consumption.
The top actions these execs expect to take include:

• Creating innovative products and business models designed for sustainability (39% of respondents)
• Measuring and demonstrating positive environmental impacts (38% of respondents)

Some of them must have been reading the recent cover story in the September 2009 issue of The Harvard Business Review, “Why Sustainability is Now the Key Driver of Innovation.” In this article, authors Ram Nidumolu, C.K. Prahalad, and M.R. Rangaswami make the case that, in the future, the only companies that will achieve competitive advantage will be those that use sustainability to drive their strategies. The authors present both a framework and research results that show how companies are rethinking products, technologies, processes and even business models for cost reduction and revenue growth.
Is sustainability the “big, hairy, audacious goal” that will drive your company to innovate?

Tags: corporate sustainability, LinkedIn, sustainability

In our consulting practice, we define a company’s market traction by its ability to get paying customers who love their product and recommend it to others.

Arriving at this place means a company has done a lot of things right:

• They’ve defined their target market clearly and identified their ideal customer, thus providing a focal point for all subsequent product development, marketing and sales activities.
• They’ve developed positioning that can be used to drive consistent messages to all stakeholders, whether they are potential customers, media, or investors.
• They’ve carefully analyzed the competitive landscape so that they know precisely where they are strongest and most vulnerable.
• They’ve priced their products according to a strategy that has been thought through and is designed to meet specific goals for the company and the customer.
• They know through which distribution channels they will sell the product, and have determined the best partners and what the terms of those relationships will be.
• They’ve spent time understanding how their customers will buy, and tailored their sales model and activities accordingly.
• They know exactly what characteristics they are looking for when hiring their sales team.
• They have a process in place that will allow them to track leads as they are generated and manage them through each stage of the sales cycle until they are paying customers who love their product and recommend it to others.

That’s what we call traction. It’s not always easy, but viewing the entire cycle as an interconnected process creates the mechanism to develop a strategy, make a plan, and execute. In today’s economy, who can afford to play it by ear?

Tags: clean technology, LinkedIn, marketing, marketing strategy, positioning, sales

A couple of months ago, I attended a presentation by Lori Duvall, the Director of Eco Responsibility Programs for Sun Microsystems. At that time, it was abundantly clear that we were in a global economic contraction. Yet Lori expressed the opinion that this was a good time for companies to “double down on sustainability.” Why? Because Sun sees revenue and cost-saving opportunities in sustainability. Its energy-efficient line of servers and storage servers represent revenue bright spots among its product offerings. At the same time, Sun is saving money and reducing carbon emissions by consolidating its data centers and showcasing its own technology.

But is Sun alone in thinking about “doubling down?”
Are other companies pulling back on their sustainability efforts because of budget constraints? Apparently, not as much as you might think. According to Lori, sentiment in favor of doubling down on such efforts is quite common among members of the EPA Climate Leaders program.

Better stock market performance?
Now we see data from an A.T. Kearney report, “Green Winners,” that finds companies committed to sustainability outperforming their industry counterparts in stock market performance. Continue Reading »

Tags: corporate sustainability, environmental sustainability, LinkedIn