Journey to Sustainability
State of Green Business 2009 Report - A Review
March 9th, 2009 by Bill BarenRecently Joel Makower, executive editor and chairman of GreenBiz.com, and his team of editors unveiled the second annual State of Green Business Report. The report looks at data behind 20 indicators to find out how companies are doing in creating changes in environmental issues. It’s an comprehensive report with invaluable information for all businesses. If you haven’t yet, be sure to get your copy of State of Green Business Report.
“This year’s update is a mixed bag of encouraging and discouraging news,” says Joel Makower, the report’s principal author. “But on balance, despite a growing chorus of corporate commitments and actions, we’re less optimistic that these activities, in aggregate, are addressing planetary problems at sufficient scale and speed.”
The report shows that despite the slumping economy, green businesses have continued to grow. On the flip side, environmental improvements being made are still low, which is cause for serious concern.
Some statistics/trends I found interesting:
- Our continued love affair with our cars. According to the report the number of solo commuters has inched down from 77.8% in 2003 to 76.1% in 2007
- Consumers’ distrust of companies offering sustainable alternatives despite their desire to lessen their carbon footprint
- Our inability to deal with our e-waste properly and in a sustainable way
- We have decreased our packaging use (as slight as it may be) using less aluminum, plastics, cardboard and other materials per dollar of GDP
- We have decreased our paper use by 27% less paper per dollar of GDP over the last decade and increased the amount of recycled paper - also by 27%
- We are steadily increasing our energy efficiency.
I know how much work goes into a report like this, so I sincerely appreciate the efforts of Joel Makower and his team at GreenBiz.com. I look forward to what we can do with the info in this report NOW - and how this effort will influence the 2010 report.
Big Impact from Seemingly Small Changes: How Multinationals Are Getting Started on the Sustainability Journey
February 5th, 2009 by Green Business Innovators
[Many thanks to Rachel Botsman of OZOlab for providing this insightful guest post showing how to make progress on the journey to being a more sustainable business]
We are awash in “green” articles that highlight examples and best-practices of companies such as Patagonia, Stonyfield Farm, and Timberland-businesses that have had sustainability as part of their DNA from the outset.
But for large multinational brands (especially suppliers of packaged goods) that are dependent on energy-intensive supply chains and high volumes of raw materials, a different approach is often required.
For such brands, the journey to a more sustainable business usually starts with the entry question of “where (or how) do we start?” - particularly in the case of those brands for which, to put it simply, “selling more stuff” (and more than their competitors) has been the prevailing internal mindset and the business priority, up until now.
This article focuses on leading global brands that are making the transition from treating sustainability as a hot “green topic” to embracing it as a true business strategy. It includes US and European companies that have identified “hotspots” in their supply chain where their environmental impact can be reduced, relatively quickly and inexpensively.
Viewed in isolation, some of these steps may seem minor. However, viewed against the total volume of transactions, their cumulative impact is undeniable.
These seemingly small changes are not quick fixes or marketing makeovers but true sustainable strides that have entered the mainstream marketplace. They also reflect successful collaboration between marketing and operations departments that have worked together to implement genuine environmental changes vs. marketing half-truths that consumers are starting not to believe. These brands recognize that sustainability should not be viewed just as a cost saver but also a sales driver, and that products and services embedded with sustainable practices are attracting more publicity and increased brand loyalty-and in many cases they are selling faster.
A common theme that emerges from the examples that follow is the need to challenge old assumptions around products and packaging, and the processes that link them, in order to deliver rule-bending innovation. While it is true that groundbreaking sustainable innovation that results in totally new business models is still rare, it’s also true that brands are starting to move along the eco-innovation spectrum and out of the obvious incremental changes such as carbon offsets and recycling programs-toward looking at the total picture and the rich opportunities environmental challenges can create.
The following six examples from M&S, Wal-Mart, UPS, Unilever, Boots the Chemist, and Whirlpool have been selected because each highlights an innovation across a different part of the sustainability spectrum, from design and packaging, to product formulation, to waste and transportation.