Green Impact

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Green Impact — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:53:38 +0000

I have integrated the Shades of Green blog into the Green Impact site. For the latest and greatest, check out: www.greenimpact.com/blog.

Hewlett-Packard: What Does it Take to Be #1?

Green Impact — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:00:32 +0000

By Deborah Fleischer

I was recently asked to highlight some of Hewlett-Packard’s environmental printing programs, but after reviewing the materials the PR folks sent, I decided the more interesting story was to reflect on how HP got listed #1 in Newsweek’s recent rankings of green companies, as well as ranked highest in the category of electronics by Climate Counts.

So to find out why, I referred to an interview I conducted (for a piece I did on Tips for Getting Your Sustainability Project Off the Ground) earlier this year with Bonnie Nixon, HP’s director of environmental sustainability. I went back to those notes to help answer the question, “What Does it Take to Be #1?”

Fast Company reflected on this same question last month and concluded, “What was confirmed to me is that behind every major corporate transformation story is a truly heroic man or woman. While I am sure HP has a team of hundreds who have contributed strongly to this position as number one on the Newsweek list, I was certain after spending more time with Nixon that she was an integral part of it.”

Five critical factors make a company like HP stand out:

#1: Walk the talk
#2: Educate and support suppliers
#3: Engage employees
#4: Reach out to a broad range of NGOs, including your greatest critics
#5: Help your customers do the right thing

Walk the Talk

According to Newsweek, HP leads the pack because of its programs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It’s also the first major IT company to report GHG emissions associated with its supply chain.

Climate Counts found that, “Hewlett-Packard has established clear goals to reduce its energy use and that the company has reduced its impact on global warming (i.e., its greenhouse gas emissions or climate footprint) via energy conservation and transportation reduction programs. The company has also worked to foster climate awareness among consumers, employees, and other businesses.”

Sustainability is embedded throughout the organization. As Nixon put it, “HP understands the value of values.” It doesn’t just talk green, but has clear goals and programs to reduce its footprint. The company realizes that one of the hardest jobs is to reduce emissions and waste at its own facilities. To reduce its footprint, the company has implemented a range of programs, including telecommuting policies, reducing its total number of data centers from 85 to 6, utilizing of solar and wind energy and reducing the number of software application used from 6,000 to 1,500.

Educate and Support Suppliers

HP has made a long-term commitment to educate and support its suppliers, helping them innovate and providing them tools to address such issues as factory health and safety, packaging, logistics, emissions reduction and product design. Last year HP was the first company to release a list of its top suppliers. This level of transparency makes HP’s suppliers more accountable and raises the bar for the competition to follow in its tracks. The 2008 Global Citizenship Report is the first to report on supplier emissions. It will be exciting to see what challenge the 2009 report tackles.

Engage Employees

HP also stands out for the way it engages its employees, in terms of sustainability. Nixon explained that, “HP engages employees on multiple levels, ranging from providing them energy kits to reduce their personal carbon footprint at home, to offering incentives for biking to work, to encouraging them to innovate more and find ways to embed sustainability into product design, the supply chain and the sales process.”

With over 19 Site Sustainability Chapters, employees are also working to green the workplace; the teams are supported by funding and blue prints for projects that will create real environmental gains across HP’s diverse global facilities.

Reach Out to a Broad Range of NGOs, Including Your Greatest Critics

Nixon, who comes from an activist background, has been instrumental in developing HP’s open-minded approach to NGO engagement. She supports speaking with both ends of the spectrum, from collaborative organizations to more extreme activists and stresses the importance of listening to your greatest critics.

HP doesn’t shut the door to any NGO—be it making peace with Greenpeace who has actively campaigned against the company, or a strategic partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), who advises them on such issues as carbon reduction goals and metrics.

Nixon explained, “Allowing stakeholders to honestly critique us pushes us to improve our programs and helps us develop our thought leadership platforms.”

Help Your Customers Do the Right Thing

No piece on HP would be complete without mentioning their product and service offerings. HP Eco Solutions includes a portfolio of tools, software, hardware, services and expertise to help customers reduce their environmental impact and save money.

HP’s managed print services saved 3M more than $3 million in the first two years. The environmental impact included:

Reduced energy consumption by an estimated 79.9 percent, saving more than $1.2 million in energy costs;
8,240 metric tonnes reduction of CO2 emission from energy and paper reductions, equivalent to taking 978 cars off the road for one year;
Estimated 353 million fewer pages printed; and
Over a 12-month period, recycling efforts diverted more than 17,000 print cartridges away from landfill.

University of California, Davis has estimated an annual cost savings of more than $68,000 from purchasing new HP printers with Energy Star certification and duplexing capability and implementing HP’s Eco Solutions.

“It’s amazing to realize we’re looking at 35 percent energy reduction when the printers print double sided. We’re also reducing costs for printer supplies by cutting paper usage and using high-capacity toner cartridges.It’s a program that’s right both environmentally and fiscally,” commented Janice King, director of materiel management, University of California, Davis.

The bottom line–HP has made many advances in its products and services, such as more energy efficient PCs and printers, duplex printing, print-on-demand, a carbon footprint calculator for printing and sustainable data centers, helping customers use less energy, save paper, conserve resources and reduce waste.

Final Words

There you have it. Five key attributes that can help any company rise in the green rankings. And in the process, be a stronger contender as the sustainable business market grows.

I send best wishes to Bonnie for a speedy recovery!

___

Deborah Fleischer is president of Green Impact, a strategic environmental consulting practice that helps companies engage employees, strengthen their relationships with stakeholders, develop profitable green initiatives and communicate their successes and challenges. She brings deep expertise in sustainability strategy, stakeholder engagement, program development and written communications. You can follow her occasional tweet @GreenImpact

Green Teams: Ten Best Practices for Engaging Employees in Sustainability

Green Impact — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:04:09 +0000

GreenBiz.com and Green Impact have partnered to release a new report, Green Teams: Engaging Employees in Sustainability. Based on interviews with green team leaders from Intel, Yahoo!, eBay and Genentech, as well as a review of the latest literature on employee engagement and green teams, the report provides an overview of the best practices companies are using to support and guide green teams.

It is divided into four key sections: making the business case for green teams; getting started; four emerging trends; and green team best practices.

It is a great resource for companies and organizations just beginning to think about creating a green team and for those ready to take their existing program to the next level.

What is a Green Team?

Green teams are self-organized, grassroots and cross-functional groups of employees who voluntarily come together to educate, inspire and empower employees around sustainability. They identify and implement specific solutions to help their organization operate in a more environmentally sustainable fashion. Most green teams initially focus on greening operations at the office, addressing such issues as recycling in the office, composting food waste, reducing the use of disposable take-out containers and eliminating plastic water bottles.

This focus on operations is evolving and some green teams are beginning to focus their efforts on integrating sustainability into employees’ personal lives, while others are bringing consumers into the equation and aligning their efforts to support broader corporate sustainability objectives.

The Business Case

Because most companies do not track metrics related to green teams, it can be challenging to make the business case for investing resources to support them.

However, based on a review of existing green teams and interviews with experts, the business case includes:

Cost savings by integrating energy efficiency into the workplace and products and services;
Attracting and retaining the best and brightest talent who want to work for companies with an authentic green commitment; and
Increased market share and revenues resulting from a stronger brand and new, innovative green products and services.

Carrie Freeman, a Corporate Sustainability Strategist at Intel, commented, “When it comes to looking at ways to reduce our footprint, we very much see a direct correlation between reducing our costs and engaging our employees.” Be it changing light bulbs, turning off the lights or getting your employees to innovate greener solutions in their jobs, engaging your employees to identify easy, low cost efficiency initiatives can result in significant cost savings.

The National Environmental Education Foundation’s (NEEF) recent report The Engaged Organization: Corporate Employee Environmental Education Survey and Case Study Findings stresses, “By engaging employees, companies can spark innovative changes in everyday business processes that save money and reduce environmental and social impacts while also inspiring employees to make sustainable choices at home and in their communities.”

According to a case study by BSR on Intel’s green teams, “It may seem like a distraction in these times of financial instability to focus on employees’ passion for sustainability, but efforts toward employee engagement will strengthen a company’s employee base—which will be a crucial element in recovering from the recession. And maintaining employee loyalty and high productivity will help companies position themselves for success as the economy revives.”

And eBay’s volunteer Green Team leader in Omaha stresses, “Having a Green Team gives people something to believe in; something that is a tangible, visible representation that we are a company that cares.”

Best Practices

The report concludes with a detailed summary of 10 best practices for green teams, with specific examples from leading companies. The best practices detailed include:

Start with the visible and tangible: focus on internal operations
Get senior management involved, but don’t lose the grassroots energy
Engage employees to capture ideas
Communicate and share best practices
Engage employees with their bellies: the low carbon diet campaign
Engage employees in their personal lives
Engage customers to be part of the solution
Use art to raise awareness
Create a toolkit to support and guide green teams
Align green teams with corporate sustainability goals

Download the report to learn more about these best practices. See the table below for a comprehensive list of available resources on employee engagement and green teams.

***

Deborah Fleischer is president of Green Impact, a strategic environmental consulting practice that helps companies engage employees, strengthen their relationships with stakeholders, develop profitable green initiatives and communicate their successes and challenges. She is a LEED AP with a Master in Environmental Studies from Yale University and over 20-years of direct experience working on sustainability-related challenges in both the public and private sectors. She brings deep expertise in sustainability strategy, stakeholder engagement, program development and written communications.

You can follow her occasional tweet @GreenImpact or contact her directly at Deborah@greenimpact.com.

RESOURCES FOR LEARNING MORE

The Eight Biggest Myths About Sustainability in Business

Green Impact — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:59:50 +0000

Vijay Kanal of Kanal Consulting recently posted a piece on GreenBiz.com titled The Eight Biggest Myths about Sustainability in Business.

He kicks the piece off by saying, “Sustainability should be considered not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it makes business sense. If an initiative cannot be justified from a strategic, financial, operational, marketing, or employee recruitment/retention perspective, don’t do it. But we have found that in almost every corner of an organization there is a fundamental business reason for being more sustainable.”

For each of the eight myths identified he presents details from companies in the green trenches, such as HP, P&G and Numi Tea, to counter the misrepresentations.

The short piece is a great overview of the business case for going green.

One of the Biggest Fallacies

One of the biggest fallacies about sustainability is that it is a cost center. Kanal stresses,

The problem is that many companies have this perception that it’s going to cost them money. Nothing could be further from the truth. Reducing materials, natural resources, and waste will save companies money, while becoming more environmentally friendly. And we are strong proponents that unless there is a positive financial ROI or there is another (strategic) business reason to undertake a sustainability initiative, don’t do it.

He also points out, “It really does help to recruit and retain employees if a company is considered environmentally and socially responsible, in the same way that work-life balance became an important criteria 10 years ago. Today’s new workforce is considering sustainability in their choice of employers.”

The Eight Big Myths

The big myths about sustainability in business he touches upon include:

1. It’s a cost and we can’t afford it right now

2. It requires lots of staff

3. There’s no money to be made from sustainability

4. It’s just for big companies

5. It’s mostly for B2C companies

6. If we make claims about sustainability, we’ll be accused of greenwashing

7. NGOs are our adversaries

8. We don’t have to worry about the supply chain because we don’t make things

—

Deborah Fleischer is founder and president of Green Impact. She is a LEED AP with a Master in Environmental Studies from Yale University and over 20-years of direct experience working on sustainability-related challenges in both the public and private sectors. You can follow her at @GreenImpact.

Highlights from Green America’s Green Business Conference

Green Impact — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:04:11 +0000

By Deborah Fleischer, Green Impact

Green America’s Green Business Conference was the yenta of the green business world when it hosted its Product Expo: Marketplace and Community Connections. Participants were invited to set up a business display at this product expo that was modeled after the ever so popular speed dating concept.

The idea was to get all the conference attendees networking and doing business with each other. One of my complaints about conferences is that they don’t do enough to promote networking and Green America has done a great job at this conference on integrating creative ways to encourage us to meet each other.

At a traditional speed dating event, you spend only three minutes speaking to a potential love interest and then move on. If there is mutual interest, you follow-up on your own after the event. While the networking last night was a bit less structured, we were encouraged to circulate and meet as many businesses as possible.

Below I highlight a few of the businesses that made it onto my final dance card.

Salazar Packaging: Call me a green geek, but one of the products I got most excited about was the green packaging products offered by Salazar Packaging. While the talks by luminaries such as eBay and Green For All are great to inspire small, green business owners attending the conference, what I see many small businesses hungry for are practical tools to help green their operations, such as the issue of packaging. Think 100% recycled post consumer waste (PCW) boxes, biodegradable bubble wrap and cardboard Eco Flex, manufactured from recycled newspaper, a 100% PCW material that is reusable, recyclable, biodegradable and compostable. Eco Flex is strong enough to replace less eco friendly packaging products including rigid and flexible polyethylene foams, bubble wrap, and polystyrene peanuts.

I recently ordered some free-range, natural dog chews from the Only Natural Pet Store and they proceeded to pack the chews in polystyrene peanuts. Their brand would stand out to me as more authentic if they extended the concept of “natural” to their packaging.

World of Good: Libby Reder of eBay gave the final presentation of the day yesterday highlighting the greening of eBay. While some of the best practices eBay is using to engage employees and consumers might be out of reach to small businesses, she reminded participants that eBay got its humble beginning from selling one broken laser pointer. And she also introduced World of Good, an organization that connects artisans from the developing world with mainstream retail markets. During our “date” at their station, I learned that they have grown to become a marketplace for socially responsible companies to sell their products, using the eBay platform. The interesting twist is that companies must have a relationship with a “Trust Provider“, one of 23 organizations pre-selected to verify that companies selling on World of Good have products that foster transparency, sustainability, economic empowerment and ethical business practices.

Shasta Visions: You only have a few seconds to make a first impression, both in dating and in the business world. Shasta Visions owner Richard Lucas captures your attention when his calling card is a beautiful small earth-shaped marble with his company name on it. And while at first glance the larger globes he sells are elegant to look at, on one the playful surprise is that the word peace is hidden in 37 languages on the inside on the globe.

Some of the products are made of recycled glass and they offer custom imprinted marbles.

Williams James Foundation (WJF): The Williams James Foundation (WJF) is offering more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind expertise to help sustainable entrepreneurs turn their passion from plans to action.

The WJF, a long-time leader in expertise and prize philanthropy, brings together more than 300 high-level subject experts to provide detailed feedback on the business plans that are submitted into the competitions. Prizes offered include the most socially responsible business, for the business that actively measures reduction in their carbon footprint and for businesses that show the innovative and viable approaches to using the tools of sustainability for financial profit.

Interested entrepreneurs need only submit one executive summary and they will be considered for all of the prize areas for which they qualify. The next entry deadline is December 4^th, 2009. Full information on what the WJF is looking for and how to apply see the WJF web site.

There were many other companies and products of interest–many will be participating at Green Fest this weekend in San Francisco. See you there?

—

Transit and Trails: Connecting People to Nature on Public Transit

Green Impact — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:53 +0000

Don’t own a car, but want to get out to one of the Bay Area’s hundreds of parks and trails? Or perhaps, you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint and wondering how to get to your favorite hike without using your car?

Transit and Trails is a new resource for outdoor enthusiasts who want to leave their cars behind and easily get information on how to take the bus (or ferry) to reach Bay Area hiking trails and campgrounds.

A project of the Bay Area Open Space Council (BAOSC), the new interactive website identifies hundreds of trailheads and 150 campgrounds to explore across the Bay Area’s 1.2 million acres of preserved lands. Just enter your starting location, and roughly how far you want to venture, and the site suggests possible hikes and featured trips. Once you decide where you want to go, it connects with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s 511 Transit Trip Planner to provide a detailed trip itinerary, complete with a map, transit times, fares and walking directions to and from the transit stop.

BAOSC a collaborative of more than 55 member organizations actively involved in permanently protecting and stewarding important parks, trails and agricultural lands in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. They are committed to connecting people to the land.

According to Bettina Ring, Executive Director of the BAOSC, “Transit and Trails is the first ever trip planner focused on parks and trails…It brings all the needed information to your fingertips so you can easily plan your outing.”

The ROI of Not Driving

The site also calculates the cost of driving to your destination and estimates the pounds of carbon you would save by using public transit, so you can calculate the ROI of leaving the car at home.

Wouldn’t this make a great iphone application?

Transit and Trails makes it easy for you to access all the amazing parks and open spaces in the Bay Area while minimizing costs (save on tolls, gas and parking) and reducing your carbon footprint. Give it a try! Since I live in Marin and can reach many trails from my front door (or if I need to travel, I have the dog along) I have not tried the service yet.

—

The Gifts of a Challenge

Green Impact — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:06:54 +0000

www.deborahfleischer.com

One of my favorite newsletters arrived today from Patrick O’Neill, a unique management consultant from Canada. The theme of the newsletter is the essential functions that challenges play in the development of a leader. He outlines 4 gifts we can receive from challenges:

* They call forward our personal powers – including our gifts, talents, character qualities, fortitude, skills, aptitudes, knowledge, resourcefulness and creativity;

* They help us develop new powers;

* They teach “right application” of these resources; and

* They expose that which requires change or strengthening in our nature or our approach.

He suggests that, “how we respond to a challenge can often tell us more about who we really are than years of contemplation.”

I feel like I am surrounded by talented, experienced colleagues and friends who are feeling discouraged and a bit beat down by the current economy. Both self-employed entrepeneurs and those who took the more traditional career path of a corporate position are being challenged by the current economy.

I personally am seeing the “gifts” play out at Green Impact as the economy and new boom of “green consultants” is pushing me to refine my niche and get more creative and skillful at marketing my services.

I was pondering this morning the fact that we only have 8 weeks left in 2009 and contemplating what my most significant goal for the rest of the year is. Both professionally, and personally, it is easy to get pulled in so many directions. I have never been a “niche” kind of gal, but have worked on a wonderful range of issues–land conservation, ecosystem services, program development, cross-sector dialogue, green business, stakeholder engagement and blogging.

If we all need to build our talents and skills and be more creative right now, where are the areas to put our energy? What are the steps to take to help us move forward?

I love these questions, but seem to be stuck answering them. Do I focus more on my business the next 8 weeks? Or do I focus less on business and more on my personal pursuits? Or, do I put the list aside and slow down? My list includes the ideas of painting everyday, trying one new activity each week, getting a cardio workout everyday, volunteering more and updating my web site.

What is on your list to accomplish before 2009 ends that can move you toward your goals?

Employee Engagement: AngelPoints Launches New Personal Sustainability Practice (PSP) Tool

Green Impact — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:34:02 +0000

As part of a corporate sustainability strategy, there is a growing trend to engage employees on multiple levels, both at work and at home. More and more companies are providing their employees advice and tips on how to green their personal lives. But a key challenge is how to measure and track the benefits of these programs.

AngelPoints, a provider of enterprise software solutions for employee engagement, has recently partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi S, the sustainability strategy firm that helped Wal-Mart create their Personal Sustainability Project (PSP) program, to create a new web-based platform to help make it easier to engage employees in sustainability and to track their progress.

As reported on CSRwire, “The newly launched PSP platform enables employees to chart individual and collective progress on a secure and reliable site easily accessed through a company’s intranet.”

The theory is if you can get employees engaged and excited about being greener in their personal lives, they will bring this excitement and energy to their jobs as well.

AngelPoints PSP

AngelPoints has a track record of success with their web-based employee volunteer management system. The new PSP is a web-based tool that enables employees to easily create and track PSPs: habits that positively impact the environment, their communities and their own personal health and well-being.

The tool makes it easy to chart individual as well as team progress across a number of impact categories, such as reducing your carbon footprint, improving health and wellness, reducing waste and connecting with others. It is currently being used by companies such as Saber Holdings and Alston+ Bird, with other key companies considering it.

“The idea of this is to help facilitate green teams, build awareness and get commitments from employees toward greater sustainability,” explains Andrew Mercy, CEO of AngelPoints.

Judah Schiller, Executive Vice-President of Saatchi & Saatchi S, describes PSP as a tool for “making sustainability come alive.”

Schiller stressed the importance of integrating health and wellness into one’s sustainability strategy. “This is a missing piece of the pie,” says Schiller. “There are cost savings possible from a well implemented PSP program that includes health and wellness.”

Key Steps: Create; Track; Results

The tool includes three key components. “It begins with creating and committing to a PSP,” explains Mercy. One aspect I particularly liked is that the tool sends employees e-mail prompts to remind them to take action, once they make a commitment.

“Tracking is where the rubber hits the road in terms of progress and accountability,” he continues. Mercy explained that many companies have made a promise of increased sustainability and the PSP tool can help them bring it to life by tracking the steps they are taking towards that promise and showing the final results.

The tool makes is simple and easy for employees to input their progress and simple incentive programs can be used to inspire teams to take the time to update their progress.

“The impact is important because that is where you can articulate the results and the ROI.”

An Interesting Piece to the Puzzle

Employee engagement is a key driver for increasing employee retention, attracting the best and brightest talent, fostering innovation and capturing cost savings from efficiency. However, to capture these benefits, there is growing pressure on companies to get their employees thinking about sustainability and incorporating it into their daily jobs.

PSP is an interesting piece to the puzzle and this easy-to-use tool could be an important component to a broader employee engagement strategy. For other best practices, see the post I wrote yesterday on the top strategies for getting employees behind sustainability.

Top Strategies for Getting Employees Behind Sustainability

Green Impact — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:06:25 +0000

At BSR 2009, a missing piece on the agenda was employee engagement. Yet, at the session on Internal Communications: Making the Case for CSR’s Value, all of the speakers acknowledged the challenge of getting both employees and senior management behind sustainability.

The panel included Christopher Corpuel, Vice President, Sustainability at Hilton Hotels, Silvia Garrigo, Manager of Global Issues and Policy at Chevron and Kevin Moss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at BT Americas Inc. The session, moderated by Eric Olson, Senior Vice President, at BSR, was formatted to allow for deeper dialogue and discussion–much appreciated by everyone!

Getting Senior Management Support

Garrigio from Chevron focused her comments on how to communicate internally to senior management. Strategically communicating internally is more “of an art, than a science,” according to Garrigio.

She suggested take a step back, map the key stakeholders and identify what lens is important to them–legal, regulatory, shareholder, financial or external stakeholders. Find a way to link your initiative to their key business objectives, frame it in terms of management risks and make it relevant and valuable.

A few other suggestions to consider when trying to get buy-in and support for new initiatives:

Invest in allies and building relationships;
Be able to say that ideas are tried and tested with internal stakeholders;
Stress the shift in societal and stakeholder expectations. Sustainability is not longer just nice to have;
Get employees in the field to share their stories;
Ask leaders to share more of their vision and challenges;
Create a community of practice; and
Develop an interactive web site to support efforts.

Getting Employees More Engaged at Work

Moss from BT Americas focused his comments on how to get employees engaged and suggested three key strategies to consider:

1. Leadership to demonstrate a commitment: You need a policy and position in place, ideally supported by targets. Link the commitment to specific leaders and and get them involved.

2. Release potential to build momentum: Because sustainability issues are cross-functional in natural, Moss suggests empowering employees to breakout of their normal confines and give them permission to take action outside their normal boundaries.

He also recommends giving employees specific actions to take that link to a corporate initiative. For example, after BT Americas installed a solar installation at their headquarters, they provided employees a discount with pre-vetted solar vendors to encourage them to take action at home.

And finally, he stressed, “allow the trivial things to happen.” He used to think it was a waste to time to have staff focus on issues like eliminating paper cups and water bottles, but he now realizes that for many employees, these small actions are important because they are visible and tangible.

This is where green teams can play a key role in making the issue of sustainability come alive for employees.

John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, gave a key note right after the session, where he also stressed the importance of employee engagement. Their organic green team has grown from 40 to over 2,000 employees, identifying over 600 ideas on how the company can be more sustainable.

3. Harness momentum: The final, and most challenging step, is to help employees understand which material issues to pay attention to and to help them see the link between their specific contributions and the bigger picture.

Sometimes a single employee will think, “I can’t make a difference.” It is important to help them understand the implications in their day job–for example, how changing travel habits can make a big impact in a company’s carbon footprint.

Making the Case: This is Good Business

Christopher from Hilton Hotels presented a very practical approach. Identify measurable objectives; find the low hanging fruit; evaluate; and move forward. He suggested a variety of specific strategies, including link sustainability goals to performance evaluations and integrate it into existing communications channels: the newsletter, on-line resources and trainings.

As for convincing skeptics, stress that customers are requesting information on environmental performance. When possible, provide specific examples of customer requests. For example, Hilton is now seeing RFPs from large clients asking for information on their carbon footprint.

Take it out of feel good into core business. This is good business.

Help skeptics understand the context that sustainability programs can reduce costs, drive revenue and attract and retain great talent.

Other Best Practices

In the breakout session, a smaller group of us had a chance to meet with Moss to discuss best practices for employee engagement. Some of the strategies mentioned included:

If you have a global program, be sure it is relevant to your target audience in different locations and cultures;
Ask employees for their ideas, then prioritize and narrow to top strategies; or, let employees vote on suggested ideas;
Use green teams to drive employee engagement. Funding can come from a combination of facilities, CSR and HR;
Leverage internal communications to guide employees with resources and materials;
Identify a key senior person and have them drive employee engagement;
Ask people individually to get involved;
Create a council where employees come together to share resources and ideas;
Highlight CSR in the daily newsletter–highlight best practices, build momentum and create friendly competition;
Create more defined strategies–for example, BT America is focused on climate change, digital inclusion and disaster relief;
Give stores/facilities latitude to do what they want–for example, Best Buy gives stores only broad, general guidelines. Not as much consistency, but you harnesses what individuals care about;
Build sustainability metrics into performance objectives;
Select NGO partners to help;
Link volunteer hours and community engagement to sustainability priorities;
Recognize employees by making a monetary donation to employees charity of choice; and
Engage employees in their personal lives (i.e. Pfizer It Begins With Me and Wal-Mart PSP).

Challenges

Some of the key challenges to communicating sustainability and engaging employees identified included:

Strategic versus grassroots?: How do you decide if it makes more sense to link employee activities to the corporate strategy or give them the flexibility to address the issues they care about at individual locations?
Metrics: What does success look like? How do you measure the impact and provide feedback on end results?
Middle Management and Field Offices: How to get them engaged?
Volunteer or paid time: Do employees impelment activities on their own time or is it part of their job?
Skeptics: How do you respond to skeptics?

***

Deborah Fleischer is founder and president of Green Impact, a strategic environmental consulting practice that helps companies strengthen their relationships with stakeholders, develop profitable green initiatives and communicate their successes and challenges. She is a LEED AP with a Master in Environmental Studies from Yale University and over 20-years of direct experience working on sustainability-related challenges in both the public and private sectors. She brings deep expertise in sustainability strategy, stakeholder engagement, program development and written communications.

You can follow her occasional tweet @GreenImpact.

Day 1 at the BSR Conference: Reset Economy. Reset World.

Green Impact — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:31:13 +0000

Yesterday I headed to the Hyatt in San Francisco for BSR’s conference: Reset Economy. Reset World: Delivering Business Value by Thinking Big and Embracing Long-Term Sustainability Trends.

BSR works with a global network of more than 250 member companies to develop sustainable business strategies and solutions through consulting, research and cross-sector collaboration. Upon entering, the sea of black suits, high heels and ties reminded me I was no longer hanging out with activists and social change professionals.

Overall, the attendees I met were sustainability professionals at the conference to network (some were skipping the sessions all together), while others were hungry to learn about best practices and new sustainability tools.

See my full post on Triple Pundit.