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Executive Council

The Secret to Green Business Success: YOU, the Consumer.

This is the last of three posts on the Executive Council’s “Value-Based Sustainability” event last week (read previous posts here and here). As official sponsor of the event, CleanTechies raffled off five free tickets to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers (@CleanTechies) and Newsletter subscribers. The author of this article was one of the lucky winners. Fan us and follow us to learn about upcoming raffles like this!

Many companies easily jumped on the ‘green’ bandwagon in 2007 and 2008 when the economy was growing. Now that the U.S. is in a recession, unless sustainability was already a guiding pillar for your company, making the business case for green, clean, and lean initiatives can be challenging. At last week’s Executive Council summit on Value-Based Sustainability: the Business Case for Clean, Green, and Lean, several best-of-breed companies shared their thoughts on sustainability and the role of consumers.

02/03/2010 4 comments

Renewable Energy

The Holy Grail of Sustainability

written by

This is the second of three posts on the Executive Council’s “Value-Based Sustainability” event last week (read the first post here). As official sponsor of the event, CleanTechies raffled off five free tickets to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers (@CleanTechies) and Newsletter subscribers. The author of this article was one of the lucky winners. Fan us and follow us to learn about upcoming raffles like this!

The Executive Council’s Value-Based Sustainability Forum in San Jose, CA on January 26th was one of a few “road shows” taken around the country. Focusing on strategy in making the business case of sustainability, resonating themes of the forum included transparency; measurement; and communication or engagement internally with employees, and externally to customers and clients.

An exuberating opening keynote by Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, started the day. Werbach defined sustainability as social, economic, ecological and cultural streams which flow into an integrated one. Transparency, engagement and networking are enablers of sustainability that are to be exercised internally and externally for maximum value. To connect the core of a business with a social issue is to create a “North Star goal” which, according to Werbach, will ignite passion within the organization, engaging employees. For example, P&G’s North Star goal: “Sell $50 billion worth of sustainability innovation products by 2012.”

02/02/2010 1 comment

Renewable Energy

Value-Based Sustainability: The Business Case for Green, Clean & Lean

written by Thomas L. Rosenberg

This is the first of three posts on the Executive Council’s “Value-Based Sustainability” event last week. As official sponsor of the event, CleanTechies raffled off five free tickets to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers (@CleanTechies) and Newsletter subscribers. The author of this article was one of the lucky winners. Fan us and follow us to learn about upcoming raffles like this!

First of all, a big thank you to Bob Johnston, Eric McNulty, April Lo and the rest of the Executive Council staff for putting together an excellent event last Tuesday. Value-Based Sustainability: The Business Case for Green, Clean and Lean brought together a high caliber of sustainability professionals and thought leaders from many sectors. Thank you Ceylan Thomson for bringing the event to our attention on www.CleanTechies.com.

This event had excellent speakers throughout. Some of the speakers highlighted what their specific companies were doing and what were the drivers for those priorities. This component provided excellent examples of early wins and highlighted the importance of proper metrics. The keynote speakers, Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S (and author of the book “Strategy for Sustainability” – see cover on the left) and Rupert Davis of MontaRosa discussed more generally, the state of sustainability and what needs to happen to make sustainability viable long-term. Werbach emphasized that sustainability must incorporate social, cultural, economic, as well as environmental aspects in order to withstand the downturn. To be successful, these four elements must be combined into a single corporate “North Star” goal that is transparent, engages stakeholders (at a personal level) and expands networks.

02/01/2010 1 comment