3p Contributor: Bill Roth
Recent Articles
Winning Bids Going Green in HR and Risk Management
“Our business revenues are directly tied to winning competitive bids,” explains Elizabeth Barry, Chief Sustainability Officer of Marsh & McLennan Companies. “Over the last couple of years an increasing number of our customers are inserting into their bid packages questions that seek documentation of our company’s sustainability commitment.”
Barry’s comments reflect the growth of the green supply chain beyond manufacturing into professional services companies like Marsh & McLennan Companies which provides advice and solutions in risk, strategy and human capital.
The challenge confronting professional services companies is how to reduce an environmental footprint consisting of people in offices. Barry explains, “Our environmental footprint consists of our associates working in office buildings, using their computers and traveling to our clients. Our sustainability challenge is how to lower our environmental impacts to enhance our bid competitiveness without impacting the ability of our talented people to do their jobs.”
Staples Advantage: Growing Green Supply Chain Revenues
The greening of the supply chain is one of the economic engines of the global, $1 trillion revenue growth opportunity for companies selling sustainable products and services.
KPMG reports that 95 percent of the world’s largest 250 companies now publish metrics on their environmental and social performance. This metrics-based focus upon environmental performance by the world’s largest corporations is creating revenue growth opportunities for suppliers that can deliver cost-competitive solutions.
Staples, Inc. is a worldwide business supplier with Internet revenues second only to Amazon. At the retail store level they have promoted recycled paper, e-waste recycling and the introduction of electric delivery vehicles.
The Staples Advantage business division sells to the world’s largest companies and its revenue is growing selling products into the greening of the world’s corporate supply chain. Roger McFadden, Staples Advantage’s Senior Scientist, is an example of the human resources that Staples brings to a Staples Advantage customer. Roger and his associates collaborate with Staples Advantage customers in identifying paths for greening the customer’s janitorial chemicals.
Nominate Your Favorite Green App
The smart phone app is exploding in use with over 25 million apps downloaded just on Christmas Day. The Apple App Store is estimated to have shattered all previous records achieving 11 billion app downloads during 2011 and Android achieved 10 billion cumulative app downloads by year-end 2011.
Apps have gone green enabled by the QR code. Using a green app, consumers can take a picture of a product’s QR code on its packaging or, increasingly, in magazine ads and access a range of data on price, nutritional value, NGO assessments and consumer ratings.
One app I use is GoodGuide. It has data on over 50,000 products.
Monterey Bay Aquarium SeaFood Watch is one I use because of the uncertainty over the authenticity of seafood products. A recent Consumer Reports article reported that “Americans spent $80.2 billion on seafood last year… but they aren’t always buying what they think they are. More than one-fifth of 190 pieces of seafood we bought at retail stores and restaurants in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were mislabeled as different species of fish, incompletely labeled, or misidentified by employees.” The Seafood Watch app provides both a seafood guide and a sushi guide. Monterey Abalone Company is one of Seafood Watch’s best picks and this interview with owner Trevor Fay shows the quality of this app’s analysis.
Monterey Abalone Company: Selling Into The Green Supply Chain
Monterey Abalone Company is the first of four companies I will be profiling that have pioneered best practices for making money selling into the green supply chain.
The other three profiled companies are large international companies. I wanted to begin this four-part article series with a small business to demonstrate that the opportunity for selling into the greening of the supply chain cuts across business size and includes businesses outside of traditional manufacturing.
Monterey Abalone Company grows and sells abalone based upon sustainable aquaculture practices. Aquaculture is an approximately one-billon dollar annual revenue industry that accounts for almost 50 percent of total US seafood revenues. It is an industry that continues to make national headlines because of health concerns including infectious Salmon Anemia and pollution that is damaging streams and sea bottoms.
Monterey Abalone Company’s production process is close to 100 percent green outside of truck deliveries of its seafood products. The company is recognized by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch List as a Best Choice.
Five Megatrends Creating 2012′s Trillion Dollar Global Sustainable Economy
2012 will be the milestone year that the US economy demonstrates sustained economic growth through adoption of 21st century’s sustainable solutions. Earth 2017‘s economic model estimates that sustainable product solutions have now achieved the breakthrough trillion dollars per year in global annual revenues level and is on the path toward achieving $10 trillion of annual global revenues by 2017.
Here are the five megatrend drivers behind 2012’s sustainable economic growth:
1. Energy efficiency is #1 in ROI. The Return On Investment (ROI) on US 10 year bonds is 2 percent and the 2011 Standard and Poor 500 stock index closed the year with zero appreciation. Energy efficiency investments now offer 10-50 percent ROIs making them the superior investment available today in the United States.
Two fuel price trends are driving these superior returns for energy efficiency investments. The first is that 2011 marked the first time in US history that the average price of gasoline did not fall below $3 per gallon and diesel prices did not fall below $4 per gallon.
The second major fuel trend is the continuing rise in electricity prices.
The Solar Bottleneck
Bottleneck was the word of the day at the recently held Distributed Solar Summit. The good news is that solar panel prices are at historically low levels. The increasing price competitiveness of solar is attracting a growing number of customers. However, the potential for explosive growth in solar installations is bottlenecked by regulation, rule-making and pricing threats.
Fingers are pointing in every direction.
Companies selling solar power systems point the finger at the tax-based system for financing solar power. The US does not reflect the real price of energy at the meter or the pump. For example, coal-fired electricity looks really cheap at the meter and solar looks expensive. But the real costs of coal fired electricity generation that include environmental and health impacts are not included at the meter. How significant are the costs not included at the meter? Think about whether you would rather live downwind from a coal-fired power plant or next to a house with a roof top solar system.
How to Eat Organic on $5 per Meal
A common comment I have heard in working with hundreds of business owners across America this year is, “I would like to eat organic food but it is too expensive.” At first I tried to address these concerns intellectually by comparing value and values. Then in one city a business owner confronted me with this question: “How can I feed my family healthy organic food on my normal grocery budget?”
I turned to Chelsea O’Sullivan, Chapter co-President of Slow Foods at St. Mary’s College to see if there are best practices for eating organic food on a normal grocery budget. The great news is that there are.
My video interview interview with Chelsea on how to eat organic $5 meals is located below this summary
My Nissan LEAF Test Drive: Acceleration at Speed of Electrons
Imagine being next to a Mercedes at an urban red traffic light while test driving the all electric Nissan Leaf. You are sitting there wondering, “Is this going to be embarrassing? Will the car behind me honk at me for being too slow in moving forward when the light turns green?”
Now imagine your satisfying grin as you look at the surprise on the faces of that Mercedes driver and the driver behind you as your all electric LEAF silently thrusts forward leaving them behind. Acceleration at the speed of electrons!
How a Custom-Fit Workplace Can Save Money and Reduce Emissions
If your daily roundtrip commute to work is around 40 miles then you are spending approximately $2,000 per year on fuel. AAA estimates that the hidden costs of car insurance, oil changes, annual depreciation on your car purchase, etc. add a whooping $3,000 more to your annual costs. In addition, you are pumping approximately 20 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere per gallon of gasoline during your daily commute.
Increasingly, large corporations and small businesses are creating workplace innovations that save money for their associates by reducing their commutes while also making money for the business. Joan Blades, co-founder of both MoveOn.Org and MomsRising, has written with Nanette Fondas a new book called The Custom-Fit Workplace that captures examples of these best practices. My video interview with her is located below this summary…
Feeding Seven Billion People: The Emerging Farm Tech Revolution
Today, October 31, 2011, the world will have “officially” grown to 7 billion in population. Among those 7 billion, approximately one billion are malnourished. Even in America, a bread basket for the world, there is emerging awareness of “urban food deserts” where people face limited healthy food options.
The 21st Century’s farming challenge is to:
- Grow enough food to feed our world’s population
- Supply food that supports human health
- Produce food that people can afford to buy.
A Farm Tech Revolution is emerging to address issues of supply, healthiness and cost. This revolution is centered around smart agricultural management using computers, hydroponics and emerging new technologies to create a competitively priced alternative to industrial farming that is dependent upon increasingly costly heavy chemical fertilization, mass water irrigation and the operation of industrial machinery on the farm, in the food processing centers and within the delivery system.
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