Serving people, planet and profit: An 'integrated bottom-line' approach to looking at business for entrepreneurs, activists, and decision makers
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I’m as jaded as the next guy when it comes to companies touting their green chops but, on closer inspection, having little to back it up. But amidst the greenwashing/hyping of recent years, I’ve also been downright moved.
If you think about, outdoor retailers are, or should be, leaders in the green/sustainable business community. Environmental quality is, after all, a key piece of their value proposition, as in, “Those hiking boots you just bought are not recommended for Superfund sites.” Or melting glaciers, for that matter.
Sure, Patagonia comes to mind as a pioneer. But I’m also thinking of Keen, the outdoor shoe company whose “Hybrid Life/STAND” campaign 
is both a powerful statement about the connection between creativity, athleticism and activism and an awards program for people who are living it.
Then there’s Eastern Mountain Sports. I know next to nothing about EMS’s CSR record but I have to admit I was impressed when I recently bought a pair of quarter-length running socks. On the back of the package were two words, “Future Consciousness.” Wow! One pair of socks and then, like that, transcendence. Like Keen’s Hybrid Life concept, Future Consciousness, according to EMS, is all about owing up to our shared fate and the deep connections between consumer and consumed, people and planet, socks and species.
On Thursday, Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of General Motors came to San Francisco to speak about the future of...[read more]
Leading multinational manufacturers, members of the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Supply Chain Leadership Council, announced the results of their initial survey and effort to promote greenhouse gas emissions reporting and reduction throughout their supply chain networks.[read more]
Tuesday night, sustainability leaders from all over the Bay Area made their way to the Berkeley facility of Clif Bar...[read more]
Research by the Kenexa Corp. indicates that organizations’ environmental activities and records can significantly influence the views employees’ and potential hires have about managements’ credibility, trustworthiness, and ability to manage and lead, as well as workers’ job satisfaction and employee retention.[read more]
After four years of heads down work to find answers where it appeared that only questions existed, Adam Werbach followed...[read more]
Public skepticism and mistrust of businesses’ efforts to “go green” not only pose problems for corporations making honest, substantive efforts to do so, they pose significant obstacles for the type of local-to-globally coordinated efforts necessary to mitigate climate change and enhance energy security. Bridging this credibility gap was the subject of a recent GreenPepper “Eco-Concerns” survey. [read more]
As is the case more broadly, shares of alternative energy businesses are getting hit hard of late…But the fundamentals underlying the sector provide support and portend that investors may look back on this period and see an excellent buying opportunity, argue analysts at London’s Ambrian Partners.[read more]
The Carbon Disclosure Project and Merrill Lynch & Co. have joined in a three-year global partnership that aims to spur wider adoption of corporate carbon accounting and disclosure standards and help channel investment $$$ into carbon and greenhouse gas reduction projects. [read more]
Green certification programs such as the Green Council’s EPEAT are an effective means of getting past organizational greenwash…Even more importantly, they’re making an increasing, positive impact on electronics recycling volumes and practices. Individual consumers need to help shoulder the burden, however, and OEMs can do more to make it easier to recycle and reuse products and parts.[read more]
Greenwash is a new addition to the English lexicon and a practice that offers businesses a potentially quick and high return. Those are likely to turn out to be ephemeral, and even damaging, not only to practitioners but to other organizations intent on making honest efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and environmental degradation.[read more]
A survey of corporate executives from around the world conducted by McKinsey & Co. indicates that corporate reputations, media attention and consumer preferences are the most influential factors when it comes to climate change. [read more]
Issues of environmental justice are increasingly coming to the fore in local, state and federal legislatures and the courts, as evidenced by 12 state district attorneys bringing suit against the EPA over revisions to the Toxic Release Inventory program. Indicative of developments in the West, a precedent recently set in New Mexico’s Supreme Court and interpretation of a 2005 gubernatorial EJ executive order are likely as communities, municipal and the state government wrangle over landfill permits.[read more]
There's been a rush by educational institutions of all shapes and sizes to launch new, usually interdisciplinary programs, that aim to capitalize on the fast rising prominence of climate change, energy and natural resources development and management both at the local level and at the highest levels of government and international cooperation. Some have been around longer than others.[read more]
Energy and resource intensive, emitting a range of greenhouse gases and leaving behind mountains and fields of e-waste, we've come to depend and indeed thrive on the myriad devices, computing and communications power digital information technology has brought us. Now leading IT providers are getting serious about their resource use and the environmental effects of their worldwide operations.[read more]
Big Hoorah for Google as it distinguishes itself for its commitment to forging a cleaner, greener future here and now...There's much to clean and green in the IT industry, however. Fortunately, new technology, government and international incentives and the increasing focus on using clean and green tech is enabling businesses to create new opportunities as well as cut costs.[read more]
In the face of the rising value of greenwash, the success of domestic and international climate change mitigation and emissions reductions efforts hinges on assembling the apparatus to reliably, accurately and comprehensively monitor, assess and report on businesses' awareness, plans and actions. The Carbon Disclosure Project aims to do just that.[read more]
Those of you who think we have it bad with the tap water here in San Francisco might think...[read more]
A few weeks ago, Hardee's and Carl's Jr. parent company, CKE Restaurants announced it will begin purchasing eggs and...[read more]
By now, most managers are familiar with the rhetoric of sustainable business practices. In books, conferences, MBA programs, and business...[read more]
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), together with consulting firm KPMG, has recently released, Reporting the Business Implications of Climate...[read more]
The results of three trailblazing studies released today from the United Nations Global Compact, McKinsey, and Goldman Sachs, show...[read more]
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The Lazy Environ- mentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living
World- changing: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development
The Sustainability Advantage : Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line
Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
