An Impressionist View of "The New Metrics of Sustainable Business"

I expected The New Metrics of Sustainable Business conference at the Wharton School to be filled with VP's representing publicly traded US-based corporations.

Audience.

I was wrong. There were European firms.  There were privately held US-based firms as well (possibly in anticipation of going public one day?), some offering very positive case studies on how to benefit from measuring sustainability performance. There were no government agencies reps  though - at least none I could see.

There seemed to be as many management consultants and software vendors as potential customers for those services, however, and the marquis NGO were there as corporate consultants/partners.

Professors drifted in and out, some presenting research findings that tied sustainability-driven management systems to improved financial results.

Overall, the atmosphere was corporate, but hopeful in a philosophical way -- adapting capitalism to resource shortages and climate extremes to prevent living systems from being further destroyed. 

Most of you will never attend a conference like this.  The price is  high and the focus on metrics pretty boring unless you happen to be handed the ruler as part of your job. Yet,there are important lessons to be learned and perspectives to be gained from the general direction of the conference.  Here's my run at explaining and analyzing it from a high level view.

Place

Sessions were held in the conference facility of Huntsman Hall, business centerpiece of the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (arguably one of the most sustainable universities in North America, as Penn considers itself the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States).  See Penn's Heritage for details.

What's in a name?

Huntsman Hall on Penn campus was named for Jon Huntsman Sr., father of Jon Jr., Republican candidate for U.S. President -- the one who wisely bailed out on the 2012 Un-Sustainability Fest, otherwise known as the Republican Presidential Primary.

Is it a coincidence that Jon Sr.'s creation, Huntsman Chemical Corporation, has a circumspect, well drawn corporate sustainability program?  No.  Huntsman is a global operation with hundreds of products that few would recognize by name. Products with zero consumer name recognition don't normally get a lot of sustainability attention, because sustainability tends to start with consumer demand. However, Jon Sr. understood that it doesn't matter if end users of durable goods or personal care items recognize their names or the names of their components. For him, it was good for the company and therefore good for stockholders and institutional investors.

Through ROSI colored glass.

The conference included process-oriented, how-to-measure-stuff presentations and optimistic panel discussions about metrics. There also were outcome-oriented case studies - valuable clues for those seeking the Business Grail. One speaker's presentation named that chalice 'return on sustainability investment' (ROSI).  Once named, there were animated questions and responses about the term. Excitement echoed in the hallways to the lunch room.

A metaphor for political context.

I am in my 60s now, having graduated from college just weeks from the first Earth Day, and shortly after meeting Senator Gaylord Nelson.  My first job out of school was in environmental management and I've stayed the environmental course ever since.  There were regular ups and downs  - generally following 4 year cycles begun by each major environmental law enacted by Congress.  Reagan took the cycle all the way down in the early 80s, but optimism returned before his second term ended.

Recently, however, America appears to be entering into a political Dark Age regarding all things environmental.  We're cashing in all the chips, liquidating the inventory of beauty.  Going all out Easter Island. With the Republican national platform specifically calling for elimination of EPA and Mitt Romney aligning publicly with Republican legislators advocating the selling off BLM and other Federal lands, including long-designated Wilderness Areas, Teddy Roosevelt surely is turning in his grave.

I took an informal survey of the gray haired ones present. We feel the darkness enveloping future generations. Our grandchildren could be much the poorer at at risk for survival. Metaphorically speaking, it feels like what it must have been like for those Irish Monks who preserved the collective knowledge of thousands of years of civilization from the invading barbarians.

Regulatory compliance: the prerequisite for all sustainable branding.

Corporations with decent environmental management systems commonly fund right-wing think tanks and give PAC money to legislators opposed to environmental regulation. With political barbarians now crashing the gate, and fully dominating public discourse, this dissonance has to be confronted. No industry can be  "sustainable" on average without the expectation that emission limits will be created and enforced,  mitigating against the brand trashing activities of a few bad actors that will periodically come along.  Like speed limits, antibiotics, and property lines, environmental controls on factories, for example, are a baseline need of society. The prospect of ROSI money buying air time for those who would make total elimination of environmental agencies a priority is an elephant in the U.S. corporate meeting room. You can't be sustainable as a brand unless that elephant is tamed.