The Verdant 360 Blog

Leave it to Walmart to up the ante. Today the world’s largest retailer released a statement that should catch everyone’s attention. They have announced plans to create a product sustainability index that will eventually (they believe) be included on all products that are sold in Walmart stores. According to Walmart the index will give consumers a single source of data for the evaluation and comparison of a product’s sustainability. It reinforces Walmart’s commitment to leadership in the area’s of both sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

According to Mike Duke, Walmart’s President and CEO:

Customers want products that are more efficient, that last longer and perform better. And increasingly they want information about the entire lifecycle of a product so they can feel good about buying it. They want to know that the materials in the product are safe, that it was made well and that it was produced in a responsible way.

We do not see this as a trend that will fade. Higher customer expectations are a permanent part of the future.

At Walmart, we’re working to make sustainability sustainable, so that it’s a priority in good times and in the tough times. An important part of that is developing the tools to help enable sustainable consumption.

The Walmart plan calls for a 3 phase approach to the development and implementation of the index. The first step is creation of a survey (sounds a little like the Verdant 360) that will ask questions around 4 areas.

1. Energy and Climate
2. Material Efficiency
3. Natural Resources
4. People and Community

Walmart will be asking it’s over 100,000 suppliers to respond to the survey. It is asking it’s U.S. base suppliers to respond by October of this year.

The second phase will be to create a consortium of universities to collaborate with suppliers, retailers, NGO’s and governments to create a global database of information of the cradle to grave impact of the products that are sold in Walmart stores. They intend to engage a software company create an open platform to power the index.

The Third and final phase will be to translate the data captured in phase two into a standard that informs consumers about the sustainability of products.

This is how the statement was reported in bloomberg.com today,

Wal-Mart’s unilateral decision to put its purchasing and communication power behind going green also shows that a single company using its unique clout can accelerate public action to reduce greenhouse gases and reverse climate change. By rolling out an environmental labeling program disclosing to consumers the environmental costs of making products sold at Wal-Mart, the $401 billion retail behemoth has transformed green standards from nice-to-have to must-have.

We will be discussing this for some time to come.

-Fred

Corporate Social Responsibility, Supply Chain, Sustainability Add new tag, Corporate Social Responsibility, supply chain sustainability, Walmart

One of the challenges in creating and implementing an effective sustainability plan, is the question of metrics. Sustainability, indeed the whole concept of corporate social responsibility, is becoming increasingly important to businesses. From the standpoint of shareholder interest, customer perception and even into HR area areas such as employee satisfaction and recruiting, more and more companies are investing in their corporate social responsibility efforts.

There are few ways of measuring, quantifying and reporting, in a meaningful way, sustainability or corporate social responsibility data. This is changing, as we now have effective carbon and environmental footprint calculators that effectively track and measure footprint data inside and organization and along it’s supply chain as well. Measuring, quantifying and reporting more intangible aspects such as employee community participation, employee environmental awareness, and corporate environmental governance can be more challenging.

A good place to start is the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), which has developed a framework for reporting that can be used by organizations regardless of size, location or sector. The GRI is a multi-stakeholder governed institution collaborating to provide the gobal standards in sustainability reporting. It was conceived by the Boston-based non-profit CERES in 1997, the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme joined as a partner in 1999. In 2001 the GRI became a sperate institution. It released it’s first guidelines in 2000, in 2006 it released the 3rd revision of the guidlines. The following is directly from the GRI website:

Sustainability reports based on the GRI framework can be used to benchmark organizational performance with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards and voluntary initiatives; demonstrate organizational commitment to sustainable development; and compare organizational performance over time.

By utilizing guidelines such as the GRI, companies and their stakeholders can have a useful comparative tool that can allow them to better monitor, measure and communicate their position. If we are going to effectively transition to a sustainable economy based on accountability, accuracy and transparency ,tools such as these will be a necessary component.

-FR

Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability Carbon Footprint, CERES, Corporate Social Responsibility, GRI, Sustainability, UNEP

…according to Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres, who was speaking about sustainability at MIT’s Sustainability Summit last week. Ms. Lubber was a member of a panel entitled “How do we progress towards sustainability during  a recession.” It was clear from her point of view as well as the other members of the panel, Michael Wise, Partner at A.T. Kearney  and Wayne Balta Vice President of Corporate Environmental Affairs at IBM that sustainability is an imperative even given the current economic climate. Discussing the impact of global warming to the governments and businesses Lubber stated, ” The costs of ignoring climate change will make sub-prime look like child’s play.”

The cost of ignoring climate change will make sub-prime look like child’s play.

The conference held at M.I.T’s Sloan School of Business, brought together students, engineers, business leaders, academics, environmental activists, and public servants and focused on real world challenges we face in moving to a sustainable world. Discussions ranged from corporate social responsibility to climate change at the macro level, to the most effective way to interact with local government officials  and historic preservation as a sustainable business practice on the local level.

The other members of her panel were as emphatic as Lubber in their points of view that business cannot afford to let the current business climate prevent them form implementing sustainable business plans. Mr. Wise who was one of the authors of the “Green Winners” report (cited in my February 11th post) spoke to the driver for implementing an effective sustainability plans which include competitive advantage, innovation and risk management. He said that the pace of environmentally related business change has accelerated to a degree that many top corporations are running scenario analysis’ and war games to identify the risk potential  environmental issues may place to their businesses.

Wayne Balta, who rounded out the panel spoke to IBM’s “Smarter Planet” campaign and he clearly believes that IBM has embarked on an initiative which converges traditional IT infrastructure and applications with sustainable business practices. He stated that because of the following factors there is an opportunity for technology to bring about change in the environmental and corporate social responsibility arenas. The factors he listed were:

• Devices are becoming vastly instrumented
• They are becoming interconnected
• Because of this they are becoming more intelligent.

These intelligent devices allow businesses to better measure the environmental footprint of their businesses. Mirroring what Mindy Lubber said earlier in the program. “What can be measured, can be managed.”

-FR

Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability climate change, Corporate Social Responsibility, green winners, M.I.T., Mindy Lubber, Sloan School of Business, Sustainability

Welcome to The Verdant 360 Blog. As we move forward with a new administration, we are presented with the positive potential of a new approach toward environmental leadership. Not withstanding the enormous financial challenges presented by the recent mortgage and wall street debacles, we need to address the dramatic environmental impact we are having on the earth. If the new administration follows through on the promise they have shown through the campaign, we may finally have an administration that supports environmental initiatives and direct investment in sustainability solutions.

For business leaders this means that we potentially have national leadership that recognizes that sustainable business practices are critically important to the future success of our economy and our society. Business leaders are now challenged to implement sustainability solutions in a very difficult economic environment. Across every aspect of their supply chain they are presented with rising costs and stagnant or diminishing revenue streams.

I believe that the best sustainability plans can be effective, because at it’s core, sustainability is about the efficient allocation of resources and technology. By implementing efficient process and  technology while raising employee awareness, we will inherently reduce waste, lower our carbon footprint, maximize energy usage and ideally improve bottom line performance.

I refrain from using the term “green” as much as possible when discussing supply chain sustainability. To me, it has become  such a marketing buzzword that it obscures the business potential of supply chain sustainability. To many of the operational managers that I speak to, “greening” their businesses implies additional cost but very rarely speaks about the supply efficiencies that business can  gain from a well thought out sustainability plan. And yet, there are many examples of businesses have demonstrated that sustainability provides them with a competitive advantage. You will learn about some of those businesses in this blog.

This blog is for businesses and about businesses. It will focus on process, technology, standards and the importance of execution in the development and implementation of sustainability plans. We will  discuss Carbon Footprint, Chain of Custody, ISO 14000/14001, alternative energy solutions and Corporate Social Responsibility. I will highlight business that have successfully implemented sustainability plans and talk to the leaders that have implemented them. I welcome comment and feedback from all areas of business leadership.

In  1993, the poet Maya Angelou closed her inaugural poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” with the following stanzas:

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.

To all of you, I say “Good Morning.”

-FR

Sustainability Carbon Footprint, Chain of Custody, Corporate Social Responsibility, ISO 14001