One of the best things about the climate change debate is that it focuses the corporate mind on measures which save money, improve overall operational efficiency and enhance reputation – all the while making substantive progress toward addressing this critical issue by reducing the organisation’s environmental footprint.
Environmental sustainability is an imperative for 21st-century business – encompassing conservation, pollution prevention and more, but also enabling entirely new value propositions and benefits. Visionaries are seeking ways to lower costs while building more efficient and sustainable operations. They are strengthening their brands and reputations, while meeting government regulations and other compliance standards. But more important, they are creating greener products and services that give rise to new markets – profitably.
Today’s world is smaller, flatter and hotter – the result of living in a globally integrated society. Meanwhile, the demanding economic environment requires enterprises to do more while managing fewer resources – pressuring them to drive greater efficiencies, compete more effectively, and be proactive when it comes to energy conservation, environmental stewardship and operational sustainability. Empowered consumers – along with employees, stakeholders and business partners – are also demanding more responsible business practices. As companies develop ecological enterprise environmental strategies and implement programs and initiatives to effect these goals, they can begin to overcome operational constraints, enrich their brands, improve regulatory compliance, strengthen customer ties and operate more effectively – now, and well into the future.
In short, environmental sustainability is now a mandate for today’s global business.
While we are all working and contributing towards global eco efficiency, however it is important to step back and see and ask ourselves the following questions from a pure business perspective:
- How can organizations measure and manage energy use of their buildings, facilities, and other assets?
- What can organizations do to reduce the environmental impact of its workforce while meeting business objectives?
- How can organizations improve their environmental performance while driving sustainable growth?
- How can eco-efficiency change the way entire industries, cities and societies operate?
- What are the most important key performance indicators for my organization and how do I meet stakeholder expectations?
Do you think these pointers are useful ? Look forward to your valuable views
Above are the results of the poll that I conducted on LinkedIn with my CFO peers, on this topic . 75% agreed to the fact that eco-efficiency enhances corporate branding, while 25 % disagreed on the same.
Thanks to all who took part in it.
Reference links: https://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/cio/role_of_the_cio/
http://www-900.ibm.com/cn/services/bcs/iibv/en/strategy.shtml
http://www.internet.com/IT/NetworkingAndCommunications/VirtualInfrastructure/Door/41503
Disclaimer
The views and opinions mentioned in this blog are strictly my own and in no way reflect those of IBM or any other corporation or individual in any manner
My name's Robert Parker, and I have been working with IBM India from April 2008 as a Vice President, Finance and Operations IBM India/South Asia. In my 23 years of career with IBM I had a wide range of financial positions within Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
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Comment taken from my LinekdIn Answers section on Eco Efficiency
Eco Efficiency is surely one of the parameters on which corporates can score over their competitors. The most important thing is that this has to be well projected and the general public should also perceive it in the same manner. The image of the corporate should be that of an entity that “Cares for the Environment”.
Eco Efficiency has to be a part of the culture of a corporate. Once it becomes the culture, it need not be emphasized upon, it would reflect on its own. Let us take a cue from the automobile industry in this regard. In their case, it was legislation that made them sit up and change. But now the time has come when corporates must do it themselves and not when legislated.
Just a bit from me. Trust this would help.
Shammi Malik
Senior Manager at Indian Oil Corporation Limited
Comment taken from my LinkedIn Answers Page on Eco Efficiency
The starting point would be to have positive ecological impact as a core component of the company’s growth strategy. This would of course work differently in different industries. The natural gas industry is at an advantage here as it naturally replaces fossil fuels. There would be opportunities in other industries as well and these would have to be identified and ingrained in a feasible fashion in the growth plans. There is often a refrain about the cost implications of adopting an eco friendly approach. If it is merely seen as a cost, the same gets budgeted in the same vein as “donations” which defeats the purpose and does not assure sustainability. Greater awareness of an eco friendly approach and the long term business benefits that it would ensure would increase the demand for greener methodologies which I believe will help in bringing costs down. So the management must try to understand the implications of adopting eco friendly methodologies and carefully assess the sustainable benefits before reacting to possibly higher initial outlays.
Sugata Sircar
Finance Director, Gujarat Gas
Comment taken from my Linkedin Answers Page on Eco Efficiency
To answer your general overall question, most certainly it is the case
that eco-efficiency will enhance corporate branding, provided it is validlydemonstrated, and is then effectively communicated to customers.
Of course, some customers are not environmentally aware and/or the
“green” aspect of a brand is not of consequence to them. In their
ignorance, they will not attach any value to the brand from being “green”.
But otherwise, anyone who claims that eco-effciency does not boost
brand value is a fool.
As to your specific questions, you already have one excellent answer.
So briefy:
1. Retrofit the buildings to get them “Platinum LEED certified” and
measure every energy input in their operation. It is possible to be
100% energy efficient and not to consumer but rather to generate
more energy than you consume, by for example adding solar panels
to the roof, and various other measures.
2. To reduce the environmental impact of the workforce, tell them to
stop coming to the office and to telecommute if they are knowledge
workers. In the Information Age, you do not go to work, work comes
to you, wherever you happen to be. It is the utmost idiocy to have
information/knowledge workers commuting.
3. Greater efficiency will naturally drive greater profit margins and
growth. Organizations are intensely wasteful, especially regarding
energy use. Again, telecommuting would slash capital and operating
costs and would boost employee productivity considerably.
4. By simply being ’smart” and networked communities and businesses.
The Internet is the paradigm for the future of business and community.
They should be reconfigured as smart and connected communities,
dispersed across space rather than centralized and choking to death
on the old industrial-era model of centralization.
5. Net profit margin, ratio of energy consumed to profit output, etc.
Frank Feather
President/CEO/Co-Founder/Director at NorthStar Stadium Resorts Intl.
Comment taken from my Linkedin Answers Page on Eco Efficiency
Robert – Succinctly; find non-IBM’ers (objectivity / fresh, improved opportunity for non-EE politically correct thinking / speaking) that have the ability to problem-solve holistically (vs. serial-myopically) and are willing to work in collaboration with an IBM SWAT Portfolio Team on each / all of your excellent questions.
#1-4 Requires some transferrable, integrated solutions, most of which are currently available; just not in the required “form and combination set”.
#5 – Elevation of agreed upon, Organizational / Divisional / Geographical KPI’s. With executive stewardship Thomas Watson “get it done” mentality; you’re probability for success should be at 70%+.
James Roncevich
President & Founder at JMR Financial Group Consulting
Comment taken from my LinkedIn Answers Page on Eco Efficiency
Robert, thanks for posting this issue. IMHO, unless properly promoted, any eco-sustainability effort will go largely unnoticed. While eco certifications add to a company’s environmentally friendly image, only real, tangible environmental efforts will reap positive brand awareness rewards in the long run. Eco efficiency should be seen from a strategic perspective, as a profit center rather than a cost burden.
1. If organizations don’t already measure total energy consumption per building, they aren’t serious about energy (which includes water) use as a cost component on their P/L statement. A thorough analysis of energy flows per unit and a detailed report on energy efficiency for each generation, transfer and usage point would be a required part of the decision making process.
2. Identify the various stages of the business process at which the workforce has an environmental impact. This includes external as well as internal activities, such as commutation. For example, an organization may be located at a significant distance from the majority of its workforce for tax purposes or to be geographically closer to another, more important strategic resource, but this would impact the mode of commutation. The organization should weigh the environmental consequences of its location decision.
3. Improving environmental performance involves a kaizen approach to eliminating waste, reducing energy consumption, optimizing the production process to reduce number of direct and indirect components and their environmental impact. Sustainability implies that an organization does not negatively impact the environment nor its strategic resources. Recycling waste inhouse or as an outsourced activity is one way. For each business activity, the organization needs to determine the environmental consequences, and if outsourcing a recycling activity leads to, e.g., transporting hazardous waste over a long distance, incurring potential liability. Partnering with others in the same or a tangent industry to achieve recycling economies of scale would improve environmental performance while reducing the cost factor.
4. Collaboration between industry partners, local communities and societies is key. In today’s competitive marketplace laws and regulations prevent many collaborative efforts in environmental change. We need to start seeing waste streams as sources of energy. Lets consider our global society as a coordinated system of energy producing units and develop an understanding of how our choice of input streams affect the local and wider communities.
5. Key performance indicators from an eco-friendly perspective are efficiency related, how much of the input stream is converted to product/service, and how much is not recycled or passed on as an input stream for a third-party process. The environmental impact of many productions processes is sometimes difficult to quantify. Ideally, the design of production processes should focus on limiting environmental impact, and should involve the definition of how to measure the ecological consequence of its design from the start.
External stakeholders are known to either quickly see through efforts to embellish the truth about an organization’s commitment to environmental efficiency, or to cast blame where none should be. A sustained PR effort should go hand in hand with a continuous improvement process.
Vincent Vanderbent
Supervisor at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Comment taken from my LinkedIn Answers Page on Eco Efficiency
Being eco friendlly as using recycled materials, using E documents as invoices, newsletters, RFIs etc… help businesses to be eco friendly also use inks that are eco friendly
Replace all the light bulbs to energy savers
If they have appliances to get them energy appliances
Make sure the bathroom has the dual flushes/ faucets water efficient
Double panels windows
Have green plants
\Use non VOC paints
use flooring that is recyclable like bamboo
There are many things to do and definitely a company with a green policy can attract more customers as most people are looking for eco friendly and sustainable solutions to encourage to save the planet.
Sahar Andrade
Social Media Consultant/ strategist & Diversity Consultant at Sahar Consulting
Hi! this is awesome blog.CEO Branding is the key to corporate winning! It is the new corporate branding.Thanks for Reading.