The Corporate Greening Mandate
In the pressures of the present cycle of business demands, one nagging issue seems to remain as an ethical and personal duty defying the innate desire to shed non-commercial interests. The challenge is the growing pressure to address environmental problems before they consume us like the ravages of an unwelcome plague.
The growing world population is projected to reach nine billion by 2025. The limits of our natural resources are being forecasted in centuries and even decades. Global warming threatens to change the global climate balance. This convergence of mega-issues requires every government and business to eventually look inward to evaluate the true impact of corporate policy.
We find ourselves in the midst of high urgency issues that put our resolve and current operations to the test, and this also addresses the financial opportunities and constraints where policies must turn from normal profit-driven concerns to the emerging economy in a post-depression world.
What will be the business model in the next incarnation of the national and international market? How will business allocate resources when the economy returns? While the present struggle is to preserve capital and survive the economic tsunami, the astute business person is also assessing the winds of change in the new economy. As the economy returns, one thing seems certain. It will not be the same world that we knew before.
The new world will understand that waste and opulence will be perceived as a kind of business prejudice antithetic to the wellbeing of the real world outside its doors. Take for example, the car industry. Can it survive in this brave, changed, new world as it did in the past? Will lenders, mortgage companies, and financial industries eventually return to the old way of business? The answer may be found in the post-depression era of people (now nearly gone) who never forgot what it was like to live in absolute threat of daily existence. We will likely never see the return of the generation of excesses.
The new world will be ‘green’ in more ways than promotion and promise. In its present phase, we are seeing the practices of ‘token green’, where people and firms do the least possible to identify with the environmental concerns. Others are quickly adopting a ‘proxy green’ stance where they include environmental solutions developed by others without changing their own pattern of practice. There is, of course, ‘charitable green’, where a generous gift to an environmental charity proves your commitment to the earth crisis. Time will eventually demonstrate that nothing less than an earnest commitment to change the internal practices to a green pattern will be respected.
What will arise in the more mature world of environmental concern is a kind of green ethics or protocol. If the environmental crisis is as real as we are told, the response cannot be superficial or a token of good intentions. The size and depth of this crisis must be calculated into the new business model whereby overt and consistent efforts to reduce our drain on resources is more than an efficiency consideration.
While it helps to buy green products or build green buildings, the third and most critical phase is to incorporate ‘green practices’ that run through the daily operation and include the personnel of the company.
Like the efficiency experts of the past, the new criteria are the evaluation and renovation of the practices or operation of every business. This calls for a certified green consultant to be outsourced rather than an inhouse committee of well-meaning but ill-informed employees to dance around the issue. Change is the theme of this decade and will become the mandate of this century. Regardless of the nature of a business, the world ahead of us is far different than the world behind us. Failure to emerge as a greener, leaner and reconstituted business will be far more than a mild faux pas. It may be critical to the success of any business in the future.
Corporate seminars are now addressing the topic of the green supply chain. This has three basic components: reducing transportation distance, reducing packaging and giving preference to other green providers. We are finally discovering that you can tell more about the environmental commitment of a business by reviewing the decisions of the purchasing department than the overt representations of the marketing department. Under the scope of green ethics, the questions that are now being asked go far deeper than appearance and promotion. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mirrors the green supply chain concept with its ‘environmentally preferred purchasing’ initiative.
What we are seeing, therefore, is a desire and trend toward more than token, proxy, or charitable green. The public will soon look beyond the boast to discover the reality of the environmental commitment. Endurance in the new economy means that substance will eventually triumph over form, and the buying public will eventually vote with their money and eschew hollow boasts.
The solution is obvious to anyone who believes that environmental issues are much more than a trend. The new economy must conform to the pressures of everyday life. Business should lead in this endeavour for more than promotional reasons. A company that ‘goes green’ considers the health impact on workers and the public at large in its processes. This is an internal change that has a ripple effect that radiates from a centre point. As other companies contribute to this effort, we improve the lives of everyone that our programme touches.
Sustainable efforts are different from ‘going green’ because it addresses the finite resources available to us in an increasingly crowded world. While it may complement a green agenda, it differs in the solutions and planning steps that are required. Two other factors under the environmental topic are pollution and conservation. These four categories make up the major divisions of environmentalism and begin to illustrate how much most people do not know about this subject. Such ignorance leads to apathy or lack of capacity to adequately address these issues in a credible fashion.
The sheer volume of information, as well as the time constraints on all people, forces everyone toward solutions that are symptomatic rather than systemic. There is a ‘green disconnect’ that is automatically created in nearly every person and business because the volume of the information cannot be consumed and digested by the otherwise harried individual or businessperson. Even nominating an employee as a green officer merely places a lieutenant in charge of a major battle threatening the success of the enterprise.
The rise of the certified green consultant offers an accountant-like expert who can bring a broad-spectrum approach to any business structure. Going green is not an exact science because every operation has the same idiosyncrasies as found in people. The evaluation and assessment of a business will reveal its strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, the goal is to provide a clear path that will allow any business to adopt green practices and attain a green business certification. To the surprise of those who have a sense of dread about the negatives of such a transition, the positive results will be a welcome surprise.
The US Department of Labor estimates more than US$50bn in lost revenue due to poor indoor air quality causing headaches, lethargy, increased sick days and medical claims. The health and productivity of workers also gives rise to concerns about increased litigation as a new league of environmental attorneys graduate from law school and enter practice. This means new mandates and legislation looms on the horizon. A new flurry of medical studies also link many chronic diseases to daily exposure of dangerous chemicals in the workplace (including cleaning supplies, pesticides, paint, carpeting, and even fragrances). The connection of chronic disease to the workplace must be addressed presently to mitigate potential lawsuits that will certainly come.
There is a bright spot in all this environmental concern. Professional guidance in greening a company will also introduce ‘green efficiencies’. Going green has an unexpected benefit in saving a company tens of thousands of dollars every year. Expense reduction logically follows when a company uses less of any commodity, so this does apply to sustainable practices. Cost savings are also found in the ‘source reduction’ practices when we discover that the job can be done better for less cost.
Technology has provided greener and cost-efficient solutions that have multiple benefits to nearly any business. These advances are often minimal in implementation cost, offer immediate savings, and make a company more efficient in a highly competitive world. The bottom line is that ‘going green’ is more than a marketing opportunity – it is an astute business transition that improves the lives of workers and people in the community. It can dramatically increase the profitability of a company without the need for a heavy front-end investment. Finally, the collective impact of broad acceptance of green practices will make a huge difference in the worldwide challenge that we all face.
As we look forward to a brighter economy to emerge, do not forget that it will be a far different world as well. Green business will also include a green integrity that engenders the loyalty of the people that any business serves. The challenge faced by businesses in this hour is more than a survival mentality, but also contains a vision of a new green business format that is ready to do business in a greener world.