Taiga Company

The Marks of an Innovative Business Sustainability Leader

Friday, January 27, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Today’s companies face greater pressure than ever before from shareholders, customers, and employees to deliver on an expanding set of expectations. Faced with a decision at the crossroads of traditional business and sustainable development, executives must figure out how to engage workers and integrate business sustainability into their everyday actions and decisions.

“Focus on motivating behavioral change, enabling growth opportunities, and managing instead of attempting to eliminate uncertainty.” -Corporate Executive Board

Digging deeper, Innovation Excellence asks the question, Is Your Leadership Innovative? The article examines the actions of today’s leadership to determine which motivations and actions are promoting or impeding the creative process. “An innovative leader is defined as someone who consistently delivers results using the following”:

Strategic leadership that inspires individual goals and organizations vision and cultures;

Tactical leadership that influences an individual’s actions and the organizations systems and processes.

Holistic Leadership that aligns all key dimensions: Individual, culture, action and systems.

Growing business eco awareness and resulting business sustainability risk has provided senior level executives with a fresh perspective. Our sustainability consulting believes that the leaders of tomorrow will continue to push the edge of business sustainability to transform entire industry sectors. With the right strategies, business resources and leadership, an organization can transform traditional business models to capture sustainable business value.

2012 Trend: Workplaces that Promote Sustainability

Friday, January 27, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Evidence suggests employee engagement strategies can make a difference in internalizing sustainability and translating high-level commitments into action and results on the ground. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development document, People Matter Engage: inspiring employees about sustainability draws lessons from corporate experience:
The Corporate Leadership Council reports that engaged organizations grew profits as much as three times faster than their competitors. They found that highly engaged organizations have 87% less staff turnover and 20% better performance than average.
A global survey by Tower Perrins-ISR, involving more than 664,000 employees in 50 companies, found that the operating income of companies with engaged employees improved by 19% in one year, while it declined by 33% for companies with low levels of employee engagement.
A survey by Gallup of 23,910 business units found that those with low engagement suffer from 50% more employee turnover, inventory shrinkage and accidents. Those with higher engagement scores increased customer advocacy by 12%, productivity by 18% and profitability by 12%.
Fully engaged employees are 2.5 times more likely to exceed performance expectations than their disengaged colleagues.
59% of engaged employees say their job brings out their most creative ideas against only 3% for disengaged employees.

Employees are often argued to be the greatest resource of a company. When employee’s values resonate with those of the corporation, they are more productive, loyal, and their work is meaningful. Aside from the positive impact these programs deliver to the bottom line, today’s employees are looking for more than just the ‘green’ in their paycheck.

Employees Want Growth Opportunities: Young people have always wanted to start on career paths with growth opportunities, and the opportunities related to ‘Green Jobs’ are growing exponentially.

Employees Want to Make a Difference: A MonsterTRACK study states that 80 percent of "young professionals" are interested in a career that makes a positive impact on the environment, and 92 percent prefer to work for a company that is ‘green’, environmentally friendly, or has some general eco awareness.

Employees Seek Energy-Conscious Employers: According to a poll by Mortgage Lenders Network USA (MLN), 94 percent of Americans prefer to work in a building that is designed to be energy efficient and ecologically sound, recognizing LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council as a common standard.

Employees Prefer Employers that offer Telecommuting: The necessity to physically change locations in order to accomplish a task has recently been challenged by employee value for energy conservation, environment impacts, family values, and other issues.

Employees Want Employers to Walk the Talk: In Portland, Oregon, your company isn’t really green unless you’ve got a bike cage in the parking structure, a compost bin in the lunchroom, fume-free paint on the walls, and have recycled glass on the lobby front desk.

Employees Gravitate towards a Common Sustainable Goals: Organizations that are creating business sustainability through an elevated sense of teamwork and establishing an emotional tie between the employee and the organization direction are attracting top talent.

Linking sustainability to employee engagement pairs corporate sustainability initiatives with the day to day activities of employees. It makes CSR more personable to an employee and helps employees to identify their role in corporate responsibility. The result? Happier, productive employees, strong business, and healthy planet.

Sustainable Supply Chain Predictions for the New Year

Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Forbes recently released an article outlining the magazine’s 2012 Supply Chain Predictions. Leading off with the obvious that the supply chain will not go away, the post explores some of the potential sustainable supply chain risks and opportunities expected in the coming year. The ones our sustainability consulting is paying specific attention to include:

Entering the “era of big data” – With the availability of data (both structured and unstructured) at an all-time high from all areas of the supply chain (demand signal repositories, RFID tags, GPS tracking, Smart Meters, etc.) the focus will migrate to leveraging data as a competitive advantage.

Supply Chain “clock speed” – It’s no secret the pace of business is accelerating and 2012 will not see this changing. The reality is that today’s supply chains are expected to be more responsive to change.

Social supply chains – Are you ready for the social supply chain? According to most pundits, the answer is “YES”. With an estimated 1.2bn people (20 per cent of the world’s population) on social networks, we are at a point where social software capabilities need to be prevalent throughout enterprise systems.

Who are the Tweeps Tweeting for A Better Green Brand?

Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

It's been questioned if social media change the world? Can it make our world a better world? How is it advancing the sustainability conversation? Considering that for the first time in the history of humanitarian aid, the Internet and social media provides individual donors and worthy organizations the ability to connect meaningfully on opposite sides of the world, our sustainability consulting practice would have to say, yes. Social media engagement can help save the world. More importantly, can social media help YOUR world? Your brand? Your clients?

Social media executed successfully can be a powerful vehicle to build sustainable business communications by engaging with stakeholders. As explained in our professional consulting, social media engagement provides business a global reach. Besides the marketing a team can do in the local community, a social media marketing strategy allow businesses to have a global following allowing individuals, communities, businesses, and non-government organizations the ability to connect with the business in meaningful discussion from anywhere in the world in real time.

Who are the key players tweeting to a better world? Better brands?

The just released,SMI -Wizness Social Media Sustainability Index, has been prepared specifically to provide key social media insight for Sustainability, CSR, internal comms, corporate communications and marketing professionals and the agencies that work with them. By downloading the report you'll learn how:
leading companies like GE, PepsiCo, BBVA and Timberland are using editorial techniques and effective storytelling to communicate sustainability initiatives.
the Financial Services sector is pioneering social media thought leadership and new crowdfunding ventures.
10 companies are liberating their Sustainability Reports with social media innovation
companies are using more than 25 different types of social media platforms, apps and tools to connect with sustainability communities.
Who is part of this year's Wizness Green Twitterati (hint - we are @TaigaCompny)

Within Taiga Company's professional consulting, we've used social media success to expand eco awareness and introduce sustainability concepts to others. Social media is effective because it addresses two of the biggest hurdles of social change: reaching the people who can actually make a difference, and providing the means and channels for them to do so.

Want more information about how to use Twitter to grow your sustainability practice? You're in luck! Check out our 8-week, self-guided, online course called Social Media for Sustainability Professionals. It includes an entire section devoted to Twitter (with additional sections focused on websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, Google+, and more!)—including Twitter etiquette, managing your time on Twitter, and building an engaged audience.

Wasteless Wednesday

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Where does eco inspiration come from? Everywhere! In a recent Agrion webinar, Exploring Catalyst for Corporate Sustainability Culture Change, we stated that eco inspiration can present itself in many forms and specifically via social media. Using twitter as an example, #WastelessWed is a day to analyze how much we are wasting and uses the day to focus on ways we can all reduce, reuse & recycle more.

First, what exactly does reducing waste mean? When you avoid making garbage in the first place, you eliminate the disposing of waste or recycling it later. It's the first component of the sustainability concept of the three R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. In honor of #Wastelesswednesday, let's take a look at different areas to reduce waste.

Reduce Food Waste:

Pre plan your meals, buy in bulk, and prepare what you need.
Compost and turn your old food into healthy soil.

Reduce when you shop and shop with the environment in mind:

Purchase products that are returnable, reusable or refillable. Use reusable and refillable containers in your home instead of disposable items.
Purchase products with the least amount of packaging.
Get the most out of what you buy by comparing warranties and cost to repair or replace the item.
Look for products designed with the environment in mind. Organic clothing, sustainable furnishings, and solar powered products are just a few examples.
Rent or borrow instead of purchasing.
Reduce paper consumption
Find new life for old furnishings, appliances and clothes

By thinking of ways to reduce waste when you shop, work and play, it raises the level of eco awareness in your day and contributes to living a sustainable lifestyle. There are fun and creative ways to reduce waste and also be good to the Earth at the same time.

For eco inspiration, follow @WastelessWed on twitter. It’s a great way to green your hump day.

Applied Leadership in Business Sustainability Program Management

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

What is a leader? What are the qualities of great sustainable leadership? Does leadership only rest on the shoulders of those in the top positions in your organization or is it present in each of us? Our sustainability reviews leadership qualities in business sustainability program management.

We leverage the GreenBiz article, Inside Kohl's Green Energy Leadership, as an example of how one company is implementing their business sustainability program through effective leadership. Applying some basic management principles, Kohl’s has implemented an impressive energy reduction program. Some general concepts which our sustainability consulting believes could be applied to similar programs include:

Start Small: “You just don't start your energy program with a fuel cell installation or a solar system…The first step is just to start, and usually to start small. An energy audit, learning how much energy your company uses, and where, is a great place to begin, because that gives you a push toward energy efficiency.”

Establish Commitment: Commit to reducing your energy use and reducing your carbon footprint.

Focus Your Efforts: Focus in on one area to start with, maybe look at doing an energy audit or doing a lighting upgrade.

Quantify Your Progress: Make sure you're measuring your results.

More companies today are implementing leveraged leadership cultures to enable every role in an organization to align business sustainability concepts within traditional practices. In fact, our sustainability consulting foresees a new age of sustainable business, one in which organizations recognize the value in leveraging their internal resources and business stakeholder feedback as a catalyst for effective business sustainability program management.

Adoption is Key to an Effective Social Media Strategy for Green Business

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

In a recent webinar, our sustainability consulting practice discussed how sustainability and social media together offer a refreshing and innovative approach to business. Describing social media as the catalyst for business innovation and change, we now ask: What is the most effective way to implement a social media strategy in a business setting?

To answer this questions, our sustainability consulting leverages the recently released Information Week article, What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common, to examine the adaptation of social tools and strategies into today’s business improvement efforts. Contrasting the limited success of simple external tool implementation, the true differentiators are implementing social media strategies with purpose.

“The idea that people will quickly and easily adopt an enterprise social network because of the parallel with consumer social media is one people overestimate at their peril. The organizations that experience the most success with enterprise social networking are united in their ability to unite people--and to demonstrate the power of those connections.”

Our sustainability consulting believes that in order to be effective with its business sustainability communications an organization must have a defined strategy. This strategy should not only be communicated but aligned with the company’s business objectives and resources, including the interests of its key stakeholders. Visit us at Taiga Company to learn more.

How to Build Green Awareness in Your Business

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

In addition to executive management playing a critical role in the success of a company, business sustainability requires leadership across the entire organization. While management may ultimately carry the responsibility of sustainable business results, employees have a part to play in the definition and implementation of the company’s business sustainability programs.

As sustainability consultants, we are frequently asked, What are ways to build eco awareness in a business?   The quick answer: In building eco awareness into your business, we promote building of a comprehensive business sustainability program. However, we realize that sometimes starting small can lead to bigger gains. So, while a corporate sustainability plan may be our suggested path, there are other steps you can take as well.

"Green Teams", a formal or informal group of people in a company who are passionate about environmental issues, are gathering in offices across America to brainstorm solutions and promote ways in which their company's practices can become more environmentally sustainable. As explained in our sustainability consulting, a green team can reduce paper use, increase recycling, promote energy conservation, and more, making a huge difference within a department or building. Green teams also offer employee engagement opportunities.

Link eco awareness programs to existing company offerings, as in wellness programs.   Wellness programs have been uses as instruments to address weight reduction, reduced stress levels, improved physical fitness, health, and well being. They may include fitness, recreation, social activities and programs to enhance intellectual and spiritual development. Providing employees with wellness programs not only provides them a way to improve their health, but it also demonstrates corporate social responsibility.

Create individual employee sustainability programs: The basic premise of a personal sustainability program is to reduce your carbon footprint, lighten the load on the planet as well as reap the benefits of living a more sustainable lifestyle. Eco actions taken in a personal sustainability plan can be anything from riding a bike to work or eating organic healthy meals or recycling. It can also be about achieving a personal goal, sustaining it, and building from that platform.

Educate: Offer ongoing workshops, training, lunch and learns, and educational activities to educate workers on the environmental issues (energy, water, waste, and others) and the associated actions causing the problems. Identify new behavior and eco actions that individually workers can take to create new patterns of behavior and choices that support environmental solutions and are aligned with the company's overarching sustainability plan.   We've learned in our eco friendly training classes, the first part is educating; the harder part is changing the behavior. Ongoing education helps create lasting change.

Create a sustainable work environment: The benefits of a sustainable work environment include a healthier more sustainable workforce; a more productive workforce; attracts quality employees and reduces turnover. It also reduces lost work time related to health issues.

These efforts enable proactive businesses leaders to capture the benefits of sustainable business: reduce business costs, improve business reputation, and attract and maintain top job candidates.

Establishing a Competitive Advantage through Sustainable SCM

Monday, January 23, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Experience has shown that companies typically target immediate return from their procurement investment. However, today’s better known and leading supply chain focused organizations now seek enhance ROI from the sustainable supply chain ‘value’ conversation. One key to realizing the value from this business sustainability strategy is aligned and enable resources.

“To ensure staff has enough time to work on higher value projects, leading procurement organizations regularly and transparently assess the relative value of their activity mix and reprioritize accordingly. –Procurement Strategy Council”

Defined by an ability to immediately determine risk and mitigate supply disruptions before they occur, sustainable supply chain leaders are creating strategic business sustainability advantage. Several questions which our sustainability consulting explore with executives in making a step-change include:

Do You Do it Differently?
Do You Have Metrics that Make a Difference?
Do You Invent?
Do Your Customers Agree?

Building upon this thought process, the Spend Management post, Achieving Competitive Advantage through Procurement, discusses the value-adding procurement activities. Differentiating between transactional and strategic functions, leading sustainable supply chain organizations seek to enable their resources with aligned incentives and authority to implement business sustainability solutions.

Within our sustainability consulting practice, we have encountered a wide variety of sustainable supply chainactions aimed at adding visibility and focusing attention on supply chain stakeholders. We have found one common characteristic amongst these sustainable organizations is the ability to effectively manage the flow of information across the supply chain. In fact, the true ‘business sustainability’ differentiators are those who enable their internal resources to effectively engage with their external stakeholders.

Expanding the Sustainable Talent Conversation

Monday, January 23, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

In order to meet the growing demands of business sustainability and maintain a competitive advantage over the competition, businesses are encouraged to take a hard look at their internal resources and talent management processes. Thus, our professional consulting often asks executives: Is ‘sustainable’ talent management a top priority? How are you incentivizing this more engaged and diverse culture?

Business Finance Magazine recently released an interesting article, Is Your Value Proposition Still Working?, which examines the critical business sustainability concept of resource alignment. Referencing a CEO survey, the post explains how a growing percentage of companies are making a significant change and offering more no-financial rewards.

“An employee value proposition represents everything of value a company provides to its employees. Financial rewards are, not surprisingly, a key part of any value proposition. However, there is much more to it than that. Employees also value training and development opportunities, robust and clear career paths and progression, workplace flexibility, and a welcoming and supportive company culture, to name just a few elements of any employee value proposition.”

Supported by articles like this one, our sustainability consulting research leads us to the simple conclusion that organizations are utilizing an expanded view of talent management. This altered perspective encompasses alternative skills, career paths and employee incentives. We find leading ‘sustainable’ talent management focused organizations are addressing the challenges of:

How to determine the characteristics needed in a sustainable workforce?
How to differentiate and attract top talent?
How to develop, engage, and retain top performers and sustainability leaders?
How to motivate and incentivized a workforce that wants more from its employer?

The ability to plan and take action to address resource demands has long been a defining characteristic of a successful business. Our sustainability consulting practice works with businesses to understand the value of the right talent and tools which are required to strengthen their company.

Can Social Media be a Catalyst for Green Businesses?

Friday, January 20, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Sustainability and Social media together offer a refreshing and innovative approach to business. But, can social media be a catalyst for green businesses? This past week, in Agrion's, Exploring Catalyst for Corporate Sustainability Culture Change webinar,we explored how non green businesses who are not sustainable currently, be motivated to adopt sustainable business strategies in their operations.

As shared in the presentation, our sustainability consulting practice believes a catalyst for businesses to go green include social drivers. Why? Because these tools allow leadership and employees to engage and collaborate with customers, shareholders, suppliers, and specialist, on sustainability and green topics in unique and innovative ways. Taken from the perspective of curiosity and inquiry, these online stories and information sources can potentially spark eco inspiration within your own business.

A recording and slide show presentation is available here: Exploring Catalyst for Corporate Sustainability Culture Change

Supply Security: A Top Sustainable SCM Priority in 2012

Friday, January 20, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

A recent Wall Street Journal article, Reinforcing the Supply Chain , discusses the global supply challenges companies faced last year. Spotlighting the natural disasters and political upheavals that marked 2011, the WSJ identifies some of the business sustainability vulnerabilities even the largest multinational corporations can face when caught unaware. However, as the author states: awareness has not necessarily led to action.

Our sustainability consulting prescribes to a strategic approach to sustainable supply chain management. Expanding upon our own post, Continued Evolution of Sustainable Category Management in 2012, we explore the advantages of focused and integrated business processes with key suppliers as stabilizing and risk mitigating strategy.

“Leading procurement organizations invest in upfront protection for critical supply in addition to their risk monitoring and response efforts. When determining what supply to protect, first consider where your biggest vulnerabilities are (i.e., what supply puts the most revenue at risk) and then review your suppliers to determine which ones are most closely linked to those supplies.” -Procurement Strategy Council

Moving forward into 2012, our business sustainability consulting prescribes to the idea that the next generation of ‘sustainable’ category management will continue to emerge in the New Year. Focused on a new level of responsibility across all supply chain activities, efforts in 2012 will drive deeper into category value by addressing more pointed supply questions.

What is your commercial strategy?
Do you have supplier/contract management plans?
How does your company approach demand and demand management planning?
Is there a communication and change management process in place?
How do you view continuous supply chain improvement?

Building of a comprehensive business sustainability plan includes incorporating sustainability concepts in the supply chain. Our sustainability consulting and small business resources provide information and tools to clients seeking to develop successful business sustainability strategies that meet specific business needs.

Business Blogging for a Sustainable Purpose

Thursday, January 19, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

How does the old adage go? Two aspirin a day keeps the doctor away? Well, we subscribe to the idea that blogging 2 posts a day, inspires eco action each day. Truth be told, as sustainability consultants, we like to lead by example.

Within our business sustainability consulting practice, it's not uncommon to encounter those executives that say sustainability is too hard, too resource intensive, or that it's a passing trend. With big aspirations, 3 years ago Taiga Company set out with the intention of writing 2 blog post each day to dispel the myth that sustainability and living a sustainable lifestyle is hard. Blogging is sort of like writing an essay. Imagine writing 2 essays, every week day, in addition to your regular workload, the requirements of your personal life, sick or not sick, holiday or not holiday, vacation or no vacation…you get the picture.

There are ups and downs in life and there are easy days and harder days. While it's easy to be green or execute sustainable business strategies when things are good, most fall short when the challenges increase. The intention of writing 2 blog post each weekday is a living example that you do the best you can with what you've got. Some post are great. Others, not so great. But, the posts demonstrate the commitment to sustainability regardless of the ebbs and flows of life. And, it demonstrates that sustainability isn't all or nothing. Short story: we all can take eco action daily and we don't have to be perfect about how we do it.

So what about blogging for a sustainable purpose? To have an impact in communicating the sustainability business strategies of your business or consulting firm, it's not required that you blog as frequently. However, there are benefits to blogging. Blogging on sustainability related topics offers a host of benefits: insights to new, fresh perspectives of sustainability; a resource for tools, services, white papers; and more importantly, how your business is leading in the sustainability space.

If you are new to blogging you may not realize there are ways to spread the great green news that you are writing about in your blog posts.

Consider building your community of linking your blog post to LinkedIn and Facebook updates.
Engage with stakeholders on Twitter to promote relationships.
Collaborate and participate in conversation on LInkedIn groups specific to sustainability concepts of water, energy, and carbon.

The biggest contribution anyone can make in the sustainability space is to share, communicate, and inspire others by living the example of how sustainability works in your life or business. Blogging as a sustainable purpose is a vehicle that offers a communication channel so others can learn from your eco actions and discover the value of sustainability for themselves.

If this blog entry whetted your appetite for more information about how sustainability professionals can use blogging to grow their business, you may be interested in our 8-week, self-guided, online course called Social Media for Sustainability Professionals. It includes an entire section devoted to blogging (with additional sections focused on websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and more!)—including how to use categories to properly tag and organize your blog entries, how to come up with blog content, and how to properly manage your time on the blog.

Challenging Traditional Views of Sustainable Business Innovation

Thursday, January 19, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Most business leaders in the corporate world today would agree that in order to realize real bottom line improvements, whether through cost savings or increased revenues, requires an evolved business sustainability mindset. To make this shift or simply enhance its effectiveness, our sustainability consulting experiences have shown us that close collaboration with key stakeholders committed to the business’s success is critical. That means ‘actively’ communicating.

To focus the corporate ear, we find business sustainability minded organizations are engaging with stakeholders who have a vested interest in the success of the business as source of innovation. Some executive look to the outside for external inspiration while others simply capture ideas as they spring up as seeds of innovation from the employees within their own organization. Which path does you organization follow?

“Research and Development leaders struggle to effectively balance R&D governance and process with the flexibility needed for creativity and innovation. Despite the myriad of innovation definitions out there, successful innovators have identified the key elements and further defined what it means for their organization. Collectively, an organization’s talent, environment, and process drive its ability to innovate.” -CEB Views

Building on this insight, Fast Company recently released an article exploring the lifting forces of today’s creative business processes. Leading with the question, “Do Innovation Consultants Kill Innovation?”, the author challenges the norms of traditional business insight. Where are we going to get our next big idea?

Innovative ideas do not have to come from one single source. They can generate from within the company at the ground level, from the customers, or your suppliers. Often employees have the information and ideas to make a significant but are limited by the structures of the organization. One key to innovation is to create a corporate culture that encourages and rewards diverse ideas at all levels internal to the organization as well as external to the company.

Sustainable business innovation should strive to facilitate access to information and ideas both inside and outside the walls of the organization. Our sustainability consulting works with clients to build targeted social media engagement strategies as part of a dynamic approach to business sustainability innovation.

Stakeholder Engagement Tips for Business Sustainability Leaders

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Reviewing a recent Environmental Leader post, How to Engage in Sustainability with Higher Purpose, the author describes how most executives want to establish organizations and businesses that are sustainable for the long-run. To do so, these leaders understand that they must effectively engage with their stakeholders, especially their employees . But what is the most effective way?

The article offers its own personal insight into the characteristics of an effective stakeholder engagement program.

Engagement Is Not a Program: Leaders must provide mechanisms for involvement and ownership that are integrated into the culture and the work systems.

Leaders Must Follow Through: Effective engagement results from dedication and commitment. It cannot be viewed as merely a way to cut costs, or as a public relations initiative to impress the public.

Engagement Is Not a Tool: Engagement should not be viewed as transactional and impersonal. Build near-unbreakable bonds of trust and loyalty with your stakeholders, as well as a passion for excellence and advocacy.

Emotional Connections Come with a Higher Purpose: When a company communicates a vision of how it will contribute value not only to its shareholders but also to the world, employees can connect emotionally and get engaged.

Recognizing there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach, we remain open to what others have achieved through both traditional and open culture approaches. The above recommendations offer some good guidelines to consider in the creation of your own program for increasing employee engagement.

Visit us at Taiga Company to lean more. Our sustainability consulting works with clients to implement stakeholder and social media engagement strategies as part of an overall business sustainability plan.

Creating Energy Savings Habits in the Workplace

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

“People tend to focus on individual efforts that are often related to purchasing -- such as buying CFL bulbs or energy-efficient appliances -- instead of considering that enormous savings can be reaped from broad-based energy-saving strategies with a systems approach.”

A quote taken from the recent post, 4 Tips on Guiding Employees to Greener Energy Habits, which focuses on the key characteristics to implementing a sustainable energy management plan in the office. Our sustainability consulting practice takes notes on the following program recommendations:

Leadership Sets the Tone. Upper management leads by example, set the tone with strong commitments to the programs and solid branding.

Programs Involved Strong Teams. In addition to green teams, programs feature a project committee and participation by peer champions.

Smart Use of Communication Tools. Programs reached out to their target audience through multiple channels: emails, websites, public meetings, posters and other visual prompts, like stickers.

Use of Multiple Engagement Techniques. Programs connected with building occupants through a variety of techniques to engage interest and motivate employees and tenants toward greener behavior. Feedback, benign peer pressure, competition and rewards were among the techniques used most frequently.

Companies have long been committed to reducing energy consumption and/or emissions as part of environmental or risk management policies. While most often cost-driven, these reduction efforts have typically been disconnected from traditional economic incentives and business value creation.

Today, our sustainability consulting practice finds the most comprehensive energy management plans align energy management with long-term business sustainability drivers and employee incentives. For this very reason, we encourage clients to create an energy savings culture and prioritize energy efficiency efforts as part of an overall business sustainability plan. Get your employees engaged today.

The Growing Need for a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

There is a sustainable business mindset that is gaining tremendous momentum, yet many companies are still just coming to grips with it: Today’s consumers are becoming more socio/eco aware and companies with a traditional business approach are sure to witness a diminishing return in simple product marketing.

Described in greater detail in the Bloomberg Business week article, The Key to Success? Your Corporate Mission, today’s consumers are less focused on products than they are on the companies who sell them.

“The world has wised up. No one is going to be tricked into buying something by cute TV commercials. In the Internet Age, everyone has the ability to find out everything about your company, market, and products. If you want to sell, you’d better show customers that you care intensely about your product and what it stands for.”

This increase in buyer eco awareness has resulted in a significant shift in sustainable business expectations. Our sustainability consulting finds that companies now realize that a solid reputation goes beyond product characteristics. Consumers want to know they are being heard. Are you listening to what the world is saying about your company?

The simple truth is that consumers are now in driver’s seat and business sustainability actions speak louder than words. In fact, a study by Green Seal and EnviroMedia Social Marketing reveals:

Only 9 percent of consumer say green advertising is their primary influencer
15 percent cite brand loyalty
19 percent say word of mouth
And 25 percent of consumers say it is a product’s reputation

A strong emphasis on reputation management is not a new concept, but it has become especially important in driving consumer eco awareness and business sustainability perception. The key is to not just promote but to engage with the outside world. Our sustainability consulting works with clients to leverage the power of two-way stakeholder communication as part of a business sustainability social media strategy. Come visit with us to find out more.

New Year Perspectives on Sustainable Business Development

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Evidence now indicates the gap between global awareness and business action may in fact be the single largest opportunity for global sustainability progress. Specific to business sustainability monitoring and reporting, the debate continues on whether a company should focus on transparency and continuous individual improvement or corporate performance measures relative to a broader all-encompassing target. Rather than separating traditional performance from sustainability, would a business be better served in aligning business sustainability with global standards or individual financial reporting?

An Environmental Leader post, Implementing a Universal Sustainability Scorecard: How Do Your Partners Measure Up?, recently weighed-in on this conversation with its own perspective of global measures. Arguing on behalf of universal applicability and standardization, the article cites the rate of business sustainability concepts adoption as the major value driver.

“For any company, no matter what their industry, implementing sustainability standards within their own organizations is an obvious first step. Creating a universal scorecard will not only help smaller companies without resources take that next step sooner, but will also help larger organizations streamline their processes and achieve sustainability more efficiently.”

An alternative perspective presented in our own post, Varying Perspectives of Sustainability Measurement and Reporting, focuses on incremental and continuous improvement relative to traditional standards. Rather than jumping directly to global consequence and accountability, a global business shift toward greater internal transparency and an individual ‘step-change’ in business sustainability metrics could drive significant progress.

What are the business sustainability risks poised to limit company growth?
What are the business sustainability threats that may impact stakeholder return?
How have recent business actions impacted internal and external costs?
How have recent business actions affected revenue?

At Taiga Company, we foresee the future of business sustainability going far beyond the implementation of standards. The leaders of tomorrow will continue to push the edge of business sustainability to transform individual business performance. We believe the right strategies and business resources can help tie your sustainable business strategies to your company’s bottom line.

Reaching New Heights in Sustainable Employee Engagement

Monday, January 16, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

“Often, sustainability programs are seen as a bolt-on solution aimed to achieve specific marketing, operational or mitigation results. Along with their programs, sustainability professionals can struggle with an undefined sense of organizational belonging. Sustainability professionals may find that the necessary resources to build an integrated and successful enterprise sustainability program already exist at their company or institution. Leveraging internal talent is one of the keys to driving sustainability programs that are tied closely to strategic business objectives.”

This quote taken from the recent post, Leveraging Internal Energy to Achieve Sustainability Success, highlights one of the key areas of focus in implementing an effective business sustainability strategy or initiative. As the article explains, one of the best ways to engage employees is to make them a part of the process from the very beginning.

How are your organizational values and employee interests paired up to create effective engagement?

Do your sustainability strategies cascade down through management and incorporate into organizational and individual performance goals?

Are your employees informed, motivated, and actively engaged in the company’s sustainability programs?

Does your organization and its management have defined actions to ensure business sustainability initiatives add value both to the company and community and to the business?

“If you want employees to take a vested interest in the bigger picture, treat them like stakeholders… when jobs are regarded more like investments, employees will show up with passion, productivity, and focus, making your company more profitable”. -Paul Spiegelman, CEO of Beryl Companies

Increasing employee engagement means uniting the corporate sustainability plan with employee incentives. Our sustainability consulting practice works with clients to build a focused business sustainability plan by engaging key stakeholders early in the development and implementation of each business sustainability strategy.

Continued Evolution of Sustainable Category Management in 2012

Monday, January 16, 2012 by Julie Urlaub

Emphasis on environmental awareness, social responsibility, and business sustainability actions within the supply chain has incentivized more progressive companies to begin to evaluate more than just their inbound supply. Our sustainability consulting finds the once limited procurement function is now expanding its organizational reach to a variety of business sustainability stakeholders.

Our sustainability consulting experiences revealed that, in 2011, business sustainability action resulted in strategic sourcing and procurement guidelines to align suppliers with defined business sustainability strategies. The coming year will see these efforts moved even further as external interests continue to make their way into the business world.

“Many procurement functions, including those at FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, have yet to capitalize on opportunities to drive additional value for the business. For example, in addition to strategic sourcing, procurement can engage in end-to-end category management and supplier relationship management.” –Procurement Strategy Council

The Supply Management post, Delivering Full Potential in Procurement, expands upon this thought as the author explores the evolution of today’s supply chain management strategies. As pure procurement savings decline, more advanced areas of business sustainability begin to be explored. Specifically, advanced category management begins to reach maturity with sustainable supply chain management professionals implementing supply chain compliance (internal/external) through aligned stakeholder interests.

Moving forward into 2012, our business sustainability consulting subscribes to the idea that the next generation of ‘sustainable’ category management will continue to emerge in the New Year. Focused on a new level of responsibility across all supply chain activities, efforts in 2012 will drive deeper into category value by addressing more pointed supply questions, further aided by social technologies.