Business Sustainability Programs

Creating a sustainable business involves more than defining a vision, building a consumer forecast, and bringing a green product or service to market. Business sustainability is a commitment to the social, environmental, and economic impacts of your business.  It includes a commitment to improving business process that challenges the internal capabilities of a company towards business innovation as it strives to meet the changing needs of the external business environment.

That sounds great. But so frequently, within our business sustainability consulting, we are asked, “How do you make that happen?"  Answer: Innovation, Leadership, and stakeholder engagement.

A common misconception is that innovative ideas generate from a select few; however, innovative ideas can spring up from multiple sources.  They can generate from within the company at the ground level, from the customers you service, or your suppliers.  

While management is ultimately responsible for creating corporate direction, business sustainability minded executives now realize that their stakeholders have an equally important leadership role to play.  Recognizing this shift, many companies are seeking to refine their business sustainability strategies, improve internal and external communication, and bring cohesiveness to their organization by promoting greater stakeholder engagement.

Within business sustainability programs, engagement is a critical focus.  What is engagement really?  Ultimately, it is value alignment.  Alignment of the corporate sustainability plan with key stakeholders.   The GreenBiz article, Why Corporate Boards Should Listen to Investors on Sustainability, explores the numerous factors affecting today’s bottom lines.  Leveraging a recent Ernst and Young whitepaper on the topic, the post highlights the influence investors have on critical business sustainability decision making.

“In 2012, investors will continue to spotlight sustainability issues in connection with corporate growth opportunities and risk management efforts.  A confluence of factors – investors seeking greater corporate accountability, particularly at the board level; growing attention paid by regulators to environmental and social topics; and heightened public scrutiny of corporation following recent financial, economic, political and environmental-related developments – are working to sharpen attention on the ‘triple bottom line’ of environmental, social and economic performance.” - Ernst and Young

Our sustainability consulting works with business leaders to define the unique links between sustainability concepts and business value drivers.  We provide information and professional consulting services which assist companies in building a strong platform for sustainable stakeholder engagement.  What form is sustainability taking in your business?

“In today's economic environment, companies are continuously pressured to reduce costs in order to combat slower growth and offset commodity price increases, rising costs of energy and transportation, and various other pressures. Despite these issues and the economic instability worldwide, companies must continue to find growth opportunities to compete in the global marketplace. The question I keep returning to is, why don't more CFOs turn to indirect procurement as a significant source of savings to create a competitive advantage and fuel this growth?”  - Robert Brust former CFO for Sprint

Following on this same line of thinking the Huffington Post article, The New Procurement, examines the characteristics of an evolving and strategic function within today’s business.  Leveraging the advancements in manufacturing as a foretelling for change in other industries, the post highlights the opportunities for comprehensive sustainable supply chain reform.  Areas of note include:

• Raising revenues
• Improving margins and reducing costs
• Expanding globally through export and foreign country platforms
• Product and process innovation
• Raising productivity
• Better training and use of human capital 

Our sustainability consulting considers risk along with other categorization methodologies, including spend classification and functional categorization, to be a framework from which an organization can create sustainable value deep within the supply chain.  A traditional category plan is viewed as an all encompassing analysis and management profile of spend with several major components:

• Commercial Strategy 
• Supplier/Contract Management Plans 
• Demand Management Plan 
• Communication/Change Management Plan 
• Continuous Improvement Process

Building a strong business sustainability plan usually requires a company to incorporate sustainability concepts across the entire supply chain.  Our sustainability consulting provides information and tools to clients seeking to develop successful business sustainability strategies to drive sustainable value beyond their direct spend.  We leverage social media engagement strategies and tools to communicate across the entire value chain.

What is Karma?   Karma is a Sanskrit word that means "action." Karma has commonly been considered a punishment for past bad actions, but karma is neither judge nor jury. Rather, it is simply the universal law of cause and effect that says every thought, word and act carries energy into the world and affects our present reality. From a sustainability viewpoint, how does karma apply?  Many argue that business is best used as a vehicle to not only aid in solving today's environmental challenges, but also to help create a better world.

If so, then How do business leaders walk the delicate art of transitioning to more sustainable business strategies?  When you think about it, the requirements to maintain a sustainable business today are quite different than they were just ten years ago.   Companies on the leading edge are evaluating the economic, social and environmental impacts that will ultimately affect profitability.  Green business practices are becoming more and more the norm, as companies both large and small realize the value of integrating eco awareness and sustainability concepts into their operations and business strategies.   

For example, many organizations are developing strategies to reduce emissions.  These organizations are proactively implementing process improvements and new technologies to add value and reduce risk.  By focusing on and applying resources to a broad concept, a company can drill-down to more detailed sustainable actions to address:

•    Office Building Energy Consumption – evaluating the average energy use per square foot of office space and implementing best practices to reduce: energy consumption studies, efficiency practices, equipment modifications, etc.

•    Operations Efficiency – incorporating energy efficient process into their daily operations, evaluating peak hour consumption, and decreasing off-hour usage.

•    Supply Chain Efficiency: creating integrated processes with suppliers to improve communication, ensure common sustainable processes, and increase energy efficiency.

Masterful companies recognize that business sustainability is a mind-set change that should be consistent and in alignment with organizational commitment and continuous improvement efforts already in place within the company.  The critical elements to affective implementation include: executive leadership, consistent action, clear communication, and stakeholder engagement.

While eco awareness is important, demonstrating sustainability values through eco action is key.  "Like a beautiful flower that is colorful but has no fragrance, even well spoken words bear no fruit in one who does not put them into practice."  ~ Dhammapada, Sayings of the Buddha, Pali Cannon

The GreenBiz article, GE and GM: How to Get the Most Out of Convergence, explores the internal working of technological advancement in large corporations.   Armed with an abundance of resources, these leaders are beginning to realize that size and force do not necessarily drive change.  There are in fact larger forces at work that must be recognized and voices to be engaged. 

“While the technology advances being made via smarter buildings and transportation systems are impressive, their adoption is still driven by market forces. It's not just about the technology. Customers are looking for higher quality, lower cost, greater effectiveness." - Don Reed, director of U.S. Sustainable Business Solutions at PwC

In previous posts, our sustainability consulting has posed the broad question: can social media save the world?  Narrowing this to a more pointed discussion: How is social media engagement changing the face of business?  To answer this question, we cast aside traditional measures and replace them with the growing and tangible value which can no longer be ignored.

• What are the market forces and/or shifting consumer expectations shaping future innovation?

• How are businesses engaging consumers in growth markets?

• How can an aligned sustainable supply chain become a competitive advantage?

• How are these concerns and opportunities driving shareholder value?

Stakeholder engagement is no longer a defined by how well your company communicates its message to the external world.  Social media success is rapidly becoming a critical business sustainability skill and a business sustainability catalyst that is affecting the bottom line.  Our sustainability consulting offers information and tools to assess the market, your competition, and your own efforts in the social space around your business.  Visit with us at Taiga Company to learn more.

Experience and recent business results demonstrate that innovation will be essential to success over the next decade as companies continue to recover from recent economic downturn.  Our sustainability consulting has worked with companies who are seeking to seize new opportunities and improve competitive positions through refined evolved business plans and innovative solutions.  But these efforts are not always tuned-in through the traditional channels.

Our sustainability consulting recognizes the innovative ideas do not have to come from any one, single source.  They can generate from within the company at the ground level, from the customers you service, or your suppliers.  In fact, a definable key to success is to create a corporate culture that encourages and rewards innovation at all levels internal to the organization as well as external to the company.

Leveraging this concept, we turn our attention to the Innovation Excellence post, Follow the Leaders of Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing – Part Two.  This article offers insight into the characteristics of today’s leading business sustainability and open innovation cultures.

• They build a solid foundation: Seek to understand where the challenges will lie in the transformation.

• They get strategic: Communicate the goals of the strategy and measure goal achievement.

• They focus on communications and ownership: Create guidelines for when and how to use different external talent sources.

• They continuously reinforce their efforts: Weave external focus into internal systems

An open innovation approach to business sustainability offers stakeholders the opportunity to become engaged in the future of a business.  Recognizing that key stakeholders have a vested interest the success of the company, creates openness to new ideas that promote business success and innovative ideas. 

In today’s global business environment, it is rare for a company to own an entire product or service value chain.  Business operations rely heavily on external sources exposing the supply chain as a critical component of business success.   Leading organizations are using the procurement function as a means to move towards a more sustainable business by forming "strategic relationships" with companies, large and small, who demonstrate leadership.  

With that being said,misconceptions of business sustainability as a passing trend are quickly falling by the wayside.  Larger organizations, traditionally mistaken as burdened with a primary responsibility as change agents in the water, carbon, environment and climate change solutions are now shifting the burden to include suppliers.  Walmart is one example.

Recently, Walmart announced that it will broaden its initial 15-question scorecard to 100 major categories, with category-specific questions, by the end of this year.   As the post, Why Walmart's better supplier scorecard is a big deal states, " When Walmart introduced its initial scorecard, tens of thousands of suppliers increased their investments in sustainability. This expanded scorecard promises to have an even bigger impact. Not only will it shift the landscape for Walmart suppliers, but it also could greatly influence supplier scorecard programs at many other companies.'  

To unprepared organizations, the business risks of carbon, water, and climate change disclosure takes many forms:

•    Potential increase in operating cost

•    Potential increase in supply costs

•    Potential disruptions to supply or loss of supplier relationships

•    Potential loss of revenue or market share

•    Potential to business reputation 

•    Potential inability to secure investment dollars or capital

Water, carbon, waste, and energy management is becoming a critical sustainable business strategy to address internal and external supply issues.  Creating supply chain management alignment through increased eco awareness, cooperative business relationships, and applied sustainability concepts can have immediate business impacts and reduce business sustainability risk.  Taiga Company provides professional consulting and business resources to business leaders seeking to make significant and sustainable improvements in their internal and external operations.

As the world continuously adapts to shifting expectations for more sustainable business practices and end products, executives are feeling the need to redirect their resources or sharpen their innovation strategies.  In our professional consulting, we see leading businesses shifting the emphasis of their research and development to include less conventional sources of inspiration.  But from were where will the next breakthrough come? 

The Forbes Magazine post, Reverse Innovation and the Myth of Cannibalization, examines the traditional challenges of low cost idea generation in the corporate world.  Describing how innovation typically trickles down from highly funded sources, new research may now reveal that personal and business sustainability concepts may actually be breaking this top-down mold. 

“We are likely to see the reverse innovation phenomenon in a wide range of industries such as ultra-low-cost transportation, renewable energy, clean water, micro finance, affordable health, low-cost housing, and many others.” -Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of International Business at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business

Through our direct engagement with companies and business leaders seeking to inspire and motivate sustainable action in their organization, we find business stakeholders as a valued source for new ideas. Our professional consulting works with clients to step outside of the confines of the business to leverage employee, supplier, and end consumer thinking. In doing so, sustainability concepts naturally find their way into the new developments within the company.

At Taiga Company, our business sustainability programs are tailored towards the encouragement of business sustainability, innovation, and expanded eco awareness as an asset of the organization - particularly through stakeholder engagement. Contact us to learn how your business can leverage social media engagement to tap into the reverse innovation occurring around the globe.

“Social networks aren’t about Web sites. They’re about experiences.” – Mike DiLorenzo, NHL social media marketing director  

The path of business sustainability is a journey.  And what makes up a journey?  Experiences.  As sustainability consultants, we're aware that high level sustainability concepts are universal and easier to understand.  However, what is compelling is the expression of how an individual or a company embraces those sustainability concepts to deliver results.  We're all captivated by the unique sustainability experiences but equally important is its delivery and expression.  Social media has proven to be an innovative and effective way to address two of the biggest hurdles around sustainability: defining what it is and providing the means and channels for sharing sustainability experiences.   

Why is Twitter great for green and sustainable businesses?

1. Branding:  As mentioned, a major component of any corporate sustainability plan isn’t so much how a company carries out those strategies but also how it communicates it to its many stakeholders.  There is an emerging role of social media for stakeholder engagement and for businesses to communicate their broader corporate responsibility agenda. As illustrated in the post, 5 Sure Fire Ways to Find your Green Social Media Voice on Twitter there are multiple branding opportunities for green businesses.
2. Prospecting: By using the Twitter search function, you can find the people who need what you sell, with whom you can do deals, etc.
3. Networking: Using twitter as a tool to create and foster relationships is among one of its best attributes.  Sustainable businesses looking to reduce cost, increase productivity while simultaneously reduce environmental impacts by minimizing travel are looking to technology to do the trick and twitter as a networking tool aids in this strategy.
4. Engaging:  By building strategic relationships with key influencers of sustainability in the social space, we all create and empower sustainability and its mainstream adoption.  The post, 6 Ways to Build Strategic Relationships With Sustainability Influencers of Social Media explains how best to engage.
5. Competitive intelligence:  Creating bridges between the corporate world and its competitors, social media closes the gap on knowledge management and business intelligence.  Social media for sustainability communications has become a risk or an opportunity. Monitoring, listening, and dialoguing in the social space not only offers a competitive advantage but also provides other key ingredients for successful social media engagement and competitor intelligence. 
6. Green Vendor Selection: Companies evaluating their vendors on mutual sustainability values have the opportunity to leverage twitter in building a relationship that provides transparency, visibility into operations, and creates opportunities for performance oversight.
7. Stakeholder Conversations: Social media provides individuals, communities, businesses, and non-government organizations the ability to connect with business in meaningful discussion from anywhere in the world in real time.  To focus the corporate ear, business sustainability minded organizations are engaging with stakeholders, who have a vested interest in the success of the business and profoundly advance the sustainability conversation.  
8. Reporting: It is becoming more common for businesses to integrate social media in the annual corporate sustainability report.  However, a growing trend is to communications sustainability related KPI's  quarterly. 

The role of social media shares similar values to sustainability: authenticity, transparency, and engagement.  Is your green business on twitter?  If not, with over 28.000 followers and a specialty in building social media engagement for green twitter connections, we are here to help you with your social media for sustainability success.   

“To maintain relevance, Procurement must expand its support of business growth strategies beyond standard cost reduction. Procurement organizations that mix sophistication, impact, and payoff horizon deliver more than three times the yearly savings and four times the annual innovation of their peers.” –Procurement Strategy Council

Building on this thinking, a recent Supply Management post, Nearly Three-Quarters of CFOs Believe Procurement is More Strategic, offers its own insight into the shifting corporate perceptions of sustainable supply chain management.  Leveraging the research of several professional consulting firms specific to the space, the article summarizes the results by identifying an elevate status for procurement in the business world.

Within our own sustainability consulting, we have observed a variety of organizations reevaluating their traditional business process, with some of the most notable in the supply chain.  Further experience has revealed that many leading companies are, in fact, exploring the unique value in elevating sustainable supply chain management as a strategic business sustainability function.  Some common areas which are driving enhanced business value include:

• Strategy Assessment – Evaluate business needs, market conditions, and sustainability value drivers (research / benchmarking) to improve supplier relationships or initiating sourcing.  

• Strategic Sourcing – Improve sustainable material selection and supplier manufacturing processes as part of supplier selection criteria. 

• Supplier Management – Establish key supplier performance metrics to ensure continuous alignment with sustainability targets and assess the overall health of these key business stakeholders. 

• Inventory Management – Integrating key suppliers in business process to optimize inventory levels on critical supply, resulting in lower carrying cost, waste and material obsolescence. 

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 transcend traditional business sustainability strategies, like cost cutting.  Visit us at Taiga Company  to learn more.

Traditionally, the underlying goal of any compensation structure has been to attract, motivate and retain good staff.  However, choosing the right compensation structure to achieve a specific business objective can be difficult, especially when business drivers are not aligned with the desires of the key individual a company is seeking to retain.  The question becomes: how do companies align business and individual interests? 

Could business sustainability provide the answers?

Despite the myriad of compensation options, pay for performance is often the one which receives the most attention.  Performance pay is a combination of base pay with variable compensation based on certain performance criteria. It is a widely used in particular industries, based on the concept that pay can motivate job performance, increase employee effectiveness, and align business goals. The key is the ‘alignment’ of goals. 

• How do you tie staff member's compensation to sustainable business performance?

• How do you reward the right behaviors to build unity?

• How do you encourage self-motivated business sustainability action?

• How do you encourage innovation?

Research suggests that pay can do this when it's linked to actual performance.  A study featured in the World at Work Journal, discusses this concept in what it describes as the “Realities and Myths of Incentive Goals”.  The research reveals that shareholder friendly pay-for-performance compensation packages are in fact alive and well. It further confirms that companies that set more difficult goals achieved a higher level of total shareholder return (TSR) and had higher price-to-earnings ratios.

By pairing compensation to specific sustainability concepts, companies have the potential to align the business sustainability goals of the organization, motivate sustainability action, and incentivize the workforce.  

•    According to a news report, National Grid will tie a portion of its executive compensation to carbon reduction targets.  They will measure staff performance on emissions reductions as well as traditional performance benchmarks.

•    Companies across industries are successfully integrating environmental health & safety criteria into supplier performance metrics.

At , we recognize a key to business sustainability is attracting, motivating, and retaining top talent.  We realize that there is not a single incentive structure right for all businesses; however, pairing sustainability and performance with the right compensation structure is a formula for business sustainability success.  

“People have evolved to become extremely good at dynamically adapting to our social environment. In teams, we constantly synchronize and modify our actions and expectations to keep them aligned with those of our collaborators…So managers of virtual teams should have dual, complementary objectives: structure and socialize.”

A passage taken from the Harvard Business Review post, Managing a Virtual Team, which examines the challenges of today’s multi-locational work dynamics.  With more companies expanding globally and offering remote connectivity, the traditional manager must expand upon his/her skills to allow for a broader span of resources.  But what is the optimal solution?  HBR offers some basic facilitation questions for virtual teams and their leaders to consider:

• When and how often do we need to meet face-to-face (FTF)?

• What is the best technology solution for my team?

• How do I coordinate work among dispersed members?

Popular text and research now points towards the power in leveraging internal and external stakeholder knowledge as a business catalyst.  Focusing on the characteristics of today’s leading organizations, our sustainability consulting continuously examines the role that leveraged resources play in today’s business sustainability success.   

For this reason, Taiga Company encourages clients to be aware of the talents of their resources through virtual environments.  Come visit with us to learn how to connect your business through enhanced stakeholder and social media engagement.

Much of the popular text and research reveals that a common characteristic among sustainable organizations is an ability to effectively manage the flow of information across key business stakeholder relationships.  In fact, our sustainability consulting finds that the true business sustainability differentiators are those who understand and effectively manage their supplier and customer relationships.  The question then becomes: How do companies balance growing needs with increasing risk?

In a recent study conducted by CFO Research Services in collaboration with professional consulting services firm Crowe Horwath LLP, the research concludes that third-party relationships are becoming a permanent fixture on the corporate landscape.  With more than half of respondents seeking third party support, there is recognition of increasing business sustainability risk.  

Referring back to our own professional consulting study on the topic, we leverage the post, 3 Pronged Approach to Mitigate Supply Chain Risk with Sustainability.  This text offers guidance on managing risk in the supply chain.  Focused on how organizations can take a more proactive approach, we study a structured three-prong framework to sustainable supply chain risk mitigation.  Key components of this comprehensive advice include:

• Look Beyond the Obvious – Some organizations focus on mitigating risks that are palpable and overlook less-obvious ones.

• Expect the Unexpected – Organizational risk-management plans may deal with known or suspected risks but fail to provide a comprehensive overview of the risks inherent within the supply chain. 

• Practice to Be Perfect – Some risk-management plans are contained neatly in binders and placed on shelves. That doesn’t mean those responsible for implementing these strategies are aware of the origin, likelihood, and severity of risk that exists. Effectively planning for risk requires full disclosure of risks, and all risk-mitigating and contingent actions that may be required, to all who will have to perform such actions. 

Our professional consulting has observed how many leading companies are now realizing the unique value of elevating sustainable supply chain management as a strategic in-house competency.  This evolved perspective is just the beginning of expanded eco awareness and reform in global supply. We believe visibility, engagement, and stakeholder alignment will drive sustainable business practices and begin to address 3rd party risk in the supply chain.

It can be argued that business sustainability and economic growth are the ultimate goals of most companies; however, new evidence shows that these efforts are not exclusive.  To achieve results, we have witnessed how leading organizations are enabling a stable work environment  with a rich innovation culture.  

Our sustainability consulting finds that successful business sustainability cultures focus on communication and learning.  We believe that by allowing for flexibility and promoting innovation across the value chain, an organization can capture the interests of current and future employees.  But what are others saying?

The New York Times post, Disruptions: Innovation Isn’t Easy, Especially Midstream, provides its own unique perspective on sustainable organizational development.  This article explores the characteristics of some notable pioneers in technology over the past few decades.  While reversed for their monumental business successes, there is an essence of simple idea generation.  It is this spark and the catalyst that our sustainability consulting chases.

“The challenge of creating something small and disruptive inside a large company is one that many face today.”

The ability to remain open to test new ideas and innovative strategies has proven to be a successful business sustainability strategy.  Businesses who continuously assess and reassess the needs of their internal and external stakeholders are often more adaptive to the dynamic landscape of today’s business.  Leveraging Innovation Excellence’s view, we get an inside look into how leading companies now perceive managed creativity.  These organizations:

• See innovation as a competency:  Innovative companies treat it as just another core skill

• See innovation as a competitive weapon: Innovative companies use innovation to differentiate themselves

• See innovation as a process:  Innovative companies don’t treat innovation as special, unique activity. They see it instead as an ongoing “stream of effort” along with quality, leadership, productivity, and other imperatives.

• See innovation as both systematic and opportunistic:  The most innovative companies flex between different styles of creating opportunity

The business world too often approaches sustainable development with traditional structured implementation processes.  In contrast, our professional consulting has observed that those who excel are those who step outside the traditional business structures to add and spontaneity to their long-term business sustainability plans.  At Taiga Company, we maintain an open culture as part of our core values, and our sustainability consulting encourages clients to include active engagement as part of an overarching business sustainability plan.  

Today, leading business sustainability minded companies are taking the opportunity to rework traditional practices and business models to position themselves in a more favorable position for the future.  Our sustainability consulting finds these organizations are now including ‘business sustainability’ in the profitability equation.  This has consequently expanded the traditional perception of business risk particularly in the supply chain.

“Leading procurement organizations invest in upfront protection for critical supply in addition to their risk monitoring and response efforts…This will help you understand where to invest in preemptive actions such as dual-sourcing, long-term contracts, proactive supplier shifts, etc.”  -CEB Views

Continuing with this line of thinking, the Corporate Executive board further expands this concept by offering some basic supply questions to consider:

• Where are your biggest vulnerabilities?
• What puts the most revenue at risk? 
• Who are the vendors most closely linked to those supplies?

After years and even decades of outsourcing and offshoring, the business world now realizes that monitoring and surveillance to be essential to today’s sustainable supply chain.  Driven directly by supply disruptions, quality issues, or negative 3rd party business practices affecting the stability of the company, supply chain visibility and control is receiving the needed and long overdue business recognition.  

Our sustainability consulting finds that building risk management monitoring and surveillance into a comprehensive business sustainability plan has become a top priority for more and more business executives. With an ability to identify the indicators of change and proactively respond, your organization can stay one step ahead.  Taiga Company provides information and resource to companies seeking to mitigate risk by increasing stake holder engagement and making proactive changes to traditional business practices.

“New ideas may (and do) spring from any node in the network. That pulling of innovation from the edge to the core is one of the major differences between networked business and traditional value chains. The next step in this evolution will be for network coordinators to reach out to other networks for new ideas they can implement.” -Geoffrey Moore and Philip Lay, Business Network Transformation

Expanding on this concept, the Forbes post, Innovation in Coordinated Business Networks , examines the frameworks of today’s most effective business networks.  With so much discussion now focused on social networks, the article presents a new concept for consideration.  

“Crowdsourcing is the act of reaching out to a large, usually meshed network to solicit members’ ideas that may help us solve a problem or address an opportunity.”

Our sustainability consulting subscribes to the idea that stakeholder engagement success is no longer defined by how well your company communicates its message to the external world.  It is rapidly becoming a critical business sustainability skill and a business sustainability catalyst that is affecting the bottom line. Together business sustainability and social media offer a refreshing and innovative approach. 

To be effective with its business sustainability communications, an organization must have a defined strategy.  This concept should not only be communicated but aligned with the company’s business objectives and resources, including the interests of its key stakeholders and corporate sustainability plan.  Our sustainability consulting offers information and resources to define social media engagement strategies and right fit tools for your business.  Visit with us at Taiga Company to learn more.

When we think of ‘green’ jobs, we often picture a new opportunity, which may require a new set of skills.  This may lead us to believe that ‘green’ jobs are a younger generation career path.  However, withIn our sustainability consulting practice, we encounter professionals at all levels of career development seeking to break into the ‘green’ workspace.  

While the post, Are Green Jobs the New High Value Career Track, addresses pursing a ‘green’ career as a natural extension of pairing personal values to that of business sustainability, the post, 25 Exciting Stats on Green Job Growth, explores 25 exciting statistics about employment opportunities that benefit the environment.  Where are all the green jobs?  Noted below are 5 key areas:

• Hydropower is estimated to have the potential of adding 1.4 million jobs by 2025
• The government has created a $2 million green job competition for veterans
• The green construction industry will add 2.3 million workers to its labor force
• The solar industry job growth rate is 6.8%
• The green industry in the U.S. now employs 3.1 million workers

Keep in mind, every job is a green job: it's all in how you do it.  Granted, there are designated "green" jobs out there with "official" titles.  However, if it is making an impact and making a difference that you are truly after, then transforming your current job into a green job is the ticket.  

“We’ve found that R&D spend does not strongly correlate with business performance. Leading companies are better than their counterparts at comprehending the interrelationships between different metrics, knowing when to trade-off metric precision for credibility, and using metrics that effectively align the organization”. – Procurement Strategy Council

Expanding on this thought, the post, R&D Spend Critical Nut No Fixed Formula, examines research and development spend: Is more better?  Focusing on the IT industry, the author explains that R&D investment is critical.  But how are these companies allocating resources – that is the real question.

"R&D spending is no guarantee of success, but gauging its impact on a company can sometimes provide a measure of its ability to innovate and to capitalize on those efforts”.  – Charles King, Pund-IT Inc

Speaking directly with companies keen to inspire and motivate sustainable action within their organization, our sustainability consulting encourages the engagement of both internal and external sources for new ideas.  While many companies acquire or invest heavily to obtain new idea generation, we encourage companies to drive low cost innovation by simply:

• Being Open: embrace creative thinking in the organization.

• Being Curious: be aware of what the outside world is thinking and how you could respond.

• Being Imaginative: focus on the future just as much as you focus on the present.

The business world is beginning to recognize that innovation, new product ideas, and a more responsive business model may prove to be critical to business sustainability success.  Our sustainability consulting provides information and business resources to help companies facilitate the innovative process as part of an overall business sustainability plan.

Oftentimes we associate our business sustainability consulting practice to that of a garden.  We plant the seeds of sustainability concepts as we counsel business leaders and employees on the how's and why's of business sustainability.  A combination of factors makes it such that taking eco action is not always a first priority or it may not be "the right time."  As a result, we frequently find our social media engagement and sustainability consulting to be much like a gardener planting and nourishing seeds with intentions of sprouting eco awareness in others.

We believe by giving others the freedom to explore and discover the value of sustainability concepts, it fertilizes the foundation for sustainability concepts to germinate and fosters eco actions to come.   Sustainability and social media together offer a refreshing and innovative approach to business. But, can social media be a catalyst for green businesses?  At Taiga Company, we think so!  By building strategic relationships with key influencers of sustainability in the social space, we all create and empower sustainability and its mainstream adoption.  Here's how you can build strategic relationships for your sustainable business too: 

1. Identify key influencers - select a handful of sustainability professionals for social media or key leaders in the space.  
2. Connect - follow, like, subscribe to their social media streams and platforms.
3. Engage - show your support by retweeting, commenting on blog post, and liking Facebook updates.
4. Social - introduce others to key influencers, share mutual interest whether that be a resource, website, blog, or topic of interest.
5. Promote: offer to interview a key influencer.  Or, review their book, product or event.   
6. Comment - offer feedback, honest opinions, or additional viewpoints.

Because sustainability concepts and definitions are still subject to interpretation and debate, the ‘active’ engagement and dialog with key influencers cannot be overlooked when building effective business sustainability programs and a social media marketing strategy. The propagation of sustainable information to effectively communicate business sustainability successes is becoming a more active dialog.  Find your voice! Connect and engage in the green twitterverse! 

Businesses around the world are feeling the pressures of rising energy and water costs, as well as the potential costs of emissions.  Leading the headlines today are the impacts rising oil prices are having on business costs across the entire value chain.  Thus, our sustainability consulting asks: how is your company hedging these increasing business sustainability pressures?

“The daily debate over the extent of fuel price rises is further complicated by regional supply issues and unpredictable geopolitical events. We advise companies to use scenario planning and broaden the range of strategic thinking among category managers; help them adjust their plans in response to changing external circumstances.”  -Corporate Executive Board

While business risks and costs are often the primary drivers for behavior change, leading businesses are exploring sustainability concepts to identify opportunities.  Many companies are addressing these risks by exploring the value aspects of proactive strategies. In fact, we have observed a recent shift by individuals and businesses towards more sustainable factors to create a completive position over the competition.  These organizations are focused on:

• Energy availability and reliability
• Reevaluation of traditional energy sources
• Availability and access to renewable energy sources
• Continued technology advancements to increase efficiencies 

Energy management is a business sustainability concept that reduces cost and adds competitive value.  Our professional consulting advises clients to focus on solutions that have immediate and long term impact.  Visit us at Taiga Company  for information and resources to get started today in build energy management into your company’s business sustainability plan.

Growing demand in the world’s largest consuming nation, US electric providers are looking to the sustainability concept of energy efficiency to create capacity.  But what are businesses doing to capitalize on these advances?  Is your company aware of the financial advantages in taking proactive action?

A new report from Pike Research, U.S. Industrial Companies Must Embrace Energy Management to Remain Competitive, examines these very questions.  Targeting the most heavily burden industries, the research explores the latest technologies and the true business sustainability opportunities that await progressive business action.

“New technologies are allowing great insight into energy procurement and use, as well as the management of energy as an input to the industrial process.  At the same time, a variety of assistance programs, plus new standards and certifications, are helping to drive energy performance initiatives into the organizational cultures of companies wishing to gain efficiencies in their industrial processes.”

New sources of energy combined with energy conservation, reduction, and management are essential for business sustainability and a brighter future.  Thus, our sustainability consulting advises clients on ways to incorporate energy efficiency and source control as not only a best business practice but as a true financial  advantage.  Visit with us Taiga Company to learn more.