Greetings and welcome to my blog!  My name is Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Company. One of my primary roles is as a Sustainability Consultant. We view sustainability as two fold: first, embracing environmental impact of your choices and second, it's the process of closing the gap from where you currently are - to where you want to be.

We like to focus our attention on the new ideas, processes, technologies, and best practices that are generated out of today's unique environmental, social, and economic circumstances.  With that flavor, this blog will primarily talk about eco awareness, business sustainability, and how to integrate sustainability into our professional and personal lives.

Personally, I have a passion for creating and achieving and most recently that has shown up in racing endurance mountain bike events.  I also love music, my pets, and my wonderful family.

Attempting to seize new opportunities and improve business sustainability, corporate leaders are looking for innovative solutions.   In fact, research shows that innovation will be essential to both short-tem opportunistic value capture and longer-term business sustainability. Curiously, from where should these new ideas and innovative solutions originate?  Who needs to be engaged in the process?

Most often the individuals and groups that are targeted for stakeholder engagement are those who have a passion for a positive outcome.  However, there is another group that must be considered.  These are the potential disrupters toward your goal.

Corporate antibodies are not just naysayers; they are necessary to protect the company from risk. When they attack an idea, it's because they perceive that idea to be a foreign object trying to harm the stability of the organization. But that doesn't mean innovation can't happen, even in the biggest, most entrenched firm. It simply means that senior leaders need to prepare their antibody system not only to identify ideas that are too risky but to recognize the ones that will strengthen and grow the company. 

This passage taken from the HBR Blog, Get the Corporate Antibodies on Your Side, addresses one of the often overlooked stakeholder groups in project implementation.   While most people tend to steer clear of negativity, this contrary perspective can play a valuable role in enhancing the overall deliverable.  Some of the typical ‘corporate antibodies’ include:

• Legal
• Risk management
• Finance
• IT
• Marketing

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 addition, the inclusion of counter perspectives from ‘corporate antibodies’ can enrich the business sustainability discussion.  Visit us at Taiga Company  to learn how your company can build stakeholder engagement strategies to capture all voices.

They say that Earth Day is everyday.  At Taiga Company, we promote green cycling and to us, that means bike to work day is everyday too!  Today is National Bike to Work Day in the US and across the world, trends indicate that biking and public transportation is up and driving is down.  

The post,  Transportation and Young Adults: Driving is Down, Biking and Public Transport Way Up shares exciting new research  that young people in the U.S., Canada, Germany, South Korea, and other countries are driving less, and, in the U.S., biking more and using public transportation in significantly higher numbers. 

"Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People are Driving Less and What it Means for Transportation Policy,” [pdf] a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund and the Frontier Group, includes these statistics:

• Driving is down: The number of vehicle miles traveled by 16 to 34-year-olds in the U.S. dropped 23% between 2001 and 2009. As well, the share of 14 to 34-year-olds without driver’s licenses grew between 2001 and 2010 from 21% to 26%.
• Biking is up: In 2009, 16 to 34-year-olds in the U.S. took 24% more bike trips than in 2001 – even with that age group shrinking in size by 2%.
• Public Transport is up: Public transport use by that same group also rose in the same period — passenger miles traveled are up by a huge 40%.

Among the reasons cited for the changes in the U.S.:

• It’s easier to use a phone when you’re not driving. “Public transportation is more compatible with a lifestyle based on mobility and peer-to-peer connectivity than driving,” notes the study.
• Environmental commitment. In a KRC Zipcar survey, 16% of 18 to 34-year-olds said they strongly agreed with the statement, “I want to protect the environment, so I drive less.” Only about 9% of older generations said the same thing.
• Bike-sharing programs are more available. Technology “makes bike-sharing programs possible and convenient,” says the study. In just the past two years, at least nine U.S. cities have launched bike-sharing services, including Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C.
• Car-sharing programs are also on the rise. Says the report: “Technology has also led to the creation of transportation options that did not exist 15 or 20 years ago. With car-sharing services such as Zipcar, for example, the Internet and smart phone applications allow users to reserve, pay for and locate cars easily, at any time of the day.”

How can we make bike to work day everyday? Discover for yourself!  Enjoy the resources mentioned or better yet - get on your bike and ride!  

• Easy Ways to Be a Bike Friendly Office for National Bike Month
• The Triple Bottom Line of Green Cycling: Good for You, Good for Community, Good for the Economy
• Pedal Power for National Bike Month: Are you One of 500,00 Making a Difference?
• Green Cycling: Taiga in Action for National Bike Month

Sustainability has been described as a continuous improvement process that challenges business to balance and align the shifting expectations of stakeholders with their optimal business sustainability direction.  While sometimes seen as an overwhelming landscape of potential improvement, a common thread of ‘collaboration’ can be seen through just about every potential business sustainability action.  

Expanding upon this thought, our sustainability consulting refers back to the post which appeared on GreenBiz earlier this month, M&A: How to Find a Sustainability Strategy that Works. This article posed an interesting and pressing question for many of today’s executives.  

While GreenBiz focused on corporate cultures that facilitate a strategy, our sustainability consulting reminds readers that internal resources are not the only stakeholders with a vested interest.  We offer some points of consideration in building business sustainability alignment with all key business stakeholders.

• Initiate innovative idea generation and grass-roots business sustainability action.

• Seek-out opportunities to lower costs, initiate process improvements, and stimulate mitigate risk.

• Establish internal and external expectations for redefining products and service attributes.

• Align business sustainability expectations with supply chain partners. 

A defining characteristic of this mindset is a recognition that stakeholders play a key role in defining and executing long-term business sustainability success.  Our sustainability consulting is a strong advocate for the value opportunity in managing key business relationships, and we view sustainability alignment as a "must have" strategy for long term business viability and success.  However, at what level are stakeholders involved in the ‘decision-making’ process of a business?

Do you practice eco excellence?   We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle

As it turns out, habits are powerful forces, and companies are using those forces when interacting with customers and employees.  The post, Are Habits More Powerful Than Decisions? Marketers Hope So states "habits, rather than conscious decision-making, can shape as many as 45 percent of the choices we make every day, according to a study [pdf] from Duke University."  (A great read and recommended reading.)

We are all familiar with habits - they are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously, without one directly thinking consciously about them.    In the world of sustainability plans, this unconscious display of habits is a fertile ground of opportunity offering low hanging fruit for eco action.    

The gap between awareness and action may represent the single largest opportunity for global sustainability progress.  The post highlight's a process for habit formation: The Cue, The Reward, The Routine.  Cues trigger an action, a reward reinforces it, a routine develops. Take a look at a great diagram of the three elements to visualize how it works (and how to break it).

As communicated in our sustainability consulting, we view the basic formula as: change your habits= different result.  The trick is to become aware of the areas in your life that have the biggest environmental impact, and then take inspired action to create new habits.   Sounds easy, but how do you do that? 

First, what are your current habits telling you?  Where is your biggest environmental impact?  Next, create new habits.  Following are 4 areas of eco action to help get you started. 

• Vehicle Fuel Consumption: The most significant area of personal impact and one that is well within your sphere of influence.  Sustainable actions directly aligned with personal savings include: alternative fuel transportation, fuel efficiency and personal reduction (commuting, ride share, alternative transportation).
• Electricity Consumption: By switching to wind or renewable sources, the average family could save the equivalent to thousands of miles driven in a car.  Sustainable actions include: source control (wind, renewable, offsets), home efficiency (energy star appliances), and personal energy management.
• Water Consumption: Clear fresh water is rapidly becoming an endangered resource in even the most developed countries.  Sustainable actions directly aligned with personal savings include: water management (personal use and outdoor watering) and waste water management (controlling what goes down the drain and into the storm drains).  
• Waste Disposal: A large portion of what goes into the average garbage is recyclable.  By separating your plastics, glass, and paper, the weekly volume sent to the landfill could be cut by more than half.  Sustainable actions include: inquiring about recycling programs with traditional collectors and locating recycling centers in your area.

Discovering hidden treasures in your daily habits begins by becoming conscious of your cues, rewards, and routines as well as creating new habits and eco actions you take.  Change your habits and watch your world unfold differently. Remember, every eco action adds up.  Your eco actions matter.  Together, we can all make positive change in our world. 

 

Since the introduction of the concept of the triple bottom line, supporters and critics have debated the ability to link business sustainability actions to business profitability.  Without a definitive financial incentive, companies have traditionally not been receptive to the idea of integrating sustainability concepts into core business practices.  Recent trends tends to indicate that the business world may be changing their view, but what are the results saying?

The GreenBiz article, What Puts Companies on Top of the Sustainability Leadership List, explores the criteria that define today’s business sustainability elite.  Originally intended to define the business leaders who excel at integrating sustainability into their business strategies, the post instead brings to light a concerning divergence in economic performance and sustainability action.  Leveraging the results from a 2012 GlobeScan/SustainAbility Survey, the post finds some gaps between performance and recognition.  

“Some of our clients get excited when they see the results of The Sustainability Leaders Survey. But others may be worried. In this year's survey, GE was one of a number of companies that saw a decline in the proportion of mentions, from 12 percent in 2011 to 7 percent this year. Walmart, the top-rated company in 2010, saw its proportion fall from 11 percent to 7 percent, while mentions of Marks & Spencer declined marginally from 8 percent to 5 percent. What do these falls mean, though -- are these companies standing still or headed backward on sustainability?”

At Taiga Company, we find highly effective organizations are creating business sustainability cultures to drive performance.  Rather than focusing on short-term metrics, our sustainability consulting encourages companies to drive true business sustainability through continuous communication and stakeholder engagement strategies.  In doing so, these organizations are creating a direct link to the company’s business sustainability plan and stable long-term and lasting performance.

More than 500,000 American employees now work at a Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB), thanks to visionary leadership in the private and public sector. Just recently, the League of American Bicyclist announced 67 new Bike Friendly Businesses, who joined the ranks of the 412 local businesses, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies that are transforming the American workplace.

“These leaders are at the forefront of a movement to make American businesses more competitive, sustainable and attractive to the best and brightest employees,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “An investment in bicycling enhances employee health, increases sustainability and improves the bottom line.”

What are easy ways to become a bike friendly office?  Some business owners might argue that small business resources can be limited towards building a sustainable business; however, our sustainability consulting encourages employers to promote employee bicycling commuting as a great way to attract and retain those eco minded employees.  The post, Top 10 Benefits of Bicycle Commuting Programs for Businesses, explores bike commuting benefits to employers while the post, 10 Reasons to Bike Commute to Work, gives employees ideas and inspiration to ride to work. But what can a business do to promote and maintain a winning bike commuting culture?  Our business sustainability consulting advocates taking the following eco actions to keep bike commuting fun and safe for employees.

Education

• Offer regular safety classes.
• Provide lunch and learn opportunities for current topics and discussion.
• Share information on how to share the road.
• Participate in bike maintenance classes.

Encouragement

• Offer incentives to ride.
• Host a CEO led ride.
• Guarantee a ride home service.
• Create a company bike club.
• Celebrate bike to work day or month or create your own company mile markers and celebrate them.

Foundation

• Make bike parking safe and secure.
• Provide lockers, showers, and changing areas.
• Utilize car sharing programs like ZipCar for off site meetings.
• Provide a repair station with tools, lubrication, and tubes.

Review

• Get to know your employee's commuting habits: what's working/ what isn't and suggestions for improvement.
• Set goals: number of commuting miles/ week/ per employee.
• Appoint a bike coordinator: the go to person for everything bike commuting related.

Wondering how many Bike Friendly Businesses are in your city or state? Check out this helpful map to find out.  Zoom in on your community — and show your bike-friendliness by patronizing your local Bike Friendly Business!  Better yet, get your business on the map: Learn more about the Bicycle Friendly Business program.

“In addition to attracting and retaining talented category managers to identify new savings areas, leading Procurement organizations also unpack complex spend categories into more manageable subcategories. Keep in mind that the highest return opportunities are not necessarily the projects with the highest amount of spend or those that are easiest to implement.”  –CEB Views

Following in these footsteps, a recent Spend Management post chronicles one organization’s efforts to make its procurement more effective.  Rather than focusing on reducing its direct spend, thereby increasing tension in its supply chain, the BBC has instead chose to expand its view of traditional cost control.  The company now works with key suppliers to collaboratively increase efficiencies and reduce process cost.

Our sustainability consulting experiences have revealed that business sustainability mindset shifts have resulted in strategic sourcing and procurement guidelines to align suppliers with defined business sustainability strategies.  We believe that just within the last year the business community at large has seen a monumental shift.

Moving forward in the next few years, our business sustainability consulting subscribes to the idea that the next generation of sustainable category management will continue to evolve.  Focused on a new level of responsibility across all supply chain activities, like those demonstrated by the BBC, will drive deeper into category value by addressing more pointed supply questions.

An 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 functions are now expanding their organizational reach to a variety of business sustainability stakeholders.  Visit with us at Taiga Company to learn more.

Did you know? Just one tradeshow can have the same C02 footprint as one year of powering everyday office equipment and supplies? 

We all know that too much C02 in the environment is bad, how do we find out how much carbon dioxide we produce? 

Benchmarking success in green living or business starts with closing the gap between awareness and action.  Here's where the tried and true adage applies: "What gets measured, gets managed." While expressed more frequently in a business setting, it applies to our personal lives as well.  For instance, if you want to lose weight, first you have to know how much you weigh to benchmark your success.  Similarly, in living a sustainable lifestyle, you first need to know the areas of your environmental impacts to measure your success.  

Carbon calculators offer visibility to reduce emissions, but consistently taking eco action to reduce impacts can be overwhelming.  What if there was a quick, easy and long-lasting way to make a difference?  Is offsetting the answer?  From our sustainability consulting perspective, offsetting is not a substitute for reducing or eliminating emissions or other environmental impacts.  However, there is a time and a place for carbon offsetting.  

• Offsetting can be a partial solution that complements other approaches,
• Offsetting can be seen as part of maintaining the balance of life,
• Carbon offsets offers a path to eco action and raises eco awareness,
• Offsetting schemes can be used as an interim measure until other solutions are developed – efficient emission-free fuels and renewable energy sources.

What options are available for offsetting?  Introducing the Green Air Project.  GAP is a social enterprise that helps individuals and businesses offset their carbon footprints in the most sustainable and positive way- by planting trees.  As you know, at Taiga Company, we love trees!  

Why choose Green Air Project? 

• Business Sustainability: Green Air Project's offsetting of carbon dioxide by planting large numbers of trees is a viable option to a businesses' corporate sustainability plan. The program can also aid in increasing employee engagement and retention with employee participation. 
• Transparency:  Clients and other stakeholders have access to a businesses' sustainability strategies with a company-specific website and code to track how many trees have planted.
• Affordable: Businesses, individuals and families can all participate and benefit.  At $10.00/ tree, enough to offset the average American’s CO2 emissions for a month, the trees are professionally cared for including: tree- Lease and preparation of the land, professionally planting the trees, maintenance/weed control, making fire lines and maintaining them on the property, security, boundary maintenance, surveying of land and forestry service to manage the land. 

Green Air Project's offsetting of carbon dioxide by planting large numbers of trees is an easy to grasp sustainability concept for eco curious individuals and stakeholders.  Demonstrate your commitment to sustainability by taking sustainable leadership and eco action.  Visit Green Air Project website today to get started. 

“Sports equipment and clothing retailer Adidas managed rapid improvement among its suppliers in India. In 2010, about 80% of the vendors didn’t meet the company’s social compliance standards; in 2011, more than 80% met those performance goals. The company says the achievement resulted from working directly with the suppliers and setting strong targets.”

Taken from the Supply Management article, Adidas Turns Indian Supplier Performance Around, our sustainability consulting gathers valuable insight from the company’s success.  Turning the performance of supply chain around in a very short time, Adidas realized an almost unbelievable improvement in their corporate social responsibility in just one year.  The company monitored and realized significant improvement in the following six areas of improvement:

• Management Commitment and Responsiveness
• Management Systems
• Worker-Management Communication and Industrial Relations
• Compliance Training for Workers and Management
• Transparency in Communication and Reporting
• Compliance Performance

The above example along with our sustainability consulting experiences reveal that today’s sustainable supply chain organizations are focused on integrating sustainability concepts directly into their purchasing processes.  These efforts are designed to not only improve supply chain performance but to establish the next-generation sustainable supply chain management. 

Further research reveals that success relies heavily on the effective stakeholder engagement with the company’s internal and external business resource.  Taiga Company  offers social media engagement strategies to improve performance through optimized communication within the supply chain.

While escalating conversations on topics such as climate change, carbon legislation, energy independence, and growing consumer eco awareness generate forward eco movement for some it simultaneously creates confusion and skepticism for others.   To address these complex issues, it's going to take all of us demonstrating eco awareness in our daily lives.  Some eco actions are easier than others.  In fact, at Taiga Company, we promote green cycling as a means to make a difference. 

What is green cycling?  It is bike commuting or riding your bike and it is a win-win on many different levels.  For businesses and individuals looking to reduce costs, embrace eco awareness, and adhere to business and personal sustainability programs, bike commuting benefits everyone.  How so?  even if you don’t ride a bike, we all enjoy the benefits of bicycling infrastructure. Every cyclist on the road is one less car, which means there is less need for expensive road projects that take money from other important government programs. Bicycle and pedestrian improvements cost a fraction of what it takes to widen streets and highways and improve the livability of our cities, attracting new businesses and development. 

As we are mid way through National Bike Month.  We encourage you to read and gain eco awareness of the many benefits green cycling has to offer.  Enjoy! 

 

• David Suzuki: The benefits of cycling go beyond reducing climate change 
• Transportation and Young Adults: Driving is Down, Biking and Public Transport Way Up 
• Bicycle-Friendly Businesses Are Booming: 67 New BFBs Announced 
• New Report: Americans Driving Less, Especially Youth 
• If You Build Bike Lanes, They Will Ride 
• Bike Commuting Trends are UP: Here's Why 
• Bikes are Good for Business 

 

Business implementations over the last few years has revealed that many executives and their procurement organizations now view environmental and social responsibility actions within in the supply chain to be both a risk mitigating strategy and a business opportunity. These corporate actions are taking strategic sourcing and supplier relations to another level of supply chain sustainability. Our sustainability consulting asks: What is the next step in Sustainable Supply Chain Management? 

The CSR Digest recently released a post  which examines today’s value drivers of sustainable supply chain collaboration.  The article describes how long term supplier partnerships at Unilever have become critical to the company’s sustainable growth. 

“Unilever has a bold ambition to double the size of its business whilst halving the environmental impact of its products…t is vital that we work in closer partnership with our strategic suppliers to ensure faster innovations and invest sustainably throughout our value chain.”  -Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Chief Supply Chain Officer Unilever.

Having worked within some of the world’s leading supply chains, our sustainability consulting supports the direction of Unilever.  Similar to the company’s efforts, we recall the comments of the Procurement Strategy Council when enabling suppliers.  To effectively capture supplier innovation, PSC advises companies to focus on three priorities: 

• Provide suppliers with the right amount of direction
• Involve business partners in the ideation process 
• Enable effective IP sharing

By engaging  the knowledge of key supply stakeholders, your business can make significant gains over the competition, which may be unwilling to share information. Our sustainability consulting stresses the importance of a sustainable supply chain management philosophy as part of a larger business sustainability plan.  Visit with us at Taiga Company for more information and business resources to unlock the strategic value of a sustainable supply chain.

Most business leaders would probably agree that achieving real bottom line improvements, whether in cost savings or improved revenues, is critical to business sustainability.  These same executives might further comment that the concept of business sustainability is not new, and in fact, has been around for a long time.  As sustainability consultant, we agree that maintaining business operations has always been the goal of business. 

Business sustainability concepts today that are required for continued operations into the future are quite different than they were just 10years ago.  Our sustainability consulting would contend that business sustainability is now a more encompassing and continuous improvement process enabled by other business improvement efforts.  But what are others saying?

The Harvard Business Review post, It's Time to Rethink Continuous Improvement, questions the effectiveness of traditional efficiently driven strategies.  Arguing that innovation is much larger driver of business today, HBR encourages a collaborative balance between creativity and efficiency.

• Customize how and where continuous improvement is applied.

• Question whether processes should be improved, eliminated, or disrupted

• Assess the impact on company culture.

The implementation of efforts to improve business operations that are aligned with sustainability concepts is part of the larger continuous pursuit of business sustainability.  Our experience has revealed that business sustainability leaders today are looking to the triple bottom line  and the importance of continuous economic, social and environmental progress to be the mark progress.  Our sustainability consulting works with businesses to understand the value of having an evolved understanding of continuous improvement within all aspects of a company’s operations.

 

Happy National Bike Month When people ride bikes, good things happen.  Why? Because bike riding is a win-win for both businesses and individual looking to reduce cost, embrace eco awareness and adhere to business and personal sustainability programs.  But wait! There's yet another reason to use your pedal power for good! May is National Bike Month! In this newsletter edition you'll find all the reasons and resources to kick off a National Bike Month!  Ride ON!  May is National Bike Month  When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. ~ H.G. Wells Mark your calendars! Bike to Work Week is May 14-18and Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 18. Green Cycling: Resources & Tips to Get You Riding Top 10 Benefits of Bicycle Commuting Programs for Business  Get Paid to Bike to Work  Easy Ways to Become a Bike Friendly Office  10 Reasons to Bike Commute to Work  The Bike Commuter's Guilde to Stay Fresh and Clean at Work  Eco Resources to Gear Up for Bike to Work Week      Download our Free Green Cycling Whitepaper learn more Promote your cycling event with our social media services learn more Ways to get involved for National Bike Month:    Become a two wheeled friend!PeopleForBikes.org is dedicated to channeling that velo passion to improve the future of  bicycling.  Their goal is to gather a million names in support.  To date, they are at 500,000. Sign the pledge to speak one, powerful voice to promote cycling and bike commuting.  Take the National Bike Challenge! Sponsored by Kimberly-Clark,the League of American Bicyclist, and Bikes Belong, the National Bike Challenge runs May 1 - August 31 with the goal of uniting 50,000 people to bike 10 million miles.     Cycling Inspiration!  Need Inspiration? Check out Taiga's Race Pictures on Facebook!

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A recent Forbes article, Why Great Ideas Fail, attempts to answer this question and offer guidance towards improved business innovation success.  Drilling to the heart of the issue, the post explains that it is not the idea but more often the culture that fails.  Instead of confining creativity to a closed-off lab, the concept of an open innovation model is being recognized and implemented within leading companies.

“Executives recognize that innovation is an essential component of organizational success, and may require shifts in mindset and culture. Create space for innovators to escape the daily grind. Help them unlock their creative potential by forgetting about the limitations of the existing business.” –CEB Views

Our professional consulting supports the belief that an open innovation approach  to business sustainability offers stakeholders the opportunity to become engaged in the future of a business. By recognizing that key stakeholders have a vested interest the success of the company, sustainable leadership can create openness to new ideas that promote business success and innovative ideas.

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

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

• Promote 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.

• Promote 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.  

When people ride bikes, good things happen.  Why?  Because bike commuting is a win-win for both businesses and individuals looking to reduce costs, embrace eco awareness, and adhere to business and personal sustainability programs.  

In recent years, the bicycle industry has stepped up to support bike advocacy and education programs like never before. Much of that leadership has come from Bikes Belong, the industry's advocacy and education organization.  In fact, just over two years ago, PeopleForBikes.org was launched with the goal of collecting one million pledges for a better future for bicycling.  As if the timing couldn't be better, May is National Bike Month and to date, PeopleForBikes.org stand 500,000 riders strong.

While only halfway to their goal of one million supporters, there is still time to get involved, contribute to making our nation a better place to ride, and to send a powerful message to our elected leaders, the media, and the public that bicycling is important and should be promoted.

At Taiga Company, we are no strangers to the bike community.  We have the opportunity to work with individuals and businesses to integrate sustainability concepts into the workplace and daily life.  We refer to it as green cycling and naturally view how bike riding and commuting benefits the needs of both worlds: business and individuals.  Clients commute to work; businesses provide resources and incentives for cycling commuters.  So, why is bike commuting so wonderful? 

• Bike commuting helps the environment by reducing your carbon footprint.
• Bicycles emit no pollution when in use; they require far less materials, energy and waste in their production than even the ‘greenest’ car. 
• Cycling offers a certain connection to the open air and the surrounding trees.  It's amazing how usual surroundings look different when on a bike.
• Cycling can be done by toddlers, teenagers, youngsters and adults as well.  It can be used as personal time to reflect upon your day or a means to unite friends for regular rides.
• Regular participation in a cycling routine naturally shifts your focus to include thoughts of the weather, areas in your community to ride, road safety, and traffic.  Thereby increasing your awareness of the link between the environment and your community.
• Enjoy the freedom your bike gives you- go places your car can't.
• National health statistics show that when you're more active, you decrease your risk for cancer, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
• Bicycle commuting allows you to include your workout in your daily schedule and helps to meet fitness goals.
• Bike commuting saves you money:  reduce car maintenance, reduced gas bill, reduced parking cost.
• Cycling is a good exercise for overall fitness of the body.  It improves health and reduces stress and tension.
• Cycling contributes to a positive work/ life balance.
• Bicycles can be produced and maintained locally by local bike shops contributing to local job opportunities as part of a sustainable economy.
• Increased cycling commuting reduces air pollution generated from motorized vehicles.
• The bike industry is getting involved.  Check out Action Outdoor Bike Magazine for resources.
• Bike riding is FUN!

Express your passion and commitment to our two wheeled friends.  Please take a moment to visit the website and sign the pledge. It is quick and easy. You will help the future of biking and ultimately you will be enhancing the work of the League. All the campaign needs is your name and email address: www.peopleforbikes.org/signpledge

According to The New York Times article, Trapped in the Middle Seat , corporate travel is on the rise.  Companies are emerging from the economic downturn by taking to the air to rebuild and grow their businesses.  However, this activity is not completely free from the restraint.  The all-seeing and watchful eye of corporate cost control is always present!

“More businesspeople are traveling, but companies are being tighter with their budgets. Travelers increasingly have to justify their trips, and trips have to be approved by more managers. They have to perform the equivalent of a return-on-investment analysis before they book.”  - Henry H. Harteveldt, Atmosphere Research Group.

With the rising cost of travel, our sustainability consulting sees an opportunity to leverage technology and sustainability concepts to address travel needs.  In fact, a Market Research Media report reveals that the virtual conference marketplace will grow over the next five years. Why?  Because, sustainable businesses looking to cut costs, increase productivity, and reduce their environmental impacts are turning to virtual conferencing and webinar technology. 

"The need for face-to-face meetings is always going to exist -however you will see a lot more virtual interactions.  Businesses are getting more and more comfortable with the virtual world. Their customers, employees and partners are already living in that environment thanks to social networks and even email.” -Sharat Sharan, founder ON24

While the traditional discussion around virtual meetings often centers on carbon output from commercial air travel, a larger and more sustainable business perspective introduces business savings as an aligned incentive to the environmental benefits.  At Taiga Company, we seek out opportunities to leverage the array of technologies and social media engagement tools that are connecting the global business world.

“Incentive-based pay isn’t new; it’s been around for centuries.  But unless companies begin to connect compensation to sustainable environmental and social performance, they will continue to sacrifice long-term value creation and competitiveness for short-term, unsustainable gains.”  -Why It's Time to Link Compensation with Sustainability 

Traditionally the underlying objective any of compensation structure has been to attract, motivate and retain good staff.  However, choosing the right compensation structure to achieve a specific goal can be difficult.  Our business sustainability consulting believes that an essential component to any program is the link between incentives and desired behavior.

Performance pay structures involve setting base pay with incentives to obtain additional compensation for a demonstration of certain behavior. This concept is widely used in particular industries, based on the simple idea that pay can motivate job performance, increase employee effectiveness, and align business goals. This model offers several potential advantages:

• It aligns compensation to desired performance
• It rewards the right behaviors and builds unity
• It encourages self-management
• It encourages innovation

The critical drivers of performance, accountability and commitment have traditionally been thought to be the measures of a sustainable workforce.  However, top business sustainability cultures now realize there is a ‘required’ balance in individual  talent management.  By linking compensation to specific sustainability concepts, businesses have the potential to align the sustainability goals of the organization and motivate behavior.

At Taiga Company, 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 business.  Our professional consulting works with clients to define a structure that best fits the organizational needs.  We simply ask clients: Is your current pay structure driving the desired performance?

 

 

 

How do you connect with nature?   Does it matter?  Actually it does.  According to Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, paying attention to the natural world not only makes you feel better, it makes you behave better. As sustainability consultants, we can't see a better connection between the natural world and eco inspiration.  Inspiration is a source of life.   What fuels our souls and calls us to become more in our lives differs from person to person in as much as how one chooses to fulfill these needs. At Taiga Company, green cycling is what inspires us to ride our bikes outdoors in nature.  

When people ride bikes, good things happen.  Why?  Because bike riding is a win-win for both businesses and individuals looking to reduce costs, embrace eco awareness, and adhere to business and personal sustainability programs.   But wait! There’s yet another reason to use your pedal power for good!  May is National Bike Month.  Kicking off National Bike Month, we share pictures from our recent 60+ mile mountain bike race in Castle Rock, Colorado.   

Enjoy! 

 

 

 

Over the last few years, our sustainability consulting has probed the broad question: can social media save  the world?   Today, we narrow that inquiry and ask: How could social interactions make or break your business.  Social media 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.  

To aid in this discussion, we leverage the Harvard Business Review post, Collaboration Will Drive the Next Wave of Productivity Gains.  This article discusses the basic building blocks of business success and progression.  Focusing on technology, the author demonstrates how companies must move beyond abortion and implement sustainable business change with their technological advancement.

“Ineffective capture and transfer mechanisms hinder most companies' ability to capitalize on creative concepts and solutions. Deploy knowledge-management metrics to effectively measure the capture of innovative ideas and build systems to disseminate these ideas broadly across the enterprise.”  -Corporate Executive Board Views

In addition to the tradition business value drivers of out-bound communication, our sustainability consulting also encourages the equally viable social avenues to value.  An effective should communicated and align with the organization’s business objectives and resources, specifically the interests of its key stakeholders.  We find the leading “socially-geared” companies are responding and creating sustainability advocates by:

• Cascading business sustainability strategies down through organizational and individual performance goals.

• Informing, motivating, and actively engaging employees in the company’s business sustainability programs. 

• Integrating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into the business processes, corporate performance, and employee recognition.

• Actively engaged with key stakeholders on sustainability issues, including employees to understand how sustainability issues are affecting the business. 

• Performing transparent reporting on sustainability concepts and sensitive issues, with both positive and negative results.

Sustainability and social media together offer a refreshing and innovative approach to business.  Our sustainability consulting offers information and access to resources that can help your business discover the value of social media for sustainability.  Visit with us at Taiga Company  to learn more.