What a remarkable time this is, at so many levels:
The Election. For all its strangeness (1000 news stories on the horse race for every one on the issues), and duration (we take two years to elect a president; France takes six weeks) — for all that , what a breathtaking affirmation of the creative spirit at the foundation of this country, and of how far we’ve come.
The Meltdown. The bad news: this is just one of a cascade of crises staked up offshore — credit, infrastructure, energy, carbon, water, the list goes on. The good news: there are things we can do about each — or at least most — of these, and these crises provide an opening for leadership, innovation and, yes, investment in solutions. For example:
The Climate. I just returned yesterday from the Governors’ Global Climate Summit, where President-Elect Obama re-engaged the US with the global climate challenge, endorsing dramatic reductions in GHG emissions, and where some 20 governors from the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and China agreed to to share technology and policy expertise on how to measure and reduce greenhouse gases. (Watch for a summary on my blog in the next few days.) There are many battles still to fight, but the sense that we’ve turned a corner is overwhelming. The halls of power are speaking what so many of us have been saying for years. The task of convincing is over. Now the hard work begins.
The Movement. We’ve been noting the accelerating sustainability uptake in the business community over the past two years, but now we’re seeing something new: our clients are no longer dipping toes in the water with an initiative here and a program there; increasingly, they’re asking us for comprehensive sustainability initiatives. Soup to nuts. Strategy and training. EcoAudits and KPIs. Company and supply chain. Call me today, if your company might be ready to take the next big step — and embrace goals that are sufficient to the challenges we face.
Read our Project Highlights below to find out what we’ve been up to.
Hot Topics
Surfing the Melt: Profit, Risk and Progress in Volatile Markets
Business is on a collision course, Chauncey Bell and I wrote two years ago, with a set of global shifts that almost no one has adequately prepared for. These inevitable surprises — from regulatory shifts to volatile energy prices, from peak oil to climate change — are coming fast.
Many of these shifts are related to environmental issues (traditionally seen by business as peripheral to mission, and as costs to be minimized) that are increasingly seen as material, and even strategically significant. For those who are ready, these shifts provide platforms for change; for those who are not ready, they are traps. The list is long:
* rising — or at least volatile — resource costs and reduced reliability of supply (driven by the dual engines of finitude and rising demand)
* the threats and impending monetization of greenhouse gas (GHG) and other emissions
* the impact of shifting regulatory requirements on the license to operate — and shifting market and procurement expectations on competitive position
* competitive innovation
* dependence on subsidies that may not be secure in volatile economic times
These risks haven’t been adequately included in traditional management conversations because of several pervasive yet pernicious myths — of the market distortions called “externalities ” and the misguided notion that environmental quality is a “cost” rather than an investment.
Fortunately, this has been changing. The phenomenal growth in attention to green/clean/sustainable in the last two years is an indication that businesses are coming to understand the enormous strategic business opportunity in acting, and the growing risks of business as usual.
Many people ask us whether the financial meltdown will slow business investment in green, and President-Elect Obama’s plans for a new energy economy. We think not; the Melt makes these concerns all the more relevant; since this is precisely the time to invest in real value.
So I’d like to talk with your CFO.
Yes, I know she’s got some other things on her mind this month — but it is his job to value forward risk, and I’ll wager that there are material risks and opportunities that either are absent from her analyses, or incorrectly valued.
Fortunately, there are reliable ways to assess the situation and prepare — to design new ways to build profit, resilience, competitive position, share value, and satisfaction for shareholders, customers and employees — all at the same time.
Would you be willing to make the introduction?
Project Highlights
News from the sustainability revolution
Here are a few of the clients we’ve had the pleasure of working with recently (at least a few of the ones we can tell you about):
We’re in the second year of work supporting the City of Los Angeles’ “integrated resource plan” for solid waste. Our current tasks: helping develop policies to move the City toward zero waste that business will support; and developing models to support future capacity planning by predicting the impacts of those policies on future waste streams.
The California Department of General Services (DGS) engaged Natural Logic to develop a methodology and a working prototype of a system for tracking and forecasting energy usage in its state buildings. DGS is responding to an Executive Order that requires all state agencies reduce grid-based energy purchases for state-owned buildings by 20% by 2015 through efficiency measures and distributed generation technologies. Natural Logic delivered the first phase of the project in October — a tracking, forecasting, and reporting system for managing these initiatives for state-owned buildings. DGS is pleased (as are we) and is planning next steps for extending this exciting project to their fleet of 15,000 buildings. We think the methodology and tracking/forecasting/reporting tool we developed for this project would be useful to other organizations that want to track or improve the energy performance of large portfolios of buildings; please contact us if you are one of them.
Natural Logic helped a national merchandising company develop an on line sustainability handbook to support design, procurement, operations and marketing staff in making better green choices. The resulting content will be used to educate associates, develop sustainability-related criteria for product design and sourcing, and to increase brand integrity by ensuring better-supported green claims for their products.
We’ve begin work on developing sustainability plans for the cities of Sonoma, California and San Antonio, Texas — the latter in collaboration with our friends at Sustainable Systems.
There are also a couple of food industry EcoAudits underway, even as we speak. And much more to share with you that will wait until next time.
Read more about Natural Logic’s offerings — and results
Events
Please join us! (And invite us to keynote your next conference.)
Gil’s recent conference action includes:
Measuring What Matters workshops at: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and The Presidio Executive Program
A panel at West Coast Green on measuring sustainability for homes, businesses, cities and regions, together with Peter Sharer of AgileWaves, and Warren Karlenzig of SustainLane.
The Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.
Recent keynotes have included:
Contra Costa Council Sustainability Conference, and the International Womens Forum
Operations Manager Benjamin Privitt appeared at Net Impact’s annual conference in Philadelphia on a panel titled “From Green to Gold: For-Profit Business Consulting” that included representatives from Saatchi & Saatchi S, AT Kearney, and Sustainable Business Consulting. The discussion ranged from current trends in the consulting industry to the challenges facing companies to be transparent, forward looking, and profitable. Benjamin had lively exchanges with students and professionals for over an hour after the presentation, and attendees claimed this was the best panel they had been to at the conference.
Upcoming:
Gil will be moderating an “expert panel” on “A Global Water Supply Crisis: The Impacts for Business” at Corporate Water Footprint, San Francisco 12/3/08
and delivering keynotes at:
Organicology, Portland, OR 2/26/09
Electric Utility Cost Group Annual Meeting, St. Petersburg, FL 3/23/09
Green Cities, Orlando, FL 3/10-12/09
Here’s a complete list of upcoming events
Special Offer:
Sustainable Brands International in Miami Beach
Join Gil in Miami Beach, Florida, at Sustainable Brands International, December 9-11 in Miami Beach, and meet 300 sustainable product innovators and brand experts from around the world to explore global market trends and best in class sustainable business ideas.
On Tuesday, December 9th, I’ll be presenting a half-day, hands-on workshop on Measuring What Matters; we’ll be looking at how companies and communities can select and use sustainability performance metrics and incentive systems that profitably drive performance toward environmental, economic, and strategic goals.
Our network enjoys 25% OFF both the conference and the workshop: use code gilf128or by November 24th.
Click here for details on speakers and the full conference program.