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Enterprise Sustainability Management Webcast

October 05, 2012 Add Comment Edit

A webcast titled Enterprise Sustainability Management – Proactive, Global Information Strategy is a New Business Imperative, will take place on Wednesday, October 17, 2012, 8am Pacific/11am Eastern.

Companies around the world are gravitating toward a unified strategy for Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) that standardizes and consolidates a broad spectrum of data and workflows across the organization. They are using this holistic approach to address proliferating challenges in environmental, health and safety, operational risk management, product stewardship, energy, carbon, and beyond. Successful companies are integrating sustainability initiatives from all of these areas into core business operations in order to drive operational excellence.

Register now for this live webcast to hear the results of an independent research study into the emergence of ESM. Then listen as a panel of experts discusses their first-hand experiences in helping companies from a variety of industries and regions leverage ESM into a new competitive advantage.

Topics of discussion will include:

What is Enterprise Sustainability Management and what business benefits does it deliver?
How have companies traditionally managed sustainability information and processes?
Who are today’s stakeholders and how have demands for sustainability information changed?
Why is convergence of cross-functional management systems becoming essential to competitiveness?
Which resources and capabilities are most essential to the success of an ESM strategy?

Join speaker Matthew Littlefield, President and Principal Analyst at LNS Research and the following panelists:

Vijay Gudivaka, Global Managing Partner of ERM Information Solutions Andrew Fanara, Chief Sustainability Strategist, OSIsoft LLC Jeff Ladner, Senior Director – EHS & Sustainability Solutions, IHS

Don’t miss this opportunity to discover how a unified ESM strategy can help your organization achieve its operational and financial performance goals.

To register click here.

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Keeping Up with Market Demand for Sustainable Products and Services

June 14, 2012 Add Comment Edit

As reviewed in a 2012 Accenture study, executives report having difficulty keeping up with demand for sustainable products and services. There are three powerful initiatives that companies can embrace to help meet this demand. They involve design innovation, investing in understanding and reviewing supply chain capabilities. These recommendations from Accenture Sustainability Services are intended to ensure that companies are better able to keep up with market demand for sustainable products and services. Here is a more detailed summary of the three recommendations:

1. Remodel innovation and design processes by embedding sustainability early, helping to drive greater resource efficiency in existing operations and create new sustainable products and services. Integrate consumers and other stakeholders throughout the innovation process, using enhanced social media capabilities.

      2.  Invest in capabilities, including analytics, to improve
            understanding of fast changing consumer expectations for sustainable
            products and services, and to identify new business models and
            profitable market opportunities with innovative demand-side partners.

       3.  Review operations and supply chain capabilities through sector-
            wide value chain collaborations that deliver adapted operating
            models, economies of scale and more responsive production and
            servicing.

Even with Premium Pricing Demand for Sustainable Products Outpaces Supply

June 14, 2012 Add Comment Edit

A new survey of executives from Accenture reveals that despite concerns that consumers are reluctant to pay more for sustainable products and services, more than half are charging a price premium for these products. Although less than half (47 percent) of executives polled expressed concerns that consumers will not pay more for sustainable products and services, 60 percent admitted to charging premiums. Almost three quarters (68 percent) claimed they can charge between 5 and 20 percent premiums. 17 percent claim they can charge premiums of between twenty and fifty percent. Yet, despite charging higher prices, over one third (37 percent) of surveyed businesses say they cannot keep up with customer demand for sustainable products and services.

When asked what actions they have taken to respond to rising customer demand, 44 percent of respondents claim to have promoted existing sustainability credentials. 43 percent have launched new products and services and 41 percent have checked their supply chain credentials.

"Companies are trying to meet consumer demand for sustainable products and services, but many cannot keep up," said Berthon. "Businesses will have to look beyond adapted or customized products, short runs and premium pricing. Now is the time to get closer to consumers, embed sustainability early in the innovation and design process and put in place the operational capabilities to meet market demand at scale and profitably."

There is ample demand for businesses to charge a premium for sustainable products and services. Additionally companies that embrace sustainability may be protecting themselves from price disadvantages that could cut into their margins.

In his recently released book of case studies titled "The New Sustainability Advantage," Bob Willard says, "We conservatively assume that companies not practicing good CSR could find themselves with a price-disadvantage that jeopardizes 10% of their revenue" (P. 144).

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Study Finds Sustainability is Vital to Growth

June 14, 2012 Add Comment Edit

According to new research by Accenture, the vast majority of businesses say that sustainability is vital to their future growth. More than three quarters (78%) of the 250 senior executives polled indicated that sustainability is vital to their future growth and almost half (44%) indicated that sustainability is critical. Nearly two thirds (62%) said that their sustainability initiatives were motivated by customer expectations and almost the same number (62%) said they were motivated by the opportunity to drive growth. Less than half (41%) said they were motivated by regulatory compliance and less than one third (29%) indicated they were motivated by the need to reduce energy and material costs.

Despite a clear trend towards sustainability, almost half say that the margins are currently lower on sustainable products and services. Almost twice as many business people said their sustainability investments were motivated by growth rather than efficiencies (41 percent versus 22 percent).

While the vast majority (83 percent) of responding senior decision makers see spending on sustainability as an investment rather than a cost, a majority (56 percent) say it is currently more expensive to be a sustainable business. Just under half of respondents (49 percent) said that margins are currently lower on sustainable products and services.

"The good news is that companies now systematically see sustainability as being vital to their future growth and core to their business," said Bruno Berthon, Managing Director, Sustainability Services at Accenture. "Sustainability has broken free from the realm of regulatory pressure and reputation management, and is now rising into a virtuous circle of commercial opportunity and investment growth. Businesses must now industrialize and scale production in order to drive higher levels of productivity, operational discipline and cost optimization into what can often be immature operating models in high growth sustainable markets."

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Puma Wins the Guardians' Sustainable Business Award

June 13, 2012 1 Comment Edit

The Guardian announced that German athletic brand Puma was the winner of its Sustainable Business Award. This award is given for corporate initiatives that tackle pressing environmental and social challenges. Puma was recognized for its ground-breaking Environmental Profit and Loss Account. The accounting method puts a direct monetary value on ecosystem services used by the business – such as fresh water, clean air, healthy biodiversity and productive land – and on the negative impacts a company has on the environment.

The Guardian says its judges look for projects that are replicable and inspire other businesses to act. Puma’s parent company PPR announced that it is extending the environmental accounting practice to its entire line of luxury and lifestyle brands. Puma also won in the Biodiversity category. Ian Cheshire, CEO of European home improvement retailer Kingfisher, received the readers vote for Sustainable Business Leader of the Year award, and Ray Anderson, founder of modular carpet company Interface, received a posthumous award for Outstanding Achievement.

The other categories and winners are:

Built Environment: Igloo Regeneration
Carbon: Sainsbury’s Supermarkets
Collaboration: SABMiller Communicating
Sustainability: The Co-operative Group
Energy: Sainsbury Supermarkets
Engaging Employees: Brother Industries
Innovation: Interface
Social Impact: Carillion
Supply chain: Marks & Spencer and Veja
Waste and Recycling: Desso Water: SABMiller

For more information on the winning projects and runners up click here.

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Corporate Green Ranking: Top Spots and Most Improved

June 05, 2012 Add Comment Edit

As reviewed in a June 4, 2012 Environmental Leader article, Computer chip maker Intel and home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool have been named as the major US firms with the strongest environmental governance, policies, and infrastructure in a report by sustainability consultants Soyka & Company. Intel maintained their top spot for 2012 in the Benchmarking Analysis of Disclosed U.S. Corporate Environmental Practices. Intel improved their score by five points, or 6.1 percent. Whirlpool moved up from tied for 28th place in last year’s study by virtue of a 25 point, or 41 percent, gain in its score.

Two companies, Avon Products and Medtronic, made dramatic advances, rising from tied for 56th place to 6th, and from tied for 130th to tied for 23rd place, respectively. Each raised its score by more than 25 points and 50 percent during this most recent two year period.

The 970 firms included in the study are mainly drawn from the Russell 1000 list of large US corporations. Their scores are evaluated using the Governance and Environmental Management Strength, or GEMS, rating that evaluates the presence or absence of 50 distinct sustainability indicators. The GEMS scale was developed by Soyka & Company in conjunction with consultants IW Financial.

Eleven companies are ranked in the top 25 for the first time, displacing other firms. Some of those no longer in the top 25 such as Ball Corporation, Hess Corporation, H.J. Heinz, and Texas Instruments have made modest incremental gains in their scores but have been overtaken by others. Others, such as Gap, Inc., Merck, Symantec, Weyerhaeuser, and Xcel Energy have not kept pace, and in fact have experienced modest declines in their scores.

One former member of the top 25, Millipore, is no longer listed in the Russell 1000. The report highlights Virgin Media, McGraw-Hill, Allstate, Owens Corning, and Waste Management for achieving high scores that are more than double that each of their nearest industry peer.

Some 126, or 13 percent of the total, of the largest publicly traded firms in the U.S. still have a total score of zero, meaning that they do not disclose any of the 50 individual pieces of information comprising The GEMS scale.

Intel was ranked fourth in a poll of the US’s best corporate citizens released in April by CR Magazine. Bristol-Myers Squibb topped the list followed by IBM and Microsoft.

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