The Secrets to Successful Sustainability Initiatives
If you're feeling frustrated after Copenhagen, take heart. Your actions can help tackle climate change while making your company - and career - stronger and more successful.
Making a commitment to sustainability is relatively easy. Actually adapting business practices to meet that commitment is much harder.
If you are keen on making your company more sustainable, it's more than just one person can handle. Here are five strategies that can help you manage that change process:
1) Get the mindset: Believe in your own power, and you can make a difference. At the Phelps Group, Kristen Thomas' idea to swap disposable dishes for reusable ones started a green tidal wave that ultimately led to her company becoming the largest private solar power installation in the Santa Monica area.
2) Make the business case: Doug Shaw's mobile handset recycling scheme at BT Wholesale delivered £3 million in cost savings whilst generating cash for charity and increasing recycling. It also kept customers happy as a survey had found customers cared about old handsets ending up as landfill.
3) Get colleagues on your side: From using peer pressure to change behaviour to giving people the freedom to develop their own solutions, engagement is vital. Dr Paul Toyne from Bovis Lend Lease formed sustainability action groups across the company, asking directors to recommend people to ensure top level buy in. This meant new initiatives were embraced as solutions came from within.
4) Have two-way conversations. It's crucial to communicate your messages effectively and that means making it real and relevant. Coral Rose persuaded fabric buyers at Walmart to use organic cotton by giving them a packet of kitty litter which was the equivalent weight of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to grow cotton for a single conventional t-shirt. The result? Wal Mart is now the largest user of organic cotton in the world.
5) Work together: Collaboration can reap great rewards. Emlist help from others in your company, competitors, customers, suppliers, NGOs and government. For example, in Scotland, Boots has teamed up with another company to share deliveries. The initiative has save 6,000 delivery miles a week and 150,000 litres of fuel per annum - reducing costs and the company's carbon footprint.