Filed Under Profit

A burger worth choosing?

Neil McCallum — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:01:07 -0400

Illustration text: At Max Burgers you can see exactly how much carbon impact your meal has all the way from the farmers land to the guests hand directly on the menu. This has resulted in a 15 percent increase in sales of carbon efficient alternatives.

“Enabling consumers to make sustainable choices and advance responsible behaviour individually and collectively” is according to a fresh UN report something that supports a future worth choosing. In a restaurant such as Max burgers, a partner of The Natural Step, it comes down quite literally to menu options. That’s not enough however.

At Max we know that we, along with our entire industry and society as a whole, are unsustainable. But we are also, as anyone else could be, a change agent for a better future. And here clear results do matter. Since 2005 we have been recognised as the healthiest in the industry in Sweden where we have our operations. In 2008 we became the first in the world to put climate on the menu. But to further assist our guests we decided to carbon offset all of our products through reforestation in Africa through Plan Vivo certificates. Of course we are also simultaneously working at reducing the impact of our products.

That means we did back in 2005 and 2008 what Tarja Halonen and Jacob Zuma, in the above mentioned UN Report, now wants us to do more of now - to empower people to make sustainable Choices. The say:

“Every day, millions of choices are made by individuals businesses and governments. Our common future lies in all those choices. Because of the array of overlapping challenges the world faces, it is more urgent than ever that we take action to embrace the principles of the sustainable development agenda. It is time that genuine global action is taken to enable people, markets and governments to make sustainable choices.”

What we have done is just one step forward. We need much more action from the food industry and we want to support a progressive agenda in Rio +20. That’s why we are here. At this conference we want to learn and to inspire, but more importantly, we want to find sustainability leaders from other parts of the planet, with whom we can form strategic alliances for global food security. So please, don’t hesitate to contact me to share ideas on how to do that.

At this conference I will participates in two sessions:

1. Monday 26th, Presentation on how to strategically move towards sustainability, during the Bridges to the Future session. I will share our journey towards sustainability and the experiences that have strengthened customer loyalty, created a change for consumer behavior and also provide inspiration others to follow in our footstep.

(At 2 pm, Room 14)

2. Wednesday 28th, We will host an exclusive breakfast roundtable discussion on global food security together with Stockholm Environment Institute and The Natural Step.

We are honoured to be called upon as a good example at this conference and hope that other companies will see the benefits of doing well by doing good. But I am also looking forward to learn more about other good business and science examples that could help further improve our work with sustainability. We know that Max still have a long way to go to able to call ourselves a sustainable company, but that is our mission.

Max is a family owned business which means that we are not driven by quarterly capitalism and this may just be the reason why our perspective on sustainable driven business fits in at a conference that focuses on the bigger picture. We are confident that businesses and individuals need to be able to make more active choices that put less pressure on the planet as well as the people living on it. At Max we are world leading, but has just got started.

Written by: Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Max Burgers

Cell: +46 (0)70 206 1669

E-mail: Par.Larshans@max.se

Beyond the Bailout Why Sustainability is Even More Relevant in an Economic Crisis

Chas Martin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:05:56 -0400

Start: Oct 21 2008 - 12:30am

Timezone: Etc/GMT

Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center ♦ 1000 NE Multnomah, Portland
Registration 7:10 - 7:30 am, Program 7:30 - 9:00 am

In the midst of economic turmoil, where do sustainability efforts come in and why are they necessary?
How can a systems approach be applied to both a healthy economy and a healthy environment?
In uncertain times, many organizations will focus on protecting their core. How will this create opportunities for those who maintain their vision for long term sustainability to gain competitive advantage?

Please join us as three of our region’s economic experts discuss the current economic climate and how it relates to environmental sustainability.
Featuring:

Dr Mary C. King, Professor of Economics, Sustainability
Certificate Program Professor: Portland State University
Setting the stage: An overview of the economic system and the current crisis

Carsten Henningsen: Chairman: Portfolio 21
Making it through the funnel (How do we avoid hitting the economic and ecological resources wall)

David Williams, CEO: ShoreBank Pacific
When financial decisions fail the community: A look at the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street

REGISTRATION: Space is limited! Download the event brochure for registration by mail or fax and return to The Natural Step Network by Thursday, October 16th.
To ensure your place, prior registration is required. Online registration is also available at Brown Paper Tickets. For further information contact the Network at (503) 241-1140 or events@ortns.org. Fax: (503) 546-6825.

The Biggest Mistake Sustainability Champions Make

Pong Leung — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:44:55 -0400

Recently, I spoke on an online dialogue about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Canada and had an audience member asked me about how business’ CSR investments will be affected by the economic downturn. This great question is one that numerous professionals are concerned with as they move into budget season.

Some recent studies, such as GreenBiz’s State of Green Business Report, show an increased investment in business sustainability initiatives over the past couple of years, in spite of the economic downturn. This flies in the face of conventional (old) thinking that sustainability / CSR initiatives get cut when budgets are tight. However, at the same time, I have talked to some professionals leading sustainability efforts who have seen their available resources decline; so why are there different stories here?

Well, I feel that this relates to the biggest mistake sustainability champions make when trying to gain traction for sustainability in their organizations: they do not position sustainability as an enabling strategy to achieve business priorities. Instead, sustainability is positioned as separate from business success, so it is not surprising that these sustainability initiatives get cut when it comes time to look at the budget. Conversely, the organizations that position sustainability as an enabler of business priorities often see their budgets increase.

What can a sustainability champion do then? Well, first, try to understand the current priorities for the business or department and identify how sustainability can be an enabler:

If winning the war for talent is important, explain how graduates are increasingly using a business’ CSR performance to determine where to work
If cutting costs are important, explain how businesses have saved billions in energy efficiency measures
If brand and reputation are important, explain the increasing expectation of customers and investors for social and ecological performance
...and so on.

One great resource that can help you with this is a set of slides offered by sustainability guru Bob Willard, which are rich with statistics to help build the business case for sustainability.

Once you know the priorities, identify an initiative that can lead to positive social and ecological impacts as well address an important business issue. You don’t even need to call it a sustainability initiative; in fact, perhaps it is better if you don’t. Call it an “efficiency initiative,” “market study,” “leadership training,” “stakeholder mapping,” or whatever makes the most sense in your context. If you need to, position these initiatives as pilots to learn from and only scale them up if they are successful.

If you position sustainability as an enabling strategy you will help people understand how it translates into business value and demonstrate that it’s not just a “nice to do, tree-huggy thing.” It will also help you build credibility as someone who cares about the business.

Canada

The world sustainability leader in the fast food industry Max Burgers share their story at Planet Under Pressure

Neil McCallum — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:17:22 -0400

One may ask how it is possible to open a chain of Burger restaurants that outperforms the international fast food giants. Max Burgers not only made McDonald’s close down restaurants in the northern towns of Sweden but they also try to seed a revolution for a sustainable fast food industry. Max Burgers are the first chain of restaurants in the world to provide carbon labeling for all its meals and fully offset the environmental impact of its operation by planting trees in Africa. The Max reforestation program is the largest in the entire Plan-Vivo certification system. The goal is to make the whole operation fossil fuel-free and to become a fully sustainable enterprise in a sustainable society. They can however, not reach their goal without help from their industry colleagues.

Max participates in two sessions:

1. Monday 26th, Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Max Burgers, will provide a thought-provoking and inspiring presentation on how to strategically move towards sustainability, during the Bridges to the Future session.

(At 2 pm, Room 14)

2. Wednesday 28th, Max Burgers host an exclusive breakfast roundtable discussion on global food security together with Forum For the Future, Stockholm Environment Institute and The Natural Step.

"We need much more action from the food industry and we want to support a progressive agenda in Rio +20. That’s why we are here. At this conference we want to learn and to inspire, but more importantly, we want to find sustainability leaders from other parts of the planet, with whom we can form strategic alliances for global food security", says Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Max Burgers.

Starting in May 2008, Max has labeled all products with their respective climate impact - allowing and empowering their guests to take the climate impact into consideration when placing their orders. Since 2008, Max has made carbon offsets for its total climate impact - from the farmers land to the guest’s hand.

"This initiative offers power to our customers as it gives them the opportunity to choose meals not only from taste or health but also from climate impact. And by carbon offsetting through tree plantation, we will constantly be reminded of the costs of our carbon footprints and thus continue to work towards zero climate impact", says Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Max Burgers.

Apart from putting climate on the menu Max have also taken other concrete measures to become environmentally and socially sustainable, such as:

All restaurants are powered by 100% wind energy.
All frying oil used is converted into biodiesel.
Since 2005, Max products have been recognised as the healthiest in the industry.
No to GMOs and trans fats.
All fish is sourced from responsibly managed fisheries (MSC-certified).
All restaurants have more than two staff members with a disability.
An extensive internal leadership program which includes sections on sustainability and diversity.
Partnerships with research and industry to promote sustainable beef production and science based methods for social sustainability.
Significantly increased recycling rates.
Removed unnecessary packaging as well as all toys for kids requiring batteries.
Introduction of organic coffee and milk.

Short facts

Sustainability has proven to be one of Max’s most profitable initiatives ever. It has, in fact, proven to be more profitable than opening up new restaurants.
Approx. 3 000 employees
88 restaurants in Sweden, all owned by the founding family
Most satisfied customers in the business, nine years in a row
Most preferred hamburgers in Sweden

For more information on the workshop please visit: www.planetunderpressure2012.net

Are you the next sustainability leader?

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:48:05 -0500

Online applications for the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) and Master’s in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation (MSPI) at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden, will be open until January 15th. Both these leading-edge international master’s programmes are based around The Natural Step Framework, and integrate practical, applied course work to empower and enable graduates to make positive change in the world.

This year’s MSLS class consists of 67 students from 21 different countries. Will you join us in the next class?

The MSPI masters will have its inaugural intake in 2010. It builds off BTH’s strong reputation in education for sustainable development, and will incorporate the cutting-edge research conducted at BTH within Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation.

To apply, you will need to complete the online application form at www.studera.nu, and then mail your supporting documents by Feb. 15th, 2010. Spaces in both programmes are limited and successful candidates can receive their decisions in May, with a starting date of classes in late August 2010.

BTH looks forward to receiving your application…

Sweden

Ashforth Pacific, Inc., Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:07:31 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Overview
Ashforth Pacific, Inc. (API), is an investor, owner, and operator providing third-party property management, construction, and parking management services in West-Coast markets. An affiliate of The Ashforth Company, a Connecticut-based firm, API was established in Portland, Oregon, in 1995 and currently has 55 employees. The Ashforth Company presently owns and manages upwards of 15 million square feet of office space, of which 1.5 million square feet is in Portland. In May 1999, API launched an environmental initiative based on its newly created environmental statement and the four system conditions of The Natural Step.

Background
The Ashforth Company was founded as a family owned real estate company in New York in 1896. Throughout the next century, it expanded its services and coverage areas. The creation of the API office extended The Ashforth Company’s services beyond the Northeast to include the rapidly growing Northwest real estate market.

The company strives to bring social and economic benefits to the communities in which it operates. The opening page of its centennial celebration book states, “We owe it to our ancestors to preserve entire the rights they have delivered to us; we owe it to our posterity not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed.”

Ashforth is dedicated to serving its customers by adhering to its four operating principles: Commitment—to create enduring business relationships that will enhance the value of the company, Quality— to be dedicated to providing the highest level of service with speed and professionalism, People—to foster teamwork, personal growth, creativity and leadership and to encourage respect for the individual, communication, optimism, and a sense of humor, and Practices—to act with integrity and fairness to customers, employees, and community.

Introduction to The Natural Step: the Passion of a CEO
Hank Ashforth, CEO of API and the great-grandson of The Ashforth Company’s founder, learned about The Natural Step (TNS) through his involvement with the environmental community in Portland. Convinced that the business community must be part of the solution of pressing environmental issues, he attended an Oregon Natural Step Network breakfast meeting and quickly saw a good match between API’s principles and the framework TNS provided. In March 1999, he invited Duke Castle to give a briefing for members of the API executive team in charge of property management, construction, leasing, and finance.

The executive team met with Castle again to conduct a visioning exercise and brainstorm potential ideas. The team came up with a list of “low hanging fruit” and sent several employees to the National TNS conference in Portland in April 1999. Its purpose was to gain insight on ways to implement TNS framework, recruit a summer intern to focus on environmental issues, and train employees.

Launching the Environmental Initiative
In May 1999, the executive team hired Wendy Faubert as an intern and worked with her on a strategy for implementing an environmental initiative. They developed an approach that was both top-down and grassroots oriented. This strategy was designed to take advantage of the strong support of the executive team, the small and personal nature of the company, and the existing interest and passion of some employees.

The primary function of the grassroots approach was to develop awareness and interest among office employees in a fun and non-threatening manner. Meanwhile, the top-down strategy involved the executive team formulating an environmental policy statement and the formation of two sustainability teams. The teams’ mandate was to focus on ways that office operations and building-management practices could support the environmental initiative. The two groups, OSCAR (Office, Sustainability, Conservation, and Recycling) and BEAT (Buildings Environmental Action Team), would each be staffed by six employees handpicked by the CEO.

In July 1999, API officially launched its Environmental Initiative at an all-hands meeting—a debriefing meeting attended by all members of the office. The initiative was based on the company’s new environmental statement, “We will be stewards of our environment by taking responsible actions within our business and our communities,” and the four system conditions of The Natural Step. During the meeting, Duke Castle presented TNS framework, Hank Ashforth spoke, and a brainstorming activity allowed employees to write down their ideas for practices that could be implemented within the company.

By the fall it was apparent the Faubert was needed fulltime, and she accepted the job of sustainability coordinator.

Building Employee Support for the Environmental Initiative
From the beginning, building employee interest, awareness, and support for the Environmental Initiative was a top priority. The initial strategy was to keep the activities voluntary and fun. Several different methods were used to educate employees about sustainability and concepts surrounding TNS framework.

A brown bag lunch series served as the primary means of engaging employees. Employees learned about other environmentally conscious businesses organizations such as The Collins Companies, the Sustainable Chef’s Collaborative, Nike, PGE, The Rebuilding Center, and Carsharing Portland.

Other education methods included field trips and a bulletin board displaying relevant articles and information on sustainability and TNS framework. Office games and activities for each system condition kept the initiative and the concept of environmental responsibility in front of employees in a fun and interactive way. One popular activity was the “cookies-for-trash-cans” trade where employees voluntarily gave up their individual trash can and agreed to throw away all of their garbage in a central area. This activity was easy for employees to participate in, succeeded in raising employee awareness about what they were throwing away, and saved API 9,000 plastic trash can liners a year.

Finally, each API office employee attended a two-and-one-half-hour TNS framework training. The sustainability coordinator, office manager, and assistant controller conducted the training in groups of six to ten people during August and September 2000. All office employees attended the training as well as several outside vendors and other organizations interested in The Natural Step. The training focused on understanding the four system conditions through a combination of games, videos, visual aids, and discussions exploring how our actions and purchases affect the environment. The employees also completed a questionnaire that polled their perceptions related to the initiative and their interest in participating in other environmental events.

Results, Results, Results
API’s Environmental Initiative is a vision shared by the entire company, but it is rooted in producing results, results that can be measured and managed. Hank Ashforth has emphasized quantifiable results, believing that “if we know where we are, it is easier to go where we want to.”

Energy. Many of API’s initial projects focused on energy conservation measures. Between 1997 and 2001, the company reduced energy consumption by 18% through lighting and heating/cooling changes in the four commercial properties it owns, saving $654,000 over five years. T-8 lights, compact fluorescents, and LED lights replaced less efficient products; and automatic controls sweep all lights off during evenings and weekends. Thermostats were adjusted by two degrees. As a conservation incentive, sub-meters were installed so that tenants pay for any extra use of electricity above a standard amount. In addition, API has invested 6% of total electricity usage in wind power through Pacific Power’s Blue Sky program. The company is one of Pacific Power’s largest supporters of Blue Sky.

Water. API reduced water consumption in its portfolio properties by 6% by not using air conditioning after hours and not watering lawn areas, saving $43,000 annually. To handle storm water on site, the Liberty Center Parking Garage was retro-fitted with bioswales that filter the runoff and allow it to seep into the ground.

Waste. Through electronic communication and double-sided copying, API reduced paper purchases by 39% between 1998 and 2001. As a further commitment to saving trees, the company switched to 100% post-consumer recycled copy paper and 100% (40% post-consumer) recycled, chlorine-free toilet paper, saving over $15,000 annually. In 1999, when PacifiCorp’s office space was renovated, API’s construction arm made an extraordinary effort to recycle not only metal and wood, but also ceiling tile, window glass, drywall, and carpet. The company is now working to expand recycling options available to tenants to include batteries and packing peanuts and to create a better mechanism for tracking waste and recycling outputs. The centralized trash collection system for the office is on its way to becoming standard operating procedure for all tenant spaces.

Toxics. The company worked with ABM Janitorial Services (ABM) to switch to non-toxic cleaning products in the maintenance of its buildings. First testing the citrus-based Bi-O-Kleen on an outside curtain wall and finding it effective, ABM found it could replace over 20 standard cleaners, from scouring powder to carpet spotter, degreaser to disinfectant, with the same solution in different concentrations. As a result, 25 hazardous chemicals have been eliminated. ABM now promotes Bi-O-Kleen with its other commercial clients.

To reduce landscaping impacts, chemical herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers are now prohibited in API’s maintenance specifications. Gasoline-powered maintenance equipment has been replaced by propane, electric, or manual equipment wherever possible, and the most polluting two-stroke engines are no longer allowed. Leaf blowers, because of their air and noise pollution, are allowed only at the height of fall season.

Transportation. Not only does API provide free transit passes to all employees, but it also actively supports alternative transportation throughout the Lloyd District. For example, it played an instrumental role in the expansion of Tri-Met’s Fareless Square to the District. That means that workers can travel from downtown to the Lloyd District free of charge. For those who don’t drive to work, API has loaned two parking spaces and purchased a membership in Flexcar, a service that makes a car available when needed during the workday. To encourage bicycle commuting, it provides 34 bicycle lockers in addition to racks and included showers in its newest building. To further encourage employees to use alternatives to single-occupant auto commutes, it offers a special benefit on a trial basis. Those who use alternative transportation 80 percent of the time each month get a half-day of personal time.

Green building. When API remodeled its office space, it installed Interface carpet tiles, allowing worn tiles in high-traffic areas to be sent back to the company without replacing the entire carpet. Low VOC paints were specified for the walls. Environ Biocomposite, a particle board manufactured from agricultural wastes, was chosen for desk surfaces.

Operating from the belief that people want to do their best, API has been pleased by employee ideas that have been generated through the Environmental Initiative. In fact, many of the projects API has worked on or is currently working on came from employees’ suggestions. A sampling of other employee ideas include double-siding fax cover sheets; using glasses, plates and silverware in the office instead of disposables; using envelopes provided by vendors in their invoices instead of API envelopes; and standardizing office supplies with choices based on TNS principles along with efficiency and cost.

Lessons Learned
• Invest time in training workers so they are knowledgeable and excited about the company’s new direction.
• Take small steps. The challenges, changes, and ideas can be overwhelming at times. Look for the easy things to do first, as accomplishments breed success.
• Encourage workers to come up with ideas to support the initiative.
• Set up a structure to make employees’ ideas a reality.
• Communicate environmental goals and policies to vendors to help expand your company’s impact.

API feels that the most important element in launching an initiative is enlisting the support of people working in the company. As Wendy Faubert, API’s first sustainability coordinator put it, “I strongly believe that having taken the time to get people on board, to make it fun, to increase the energy around the initiative before we start [more] projects. . . is going to pay dividends in the long run.” According to the office manager and assistant controller, benefits of involving employees in the Environmental Initiative include improving the cohesiveness of the company, challenging employees to think of new ways to improve existing processes, and better communications among departments.

Challenges
API spent the first 18 months of its environmental initiative pursuing “low-hanging fruit,” primarily in the property management division. The projects were fairly easy to accomplish because they did not radically change business operations (e.g., shifting to a more environmentally friendly cleaner) and demonstrated short-term economic justification (e.g., the energy savings). The company’s next challenge will be changes that alter fundamental practices and are harder to justify economically. Greener construction, for example, often requires a large investment in materials and, initially, more employee involvement and time. In the “time-is-money” world of construction, such challenges can seem daunting. However, API is quick to point out that while construction will be more challenging, there is ample opportunity for significant environmental benefits.

Beginning September 2001, API was selected as property manager for the Vollum Natural Capital Center, a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold-rated green building located in Portland’s Pearl District. Involvement with this high-profile project has raised the bar for API to continue to develop innovative and environmentally friendly approaches to property management.

In 2002 API accepted a new challenge—participation in a pilot project of the U.S. Green Building Council to test its new LEED-EB (Existing Buildings) rating system. To date, the Council’s LEED certification system for green buildings has applied largely to new construction. Over the course of the coming year, Ashforth Pacific staff will document Liberty Center’s performance and policies in the areas of cleaning and maintenance, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, recycling and facilities, and landscape maintenance. Where necessary, building systems may be upgraded to bring the building into compliance with LEED criteria.

The Future
The company is now developing a more in-depth approach to sustainability involving all office staff. Smaller teams will focus on revising specific areas of corporate and building operations and working to balance sustainability goals with the needs of tenants, profit expectations, and the constraints of the company’s existing buildings. Each group will conduct a thorough analysis of its area of operations, identify and implement necessary improvements, and track indicators that will help the company measure environmental performance. The four system conditions of the Natural Step will serve as a compass for these groups as they redefine organizational processes and operations.

Many organizations and individuals have contributed knowledge and inspiration to the company’s sustainability efforts. As the work of the Environmental Initiative further unfolds, API will strive to share information and lessons learned with clients, suppliers, and the community at large. While recognizing that much work lies ahead in the company’s quest for
sustainability, Ashforth Pacific intends to continue stepping forward to increase service to clients while improving the environmental and economic bottom line.

Sources
1. Interview with Wendy Faubert, Sustainability Coordinator, Ashforth Pacific, Inc., December 15, 2000
2. Master Recycler News, October 2000, “Profile: Sustainability in Real Estate Management,” Mendola, Kathleen Finn
3. The BEAT Bulletin, November 2000, March 2000, October 1999

This case study was prepared in April 2001 by Vanessa Margolis for The Natural Step Network and updated in October 2002 by the Network.

Axis Performance Advisors, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:42:36 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Background
Axis Performance Advisors was started in 1990 by Marsha Willard and Darcy Hitchcock as an organizational management consulting firm, specializing ins self-directed work teams. As of today, November 2003, about 53 percent of Axis' work is directly related to sustainability.

Inspiration
In addition to its consulting work, Axis would, on occasion, host one-day think-tank meetings. In 1996, having heard about the concept of sustainability, it hosted a meeting on the subject. At that meeting Hitchcock had an “aha” experience when she realized that Axis was showing companies how to be more efficient and effective in depleting the planet’s resources. She decided that she and Willard had to do “something.” Shortly thereafter Hitchcock was introduced to The Natural Step (TNS) at a Business for Social Responsibility meeting. She says she felt a great relief, because TNS offered the “something” that Axis should do. In 1998 she went to the TNS conference in Chicago and began doing volunteer work for the Oregon Natural Step Network as a speaker and as a contributing writer for the Tool kit.

Action
Upon learning about TNS, Axis first examined the impacts of its own business on the environment. Hitchcock and Willard quickly realized that as a service business, their greatest impact was through their consulting services and the influence they had on their clients. Since they had experience in organizational change, they could help companies become more sustainable.

Axis also examined its internal practices against the four systems conditions. It determined that its greatest impact was greenhouse emissions from energy use, especially transportation, but it was able to take action to reduce its impacts in all four system conditions.

System Condition One (Taking Substances from the Earth's Crust)

Willard and Hitchcock measured their greenhouse gas impact and purchased carbon offsets to be climate neutral with a cost of approximately $20 per year per person (see Appendix 1 for measurements, including tracking alternative transportation).
Hitchcock moved her home office from Vancouver, Washington to Portland, Oregon to reduce travel.
Both Hitchcock and Willard use bicycles and public transportation whenever possible, resulting in 43% of business travel through alternative transportation (up from 0% before 2000)
Hitchcock and Willard both work from their homes, they purchased Green Power for both work and personal consumption.
Hitchcock purchased a Toyota Prius for business and personal use.
Axis purchased Energy Star rated computers (MAC G3s and monitors) and chose not to buy a copying machine.

System Condition Two (Use of Synthetic Substances)

Switched overhead transparency markers to ones that wash off with water instead of isopropyl alcohol.
Decided not to purchase certain products (e.g., glues) that had volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

System Condition Three (Preservation of Natural Resources)

Committed to buying recycled content paper, using 100% post-consumer recycled paper for company stationary.
When copier broke, did not purchase new one. This reduced the number of copies Axis makes.
Transitioned services like its newsletter and Team Booster product to an electronic service to save paper.
Axis does small print runs of the Sustainability SeriesTM booklets so as not to build up a large inventory, which might need to be scrapped later.
Axis has also chosen ShoreBank Pacific for their banking services.

System Condition Four (Meeting Human Needs)

Offered no- or low-cost services for targeted non-profits which would otherwise not be able to afford consulting services and which had a mission related to sustainability (Housing our Families, Planned Parenthood, Oregon Environmental Council, OMSI).
Provided pro bono facilitation services for the Oregon Natural Step Network’s Climate Change Peer Learning Group.

Results
Axis’s expenditures have mainly been in time, although it has paid for some training as well. It characterizes the time and training as R&D because Axis’ goal has been to transform the business to sustainability consulting.

That said, just operating its business more sustainably has saved Axis money over all. It has spent less money on parking fees, equipment not purchased, and printing and postage and has less wear and tear on its vehicles. The combined effect of its transportation efforts resulted in an annual reduction of 4,000 pounds of CO2 emissions. Axis has also learned that measurement does change behavior. It helps inform decisions and makes an immediate impact.

Challenges
One irony is that the more successful Axis becomes the more Hitchcock and Willard have to travel, which will actually increase their environmental impacts. They will address these impacts through the use of offsets.

Because sustainability is the focus of Axis’s business, the biggest challenge is creating a market to sustain all those who want to work in this field. It appears that sustainability is still at the early adopter phase in most sectors so the list of potential customers is limited. Also in tough economic times, people tend to pull back from exploring new options (even if they could save time or money) because they are already feeling stressed and stretched. That said, the challenge for consultants is always: to provide value to customers.

This case study was prepared by Regina Hauser for the Oregon Natural Step Network. For more information contact Darcy Hitchcock (503) 288-7704, darcy@axisperformance.com, or Marsha Willard (503) 284-9132, marsha@axisperformance.com, or visit the Axis Performance Advisors’ Web site, www.pacifier.com/~axis.

Appendix 1

Benefits for Business

Anouk Bertner — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:47:07 -0400

Reaping the rewards

The Natural Step provides professional and customized education, training and advisory services to leading companies committed to real change. By integrating sustainability and systems-thinking into hearts and minds of employees, and into the core strategies and operations of companies like Nike, Rio Tinto Alcan, and Rohm and Haas we are helping them create innovative, sustainable solutions and driving the transition to a sustainable future. Companies committed to a sustainable vision also enjoy a number of clear commercial benefits including:

Product and Service Innovation-Sustainability principles and strategies inject revolutionary thinking into new product and services, opening up new markets, growing customers, and reducing risk throughout the lifetime of products.
Competitive Advantage - Visionary organisations use sustainability to adapt to competitive pressures through innovative, flexible and adaptable products and processes, with an enhanced ability to quickly respond to change.
Customer and Employee Loyalty and Trust - Enhanced brand equity and reputation accompanies sustainable business practices serving to attract customers and employees alike.
Increased Shareholder Value - Research shows that companies pursuing sustainable business strategies have significantly greater shareholder value than their peers.
License to operate – Organisations that can genuinely and effectively engage communities to deliver ‘triple bottom line’ benefits are much more likely to achieve success in their ventures.
Cost savings - Redesigning energy, material flows and impacts in the direction of sustainability can significantly reduce operational costs while increasing access to capital by lowering risks.
And of course, bringing your organization strategically closer towards environmental and social sustainability in an economically sound way.

Our services are tailored to meet your exact needs with each of our offices offering a number of distinct service offerings and supporting tools based upon The Natural Step Framework. Examples include:

Readiness, baseline and gap analysis assessments
Foundations, capacity-building and leadership training in sustainability
Support in defining the business case for sustainability in your specific circumstance
Vision and strategy development for sustainable business
Networking events and breakfast seminars
Support in value chain collaboration with customers and suppliers
Best practice benchmarking using PROBE for Sustainable Business
Sustainable product assessment and innovation using our Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment approach.

BOORA Archietcts, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:47:08 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

TNS gave us a banner to march behind. It enhanced the spirit that was already here and gave us order and direction. —Eric Miller, BOORA employee Overview BOORA Architects provides architecture, planning, and interior design services to clients throughout the United States and abroad. With one office in Portland, Oregon, BOORA currently has 85 employees and annual gross revenues in excess of $13 million. The firm’s projects include schools, theaters, museums, libraries, office buildings, and recreation facilities.

· LEED implementation: Assisting in the registration and certification of BOORA projects. Currently, four of BOORA’s buildings are LEEDä registered.

· Products library classification: “Greening” BOORA’s interiors and products library so that teams can use the best and most responsible materials available; developing product classifications which describe what makes various products green; and developing a classification form that product representatives can use to provide detailed information
about their product’s sustainability features.

Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead
· Provide leadership from the top. BOORA management communicated to the staff its commitment to the firm’s sustainability efforts through specific goals and objectives
outlined in the annual business plans.

· Commit to education and training. Strongly encouraging all staff to attend a half-day TNS training session at an early date gave everyone the same knowledge base and vocabulary.

· Take calculated risks. Believing that too much analysis can cause paralysis, BOORA did not get bogged down with elaborate cost-benefit examination or require concrete evidence of assured success before moving forward. It continues to implement ideas that intuitively seem like the “right thing to do.”

· Little successes add up. Having some tangible achievements, especially if they are recognized publicly, inspires staff to take them to the next level. BOORA has received a PGE EarthSmart Innovator Award for the design of George Fox University’s Stevens Center, and two BOORA-designed buildings were selected for the Ten Plus Northwest exhibition organized by Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development, showcasing the
latest and best in sustainable practices and technologies in the Pacific Northwest.

· Share the responsibility. BOORA created a Sustainability Coordinator position, but the position was eventually eliminated. Because the TNS framework touches every aspect of
BOORA’s practice, from architecture and interiors to specifications, marketing, and technology, the responsibility for integrating TNS was too large and undefined for one individual.

· Find quantifiable industry standards . In the United States, The LEEDä rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council is the standard for assessing sustainability in commercial and institutional buildings. Many local governments, higher education institutions, architects, and engineers are already using this standard to assess the “shades of green” of their construction and renovation projects.

BOORA’s efforts over the past several years have focused on “building” a green BOORA—its people, place, and practice. The biggest challenge BOORA will face in the future will be “marketing” green BOORA. This shift from a more “internalized” focus to an “externalized” approach will advance the practice and business of sustainable design and build BOORA’s
reputation for knowing how to do this work.

Developing marketing communications materials that reflect BOORA’s accomplishments and perspectives, presenting seminars on sustainable design, and promoting recent innovative sustainable design approaches and technical systems in trade newspapers and journals all contribute to BOORA’s reputation as one of the most knowledgeable in this specialty. Resources need to be allocated toward these efforts so they don’t take a back seat when other “billable” efforts are pressing.

Learning to become effective advocates of sustainable design will result in better buildings, more satisfied clients, and a strong referral base for future work. Clients may be wary of the benefits of sustainable design, either because they don't understand it, they think it's too expensive, and/or they don't want to take a risk on unproven technology and equipment. Design professionals need to better learn the language of the building owner, facility manager, and CFO in terms owners can understand--first-cost savings, return on investment, and enhanced productivity--to effectively champion the benefits and value of sustainable design.

This case study was prepared by Mary Van Domelen and Julie Wallis of BOORA for the The Natural Step Network.

Canadian Business for Social Responsibility :: 7th Annual Summit on CSR, Toronto, ON

Anouk Bertner — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:23:31 -0400

Start: Nov 5 2009 - 12:00am

End: Nov 5 2009 - 11:59pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Transformational CSR: The Next Wave of Business Leadership, Innovation and Performance
November 5, 2009 – Toronto

This year’s Summit will focus on new and creative ways for businesses to take a transformational approach to CSR – by embedding environmental, social and governance excellence and linking these principles to effective business strategy and bottom line performance. We will highlight current strategies, practical case studies and cutting edge trends that are advancing business practice. Featured speakers include: Dr. John Ruggie, United Nations Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman of Interface Inc. and Jeffrey Hollender, Chair and Chief Inspired Protagonist of Seventh Generation. Pre- and post-Summit workshops will take place on November 4 & 6. To learn more and register visit their website.

Canada

Canadian Business for Social Responsibility: Where in CSR are we headed?

Neil McCallum — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:10:39 -0400

An excellent blog from the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) outlines where in CSR we're headed as well as the top 5 emerging trends in CSR. For more information about CBSR and how they're changing the way business does business visit the CBSR website.

***

As we cross over into the second half of 2011 I'm reminded of the constant pace of change in our space. With the maturing of CSR (and some will say, the ‘commercialization” of CSR), the conversation is revolving more and more around the deeper integration of sustainability into business value, strategy, culture and the intersection of CSR with core business lines. I am optimistic as I see a desire amongst our members to marry business success with sustainable business practices and I know many of you believe, like me, that they are one and the same. However, I am also concerned about the number of companies not yet ‘in the tent’ – we will need broad and deep business engagement to address the sustainability challenges that continue to increase in their impact.

Here are CBSR's top five CSR trends for Q2. What do you see on your landscape?

1. Broader investor support for ESG issues

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors have been elevating in the minds of investors. A recent study by Ernst & Young notes that in 2010 “resolutions focusing on social and environmental issues made up the largest portion of all shareholder proposals.” The study also notes that 26.8% of 2010 ESG-related proposals received enough votes to achieve the 30% support threshold, at which point many Boards take note. This trend advances the rise of CSR strategic oversight to the Board governance level, as noted in CBSR’s CSR Governance Guidelines.

2. Companies who integrate CSR into brand are winning the war for consumer awareness

The 2011 GlobeScan Radar Report, a survey of consumer attitudes to company CSR performance, shows a large gap between consumer expectations and perceptions of industry performance. GlobeScan suggests that the gap reflects silos inside companies separating operational CSR, and communications, public affairs, marketing and other externally facing functions. The success of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan , GE’s ecoimagination program, and the recent work of Campbell Soup, show that those who are integrating CSR effectively into brand platforms are winning the war for consumer awareness.

3. Using social media to engage on CSR issues

Companies have been using social media for some time for philanthropic programs like Pepsi Refresh or to encourage consumer behaviour change, as with Cisco’s One Million Acts of Green. We are seeing that connection with online communities evolve as a way to share sustainability information and engage with stakeholders where they are actively spending time online. Recently CBSR member PotashCorp, announced an online shareholder survey and director’s videos on the company’s pay practices on Twitter, Facebook and their website and many members are using social media to announce CSR report releases.

4. Valuing sustainability impacts increases

Activity by Canadian Tire and Puma reflects an emerging move towards valuing sustainability impacts. Since Q3 2010 Canadian Tire has been quantifying the effects of its business sustainability initiatives through forecasting the annual avoided costs of energy use, GHG emissions and waste reduction. This spring Puma also announced an approach to the economic valuation of environmental impacts generated by GHG and water consumption across the supply chain. We expect this integration to grow among committed companies.

5. Targeted employee volunteering programs growing

Targeted employee volunteering programs are trending as a significant growth area within Corporate Community Involvement (CCI). CBSR held one of its most well attended learning webinars on Building an Employee Volunteer Program (EVP), and we have seen member companies creating positions to develop EVPs. Employee volunteering expert Chris Jarvis notes that “employees represent the strongest and broadest link between most corporations and their stakeholders.” These new EVP initiatives, for example Edelman Canada’s The Little Give, complement, enhance, and link with overall community investment, signature programs and brand. Creating or updating an EVP is an effective way for companies to engage with employees and stakeholders, shape company culture and enhancing reputation in the community.

Visit The Natural Step's Sustainable Business Program for more information on how our service path for sustainble business can help you.

Canada

Celebrating Success: Congratulations to 2013 Clean50 award winners Reza Nasseri and Barbara Turley-McIntyre

Sarah Brooks — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:53:33 -0400

This week, two of our partners won awards honouring their contribution to the sustainability movement. Reza Nasseri of The Landmark Group of Builders and Barbara Turley-McIntyre of The Co-operators were both recipients of this year’s Clean50 Awards.

The Clean50 Awards celebrate individuals and small teams who have made great contribution to sustainable development or clean capitalism in Canada. Sixteen categories, ranging from advocacy, cities, consultants and retail (to name only a few) are included, and there is an additional award for the Clean16 – those sixteen individuals deemed to have had the most impact in each of the sixteen categories. We are incredibly proud that individuals belonging to two of our long-term partnerships have been recognized for their leadership and sustainability efforts.

The Clean50 is a great addition to the awards landscape in Canada. Not only does it highlight the work of people we admire, but it also does something that is arguably crucial to the success of Canada’s sustainability journey; it provides the impetus to pause, reflect and celebrate our individual and collective contributions to (and progress throughout) society’s sustainability transition.

Sustainability is a journey. We’ve all heard it. Some days we believe it. Other times, it feels like that journey is so long and fraught that we may just as well stay home and pull the covers over our heads. However, it’s the dedication to that audacious vision – a vision that, as Ray Anderson said, ‘takes their breath away’ – that continues to propel individuals, companies and ultimately, society as a whole, toward a sustainable future. On any journey, it is important to find the space to consider not only what is left to do, but what has already been accomplished. Sometimes it’s this exact pause that gives us the time to refill, recharge and move forward yet again. The Clean50 reminds us that sustainability work is important and worthy of acknowledgement.

Consider this: when was the last time you lauded your sustainability team? When was the last time you paused and lauded yourself for your work and contributions to the successes – large or small – that you have been part of? Can you remember back to a time when you worked on something and someone gave you a real, authentic high five, literal or not? Remember how good that felt and maybe even how it spurred you to do more and even better work?

The Clean50 is a great reminder of the necessity of praise and the necessity of pausing. It’s a reminder that no matter how high placed we are in our work or life, we can all use acknowledgement. It reminds us of our intrinsic value and can refuel our commitment to our cause. Sustainability is a journey. Let’s not forget to celebrate our successes as doing so can help us move ahead.

Congratulations to Reza and Barbara, your contributions to the sustainable development are outstanding. Also, congratulations to us all; our work is important. Let’s remember to acknowledge that for each other and ourselves, and keep the sustainability journey moving!

If you are interested in learning more about our Service Path for Sustainable Business and how we can help your business develop a bold sustainability vision, strategy, and action plan, please contact us or join our next FREE Introduction to Strategic Sustainability for Business in Canada webinar.

Canada

Climate and Insurance, The Co-operators

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:59:50 -0500

climateandinsurance.org took five minutes to interview Barbara Turley-McIntyre, Director, Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship, The Co-operators Group Limited and Mark Feeney, Vice President, Personal Lines and Packaged Commercial, The Co-operators General Insurance and HB/Coseco Insurance about their work on sustainability at The Co-operators.

Barbara and Mark describe The Co-operators' journey to sustainability, the imputus for their organization's actions and some of the benefits: "Every part of our organization – distribution, claims, facilities management, corporate donations, and government relations – is working sustainability into their strategic plans for 2009 and beyond. Many of these are focused on the environment, but they also involve ways that we can contribute to enhancing the economic and social well-being of our communities and our planet."

Click here to read the interview.

Canada

College Housing Northwest, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:51:49 -0400

An Oregon Natural Step Network

Overview
College Housing Northwest is a non-profit organization providing housing for students at Portland State University (Portland State) and Central Oregon Community College. It has 120 employees and approximately $9.8 million in annual revenues.

Background
College Housing Northwest (CHNW) was founded in 1969 by a group of students and faculty members at Portland State. At that time, Portland State was not allowed to have housing on its campus and planned to demolish several apartment buildings and convert them into parking lots as part of a redevelopment effort. Students recognized the need for the preservation of those housing resources and convinced both the University and the State Board of Higher Education to allow them to form a non-profit organization to operate student housing called Portland Student Services. This organization later became College Housing Northwest. Portland Student Services was truly a product of the ‘60s’ culture, which included taking care of the earth. For example, the founding group also formed Portland Recycling Team, which operated a drop site on campus.

CHNW currently operates 1,407 apartments at Portland State and a 108-bed residence hall at Central Oregon Community College. Together they house approximately 1,920 students. CHNW owns 384 of the apartments it operates and partners with the Housing Authority of Portland for operation of 96 units at Portland State. The rest are owned by the two client schools.

Since 1988, Gary Meddaugh has been the CEO of CHNW. Meddaugh came to the job with an extensive background in both business management and earth stewardship. Through the ‘70s and early ‘80s Meddaugh managed a United Methodist Camp and Conference Center that had a two-acre organic garden, solar greenhouse, and vegetarian food program and offered several programs on the stewardship of the earth.

Introduction to The Natural Step
After coming to Portland as CEO of what is now College Housing Northwest, Meddaugh was able to find a model that made sustainability meaningful and workable in a business environment. Through his friend John Emrick of Norm Thompson, he was invited by Dick and Jeanne Roy of The Northwest Earth Institute to attend one of the early Natural Step workshops in Portland. Excited about the concepts and the possibility of building a business model that incorporates a healthy relationship with the environment as part of its business strategy, Meddaugh encouraged each member of his management team to go to a Natural Step workshop.
While the management team found The Natural Step framework to be a meaningful and important way to move the organization forward, it agreed that some outside assistance would be helpful to incorporate the concepts into the business. Russell Barton of Ekos International worked with CHNW over the course of 18 months to develop the vision, the goals, and the strategies to incorporate sustainability into the company.

Implementation of the NEXUS Model
What evolved out of this work is what the company calls The Nexus Model, referring to the nexus of three converging circles: human enhancement, organizational excellence, and environmental sustainability. The Natural Step principles serve as a framework for the environmental component. After the management team and an expanded group of 23 employees developed this approach, it was presented to the Board of Directors, which adopted it with this strategic directive: “Implement Nexus to achieve our mission and be the provider of choice for innovative and eco-friendly student housing.”

The company launched a program to educate all employees and develop plans for making the changes to the organization. It operated with the belief that the fundamental way to make this change successful over time was to focus early efforts on changing the culture, instead of just doing "green" things. Training programs about the Nexus model and The Natural Step were begun first for managers, then all employees. A workbook was created entitled “Solutions at the Nexus: Sustainable Excellence at College Housing Northwest.” The workbook served as the centerpiece of the company-wide training effort. The initial training was four hours long. It covered the history of CHNW; a sustainable vision for CHNW; a discussion of the environmental, social, and political challenges to sustainability; an introduction to operating at the Nexus; an overview of The Natural Step system conditions; and discussion of a company-wide Nexus implementation plan.

To allow wide involvement in the program and achieve early success, the company allowed employees, without management interference, to look for low-hanging fruit throughout the company. An employee Low-Hanging Fruit Team was formed to promote, review, recognize, and celebrate ideas. At the same time, the expanded Nexus group worked on strategies to move the company forward using the Nexus model. When the managers looked at all processes and practices of the company, however, they became overwhelmed. As a result, several adjustments were made.

A senior executive was put in charge of implementing the change. CHNW has found great value in having one person in the organization be responsible for making sure everyone is actually doing things, not just talking about them. That person needs to have management support, must be very direct, and must both engage the staff and work with them to find even better and more appropriate products and ways of doing things. For example, if the painting department group says it is doing well and that it has replaced oil-based paint with recycled paint for certain applications, it can still be challenged and engaged to make certain it is looking deep enough and examining every option for improvement: “Have you considered low/zero-VOC paint?” CHNW appointed Vice President Dan Potter, who had been with the company for 28 years, to fill this role. His new, restructured position includes responsibility for budget preparation, new acquisition start-up, and new construction and remodeling supervision, as well as the Nexus program development.

The company also set up a new annual plan strategy called GAME (Goals, Actions, Measurements, and Excitement). Each year the Board sets overall goals, the management team determines how they will be accomplished, and each supervisor writes a GAME Plan. Measurements include task completion, a key indicators report (occupancy, revenue, HR, statistics, etc.), and responses from an annual customer survey. A group of employees was put in charge of excitement. CHNW found that excitement is one of the keys to keeping the Nexus approach in front of employees at all times. This involves communication both with employees and CHNW's customers--its tenants. The employee team refined a monthly tenant newsletter to include Nexus-type information and added a quarterly employee newsletter that emphasizes Nexus.

The company decided that if it wanted to walk its talk, it needed to do a better job of training. The total training budget—not just Nexus--has nearly doubled, from $25,000 to $42,280. All new employees receive orientation at the start of employment and additional training within the first 30 days. This training, presented by CHNW staff, includes the Nexus program as well as the mission, policies and procedures of CHNW, employee safety, and customer service.

During the first year Potter has focused most of his efforts in the areas of purchasing and energy. He went to each group—paint, mechanical, carpentry, cleaning—and tried to determine where the opportunities were for more sustainable products. He took his employees on field trips to local sources of sustainable supplies, such as Endura Woods, Rebuilding Center, and Environmental Building Supplies; got a copy of Green Specs published by Environmental Building News, and met with painting and cleaning vendors. He then gave his employees the task of renovating an old storage area into a studio apartment using what they had learned. They had a chance to try reclaimed wood, waterbased wood finish, cork flooring, low-flow plumbing fixtures, zero-VOC paint, energy conserving light fixtures, and recyclable carpet. This exercise helped the employees to start thinking differently and gave them positive encouragement.

Potter also formed an energy conservation group that meets once a month to decide what projects to undertake. The company did have an energy audit for two buildings by the gas utility, but Potter found that it’s more helpful to have his in-house experts make suggestions and determine pay-back times. When a project is complex, he hires an outside engineer to help make a decision.

Initial Results
The first year of the program resulted in 83 submissions to the Low-Hanging Fruit Team. Approximately 55 percent of them met the Nexus test, as determined by the team and the appropriate department supervisor, and were implemented. They were primarily small steps such as using double-sided copies, increasing all forms of recycling from broken window glass to office paper, using e-mail instead of paper, replacing paper dishes with reusable ceramic ones, being aware of energy and resource usage, etc. From these initial steps, the company realized financial savings of approximately $5,000 a year, but, more importantly, they were the beginning of a change in the cultural mindset. Paint. As a result of extensive research, College Housing has selected a zero-VOC paint. Potter had put together a matrix that considered important factors, such as quality, appearance, environmental impact, odor, and cost, and let his employees test the paints. Sherwin-Williams Harmony best met all criteria.

Cleaning products. Potter met with the company’s vendor Coastwide Labs to request more environmentally sustainable cleaners, and employees tried all sorts of “green” products. They didn’t find any that satisfied them until Coastwide Labs came out with a hydrogen peroxide product that replaces three conventional cleaners. Since that decision, Coastwide Labs has received third-party certification for six “Sustainable Earth” products.

Energy. In the laundry rooms, top-loading washing machines were replaced with more hot-water-efficient side-loaders, saving $15,000 in utility costs. Occupancy sensors were installed in these rooms to turn out lights. LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs were installed in all exit signs. And in common areas, the fluorescent bulbs were replaced by more energy-efficient T8 bulbs. Other measures have been carried out in single buildings: an ultra-low-flow shower head retrofit, a switch to compact fluorescents in dorm rooms, and replacement of an electric water heater with a high-efficiency natural gas one.

Water. A water study in conjunction with a doctoral student at Portland State has resulted in a plan to retrofit plumbing fixtures in older facilities that will ultimately affect over 1,000 units. CHNW completed an informal study in three of its buildings to gauge the results of various actions with and without water conservation education. In one building, it made many retrofits to improve water consumption efficiency combined with an educational program for the employees and tenants. In another building, it implemented just the educational program, and in the third (control), it did neither. In the control building and the building with just education, there was no real difference in outcomes. There were significant improvements in the building with retrofits and education.

New student housing at PSU. A 134-unit housing complex to be completed at PSU by summer 2003 is seeking a LEED (a national environmental performance ranking system) silver rank. The architect firm was selected because of its experience in sustainable construction and has considered life-cycle operational costs as well as up-front construction costs. The units have been designed in the European style—with less floor space than traditional American ones. In a closet by the front door will be a space for hanging a bicycle. The building will be so well insulated that computers, lights, cooking, and bodies will provide most of the heat. Rainwater will be captured for flushing toilets and irrigating landscaping. As the water comes through downspouts to the ground, it will be sent through a bioswale for filtering and then stored in an underground tank. Before use, it will be treated with filters and an ultraviolet light. The heat from shower water will be captured and used to heat cold entry water to the hot water tank. Other features include wheatboard cabinets, and low-toxicity finishes.

So far, the financial results include a two percent increase in occupancy (to 97.5%) and $120,000 per year in additional income. The company has saved approximately $10,000 per year from recent retrofits to reduce utility consumption.

The Future
Potter’s next focus will be on carpet purchases, additional energy savings measures, and improvements in residential recycling. CHNW knows that if the recycling system is more convenient (containers close to where they are needed) and more materials are accepted, more students will participate.

Lessons Learned

Prioritize the projects and break them down into manageable pieces. Trying to analyze every system at once was not very effective. It was overwhelming for a small organization not used to taking on things of this scope. Starting out that way was unnerving to some people for a period of time and made them feel as though they were losing.
It is important to understand that cultural change is an ongoing process, and management needs to be consistent in its approach to succeed. Not everyone shares the view that the world is in trouble and that we need to help save it. Not everyone wants to understand that view or make it their first priority. To change the culture, continual training is necessary.
CHNW found there is great value in having a champion to get people motivated, someone who has the responsibility of implementing the vision, whose job is to challenge employees and work with them to find better and more appropriate products and ways of doing things. As this person starts to do things and lead by example, others see what the company is trying to accomplish. Then they have ideas and make meaningful contributions toward the common goal.
Source
Interview with Gary Meddaugh, President, in March 2001 and phone comments from Dan Potter, Vice President, in May 2001.

This case study was prepared by Kent Snyder for the Oregon Natural Step Network in May 2001 and updated by the Network in October 2002.

Congratulations to The Co-operators Group Ltd. on Being Named Most Sustainable Co-op in the World by Corporate Knights Magazine!

Neil McCallum — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:40:00 -0400

The Natural Step would like to congratulate our close partner and client, The Co-operators Group Ltd., on being named the most sustainable co-op in the world by Corporate Knights Magazine. This is a well-earned and well-deserved accolade. The Natural Step Canada has provided our Sustainable Business services to The Co-operators since 2006, we co-produced a national Sustainability at Home Toolkit, and we are partners in delivering the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program for young leaders across Canada. Learn more about our work with The Co-operators and their sustainability journey here.

***

Today Corporate Knights, the company for clean capitalism, unveiled the preeminent list on sustainability performance at large co-operative businesses, the 2013 Most Sustainable Co-ops Ranking. The research team analyzed data on environmental, social and governance factors for the 35 largest co-operatives throughout the G7, which span a range of industry groups from insurance to food and staples retailing.

The top performing company in the ranking is Canada’s The Co-operators Group, the Guelph-based insurance provider owned by 45 members that include credit union centrals and co-ops.

Some of the factors that helped The Co-operators earn the top spot are employee turnover remaining quite low, along with a portion of executive compensation being tied to improvements in sustainability performance. The organization continues to maintain significant percentages of women in executive management and in the boardroom.

For a complete list of the top 10 most sustainable co-ops including information on the ranking system used please visit www.corporateknights.com.

Source: Corporate Knights

Connecting the strategic with the tactical: How does what we are doing connect with where we want to be?

Karen Miller — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:43:04 -0400

When organizations such as ISL Engineering and Land Services and The Co-operators have a solid sustainability strategy in place, it’s time to tackle this question. Last year, we helped the Cooperators develop a product assessment tool to clearly show how their products link to their sustainability strategy – helping to benchmark where they stand from a sustainability perspective and to track improvement over time. This year, we’re helping ISL Engineering and Land Services to assess various design options from a sustainability perspective as they build out their engineering projects.

This is where the rubber hits the road. It’s all well and good (and a necessary step!) to dream of a sustainable future, to articulate goals and to craft sustainability visions, but if we’re serious about making the shift to a sustainable society organizations of all shapes and sizes will need to integrate sustainability thinking into the ways in which they deliver value in the world. This means taking an honest look at their core products and services through a sustainability lens - and then evolving their thinking, business models and approaches to be congruent with a sustainability constrained world. Interface is a phenomenal example of an organization that took these bold steps, and reaped remarkable benefits from the innovations that resulted. It’s important work, and it starts with asking better questions.

I’m excited to be spending the summer months working with a group of water engineers at ISL Engineering and Land Services to do just this – helping them to ask different questions as they deliver their projects, connecting their strategic sustainability goals with the decisions that they make at a project level. Together, we will be building tools to help the organization respond to the question ‘How does this project move us from where we are to where we want to be?’ My hope is that this work will inspire new ideas and spark new questions about how things could and should be done, that it will help the team to notice sustainability opportunities and shed light on the challenges of today. Most importantly, I hope that it will help them to impress their clients with forward thinking technical solutions that go beyond best practices.

It seems simple to ask the question ‘how does what we are doing connect to where we want to be?’, but all too often we see organizations get stuck in the trials and tribulations of ‘greening the office’ – or stall out celebrating good intentions and incremental progress, without really evolving how they deliver their work. Building the tools and capacity to assess and question the status quo from a sustainability perspective opens the door to radical solutions. We believe that this skill – coupled with strong leadership and a robust sustainability strategy – is a necessary ingredient for success in the 21st century and beyond.

Canada

Dialogue on a Gold Standard for Sustainable Business At The Green Living Show (Toronto, ON)

Pong Leung — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:49:53 -0400

Start: Apr 12 2013 - 12:00pm

End: Apr 12 2013 - 2:30pm

Timezone: Canada/Eastern

Does your business see sustainability is a key driver for success?

If so, please join us to share your views and expertise to help shape a benchmark for truly sustainable business performance.

This dialogue is the initial step in The Gold Standard for Sustainable Business project, a collaborative initiative aiming to help consumers, businesses, investors, and employers that aim to support truly sustainable business practices through the decisions they make. During this dialogue we will explore the questions:

•    Why a Gold Standard for Sustainable Business?
•    What are the Pros and Cons of a Gold Standard?
•    What issues do you feel are most important to address in a Gold Standard?
•    How can we leverage existing efforts and work together to establish a Gold Standard?

A complimentary lunch is provided, and seats will be limited to the first 50 registrants.

To register and learn more please visit Dialogue on a Gold Standard for Sustainable Business.

Distance Learning

Anouk Bertner — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:20:27 -0400

Think Globally, Learn Locally

The Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and TNS collaborated to launch a new graduate distance learning course entitled Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development in 2008. Since then, the course has run several times and attracted students from around the world, from Colombia to Canada to New Zealand to Kenya. The purpose of this graduate-level course is to learn about core concepts in Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD), including a thorough understanding of a structured planning and decision making model for application to real world issues.

The course focus includes:

Sustainability challenges facing today's society, including some of the causes of both environmental and societal problems
The major components of a framework for strategic sustainable development
Independent application of a strategic planning tool (the “ABCD” analysis) in an organization
Foundational concepts of sustainable development, including basic science, economics, organizational learning and strategic management.
Different tools and concepts relevant to sustainable development – participants will apply the SSD framework to describe how these tools and concepts are best utilised.

The course is delivered through pre-recorded online lectures, readings, 2 group assignments, live class webinars, an individual presentation and final exam.

This is a part-time study course worth 7.5 ECTS Credits at the Masters Level. Students should expect to commit approximately 4 hours per week to view online materials and participate in online sessions. Additional worktime is required for assignments and readings.

For more information contact: sustainabilitydistancelearning@bth.se

Electrolux

Chas Martin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:14:53 -0400

A Natural Step Case Study

Overview
Electrolux, a global group of about 500 companies, is the world's largest manufacturer of household appliances (refrigerators, washing machines, vacuum cleaners), commercial appliances (refrigeration and laundry equipment), and outdoor appliances (chain saws, lawn mowers, and trimmers). Some of the better known companies in the US include Frigidaire, Eureka, and Kenmore. Today, employees number approximately 106,000 and net sales for 1997 were over $14 billion.

Background
Electrolux began operations in 1901 manufacturing kerosene outdoor lamps and in 1912 designed the first household vacuum cleaner. In the 1920s Electrolux bought AB Arctic, the world's first producer of refrigerators, thereby beginning its history of acquiring appliance and garden/forest-product companies. The Electrolux strategy has been to acquire companies and allow them to operate as individual units. It has become a multi-cultural, flat-management-style company that values cooperation, individual development, efficiency, and the environment.

Introduction to The Natural Step
Prior to the 1990s Electrolux was reactive and defensive about the environment. CFCs were becoming an industry issue, especially after the Montreal Protocol in 1987. The company was trying to find reasons not to change and was pointing to others around the world as worse violators than it. This strategy proved fruitless as the company began to see changes in market forces and demand for environmental goods in the early 1990s.

In 1991 top executives approached Karl-Henrik Robèrt, founder of The Natural Step (TNS), after a customer expressed concern over the use of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in refrigeration equipment. The customer had told Electrolux that the use of CFCs would violate the second system condition of The Natural Step. Because the customer was canceling a large contract for commercial refrigeration units, senior executives had become involved. Through meetings and dialog with Karl-Henrik Robèrt, these executives learned that environmental leadership was the key to long-term survival and the surest way to satisfy environmentally aware customers and avoid unexpected costs resulting from environmental degradation.

As a result of this experience, former CEO Leif Johansson decided to be proactive and to embed environmental considerations into the company's business strategy. In 1992 Electrolux adopted an environmental vision and policy based on TNS principles. (See p. III-8.) Management liked TNS because the framework focused on causes rather than symptoms, could be understood and agreed to by most people, and was not controversial.

Implementing the Environmental Vision
Electrolux adopted a total approach in its environmental efforts. This approach implies an active commitment to the environment in all operations and a contribution from all employees. In addition, every phase in a product's life cycle is evaluated to minimize negative environmental impact and reduce consumption of raw materials and energy. In the words of current CEO Michael Treschow:

"Environmental protection is a long-term question of survival for individuals, companies and society. Activities must be adapted to nature's own limitations in terms of resource use and pollution. Environmental care must be a cornerstone in our operations and characterize our daily work."

To make Electrolux an industry leader, management decided to drive environmental developments in the respective markets rather than just keep ahead of legislation. It established an Environmental Board, with the CEO as chairman, to make decisions on major strategies. All product lines (some 20 divisions) were required to present plans to implement the environmental vision and policy. To advise the Board and to assure implementation of these plans, an Environmental Affairs unit was formed under Senior Vice President Per Grunewald. Integrating environmental and business strategies.

Environmental Affairs establishes minimum company-wide standards for environmental management systems, employee education, measurement, and reporting. However the business units are responsible for carrying out the environmental work. This is accomplished through a network of 70 environmental coordinators who are appointed by and report to product line managers. Through a number of seminars and workshops, Environmental Affairs has raised the coordinators' awareness and helped them create environmental strategies within their business areas.

In 1995 Environmental Affairs introduced the Environmental Change Program as a method of
identifying opportunities and integrating environmental concerns into business strategies. The
initiatives are driven by three forces:

Potential legislation and treaties
Cost reduction opportunities through resource efficiency
Market demand for ecological products

Product-line management and staff explore environmental issues and develop action plans in
three phases:

Analyze the existing situation and draft alternative policies for addressing future environmental issues. Identify the business opportunities that might arise from the proposed solutions.
Develop and implement an action plan from the best business opportunity(ies).
Assess results to be woven into the organization as continuous improvement.

This program determines which environmental concerns receive attention from the operating units. The process helps to avoid disastrous environmental problems and create environmentally superior products.

Life cycle analysis. In the early 1990s Electrolux Research & Innovation performed life cycle assessments on different product groups. It discovered that only about 10% of the total environmental impact of the products occur in production. Most of the impact is generated in the form of energy and water consumption during the use of the product and the emissions and waste once the product is at the end of its useful life. As a result Electrolux chose, not only to become a leader in the development of environmentally sound products, but also to create demand for these products.

It places a strong emphasis on cutting the energy and water needs of its products and making them recyclable. Engineers look closely at the ease with which products can be dismantled and seek to eliminate undesirable materials. Some product lines have begun printing dismantling instructions.

Training
Training of 106,000 employees in over 60 countries has been a decentralized process at Electrolux. Some business units have used TNS directly; some have not. However, the company has developed a training package called Eco Know How that can be used for presentations, group exercises, or independent study. Module one, "Basic Training," introduces environmental issues and then basic principles of building an ecologically sustainable society. In this module the four TNS system conditions are highlighted as the guiding principles for Electrolux's environmental activities. The second module, "Electrolux and the Environment," details the holistic view that Electrolux has adopted. Information includes the environmental strategy and products. Both modules one and two are available to the general public on the company's internet site. Module three, "Environment at Work," provides employees with guidance and examples of environmental work in areas such as purchasing, product development, and distribution.

An important aspect of the training is to demonstrate that environmental management, as Per Grunewald puts it, "has everything to do with business." As individual companies implement their environmental management systems, they are finding that most of the work does not involve the technology or machinery; instead it involves changing people's behaviors and habits.

The plant in Vallenoncello, Italy, when it was seeking initial certification of its environmental management system, trained its employees to see that real environmental quality comes from thinking about plant activity as a continuous process that starts from product planning and continues all the way to disposal and recycling.

Environmental Management System
Electrolux uses an environmental management system designed according to ISO 14001, developed by the International Organization for Standardization. This prescribes an environmental policy, planning, implementation, monitoring and corrective action, and management review. Once a manufacturing facility has a system fully operating, it can be ISO 14001 certified or registered with the European Union's Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Electrolux is committed to have an environmental management system in all 150 manufacturing sites around the world by the year 2000. By the end of 1997 approximately 30 had ISO 14001 certification. Another 19 are expected to receive certification in 1998.

Results
Through its total approach to the environment, Electrolux has made many changes to products and processes to comply with the TNS system conditions. Some examples are highlighted below:
To reduce dependence on substances from the earth's crust

A solar powered lawnmower that runs on solar cells
A portable vacuum that uses cadmium-free rechargeable batteries
The use of canola oil, a biodegradable vegetable oil, in its chain saws
Utilization of the railway system (more fuel-efficient than trucking) for 75% of product distribution in Europe
Brush cutters and trimmers that consume 30-35% less fuel than earlier models

To reduce dependence on unnatural substances

Refrigerators and freezers that use no CFCs or HCFCs in the cooling system or insulation
New equipment that replaces the dangerous solvents in commercial dry cleaning. The equipment uses water and biodegradable detergents, but avoids shrinkage by computerized timing, temperature, and moisture controls.
Use of water-based and powder paints instead of solvent-based paints on white goods, resulting in an emissions reduction of 45% between 1992-95 by Electrolux's US white goods company
Reduction of hazardous waste by 95% in 1994 by a St. Cloud, Minnesota plant
An Eco vacuum cleaner containing no PVC
Reduction in discharges of 17 chemical substances by 93% between 1988-1996 in North American factories

To minimize dependence on exhausting nature's biological diversity and ecocycle

A wastewater cleaning system that recycles water within a Nashville, Arkansas weed eater plant instead of discharging it into the sewer system, saving 10 million gallons of water per year

To stop wasting resources and get more out of less

A new dryer that uses a heat pump to cut electrical energy consumption in half
Frigidaire's front-loading washing machine that saves about 18 gallons of water per load
A series of AEG dishwashers using 26 components made from recycled plastic, reducing annual consumption of new plastic by 220,460 pounds
Eco-vacuum cleaners in which 40% of plastic parts are recycled, many large plastic parts are uncolored to ease recycling, and plastic and rubber details are marked for easy recycling
Ovens which use 60% less energy than comparable products
Purchasing policies at AEG Hausgerate that require suppliers to use reusable packaging to the greatest extent possible. Between 1992-94 reusable packaging increased from 45% to
58%.

Environmental and Financial Benefits

Electrolux tracks environmental impacts of production through six key ratios, four of which are related to added value--the difference between total manufacturing costs and direct material costs:
1. Energy cost per added value
2. Energy consumption per added value
3. Carbon dioxide emissions per added value
4. Water consumption per added value
5. Energy consumption per square meter of heated surface area
6. Direct material efficiency--the amount of incoming material compared to the amount in the finished products

The most significant improvements occurred between 1991 and 1994. Continued improvements are more difficult because the easy steps have already been taken and because some plants with old technology have been acquired.

By 1996 the company had introduced four internal environmental performance indicators:

Share of total sales represented by environmentally leading products
Average annual environmental improvement of product range
Increase in recyclability of products
Environmental improvement of manufacturing facilities

Electrolux has been open about the results of its environmental efforts, recognizing that the availability of this information can help fuel further success. The Environmental Affairs unit has produced environmental reports each year since 1994. Senior Vice President Per Grunewald believes that governmental and non-profit education of the general public is not enough. In his view, the manufacturers and marketers are in the best position to persuade consumers to choose environmentally sound products.

The aggressive environmental strategy has been shown to be profitable. Data from 1996 show that the most environmentally sound products generated 3.8% higher profits than conventional products. Electrolux has introduced the first front-loading washing machine in the U.S. Many in
the company were quite concerned they would not succeed because the price is almost double that of other machines. The company advertising has emphasized the better washing quality and long-term cost savings, and the machine got the highest rating from Consumer Reports. Now they are selling more than they can produce.

Lessons Learned
Integration of The Natural Step framework into business strategies has changed the way Electrolux thinks about product design. For example, the company initially improved lawn mowers by adding catalytic converters, and it supported tougher emission legislation in California. Then the designers began to ask, "Why do it this way? What is the basic service?"

As a result of looking at how sheep "mow" grass, they designed a solar mower to work randomly when the sun comes up like sheep do. The design uses an embedded wire to keep the mower within bounds. Currently the model is too expensive. However, Electrolux got lots of media attention, and the few purchasers, such as restaurants and conference centers also got PR value. The company is developing a core competency in this area that it can use in future years when solar cell costs come down.

Sources
1. Electrolux Environmental Reports for 1994, 1996, and 1997.
2. Interview with Henrik Troberg, Product Ecology Manager by Duke Castle and Clem Laufenberg, September 14, 1998.
3. Email from Henrik Troberg, September 29, 1998.

This case study was prepared by Heidi Owens for the Natural Step Network.

Exploring a Flawed Paradigm: Why Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not enough

Chad Park — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:07:13 -0500

The following editorial by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, appeared in the Corporate Citizens Mediaplanet Special Report in the National Post on December 28, 2011.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is outdated and counterproductive to successful enterprise and the global sustainability imperative.

CSR encourages us to incorporate environmental and social considerations into a business-as-usual scenario. This is the triple-bottom-line approach and is often depicted with three overlapping circles representing economy, society, and environment.

This is a flawed paradigm.

In fact, economy, society, and environment are not three equal parts, but function like nested eggs. The economy occurs within human society, which in turn exists within the natural environment. The natural capital provided by the Earth sustains everything that exists within it. Accordingly, almost every global mega-trend tells us that without a radical transformation of the way we conduct business, a wide variety of risks and pressures will continue to harm profitability across the board.

Speaking metaphorically, the car we are driving is heading toward a cliff. By adopting CSR in its current form, we are softly applying the brakes and only buying ourselves a little more time. In this scenario, going over the cliff is inevitable and simply a matter of time.

Instead, we should be focused on turning the car around.

Most companies continue to ask themselves: “Based on our business plan, what should our CSR strategy be?” But to succeed in the future, businesses must instead ask: “In light of the global sustainability imperative, what should our business plan be?” Massive opportunities await the organizations that come to grips with the root causes of unsustainability and design them out of their businesses.

Companies like Nike, Interface, and The Co-operators are leading the way with sustainability as a mobilizing corporate strategy, increasing their profits, while generating substantial goodwill, and laying the foundation to be relevant in a sustainable future. The leaders in corporate sustainability will thrive as the operating environment inevitably becomes more difficult, leaving the laggards to perish in their wake.

We need to collectively acknowledge that we aren’t doing nearly enough to succeed in the rapidly changing economy of the 21st century, nor enough to create a society that thrives without drawing down our life-giving natural capital.

Incremental improvements are not enough. We are in need of transformational change. Now is the time for Canadian businesses to exit the highway of unsustainability and chart a new course.

Chad Park is the Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, a non-profit sustainability organization that delivers leading consulting and education services. He was recently honoured as one of Canada's Clean16—the 16 individuals in Canada who have done the most to advance the cause of sustainability and clean capitalism. For more on The Natural Step Canada, please visit www.thenaturalstep.org/canada.

With contributions from Brendan Seale, Sustainability Advisor at The Natural Step Canada.

To receive quarterly communiqués on sustainable business topics from The Natural Step Canada, please sign up here.

Reproduced with permission.

Canada

Featured Project: Exploring the Sustainability Advantage - ISL Engineering and Land Services

Kirstin Piirtoniemi — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:51:10 -0400

The Opportunity

ISL Engineering and Land Services’ journey toward sustainability began from a sense of responsibility – as a company, as individuals and as professionals. In January 2007, sustainability found a place on ISL’s agenda as the company struck an internal Sustainability Committee and began work on operations-related activities and programs. The success of these initiatives and a desire to challenge the status quo impelled ISL to explore the strategic business advantage in developing in-house sustainability capacity and embedding sustainability into the culture and services of the company.

The Response

In 2009, ISL partnered with The Natural Step Canada to develop and implement a comprehensive approach to sustainability that would enable ISL to develop into a full-service consulting firm that leads the marketplace in sustainable solutions. As a testament to the progress the company has achieved to date, ISL was named one of “Canada’s Green 30” by Maclean’s and Canadian Business magazine in both 2010 and 2011.

The Process

To begin, The Natural Step Canada conducted an internal and external scan to provide structured insight into where ISL had a strong foundation to move forward with its commitment to sustainability. This equipped ISL with information about its internal capacity and resilience for change and knowledge about its competitors and industry best practices, thus allowing it to fully realize its opportunity to become a sustainability leader.

Though a two-day workshop with senior company leaders, ISL then developed a high-level, long-term vision of what it would look like in a sustainable future as well as strategic goals to align the company’s development with fundamental principles of sustainability. Using these outputs, ISL then designed a 5 year roadmap which outlined next steps for their sustainability journey.

Next, a series of four workshops were held to further integrate sustainability into ISL’s culture and operations. ISL formed a Sustainability Champions’ Network (SCN) of 25 internal leaders and provided them with comprehensive training. The SCN was then supported to conduct a baseline assessment of ISL’s service lines including an all-staff inventory of strategic sustainability skills. A final workshop was then held to create an action plan and identify pilot projects that would help ISL close the gap between its current reality and desired future.

In late 2010, the SCN and other ISL staff including the COO, agreed on key performance indicators (KPIs) in six categories – governance, people and team, facilities and operations, products and services, relationships and voice – to help the company track their performance against baseline measures in an effort to monitor progress toward ISL’s strategic goals. Grounded in The Natural Step Framework, this action played a critical part in transitioning ISL’s sustainability initiatives from stand‐alone projects to a company-wide strategy.

Current work is underway in developing discipline-specific tools that apply a sustainability lens at the project level and ongoing work continues by the Champions and internal sustainability champions.

The Feedback

“Our journey toward sustainable practice grew from our collective values. We are committed to meeting our strategic sustainability goals and look forward to sharing our journey with clients, partners and suppliers.”

-Rodney Peacock, President and CEO, ISL Engineering & Land Services

Learn more about The Natural Step Canada’s Service Path for Sustainable Business and how we can help your business develop a bold sustainability vision, strategy, and action plan. Please contact us to discuss your unique needs or join our next FREE Introduction to Strategic Sustainability for Business in Canada webinar.

Canada

Featured Project: Nike looks to their North Star

Kirstin Piirtoniemi — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:59:31 -0400

The Opportunity

In 1998, Nike approached The Natural Step to help the company apply the principles of sustainability to its business operations. Over the following decade, Nike made considerable progress on a number of fronts, such as addressing labour compliance issues in their supply chain, reducing emissions, and eliminating toxic materials from their products. However, by 2008 a sentiment was building among the leaders of the company that these efforts were mostly about reducing negative impacts of their business and, as such, were backward rather than forward looking. To better align its efforts with the Nike culture, the company needed an aspirational goal to drive innovation efforts and align the ongoing work into a single forward-looking direction.

The Response

With leadership from Nike’s Director of Corporate Responsibility Horizons and the General Manager of Nike Considered, Nike and The Natural Step developed a project that would lead to transformative change in the organization and further position the company as a leader in sustainable product innovation.

The Process

In 2007, The Natural Step team used its Sustainability Lifecycle Analysis (SLCA) tool to conduct a baseline assessment of Nike’s already impressive sustainability performance and began a series of visioning sessions to co-develop Nike’s long-term sustainability aims. The result was a compelling vision called “North Star” intended to guide not only the Nike Considered product line, but Nike as a whole.

The North Star includes a set of innovation goals that together describe a future when Nike products are fully aligned with science-based principles of sustainability. These goals address issues such as closing the materials loop, using only sustainable materials, achieving climate stability, water stewardship, thriving communities in its supply chain, and athletes acting as change agents. The intent is to have these goals inform the tools and processes that Nike designers use to design products, including its Nike Considered Index. Recently, Nike reached its goal to have 100% of its US footwear products meet its Considered baseline standards by 2011 and continues to up the ante on its performance measurement targets.

Guided by the North Star, Nike understands that an incremental improvement approach is not enough to achieve real progress and has committed to a “relentless focus on sustainable innovation, from evolutionary enhancements to disruptive shifts that can transform the industry.” As a true leader, Nike has acknowledged sustainable growth as part of its short and long-term vision to deliver profitable growth decoupled from constrained natural resources.

The Feedback

“What really impressed me working with The Natural Step in the past year was their ability to take the principles of sustainability, understand the business model they were being plugged into, and come up with a clear and concise statement of what that means for the business.”

-Jim Goddard, Director of Environmental Initiatives, NIKE, Inc.

View full Nike case study here.

Canada

Few businesses know what a bold sustainability strategy REALLY means: Long-term profitability and resiliency

Pong Leung — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:59:57 -0400

Over the past 10 plus years, we have been fortunate to be able to get to know a number of businesses and business leaders who are taking a leadership role in sustainability. They do this not only due to their commitment to a better future, but—perhaps more importantly—they feel that sustainability is a real driver of long-term profitability and resiliency. This requires an honest organizational dialogue about its key sustainability challenges and a vision that goes right at the heart of what sustainability means for its core business strategy.

For example, take the Landmark Group of Builders, a medium-sized home builder located in Edmonton, Alberta. One of the key early initiatives that has really driven their sustainability journey was an honest look at how their core business processes were contributing to the degradation of social and ecological systems, including affecting big issues such as climate change, toxicity, and urban sprawl. Although not an easy conversation, this led to adopting a bold vision for the business that charts a course for long-term success for the business and sustainability for the planet.

According to them:

“Landmark’s position for becoming a sustainable builder is not based on emotion, but on sound business principles, economics, and progressive thinking. We believe sustainable building is a mega-trend that significantly improves the quality of our homes and benefits our customers.”

As a result of their strong sustainability vision, Landmark has committed to a number of bold initiatives, including building homes that have net-zero energy use and launching a solar home energy business. Recently they won an Emerald Award for one of their sustainability-inspired innovations that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a 6.21 tonnes per home and produces 58% less waste in the production process.

“We have learned a great deal from The Natural Step,” says Bijan Mannani, Chief Operating Officer at the Landmark Group of Builders. “Their work has contributed great value to our business, supporting us in defining the business case for sustainability and our long-term success and resiliency. The Natural Step has helped us embrace a bold vision of sustainability for our business and have helped us stick to it and achieve it.”

At The Natural Step Canada, we are honored and thankful to have had the opportunity over the past few years to work with the great people at Landmark and play an active role in their inspiring sustainability planning. We enjoy sharing their story and the stories of our other partners.

Together, we are helping to achieve a more sustainable and prosperous future.

Canada

From Strategy to Tools: The day to day application of a sustainability lens

Sarah Brooks — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:29:27 -0400

Many of the questions we are asked about sustainability strategy focus on implementation: “Yes, we have goals now, but what do we actually DO? How do we change the way people think and help people who are not Green Team members to apply a sustainability lens??”

This is the challenge of moving from the strategic to the operational and building tactical support for everyday work. So how does that happen?

One of the ways we’ve seen this work is through the development of tools that help people to apply a sustainability lens to their work. Here’s how it works:

You may already be familiar with the 5 level model for planning in complex systems. Basically it says that to design and execute well it’s helpful to know 5 things: firstly, the system in which you are working and the rules by which that system operates, and what success in that system looks like. Knowing this, we can then develop strategies to arrive at success in the system. Once strategies are developed, we undertake actions aligned to achieve these strategies. And, we may need tools to support our actions to achieve our strategies to arrive at success in the system. As the Swedes, say – clear as sausage water!

Essentially the message is this: tools are strategic when we know where we want to go (success) and the game and playing field on which we operate (the system). They should be developed to help achieve strategies that are aligned toward that vision. When we build tools with this intention, they help us to get where we want to go.

Here’s an example: ISL Engineering and Land Services is a multi-service engineering firm who has done significant sustainability work. They have strategic goals aligned with principles of sustainability, key milestones and key performance indicators set, and multiple actions underway that are associated with each goal. They have now turned their focus to helping their engineers apply a sustainability lens to projects. Beginning with water treatment plants, they have developed a tool that helps their engineers: (i) understand the biggest sustainability challenges associated with treatment plants when viewed through the lens of the principles across the full lifecycle of the plant; and (ii) assess at a technical level the relative sustainability performance of various designs for a given treatment plant. This assessment highlights areas for improvement (from a sustainability perspective) and areas of strength for each design option. This helps seed client conversations around sustainability and provides capacity building at a discipline level.

Tools are often a critical piece of any sustainability journey. Tools can help apply a sustainability lens to very specific aspects of a journey. However, they become strategic when helping us to undertake actions (design a sustainability water plant) to fulfill strategies (backcasting from success) to arrive at success (goal: “our professional design solutions consistently demonstrate local knowledge, a high level of technical expertise, a deep understanding of client needs and an unrelenting commitment to sustainability”) in the system (water treatment plants within society within the biosphere). In this way, we ensure that our resources are well directed and efficiently used.

Time to tool up!

To discuss this tool or others in more detail, please contact our advisory team at sbrooks(at)naturalstep.ca

Canada

Gerding/Edlen Development Company, LLC, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:54:05 -0400

A Natural Step Case Study

Background
Gerding/Edlen Development Company is a commercial real estate development firm, specializing in mixed-use urban renewal projects. Its projects include condominiums and apartments; build-to-suit projects for high-tech clients; public-private partnerships; and mixed-income housing. It currently has 17 employees (including the managing partners). The firm was created in 1996 when developer Mark Edlen joined forces with Gerding Investment Company.

Bob Gerding, one of the founders, has long been concerned about environmental and social issues, but it wasn’t until 1993 when he was able to put those values into practice at work. The Pacific Gas Transmission building in Portland was the first private energy demonstration project, funded by the Oregon Department of Energy, giving his firm experience in a number of leading edge energy saving technologies including solar studies, certain window glazing, light shelves, and an ice-generating system to cool the building. While the construction costs, with the help of government tax credits, were comparable to other buildings, the building’s energy use was half that of similar buildings.

Inspiration
Through Bob Gerding’s long-standing relationships with members of the Northwest Earth Institute (the founder of the Oregon Natural Step Network), Gerding was invited to workshops on The Natural Step in 1997. Perceiving that the TNS Framework made business sense, Gerding encouraged his firm to hire someone who could apply it at the project level. The firm hired Dennis Wilde as senior project manager in 1997 to champion the effort.

Action
Wilde describes his initial efforts as “not cohesive.” Using peer pressure he tried to educate and influence employees, architects, and contractors. In 1998 the firm conducted an internal executive briefing on TNS, closely followed by training for the rest of the staff. While the training was useful in introducing the TNS framework to employees, the firm did not follow up with a vision for using the framework in its development projects. A watershed event for Wilde was participating on the Oregon Natural Step Network construction peer-learning group, in which a group of architects, engineers and designers applied the backcasting process to commercial buildings. The peer-learning group published a paper about its experience and created a vision for a sustainable commercial building. The resulting paper gave Gerding/Edlen specific outcomes to pursue and a clear vision it could share with others.

Around the same time, LEED was also being developed. The managing partners at Gerding/Edlen committed to pursuing LEED certification for their own Brewery Blocks projects. Wilde saw LEED as a useful tool, but the Natural Step helped him see all that it did not include. “LEED, by itself, doesn’t provide
a comprehensive overview. It’s really only a yardstick. For us, TNS provides the framework.” And so with each ensuing project, Wilde pushed the teams to exceed the accomplishments of the earlier ones.

Each project within the Brewery Blocks has included efforts that go beyond LEED such as, reduction of PVC-based materials, a central chilled water plant to improve energy efficiency, eco-roofs, even photovoltaic panels. Gerding/Edlen's goal is to create buildings that create more energy than they use, keep all stormwater on site, eliminate toxic materials, and create a sustainable environment for people to live and work.

Bob Gerding describes the business this way: “We sell being the thoughtful, responsible developers. We walk the talk and can tell people, 'we’ve done this in our own buildings and we can prove the long-term benefits, that this will save you money.’”

Gerding/Edlen has integrated The Natural Step framework into its integrated design process. “I can’t imagine doing a traditional design anymore,” says Wilde. “All the different players have to understand how their decisions affect the others so you can come up with an optimal solution.”

In particular, Gerding/Edlen has embedded the Natural Step backcasting process into its ecocharrettes (design meetings). “We spend most of our time talking about the system conditions and backcasting, trying to envision the building as sustainable and working backward from there. We spend a very little time at the end on the LEED score sheet.” See the appendix for a more detailed agenda.

Gerding/Edlen also has tried to influence its tenants through the creation of a tenant manual that explains the importance of green design and gives the tenants suggestions for how they can be more sustainable. It is working with its janitorial vendor to provide environmentally preferable cleaning products to the tenants as well.

Results
Wilde strongly believes that pursuing sustainability has made good business sense, for Gerding/Edlen and its clients. The extra construction costs of the Brewery Blocks for green design were approximately $700,000. However, Gerding/Edlen was able to offset these costs two-fold with grants, assistance, and tax credits. The most obvious source of funds to offset the cost of energy improvement measures is the State of Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC). Other sources of assistance include : Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), The Energy Trust of Oregon, the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development, the Climate Trust, PGE EarthAdvantage and PPL FinAnswer programs.

At the time of this writing, Gerding/Edlen's condominium project, "The Henry" has sold out in record time at record high prices in a bad economy. Wilde estimates that the average homeowner will save $600 per year in utilities based on the green design features around energy and water use. About 10 percent of condominium buyers said that the sustainability features were important to their purchasing decision and another 25 percent said they were really glad to have them, in part because of the energy saving features.

Wilde concedes that many customers won’t pay extra for green features. To convince reluctant building owners, he emphasizes both the tangible and intangible savings: reduced operating costs, tenant comfort and retention, employee productivity, reduced absenteeism, resale value, etc.

When Gerding/Edlen first began its emphasis on green building, many of its contractors were resistant and charged higher rates to use non-traditional building techniques. Now, many of its consultants are bringing them position papers, having analyzed alternative materials or systems in light of the system conditions. (See the sidebar listing of existing position papers.) And as its contractors gain experience in green design, cost premiums are coming down. In addition, job candidates are seeking positions within the firm. “Young people, in particular, are drawn to this,” says Wilde.

Gerding/Edlen has position papers on the following products:
* Building Integrated Photovoltaics
* Solar Domestic Water Heating
* Radiant Heating and Cooling System
* Rainwater Recovery
* Living Machine
* Elimination of Mercury from Lamps
* Elimination of all PVC from Electrical

Products
One of the biggest benefits is the publicity and visibility. Wilde said, “We couldn’t have bought all the PR that this has brought us. We’ve had one or two articles published about us or our projects every week for the past two years.” Managers are being interviewed by local and national media. Hundreds of people have toured their buildings. This is all part of creating awareness about green design, developing the demand, and promoting themselves as leaders. Wilde confesses: “Initially, we had to try to identify the benefits. We were fearful of spending more. Our customers weren’t asking for it. People wanted to know if we could afford to go green. But at some point, you take the plunge and then you discover paybacks you never dreamed were there.”

Challenges
Despite all their success, keeping sustainability on the front burner is still a challenge:

· Leadership takes time, attention, and money. Bob Gerding admits that the firm has sometimes trimmed its profit margins to implement leading-edge building practices. “If you’re trying to build something at the lowest cost to maximize profits, you can’t lead. Like all the greatest companies, you have to reinvest in R&D. But I’d rather lead than follow. Being a leader is a marketing advantage.”

· Getting everyone on board. While sustainability is here to stay at Gerding/Edlen, Wilde is still the biggest advocate, pushing to raise the bar on each project. “If something happened to me, would Gerding/Edlen continue to pursue sustainability? Sure. Would it make as fast progress? Maybe not.” And as it has grown, it has been a challenge to bring new employees up to speed. Public workshops are not always available when they need them.

· Finding sustainable alternatives. It can be a challenge to find a product that is environmentally preferable and that performs as well as its environmentally inferior counterpart. For example, Gerding/Edlen was thrilled to have recently discovered a paint to use on metal stairs that is as durable as previously used products but has a low level of VOCs (Voluble Organic Compounds). Wilde would like to make a PVC-free building but this goal has proven elusive because he has been unable to find alternatives to some of the PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) products such as electrical conduit, water and soil pipes, electrical insulation, roofing, wall covering, flooring, carpeting, paint, rubber base mold, and many others that are found throughout virtually all buildings. Wilde and his colleagues continue to search for alternatives, and with each project, they uncover a few more products that can be integrated into future designs.

· Focusing internally. Gerding/Edlen has focused most of its attention to applying sustainability in its building projects as opposed to in its own office. The firm's building projects certainly create the greatest environmental impacts. However, the firm believes that it should be more systematic about applying sustainability in its internal operations to maintain its credibility. . It has switched to highrecycled
content paper, encouraged recycling and switched to environmentally friendly janitorial products. Nevertheless, the firm struggles with how much effort it should expend on greening its internal operations and what to take on next.

· Making sense of system condition #4. Gerding/Edlen has made great strides reducing the environmental footprint of its projects. However, the firm struggles with the social side, what Wilde refers to as “how to move beyond our consumptive lifestyles.” Gerding/Edlen does take into account the impact its projects have on the community but it could do more to integrate the fourth system condition into its decision-making and practices.

Appendix
TNS Backcasting Charrettes for Sustainable Developments
Over the past several years, owners, architectural design professionals and consultants, and contractors have utilized a number of techniques to optimize integrated design teams through eco-charrettes (also referred to as sustainable design workshops), to optimize the performance of energy-efficient and environmentally responsible buildings. In the mid-1990’s, eco-charrettes were an effective means of bringing together a project’s team early in the design process to identify environmental performance goals and strategies through brainstorming and the formulation of goals and objectives. With the launch of the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system in 2000, eco-charrettes became redirected to focus upon the attainment of a LEED rating, by directing the design and construction team, point by point, through all 69 potential points. While LEED provides valuable performance metrics and a means to structure building performance evaluations, it does not address the overarching sustainability goals for projects, such as those represented by the four System Conditions of The Natural Step. A TNS backcasting charrette can be a high-leverage collaborative planning mechanism for a group, regardless of whether planning for an architectural design project or an organizational development venture.
Backcasting charrettes are generally composed of three sequential steps:
1. Formulating aspirations and a vision for a preferred future
2. Conducting a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of current conditions, and
3. Projecting back from a time in the future (30 to 50 years) to the present and mapping the key
elements that contributed to the preferred future.
Backcasting charrettes can be designed to last from a half-day to two days, depending upon the complexity of the project, the size of the group, and the level of detail desired. The following represents a sample agenda for a half-day TNS backcasting charrette involving approximately eighteen multi-disciplinary individuals for a commercial building project:

8:00 – 8:30 (30 minutes) Welcome, purpose, and introductions
8:30 – 8:45 (15 minutes) Project overview
8:45 – 9:00 (15 minutes) TNS overview
9:00 – 9:45 (45 minutes) Future scenario
9:45 – 10:15 (30 minutes) SWOT analysis
10:15 – 11:15 (60 minutes) Backcasting
11:15 – 11:45 (30 minutes) Action plan
11:45 – 12:00 (15 minutes) Concluding remarks

Backcasting charrettes utilizing the System Conditions of The Natural Step hold the potential to yield multiple results. One of the most direct impacts of backcasting charrettes is to expand the time frame of participant’s reference for decisions, from short-term to long term. The process of dialogue and disclosure among a design team in a charrette process results in a robust strategy for a given project towards a preferred future.

This case study was written for The Natural Step Network by Darcy Hitchcock, president of AXIS Performance Advisors with assistance by Dennis Wilde and Kelly Saito of Gerding/Edlen Development Company in January 2004.

Green Globe: On Track to Becoming the Most Green Globe Certified Hospitality Company In the World

Neil McCallum — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:11:18 -0400

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, a partner of The Natural Step, was recently featured by Green Globe for their leadership towards sustainability in the hospitality industry.

***

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts is proud to announce that all its 21 hotels in Europe have achieved Green Globe certification. The achievement puts the Swiss upscale hospitality company on target to become the most certified hotel company in the world to receive the Green Globe seal.

"We have been very committed to achieving Green Globe certification across all our properties in Europe and in the process enjoyed very positive feedback and engagement from our employees," said Ola Ivarsson, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts' Chief Operating Officer Europe.

Along with the certification process Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts aimed to encourage all employees to learn more about environmental and sustainability issues and use that knowledge at work and home.

To achieve this, the company developed its own unique e-learning tool kit that all employees could access online. All European employees spent a total of 10,000 hours in training, and each property established a team to liaise with Green Globe to identify, analyse and implement opportunities to improve sustainability. The hard work paid off, with an average audit score of 90% across the hotels, including the certification and training of the company's entire corporate headquarters in Zurich.

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts uses the framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, a proven science based model helping businesses to better understand and integrate sustainability in its strategy and operations. The framework was initiated by the Swedish born international NGO, The Natural Step (www.thenaturalstep.org). The framework contains logical guidelines to identify current challenges, future possibilities and smart step-wise approaches to move towards sustainability and to capitalize on a more refined way of sustainability driven markets.

Ola Ivarsson continued, "But we also wanted to make a greater contribution and enthuse others to start their own process. We recognized that not all companies can afford to develop their own multi language training tools. So we are sharing our knowledge and e-learning tools with other hotels, industry partners, and even with competitors." They can be downloaded at www.moevenpick-hotels.com/sustainabilityeu.

To achieve the internationally recognized, independently audited Green Globe certification, all Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts in Europe had to provide detailed proof of environmental, social and employer-related sustainable practices across more than 300 criteria, of which 100 were mandatory.

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts also introduced the Green Globe process to all its suppliers. Partners were asked to commit to the development of more sustainable practices and products.

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has already put sustainability at the heart of all operations, through initiatives such as the introduction of biodegradable pens, wooden key cards, ecological bathroom amenities and Mövenpick Fairtrade Coffee, as well as ensuring that where possible, food is sourced locally and from organic farming. Every hotel also collaborates with organizations that work towards improved community welfare.

Green Globe Certification CEO, Guido Bauer said, "Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has taken a systematic approach to measure all the operational savings that have been made through the reduction of energy and water usage and non-recyclable waste. At the same time real commitments have been made to support the communities who host their hotels and resorts. I firmly believe that through the Green Globe Certification program, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts is now a world leader in sustainable tourism and it has our independent verification as an assurance of this achievement."

Already all the company's Middle Eastern hotels have achieved Green Globe certification and the program is being rolled out across Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts in Africa and Asia with 66% of all properties already certified. "Green Globe certification is a significant landmark," said Ivarsson. "But sustainability is a constantly evolving process and we are committed to constantly looking for new ways to improve."

About Green Globe Certification:

Green Globe Certification is the worldwide sustainability system based on internationally accepted criteria for sustainable operation and management of travel and tourism businesses. Operating under a worldwide license, Green Globe Certification is based in California, USA and is represented in over 83 countries. Green Globe Certification is a member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, supported by the United Nations Foundation. For information visit www.greenglobe.com

source: www.greenglobe.com

Sweden

Hot Lips Pizza, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:59:42 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Overview
Hot Lips Pizza is a small, three-store operation with 50 employees and $2 million in sales located in Portland, Oregon. To emerge from the struggle of the company’s first 12 years of existence, owner David Yudkin sought to establish a distinctive market position. He used the Natural
Step principles to develop an approach to his business that saves him money while attracting higher caliber employees and loyal customers.

Background
Hot Lips Pizza was founded in 1984 with one store in Portland, Oregon. For the first three years the operation quickly expanded, growing to ten locations in four cities. Rapid growth created operational difficulties and substantial debt. David Yudkin, who became a partner in 1986, took over as head of operations in 1988 and found himself in a survival mode, constantly reacting to situations just to keep the business afloat.

By 1996, Yudkin owned 50 percent of the company and was able to pay off the majority of debt and scale operations back to two stores. At this point, he felt that Hot Lips made good pizza, but there was little else that distinguished it from the growing competition. With the survival of the company behind him, he was now in a position to create proactively a distinguishing market position. However he did not want to pursue the typical approach that involved demonizing his competition. Building on the company's value of community involvement and accountability, Yudkin sought an approach that would instead inspire his employees and create a loyal customer base.

Introduction to The Natural Step
Yudkin first became interested in environmental issues in 1970 when one of his junior high school teachers first explained global warming and its repercussions on society. The teenager was stunned. For years afterwards, he could not understand why there was not more discussion
about this issue.

In the fall of 1998, Yudkin heard a presentation about The Natural Step at a marketing forum at the Benson Hotel and immediately felt the impact. The Natural Step approach objectively laid out the facts and made a clear and compelling case for sustainability. It also integrated the systems nature of the biosphere with a social equity perspective.

Aligning the Company with The Natural Step Framework
Two other events caused Yudkin to select The Natural Step sustainability framework as the way to distinguish his company. The first was a store manager’s announcement that he had been diagnosed with cancer. The manager was only 26 years old. Yudkin was distressed that someone so young could contract cancer. It seemed likely that the cancer was caused by environmental factors. The second turning point was a fund-raiser for Growing Gardens. This non-profit organization helps elderly, low income people in northeast Portland grow their own food. As a supporter of the program, Yudkin placed beautiful pictures of these gardens on the walls of Hot Lips restaurants where people could see the connection between the earth and food. He felt these pictures had a compelling impact on those who saw them.

He saw the opportunity to use the environment to differentiate Hot Lips from other pizza companies. Its product was very personal – something you put in your body – and directly connected to a healthy environment.

Once Yudkin decided to pursue sustainability and The Natural Step for competitive advantage, he immersed himself in Natural Step activities. He joined the Oregon Natural Step Network and attended breakfasts and other Network events, including the 1999 one-day workshop offered by TNS US in Portland. He also observed Nike’s Natural Step employee trainings and read The Natural Step for Business by Brian Nattrass and Mary Altomare.

Following the lead of other organizations, Yudkin first wrote an environmental policy and then gathered data to determine the greatest areas of environmental impact. With help from Carbon Cookbook, an article written by Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonybrook Farms, Yudkin began focusing on the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) his business was creating. By analyzing electricity usage and delivery vehicle fuel, he calculated that Hot Lips Pizza contributed 200 metric tons of CO2 annually. Yudkin was stunned. He had no idea his contribution was so substantial and even questioned his findings.

Hearing that an environmental class at Portland State University was looking for a research project, he asked for corroboration of his data. The students agreed to undertake their own environmental analysis of Hot Lips and began by analyzing all of the company's invoices – utilities, suppliers, etc. – to get a better understanding of the energy and materials that the pizza business was consuming. Another class participant and Network member, Darcy Hitchcock of Axis Performance Advisors, helped identify the environmental impacts of his business and categorize them by the four system conditions of The Natural Step. Concurrently, Margaret Nover, one of the instructors affiliated with the class and an employee of the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, offered to conduct a waste flow analysis for Hot Lips.

Application of TNS Principles
By the Spring of 2000, the student report was completed, and Yudkin confirmed that the greatest environmental impact of his business was due to CO2 from the generation of the electricity used.

Energy. Yudkin began to tackle energy consumption by replacing 72 incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs at $16 each for a total expenditure of $1152. He next replaced a broken water heater with a more efficient one for around $300. Then he obtained a larger but more efficient walk-in refrigerator at an auction for $1500. Beyond these efforts, Yudkin implemented “rolling starts,” only turning on lights as they became necessary and turning off computer monitors at night. Additionally, Hot Lips purchased a multimeter, an instrument that is used to directly monitor electricity consumption. From this data, he could identify which components used the most electricity, whether they were operating as efficiently as possible, and if they would becandidates for replacement. With all of these efforts and a total investment of around $3000, Yudkin cut his electric bill from $900 per month to $450 for a payback of just under seven months. This was the low hanging fruit.

Next Yudkin started converting his 18-mpg delivery trucks to 30-mpg cars such as the Toyota Echo. Now he has his first hybrid car that runs on gasoline and electricity and gets 40 mpg. He was able to downsize the gas water heater. He studied how Hot Lips used its ovens and reduced the hours that they were kept on. Understanding the link between equipment maintenance and CO2 emissions, Yudkin now makes sure that all vehicles, refrigeration, HVAC and exhaust systems are maintained to give optimum performance.

To partially offset remaining CO2 emissions, Hot Lips purchases blocks of renewable energy from Portland General Electric. At the newest restaurant in the Natural Capitol Center, 15 percent of the electricity is from wind power, and 35% of CO2 emissions are offset by payments to Climate Trust
When the new restaurant was planned, it was easy to design in energy-saving features. Instead of buying four pizza ovens Yudkin bought one bread-baking oven, which will hold more pizzas and use less than one-half the energy. Its heavy insulation also reduced air conditioning needs. All hot water is heated by a heat exchanger on top of the oven. Instead of three refrigeration units, one in each work area, the new restaurant has only one, which can be accessed by three doors. This design saves energy, material, and maintenance.

Locally grown organic food. The next area of concern was the ingredients used in making Hot Lips’ pizzas. As a member of Chefs Collaborative, a local group that focuses on sustainable food practices, Yudkin was aware of the environmental impact of current agricultural practices. He took his employees out to visit an organic farm and decided to shift toward organically grown produce from local farmers. He saw this, in part, as addressing the social equity aspects of The Natural Step’s fourth system condition.

The decision to favor local farms has caused Yudkin to begin integrating seasonality into his menu. Typical toppings of the summer are tomatoes, corn and summer squash. During the winter, they are greens, potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. Yudkin says, “This insures flavor, freshness and nutrition. It also helps keep money within our community and maintains local agriculture and regional food security. And it reduces the amount of fossil fuel used to grow and transport our food.”

Hot Lips currently uses organic flour for cookies, uses some organic produce in soups, and offers local organic fruit, salads, beer, juices and milk. It purchases cheese made from bovine-growthhormone-free milk produced in Oregon and Washington by small family farms. Shortly it will be using organic tomatoes for pizza sauce. In order to reduce reliance on factory-farmed meats, Hot Lips has begun making pepperoni in house using local, organic pork. It has also increased vegetarian offerings and selects meats from responsible sources (hormone-free, free-range, and small family farms).

Packaging. The third area of focus has been packaging. Margaret Nover’s report caused Yudkin to question why so much packaging was required. As Yudkin now explains it, “We have reduced our use of disposables by using straw plate liners with a sheet of paper instead of paper plates. We offer customers reusable plastic cups and flatware. In many cases, we allow portioning by our cooks as they make the pizzas, eliminating a lot of plastic portion cups and bags. We save waxed boxes and return them to farmers to be used again. We have also been careful in our selection of packaging and paper supplies, using unbleached boxes and bags as well as napkins and paper with high post-consumer content.”

Other Activities
Food waste. Yudkin currently composts approximately 100 pounds of pre-consumer waste weekly in his own backyard. He had tried vermiculture, which was working until the worms froze in the winter 1999. Hot Lips participated in a City of Portland organics pilot program in 2001 and will do so again as soon as the city contracts with a processor. If all food and soiled paper can be separated for composting, very little waste will remain in the trash. However, in case the city’s program doesn’t start soon, he is seeking a local farmer to compost the food.

Building materials. When the deck at one restaurant needed to be replaced, Hot Lips chose certified wood. And at its new restaurant in the Natural Capital Center, it chose certified particleboard for the cabinets, low-VOC adhesives for the tile and Formica, and as much recycled paint as color needs allowed.

Paper. Instead of buying new paper, Hot Lips reuses paper from the neighborhood copy shop that has been printed on one side. This paper is satisfactory for all in-house documents like cash sheets, policy manuals, incoming faxes, payroll letters, signs, and customer information. For print jobs, it asks for paper with high post-consumer recycled content and soy-based inks.

Recycling. The company has expanded recycling to include plastic films and bags, which were formerly sent to the landfill. To prevent mercury from leaking into the environment, it saves thermostats, thermometers, and compact fluorescent bulbs for recycling.

Detergents. Although cleaners pose a relatively small problem, Hot Lips has switched to low- or no-phosphate products. It has also reduced its use of chlorine by switching to a quaternary sanitizer and avoiding chlorine-containing cleaning products.

Training of Employees
Yudkin started his training efforts by bringing some of his managers and key suppliers to Natural Step events. Later he expanded that effort to include all of his employees. He has supplemented this effort with ongoing written communications to keep all informed of current efforts.

Yudkin educates employees about sustainability via the statements of policy (including the environmental policy) and values in the company manual. Policies and values are reinforced in training programs and rewarded during regular performance reviews. Additional information about The Natural Step is disseminated in biweekly newsletters and informal discussions. Yudkin reports, “We have found that many of our new employees have come to us because of our commitment to the environment, and our employees are enthusiastic, looking for ways to help the effort.”

Costs and Benefits
Yudkin has not yet completed a thorough cost analysis of his Natural Step efforts. In the future he plans to focus his attention initially on expenditures from three areas:
• Utility bills
• Dollars spent on local and organic foods vs. conventional
• Dollars spent on packaging & consumables.

From an employee standpoint the results have been quite positive. When Yudkin started implementing the Natural Step principles, a change in the culture of Hot Lips initially resulted in higher than average employee turnover. Now, however, the company is attracting employees who are more motivated and dedicated to their jobs.

The results with customers have also been positive. Several have mentioned that they appreciate what he is doing and patronize his business to show their support. To capitalize on this benefit, Yudkin hired Brian Lanahan, a local marketing consultant familiar with The Natural Step, to expand promotional efforts. As a result, Yudkin has created signs explaining why he buys from local farmers and uses the menu to tell where the food comes from. It takes a lot of work to communicate these changes, but he feels it will ultimately give him a competitive advantage.

Future Focus
Yudkin has been working on an environmental report detailing his efforts and results, although it has been difficult to do while managing the day-to-day operations of the business. The report will establish a base line that can be used to measure future progress and also be a public declaration of what he is doing. It can serve as a motivator to keep him focused on these activities because his “public” will now expect updates on how Hot Lips is doing. After the report is done he would like to conduct a more thorough backcasting process and look at areas like the janitorial service and supplies that he has not yet spent much time examining.

Lessons Learned
• What worked. Initially, just becoming conscious of the environmental impact of what his business was doing had a big impact on Yudkin. He wouldn’t have gone through this repositioning if The Natural Step concepts had not brought the issues to light.

• What did not work. Yudkin had unrealistic expectations of how much and how quickly one person can do all of this. He is the primary driver of this effort and knows that he needs more leaders inside his company. He believes that leadership is emerging, but he had underestimated how big an effort moving toward sustainability can be.
Advice for Others

• Getting help from the university students, Margaret Nover, and Darcy Hitchcock were all
good moves. It gave him an outside perspective on the impact of his business on the environment.
• Developing his suppliers as allies helped. Yudkin accomplished this by bringing them to Natural Step events and lending them tapes and other Natural Step educational materials.

• Getting advice from others who have gone through it was also very helpful. This came in part by being very active in the local Natural Step Network.

This case study was prepared and updated by Duke Castle, The Castle Group, in December 2000 for The Natural Step Network and updated in October 2002 by the Network.

IKEA

Chas Martin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:28:41 -0400

A Natural Step Case Study

Overview
IKEA, a Swedish home furnishings retailer, is known as the world's largest designer and retailer of well-designed, inexpensive, and functional furniture for the home. The company is owned by a non-profit foundation and has grown 15% per year in this decade (FY 1990 - FY 1997 average growth rate). Each year, IKEA has over 140 million visitors to the 140 stores in 29 countries and distributes over 80 million IKEA catalogues. IKEA designs all 11,000 items in the product line. Product manufacturing occurs at both IKEA production facilities and at approximately 2400 suppliers in 65 countries. Today, employees number 36,400 and sales for FY 1997 were $5.86 Billion (US dollars).

In 1990, IKEA adopted The Natural Step (TNS) Framework as the basic structure for implementation of its environmental policy and plan. Using the TNS principles and system conditions, IKEA has made a number of changes affecting its products and services. This case describes many of the results of these changes, along with the issues and events that lead IKEA to adopting the TNS Framework and formulating an environmental plan.

Background
IKEA was founded in 1943 by 17 year-old Ingvar Kamprad. As a young entrepreneur in south Sweden, Kamprad soon turned his business into a mail order operation selling a variety of household products, particularly furniture. The first IKEA showroom/store opened in 1953 in Sweden.

Kamprad's innovative strategy was to design functional furniture that was easy and inexpensive to build, receive it disassembled at stores, and display it on the show room floor with detailed explanation tickets, making salesperson assistance unnecessary. Employees were available for questions but the customers could choose, order, pick up, transport, and assemble their own selections. Cost savings earned by IKEA were passed through to customers in lower prices (estimated cost savings are 20-50%, compared with the competition). His stores soon became home furnishing centers, also offering restaurant facilities and play areas for children. The strategy continues to drive IKEA operations.

From the start, Kamprad's desire to integrate social value into business practice has strongly influenced the IKEA vision. In December 1976, Kamprad wrote, "What is good for our customers is also good for us in the long run." This objective of responsibility drives the company vision to create a better everyday life for the majority of people. The vision is realized by offering a wide range of functional and well-designed home furnishing items, at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them.

An Environmental Challenge
In the mid-1980s, IKEA ran into an environmental problem that had significant implications on the firm's furniture line. Tests on some IKEA particle-board furniture products showed that formaldehyde emissions exceeded the standard specified by Danish environmental law (Reichert, 1996).

Obviously this situation created a huge problem for IKEA, given the extensive use of particle board in IKEA furniture products. If the particle board from one product violated the standard and was deemed hazardous, then all products using particle board could be deemed hazardous. Negative publicity required a quick response.

While IKEA was searching for solutions, new German environmental law was announced that required formaldehyde emissions from particle board to not exceed .01 parts per million (the German E-1 standard). IKEA elected to apply the E-1 standard, the strictest in the world, to all markets by requiring that all of its particle-board suppliers meet that standard.

This long-term solution proved beneficial when California voters passed Proposition 65, tightening formaldehyde emissions and prosecuting stores selling products exceeding the standard. IKEA avoided the costs of litigation and retooling or revamping the product line because its company-wide formaldehyde requirement exceeded the California requirement. A visit by company executives to the California Attorney General, to inform him of the IKEA standard, even eliminated the cost of investigation.

In the late 1980s, IKEA and other European retailers were receiving pressure, including calls for boycotts from environmental groups, to eliminate the use of tropical rain forest wood in furniture. These pressures made it clear to IKEA-Group Executives that environmental issues would impact the future credibility of IKEA. Therefore, CEO Anders Moberg, who was personally concerned about the pace and extent of environmental deterioration, appointed Russel Johnson as the manager responsible for environmental issues.

Commitment to The Natural Step Framework
In 1990, Johnson invited Karl-Henrik Robèrt, founder of The Natural Step, to speak at an internal ECO seminar with the board of directors. Dr. Robèrt was viewed as having a new approach to environmental issues. Whereas other environmental groups were good at describing environmental problems, TNS offered clear guidance on how the problems involved IKEA and what the company could do about them from both a strategic and operational point of view. Based on the awareness created by the TNS four system conditions, the relationship with TNS developed into a commitment to work with Dr. Robèrt to develop an environment-friendly business and contribute to a sustainable society.

Throughout the spring of 1990, a series of group management meetings produced an environmental policy that the IKEA board approved in August 1991. (Section III in tool kit.) The implementation and training program of the policy are based on TNS system conditions.

In many ways, the historical values of the company were a natural basis from which to accept the TNS system conditions and adapt business operations. For example, Kamprad had viewed the minimal use of resources essential to keeping a "low-price picture." Furthermore, he valued innovation in employees and encouraged responsibility and decision-making at all levels of the organization. Therefore, as the company began to develop an environmental program, it became a natural extension to the corporate culture. In keeping with the IKEA vision, Anders Moberg, CEO wrote, "Once and for all, IKEA has decided to side with the majority of people: to create a better everyday life. Therefore, it is our responsibility to do what we can to contribute to a better environment. " (Moberg, 1993)

The IKEA Environmental Program
In 1992, the environmental policy was transformed into an Environmental Action Plan describing concrete and practical measures for the mid-1990s. As part of the Plan's development process, 25 top managers attended a two-day seminar with presentations given by Karl-Henrik Robèrt, the president for Swedish Greenpeace, an environmental legislative expert, and other environmental speakers. Following the presentations, the managers discussed a proposal for the environmental action plan. Working groups were formed to agree upon the detailed activities for the plan.

The plan is a living document and is periodically updated. Unit managers receive the plan and decide how to focus implementation efforts in their business units. Specific implementation tasks fall into six categories: Management and Personnel, Products and Materials, Customers, Suppliers, Buildings Equipment and Consumable Materials, and Transport.

IKEA seeks to achieve substantial environmental improvements by focusing implementation efforts on structural changes, those that impact processes, methods, or material content. By keeping the efforts focused on structural change, IKEA can maximize the impact of resources invested and reduce the energy necessary to address isolated issues. Some examples of structural changes include: a) the use of the E1 standard for all IKEA products in all sales markets; b) the use of ultraviolet (UV) hardened and water-based lacquers to avoid solvents; and c) the process of optimizing transports to reduce exhaust emissions. In a number of cases, the efforts have resulted in long-term cost reductions.

The following sections highlight many results from the six implementation areas.

Management and Personal
This category recognizes the crucial need for individual contribution to successfully realize the environmental policy. Key tasks involve training and communication. Manager training addresses specific issues or problems in the manager's functional area. Co-worker training includes general information about environmental issues and the IKEA environmental policy and action plan, and "function specific" information about the known environmental problems related to the functional area of the employee.

Results Achieved
1. By 1995, IKEA North America implemented an environmental training program, with TNS principles at its core. The training program utilizes the "train-the-trainer" principle. In the first step, the trainers are selected from different organizations and functions within the company and then trained at a five-day seminar. In the next step, these trainers are assigned to educate all management teams and all employees, primarily those having a direct customer or supplier contact. For each group, the extent of the program is adapted to the functional needs. The basic modules include:

Basic environmental knowledge according to TNS
The company's environmental program: background, policy, action plan
Education adapted to the tasks of the group; e.g., range, purchase, distribution, retail

2. Stores receive the IKEA position on different environmental issues to use for addressing questions or concerns raised by customers.
3. An "ECO-facts" database was created that contains brief descriptions of different topical environmental issues with summaries of known facts. (See Exhibit A for an example entry.) Co-workers have access to the "ECO-facts" database to gather information to address customer inquiries or solve other problems.
4. Some co-workers have voluntarily started local environmental working groups.

Products and Materials
This category recognizes that products and packaging must convey a clear signal about the commitment to the environment. Key tasks involve evaluating materials and manufacturing methods to identify the environmental impact of the materials or methods. When assessing the environmental impact of product materials, IKEA applies the environmental laws and standards from the strictest market as a minimum requirement for the products sold in all markets.
__________________________________________________________________
Facts about Formaldehyde
What is it? Under normal conditions, formaldehyde is a colorless gas with a pungent smell. It occurs naturally in all living cells and therefore also in the human body. Formaldehyde is able to combine with a number of substances to form a variety of end-products, and synthetically manufactured formaldehyde is used in the manufacture of paints, lacquers, adhesives, rigid plastics and a number of toiletry items, such as shampoo and soap. Formaldehyde is normally used in bound form or in aqueous solution as formalin. Formaldehyde also occurs as a by-product of incomplete combustion, for example in car exhaust fumes and tobacco smoke where it is present in much higher concentrations than emitted from, for example, furniture.

How is the Environment Affected? Formaldehyde is quickly broken down in nature and is not accumulated in animals and plants. Formaldehyde can, however, cause allergic reactions in contact with skin or if inhaled. In very high doses over a long period of exposure, formaldehyde is suspected of being carcinogenic. There is, however, no scientific evidence for this.

Is it Used in IKEA Products? Formaldehyde occurs in IKEA products as a binder in wood-based materials such as particleboard, bentwood and plywood. It also occurs in adhesives and lacquers, and in textile materials as a component in finishing treatments.

What Rules Apply Generally? IKEA has long worked to minimize the use of formaldehyde. Since 1986, IKEA has applied the German formaldehyde requirement, currently the strictest, for all IKEA products on all sales markets, even where no limit exists. The German limit is such that even persons who are over sensitive to formaldehyde should not experience any problems. Denmark and Austria have similar requirements, while Sweden, Norway, Finland and California have their own formaldehyde requirements.

On it own initiative, IKEA has also introduced equivalent requirements on textiles in spite of the fact that formal requirements exist only in Japan and Finland.
__________________________________________________________________

Results Achieved:
1. Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is gradually being phased out at IKEA. It has been replaced in wallpapers, home textiles, shower curtains, lamp-shades, and furniture. PVC has also been eliminated from all packaging and is gradually being phased out in electric cables.
2. IKEA is at the forefront of minimizing the use of formaldehyde in its products, including textiles (despite the fact that formal requirements for formaldehyde in textiles exist only in Japan and Finland).
3. Acid curing lacquers have been replaced with alternatives (e.g., ultraviolet (UV)- hardened and water-based lacquers).
4. A version of the IKEA OGLA chair is made from 100% recycled pre-consumer plastic waste.
5. A product called "a.i.r.," consisting of a series of air inflatable furniture products (e.g., a sofa), has recently been introduced into the product line. Individual components are inflated by the customer, using a hair-dryer, and then individually "stuffed" into a slip cover, that serves as the item's frame. The resulting product reduces the use of raw materials for framing and stuffing. In addition, transportation weight and volume are reduced to about 15% of what is required for a conventional sofa.
6. Powder lacquer is substantially reducing the use of chromium for metal surface treatment.
7. The use of substances such as cadmium, lead, PCB, PCP, and AZO pigments is prohibited or strictly limited.
8. IKEA strives to use only wood from known, well-managed sources: forests that replant and care for the protection of biological diversity.
9. IKEA uses only recyclable materials for flat packaging. In addition, using "pure" (nonmixed) materials for packaging enables easy sorting/recycling.

Customers
This category recognizes the need to make it easy for customers to incorporate environmental considerations into purchase decisions. Tasks seek to give customers sound environmental information and provide environmentally-friendly alternatives for acquiring IKEA products.

Results Achieved:
1. In 1992, IKEA worked with Greenpeace to develop guidelines for catalogue production. Today, over 80 million IKEA catalogues are printed on non-chlorine bleached paper and use pulp from farmed wood (no old growth). In addition, the company issues only one catalog per year, utilizes 10-20% post-consumer recycled paper, and accepts old catalogues back at stores for recycling. Additional environmental highlights of catalogue production include the use of:

Digital engraving at the print shop, rather that traditional film reproduction. This process reduces the use of plastic film and heavy metals, and there are no chemicals in the reproduction process.
Low-toluene content ink and heavy-metal-free ink, resulting in less use of solvents.
Adhesives that are free from injurious chemicals.

2. Several European stores offer free bus transportation from selected city areas to the store, as an alternative to use of private cars. When public bus transportation became available to a German IKEA store, 33,000 additional individuals visited the store in the following year.
3. Stores will accept product packaging that the customer wants to leave.
4. Organic cotton fabrics are available for custom upholstery.

Suppliers
This category recognizes the need to encourage suppliers to adopt environmentally responsible production methods. Key tasks are to encourage suppliers to strengthen their awareness of environmental issues and to support the development of more environmentally sound production technologies.

Results Achieved:
1. The process of working with suppliers for the North American market has been challenging. Robert Paolozza, IKEA NA manager responsible for quality and environmental issues, said that most suppliers were "somewhat surprised" at the environmental requirements of the IKEA product specifications. It has been necessary to work closely with suppliers to help them understand and adapt to key environmental product specifications, including restrictions on formaldehyde, lacquers, wood sources (no rain-forest wood). Also, packaging is to be recyclable or reusable and contain no PVC.
2. In Northern Europe, IKEA has organized 2½-day environmental workshops for suppliers. The workshop is offered to suppliers at cost. Participating companies send one or two individuals to be trained to train others on environmental issues. Afterwards, the participators are prepared to conduct training at their own company and to help establish their own environmental program.
3. Several IKEA suppliers in European countries now act according to established environmental standards and use an environmental management program. Standards used for certification are ISO 14001 or the Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), an European Union regulation. Many more suppliers are in the certification process.

Buildings, Equipment and Consumable Materials
This category recognizes the need to work for a better environment in all "we" do. Efforts in this area include evaluating the environmental impact of property, property enhancements, waste, equipment, and materials. For example, the environmental impact of office machines and materials is evaluated, and if more environmental compatible alternative products are available, they should be chosen at the time of next procurement. Similar practices are also used for other kinds of equipment (e.g., fork lifts) and consumable supplies.

Results Achieved:
1. Newly built IKEA stores and other owned property are constructed according to environmentally adapted requirements. Every effort is also made to adapt to these requirements when renovating old property.
2. Many European IKEA stores have adopted a "Trash is Cash" program. Trash is Cash takes IKEA packaging materials (e.g., cardboard, plastics), recyclable office waste (e.g., paper), and other store waste (e.g., paints, glass, wood) and recycles it.
3. In 1993 the Gothenburg, Sweden store set up its own on-site recycling facility and today the store recycles almost 85 % of its waste. Its annual solid waste bill, about $35,000 (US dollars) in 1992, is now a small profit. On-site recycling facilities are now established at all Swedish IKEA sites (including stores, offices, and warehouse/distribution centers). Waste is sorted into 16 to 22 fractions, and 80 to 85 % of total waste volume is sorted. The program considerably reduced waste handling costs; total cost today is close to zero. The goal is to reach 100% sorting/recycling within a few years. There also is a prototype in use for on-site composting of restaurant waste.
4. In Switzerland, stores offer customers the ability to deposit old furniture when replacing it with new IKEA furniture. By depositing old furniture with IKEA, customers can save about half of the waste disposal cost (e.g., nearly $100 for a sofa). A recycling contractor dismantles the furniture and sorts the materials into different fractions: wood, metal, textile, plastic, etc. The IKEA goal is to offer this service at a break-even cost point.
5. In 1995, the Philadelphia store was retrofit with fluorescent lighting at a one time cost of $151,000 (US dollars) and expected yearly savings of $85,322 (US dollars) through less energy (in KWH) use. By the end of 1998, all IKEA North America facilities will be retrofit with fluorescent lighting.
6. Some buildings are experimenting with alternative energy sources (e.g., photo voltaic solar systems and use of ground water to heat/cool the indoor climate).

Transport
This category recognizes the need for environmentally-sound transportation methods. Efforts seek to reduce the demand of non-renewable natural resources such as oil and direct damage to the environment as a result of emissions. Specific tasks achieving positive results over time include:

Using flat IKEA packaging that takes up little transport volume.
Using railroads for long-distance transportation.
Maximizing the efficiency of shipments: reduce the number of transports and the number of empty transports, make maximum use of cargo vehicle space, utilize return transportation, and avoid rush-hour traffic.
Choosing transportation companies that meet EC-standards on emissions and noise.

Results Achieved:
IKEA has continually applied logistic solutions to all distributed goods (e.g., product, catalogue, and fixtures). These items have resulted in real cost savings for IKEA, through the reduction of waste and the efficiency of transport. For example:

recycling shrink-film.
using returnable pallets.
using combi-transports, i.e., goods are conveyed by rail for part of their journey and by road for the remainder of the journey.
using transportation units in both directions when possible.
creating a "smart" goods logistics, e.g., using a bookbinding contractor between the printing house and the distribution center, to minimize total transportation distance.

Benefits, Challenges & Lessons Learned
To date, IKEA has not focused on measuring tangible benefits of its environmental program. Plan implementation costs have been viewed as operational or product costs. Intangible benefits have affected the employees, customers, suppliers, and product line.

The environmental training program received a fantastic response from employees and good support from management. Employees are motivated to work for a company with an environmental commitment.

Consumers, in all markets, are benefiting from the IKEA adherence to strict environmental standards, regardless of the regulations in that market.

Supplier relationships are strong. IKEA has worked closely with suppliers to help them modify production processes to meet revised product specifications. Such modifications have often resulted in production efficiencies and a reduction in total product cost.

IKEA has made the strategic decision to focus its energy internally on continuous improvements that support the environmental policy and plan. Therefore, external communication of the plan's implementation is made through "proving results."

The greatest challenges that lie ahead are in the areas of sustainable forestry, producers' responsibility legislation (Sweden and Germany), and transportation. The following insights share some lessons learned from the IKEA experience:

create awareness by involving as many people as possible from the start.
align your environmental work with your business vision; it must fit your business reality.
keep it simple in simple words!
put the environmental issue deep into the line organization - don't departmentalize it; it concerns everybody.
start with visible actions that show concrete results.
have a champion, someone whose job it is to focus on the key issues. Managers and coworkers will absorb the "functional view;" a champion can advocate a "systemic view."

"Even on a day-to-day operation," says Russel Johnson, director of environmental affairs, "there is a lot to be done." Basic tasks that will help achieve objectives include:

avoid complicated specialist terms by using 'every-man' wording and explanations.
try to find 'down-to-earth' changes and solutions. communicate to employees and others involved.
encourage employee volunteer activities and behavior changes at home as well as at work.

Works Cited
FY 1990 - FY 1997 average growth rate.
Estimated cost savings are 20-50 percent, compared with the competition.Kamprad, I., "Testament of a Furniture Dealer," December 20, 1976.
"IKEA and the Natural Step," by Joel Reichert, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, Feb. 1996 and from IKEA sources.
Anders Moberg, Feb. 24, 1993 from Introduction of IKEA and the Environment.

This case study was prepared by Heidi Owens, Ph.D., for The Natural Step Network.

Interface Asks TNS Founder 10 Tough Sustainability Questions

Neil McCallum — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:16:12 -0400

Interface is world-famous for the way it has grown its innovations and bottom line exponentially by placing sustainability at the heart of everything it does. What many don't know is that the way Interface defines and approaches sustainability has been heavily influenced by The Natural Step from the beginning. To inaugurate the "Sustainability Gurus For The 21st Century" section on the Interface "Cut The Fluff" blog, Laura Cremer recently interviewed The Natural Step founder Karl-Henrik Robèrt. This is a re-posting of that piece.

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Today, we are opening up a new section in our Cut the Fluff blog. We want to meet and learn from top sustainability thinkers and question them about their views on sustainable development in the broadest sense. From time to time we will invite special guests including entrepreneurs, architects, designers, scientists and opinion leaders who are connected to sustainability and interview them on our blog. And so we have come up with ‘the 10 toughest sustainability questions’ in order to find out about their motivations and concerns, what drives them and makes them see red.

Our first interviewee is Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt who I met recently at a round table meeting in Berlin. Karl-Henrik has an impressive CV and is one of Sweden’s foremost cancer scientists. In order to facilitate the consensus process between science and decision making, Karl-Henrik founded the NGO, The Natural Step about 25 years ago currently with offices in many countries distributed over all continents, advising businesses and cities to implement front line science for concrete decision making. He is now Professor of Strategic Sustainable Development at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH). He has written many books and scientific publications on the links between ecology, economy and technology.

In Berlin Karl-Henrik gave an inspiring and energising presentation in which he stressed the importance of strategic multi-stakeholder cooperation in order to achieve sustainable development. He calls it a ‘dynamic challenge’. After listening to his presentation it was clear to me that he would be the perfect first candidate for our 10 question challenge. Here you can find his responses.

Enjoy reading and let us know what you think!

Q1. – What is your definition of sustainability in one sentence?

That the four basic sustainability principles of the scientifically derived Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) are met.

Q2. – Who is your sustainability hero and why?

Ray Anderson, because he was knowledgeable enough to put the basic sustainability principles mentioned above on the table; pragmatic enough to begin approaching them step by step whilst improving bottom line results, and was bold enough to tell the world.

Q3. – If you were running a powerful environmental NGO, which issue would be the focus of your first campaign?

I actually run a powerful NGO and have done for 25 years. Our campaign now is the same as it was 25 years ago – to collect and train proactive leaders like Ray Anderson, and then identify and point out their win-win-win success which can serve as role models for others.

Q4. – What’s the worst sustainability claim you ever heard?

That sustainability would be utopia. This means, in fact, that humanity would be doomed to die together, preceded by barbarism when the social contract collapses.

Q5. – What will get us out of this mess? Miraculous technology, tough regulation or self-flagellation?

Neither. Only one thing can, namely large-scale dissemination of systems-knowledge about sustainability (the FSSD). This includes (i) how to define sustainability as robust boundary conditions, (ii) how to integrate business- and action programmes within such constraints, (iii) how to define the competitive “business case” of doing so, and (iv) how to approach such sustainable objectives strategically i.e. step by step and with improved bottom-line results.

The mess we are in today is created by people talking about “values” before the above knowledge is on the table and shared. Values are nice, but not instead of a robust understanding of how values can be integrated into bottom line business models. The two are also connected – understanding something really well is an underestimated source of enthusiasm.

Q6. – If you could approve a law related to sustainability which would be your first?

That all governmental organisations, to start with, would learn how to define sustainability and act in line with it, see Q5.

Q7. – “Sustainable brand” – admirable ambition or ad-man spin?

It depends; without the knowledge in Q5 it is “ad-man spin”, with such knowledge you have an admirable ambition.

Q8.– What is your message to the Fortune 500 CEO’s?

To study and understand my response to Q5.

Q9. – What is your favourite sustainability website?

The Natural Step website.

Q.10 – And… what is your dirty unsustainable secret?

That my conviction, from the launch of TNS 20 years ago, was to have patience and wait for top-executives to turn to us for advice and learn from the role-models we had already trained. It is only now I understand that this process, though it works each time, is far too slow for the world to become sustainable in time. How do we speed it up and make organisations less and less dependent on us? It is utterly frustrating to see people hurt themselves and their organisations from making un-sustainable decisions, all the while knowing that the knowledge for how to avoid this has been out there for a long time. I am not a patient man any more, and that is a serious threat to my professionalism.

Written by: Laura Cremer
Source: www.interfacecutthefluff.com/

Interface reduces water use 80% per unit since 1996

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:53:19 -0400

By: Erin Meezan, Vice President, Sustainability, Interface

Interface, Inc. today uses only 20% as much water to make products as they did in 1996. This is an impressive accomplishment, especially for a materials manufacturer, and shows the benefits of looking at a business through the lens of sustainability.

Sixteen years ago, Interface Inc. started on a journey led by their founder, Ray Anderson. The company adopted a bold new vision - “To be the first company that, by its deeds, shows the entire industrial world what sustainability is in all its dimensions: People, process, product, place and profits - and in doing so- become restorative through the power of influence”. Reaching this vision meant that Interface would need to evolve into an entirely different kind of organization, but here was no blueprint for this kind of organization in business.

Interface started by asking how they could translate the operations of nature into a model for business. They relied heavily on the Natural Step Framework to guide their thinking as they mapped out how to change their business. Interface ultimately developed the Seven Fronts of sustainability – seven key areas where Interface would focus to remake their company. Over the last 16 years, Interface has followed these Fronts and made progress reducing the impacts of the company and its reliance on natural resources. This has included a strong focus on the manufacturing operations where they traditionally used large amounts of raw materials, energy and water.

As Interface approached the management of their manufacturing operations through a sustainability lens, they were able to identify numerous opportunities to not only conserve resources, but also cut costs.

Some savings have been the result of making fundamental shifts in how Interface manufactures its flooring products. For instance, engineers at Interface‘s Bentley Prince Street factory in California reconsidered the way they made carpet that resulted in a reduction of the water used to manufacture each unit by 47%. The company simply moved away from the energy water and chemical-intensive dye-injection and yarn dye methods for adding colors and patterns to their products. Dye-injection involved using a large machine, much like a big ink-jet printer, to apply colors to long lengths of carpet. The yarn-dye method involved soaking fibers in dye solution before tufting it into carpet. In pursuit of their sustainability objectives, Interface Bentley Prince Street totally phased out the use of dye-injection carpet printing in 1999 and reduced carpet made with the yarn-dye process from 45 percent of its output in 2001 to 1 percent in 2009.

As a substitute, the company shifted its focus to two alternative processes - piece dyeing and solution dyed yarns. The piece dyeing process involves manufacturing a blank slate of white carpet, and then adding patterns and colors on a made-to-order basis. This process of customization is far more energy and resource efficient than the sweeping dye-injection method.

The company also reconsidered the process of creating the carpet yarn itself. Instead of soaking fibers in dyes, the switch was made to the use of yarn filaments that are extruded from solutions already impregnated with pigment. This dyeing method drastically reduces the amount of water energy and chemicals required in the process and at InterfaceFLOR’s modular carpet factory in Georgia, this change in the manufacturing process resulted in a savings of over 88% in water per unit of production.

Interface has also taken advantage of the low hanging fruit available to them by making easy changes in building operations. At InterfaceFLOR in Thailand, they have reduced total water usage by 30% percent water through the installation of water efficient toilets, showers and sinks. Outside, they selected plants for their landscape plan that only required one year of temporary irrigation.

Interface’s significant reduction in water use is just one example of how managing the environmental impacts of business can bring about meaningful change. By relentlessly pursuing sustainability-focused innovation, Interface is racing to fulfill its long-term vision of becoming a “restorative company,” and is continuing to set the pace as a world leader in next generation manufacturing.