Sustaining our future, one entrepreneur at a time

If “going green” is to succeed in corporate America, government at the local, state and federal level must incentivize energy efficiency for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Large corporations are implementing green initiatives to maximize revenues and marketing, indicating that the business of environmental sustainability is on the rise. Companies such as Honda, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and General Electric are all on the bandwagon, from reducing paper use to cutting carbon emissions at manufacturing plants. But the engine of America’s economic growth, small businesses, are challenged by the obstacles they must surmount to accomplish energy efficiency.

Deep into the recession, entrepreneurial startups are actively building on the sustainability platform, allocating venture capital to wind farms, solar panels, and “smart” electricity grids. They are young 20-somethings who are creating uncontested market space which will transform industries for decades to come. Despite their ambition and business acumen, they don’t yet have an effective regulatory framework to support their initiatives as part of a strategic plan.

With the Markey-Waxman Bill slowly proceeding to the U.S. Senate for a vote, local and state governments must increase their regulatory support for clean energy entrepreneurs. For example, if an entrepreneur is starting a web-based software company, there is no physical product or manufacturing capacity. Green companies on the other hand, need large amounts of capital and investors embedded in experiential science and government policy. The complex intersection between business, science, regulation and policy is no more evident than in the green industry.

While some states have stepped forward, for example, tax and grant incentives, carbon credits and various subsidies offered by New Jersey are some of the most generous in the country, states must streamline the process for green companies, based on the product such as solar or wind. They should establish a comprehensive guidepost for understanding the regulatory and policy frameworks in which green companies must operate. This streamlined process should explain to the new entrepreneur how to structure the business, raise capital, and ultimately, take advantage of government policies in effect.

Going green is a complex process that includes the implementation of new technologies and specialized training. There is no guarantee of an immediate profit due to the experimental nature of the work. While states are severely constrained by budget deficits, if they want to generate future revenues from emerging industries and building advantages over India and China, then spending on clean energy entrepreneurs should be considered an investment. Large corporations, while notable in their efforts to incorporate clean energy mechanisms, can only do so because then can afford to. Budding entrepreneurs should be able to match, if not surpass, them in their efforts to reduce America’s carbon footprint.

Copenhagen, at an extraordinary confluence in human history. Amidst grey skies, wet snow, bureaucratic chaos, street protests, and warm Danish hospitality, delegates and observers share an understanding. The outcome of these meetings will profoundly impact every human being who will ever walk the face of the planet from now until the end of time. Each of us knows we have only a few years to initiate sharp pollution cuts, before the window for climate stabilization shuts on our future, forever.

The heavy cloud of failure hangs over COP15. The tired conference poster sessions, booth displays and trade shows carry little interest.

The certain outcome of these meetings will be—another meeting. No matter how strong the final agreement that emerges Friday, COP15 will not be enough. Indeed, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s main pledge yesterday, as he pushed for continued sub-national, California-style action, was, “I’ll be back.”

There will be real progress here in Copenhagen. It is clear from the outside that the negotiators are building a framework. Over the next few years, international agreements can ratchet a rapid race to the top: an upward spiral of emission reduction commitments and far-reaching technology investments. President Obama is coming here tomorrow—as 45,000 other committed global citizens have already—to endorse and accelerate this critical international process.

But the immediate goal for Obama, as for the other millions of US citizens who understand the depth of the climate crisis, has to be an all-out effort to gain Senate passage, next spring, of as strong a climate bill as is politically possible.

The Danes have shown the world what a few decades of sensible laws can do. My host family, in their comfortable suburban townhouse, enjoys the 21^st Century Good Life. This includes of course, the family car, internet, cell connections, shiny appliances of all sorts, Christmas holiday spent at a country home—and also, universal healthcare, a year’s paid maternity leave, six weeks of paid vacation, great public transportation, and other benefits and services for working people that have been driven outside the imagination of the American dream.

The amazing news: this family generates half the carbon footprint of a typical American household.

The foundation of today’s Danish economy was a political decision made three decades ago. Following the energy crises of the 1970’s, Denmark passed a set of laws that dramatically decreased dependence on fossil fuels. High taxes on oil created a super-efficient, technologically sophisticated energy system, while government support nurtured a world-class wind power industry. In recent years, Danish industry produced close to half of the turbines built globally. The Danes pursued a green jobs strategy long before it was cool, and the result has been a prosperous, low carbon economic system, well down the road to sustainability.

The challenge of course is that as Danes, and Americans, and Chinese, we have four decades to reduce our global footprint not by half, but by 90 percent. The international process, and the subnational processes, are in fact, quite far along. The critical missing piece undermining progress at all levels is the absence of US national legislation—a set of laws supporting the American clean energy revolution that can transform our country and the world.

These are the final hours of a two-decade struggle to pass US legislation. What can we do? Double, and triple our efforts to demand solutions leadership from the Senate. Help us organize a State-Wide Conference Call with your Senators’ DC environmental policy staff, for February or March. Bard Center for Environmental Policy staff will do all the organizing work, including outreach to Senate offices, publicizing the call, and managing the actual call itself. To learn more, e-mail us at cllimate@bard.edu, or call me at 845-758-7067. Help engage dozens of institutions and hundreds of students in your state in direct dialogue with Senate DC staff.

After Arnold finished his press conference yesterday, a Danish journalist turned to me and declared: “We—all of us–have to be the Climanators.”

This COP meeting will end, inevitably, in heartbreaking disappointment. Whatever the package settled on, it will not be close to what science and justice demand. We face difficult odds. We are on a mission. We will not be beaten. We’ll be back.

It’s quite possible that if you don’t have a sustainability program in your company, you probably do and just don’t know about it yet.  In the process of conducting a recent study with 25 leading companies to identify best practices in sustainability, we discovered many formal, established sustainability programs originated from “grassroots” employee efforts unknown to senior executives.

Today, employees want to work for organizations that reflect their values, and respect their concerns about environmental and social responsibility (ESR).  The days of “The Organization Man” are long gone.  If companies want to retain the best and brightest employees, they must consider how to better align their values and interests with their employees.  And ESR is not just for tree-huggers anymore.  As humanity faces the global impact of climate change and the growing loss of our natural resources, individuals are looking to their own lives to see how they can make a difference, at home and at work.

Participation

So what should companies do? Leading organizations are harnessing their employees’ energy by first identifying who and where they are in the organization. Setting up brown-bag lunches, carrying out internal surveys, or organizing town-hall type meetings can help to gauge interest and coordinate early participation. Employees in common groups and departments can be identified and official “green teams” established to begin to consider issues together. Supporting managers and executive sponsors can also be identified at this time and formally assigned to create guidance and foster communication among groups.

Green Teams

In companies with no established programs, individuals are banding together to create informal “green teams.”  These teams are challenging management to improve operations and find more sustainable methods of creating and delivering their products.  Often, these efforts start small, with projects like recycling and composting, double-sided printing, and finding alternatives to daily commuting and business travel.  But don’t dismiss them for being too small in scope. They do have an impact. Ebay’s green team inspired the company to build San Jose, CA’s largest commercial solar installation saving the company $100,000 in annual energy costs and reducing CO2 emissions by over a million pounds a year.

When companies pay attention, such savings are possible. But undirected employees’ efforts can side-track other business operations and create conflicts in the organization. Independent side projects without coordination or leadership can become contentious pursuits of ideology over common goals.  Employees’ passion can become a latent liability or a powerful asset. Companies that recognize and engage employee desire for sustainability can reap tremendous benefits not only in retention rates, but productivity and profitability as well.

Organization & Leadership

Teams need leaders. Managers and executive sponsors can assist teams is staying focused and work with them to develop the business cases needed for their projects.  Requirements such as return on investment and payback period may be new to those not previously involved in company decision-making.  By encouraging a rigorous assessment of each proposed project, employees can come to see the opportunities, challenges, and trade-offs critical to making successful decisions.  At the same time, they will learn to understand the standard criteria for developing new projects. This will allow teams to further focus their efforts and bring better, more effective opportunities up for consideration. Not all teams will be the same. Managers can serve as team leads or as advisers depending on the level of involvement necessary.

Similarly, teams can be semi-autonomous or part of a more formalized structure. At equipment maker Applied Materials, the company uses regionally based employee-led green teams, while furniture maker Herman Miller, has a formal company team called the Environmental Quality Action Team (EQAT).  Comprising cross-functional sub-teams, EQAT groups are chartered with focusing on specific areas such as Green Buildings, ISO 14001, Packaging, Communications and Design for Environment. By engaging a diverse set of cross-functional employees, the company is able to benefit from a variety of perspectives and build alignment among different departments.

Engaging Middle Management

One of the concerns we heard from several companies in our study was how to engage middle management in their ESR efforts. Senior management can set goals and there can be a lot of passion and activity at the grass-roots level, but you need middle management to channel that energy in a coordinated manner to get maximum impact. With all the demands on middle management’s time, how do you get them motivated to set these efforts as a high priority? We found successful companies got the necessary engagement and cooperation from middle management by clearly communicating the importance of sustainability to senior management. If it’s shown that it’s a high priority for their boss, it’s likely that middle managers will see it as a high priority for themselves too. Ideally of course, sustainability goals should be part of every employee and manager’s MBO but we think most organizations haven’t reached this level of maturity yet.

Employee Communication

Another challenge companies often face is how to best communicate with employees.  In our research we discovered a variety of strategies in use. One common approach is to utilize the company’s existing intranet. In some cases, leading firms had to consolidate a divergent array of online sites that evolved as a result of the previously informal “grassroots” phase of their program.

For leading companies, their centralized green site includes information about the company’s sustainability strategy, vision, and goals, along with information about best practices, accomplishments, and events.  Often, these sites also include forums where employees can share thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Many leading companies we spoke to also made use of a regular newsletter.  Symantec’s quarterly “Global Green News” is an example of a regular dedicated communication. Other firms have opted to include sustainability content in an existing monthly or quarterly communication.

Social Networking

The jury is still out on social networking. The firms we interviewed were divided about using it. Sprint has embraced Twitter with its @SprintGreenNews page.  Intel has created specialty pages on Facebook such as its Data Center Efficiency Challenge site. While EMC’s head of Sustainability hosts the blog “Interconnected World.” However, others in our research had strict limits on employees’ use of such sites.  Especially for companies with newer programs, social networking appeared to be most beneficial when it was used strictly internally.  Communication that might be seen by other stakeholders, such as investors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), needs to be properly reviewed and vetted.  The last thing a company wants is to see Greenpeace protesting on their roof because someone tweeted unflattering internal environmental information.

Acknowledgement & Recognition

Once a company has made a commitment to build out a sustainability strategy, aligning employees to the cause can be significantly enhanced through some simple steps.

Communication from the company CEO can be a boost to morale and reinforce executives’ commitment to the overall sustainability strategy.  Employees closely watch and listen when their CEO appears in the media and, as a result, a brief comment regarding sustainability can go a long way in offering motivation and support. Another simple step is in providing recognition to employees and teams who are reaching goals, and building best practices within the organization.  Recognition need not be in the form of elaborate or monetary awards, especially at a time when funds may be limited. Recognition can be as simple as a profile in the company newsletter or lunch with a top executive.

The firms we spoke with were often surprised at the level of attention employees gave these simple gestures and how some would intensely lobby for the opportunity to be recognized. In some cases, companies have chosen to formalize the process for recognition, to invoke a spirit of competition.  Pitting teams against each other to reach specific targets and goals, can add an additional level of focus and attention for both individuals and their teams.

Conclusion

Sustainability efforts are increasing as employee interest has grown.  Many companies are seeing grassroots teams springing up, which presents the opportunity to harness their energy to improve organizational efficiencies and improve the company’s bottom line. Providing leadership, an organizational structure, good communication, and recognition can be key to engaging employees and building a program that is focused and effective for everyone.

About Kanal Consulting

Founded in 2003, we provide management consulting services focused on strategy, marketing, and sustainability. Our mission is to help clients grow sustainably. We have conducted dozens of engagements for Fortune 1000 companies, working with clients to identify and execute on new opportunities, develop partnerships, and understand how sustainability can contribute to the top and bottom line. Our sustainability practice for corporate clients includes services related to setting strategy and goals, product management and product marketing, stakeholder research, funding, operations, change management, and reporting.  Please contact us for more information.

Having an integrated clean technology strategy will be a big part of winning  business in the 21st century, a Coca-Cola executive told Reuters.com on Monday, and its investments in refrigeration will likely have the biggest impact on that strategy long-term.

The world’s biggest soft drinks maker has hooked up with Greenpeace on an initiative to eliminate hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) — greenhouse gases with a high warming effect — from its refrigeration and cooling equipment by 2015, said Jeff Seabright, Coke’s vice president for Environment & Water Resources.

“We have about 10 million pieces of equipment that run in 200 countries around the world every day, and although we’re only 1 percent of the commercial refrigeration market we have an opportunity to really lead on this,” he said.

Coke is also investing indirectly to keep ahead of the curve on new frontier technologies.

Seabright said Coke has around $70 million in two clean tech venture capital funds, DJF Element and Rockport Capital and that, in addition to expecting better than market rate returns, such investments give it a front-row seat for the latest technologies.

“We’ve clearly identified sustainable not as a fad or as sort of a nice to-do; this is going to define what it means to win in the world of business in the 21^st century,” he said. “Understanding things like sustainable agriculture, understanding what’s happening with water stress around the world in part as a product of climate-induced stress, understanding how to manage energy inputs and impacts on your business. These things are today big parts of our cost structure, a big part of our footprint and increasingly are going to a big part of what it’s going to take to win as a business.”

Water, packaging and energy and climate change are the three critical components of Coke’s environmental sustainability, Seabright said. One area it is now actively exploring is sustainable agriculture.

“We buy a lot of suger, a lot of citrus, a lot of vanilla, a lot of other agricultural commodities. As climate change continues to stress water resources, it’s going to have an impact on weather patterns, it’s going to have an impact on agriculture. So, preparing and adapting and understanding what’s going on in the agricultural sector and using our power in the marketplace to make sure we’re helping to support more sustainable outcome rather than a less sustainable outcome is a very important part of the future,” he said.

With the emphasis on clean technology comes the question of cost and whether to pass those costs on to consumers.  But Seabright said consumers already pay a higher price for products like organics and premium brands.

“For the mass market, people are not interested in paying more but it is a point of differentiation,” he said. “So if I can offer you a product that has authentic value in terms of the commitment behind it of the company that made it for environmental values or social values, that can make a difference for these consumers.”

By Katie Fehrenbacher

About 37 percent of the carbon footprint of the entire information and communication technology sector (ICT) in 2007 was due to the energy consumption of telecom infrastructure and devices, according to the Climate Group (14 percent came from data centers, and 49 percent came from PCs and peripherals). Contrast that with telecom’s carbon footprint figure in 2002 which was 28 percent of ICT’s carbon footprint. Phone companies are starting to notice that trend: this morning AT&T announced that it has hired its first Director of Energy John Schinter.

Schinter will be in charge of managing and reducing AT&T’s energy consumption across its network and direct its energy-related purchasing. AT&T says they are in the process of “reorganizing the way AT&T optimizes our energy use,” and hiring Schinter is one part of that. Other energy-related initiatives the phone company has taken in recent years include: creating an Energy Council within AT&T to enable different divisions to talk together about the companies energy goals, establishing a goal to cut “electricity usage intensity (relative to data growth on the AT&T network) by 15 percent, compared to 2008 levels,” using 1E’s NightWatchman power management software on 310,000 AT&T employee computers and looking at alternative energy for AT&T facilities.

Phone companies, like computing companies, are facing a growing expense due to their energy consumption. By 2020 energy use related to mobile networks will make up 13 percent of the total ICT carbon footprint, according to the Climate Group. But the Climate Group is anticipating that phone companies’ energy efficiency efforts (like AT&T’s) over the coming years could provide significant savings. Energy optimization software could save up to 44 percent, renewable energy for base stations could reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent and adopting a variety of measures like these could lead to “the avoidance of almost 60 MtCO2e in 2020,” says the Climate Group. According to Pike Research “there are sufficient technology and process improvements that could reduce 2013 [telco] infrastructure emissions by at least 101 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, a decrease of 42 percent from business-as-usual (BAU) trendlines,” (more on that on GigaOM Pro, subscription required).

Phone companies are also moving aggressively to get into the business of using their networks for both the smart grid and home energy management. AT&T has teamed up with startup SmartSynch, as has T-Mobile. And telcos with home fiber deployments are rapidly looking to layer on energy management as a service, along with voice, video and data (read more about that on GigaOM Pro, subscription required).

Image courtesy of Ericsson.

Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino has been honored as a 2009 Business Leader by Keep the Sierra Green.

Keep the Sierra Green Sustainability & Waste Reduction Business Recognition Program honors and recognizes businesses and organizations who lead by example in sustainable business practices.

“Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe consistently strives to be environmentally conscientious, and we are extremely honored and proud to be recognized as a Green Business Leader by Keep the Sierra Green,” said Mark Pardue, general manager. “Through the introduction of our Green Team, a group committed to generating awareness and implementation of all things ‘green,’ we are becoming a more sustainable business from the inside out. This recognition is a testament to all that we have achieved to date, as well as what we can accomplish in the future.”

The Hyatt was recognized, along with other outstanding green businesses, during Keep the Sierra Green’s Annual Green Business Recognition Awards luncheon on Nov. 10.

In the review, Hyatt excelled in energy and water conservation as well as employee awareness categories.

Last year, the resort’s efforts included recycling 65,000 pounds of waste, and a $50,000 commitment to retrofitting the resort’s lighting, including compact fluorescent applications in all 422 guest rooms and motion sensor lighting throughout many areas.

Over the past year, Hyatt Lake Tahoe has reduced electrical consumption by 35 percent due to extensive “turn it off” programs.