CIOs are always looking for the initiative that's going to put them on par with the rest of the senior leadership team. Sustainability can be that initiative - assuming you take a top-line approach. By Anne Bruce

When it comes to sustainable IT, many CIOs shy away from acting the role of changemaker. But as business processes evolve to capture not only economic metrics but also social and environmental considerations, CIOs must become sustainability strategists in addition to playing the traditional role of chief information officer.

How to earn that coveted seat in the conference room? Try making the top-line business case for sustainable IT - how the information enterprise can be leveraged to boost a company's economic, social, and environmental capital. Here's how you can get started.

#1. Understand your position. Identify your company's stakeholders, as well as any competition or antagonists. What, if any, common ground do you share?

Find the strengths as they present business opportunities and they are part of what you are already doing. (You may even find that your business plan and your sustainability plan are one in the same.) The IT enterprise has all the data and, in many cases, is already teaming with each of the business functions on Business Intelligence.

One healthcare company, for example, recognized the extent to which planned changes to its reimbursement structure would impact stakeholders. So it culled the data and presented the information to align support groups, end consumers, product manufacturer, and government to create a solution that enhanced the viability of each. In the end, additional services generated top line revenue to more than offset reductions in reimbursement revenue.

#2: Capitalize on common ground. Determine how to best utilize your current value chain to improve environmental and social performance for the extended enterprise.

One company, in the midst of a green overhaul, surveyed its employees to uncover their basic motivations to excel. Management used the results to create an atmosphere in which systems engineers were encouraged to think creatively. Leadership, while receiving daily metrics on progress, led the groups by observing changes in the esprit de corps of the team, validating wins no matter how small, strengthening each success daily, and reinforcing alignment of the individual aspirations, the team's basic purpose, and the program's end goals.

#3: Look at your customer's needs. Do you know how to tackle an environmental or social issue that might be confounding your customers? Do your company’s products or services have undesirable effect you can reduce? Can you productively use anything your customers discard?

A large consumer product company found a breakthrough in the developing world - a market many companies have written off believing that the low average personal income in those areas presented too big a business risk. Yet, when the product was sustainability re-packaged, marketed and distributed in accordance with the needs of the regional and local communities, a new market was created. Teaming with IT to modify existing business process and enterprise systems, this new market built upon the company's core product and long-term global growth strategy.

#4: Work with your value chain. What could your suppliers do that would make your operation more sustainable? Any partnering opportunities that would reduce the environmental impact of both your enterprise and theirs?

A starting point for many embarking on sustainability is education. Offering seminars, workshops, off-sites, and social events that introduce the topic to suppliers, alliance partners and customers gets each individual to have their own realizations and starts the ball rolling. As part of a customer relationship management (CRM) initiative, the overlap between the public good and the top line will soon become the focus.

#5: Anticipate impending changes. Identify future market or global factors that could effect common ground. Identify future market or global factors that could effect a balance on economic, social, and environmental capital.

Many organizations are surveying to gain comparative data. The evaluation of both internal and external data allows a steering committee or sustainability core team to predict the impact on future goals. Looking at the intersection of social, economic and environmental dynamics makes new markets and opportunities visible. A growing cosmetics company created an export strategy based on consumer feedback-generated social media surveys. The result was a new distribution strategy that became more profitable than their existing store model.

The Bottom Line

The CIO has all of an information enterprises data at his fingertips. In each of the above examples, the IT executive team provided the information to the business function responsible and teamed with the business on the initiative. CIOs and IT leadership who wish to be viewed as true business partners would do well to take more ownership of their company's sustainability initiatives. If CIOs are proactive about sustainability - namely, if they recognize it as a strategic business issue that can lead to growth - they can put themselves in a position to be viewed as true strategic partners within the enterprise.

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Anne Bruce is senior partner at UpShift, a management consultancy specializing in sustainable organizational systems.