|
June 25, 2007 
|  | |
|
A Guide for Sustainable Business Innovators
| ||
| Home | Climate News & Ideas | Connections | Events | About | ||
The Four Pillars of Sustainable Innovation
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Eco-Advantage Strategies, your guide to the ever-changing world of sustainable business. Why now? In short, the business world is facing pressures it's never seen before. Planet-wide environmental problems, globalization, the Web and the transparency it creates, fast-growing markets in India and China . . . these mega-forces are driving constant change. On top of this already tricky mix comes a sea change in thinking about business and its role in society. Companies are increasingly expected to compete hard and operate sustainably (no more "or"). The winners will be the ones who quickly adapt and help the world deal with issues like climate change.
Our goal for this e-newsletter is to provide you some much needed guidance in these turbulent times. We won't simply report on the latest news in green business. Instead, we'll provide a lens for helping you understand how today's sustainable business leaders are creating advantage by thinking and acting green. We'll provide real-world case studies and interesting frameworks from a wide-range of perspectives. Business, academia, the blogosphere no source of good ideas will be pushed aside. It's our hope that these unique stories of innovation will help you spot risks and identify opportunities in your own business. We launch now with a big-picture focus on innovation for sustainability, the basis of every successful attempt to go green. When business people talk about innovation they usually focus on new products and revenue generation (see, for example, the CEO of Philips connecting innovation with sustainability). But the most innovative companies create value in four fundamental ways. On the upside, yes, they drive revenues by creating new products that help customers reduce their environmental impact. And they find innovative ways to enhance intangible value by connecting sustainability to their brands to help drive customer and employee loyalty. But they also innovate to reduce downsides by cutting costs and reducing risks by being smarter about their own resource use, and by focusing more on the impact they have on the communities and value chains in which they operate (what GE CEO Jeff Immelt has called being "ambidextrous"). In this short guide we give you a few examples of successful innovators. Some stories date back a bit (because often only in hindsight is the value of a strategy clear), and some are stories of the moment, but all help put the new mandate for green business in perspective. And, we hope, help you think about how your company can seize an environmentally driven competitive advantage today. Please enjoy, and tell us what you think. ~Andrew Winston, Co-founder, Winston Eco-Strategies, Co-author, Green to Gold (Read his "Eco-Advantage" blog here.) Comments or questions? Join Andrew and other readers online at the Eco-Strategies Forum. Driving Revenues: The Birth of the Prius 
The Toyota Prius is one of the most successful eco-products of all time. Here's an excellent overview of how it all came to be, and the key roles that both an innovative culture and environmental thinking played. Just how much of the innovation mantle does Toyota own? Thanks to its well deserved reputation for cutting-edge technology, the company is enjoying a sales boost for cars in every category, says this article from the Wall Street Journal. And now, Toyota has passed GM to become the biggest car company in the world.
Enhancing Brand: GE's "ecomagination" at Work 
General Electric's ecomagination program is driving revenues and pushing products, but it's also a big brand play: The proof is in the kind of products GE is advertising see these TV ads. Things like jet engines, locomotives, or clean coal products that have a few, big buyers. But the company took its message to the masses with national ads, a brand-building play. Here's head honcho Jeff Immelt's appearance on Charlie Rose shortly after the project launched back in March 2006. And here he is discussing GE's approach to eco-innovation at the grand finale of last year's "C-Suite Strategies" series hosted by Fortune magazine. The strategy has paid off big-time: in May the company reported $12 billion in sales of ecomagination products last year, with a backlog of orders worth more than $50 billion.
Cutting Costs: Adobe's Story 
You can't argue with the hard numbers. This Business 2.0 article shows how eco-efficiency initiatives at Adobe's San Jose headquarters are paying for themselves. Click the "see how the greenest office in America works" link for a slide deck itemizing costs and money saved for each initiative. It's a great example of a company taking a holistic approach and realizing significant savings.
Controlling Risk: Cell Phone Makers Dump Toxics 
As Nokia, Motorola, and Palm have discovered, not managing for regulation risk from hazardous materials can create a ripple effect of negative consequences ranging from steep fines to loss of market share. (Just how much do these companies stand to lose? By my calculation Palm lost $470 million in market cap thanks to legal barriers to the toxic materials in a single product.) Watch the leaders in the electronics industry once they have their ducks in a row they may well begin lobbying for higher toxics-reduction standards as a barrier to market entry for slower-moving competitors. Elsewhere in the IT sector, major-label manufacturers have put their considerable weight behind industry-led environmental initiatives such as The Green Grid and Climate Savers a smart move given the pressure on the tech sector to increase efficiency and head off toxics liabilities downstream.
Innovation Idea of the Week: Power Down That PC! 
A recent study finds that U.S. companies waste a whopping $1.72 billion in energy costs each year simply by failing to power down office PCs at the end of the workday. Thankfully, a new crop of computer applications can automatically adjust power management settings to reduce energy use when a machine is idle. Veridiem's Surveyor program allows organizations to monitor and adjust power settings at the network level. Individuals can download Snap.com's CO2 Saver desktop toolbar, which shows users a running tally of the energy it saves a feel-good addition to any day at the office.
|
Want More Eco-Strategies?
You can have the latest sustainable business news delivered direct to your inbox every other week! Sign up today for SLM's Sustainable Business News, packed with headlines about sustainable enterprise initiatives around the globe. In addition, SLM produces a suite of e-newsletters on targeted sustainable business topics such as Sustainable Branding, Green Design, Climate Change & Business, among others. Click here for a complete list of offerings, plus a complete archive of past issues. Forward to a Friend! Find Peers and Partners... If you havent already joined the fastest growing online sustainable business community, create a profile now and start connecting. Sustainable Brands '07: Learning From Leaders Eco-responsibility has become a hot commodity in business today, and companies are scrambling to figure out when and how to talk about theirs. At Sustainable Brands '07 you'll learn from the leaders about how to lay the proper groundwork for creating value for your organization through smart eco-communication strategies. 
Books & Media "No executive can afford to ignore the green wave sweeping the business world. [Co-authors] Esty and Winston show how to make sustainability a core element of strategy-and profit from it." -Chad Holliday, CEO, DuPont Case Study of the Week 
Now in its fourth decade, 3M's Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program is the granddaddy of eco-efficiency and cost savings. It's no coincidence that this early mover in the pursuit of ecocost saving is also known for its innovation in general. While "hot" companies come and go, 3M is on everyone's list of innovators year after year.
Tools & Frameworks Business Innovation: Overcoming the "Dominant Logic" Put best-of-breed innovation techniques into action as you undertake your own efforts to innovate for sustainability. Here's one model to try. Solution Providers |
This work is licensed under a CreativeCommons License. Copyright Sustainable Life Media Inc. 2007
| Home | Terms of Use | Privacy | Unsubscribe | Contact | How We Can Help | Partners |