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Noteworthy from Gartner Group

Sustainability and Green IT: A National Policy Perspective

1 June 2009 Simon Mingay The issues of sustainability, from energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions to toxic substances and product longevity, will have an increasing impact on national policy areas that directly and indirectly affect the IT industry and IT organizations.

Dell beats HP and IBM on CSI Benchmark Report

Technology Business Research's Brad Allen, director of the Global Business Sustainability Service, stated that "CSI leadership underscores a corporation's commitment to sustainability in its business models and practices. By embedding sustainability into the core business fabric, organizations gain competitive advantage and environmental equity, contributing to overall corporate value."

So what's CSI Leadership all about?

The inaugural Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) Benchmark Report evaluates the environmental metrics of 40 companies within the computer hardware, software, professional services, and network and telecommunications sectors.

With an overall score of 317.9, Dell bested firms such as British Telecom (265.2), IBM (NYSE: IBM)(258.5), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) (255.1), scoring particularly well in areas of renewable energy, recycling and embedded sustainability strategy.

See more complete article at sustainable business.com.

Searching But Not Finding

A must read is Deloitte study, Finding the Green in Today's Shoppers: Sustainability Trends and New Shopper Insights.

In retail it's not just location, location, location. It's also about price and availability and in terms of the latter, companies marketing green and sustainability products and services need to listen up to a major finding in the study:

Sustainability’s appeal to shoppers is already large. Nearly all shoppers surveyed would buy green; nearly two thirds actively seek it on each shopping trip. However, since only 22 percent of the shoppers surveyed actually find and buy the green products that interest them, the latent, unfulfilled demand for sustainability-enhanced products must be immense. "

And as a reminder, these "Green Shoppers are a large, high-value segment of importance to retailers and many manufacturers. Green shoppers visit stores more frequently, buy more products on each trip, and demonstrate more brand and retailer loyalty."

The already converted among consumers are NOT finding reliable information at point of purchase and are leaving empty handed or worse yet, with ecologically-impaired products. Maybe it's time for the green business leaders to take on a less "conversion" language, be more inclusive, and make substantial investments in POP and Web-based consumer education programs. And do so in concert with members of the supply chain, especially the sales channels.

I recall hearing in a speech a year ago by Mark Lee, CEO of the consulting company, sustainability.com that work at the level of consumer education was a situation waiting to happen. It may be that as we move from "branded organizations" to a value on "authentic organizations" marketing resources will be invested in the right places and with more fact, and less emotion.

We started EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability, to bring educational resources, the unfiltered voices of experts, business leaders, and citizens from all walks of life to those initiating a search, and beginning the learning cycle, on Google for the term, sustainability. We wanted to focus on finding, rather than searching, while using the power of search engines such as Blinkx.

It turns out that searching and not finding is rife throughout the entire buying cycle.

Ernst & Young Survey: Supply Chain Sustainability

"Our survey of executives from US$1bn-plus corporations, in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, indicates a high level of awareness of sustainability. Companies appreciate the opportunities it offers within the supply chain, coupled with concerns over the cost and complexity of addressing it.

Reputation, cost reduction and revenue growth were the top three opportunities cited by more than half of respondents. The greatest risk is believed to be an increased cost base."

Sustainability Initiatives

Ernst and Young in their report, Green for go: Supply chain sustainability, lists some of the major initiatives one finds under the sustainability banner, noting "where there is carbon, there are costs" and the low percentage of companies that have undertaken related initiatives -- only 35% having embarked on carbon foot printing of any description.

These sustainability initiatives are in order of percent of organizations who have implemented an initiative.

Labor Standard Improvements
Waste/Packaging Minimization
Phasing out of hazardous materials
Community Projects
Estate/Plant energy efficiency improvements
Logistics Optimization
Supplier Qualification
Sustainability Program
Chain of Custody/product traceability
Renewable Energy
Carbon footprinting
Carbon Offsetting

Retail Sector Weighs in on Sustainability

Sustainability Is Here To Stay – Pun Intended so writes Leslie Hand, Research Director, Global Retail Insights.

"Naysayers will purport that the importance of sustainability will fade, but we disagree. One of our 2009 predictions states "sustainability and being green will be embedded in the fabric of leading retailer strategies and tactics". We are seeing much evidence to support this claim, as retailers are initiating many projects with positive impacts on operating costs and the environment including energy management, recycling, transportation, construction and supplier packaging reduction.

Many retailers are also making consumer facing changes... Some are going the extra mile to work with product manufacturers to promote products with reduced carbon footprints.
... Retail leaders will seize market advantage from participating in a sustainability movement that is far from temporary, and in fact, part of a greater shift towards doing business differently - more sustainably. "

The naysayers are converting to becoming earthsayers and you can listen and learn from them on EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability.

From Laundry List to Sustainability Strategy

A recent research report by The Hartman Group entitled Sustainability: the Rise of Consumer Responsibility by Alice Worthington, Spring 2009, is a must read for companies in the B2C space. It confirmed what we here at EarthSayers.tv have found: Consumers interpret the word, sustainability, as green and link it to only one zone, environmental. And it's not just consumers.

We found even business people with a "for benefit" mission and green products are likely to express the same narrow definition.

As a way to overcome this misunderstanding and as part of our intent to increase sustainability awareness with the project, EarthSayers.tv, we created a taxonomy of sustainability and called it a content map.

The taxonomy defines four elements of sustainability - overview/systemic change, planet, people, and prosperity. There are over twenty-three categories falling within these four categories with all key words, over 300, rolling up to category to element. This is very useful tool for companies to use in creating sustainability as a business strategy and to put the wood behind one arrow. For example, we took a laundry list of socially responsible projects we found on the Website of a major consulting firm and re-organized the pieces and parts into a sustainability strategy.

Laundry List of Causes or Programs

Biotechnology
Climate Change
Credit Crisis
Energy
Geopolitics
Globalization
Health Care
Innovation
Internet

Organization

This particular company has not developed a though leadership platform around sustainability, a key to the element, systemic change (one of their principals speaks on broad economic issues) and has a hit and miss strategy for the planet and people. They have a presence in the prosperity category, as do many venture capital companies do, but it suggests they are covering bets, rather than working towards sustainable development. Laundry list as strategy:

Moving from laundry lists to coherent sustainability strategy is the first step in being able to convince consumers, both B2C and B2B that the company is a responsible, with core values around sustainability, and activities which are consistent with these values. As noted in the Hartman study, "sustainability is a marker of quality, and can be a tie breaker in a purchase decision." For B2B companies, even high powered consulting and investment ones, it certainly will indicate to prospects and investors a higher level of transparency, responsibility, and accountability.