Re: Engaging Business

For examples of corporations that are making sustainability integral, check out: Herman Miller furniture designers Samuel Johnson Co. (endowed the Cornell Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise) Steelcase Interface carpets Harbec Plastics Lots of green building and renewable energy for manufacturing, plus recycling-based manufacturing.

Gay Nicholson, Ph.D.

In Minnesota Target appears to be moving in this direction. Their most visible result may be a gift card made from PLA. 3M has had an environmental officer for many years. Of course we hear of the ROHS laptop Walmart commissioned among other efforts, and GEs commimtment to wind power. It seems critically important to encourage these behaviors since this will encourage the companies to more more strongly in this direction. I would like to expand this a little after watching _An Inconvenient Truth_ last weekend. The movie left me feeling the solutions came from centralized power, however I don't think this is realistic. Others who have gone to climatecrisis.net say it has encouraged individual behavior changes. This seems huge to me. However, I wonder about the third leg of the stool -- commercial entities. The books on profiting from global warming have already started. Regardless of how we view this, commerce is a huge player and I wonder what is being done to educate and encourage changes. Specifically, how could I use my abilities in systems to help this along? Any links or suggestions are warmly welcomed.

Curt

Retailer initiatives on sustainability? Here are a few that our company has been a part of: a.. Clif Bar's "Start Global Cooling" outreach - http://www.clifbar.com/ourstory/document.cfm?ocation=environment&websubsecti on=gw. b.. RenewUS, a program jointly promoted by Stonyfield Farm, Clean Air-Cool Planet and the Earth Day Network - http://www.renewus.org/index.html. c.. CoolCarpets from Interface - http://www.nativeenergy.com/news.Interface.html. One of the most creative new sustainability programs is a company stimulating huge increases in recycling thorough incentives managed via an online "bank" - the RecycleBank. This is a very interesting application of social marketing. Check them out: www.recyclebank.com.

George F. Hoguet

Director, Mid-Atlantic Operations NativeEnergy, LLC
21-31 W. State Street, Unit 29B Media, PA 19063
(610)566-1332
www.nativeenergy.com

The Natural Step has been working with businesses to make them more sustainable for a long time. William McDonough is one of my heroes; and he incorporates sustainability in the design of everything he does for his clients -- corporate or otherwise.

An inspirational, persuasive Bill McDonough DVD 'The Next Industrial Revolution' showing case studies is well-worth ordering from http://www.thenextindustrialrevolution.org/

SUE B

I am a HUGE fan of that documentary. Thanks for suggesting it, Sue! At one point Bill says "Leaders must become designers. And designers must become leaders." As a former civil engineer (who designed steel building frames), that statement went right to the heart of why those currently "in charge" of society are making such a mess of things. They don't know anything about being designers!

Steve

Gaining Momentum provides a detailed assessment of corporate sustainability reporting practices in Canada. This report is part of Stratos' on-going sustainability reporting benchmarking program. The program seeks to improve corporate disclosure of non-financial information - the information companies provide on how they perform in managing environmental and social aspects of their business. While Gaining Momentum is an assessment of sustainability reporting, not sustainability performance, the report can still provide a number of good ideas on how companies can manage non-financial areas of their business, and highlights the efforts of Canadian corporate responsibility and sustainability reporters. Please see http://www.stratos-sts.com/pages/publica014.htm for a downloadable copy of Gaining Momentum.

Cheers,
K. Heath

Karla Heath Stratos Inc.
strategies to sustainability
Suite 1404 - 1 Nicholas St.
Ottawa Canada K1N 7B7
tel: 613 241-1001 ext. 232
fax: 613 241-4758