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  • Change Is For The Better; Managing Organizational Change For Sustainability

    November 23, 2011 9:03 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Written by Dena Zocher, CORE volunteer

    Whether starting a new job, giving up an old habit, or transitioning a relationship, we all know from experience that change can be challenging. It seems like part of the human condition to resist change, even if we think it’s a good thing. 

    So it’s no surprise that facilitating change in organizations consisting of tens, hundreds or thousands of individuals has its pitfalls. Managing organizational change for sustainability entails the usual obstacles, often with whole new sets of business processes, job requirements, and reporting demands.

    Successful organizational change is a journey, not a destination. Making the changes necessary to enable successful sustainability efforts is a transformational process for the enterprise. 

    The panel at the November CORE breakfast held at the Boulder Outlook Hotel gave real-life examples of how planning for and managing change can help any organizations make its sustainability initiatives more successful. Taking the time to engage people across the organization early in the process, enabling employees to succeed, and communicating accomplishments help create positive sustainability outcomes. 

    5 Key Factors for Organizational Change: Chris Hoffman, Whole Systems Consulting says moving an organization in the direction of sustainability means incorporating both systems change and behavioral change to get from the current state to the desired state. The fact is, organizational change is dependent on individual change. Successful efforts are driven by five key factors: linkages that create strength in numbers; energy, the momentum to get to the desired state; focus, the ‘why’ that fosters urgency, excitement and positivity; skills, the ability to execute; and anchor, the organizational structure to support the end state.

    Sustainable change in a small city government department: Aimee Kane, City of Boulder, Department of Community Planning & Sustainability shared how her team achieved its vision of a more sustainable department by planning and implementing both a program to make planning board communications paperless and a sustainability training initiative during the process of the City consolidating several individual departments into a single department. The group's emphasis on collaboration, training, leveraging resources and communicating successes continues to have a positive impact on the success of the department’s sustainability initiatives culture.

    Grass-roots employee engagement at Boulder`s first zero-waste hotel: For Dan King, Ambassador of Cool for Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites, having an appointed sustainability champion, along with a strong culture of employee engagement are the keys to the success of his business’s sustainability initiatives. “It’s at the staff level that change happens,” says King. When a new initiative is launched, the hotel not only trains employees to work with it, but also incorporates opportunities for their families to participate and learn. The hotel became fully committed to achieving zero waste in 2006 – since then, better information, technology and planning have helped Ron and his team continuously improve their efforts. King says that just proves sustainability is “a marathon, not a sprint.”

    Sustainability requires a suite of change management approaches: Jeff Yorzyk, Senior Consultant, PE INTERNATIONAL & Five Winds Strategic Consulting says driving sustainability requires developing and implementing a suite of change management approaches coordinated by a comprehensive management system. Top management support is a critical success factor, along with creation of organization-wide goals. For larger enterprises, its important to analyze sustainability risks and opportunities, and do a thorough inventory of ongoing initiatives that are headed in the right direction. The quality of employee engagement and ongoing communications about internal sustainability initiatives can make or break a good strategy before it even gets off the ground. 

    To download presentations, please visit our Downloads page, to see more photos of the event, please go to our Facebook page. 
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  • “A spark becomes a wildfire,” driving behavioral change

    November 21, 2011 3:00 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Written by Lauren Quillian, CORE`s Communications Coordinator

    When it comes to sustainability, there is no silver bullet: the challenges are vast, the journey is long, and the destination is somewhat unknown. At this month’s Wirth Sustainability series, CORE (Connecting Organizations for a Responsible Economy) engaged 3 of its star corporate members, Eco-Products, Shaw Construction, and CH2MHILL, in a discussion about the journey towards sustainability. 

    This is the last of the three blog posts,in which we explored each company’s strategy to overcoming barriers to sustainability, including impact analysis, relationship development, and behavioral change. Each strategy uniquely designed to address the challenges of particular products, missions, and industries.  As evidenced in these stories, every company has room for improvement, and CORE is here to help.  

    With clients that span the globe and industries, CH2MHill constantly struggles to incorporate the 4 million definitions of sustainability into a coherent corporate strategy.  Under the direction of Sustainability Manager, Lindsay Ritter, CH2MHill has already overcome significant challenges, implementing a successful pilot program. Now, the company continues to tackle a new host of challenges in making that “spark” a real sustainable “wildfire.” 

    The pilot program was ambitious in and of itself, as CH2MHill sought more than just  “green outcomes,” the ultimate objective was behavior change.  The challenges and solutions are demonstrated in Lindsey’s 3-step process to engage 45 clients in the western region: 
    • Find champions for sustainability:  The first successful champion was just an administrative assistant, but she
      had the devotion, passion, and time necessary to spearhead the movement. 
    • Develop sustainability plans:  Clients initially did on-off projects such as habitat restoration, water education,
      effluent reuse, storm drainage murals for costal quality, eco-systems enhancement.  
    • Monitor projects: CH2MHill’s measured and monitored effluent re-use, waste reduction, gallons of chemical
      reduced, recycling, kwhs saved, volunteers, personal impact, and $1.2 million of savings.  

    Perhaps it was the $1.2 million in savings, or perhaps it was the pressure to be a leader in the field after winning the “Leader in Sustainable Engineering” award. Either way, the success of the pilot program lead to the development of a highly ambitious strategic sustainability plan for 2015.  The new objective: infuse sustainability into the entire business.

    Moving from a small pilot to a corporate-wide program brought four new challenges:
    • Sustainability education
    • Strategic planning
    • Large-scale measurement
    • SCALE: including training, centralization, and software solutions

    Lindsay and her team are hard at work figuring out how to overcome these challenges to reach the next level of corporate sustainability.  As Lindsay said, “it’s a journey that comes with many rewards.”  

    Depending on the unique situation of your company, you may wish to consider any of these approaches: impact analysis, relationship-building, or behavioral change; or a combination of the 3.  

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  • Shaw Construction – Building relationships from “Random acts of sustainability”

    November 15, 2011 3:47 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Written by Lauren Quillian, CORE`s Communications Coordinator

    When it comes to sustainability, there is no silver bullet: the challenges are vast, the journey is long, and the destination is somewhat unknown. At this month’s Wirth Sustainability series, CORE (Connecting Organizations for a Responsible Economy) engaged 3 of its star corporate members, Eco-Products, Shaw Construction, and CH2MHILL, in a discussion about the journey towards sustainability. 

    Over the next 3 blog posts, we’ll explore each company’s strategy to overcoming barriers to sustainability, including impact analysis, relationship development, and behavioral change. Each strategy uniquely designed to address the challenges of particular products, missions, and industries.  As evidenced in these stories, every company has room for improvement, and CORE is here to help. 

    Story #2: Shaw Construction is a general contractor providing professional construction services throughout Colorado and Wyoming. While Shaw has yet to reach the ultimate goal of an integrated sustainability strategy, this CORE member participates in random acts of sustainability in a particularly meaningful way. 

    Vice President, Dave Thorpe, shared the significant challenged faced by a general contractor such as Shaw:

    - Client sustainability values vary: Each client places a different level of value on sustainability. Since clients hire
      Shaw for a particular process or output, Shaw has to cater to particular needs, which sometimes results in
      unsustainable projects.
    - Fragmented industry: contracting faces a particularly tight market and unemployment pressures. Since
      sustainable solutions are not always the lowest cost options, other priorities win out.
    - Municipal standards, historic preservation, and beautification priorities are often in conflict with sustainable
      options.

    Despite these challenges, Shaw has the distinct advantage of being a relationship driven company, placing the most value on creating a great relationships with each client. While this requires Shaw to meet the client at their level of sustainability (even it’s low), it also allows Shaw to influence a whole new scope of organizations
    that might not otherwise engage in substantiality at all. If Shaw can prove something is cost-effective or more efficient, a client may be willing to invest in the “greener” solution. Further, Shaw invests in building relationships among employees, which will allow a new sustainability culture to develop at a grass-roots level.

    Moral of the story: Building relationships around sustainability may take longer, but could be a key to long-term sustainability.
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  • Eco-Products: Matching strategy to products through impact analysis

    November 09, 2011 12:55 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)



    Written by Lauren Quillian, CORE`s Communications Coordinator

    “There is no purity test – If you want to be loved, join CORE.”
    -Pete Dignan, Executive Director

    When it comes to sustainability, there is no silver bullet: the challenges are vast, the journey is long, and the destination is somewhat unknown. At this month’s Wirth Sustainability series, CORE (Connecting Organizations for a Responsible Economy) engaged 3 of its star corporate members, Eco-Products, Shaw Construction, and CH2MHILL, in a discussion about the journey towards sustainability. 

    Over the next 3 blog posts, we’ll explore each company’s strategy to overcoming barriers to sustainability, including impact analysis, relationship development, and behavioral change; Each strategy uniquely designed to address the challenges of particular products, missions, and industries.  As evidenced in these stories, every company has room for improvement, and CORE is here to help.

    Eco-Products: Matching strategy to products through impact analysis

    Eco-Products is a small Boulder-based firm that manufactures compostable and recycled-content foodservice products (i.e. cups, napkins, utensils, etc). With a name like Eco-Products and some of the ‘greenest’ products in town, you’d think Eco-Products could call it a day when it comes to sustainability. But Eco-
    Products won’t stop at just a green product. With the hard work of Claudia Capitini, the “Sustainability Maven,” Eco-Products seeks to create green strategy to back up the green product.
     
    During her presentation, it became clear that, even with a green product, creating a green strategy is a major challenge. Claudia faces three major challenges:
     
    • The environmental difference between regular plastic cups, foam cups, and compostable corn cups can be harder to determine than you might think.
    • Consumer behavior is different than the science – not everyone recycles or composts, or does it right.
    • Competitors are also selling “greener products” on much larger scales – albeit interspersed in their large portfolios of traditional plastics and foam products.

    Eco-Product’s solution: Impact Analysis. Eco-Products gathered extensive information about all their products by conducting one of the most extensive cradle to grave life cycle analysis in the market. Not only that, they share this information with the consumer! On every product, you’ll find a “footprint” label, which is literally
    an image of a foot with a breakdown of how their products impact the environment. Further, the company purchases carbon offsets and strives to move towards better carbon management.
     
    The moral of the story: Through impact and life cycle analysis, companies and consumers can understand the “green” behind the products and strategies they use.


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  • Occupy and Sustainability

    November 04, 2011 1:14 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    As the head of a business sustainability-focused non-profit and as a small business owner, I’ve been watching the Occupy Wall Street movement with great interest. Some of my colleagues have expressed fear, frustration or dismay that the Occupy movement seems to be anti-business, painting all companies and their leaders with the same broad brush.
     
    That’s not the message I’m hearing. The people I’ve talked with, some of whom have been active in Occupy Denver, have no beef with businesses that exercise social and environmental responsibility. 

    The complaint I’m seeing and hearing is with the top management of a small percentage of very large businesses, especially financial institutions. It’s a frustration over the co-opting of politics by moneyed interests, the judicial notion that companies are “persons” and money is “free speech.” It is righteous indignation over the fact that Fortune 500 CEOs are paid almost 350 times what a typical American worker earns. 

    In fact what the participants in the Occupy movement are calling for has much in common with sustainability. They’re suggesting that we recognize our deep interdependence, and that we work actively to make our economy reflect this interconnectedness. They are pointing out that it is in the enlightened self-interest of business owners and business leaders to pursue a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit; to be as deliberate with social and environmental capital as we are with financial capital. 

    That’s a message I can get behind.
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  • Maximizing LEED Certification

    October 24, 2011 3:10 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Written by Lauren Quillian, CORE`s Communications Coordinator

    The nearly finished Conference Room in the 1900 16th street building in downtown Denver was an apt setting for this month’s CORE breakfast meeting.  In fact, the setting nearly taught the lessons we were about to learn in green construction.  The copious sunlight, open air, and efficient energy systems evidenced progress towards a sustainable built environment, but construction signs visible through the windows alluded to the work that remains to be done in green construction.  

    An increasing number of buildings are earning that shiny LEED certification plaque, but is that enough?  

    Earning the Plaque: Requirements and Advances in Green Construction

    What do you have to do to get a plaque?
    Graham Cottingham of Saunders Construction explained that sustainable construction means considering the environmental impact of the building across several criteria:  

    - Location: Is there access to transportation?  Does the building improve urban density?   
    - Material Life cycle: Are materials locally sourced and disposed?
    - Waste Management – How much content is recycled?  Do workers know what materials can be recycled?  
    - Indoor Air quality- What off-gases are produced from insulation, paints etc?
    - Water Use: How are you using this limited resource?
    - Energy Management: How will the building reduce consumption?  Are the electrical systems tight?  

    With the exception of some mechanical systems and low-water use fixtures, implementing these sustainability criteria do not come with a cost premium.  Perhaps due to the achievement of these criteria, sitting in the conference room, with lots of natural light and open air, almost felt like sitting outside. 

    Advance 1: Green construction is an increasing portion of the industry
    The fact that we were sitting in a LEED certified building, adjacent to DaVita’s neighboring LEED certified building in-construction made it easy to believe the facts presented by Saunders representatives Graham Cottingham and Alyssa Rossnagel:  
    • In 2010, 35-45% of construction was verified as sustainable
    • Green contracting currently represents 39% of the industry

    Advance 2: Internal Sustainability practices
    In addition to improving construction processes for the built environment, Alyssa demonstrated how companies like Saunders Construction are making internal changes to improve sustainability.  Due to the new demand for green construction, Saunders has successfully implemented, and profited from, new sustainable practices:  
    • Electronic Documentation:  Save on courier fees and paper as well as increased efficiency at the worksite 
    • Sourcing recycled materials: Save on material costs and reduce waste
    • Purchasing environmentally friendly disposable cups: Reduce waste
    • Using programmable thermostats and lighting: Save on energy costs and decrease carbon footprint
    • Respond to natural disasters: Utilize expertise in construction services to help communities and increase brand value

    Advance 3: Overcoming cost barriers and myths
    Brian Dunbar explained how developers and decision makers are finally realizing the value in attaining LEED certification.  For example, Brian proved that the difference between “building to” LEED standards (which many developers have done) and building a certified building can be less than $10K, and the certified building comes with the assurance of future performance that will easily recover that cost.   Further, these projects can come in at budget and create savings:  the Fort Collins Fossil Ridge High school cost $135 per sq foot to construct with LEED certification, and the school uses $110,000 less money on yearly expenses than schools built to code. 
    The point: Green construction has grown significantly, with an increasing number of buildings displaying LEED Certification plaques.  Now, what do we do with it?

    Maximizing the Plaque: Operating a LEED Certified Building
    It’s easy to promote the shiny LEED plaque, but like most sustainability initiatives, the true victory is only achieved through behavioral change and education.  Megan Bloomer of DaVita suggested that the heart of green construction starts with the plaque, but lies in the future tenants.  Everyday occupants of the building, from the janitor to the CEOs, must know how to operate and maintain the building in a way that maximizes the sustainable performance, or else “we’ve missed the point.”  

    To maximize performance and achieve cost savings, operators must engage and educate every user of that building on how to operate and love its virtues.  For the hourly work, this means explaining why they should use air hand-dryers rather than paper towels.  For operators, this means understanding that this is not business as usual and learning the new requirements of the building.  Notably, Brian Dunbar pointed out that even Natural Resource students at the University of Wyoming needed training on how to live and work in their new LEED certified building.   

    The final gap that needs to be filled in the Green Building industry is the hand off between construction teams and operating teams so that operators can maximize the environmental performance envisioned in the design.  LEED certified buildings are automatically enrolled in LEED for Existing Building Operations and Maintenance, but the requirements to maintain this certification need to be enforced.

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  • Sustainability Spells Opportunity for IT

    September 26, 2011 11:12 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Written by Dena Zocher, CORE Volunteer

    On September 21, CORE and the Colorado Technology Association co-hosted a breakfast presentation on the sustainability opportunities driven by green IT. The breakfast was held at the Canadian Consulate in Denver. Four speakers offered diverse perspectives on sustainability opportunities throughout the IT lifecycle, including virtualization (such as virtual severs and cloud computing), energy efficient data centers, sustainability management and reporting software, and IT asset procurement and disposition. 

    For information technology-intensive businesses, implementing green IT practices can save money, reduce risk and enhance top-line growth. In fact, as early adopters have proven, green IT practices drive measurable financial and environmental benefits. Now companies are making green IT initiatives a higher priority.

    Opportunities for IT will continue to grow as the drive for sustainability becomes more of a multidisciplinary effort across companies. 

    Why Green IT matters
    Rod Taylor, IT Service Delivery Director at Istonish, noted that for most businesses, regulatory compliance, cost savings and revenue opportunities are the three top motivators for adopting sustainability practices. IT organizations can do a lot to help by considering the advantages of virtualization, addressing user needs more efficiently, and applying sustainability practices to managing facilities and processes. One easy way to sort it out is the CLEAR approach: Craft a strategy for sustainable IT practices and processes; Lead the initiative; Embed sustainability in the organization’s strategy and culture; Analyze results; and Renew efforts based on what is working. 

    Energy efficient data centers and cloud computing 
    U.S. data center energy use grew by about 36% during the last five years, consuming about 2% of the total electricity used by the nation. In fact, data centers are expected to eclipse the airline industry in carbon emissions by 2022 if the current rate of growth continues. Thomas Burns, founder and Vice President of business development for Green House Data, says it doesn’t have to be that way. Innovations in energy efficient data center design are reducing the energy waste and carbon footprint associated with data centers of the past. Some newer facilities even rely on renewable energy. These highly efficient operations are also able to extend convenient, secure cloud computing services to small and midsize businesses, passing along the energy benefits. Green House Data is pioneering energy efficient design and sustainable management practices that help drive customer satisfaction and growth. The company offers tours of its advanced facilities. 

    Reduce total cost of ownership while enhancing data security
    Sustainability means more than just lower energy use, says Dag Adamson, founder and President of LifeSpan Technology Recycling. The key is to “think about the end at the beginning.” From the purchasing process through equipment disposition at the end of life, there are things you can do to both make a positive sustainability impact and reduce the total cost of ownership. But that means paying attention to the details and understanding your responsibility for user needs, compliance, security and reporting at each step of reduce-reuse-recycle. Doing it right can reduce risks and liability for environmental compliance and data security in equipment disposal. Following GRI reporting practices is essential for compliance and validation -- but don’t forget to communicate your measurable successes to your stakeholders as well.

    Enterprise reporting tools for sustainable organizations
    Today’s sustainability leaders are challenged by a multitude of reporting requests and requirements. The manual workload required to collect and verify data to generate credible, auditable reports can be daunting. Chris Thomas, Vice President of EcoSoftware for CA says enterprise sustainability reporting tools give IT the opportunity to provide a solution. Using appropriate software to automate sustainability initiatives and reporting can help accelerate corporate success. IT has a mandate to manage critical business services. Today, sustainability IS a critical business service. IT is well positioned to help enterprises strategically allocate the necessary time and resources and enable strategic innovations that will drive future competitive advantage. Says Thomas, “Call it ‘Green IT or ‘Lean IT’, it’s all just good business.”
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  • Your Role in the Green Economy: A Few Ideas from the Urban Green Summit

    September 01, 2011 2:39 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    On August 27, 2011, Pete Dignan, Executive Director of CORE and CORE Foundation, moderated a panel “Your Role in the New Green Economy” during the Urban Green Summit.  As people working in the field of making our society and economy more sustainable, each of the distinguished panelists had great perspectives to share.


    Think 3P: Professional, Political and Personal

    Tanuj T.J. Deora, Director of the Colorado Governor`s Energy Office, suggested a framework for taking action on each of three levels: your professional self, your political self, and your personal self.  Can you stop using plastic bottles and start carrying a reusable one? Check your personal action box. Can you think of any efficiency at work that will help your employer save energy, staff time and resources (set a copier to print double sided, enlarge margins, run the dishwasher twice a week as opposed to every day, stop buying paper cups and utensils for the meetings and switch to reusable ones?) This is your professional self in action. Are you supporting any political actions that will help your community get better transportation options, make biking safer, promote local food production, or create incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy? You’ve got your political self covered! 


    Maximize Social Media

    Andre Pettigrew, Executive Director of Climate Prosperity Project , pointed out that the most influential companies in the world, such as Google, Facebook, and Groupon, provide value to all of us through free service. So, how can each of us utilize these great tools for change? Why not use these and other social media platforms to drive sustainable lifestyle changes by sharing some tips and fun ideas with your friends and organizing people online around issues that matter?


    Do What You Do and Do It Better

    Helena Haynes-Carter, Director of the Minority Business Center, called for us to become better at what we do, while collaborating with others who compliment our work. “If what you do is X, do it the best of your abilities, and find another person who does Y to join forces and maximize your efforts”. Her advice can be applied in everywhere, but a sustainable economy and society needs this approach even more.


    Listen & Respect Each Other

    The environment is about nature, but it also is about people and how we treat each other.  John Francis III, who did not ride a motorized vehicle for 22 years and voluntarily kept silence for 17 years while trekking North and South America, earning three degrees, and relying on many people for survival, has a few things to share about dealing with people. His wise suggestion was very simple and powerful: listen and respect each other.  His call for all of us is to understand sustainability in relationship to one another, families, and communities.


    Role=Responsibility

    Gloria Cannady, with American Renewable Energy, offered a deep look at the meaning of the word “role” – a chosen effort to do something. She made a case that “role” equals “responsibility”, which serves as a great reminder.


    The reality is that the business world is driven by short-term profits. And elected officials are driven by the short election cycle.  So leadership for the long-term should come from you! If you figure out how to find win-win solutions that benefit your company and the environment, then your actions will have a triple-positive effect on the economy, the environment and society. Need some moral guidance and inspiration? There are many potential sources. Faith and spiritual communities… activists like Bill McKibben, Lester Brown, Van Jones, and John Francis… and events, such as Urban Green Summit are all possibilities.  


    The blog post is written by Natalia Korobova, Program Director for CORE and CORE Foundation  

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  • Shortening the distance between a person’s decision and their impact is key to sustainability

    August 22, 2011 1:33 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Blog post by Jennifer Roberts, CORE volunteer



    This month’s CORE breakfast was at the Ball Corporation campus in Broomfield and was focused on greening purchasing. If I left with one overriding thought it was that businesses can have a much greater impact on sustainability through their purchasing standards than the products and services they sell. Purchasing decisions are able to influence the products and services that are produced and sold, ultimately having a very direct impact on the economy.
     
    Use Purchasing to Drive Sustainability Into the Business
    Jim McIntyre, Purchasing Director for the City and County of Denver, emphasized this point in his presentation. He suggested that within the existing framework of many purchasing guidelines lay the structure for supporting sustainable purchasing.  The purchasing infrastructure with its embedded controls can promote an  open and honest government that nurtures consistent and fair bidding. Jim believed that purchasers can use what might be perceived as stringent guidelines to their advantage to promote socially responsible purchasing. 
     
    Educated Purchasing
    By holding all bidders to required specs, Jim stressed that the process could provide a lot of information to purchasers about products, the industry and other services they are researching.  By asking questions, a purchaser can find out more about their suppliers and if there may be other areas in which a company may be operating sustainably.  Because it’s not just about the immediate impact of the price that should influence a decision, but the impact on society and environment 5-10 years down the road.
     
    Purchasing Power
    Jim suggested that purchasers join city and county co-ops and seek to combine their purchasing power to achieve specific goals. Jim described a successful effort to purchase from local delivery companies versus big box retailers to help nurture local economies.

    He said there are a number of ways for purchasers to influence and promote sustainable purchasing but to be wary of some of the more obscure certifications. A number of industries have their own certification and so he cautioned to do some digging to ensure that the products represented by the certification are fairly valued.

    Supporting Local Jobs and Protecting the Environment
    Mickki Langston, Executive Director, Mile High Business Alliance, was the second speaker and focused in on a topic of concern to everyone in the room, “How do we create jobs, good and services while not destroying the environment?”

    She believes that local businesses are a key component to the health of a community because of relationships. Many small business owners work and live in the community; they’re close to the impact of their decisions. In larger corporations, the decision-maker is often far removed from the outcomes of their business choices. Mickki reminded us of the economic multiplier of spending locally, which is 3x the average. Those types of number encourage job growth.

    Embedding the Sustainability Lens into Business Processes
    Gerri Walsh, Director Sustainability, Ball Corporation, mentioned that Ball had had a formal sustainability strategy for about 4 years that covered five priorities:
    •        packaging
    •        energy
    •        water/waste
    •        talent management
    •        safety

    But what was most revealing is how Ball changed the review process for any new capital projects. In the past, the focus was on the cost of the project and ensuring that it was under budget.  They didn’t consider energy, waste or water costs. Now, Ball ensures that a sustainability lens in embedded into everything they do. Each project is reviewed for how it impacts Ball’s sustainability goals.

    Purchasing Decision that Impact Social and Environment Goals
    Gerri explained how a purchasing process tied to business goals could have a positive impact on both society and the environment. In the 90’s, Ball focused on supplier diversity and began tracking their spending to suppliers to ensure that their suppliers and contractors represented a diverse source for products and services. 

    Green Purchasing Means Something Different to Everyone
    Deanna Bratter, Responsible Livelihood Manager at WhiteWave Foods posed a question: "How do you encourage people to care about sustainability?" She suggested one way is to make employees feel that their personal decisions influence business outcomes. Deanna believes that by shortening the distance between a person’s decision and the impact of their decision is key to sustainability. 

    Finding the “And”
    She described how their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, waste and water expanded to more responsible purchasing and sustainable packaging.  They began to leverage their existing metrics and guidelines to make sustainable packaging. But to begin that process they had to engage their supply chain: producers, manufacturers and distributors to find the “and”. The “and” was defined as a package that met cost, quality “AND” their corporate sustainability mission.

    Deanna emphasized there has to be a balance and it’s not just about cost reduction. For example, they have purchasing standards and guidelines at Horizon that outline nine core principles that are followed on company–owned farms. They also use a tool called SIT, which is a sustainability impact tool that measures the impact of potential projects.  Each element of their sustainability effort helps to drive their corporate mission and achieve the “and” in both their products and packaging.  
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  • Technology’s Impact on Corporate Sustainability

    August 18, 2011 2:03 PM | Anonymous



    More and more businesses are realizing that implementing a more sustainable business model is not only good for the environment, but it is now an essential part of smart business.  Going “green” now also means saving green.  Companies are being challenged more than ever to find greener ways of operating. 
     
    Turning off lights, using recycled paper products and green cleaning products are some of the ways business offices can start to meet these goals.  But, lurking in the background as the biggest challenge to achieving a sustainable business is actually IT Infrastructure and the energy demands it puts on both budgets and the environment.  In fact, more than 70 percent of electricity consumed in the United States is used in office buildings.  A significant portion of this amount comes from growing technology needs, especially server infrastructure.

     

    As business leaders, it’s important to know that although servers are vital to our company, they are also huge energy consumers.  In order to keep just one server running, it takes 7000 kWh per year to power and cool.  That amount emits around 4 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the environment and costs approximately $700 each year.

     

    What can you do?

     

    Measure:  A good start to make a corporate change is to examine current IT business practices to see where you’re using the most energy now.  CORE offers assistance in this ares.  Check their Sustainability Resources page (in the Energy Efficiency section) and the CORE Catalyst project, a sustainability assessment of member companies.  Measuring first not only helps you see where you could save, it lets you see bottom-line benefits when you start implementing green IT practices. 

     

    Greener Enterprise Solutions:  If you currently have an in-house data center or server room, consider purchasing certified green-e tags to offset the electricity used by technology.  Also, modern servers have a much wider operating temperature range than their predecessors and can run efficiently at higher temperatures.  Turning up the thermostat just one degree warmer can save 4-5% on overall energy consumption.  Lastly, on a larger scale, installing an energy efficient cooling system in the server room can be very beneficial.  This can save around 75 – 90% on the energy needed for cooling.  

     

    Cloud Hosting:  The virtualization offered by cloud hosting has really opened the doors to truly greening a company’s IT because it allows for better utilizations of servers.  On average, a dedicated server runs at only 8 - 15% utilized, however consumes almost 100% of the electricity that a fully utilized server requires.  With Cloud hosting, server usage is upped to around 80% capacity without sacrificing speed or performance, thus allowing business to do more with less servers.  For example, if a business utilizes 10 dedicated servers, they are going to pay approximately $7000 per year to power and cool those servers.  If utilizing a cloud platform, their energy cost decreases to $700, a significant cost savings to the bottom line.  Even better, this change would take away over 44 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from our environment each year. 

     

    Outsource:    Use shared data centers, hosted phone systems or cloud computing services. There are service providers to choose from that offer greener options.  These data center providers spread energy usage and costs across multiple clients. 


    Green Colocation:  If your company already owns server hardware, opt to colocate in a green data center.  Look for companies that are powered by renewable energy, offer energy efficient data center design and power management services.  If your current provider doesn’t offer a green solution, challenge them to make sustainability a priority or find another company that already does.  Take note that choosing a green data center for these services shouldn’t cost more money.  A solid data center focused on energy efficiency should pass on their energy savings down to their customers.

     

    This post has spoken more about the bigger changes companies can make to impact their sustainability goals, but the smaller tasks can also bring change, even if on a smaller scale. 

     

    Additional ideas to green your IT:

    • Recycle or donate  IT equipment
    • Set computers to go into a sleep mode after being idle for twenty minutes
    • Power down equipment when not in use
    • Keep your computer hardware longer, if possible
    • When buying new computer hardware, opt for Energy Star approved
    • Encourage telecommuting


    There are many ways a business can green their technology, it’s all about starting.  The use of the technology is exploding, but fortunately with these methods, the consumption of electricity doesn’t need to increase at the same pace.

     

    Kristen Feichtner is a manager at Green House Data, an energy efficient, wind powered data center offering cloud hosting and colocation services. 

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