From Dark Grey To Bright Green in seven steps

From dark‐grey   to bright‐green  (In seven steps)  Stefaan Vandist | www.trinity-planning.be

Sustainability is all very nice, but I’m trying to run a business here (the boss)  This is the story told from a business  execu:ve perspec:ve… 

but with a geeks’ horizon… 

The sustainability  ladder  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  ABer tracking sustainability ini:a:ves of 30 Fortune 500 companies   (ref. InnovaStrat. US) , it seems that every company   goes more or less trough seven similar steps… 

1    DENIAL  

1 DENIAL   As an economist, you ‘manage’ environmental and social consequences as  externali:es. You keep your boNom‐line op:mized by denying responsibility. Why  should you care anyway? You’re running a business, not a charity. Especially now, you  don’t want to make anything erode your compe::veness 

1 DENIAL   You consider the green movement as ‘soixant‐huitards’, hippies and ac:vists.  Perverts even! They are annoying. You want to sew them if they show up again at  your doorstep. The public associates your company with some bad behaviours.   The reason? Ac:vism!  It’s their fault. They harm the company. 

2  PRETENDING 

2 PRETENDING  On a bright morning you conclude sustainability is the next big thing. You have to.   It’s in your latest trend report, in smart magazines sold at airports, aBer several  mouse‐clicks and in newspapers. Even car manufacturers ﬁnally jump on the  bandwagon. Your marke:ng manager talks about promising, new,  young  and high‐educated target audiences. You call the agency!  

2 PRETENDING  You come up with expensive campaigns with inspiring imaging and a sweet  soundtrack. Your messaging pimps your single best environmental aNribute, blurring  the aNen:on of the complete picture. You build awareness on TV, in newspapers,  in  airports and interna:onal railway sta:ons. You see you’re not alone. 

2 PRETENDING  You travel to a poor na:on where your raw materials are grown. An air‐condi:oned  bus takes you to a reforesta:on project that collaborates with the local community.   A young boy gives you a spade. You plant a tree. You look good on the picture.   You feel a bit silly. You go home to pick up the serious stuﬀ again. 

3  COMPLIANCE 

3  COMPLIANCE  But there comes the nice surprise. When compliance meets the economies of scale, it  seems we lower costs reducing expensive inputs. And it seems that if we are the ﬁrst  to comply with most stringent rules, our compe::veness goes up. Like HP who has set  the new industry standards being the ﬁrst to ban toxic leads, and got ahead of its compe::on  with 5 years of advantage in the use of solders (amalgam of :n, silver and copper) 

3  COMPLIANCE  Imagine GM had embraced the emission standards for the automo:ve industry ﬁrst   proposed in 2002, it would be two or three design cycles ahead of its rivals today. 

4  LCA  

Recycle | Reduce | Re-use | Reconsider | Rebuild | Rethink | Re-feed | Reflect React | 4 LCA (Lifecycle analysis)  You are completely obsessed wit R‐words. In an indebt lifecycle analysis you discover  opportuni:es to save raw materials, costs, energy, increase contacts points with clients  that result in business con:nuity and many other surprises that have a posi:ve impact  on the boNom‐line. You feel very comfortable. Sustainability jus:ﬁes saving.   You’re in the land of eﬃciency. You feel home. 

4 LCA (Lifecycle analysis)  Like Unilever, who partnered with environmental organiza:ons to ﬁnd out how to grow   palm oil, soy beans and cacao in a less pollu:ng way, with less pressure on biodiveristy.  This has resulted in techniques to improve crop yields and seed produc:on 

4 LCA (Lifecycle analysis)  Like Wal‐Mart’s CEO Leo ScoN (2008), who gave more than 1000 Chinese suppliers a  direc:ve: cut packaging cost with 5% by 2015 and increase energy‐eﬃciency with 25%  in three years.  

4 LCA (Lifecycle analysis)  Like Fedex who rolled out its Global Fuel Sense Program, op:mizing aircraB schedules  and logis:cs with high‐end soBware, replaced aircraBs, trucks and vans.  Result: reduc:on of 36% of energy consump:on, increase of 20% capacity 

5  Design 

5 Design  As you see that a sizable number of consumers prefer eco‐friendly oﬀerings, you  believe your business can score over rivals by being the ﬁrst to redesign exis:ng  products or develop new ones. So you bring in a club of ET’s and kickstart an eco‐  (re)design‐process 

5 Design  Eco‐design is exci:ng, also for large corpora:ons. P&G found out to make an  amazing diﬀerence if people would wash at lower temperatures (80 billion fewer  KWh/J). That’s why the company made the development of cold‐water detergents  a priority. In 2005 it launched Ariel Cool.   Result UK: 2002‐2% > 2008‐21%  Result NL:2002‐5% > 2008:52%  

6  New business models  

6 new Business Models  You’ve read Blue Ocean Strategy, and you’ve seen the success of Itunes, Amazon  and other new stars and icons. You understand that successful models include  novel ways of capturing revenues and delivering services, likely in tandem with  other companies. 

6 new Business Models  Like Fedex, who partners with Kinko’s to come up with a print and deliver‐service.  They asks customers if they would like to electronically transfer the  master copy to one of the Kinko oﬃces nearby the receiver 

6 new Business Models  Or like Sony who partners up with Green Squad to collect electronic waste via  schools, to recover useful raw materials. 

7  Next pracQce plaRorms  

7 Next pracQce plaRorms  By ques:oning the obvious, we invent the future and disrup:ve innova:on is  possible. Can we have a posi:ve eﬀect on nature too? If threes produce oxygen  and purify water, can houses be trees? Can ci:es be forests? Can cleaning  products be good for the environment in stead of “less bad”?  

7 Next pracQce plaRorms  Can we cool our buildings without airco? If ants can do it in the hoNest places on  earth since millions of years, why can’t we? Biomimicry tries to understand the  design of nature and transports the design paNerns to  engineering, architecture  and design. 

7 Next pracQce plaRorms  What if we remake the way we make things?   If we devide technical cycles from biological cycles, and redesign our fabrics and  materials on a molecular level to get rid of all toxics and design not products but  cycles, sell no goods but services? Then we close the loop just as in the natural  World. Zero waste. Zero emission. Big companies such as Nike, Aveda, Ford,  Timerland, Interface, Akzo Nobel and Herman Miller take cradle‐to‐cradle very  seriously  

Thanks for your aSenQon!  Inspired by research of InnovaStrat - Santa Cruz. Written, compiled, Arranged and visualized by Stefaan Vandist – www.trinity-planning.be – stefaan@trinity-planning.be

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From Dark Grey To Bright Green in seven steps

by Studio Spark on Dec 17, 2009

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From Dark Grey To Bright Green in seven steps — Presentation Transcript