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Top Seven Sustainability Practices: the Sum > the Parts
A Special Report - January 2010
I. Overview
There has been a growing, mainstream acceptance the last few years that
sustainability1
can generate additional revenues by inspiring innovation,
opening new markets, acquiring and retaining customers, and enhancing
brand reputation. It can also reduce costs by improving employee
recruitment and retention, reducing commercial risks, and cutting energy use
and waste.
Moreover, as companies face markets that are being reshaped by intense,
global competitiveness, changing customer demands, increased regulation,
and increased transparency, operating without sustainability initiatives will
leave many organizations at a disadvantage.
Yet, most organizations are not using the tools readily available to them to
engage in and maximize their sustainability efforts. Many have never
engaged with all of their stakeholders in a systemic way, set up a
sustainability management system, or compiled a sustainability report. A
recent IBM paper cites that “many are still missing – by a wide margin – the
information they need to operate as a sustainable enterprise.”2
This paper summarizes the top seven best practices that have helped keep
some organizations at the leading edge of today’s sustainability efforts:
1. Setting Sustainability Goals & Measuring Success
2. Stakeholder Engagement
3. Sustainability Issues Mapping
4. Sustainability Management Systems
5. Product Life Cycle Assessment & Product Design
6. Sustainability / CSR Reporting
7. Integrating Sustainability into Your Brand
After reading this paper, you should have a better understanding of each
process, how they work together, and how they can help your organization
improve.3
1
For simplicity, we use the UN Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainability:
“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.” This accommodates economic, environmental, and
social needs. Alternative terms have included “corporate social responsibility,” “green” and
“LOHAS” (lifestyles of health and sustainability), among others.
2
Leading a Sustainable Enterprise, Leverging insight and information to act, Eric
Riddleburger and Jeffrey Hittner, IBM (2009).
3
The paper is not meant to oversimplify a complex field that requires extensive resources
and expertise, but to highlight and integrate the best practices in a valuable way.
“We need to
educate people
about systems
thinking and help
them understand
how all of these
activities are
interdependent
and affect each
other.” – Jeffrey
Hollender, Co-
Founder, Seventh
Generation*
* FromThe Business of
Sustainability, MIT Sloan
Mgmt. Rev. Special Rep.,
2009, in which a similar list of
activities to ours is presented
in an executive survey and
report.
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 2
II. The Top Seven Steps to Sustainability: The Parts
that Add to a Greater Sum
Due to increased stakeholder power and regulation, greater transparency,
global warming, scarcer and costlier resources, and increasing populations,
the focus on sustainability is here to stay and will only intensify over time.
As a result, the private sector is following the lead of the United Nations and
various sustainability-oriented governments and NGOs. Wal Mart’s recent
sustainability index is just one of many major sustainability efforts that will
continue to affect organizations of all sizes across the globe.
Today, leading organizations use a core set of tools to develop a sustainability
self-portrait and help them manage for excellence. Following their lead, you
should review all, and then prioritize the use of as many of the following
tools as possible.
1. Setting Sustainability Goals & Measuring Success
For any long-term sustainability program to succeed, it’s critical to develop,
maintain and tie sustainability goals to overarching corporate goals and at
least some quantifiable metrics. While there’s an “all the cool companies are
doing it” kind of mentality right now among some, and moral imperatives are
appealing to many business executives, the business case is necessary for any
long-term business activity.
Some questions to ask yourself: What is the value creation of sustainability
for your organization? What are the true costs of not evolving more
sustainably? What are the quantifiable metrics that demonstrate the board and
C-suite should care?
Yet, measuring sustainability’s return on investment (ROI) has always been
challenging and is still in somewhat of an “infancy” stage. Moreover, as
sustainability becomes an integral part of daily business, it’s more difficult to
differentiate costs as well as benefits that relate only to the sustainability
aspects of a company’s actions. Therefore, it’s important to align
sustainability goals with those of your broader corporate goals and set metrics
based on that alignment.
Some individual components of broader sustainability efforts are more
measurable than others. Sustainability processes that focus on minimizing
waste and resource use, for example, relate directly to the bottom line and are
relatively easy to quantify. There are also clear benefits of implementing
certain sustainability-oriented employee policies in the workplace, such as
reduced turnover of employees, which are more easily quantifiable in terms
of opportunity costs for training and developing people.
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 3
It’s often best to start with a few key metrics that you measure well, such as
brand reputation, energy efficiency and dollars saved, and employee loyalty.
Then add a few more metrics over time.
Some of the efforts considered most successful have used a story around one
or two solid metrics from a sustainability strategy. Many of the failures,
where CSR programs have been cut, were due to CSR teams trying to
execute metrics plans that were too complicated.4
Again, think about and try to measure what your sustainability strategy did to
support your overall corporate strategy. Then communicate your brand’s
sustainability value using both facts and real examples of impact, since
stakeholders (and C-level executives) often remember stories more easily
than bare facts.
2. Stakeholder Engagement
One of the less understood, but most critical ways of maximizing
sustainability programs today is identifying and then fully engaging with all
of your stakeholders.
The set of players affecting sustainability strategy is growing in number and
diversity, as well as power. These stakeholders
include not only investors, but customers,
employees, suppliers, partners, governments,
nonprofits, and communities, among others.
Meanwhile, research shows that an eye-popping
85 percent of consumers have no idea that
companies such as HP, Intel, Cisco, and Unilever
– who are among the Fortune 500 leaders in
sustainability – are participating in any
sustainability practices.5
Moreover, sustainability
is so broad and complex in scope that crowd
sourcing is a must in solving our most intractable
problems, while remaining prosperous.
Guidelines by a relative few in government,
NGOs or other third parties alone won’t
adequately do it. Companies such as Starbucks,
Timberland, and others are quickly realizing this
and moving to engage their stakeholders like
4
Measuring What Matters – Evaluating CSR’s Return on Investment, Kellie A.
McElhaney, Leading Perspectives, BSR Newsletter (Fall 2008).
5
The Green Revolution, Grail Research, Sept. 2009
Simple
Stakeholder
Map
Communi-
ties
Partners
Customers
Suppliers
Non-Govt’l
Organiza-
tions
(NGOs)
Govern-
ments
Investors
Employees
YOUR
ORGANIZA-
TION
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 4
never before.
While there are clear benefits to asking for input and feedback, relatively few
firms effectively engage their intended audiences. Optimizing the stakeholder
dialogue process helps organizations identify the core issues which are
deemed to be material to their business. It also builds stronger partnerships
and more effective solutions for successfully addressing those issues.
Begin the process of maximizing your engagement with stakeholders by
mapping them to manage the complexity of relationships. Systematically
review the players in each stakeholder category as they relate to your
company. For each category, for example, ask who are the organizations and
even individual stakeholders that matter? Which NGOs follow the industry
and your company specifically? How are competitors handling sustainability
issues? Do you know what your employees think about your sustainability
performance?
Ask what each stakeholder may want,
which will guide and shape the
company’s reaction. Identify new ways
to reach a broader group of these
constituents. Create relevant, innovative
ways to engage key stakeholders.
Establish new and/or enhance current
relationships with one or more NGOs
supporting your focus issues. These
NGOs may even become good cause
marketing partners.
Much thought needs to be put into how
to engage stakeholders, especially if
there is not an existing ongoing relation-
ship. For example, many NGOs want to
solve problems, not just discuss them,
and companies need to be prepared for
that.
When engaging with stakeholders, be as
transparent as is both possible and
prudent. Ask for substantive feedback
on what sustainability issues are most
material and relevant to your organi-
zation from their perspective, as well as
their ideas on the best ways to go about
addressing them. Then share what
Using Social Media to Better Engage Stakeholders
Only a few years old, newer social media and collaboration
technology tools are already making it profoundly easier for
organizations and their stakeholders to engage in
meaningful dialogue and collaborate with each other. They
make it easier to build diverse communities that use
different experience and perspective to create innovative
solutions.
These tools can connect the organization to different
stakeholders at different levels, both internal and external.
Participatory intranets are one example of internal tools,
while public social media platforms, such as Facebook and
LinkedIn, that anyone can join to participate are examples of
external ones. Sharepoint, BaseCamp, and activeCollab
are also off-the-shelf examples of software- and webware-
based collaboration tools.
Social media and collaboration will also make it easier for
companies to track and report their impacts on the
environment and society more broadly. They allow a
company to put reporting information online, and launch a
dialogue with the public. A blog or forum process gives
stakeholders the opportunity to debate whether a company
has identified the most “material” environmental and social
issues, for example, covered the ground in how it thinks
about these issues, and adequately responded to them.
For great examples of how social media can both hurt and
help companies, see our paper, Social Media Advances the
Sustainability Dialogue.
“Newer social
media and
collaboration
technology tools
are already
making it pro-
foundly easier for
organizations and
their stakeholders
to engage in
meaningful
dialogue and
collaborate with
each other.”
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 5
strategy you develop to address the issues and request more feedback.
3. Sustainability Issues Mapping
The vast range of sustainability issues organizations need to track can seem
overwhelming. The first step in the process of creating a sustainability
strategy should therefore be to develop a “sustainability issues map,” or SIM,
whether or not you decide to engage in a formal SMS.
This map can take many forms, but it may be best to start with a grid that
identifies key sustainability challenges on one axis and categories that
identify the specific issues, labels their sources, and identifies initial
opportunities in addressing those issues. Key environmental challenges may
include greenhouse gases (GHG), water (pollution and use), air pollution,
waste management, and toxics, for example; while other key sustainability
challenges may involve social issues like human rights, labor standards
(including living wages), and fair trade.
Simplified, Partial Sustainability Issues Map for
Small Coffee Manufacturer & Retailer
In identifying the issues, consider the key sustainability problems affecting
both your industry and your organization (materiality). Ask such questions as
what are the organization’s biggest sustainability impacts – from acquisition
of raw materials through use and disposal of its products? When and where
do those impacts arise? Upstream in the supply chain? During shipping and
distribution? During production? Or downstream in the hands of customers?
How do others view the company’s environmental and social performance?
For initial opportunities, ask questions such as would reducing water use help
the communities in which you operate? Would it reduce costs? Would
establishing a recycling program to take back your used products for reuse of
their materials inspire customers? Would it save on procurement of raw
materials?
Challenge Issues Sources Opportunities
Greenhouse
Gases (GHGs)
GHG emissions from energy
use adding to climate crisis;
possible constraints or taxes on
such emissions.
Suppliers, operations,
distribution
(transportation).
Launch eco-efficiency effort
targeted at energy use and
related GHG emissions.
Water Rising pressure for improved
water quality; competing access
for diminishing resources.
Toxic pesticides ending up
in waterways; water use for
growing, brewing product.
Grow and/or buy more organic
coffee to reduce use of
pesticides; launch efforts to
conserve, reuse water, and
educate suppliers & customers
on how they can do same.
Fair Trade Poorer farmers/coffee laborers
historically haven’t been paid
living wages; growing
awareness of this problem and
need to remedy.
Suppliers and their
employees.
Help set supplier standards and
adequate wages; assist and
educate suppliers in meeting
those standards.
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 6
Organize and tap into an internal, interdisciplinary team with members from
different departments to brainstorm your SIM. Ideally, engage external
stakeholders in this process as well, as described above.
4. Sustainability Management Systems (SMS)
The most common, traditional approach to management for sustainable
business has been to use an Environmental Management System (EMS) – at
least for the companies large enough to be affected by environmental, health
and safety (EHS) regulations. An EMS is a set of activities and auditable
performance objectives that enable an organization to continuously reduce its
environmental impacts through pollution prevention measures, performing
beyond minimum compliance levels,6
and/or integrating sustainable business
practices.7
An EMS provides a framework for managing environmental responsibilities
in a more systematic manner. Just as businesses develop financial
management systems to promote the efficient use and management of
monetary resources, they realize that EMSs developed and integrated into the
organizational structure will provide similar and various additional benefits.
The most well-known EMS is the ISO 14001 standard, established by the
International Organization for Standardization in 1996. There are other
versions of EMS available, but all follow a similar design of Plan-Do-Check-
Act and emphasize continuous improvement.
Essentially any organization can benefit from an EMS. The regulated
industrial facility is an obvious candidate, being that emissions from
smokestacks and discharges from pipes are clear interactions with the
environment. Yet, even the most service-orientated office operation can make
effective use of an EMS because the way employees travel to work, use
energy, procure office materials, or plan meetings and conferences, for
example, all have impacts on the environment and the business. EMSs are
being implemented at private sector businesses of all shapes and sizes, and at
government organizations of all levels.
6 “Beyond compliance performance" is performance that either exceeds regulatory
minimums or is focused on improvement in areas that have environmental impact that are
not currently regulated. NY State DEC, http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/4665.html, as of
6/12/09.
7 This paraphrases the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
(NYDEC) definition, which I like because it accounts for some newer sustainability/CSR
concerns. NYDEC further defines "sustainable business practices" as those practices
which strive toward resource use that does not exceed the rate of replenishment, and
waste generation at a pace that does not exceed the rate at which they can be reabsorbed
by the environment. NY State DEC, http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/4665.html, as of
6/12/09.
“…any organ-
ization can
benefit from
an EMS.”
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 7
The term “Sustainability Management System” or “SMS” has been used
more recently and seems best to encompass developments impacting the form
and use of traditional EMS. These include the UN Global Compact and the
Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
These documents provide management frameworks for social as well as
environmental performance, and are at the heart of many sustainability efforts
today. Combined with, and integrated into, traditional EMS efforts, they may
be considered a more complete system.
5. Product Life Cycle Assessment & Product Design
Life Cycle Assessment (a.k.a. Life Cycle Analysis or LCA) is a technique to
assess the environmental and social impacts associated with a product,
process, or service. The primary goal of a LCA is to compare the full range of
environmental and social damages assignable to products and services, so as
to choose the least harmful ways of producing them.
The leading consumer product makers and retailers are starting to rigorously
assess the impacts of their products using sophisticated LCA metrics, sending
signals up the supply chain that tomorrow's products will need to meet higher
levels of sustainability. Wal-Mart’s recent efforts to start a sustainability
index is one of the most recent and visible examples in this trend.
A survey by Columbia University found most LCAs are done with dedicated
software. It also found that LCA is mostly used to support business strategy
(18%) and R&D (18%), as input to product or process design (15%), in
education (13%) and for labeling or product declarations (11%).
According to GreenBiz.com, nearly 47 percent of companies surveyed said
they were increasing their investments in sustainable product development in
2009; less than 6 percent said they'd be investing less this year than in 2008.
Many consider design critical to sustainability because so much of a
product’s impact is firmly established in the design phase. As Timberland’s
Terry Kellogg put it, “Once you spec out a product, 90 percent of the
footprint – in energy, water, chemicals, hazardous waste, you name it – is
set.”
In addition to LCAs, to carry out redesign efforts, organizations are using
standards and processes such as:
• Design for the Environment (DfE)
• Closed-loop systems
• Industrial ecology
“…Once you
spec out a
product, 90
percent of the
footprint – in
energy, water,
chemicals,
hazardous
waste, you name
it – is set...”
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 8
• Green building and LEED certification
• Supply chain audits
6. Sustainability/CSR Reporting
Public companies have long produced financial reports to communicate
performance and risk to shareholders. In recent years, disclosures have
expanded to include non-financial matters and both public and private
organizations are getting involved as matters of more effective management
and greater transparency. Just as with an annual financial report, or a business
or marketing plan, one of the primary benefits of a sustainability/CSR report,
specifically, is that it allows an organization to see where it is and where it
needs to go on sustainability matters, at the same time informing its
stakeholders of its performance on such matters.
The number S&P 500 companies publishing
sustainability reports has increased 64 percent between
2004 and 2008. That still accounts for only 30 percent
of S&P 500 companies as a whole, up from 18 percent
from 2004. Of the 148 reporting companies in 2008,
nearly half followed guidelines of the Global
Reporting Initiative, a framework that aims to help
companies measure and disclose economic,
environmental and social performance in a
standardized way that allows for comparison of
companies across sectors and geographic borders. 8
In the early days of sustainability reporting, most
reports were either exclusively environmental in focus
or dealt only with philanthropy. Today, sustainability
reports are seen as increasingly strategic documents
that offer a balanced, objective and reasonable
assessment of almost every aspect of a firm’s non-financial performance.
There are a wide number of standards available for sustainability reports,
such as those from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Business in the
Community (BITC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD). While each of the standards have their merits, GRI
has gathered the widest level of support.
There are clear benefits for organizations that undertake quality sustainability
reporting: it allows them to demonstrate their interest in the environment and
society; it builds trust and promotes transparency; and helps solicits feedback
8
State of Green Business 2009, Joel Makower & Editors of GreenBiz.com, February 2009
(Greener World Media).
“…only 13.5
percent of such
reports filed with
GRI included any
kind of third-
party verifica-
tion...”
Graphic from Greener World
Media, Inc.
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 9
on their performance from a growing number of stakeholders. According to
the Count Me In study, 90 percent of readers see reporting standards as
important for building trust, with the G3 GRI Guidelines being seen as the
most relevant, followed by sector-based reporting frameworks.
While sustainability reporting began with hard copy reports alone, in more
recent years, organizations have combined hard copy with web-based
information. Some are now experimenting with reporting solely on the web,
often using inter-active, searchable formats.
Techniques for enhancing
the credibility of the infor-
mation included in sus-
tainability reports are to
ensure that data adheres to
established standards, and
to obtain third-party verifi-
cation of the information
provided in the report. Yet,
only 13.5 percent of such
reports filed with GRI
included any kind of third-
party verification, a grow-
ing demand of activists and
others.9
9
Count Me In, KPMG & Readers’ Choice, 2009.
Sustainability Software Solutions
Among the biggest challenges with being able to track, act on, and report
sustainability information is that it generally resides in multiple business
units, even for many smaller companies. The information often has to be
tracked down through meetings, phone calls, and e-mail. Once collected,
the information has to be combined and put into reports, including graphical
data, for publication and for use in marketing and PR campaigns.
Because of the complexity of issues and the volume of data often involved,
numerous software programs have developed to help with sustainability
initiatives – think QuickBooks for sustainability. Many organizations benefit
from software that aggregates the sustainability data from multi-department
information systems and brings it into more easily viewable and reportable
formats. The better software programs provide executive-level snapshots of
where you stand today versus your goals, and what it all means for your
various stakeholders.
Needless to say, there’s a whole industry built around sustainability software
solutions, with several, maybe even dozens of providers providing one or
more pieces of the solution. The following table is a small snapshot to give
you an idea of the range of different types of sustainability software solutions
and modules that some of the providers offer.
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 10
7. Integrating Sustainability into Your Brand
Just a few short years ago, green marketing was an arena for a relative
handful of those at the leading edge of sustainability. And it helped set them
apart with unparalleled brand differentiation, loyal customers and higher
profit margins.
Now, everyone and their brandmother has jumped on the green bandwagon.
Increased concerns about environmental and social issues have led some of
the largest consumer brands to enter the green marketplace, prodded by large
retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, which have been pushing
suppliers to offer affordable green products.
As a result, while consumers are motivated to buy green, they are also
confused, even overwhelmed, by the green “smog” that has formed – the
sheer volume of green claims and the dubious credibility of so many of them.
With few if any clear definitions or standards across industry and product
verticals, organizations must engage in a combination of greater transparency
and more effective efforts to educate consumers. Those that do will reap
more of the benefits of their sustainability efforts.
Communicating your sustainability efforts should be a given, whether it’s
limited to sustainability reports, with a more disclosure-oriented perspective,
or involves discussion of sustainability issues in your promotional marketing
efforts. Yet some companies are only quietly involved in sustainability
initiatives for fear of attracting attention to other aspects of their business or
because of various criticisms. These fears are understandable, but a part of
the transparency trend will be doing it anyway and addressing the unwanted
attention and criticisms in a constructive way.
Really integrating sustainability into your brand, though, requires extra effort.
You need to ensure your communications are accurate, consistent and relate
to your products or services, and that such communications fit in with your
overall brand strategy, of course. But more importantly, you need to ensure a
corporate culture that supports your sustainability efforts – making it a part of
your brand requires that it be a real part of your organization, and not involve
only superficial efforts.
This is where it becomes important, given the exponential increase of green
marketing claims and green washing, to help educate your audiences as
simply as possible about what sustainability actually means in your brand in a
transparent, authentic and credible way; then supporting that with additional
information and dialogue online that’s easy to find, credible, and clear to
understand.
“With few if any
clear definitions or
standards across
industry and
product verticals,
organizations
must engage in a
combination of
greater trans-
parency and more
effective efforts to
educate con-
sumers.”
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 11
Do this by first identifying the type of confusion or criticisms, and potential
confusion areas or misunderstandings, in your industry, product categories
and organization specifically for sustainability-related claims. This is one of
many areas where good social media and stakeholder engagement becomes
particularly useful.
For example, you can monitor discussions about your industry, organization
and brand in the social media universe, and participate in the dialogues you
find, to better understand and address any confusion or criticisms in your
brand efforts. You can initiate such dialogues as well. And you can also create
online surveys and forums for ongoing dialogues with stakeholders, including
customers, about areas of confusion and credibility.
Then integrate all you learn with your existing communication programs,
spread the word through multiple channels and position the issues in a
relevant way to each stakeholder. Extend messages beyond traditional media
relations to include all forms of online marketing, grassroots and viral
marketing, product packaging, special events, conferences and seminars,
PSAs and advertising, and expert spokespersons, among others.
III. Summing Up and Taking Action
In beginning or refining your sustainability efforts, start with developing
sustainability goals that tie to overarching corporate goals, and at least some
quantifiable metrics.
Then engage in stakeholder mapping and engagement. Next, develop a
sustainability issues map and, if possible, a good sustainability management
system. Or, at least ask and answer some of the kinds of questions such a
system is designed to answer through your sustainability issues map. To the
extent applicable, engage in life cycle assessment(s), product design and
materials; and assessment of the needs of the communities affected by your
operations. Determine what sustainability issues your organization is best
positioned to address as you move forward.
No matter where you are in the sustainability journey, take sustainability
efforts in planned, but digestible steps with your organization’s capabilities in
mind. In the short term, for example, have the CEO issue or update a
statement of intent; find out where you stand among competitors and other
stakeholders; develop a priority action plan; and engage in pilot projects.
In the mid-term, look at supplier performance and develop a comprehensive
materials database if you don’t already have one. Connect sustainability goals
to rewards for key employees. Form a sustainability advisory board or
Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 12
committee, and create a formal CSR/sustainability report if you haven’t
already. Ensure transparent communications with employees, along with
training and motivational activities.
In the longer term, consider supply chain auditing, rethink products and
reexamine markets (e.g., serving bottom of the pyramid), and continually
approve on stakeholder engagement and partnerships. Sustainable
organizations know that no single organization can do it all alone.
Acknowledgements:
A special thank you to my colleagues, Beth Bengtson and Arthur
Zaczkiewicz, for their ongoing review and assistance with this paper; and to
Carrie Freeman, of Intel, for her time and substantial insight.
Thank you also to Joe Allen, Caterpillar; Stephen Filler, Prism Solar; Ajax
Green, On Belay Advisors; Harriet Hentges, Ahold USA; Joel Makower,
Greener World Media; Dorothy Schnure, Green Mountain Power; and Jane
Tabachnick, Jane Tabachnick Marketing for their review or feedback.
About the author:
Perry Goldschein is a co-founder and partner at SDialogue, and a
sustainability and marketing guru with two decades of experience. Prior to
SDialogue, Perry founded SRB Marketing, Inc., an interactive marketing firm
focused on sustainability, and two earlier companies involving alternative
energy and media. For several years with SRB Marketing, Perry set the
strategic direction of the company, developed business relationships, and
project managed the teams that achieved award-winning results for clients
that included Ben & Jerry’s, National Geographic and Yale University. He’s
authored a variety of publications on sustainability issues and internet
marketing; has been quoted widely in the trade media, including AdAge,
MediaPost, MarketingSherpa and Target Marketing; and spoken at various
trade events, including ad:tech, Sustainable Brands, LOHAS and the
American Strategic Management Institute.
About the Company:
SDialogue (www.sDialogue.com), formerly SRB Marketing, is an award-
winning, full-service sustainability communications and stakeholder
engagement firm. Founded in 2003, SDialogue has helped clients that have
included Ben & Jerry’s, National Geographic, Working Assets and Yale
University, among dozens of others.

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Top 7 CSR

  • 1.
  • 2. Top Seven Sustainability Practices: the Sum > the Parts A Special Report - January 2010 I. Overview There has been a growing, mainstream acceptance the last few years that sustainability1 can generate additional revenues by inspiring innovation, opening new markets, acquiring and retaining customers, and enhancing brand reputation. It can also reduce costs by improving employee recruitment and retention, reducing commercial risks, and cutting energy use and waste. Moreover, as companies face markets that are being reshaped by intense, global competitiveness, changing customer demands, increased regulation, and increased transparency, operating without sustainability initiatives will leave many organizations at a disadvantage. Yet, most organizations are not using the tools readily available to them to engage in and maximize their sustainability efforts. Many have never engaged with all of their stakeholders in a systemic way, set up a sustainability management system, or compiled a sustainability report. A recent IBM paper cites that “many are still missing – by a wide margin – the information they need to operate as a sustainable enterprise.”2 This paper summarizes the top seven best practices that have helped keep some organizations at the leading edge of today’s sustainability efforts: 1. Setting Sustainability Goals & Measuring Success 2. Stakeholder Engagement 3. Sustainability Issues Mapping 4. Sustainability Management Systems 5. Product Life Cycle Assessment & Product Design 6. Sustainability / CSR Reporting 7. Integrating Sustainability into Your Brand After reading this paper, you should have a better understanding of each process, how they work together, and how they can help your organization improve.3 1 For simplicity, we use the UN Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainability: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This accommodates economic, environmental, and social needs. Alternative terms have included “corporate social responsibility,” “green” and “LOHAS” (lifestyles of health and sustainability), among others. 2 Leading a Sustainable Enterprise, Leverging insight and information to act, Eric Riddleburger and Jeffrey Hittner, IBM (2009). 3 The paper is not meant to oversimplify a complex field that requires extensive resources and expertise, but to highlight and integrate the best practices in a valuable way. “We need to educate people about systems thinking and help them understand how all of these activities are interdependent and affect each other.” – Jeffrey Hollender, Co- Founder, Seventh Generation* * FromThe Business of Sustainability, MIT Sloan Mgmt. Rev. Special Rep., 2009, in which a similar list of activities to ours is presented in an executive survey and report.
  • 3. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 2 II. The Top Seven Steps to Sustainability: The Parts that Add to a Greater Sum Due to increased stakeholder power and regulation, greater transparency, global warming, scarcer and costlier resources, and increasing populations, the focus on sustainability is here to stay and will only intensify over time. As a result, the private sector is following the lead of the United Nations and various sustainability-oriented governments and NGOs. Wal Mart’s recent sustainability index is just one of many major sustainability efforts that will continue to affect organizations of all sizes across the globe. Today, leading organizations use a core set of tools to develop a sustainability self-portrait and help them manage for excellence. Following their lead, you should review all, and then prioritize the use of as many of the following tools as possible. 1. Setting Sustainability Goals & Measuring Success For any long-term sustainability program to succeed, it’s critical to develop, maintain and tie sustainability goals to overarching corporate goals and at least some quantifiable metrics. While there’s an “all the cool companies are doing it” kind of mentality right now among some, and moral imperatives are appealing to many business executives, the business case is necessary for any long-term business activity. Some questions to ask yourself: What is the value creation of sustainability for your organization? What are the true costs of not evolving more sustainably? What are the quantifiable metrics that demonstrate the board and C-suite should care? Yet, measuring sustainability’s return on investment (ROI) has always been challenging and is still in somewhat of an “infancy” stage. Moreover, as sustainability becomes an integral part of daily business, it’s more difficult to differentiate costs as well as benefits that relate only to the sustainability aspects of a company’s actions. Therefore, it’s important to align sustainability goals with those of your broader corporate goals and set metrics based on that alignment. Some individual components of broader sustainability efforts are more measurable than others. Sustainability processes that focus on minimizing waste and resource use, for example, relate directly to the bottom line and are relatively easy to quantify. There are also clear benefits of implementing certain sustainability-oriented employee policies in the workplace, such as reduced turnover of employees, which are more easily quantifiable in terms of opportunity costs for training and developing people.
  • 4. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 3 It’s often best to start with a few key metrics that you measure well, such as brand reputation, energy efficiency and dollars saved, and employee loyalty. Then add a few more metrics over time. Some of the efforts considered most successful have used a story around one or two solid metrics from a sustainability strategy. Many of the failures, where CSR programs have been cut, were due to CSR teams trying to execute metrics plans that were too complicated.4 Again, think about and try to measure what your sustainability strategy did to support your overall corporate strategy. Then communicate your brand’s sustainability value using both facts and real examples of impact, since stakeholders (and C-level executives) often remember stories more easily than bare facts. 2. Stakeholder Engagement One of the less understood, but most critical ways of maximizing sustainability programs today is identifying and then fully engaging with all of your stakeholders. The set of players affecting sustainability strategy is growing in number and diversity, as well as power. These stakeholders include not only investors, but customers, employees, suppliers, partners, governments, nonprofits, and communities, among others. Meanwhile, research shows that an eye-popping 85 percent of consumers have no idea that companies such as HP, Intel, Cisco, and Unilever – who are among the Fortune 500 leaders in sustainability – are participating in any sustainability practices.5 Moreover, sustainability is so broad and complex in scope that crowd sourcing is a must in solving our most intractable problems, while remaining prosperous. Guidelines by a relative few in government, NGOs or other third parties alone won’t adequately do it. Companies such as Starbucks, Timberland, and others are quickly realizing this and moving to engage their stakeholders like 4 Measuring What Matters – Evaluating CSR’s Return on Investment, Kellie A. McElhaney, Leading Perspectives, BSR Newsletter (Fall 2008). 5 The Green Revolution, Grail Research, Sept. 2009 Simple Stakeholder Map Communi- ties Partners Customers Suppliers Non-Govt’l Organiza- tions (NGOs) Govern- ments Investors Employees YOUR ORGANIZA- TION
  • 5. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 4 never before. While there are clear benefits to asking for input and feedback, relatively few firms effectively engage their intended audiences. Optimizing the stakeholder dialogue process helps organizations identify the core issues which are deemed to be material to their business. It also builds stronger partnerships and more effective solutions for successfully addressing those issues. Begin the process of maximizing your engagement with stakeholders by mapping them to manage the complexity of relationships. Systematically review the players in each stakeholder category as they relate to your company. For each category, for example, ask who are the organizations and even individual stakeholders that matter? Which NGOs follow the industry and your company specifically? How are competitors handling sustainability issues? Do you know what your employees think about your sustainability performance? Ask what each stakeholder may want, which will guide and shape the company’s reaction. Identify new ways to reach a broader group of these constituents. Create relevant, innovative ways to engage key stakeholders. Establish new and/or enhance current relationships with one or more NGOs supporting your focus issues. These NGOs may even become good cause marketing partners. Much thought needs to be put into how to engage stakeholders, especially if there is not an existing ongoing relation- ship. For example, many NGOs want to solve problems, not just discuss them, and companies need to be prepared for that. When engaging with stakeholders, be as transparent as is both possible and prudent. Ask for substantive feedback on what sustainability issues are most material and relevant to your organi- zation from their perspective, as well as their ideas on the best ways to go about addressing them. Then share what Using Social Media to Better Engage Stakeholders Only a few years old, newer social media and collaboration technology tools are already making it profoundly easier for organizations and their stakeholders to engage in meaningful dialogue and collaborate with each other. They make it easier to build diverse communities that use different experience and perspective to create innovative solutions. These tools can connect the organization to different stakeholders at different levels, both internal and external. Participatory intranets are one example of internal tools, while public social media platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, that anyone can join to participate are examples of external ones. Sharepoint, BaseCamp, and activeCollab are also off-the-shelf examples of software- and webware- based collaboration tools. Social media and collaboration will also make it easier for companies to track and report their impacts on the environment and society more broadly. They allow a company to put reporting information online, and launch a dialogue with the public. A blog or forum process gives stakeholders the opportunity to debate whether a company has identified the most “material” environmental and social issues, for example, covered the ground in how it thinks about these issues, and adequately responded to them. For great examples of how social media can both hurt and help companies, see our paper, Social Media Advances the Sustainability Dialogue. “Newer social media and collaboration technology tools are already making it pro- foundly easier for organizations and their stakeholders to engage in meaningful dialogue and collaborate with each other.”
  • 6. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 5 strategy you develop to address the issues and request more feedback. 3. Sustainability Issues Mapping The vast range of sustainability issues organizations need to track can seem overwhelming. The first step in the process of creating a sustainability strategy should therefore be to develop a “sustainability issues map,” or SIM, whether or not you decide to engage in a formal SMS. This map can take many forms, but it may be best to start with a grid that identifies key sustainability challenges on one axis and categories that identify the specific issues, labels their sources, and identifies initial opportunities in addressing those issues. Key environmental challenges may include greenhouse gases (GHG), water (pollution and use), air pollution, waste management, and toxics, for example; while other key sustainability challenges may involve social issues like human rights, labor standards (including living wages), and fair trade. Simplified, Partial Sustainability Issues Map for Small Coffee Manufacturer & Retailer In identifying the issues, consider the key sustainability problems affecting both your industry and your organization (materiality). Ask such questions as what are the organization’s biggest sustainability impacts – from acquisition of raw materials through use and disposal of its products? When and where do those impacts arise? Upstream in the supply chain? During shipping and distribution? During production? Or downstream in the hands of customers? How do others view the company’s environmental and social performance? For initial opportunities, ask questions such as would reducing water use help the communities in which you operate? Would it reduce costs? Would establishing a recycling program to take back your used products for reuse of their materials inspire customers? Would it save on procurement of raw materials? Challenge Issues Sources Opportunities Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) GHG emissions from energy use adding to climate crisis; possible constraints or taxes on such emissions. Suppliers, operations, distribution (transportation). Launch eco-efficiency effort targeted at energy use and related GHG emissions. Water Rising pressure for improved water quality; competing access for diminishing resources. Toxic pesticides ending up in waterways; water use for growing, brewing product. Grow and/or buy more organic coffee to reduce use of pesticides; launch efforts to conserve, reuse water, and educate suppliers & customers on how they can do same. Fair Trade Poorer farmers/coffee laborers historically haven’t been paid living wages; growing awareness of this problem and need to remedy. Suppliers and their employees. Help set supplier standards and adequate wages; assist and educate suppliers in meeting those standards.
  • 7. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 6 Organize and tap into an internal, interdisciplinary team with members from different departments to brainstorm your SIM. Ideally, engage external stakeholders in this process as well, as described above. 4. Sustainability Management Systems (SMS) The most common, traditional approach to management for sustainable business has been to use an Environmental Management System (EMS) – at least for the companies large enough to be affected by environmental, health and safety (EHS) regulations. An EMS is a set of activities and auditable performance objectives that enable an organization to continuously reduce its environmental impacts through pollution prevention measures, performing beyond minimum compliance levels,6 and/or integrating sustainable business practices.7 An EMS provides a framework for managing environmental responsibilities in a more systematic manner. Just as businesses develop financial management systems to promote the efficient use and management of monetary resources, they realize that EMSs developed and integrated into the organizational structure will provide similar and various additional benefits. The most well-known EMS is the ISO 14001 standard, established by the International Organization for Standardization in 1996. There are other versions of EMS available, but all follow a similar design of Plan-Do-Check- Act and emphasize continuous improvement. Essentially any organization can benefit from an EMS. The regulated industrial facility is an obvious candidate, being that emissions from smokestacks and discharges from pipes are clear interactions with the environment. Yet, even the most service-orientated office operation can make effective use of an EMS because the way employees travel to work, use energy, procure office materials, or plan meetings and conferences, for example, all have impacts on the environment and the business. EMSs are being implemented at private sector businesses of all shapes and sizes, and at government organizations of all levels. 6 “Beyond compliance performance" is performance that either exceeds regulatory minimums or is focused on improvement in areas that have environmental impact that are not currently regulated. NY State DEC, http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/4665.html, as of 6/12/09. 7 This paraphrases the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) definition, which I like because it accounts for some newer sustainability/CSR concerns. NYDEC further defines "sustainable business practices" as those practices which strive toward resource use that does not exceed the rate of replenishment, and waste generation at a pace that does not exceed the rate at which they can be reabsorbed by the environment. NY State DEC, http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/4665.html, as of 6/12/09. “…any organ- ization can benefit from an EMS.”
  • 8. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 7 The term “Sustainability Management System” or “SMS” has been used more recently and seems best to encompass developments impacting the form and use of traditional EMS. These include the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. These documents provide management frameworks for social as well as environmental performance, and are at the heart of many sustainability efforts today. Combined with, and integrated into, traditional EMS efforts, they may be considered a more complete system. 5. Product Life Cycle Assessment & Product Design Life Cycle Assessment (a.k.a. Life Cycle Analysis or LCA) is a technique to assess the environmental and social impacts associated with a product, process, or service. The primary goal of a LCA is to compare the full range of environmental and social damages assignable to products and services, so as to choose the least harmful ways of producing them. The leading consumer product makers and retailers are starting to rigorously assess the impacts of their products using sophisticated LCA metrics, sending signals up the supply chain that tomorrow's products will need to meet higher levels of sustainability. Wal-Mart’s recent efforts to start a sustainability index is one of the most recent and visible examples in this trend. A survey by Columbia University found most LCAs are done with dedicated software. It also found that LCA is mostly used to support business strategy (18%) and R&D (18%), as input to product or process design (15%), in education (13%) and for labeling or product declarations (11%). According to GreenBiz.com, nearly 47 percent of companies surveyed said they were increasing their investments in sustainable product development in 2009; less than 6 percent said they'd be investing less this year than in 2008. Many consider design critical to sustainability because so much of a product’s impact is firmly established in the design phase. As Timberland’s Terry Kellogg put it, “Once you spec out a product, 90 percent of the footprint – in energy, water, chemicals, hazardous waste, you name it – is set.” In addition to LCAs, to carry out redesign efforts, organizations are using standards and processes such as: • Design for the Environment (DfE) • Closed-loop systems • Industrial ecology “…Once you spec out a product, 90 percent of the footprint – in energy, water, chemicals, hazardous waste, you name it – is set...”
  • 9. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 8 • Green building and LEED certification • Supply chain audits 6. Sustainability/CSR Reporting Public companies have long produced financial reports to communicate performance and risk to shareholders. In recent years, disclosures have expanded to include non-financial matters and both public and private organizations are getting involved as matters of more effective management and greater transparency. Just as with an annual financial report, or a business or marketing plan, one of the primary benefits of a sustainability/CSR report, specifically, is that it allows an organization to see where it is and where it needs to go on sustainability matters, at the same time informing its stakeholders of its performance on such matters. The number S&P 500 companies publishing sustainability reports has increased 64 percent between 2004 and 2008. That still accounts for only 30 percent of S&P 500 companies as a whole, up from 18 percent from 2004. Of the 148 reporting companies in 2008, nearly half followed guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative, a framework that aims to help companies measure and disclose economic, environmental and social performance in a standardized way that allows for comparison of companies across sectors and geographic borders. 8 In the early days of sustainability reporting, most reports were either exclusively environmental in focus or dealt only with philanthropy. Today, sustainability reports are seen as increasingly strategic documents that offer a balanced, objective and reasonable assessment of almost every aspect of a firm’s non-financial performance. There are a wide number of standards available for sustainability reports, such as those from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Business in the Community (BITC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). While each of the standards have their merits, GRI has gathered the widest level of support. There are clear benefits for organizations that undertake quality sustainability reporting: it allows them to demonstrate their interest in the environment and society; it builds trust and promotes transparency; and helps solicits feedback 8 State of Green Business 2009, Joel Makower & Editors of GreenBiz.com, February 2009 (Greener World Media). “…only 13.5 percent of such reports filed with GRI included any kind of third- party verifica- tion...” Graphic from Greener World Media, Inc.
  • 10. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 9 on their performance from a growing number of stakeholders. According to the Count Me In study, 90 percent of readers see reporting standards as important for building trust, with the G3 GRI Guidelines being seen as the most relevant, followed by sector-based reporting frameworks. While sustainability reporting began with hard copy reports alone, in more recent years, organizations have combined hard copy with web-based information. Some are now experimenting with reporting solely on the web, often using inter-active, searchable formats. Techniques for enhancing the credibility of the infor- mation included in sus- tainability reports are to ensure that data adheres to established standards, and to obtain third-party verifi- cation of the information provided in the report. Yet, only 13.5 percent of such reports filed with GRI included any kind of third- party verification, a grow- ing demand of activists and others.9 9 Count Me In, KPMG & Readers’ Choice, 2009. Sustainability Software Solutions Among the biggest challenges with being able to track, act on, and report sustainability information is that it generally resides in multiple business units, even for many smaller companies. The information often has to be tracked down through meetings, phone calls, and e-mail. Once collected, the information has to be combined and put into reports, including graphical data, for publication and for use in marketing and PR campaigns. Because of the complexity of issues and the volume of data often involved, numerous software programs have developed to help with sustainability initiatives – think QuickBooks for sustainability. Many organizations benefit from software that aggregates the sustainability data from multi-department information systems and brings it into more easily viewable and reportable formats. The better software programs provide executive-level snapshots of where you stand today versus your goals, and what it all means for your various stakeholders. Needless to say, there’s a whole industry built around sustainability software solutions, with several, maybe even dozens of providers providing one or more pieces of the solution. The following table is a small snapshot to give you an idea of the range of different types of sustainability software solutions and modules that some of the providers offer.
  • 11. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 10 7. Integrating Sustainability into Your Brand Just a few short years ago, green marketing was an arena for a relative handful of those at the leading edge of sustainability. And it helped set them apart with unparalleled brand differentiation, loyal customers and higher profit margins. Now, everyone and their brandmother has jumped on the green bandwagon. Increased concerns about environmental and social issues have led some of the largest consumer brands to enter the green marketplace, prodded by large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, which have been pushing suppliers to offer affordable green products. As a result, while consumers are motivated to buy green, they are also confused, even overwhelmed, by the green “smog” that has formed – the sheer volume of green claims and the dubious credibility of so many of them. With few if any clear definitions or standards across industry and product verticals, organizations must engage in a combination of greater transparency and more effective efforts to educate consumers. Those that do will reap more of the benefits of their sustainability efforts. Communicating your sustainability efforts should be a given, whether it’s limited to sustainability reports, with a more disclosure-oriented perspective, or involves discussion of sustainability issues in your promotional marketing efforts. Yet some companies are only quietly involved in sustainability initiatives for fear of attracting attention to other aspects of their business or because of various criticisms. These fears are understandable, but a part of the transparency trend will be doing it anyway and addressing the unwanted attention and criticisms in a constructive way. Really integrating sustainability into your brand, though, requires extra effort. You need to ensure your communications are accurate, consistent and relate to your products or services, and that such communications fit in with your overall brand strategy, of course. But more importantly, you need to ensure a corporate culture that supports your sustainability efforts – making it a part of your brand requires that it be a real part of your organization, and not involve only superficial efforts. This is where it becomes important, given the exponential increase of green marketing claims and green washing, to help educate your audiences as simply as possible about what sustainability actually means in your brand in a transparent, authentic and credible way; then supporting that with additional information and dialogue online that’s easy to find, credible, and clear to understand. “With few if any clear definitions or standards across industry and product verticals, organizations must engage in a combination of greater trans- parency and more effective efforts to educate con- sumers.”
  • 12. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 11 Do this by first identifying the type of confusion or criticisms, and potential confusion areas or misunderstandings, in your industry, product categories and organization specifically for sustainability-related claims. This is one of many areas where good social media and stakeholder engagement becomes particularly useful. For example, you can monitor discussions about your industry, organization and brand in the social media universe, and participate in the dialogues you find, to better understand and address any confusion or criticisms in your brand efforts. You can initiate such dialogues as well. And you can also create online surveys and forums for ongoing dialogues with stakeholders, including customers, about areas of confusion and credibility. Then integrate all you learn with your existing communication programs, spread the word through multiple channels and position the issues in a relevant way to each stakeholder. Extend messages beyond traditional media relations to include all forms of online marketing, grassroots and viral marketing, product packaging, special events, conferences and seminars, PSAs and advertising, and expert spokespersons, among others. III. Summing Up and Taking Action In beginning or refining your sustainability efforts, start with developing sustainability goals that tie to overarching corporate goals, and at least some quantifiable metrics. Then engage in stakeholder mapping and engagement. Next, develop a sustainability issues map and, if possible, a good sustainability management system. Or, at least ask and answer some of the kinds of questions such a system is designed to answer through your sustainability issues map. To the extent applicable, engage in life cycle assessment(s), product design and materials; and assessment of the needs of the communities affected by your operations. Determine what sustainability issues your organization is best positioned to address as you move forward. No matter where you are in the sustainability journey, take sustainability efforts in planned, but digestible steps with your organization’s capabilities in mind. In the short term, for example, have the CEO issue or update a statement of intent; find out where you stand among competitors and other stakeholders; develop a priority action plan; and engage in pilot projects. In the mid-term, look at supplier performance and develop a comprehensive materials database if you don’t already have one. Connect sustainability goals to rewards for key employees. Form a sustainability advisory board or
  • 13. Top 7 Sustainability Practices | ©2010 SDialogue, LLC, www.sDialogue.com | p. 12 committee, and create a formal CSR/sustainability report if you haven’t already. Ensure transparent communications with employees, along with training and motivational activities. In the longer term, consider supply chain auditing, rethink products and reexamine markets (e.g., serving bottom of the pyramid), and continually approve on stakeholder engagement and partnerships. Sustainable organizations know that no single organization can do it all alone. Acknowledgements: A special thank you to my colleagues, Beth Bengtson and Arthur Zaczkiewicz, for their ongoing review and assistance with this paper; and to Carrie Freeman, of Intel, for her time and substantial insight. Thank you also to Joe Allen, Caterpillar; Stephen Filler, Prism Solar; Ajax Green, On Belay Advisors; Harriet Hentges, Ahold USA; Joel Makower, Greener World Media; Dorothy Schnure, Green Mountain Power; and Jane Tabachnick, Jane Tabachnick Marketing for their review or feedback. About the author: Perry Goldschein is a co-founder and partner at SDialogue, and a sustainability and marketing guru with two decades of experience. Prior to SDialogue, Perry founded SRB Marketing, Inc., an interactive marketing firm focused on sustainability, and two earlier companies involving alternative energy and media. For several years with SRB Marketing, Perry set the strategic direction of the company, developed business relationships, and project managed the teams that achieved award-winning results for clients that included Ben & Jerry’s, National Geographic and Yale University. He’s authored a variety of publications on sustainability issues and internet marketing; has been quoted widely in the trade media, including AdAge, MediaPost, MarketingSherpa and Target Marketing; and spoken at various trade events, including ad:tech, Sustainable Brands, LOHAS and the American Strategic Management Institute. About the Company: SDialogue (www.sDialogue.com), formerly SRB Marketing, is an award- winning, full-service sustainability communications and stakeholder engagement firm. Founded in 2003, SDialogue has helped clients that have included Ben & Jerry’s, National Geographic, Working Assets and Yale University, among dozens of others.