Transcript The Green Company - Zicklin School of Business

The Green Company
Challenges for Corporate Leaders
Stefan Doering
Tuesday April 1st, 2008
Corporations and sustaining
the environment…
can they co-exist?
• 50% of the world’s wetlands have been lost in the last
100 years,
• 50% of the world’s forests have been chopped down,
• 70% of the world’s major marine fisheries have been
depleted
• 100% of the world’s coral reefs are at risk, and
• 6.3 billion people on the planet, with another 3 billion in
the next 40 years
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
We shall require a
substantially new manner of
thinking if mankind is to
survive.
~Albert Einstein
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
5 Stages of Shifting Corporate
Thinking
Stage 1 The company feels no obligation beyond profits.
Stage 2 The business manages its liabilities by obeying the law and all labor,
environmental, health, and safety regulations.
Stage 3 the company moves from defense to offense. It realizes it can save
expenses with proactive and incremental operational eco-efficiencies, cleaner
processes, and better waste management. It is about incremental, continuous
improvements in eco-efficiency.
Stage 4 The firm transforms itself. It re-brands itself as a company committed to
sustainability and integrates sustainability with key business strategies. It is
about discontinuous, leapfrogging breakthroughs. (i.e. DuPont, The Body Shop
and Timberland.)
Stage 5 Driven by a passionate, values-based commitment to improving the wellbeing of the company, society and the environment, the company helps build a
better world because it is the right thing to do. (i.e. Patagonia, Gaiam.com)
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
Sustainability Blueprint
a profitable business model for selling products and
services using the company’s detailed plan of action
for maintaining and restoring ecological and social
balance in a consistent and unified way. It
demonstrates the company’s commitment to “best
practices.”
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
Contact Info
BEST Coaches, Inc.
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (646) 485-7688
Center For Environmental Research and
Education (CERC):
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.cerc.columbia.edu
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
Creating Executive Shift in
Thinking
NEW: Top 5 Demanding Stakeholder* Groups
•
Green consumers—22% of people in G7 countries are concerned
about social and environmental issues.
•
Activist shareholders—27.5% of shareholder resolutions for public
companies in 2003 were on social/environmental issues.
•
Civil-society sector / NGO’s—43% people are or will soon actively
challenge companies to take on greater social/environmental
responsibility.
•
Governments, national & international—EPA, Kyoto Protocol,
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
Certification, etc.
•
Financial sector—70% of CEO’s surveyed at Davos in 2003 felt
mainstream investors will have an increased interest in CSR in
the future.
*- Stakeholders— those whom hold a stake in the company’s existence
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
Mega Trends
Top 5 big issues stakeholders are increasingly
concerned about:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Climate Change— 1) financial: damage from weather,
2) government: carbon taxes, and 3) company
reputation
Pollution and its effect on health—impact of the
company’s manufacturing.
Globalization Backlash—companies dealing across
boarders.
Energy Crunch—companies dealing with the planet
running out of oil and gas
Erosion of Trust in Institutions—business operating in
the best interests of society.
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com
Top 10 Hot “Green” Topics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Climate Change
Energy
Water
Air Pollution
Chemicals, Toxics, and Heavy Metals
Waste Management
Ozone Layer Depletion
Biodiversity and Land Use
Forest and Fisheries
Deforestation
BEST Coaches, Inc.
www.beunreasonable.com