Here are 12 potential green business new year resolutions of varying ambition for your business - pick one and drive it through to get 2012 off to a sustainable start:
Set some really ambitious stretch targets to hit by 2017 and 2022;
Engage employees in a carbon/waste/water reduction programme - ask for ideas and use them;
Instigate a carbon reduction competition between staff teams/sites;
Be kind to cyclists: improve racks, start paying cycle mileage, subsidise cycle purchases, improve site access;
Install/improve teleconferencing facilities;
Radically increase the number of employees working from home;
Work with a supplier to develop a more sustainable supply of raw materials/goods;
Bump up the weight given to sustainability in supplier selection (and tell your suppliers);
Initiate the development of a new, greener product, service and/or product service system;
Delete an unsustainable product line;
Install (more) on-site renewable energy systems;
Invest in more efficient/alternatively fuelled vehicles, subsidise low emission vehicle purchases by staff.
Whether or not you decide to do any of the above, you MUST do the following in 2012 - no excuses!
Regular readers will have seen posts on the blog here for our Green Academy series of environmental training webinars - dozens of people have taken part at one time or another in 2011 and the feedback has been fantastic. Well now we've completed a successful single cycle of the programme, we've launched new pages here on the website. You can peruse all the sessions and book into those you fancy.
If you haven't come across Green Academy yet, I explain how it works here:
And, wait, there's more!
To celebrate, we've decided to run a Christmas special deal. If you book over the festive period, we'll give you a whopping 33% off the Advanced Series (10 webinars, normal cost £330.00+VAT, deal £220.00+VAT - click here to get the discount) and the Introductory Series (4 webinars, normal cost £150+VAT, deal £100+VAT - click here to get the discount).
We have to receive payment by 6 Jan, so get your skates on!
I usually start off my seminars by asking delegates why their company should go green (try it - much more effective than you telling them why they should go green). The first answer is almost always "Save money" and, after compiling a list of other reasons, this is identified as the most important.
I always challenge that answer. The delegates have explained how customer pressure is a factor, yet they then discount this in favour of short term cost cutting - maybe it's the current economic climate to blame. I usually point out that, without customers, the bottom line is an irrelevance.
There is always more scope for increasing sales than cutting costs. This is an essential truth to get across to anyone doing investment appraisals of green projects - they need to factor the scope for raising the top line into their calculations, rather than just a simple return on investment (ROI) assessment.
Interestingly those who seek to raise the top line will cut costs into the bargain - Marks & Spencer's Plan A programme was never intended to save money but it has. But if you take a penny pinching attitude and expect a direct ROI on projects, you will never back the ambitious ideas that will set you apart from the pack in the market - missing out on the big rewards of green business.
So, don't forget to get the bean counters greened up and aware of their importance in the Sustainability performance of the organisation.
From July, Green Academy splits into two streams so there will be two sessions on 6 July:
11:00 BST An Introduction to Green Business - a free taster session covering the business case for sustainability, business and sustainability, a selection of inspiring case studies and some information on The Green Academy. E-mail us to register for the session.
14:00 BST Advanced: Green Products and Services - the sixth in the series covers the power of redesign of products and services. Contents include:
Benign by design - the case for changing products and services;
Understanding the market.
Practical techniques to green your product or service;
Advanced innovations (product service systems, virtual products etc);
Finding green market niches for your business in the emerging low carbon economy.
Inspirational case studies.
The advanced session costs just £45.00 + VAT per person to participate - use the button below to pay by card or Paypal. Contact us to make a BACS payment.
"Gareth's webinars are smart, punchy and thought provoking. His approach shows how sustainability is about achieving commercial advantage and not simply an altruistic gesture. Highly recommended." Graeme Mills, GPM Network Ltd.
"[The webinars] are great value and I would recommend them to both CSR professionals and SME owners." Louise Bateman, GreenWise
"I consider this a must for organisations looking for practical help in improving their sustainability performance." Ted Shann, Wipro
The fifth of our Green Academy Webinars will be held on 1 June at 14:00 BST. The hour long session will explain why you need to tackle the environmental impact of your supply chain and how to go about it. Contents include:
Don't buy trouble - the case for greening the supply chain;
Basic green procurement techniques;
Engaging with suppliers to find solutions;
Advanced techniques - industrial symbiosis, buying services rather than products, strengthening weak chains.
The webinar costs £45.00 + VAT per person - use the button below to pay by card or Paypal. Contact us to make a BACS payment.
"Gareth's webinars are smart, punchy and thought provoking. His approach shows how sustainability is about achieving commercial advantage and not simply an altruistic gesture. Highly recommended." Graeme Mills, GPM Network Ltd.
"[The webinars] are great value and I would recommend them to both CSR professionals and SME owners." Louise Bateman, GreenWise
"I consider this a must for organisations looking for practical help in improving their sustainability performance." Ted Shann, Wipro
The fourth of our Green Business Webinars will be held on 4 May at 14:00 GMT. The hour long session will cover everything you need to know to green your organisation internally:
Quick wins for different types of business;
Aligning processes to sustainability;
Housekeeping tools: auditing, balances, group work, brainstorming;
Financing green projects.
The webinar costs £45.00 + VAT per person - use the button below to pay by card or Paypal. Contact us to make a BACS payment.
"Gareth's webinars are smart, punchy and thought provoking. His approach shows how sustainability is about achieving commercial advantage and not simply an altruistic gesture. Highly recommended." Graeme Mills, GPM Network Ltd.
"[The webinars] are great value and I would recommend them to both CSR professionals and SME owners." Louise Bateman, GreenWise
"I consider this a must for organisations looking for practical help in improving their sustainability performance." Ted Shann, Wipro
I am delighted to announce our brand spanking new series of ten dynamic hour long webinars covering the whole range of green business issues.
What you will get:
The essential skills, knowledge and understanding you need on the critical business issue for the 21st Century;
A practical action plan to apply your learning immediately to your business or organisation;
Invaluable insights and experiences from other participants.
Every webinar will include brand new content that I haven't be delivered anywhere else. All this in a cost-effective, time-effective and low carbon package.
The programme for 2011 is as follows:
2 February: Sustainability and Your Business
2 March: Strategy, Management Systems & Targets
13 April: Staff Engagement & Culture Change
4 May: Good Housekeeping: Waste, Energy & Water
1 June: Greening the Supply Chain
6 July: Green Products and Services
7 September: Green Communications & Marketing
5 October: Corporate Social Responsibility – the Ethical Angle
2 November: Green Business Leadership
7 December: Advanced Sustainability Techniques
All webinars will run from 2-3pm UK time. The cycle will continue into future years so you can join at any point and get all 10 seminars.
Each webinar costs just £45.00 + VAT and there is a whopping 25% discount if you purchase the whole series at once. If you try a single session and want to upgrade to the whole series, we will discount a further 10%. If you sign up for all ten, I'll throw a free copy of my book The Three Secrets of Green Business into the bargain.
Sign up for the February webinar at £45.00 + VAT
The 10 webinar series costs just £330.00 + VAT
Other payment methods:
Cheques should be made payable to Terra Infirma and sent to Terra Infirma Ltd, 157 Stratford Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 5AS. We need your e-mail address to register you for the seminar.
For BACS payment, please e-mail us here and we will send you details.
Tomorrow I'm running a waste workshop for a small manufacturing company (you wouldn't know their name, but you'd know some of the brands they manufacture). The whole structure of the workshop is designed to embed the underlying principles into the thinking of the participants. In fact the reason for having a workshop rather than doing a "clipboard consulting" walkover review is to develop sustainable solutions owned by the company employees, not by me.
There is no Powerpoint (hurrah!) because I want them to come up with the answers rather than me preaching to them. So the technology comes down to the humble flipchart and pen. I will elicit the drivers for going green for them, because I want them to think about them rather than having to sell those drivers to them. We will be developing a model of their company and identifying where opportunities to make improvements lie.
This approach has three benefits:
We get to harness their brainpower, experience and knowledge to identify problems and solutions rather than just my expertise;
They own the solutions, making it far more likely they will be implemented effectively;
The enthusiasm generated by this approach can lead to further spontaneous solutions appearing in the future.
For these reasons, I'm increasingly finding that my consultancy, staff engagement and training projects are converging in an amorphous single beast. Training makes more sense if learning is applied to the organisation concerned and consultancy is much more likely to 'stick' if there is a capacity building/engagement element.
Whether or not you engage an outside provider to help you green your organisation, I thoroughly recommend going down the workshop approach. So put away those clipboards and get out those flipcharts!
Yesterday I was on the trains again, this time down to York to train environmental champions for a public transport company. It was another beautiful early morning - this time misty where Monday was crystal clear, Durham Cathedral appeared lit golden behind the rising and evaporating trails of fog. The two sessions went well and the feedback good.
Since Monday, I've been mulling on an insight from Martin Blake of Royal Mail - what book value will high carbon buildings and infrastructure have in 5 or 10 years? Who will want to buy a 'dirty legacy'? This applies to today's client as well, although I'd thrown so much new stuff (ecological footprinting, carbon footprinting, climate change, sustainability, energy management etc) at the poor attendees that I thought this was one driver I would omit. As I write The Green Executive, I'm finding that sustainability is running deeper and deeper into the core of every organisation - everytime I think I've got it, there's another new angle. That's what I love about this job!
The Low Carbon Best Practice Exchange is running in Harrogate on 3rd December - a whole day of round table discussions and one-to-ones - a delightfully powerpoint free zone. I'm leading two sessions on staff engagement and environmental strategy and there are loads more. I know I've said it before - these are probably the best events of their type.
I'm taking a coffee break between client meetings on Teesside. I've just been with a world class engineering company, mapping out the content of two training seminars I'm doing for them, one on CSR and one on Sustainability & Design. While they're fresh in my mind, here are three top tips on sustainability training:
1. Sell the course to delegates
Many people are cynical about training. Many people are cynical about sustainability. You need to sell the purpose of the course to the delegates, both at the start and at points through the session. In this case I'll be pointing out how 'green' can win tenders and the business opportunities for this company in the low carbon agenda.
2. Mind the gap
If you leave a gap between the content of the course and the implementation of those ideas back at the desk, most of your hard work will fall straight through it. I always get delegates to apply the knowledge and skills they are learning to their day job during the session - closing the gap up before it occurs.
3. Make it thought provoking
Challenging your delegates is more effective than lame attempts to make the session fun. Ask questions, puncture myths and put people on the spot. If you can do fun too, then do it.
I think these are the most important three. Do you have any more?
Once again I'll be facilitating two sessions at the Low Carbon Innovation Network, this time on 11 June at the Olympia, London.
The sessions are:
1. Long Term Environmental Strategy, 10:00am
2. Empowering staff to take action, 3:30pm
These events are really good and I always learn loads during the sessions. If you want some info about previous events, see here and here. Highly recommended.
Yesterday I was doing some pro bono work to persuade 120 twelve-year-olds of the joys of engineering and, in my case, that engineering and a passion for the environment could go together. The event was organised by the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) and sponsored by the Institute of Engineering and Technology. I am a member of both.
With each batch of 20 youngsters I talked them through major environmental issues before focussing on climate change, its causes and the role of engineers in the causes (eg designing vehicles and power systems). We then switched to solutions and how engineers have a critical role (renewables, efficient vehicles etc). For the second half I split them into 4 teams and got them to redesign something. We got everything from a manure-powered car to solar powered hair straighteners. The best insight was from one lad who realised you could design the shape of a building to funnel wind through a turbine, but my favourite moment came from a young lad who had simply put some solar panels and a wind turbine on a building.
"What happens if the sun doesn't shine and the wind isn't blowing?" I asked.
I'm giving another seminar on developing, marketing and selling low carbon products and services next month, this time in lovely Harrogate. The seminar is part of the Low Carbon Innovation Exchange event which is certainly the best of its kind that I've ever attended.
At my midday seminar you will:
learn the business case for going beyond compliance.
discover what makes a product or service a low carbon product or service.
find out which markets are booming and why.
learn how to market and sell low carbon products & services.
identify the risks, and how to avoid them.
Plus you will benefit from all the other seminars, panel sessions, one-to-one meetings and round table discussions in the Exchange. Oh, and there's a great lunch included.
Here's The Deal
If you register for my seminar, you will also get:
The reduced entry fee of £295 + VAT for the whole event.
A FREE copy of my eBook "The Green Business Bible" (RRP £24.95+VAT).
A FREE 30 min telephone coaching session (normally £150.00+VAT).
50% discount on my full day "Building a Low Carbon Business" Seminar (full price £295.00+VAT).
A Certificate of Attendance for CPD purposes.
But, to get these offers, you must register via this link. You can see the whole programme for the day here, but you must use this registration link to get the freebies.
We're pleased to announce our new one-day Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) course. Aimed at businesses who want to understand the most pressing driver in the world today, the course explores the CSR and its underlying concept, sustainable development.
We deliver our courses at our clients' sites or at a mutually agreed venue. Roughly speaking, the morning is spent on theory and the afternoon on application.
The new one-day course has all the technical content of our standard Sustainable Development course, but the case studies and exercises are concerned with local government practice. It is suitable for council officers across all departments and functions and, indeed, councillors. Topics include:
- What is Sustainable Development? - Environmental Sustainability - Socio-economic Sustainability - Planning & Delivering Sustainability
Over the last year Terra Infirma has provided technical input and training sessions to the Dott07 programme, or Design of the Time 2007 to give it its full title. Dott 07 is "a year of community projects, events and exhibitions based in North East England that explore what life in a sustainable region could be like – and how design can help us get there". This month Dott is cumulating in a large design festival on the Gateshead Quayside by the famous Baltic 'art factory' and the Millennium Bridge. The festival runs from 16-28 October and highlights the various projects undertaken from the School's Eco-design Challenge to the Community Food project.
On 25th and 26th October, I'll be running some free eco-design workshops for novices, children (13+) and families. There will be two workshops on each day, starting at 10:30am and 1:30pm. The sessions will be fun and light hearted, but informative. If you are interested, simply drop in and take part.
More details of this and other Dott07 Festival highlights can be seen here. The location of the festival can be seen here.
