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Thursday, 1 April 2010
Ethical Questions
I've been working on a chapter of The Green Executive covering personal and corporate values. This is probably the trickiest chapter of all as personal values are by definition subjective. As corporate values flow from personal values, the subjectivity flows with them. I'm an engineer by education, so I like things to be objective and it takes me a while to frame subjective issues properly - many industrialists have the same problem.Here are some ethical questions when it comes to going green:
• To what extent are you responsible for your staff?
• To what extent are you responsible for the well being of people working in your supply chain?
• To what extent are you responsible for the environmental performance of your supply chain?
• To what extent are you responsible for the well being of people using your product?
• To what extent are you responsible for the environmental or social impacts of your product in use?
• To what extent are you responsible for the safe disposal of your product?
• Are stakeholders in your product’s lifecycle treated equally well irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, gender, disability or income?
• Is it OK to make a profit from the impacts of climate change?
• Is it OK to make a profit from tackling climate change?
• Is it OK to make a profit from the poor?
• How ‘green’ or ‘ethical’ does a product or service have to be before you can sell it as such?
Tricky, aren't they. I can't give you the answer, either, you've got to decide for yourself!
Labels: ethics, green executive
# posted by Gareth Kane : 11:17
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Friday, 19 March 2010
What a week!
Finally back in Terra Infirma Towers after a whirlwind week, particularly yesterday where I travelled from London to York, gave a presentation on the business case for sustainability and sustainability strategy to the Sustainability Committee of a major client, then got two hours at home before heading off to the business awards.My hosts Muckle LLP were runners up in the CSR stakes - I was gutted for them as I thought they deserved to win and not just because I was sitting with them. Following the Service Nework event I did last month, I wrote a short piece on the business case for service sector companies to go green and featured Muckle as a case study. They're also featuring in the Green Executive.
The business awards themselves were very glitzy - all pounding music, video clips and sparkling, swirling lights. Keynote speaker was TV presenter Tom Gutteridge who told a fascinating anecdote about Jeremy Clarkson came within three inches of getting decapitated by a flying saw blade in the first series of Robot Wars (a guilty pleasure of mine - Robot Wars that is, not Clarkson dodging death).
Anyway, back to the grindstone - while I was away another project got the green light and I've pinned down another couple of interviewees for The Green Executive. Happy days!
Labels: green executive, seminar, service sector
# posted by Gareth Kane : 09:01
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Monday, 15 March 2010
London bound!
Shooting down the east coast of England once again before the Base 2010 show tomorrow. First class seat with plenty of space, so I've just been finishing this month's Low Carbon Agenda and sorting out a presentation for a client board presentation in York on my way back up on Thursday.On Thursday night I'm a guest of lawyers Muckle LLP at the Tyneside & Northumberland Business Awards 2010 where Muckle are hoping to pick up the CSR gong. It's a black tie do, and I've only got an hour or two at home to get into the penguin suit and remember how to tie a bowtie (hint: there are some YouTube videos that are much more useful than the infernal line drawings you get with the things).
I will be rooting for Muckle on the night, not just because they've invited me, but because they're really good at making "green" in a smallish service sector business - I've certainly pinched a couple of ideas off them. Service director Julie Parr features amongst the interviewees in The Green Executive and I've used them as a case study elsewhere too.
Speaking of The Green Executive, the book proposal and two sample chapters went to the publishers last week and I've now got to get on with polishing up Chapters 3-18. I'm really pleased with how it is looking and the initial feedback is very positive.
Finally, the techies will be transferring this blog from Blogger to Wordpress as the former is stopping the particular service we use. So if it all goes a bit off kilter in the next couple of weeks, fear not, all will be fixed in due course.
Labels: green executive, terra infirma
# posted by Gareth Kane : 15:33
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Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Tuesday Training
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!
Labels: finance, green executive, training, transport
# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:00
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Monday, 15 February 2010
Beautiful Monday Morning
I'm on a fast train to Glasgow, streaking up the Northumberland coastal plain. We've just passed Holy Island, its castle and monastic remains beautifully lit across the bay by early morning sun and as I type we're rolling up to the spectacular viaduct at Berwick (whose claim to fame is being the answer to a hundred pub quiz questions). I'm off to interview Martin Blake of Royal Mail for the Green Executive - I'm now coming close to the number of interviews I need, so I'm having to choose carefully to cover all the main sectors and sizes of business.The book is really coming together and I'm aiming to get a proposal to the publishers by the end of the month. The rationale behind it is that 'green' has now risen from an operational/managerial issue to a core corporate strategy. This angle requires a whole new skill set for corporate leaders and business owners. For example, the current section I'm working on is about complementing innovative new green products by killing off old non-green products - even if they are popular. Decisions like that have to made at the top and may go against traditional thinking. But if you are going to do 'green' you've got to do it properly.
Well I've crossed the border and the train has swung away from the sea, so I'd better get back to my edits.
Labels: green executive, sustainability strategy
# posted by Gareth Kane : 08:25
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Sunday, 3 January 2010
Happy New Year!
Looking back, 2009 was a brilliant year for Terra Infirma. We worked with some great new clients like the NHS, Aker Solutions Ltd, Middlesbrough Council and Innovation Scout, while continuing working with long term clients like the EU and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme. We had our rebranding exercise to polish up our image and installed a new phone system. And our turnover kept growing, despite the ongoing recession (we also spent more on the business than ever before).Personally, my big story was the birth of Jimmy, my second son. Coming a close second was the publication of book #1, The Three Secrets of Green Business and getting about half of #2, The Green Executive, written as well. I also launched the Green Gurus website and added profiles of 10 environmental pioneers. Hint: this could just possibly become book #3 - you read it here first.
Looking forward to 2010, we're starting with the book launch at Newcastle Business School on 28 Jan (e-mail us for details or to book a seat), and, to be confirmed, one in London soon after. As mentioned, I hope to have The Green Executive finished by June. Or July. Hopefully. Which means a publication date of Spring 2011. We are also planning to have some quality new content on the website in the Spring of this year. And of course, the Low Carbon Agenda will continue to provide unique insights, news and tips for free throughout the year - this month we'll be looking at peak oil before going on to low carbon strategy development and leadership.
The wider sustainability picture will almost certainly move on rapidly through 2010. OK, Copenhagen was a flop - or a 'Klimafarce' as the Danish press dubbed it - but it did show that the world was serious about taking on this issue - and at a Premier level, not just lip service from environmental ministries. Proactive businesses will continue to move ahead of the pack, green spending will continue to rise (as it has through the recession) and laggards will fall further behind as they lose business to greener rivals. The big questions that remain are whether the economy will be rebuilt as green as everyone claims it will be, whether green technologies will go mainstream (solar PV, electric vehicles, smart grids et al) and, here in the UK, whether the result of the general election will have any effect on this.
So what are your green goals for 2010? You could sign your organisation up to the 10:10 campaign, you could set up a staff committee, you could appoint a director level staff member to lead on green. You could set an ambitious target, develop your strategy or develop a new green product. Whatever it is, if you need some assistance, you know where to find us!
Labels: green executive, green gurus, news, terra infirma, three secrets of green business
# posted by Gareth Kane : 21:05
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Monday, 7 December 2009
Feedback from the LCBPE, 3rd Dec
I had a brilliant but exhausting day at the Low Carbon Best Practice Exchange last Thursday. A late train led to a missed connection wiping out my planned acclimatisation/caffeine hit period before I was straight into the my first workshop, Empowering Your Staff. As with the second session it was over-subscribed and I was relieved not to keep everyone waiting.During the session, I used Arnstein's ladder of participation to lead the attendees away from beating staff over the head to making them part of the solution - by getting them involved in developing solutions and delegating power as low as possible in the organisation. What always hits me about this session when I run it is the fear of getting staff involved - a lot of excuses were made why this just wasn't possible. "Empowerment" has become a bit of a cliché, but few people are really doing it. Getting client teams involved in developing solutions is the basic technique at the core of much of our consultancy work now as a. it gives better solutions and b. buy-in is automatic. We know it works.
There's always something new for me at these events and when I shared Northern Food's colour coding of machinery technique, one attendee from a food company pointed out how this could solved language barrier for her - her company has 32 different native languages on the factory floor. I hadn't considered that as a barrier to engagement before.
The second session was on long term environmental strategy. I got the participants to analyse their organisation using the sustainability maturity model. All agreed that they would have to move to the full integration level to address sustainability properly. We then discussed the difference between forecasting and backcasting in developing strategies and I got them to describe a vision of their business in 2020 to get them into the backcasting way of thinking.
As well as the two sessions, four people had requested individual meetings with me (two because they couldn't get on the first session). I also interviewed Nick Coad, Environmental Director of National Express, for The Green Executive - a really interesting guy, describing himself as "a failed elephant tracker" - and caught up with the two clients I had invited to the event who appeared to have really got lots of value it. My last meeting at 3pm was cancelled, so I finally got a wander around the stalls and then got out for some fresh air before getting the train home.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - these events are brilliant. Learning, sharing and networking are maximised and, while there were some powerpoint driven seminars in side rooms, I got through the whole day without hearing the words "I'll just get the technology sorted, and then...".
Labels: environmental strategy, green executive, low carbon best practice exchange, staff engagement
# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:00
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Friday, 20 November 2009
Interface interface?
I’m back on the train again, this time to Halifax to interview Nigel Stansfield of Interface for The Green Executive. Interface is definitely one of the greenest companies on the planet – and it is the biggest producer of modular carpet in the world. The company's Chairman Ray Anderson is truly a green business pioneer and has written several books on the subject. I saw him speak a few years ago and he was inspirational. He's on my list as a future entry on Green Gurus.It's been a busy week. I signed off the final proofs of The Three Secrets of Green Business (gulp!) and had to do four press interviews yesterday as Newcastle upon Tyne was declared to be the most sustainable city in the UK by Forum for the Future - when I've got my political hat on, I'm second in command of all things sustainable for the Council. A good day with some excellent press coverage. On top of that I'm scoping out new business opportunities for one client, developing another project around rural sustainability and working on The Green Executive. The new baby is invading my favoured 6am slot for this - normally the house is silent, but now I have to, sometimes literally, muck in with the little'un.
It's all great fun!
Labels: green executive, interface, terra infirma
# posted by Gareth Kane : 10:52
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Understand Your Business Case
As I'm working through the interviews for The Green Executive, it is becoming clear that companies who lead on sustainability have a really deep understanding of the business case as it applies to them. If you look at many Green Business Support Organisations' literature, it tends to start and finish with the message "save energy, cut waste, save money". This is true, but very short sighted.Most service sector organisations will not save an appreciable amount of cash compared with their turnover or profit margin. The benefit for these companies is in branding and winning new business. Cash savings are a distraction to these companies as they are miniscule compared to business benefits. Manufacturing industries and other resource intensive businesses can save significant sums of money and contribute directly to increased profits. But if they see this as the sole driver, they too will miss out on the wider PR and marketing opportunities. A recent edition of The Low Carbon Agenda dealt with how this type of narrow minded thinking can adversely affect budgeting decisions and some ideas on how to overcome it.
The other aspect of understanding the business case relates to how far you can move from your core business and still bring your customer base with you. Marks & Spencer tried selling worm bins, but realised no-one comes to to M&S for a wormery. They do sell recycled polyester umbrellas - as a green consumer that's what I expect to find in their stores.
So, if you're going to go down this road, take some time to really think through what the business case is for you - both internally and for your customers. It will be time well spent.
Labels: business case, green executive
# posted by Gareth Kane : 09:31
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Monday, 7 September 2009
There's more to it than money...
Last Friday I was editing the nine interviews I have carried out with CSR/environment executives for book#2, The Green Executive. Reading through all nine in quick succession, it struck me how few of them were driven primarily by cost savings. While cost is a factor, the majority say that an overriding factor is company image. Building a trustworthy, progressive and friendly image will enhance sales, win contracts and attract and retain good staff. All of this will improve the bottom line. But there's more than this - the interviewees talk about bringing their values to the workplace and greater personal satisfaction that they are doing something for the greater good.So we have to remember two points:
1. The financial benefits to going green are much wider and greater than cutting utility and raw material costs. This has to be understood and factored into investment decisions (the next edition of The Low Carbon Agenda will address this in more detail).
2. We should not forget the deeper, philosophical questions about who we are and why we do what we do as soon as we enter our workplaces. We should not feel, or be made to feel, guilty for doing the right thing.
Labels: costs, economics, ethics, green executive
# posted by Gareth Kane : 08:26
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Wednesday, 2 September 2009
The summer's gone...
Well it's September, it's wet and we are extraordinarily busy. As well as our existing projects and clients, we've been employed to do some very exciting new work for the Design Council and Innovation Scout. The latter is a new venture by entrepreneurs Nick Devitt and David Townson to identify unmet business opportunities to stimulate innovation and we're contributing opportunities in the Low Carbon Economy.On top of this, I've got edits to do for The Three Secrets of Green Business and I've got some exciting new interviewees for its sequel, The Green Executive. And then of course I'm still working on new entries for Green Gurus - deep ecologist Arne Naess is likely to be the next profile. The rebranding process continues and the new website is looking really good - it will makes much easier to find what you are looking for than at present.
If you've been on holiday and haven't read the last edition of The Low Carbon Agenda, then I advise you do - it's called Low Carbon Jujitsu and is about how to deal with difficult people. These are probably the most powerful techniques I've revealed on TLCA - and you get them for free!
Labels: green executive, low carbon agenda, terra infirma, three secrets of green business
# posted by Gareth Kane : 10:28
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A highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.
