Business strategies environmental sustainability program

Here are four reasons to invest in corporate sustainability: Better for the environment. Improve your bottom line. Your employees benefit from healthier and safer working conditions. Can be positioned as a competitive advantage. Reuse and Recycling Advocacy Innovation. Third Party Certifications and Rating Systems. Examples: Modify your production processes to emit less waste or emissions Use non-toxic or less-toxic substances Implement conservation techniques use less energy and water at your facility Reuse materials, such as production scrap or shop towels, rather than putting them into the waste stream Reduce packaging.

With bold actions to confront our climate crisis, achieve equity, and strengthen our democracy, their goal is to build a strong and fair city. Waste reduction is the method used to achieve zero waste.

Example Switch to a laundering service for your shop towels , mops , gloves, oil absorbents , and filter bags. Real World Example Amcor: In January , Amcor announced a commitment to develop all packaging to be recyclable or reusable by They also pledged to significantly increase their use of recycled materials and drive more recycling of packaging around the world.

Learn more about reusable absorbents. Examples Recycle industrial wastewater by treating any reusable water or other material from wastewater and transferring any potential pollutants to a solid phase sludge. Invest in renewable energy Purchase flexible fuel fleet vehicles, or low emissions vehicles Real World Examples GM : According to their sustainability report, GM has an unwavering commitment to an all-electric, zero-emissions future, regardless of any modifications to future fuel economy standards.

They are investing in multiple technologies that offer increasing levels of vehicle electrification. They have committed to using percent renewable energy by Real world example. Real world example:.

Reuse is preferred over recycling because recycling consumes more energy. Examples Educate peers about corporate sustainability Educate consumers about responsible consumption Lobby for new policies or regulations Donate to non-profit organizations that support sustainability.

Six Sigma is a set of tools and techniques to help improve processes within an organization. ITU AbsorbTech is committed to dynamic change and improvement and holds all facilities to the same high standard. Closing These examples will hopefully get your gears turning on how you can take your environmental sustainability initiative to the next level. Remember these key steps in building and improving your plan: Get buy-in from the top down Form a sustainability team and involve people from all impacted areas of your business Get your plan in writing Include SMART goals in your plan specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound Network with other EHS professionals Want your sustainability efforts showcased here?

June 9, Read more. March 10, February 14, January 10, Google Rating. ITU AbsorbTech. Hallman Lindsay Greenfield. We have used ITU Absorbtech at our location for years now. Skyler always does a great job. He is very professional and efficient.

Etsy is the first major online shopping destination to offset percent of carbon emissions from shipping. Etsy is a platform that enables individuals to sell their artwork and creations to the public, generating a large number of packages shipped daily. To counteract carbon emissions released into the environment by package shipments, Etsy has partnered with renewable energy company 3Degrees to fund verified carbon emission reduction projects, such as protecting forests, sponsoring wind and solar farms, and developing greener methods for auto part production.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca operates with health at the center of its work, which is why funding a project that increases Kenyans' health while aiding the environment made sense for the organization.

The biogas stoves replaced firewood and charcoal fires, which were releasing harmful CO2 into the environment and causing Kenyans who were standing over the fires cooking—namely, women and girls—to experience detrimental respiratory issues. By helping fund the installation of biogas stoves in these communities, AstraZeneca stayed true to its value of putting the health of others first. In addition, the company gathered data about the detrimental impact of CO2 on the respiratory system for future pharmaceutical work.

Are you interested in making a difference as a purpose-driven leader? Ultimately, companies will often say that nothing they are doing is against the law and so they are doing nothing wrong. The Denial Strategy omits any use of sustainability or CSR in its competitive positioning and at most would rely on its disconnected philanthropic contributions as part of their marketing strategy to suggest that the company is a good corporate citizen.

In fact, companies adopting this approach are heavily reliant for their success on practices that are particularly corrosive to social, ecological, and economic systems. More common though would be a particular positioning that very much relied on the erosion of social or ecological systems where denial of responsibility is oftentimes the only option. Ashley Madison is an organization whose fundamental premise is based on a service that a majority of society argues erodes social systems.

Payday loan retailers can be classified under this strategy as well because their positioning as a source of capital for those consumers typically unable to get credit naturally positions the firm as an exploiter of vulnerable consumers. Big banks, at least in Canada, have avoided this low end market because, although legal, they do not want to position themselves in such a way that leads to outcomes that can be perceived by many as exploitative.

The companies in this category are therefore dependent on unrelated philanthropic initiatives that aim to distract stakeholders from the impact of their core operations. If they pursued philanthropy for projects meant to counter the negative impact of their operations, they would be admitting guilt to a degree. From an internal competence perspective, what distinguishes the firm from its competitors has virtually nothing to do with sustainability.

In fact, their source of distinction represents a key erosion of social, ecological, and economic systems. Consider gun manufacturers, tobacco companies and weapons manufacturers, all of whom have developed strong competencies related to their products whether it be design innovation, the manufacturing process, or logistics.

But what is unique and difficult to imitate in these organizations are the very things that contribute to system erosion. Internal processes, reward systems, performance evaluation and employee skill and training have virtually nothing to do with sustainability.

In the second strategy, companies have moved beyond denial of responsibility and have begun to admit that they are partly responsible for the erosion of certain social, economic, and ecological systems. Unlike the previous strategy where companies feel that there is no need to adjust operations, the companies in this strategy work to lower their impact incrementally but avoid any serious reconsideration of their strategy.

The overarching objective here is to continue with business as usual but with some minor adjustments to respond to upcoming regulation or consumer pressure.

In other words, companies are starting to lose the argument that they are not responsible for system degradation and so want to show that they are responding to pressures of stakeholders, especially consumers.

One response is to engage in philanthropic activities that are more associated with the impacts of their operations. This helps them defend their operations because they can lay claim to the fact that they are at least redistributing some of the profit associated with these operations to various causes that work to stem their effects.

Tim Hortons recently did this. This is an excellent example of avoiding changes to their core operations of food and instead launching philanthropic initiatives to show that they care about these issues. Oil and gas companies have also undergone tremendous criticism for touting their commitment to reducing climate change but have invested substantial resources in lobbying against policies that would support renewable energies such as wind and solar.

Another very common response in the defensive strategy is for companies to aim for the low hanging fruit; a common expression that refers to those initiatives that represent relatively easy changes that demonstrate a business case. The most common initiatives are related to reductions in energy and fuel use in manufacturing processes or a reduction in waste through an increase in resource efficiency coupled with an increase in recycling efforts.

But the fundamental business practices have not changed. They have merely become more efficient or incrementally less impactful. Internally, core competencies remain associated with practices that are associated with system degradation. That said, some companies might develop competencies in their brand as stakeholders perceive a certain company as a leader in making incremental improvements to their impact. Other companies may develop expertise associated with resource efficiency that competitors have been unable to replicate.

Culturally, employees are likely unaware of any positioning around sustainability and more directly associate any improvements to representing an important and natural part of business improvement.

So whereas the company may be successful in creating a responsible image to broader society through philanthropic contributions, it's identity internally does not at all reflect sustainability.

Performance evaluations are tied to cost reductions efforts that just so happen to be associated with environmental system improvements for instance, but there is very little in the way of accountability towards social and ecological goals across levels of the business. This typically involves an entire department or product line being positioned according to sustainability usually because it makes business sense to do so.

Sustainability might be isolated in an organization in a variety of ways. First, it can represent an explicit function or department in the organization like a marketing, human resources, or operations department.

Second, it can cross functions and departments but represent a small isolated component of employee daily routines. Third, sustainability might be isolated to a particular set of product lines where it represents a relatively small percentage of revenue. For instance, the evolution of credit unions has isolated the original purpose of addressing gaps in finance in local communities yet represents only a small percentage of their core business operations that resemble the typical financial institution.

The important difference from the second strategy is that the company has begun to innovate in ways that have revolutionized a particular product or process resulting in a substantial reduction in social, ecological, or economic system degradation that goes well beyond incremental improvements.

Under the defense strategy, improvements are limited by an improvement ceiling because the process or product itself is oftentimes inherently unsustainable.

Clorox, the consumer packaged goods company, launched a highly popular Greenworks line that represents an isolated brand in the minds of consumers. In this example, the product category is not associated with Clorox in the minds of the consumer but nevertheless represents an important strategic endeavor by the firm because it responds to a growing demand for green cleaning products.

We can see similar types of initiatives in the social realm as well. A mining company, as another example, might take a much more comprehensive approach to community development surrounding one or two of their mines but relies predominately on donations and philanthropy on the remainder of their mines.

Or they might introduce a technology that dramatically reduces the use of water An oil and gas company might have a full-fledged renewable energy program, staffed within a legitimate department such as BP that is distinct from its core operations of oil and gas exploration and production that can still result in catastrophic environmental damage.

Finally, Toyota introduced a vehicle part that removed completely the need for a particular toxic mineral. Here in Nevada, preserving and protecting our water, air, and soil is of great importance. We also have many choices of renewable energy resources available to us.

Any business can put environmental sustainability initiatives in place but figuring out where to start and what to do first can be overwhelming.