Breaking down the “Green Wall” (part one): Early efforts at integrating business and environment at SC Johnson

Integrating environmental management initiatives with business functions, such as manufacturing and purchasing, is now a major goal in many firms. Most environmental professionals agree that success in this pursuit is a product of their greater involvement with traditional business management areas as well as their ability to avoid the “green wall”—the separation between environmental and business functions that companies often experience.In this article, the first of a two-part series, Mark Haveman and Mark Dorfman examine how some firms deliberately break down these barriers. The case study of SC Johnson specifically illustrates how elements such as gaining senior management commitment, explicitly aligning environmental issues with key business goals, and designing consistency into the overriding management system can all lead to breaking down that integration. In the next issue, authors from SC Johnson and the Alliance for Environmental Innovation will discuss a recent project to further the efforts of business-environment integration.     

Five years of the CES Journal and strategic environmental management: Quantum leaps,one step at a time

Just as the Corporate Environmental Strategy Journal has changed greatly in recenty years, so too has the field of Strategic Environmental Management. From struggles with pollution prevention to finding the path towards sustainable development, Steven Rice reflects upon the evolution of this field by looking at the history of the CES Journal. The publication offers a lens to better analyze the past and imagine the possibilities and predictions for the future.The author sees the field for Strategic Environmental Management continuing to move beyond mere compliance strategies and towards total integration into organizations, through matured organizational learning. This includes the maturation of environmetal management systems, a focus on environmentally-related new product development and marketing, and ultimately, the acceptance of environmental strategy as a part of the whole business strategy.     

Ecological stewardship in Japanese firms

As pressure develops for foreign multinationals to follow the lead of U.S. companies by providing greater accountability on environmental performance and the development of environmental management systems; author Jacob Park brings CES readers a rare insight into the nature of Japanese environmental strategy. With examples from NEC's “green innovation” plan, Mr. Park reveals the strategic initiatives Japanese companies institute to address their own unique set of internal and external pressures.     

Environmental innovation and accountability at Collins & Aikman

Any company that has formulated an environmental vision soon learns that the real work is yet to come. While the vision can outline lofty “future” goals sometimes five and ten years away, defining the specifies which make the ideas real and workable is one of the most challenging tasks faced by any CEO of senior manager.This is particularly true in manufacturing where the realities of creating a superior product at a competetive price impact the daily environmental choices and are often at odds with manufacturing operations.Translating an environmental vision into a workplace reality balancing the “what if” with the practical “so how can we really accomplish this?” If technical development is measured without a clear sense of how it contributes to the environmental vision and overall manufacturing operations, the end result will be futile.Collin & Aikman Floorcoverings' environmental management program strives to balance the visionary and the practical, going so far to call themselves, practical visionaries, predicated on innovation.     

Communicating environmental performance to the capital markets

Traditionally, the expected economic benefits of a company's proactive environmental has had little impact on how a firm is valued—unless of course the company is fighting a negative history reflected in fines, spills, violations, and other compliance indicators-all cost centers. CES is pleased to publish the work of Linda Descano and Bradford S. Gentry who discuss the implications of their studies on the importance of communicating “upside” environmental information to investors, and the implications for how information is collected, analyzed and communicated within the firm.     

Key survival issues: Practical steps toward corporate environmental sustainability

Environmental pressures and growing societal commitment to the ideal of “sustainable development” pose profound strategic challenges for business. Recognition of the significance of sustainable development for business and eagerness to “do something” has lead to a number of responses from companies. The most effective corporate response is to build an environmentally sustainable business. The Environment Council through its work had developed an elegantly simple and proven approach to producing and implementing a strategy for doing this.This approach involves recognising that corporate strategic environmental opportunities and threats fall into three inter-related categories; Resources, Innovation, and Values. Applying the simple technique of a Strenghts, Weaknesses. Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of the business against these fields enables managers to establish the organisation's environmentally-driven key survival issues (KSIs) - environmental threats and opportunities to which the company has to develop the right response to ensure survival and prosperity. Every business has perhaps two or three key survival issues, though few seems to know what they are and even fewer are doing anything serious about them. The article gives some guidance on identifying key survival issues and how to develop a consistent corporate response.     

Crafting effective environmental strategies: A “model of learning” from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries

While creating and implementing effective environmental strategies, firms collect and process information from many interconnected “learning environmental.”These “models of learning” serve to develop environmental knowledge and cultural beliefs that guide, coordinate and synchronize actions at the corporate and subsidiary levels. In this way, best environmental practice becomes institutionalized within the organization.This article examines both the formal and informal processes that firms use to identify and transform environmental strategies into accepted organizational practices. Environmental, health and safety (EH & S) managers, in particular, should embrace the notion that systematically gathering and sharing such information across the organization can have profound implications for a firm's environmental performance. Firms that capture and disseminate the critical environmental knowledge of their members can be well positioned to attain environmental leadership roles in their industries.     

The internet as a green management tool

Like environmental management itself, the use of the Internet as a “green tool” has passed through various phases. Corporate responses to environmental pressures have varied from reactive and defensive to accomodative and even proactive. Similary, end-of-pipe solutions have started to give way to process and product-oriented environmental management. This increasing consideration of environmental issues by business has beenn reflected on the Internet in three different ways. Firstly, firms use websites as a means to communicate their environmental activities to a wider public. Some firms have done this much more extensively than others, sometimes in reaction to pressure exerted by environmentalists. Secondly, environmental organizations use the Internet to collect and exchange information, helping to facilitate the organization of world-wibe actions. In this way, firms can also learn about societal concerns and activities. Thirdly, and perhaps most conspicuosly for this purpose, the Internet has become a marketplace for consulting firms, government agencies, universities and non-governmental suggestions and the results of recent research.     

The Global Food Industry and “Creative Capitalism”: The Partners in Food Solutions Sustainable Business Model

Rising global food prices have driven 44 million additional people into extreme poverty—and malnutrition—in developing countries since June 2010. Partners in Food Solutions (PFS), a nonprofit social enterprise affiliated with General Mills, is proposed as the conduit for food industry managers, engineers, and scientists to initially advise small‐ and medium‐sized African mills and food processors—and later other developing countries—on improving supply chain management by addressing manufacturing problems, developing products, improving packaging, extending product shelf, and finding new product markets. In this article, the “creative capitalism” model of sustainability and social and environmental responsibility is applied to the food manufacturing industry's efforts supporting PFS. Furthermore, the evolution of the sustainable business model developed by PFS is thoroughly described, explained, and analyzed as a generic model of social enterprise to be “scaled up” by the global food manufacturing industry. A summary of salient points conclude the article.     

Right from the start: Product stewardship through life-cycle design

Life-cycle design (LCD), the application of life-cycle concepts to the design phase of product development, is emerging as a valuable tool for incorporating environmental impacts and trade-offs as a criterion in product/process design. Because LCD is used as an internal decision-support tool and is often customized to meet firm-specific needs, its strengts, successes and limitations remain largely undocumented. Companies practicing, or inclined to adopt LCD methods have not benefitted from methodological advancements achieved by other firms, and opportunities for cross-fertilization across firms have been limited.An examination of LCD practices at three firms—IBM, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and Armstrong World Industries, Inc.—provides insight into how these methods evolve, as well as a glimpse into the dynamics of organizational innovation in relation to corporate environmental management. Four ingredients are essential to initiating or sustaining a successful LCD program: 1) a pragmatic, flexible approach that avoids “analysis paralysis”; 2) program buy-in from multiple levels in the company; 3) supplier involvement and information exchange to support material and/or process decisions; and 4) inclusion of staff from various business functions to ensure that LCD is not merely another environmental initiative.     

Greening the electricity industry: The dynamic logic of the Green-e certification program

With the advent of retail completion in the supply of electricity to end-use customers, individuals and businesses will be given the opportunity to purchase electricity from “green power” sources. Some customers are clearly willing to pay a premium for environmentally preferable sources of electricity supply. Yet, there have been concerns that customer confusion, vague marketing claims, and “apples and oranges” comparisons will limit the potential market penetration of green power products.Environmental certification programs are increasingly seen as important tools for achieving environmental objectives and are intended to alleviate some of the concerns listed above, as well as to increased product and marketer credibility. The Green-e Renewable Electricity Branding Program is the first U.S.-based effort to certify green power products that meet certain environmental standards. The voluntary Green-e program also helps create consumer confidence in these certified products through a marketer code of conduct, disclosure provisions, and a public education campaign. This article details the development, design and results of the Green-e program to date.     

Conceptual overview and applications of international marketing positioning

The author explores differing meanings of the term and concept of “positioning” in marketing. He concludes there are two different types of “positions” - market and product - and two different territories in which the positions are being observed or measured: the market place and the consumer's mind. These distinctions are helpful in the process of planning a marketing strategy.Michael Perry then applies this “position” idea in marketing to a real case of marketing oranges in four European countries. The results demonstrate how the concepts of “market position” can be measured and used in planning marketing programmes.     

High-tech management in the chemical sector: The Montedison case

In this article Professor Ugo recounts the way the Montedison Group of companies took a hard look at its Research and Development and decided to reorganise and restructure. It was believed that only such a move would increase its presence in the high-tech sectors of industry where most of the growth potential for its products and know-how lay.The company therefore reorganised its R and D into a few “poles” of excellence, as well as creating a Corporate Research Centre with a “star” structure. The internationalisation of research and a new market intelligence structure were also developed. Three new major “programmes” or “projects” gave greater dynamism to the innovation process and areas of new business of interest to high-tech products in the company were clearly defined. Finally, the training and career paths of research staff have been given careful thought in the restructuring.     

Planning for business with China

The purpose of this article is to suggest planning approaches to the business opportunities offered by the People's Republic of China (hereafter “China”). It is directed to the company trying to determine its position with respect to China rather than to the company which has a product with impending sales prospects.     

Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art

Abstract

For the last 30 years a growing number of scholars and practitioners have been experimenting with concepts and models that facilitate our understanding of the complexities of today’s business challenges. Among these, “stakeholder theory” or “stakeholder thinking” has emerged as a new narrative to understand and remedy three interconnected business problems—the problem of understanding how value is created and traded, the problem of connecting ethics and capitalism, and the problem of helping managers think about management such that the first two problems are addressed. In this article, we review the major uses and adaptations of stakeholder theory across a broad array of disciplines such as business ethics, corporate strategy, finance, accounting, management, and marketing. We also evaluate and suggest future directions in which research on stakeholder theory can continue to provide useful insights into the practice of sustainable and ethical value creation.     

Sustainability in the Construction Business — A Case Study

Skanska is among the world's five largest construction companies, with construction-related activities and project development operations in some 60 countries. A strategic approach to environment was adopted in 1995. In 1998 a decision was made to introduce certified environmental management systems. The drivers behind these steps were pressures from the market, future legislation and public opinion.By the end of 2000, all business units of Skanska had environmental management systems certified according to ISO 14001. Newly acquired companies are required to have certified systems within two years after acquisition. While environmental management systems provide the necessary framework, more technical tools are also needed. Some examples of such tools are presented in this article.ISO 14001 is an important element in focusing the attention of the organization on environmental issues, but for leadership in environment, a number of guiding principles are also presented and discussed.Finally, corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be seen as a framework for all types of issues where a company is regarded as having certain obligations toward society at large, because of direct or indirect effects from its business operations. It is only logical that Skanska, following its work with ISO 14001 and the move toward leadership in environment, now has decided to develop a CSR platform.     

FROM BUYER TO INTEGRATOR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SUPPLY‐CHAIN MANAGER IN THE VERTICALLY DISINTEGRATING FIRM

Using case study data, we describe how a large personal computer manufacturer changed its supply‐chain management strategy after outsourcing the majority of its design and manufacturing activities to a network of focused suppliers. To cope with this new structure, the firm created highly skilled generalists, “supply‐chain integrators,” who coordinate product development, marketing, production, and logistics from product concept to delivery across firm boundaries. We particularly focus on the skill‐set that characterizes these integrators. Finally, we use the case evidence, combined with previous theory, to suggest a specific program of research into coordinating product development across disaggregated supply chains.     

Interface,Inc.: Taking the lead toward sustainability

Four years ago, CEO Ray Anderson of Interface began to confront his company's impact on the environment. The factories and suppliers of his interior furnishings company used 1.2 billion pounds of raw materials to produce $802 million in products. Of these materials, two thirds were exhaustible fuels. Anderson has set Interface on a mission—to became a sustainable enterprise. However, rather than dictating specific initiatives from the top down, his corporate strategy has been to use a seven-point program to provide guidance for each plant and business to create its own agenda. CES continues its exploration of what defines environmental leadership by exploring how Anderson has implemented this new type of corporate direction, and how Interface measures its progress towards this ambitious mission.