Guest Column: Building a sustainable business with sustainability leadership
We are in the midst of a sustainability shift. Nearly everyone cares about the future of this planet and also about the people on it. But not everyone is willing to analyze and even enhance a positive “bottom line” regarding the sustainability practices of business.
The triple bottom line (“people, planet, profit”) describes a range of values and criteria for measuring business and societal success. If you are committed to delivering triple bottom line results for your business and our community, there is advantage in understanding sustainability leadership. Sustainability leadership is the capacity to co-create a future in which people, organizations, and ecosystems all continually thrive.
In the current climate of economic upheaval and environmental decline, the time is right for strong and wise leaders to step forward and transform their businesses into sustainable businesses.
We see a number of examples here in Columbia, and we can be proud to have a number of sustainability leaders in our community.
The City of Columbia has launched a methane-powered electrical generation plant at the Columbia landfill. The methane is produced from garbage. The Columbia Fire Department is building two fire stations set to be certified by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The renovated and expanded City Hall will also be LEED certified. The mayor, city council, city manager and staff all contribute to this growth in sustainable behaviors.
Teresa Maledy, president of Commerce Bank’s Central Missouri Region, said, “Commerce is committed to improving sustainability. With the purchase of the old Boone National Savings on Broadway, we chose extensive renovation over demolishing and rebuilding the facility, recognizing that in older structures there is a great deal of embodied energy already invested and worth preserving. For all renovations, here and throughout the company, we strive to have a comprehensive waste management program which helps keep the bulk of the demolition debris out of the landfills. In addition, the project uses Planet Reuse to recycle and repurpose building materials that would otherwise end up in landfills, saving us time and money in the construction process.”
At Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance, communications director Jennifer Peck lists sustainability activities in both the MeM buildings and operations. Their four buildings (in Columbia, Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis) each include compact fluorescent bulbs, auto-off lights (motion sensing), and skylights in the atrium area, allowing us to turn off overhead lights and use natural light only and a raised floor HVAC system – all to save energy.
MeM operations improvements, linked to sustainability, take advantage of computer technology for electronic delivery of policies, online insurance applications and online claims – an option used by 70 percent of MeM clients. Ms. Peck also said, “We use online meeting technology and videoconferencing capabilities to conduct meetings between our offices to eliminate travel, when appropriate. And recycle, recycle, recycle – we have bins throughout the building to recycle paper, and plastic in the kitchen/break areas.”
Jerry Taylor, the CEO of MFA Oil said, “Certainly MFA Oil is a leader in renewable fuels, both biodiesel and ethanol, which are made from crops grown here in the Midwest. Right now, our number one project is to put technology in place that will give MFA the ability to deliver the same amount of fuel with 20 percent fewer driving miles to deliver it. We also have begun the process of buying 20 propane-powered trucks per year to reduce our CO2 emissions. We are the 7th largest propane retailer in the country, so we come up with programs to help our customers save energy.”
Alicia Robinson, a public affairs specialist for State Farm’s Columbia Operations Center, said the company has embraced the State Farm Nationwide green initiative.
“The entire State Farm enterprise has made the decision to reduce expenses by reducing environmental impact,” she said. “One strategy to reduce CO2 emissions is ride-share. Another sustainability strategy is the installation of aerators on the wash room sinks. This resulted in water use reduction from 2.5 gallons per minute to 1.5 gallons per minute. Future State Farm plans include the installation of touch-less faucets that use only a half gallon per minute. In 2008, by using e-mail billing, State Farm mailed 46 million fewer payment plan notices. This saved 20,000 trees or 2 million pounds of paper. The leadership on these initiatives came from the corporate level.”
Kohl’s formal green initiative began in mid-2006 with the formation of a small task force to uncover existing and potential programs that promote environmental stewardship. The Green Scene program grew out of this effort in early 2007. In October 2008, Kohl’s launched www.kohlsgreenscene.com to provide more information on our key environmental initiatives and accomplishments, said Kristen Cunningham, the company’s public relations director.
“The Columbia location is one of 220 Kohl’s stores nationwide that have earned EPA’s Energy Star label for superior energy efficiency and performance,” she said. “On average, Energy Star-labeled buildings, such as this one, use 35 percent less energy than typical similar buildings and generate approximately one-third less carbon dioxide. Like the rest of Kohl’s Energy Star-labeled stores, the Columbia location has centralized energy management control systems, occupancy sensor lighting for stockrooms, break rooms and offices and high-efficiency heating and cooling systems. This store, like all Kohl’s stores, has a dedicated recycling program.”
Kraft Foods on Route B in Columbia has made marked progress in three key areas. Spokeswoman Adrienne Dimopoulos said, “So far this year the Columbia plant has recycled over nine million pounds of materials in 19 categories from paper to pallets. The quality of the wastewater has improved 100 percent from 2005 to 2008. During this time, Kraft reduced the energy per pound of product by 5 percent.”
At the University of Missouri, Bruce Walker, dean of the Robert J. Trulaske Sr. College of Business said, “Sustainability is built into nearly all the courses taught in the business school.”
These sustainability leaders will enlist others, through example and education, so that positive responses to current circumstances take root and thrive, and influence the future toward sustainability. The need for sustainability leadership is enormous. It is the responsibility of leaders who see the clear benefits of the triple bottom line to share this knowledge with others. This level of sponsorship of sustainability within our workplaces and communities will position companies to take sustainability to a strategic level.
Strong leaders have an embodied ability to respond confidently, appropriately, and with directional clarity to all of the unexpected surprises that they’re subject to every day. They have the ability to build coalitions of support across diverse stakeholder interests, personality conflicts and resistance. They have the creativity, innovation, persistence and flexibility to successfully bring a new, more sustainable way of life into being.
The world needs women and men to become the most powerfully inventive and influential leaders in history. The prior view of leaders guiding firms to “win” has been supplanted by leaders shaping a society where success is the common trait.