ISIS, Henry Ford, and Sustainability

/
ISIS, Henry Ford, and Sustainability

It's estimated that between $1.5-$2M in oil revenue comes into ISIS coffers every day.  This means that somewhere a host of traders and middle men are working hard to blend that oil into your supply chain unnoticed.  When you ask, "Who's to blame for this and what do I do?" the answer is simple: Look to Henry Ford on both questions.

This is a look at the genius of Henry Ford, the sad mistakes Ford Motor would later make and how abandoning support for the market created echoes which ring out to the Islamic State today.  How do these things connect?  What do they have to do with sustainability?  Read on...

Read More

5 Steps to Communicating Sustainability to your Investors

/
5 Steps to Communicating Sustainability to your Investors

In the push and pull of long-term vs. short-term often sustainability and resilience programs are marginalized. Today we lay out steps an executive can use to talk about his long term goals in ways that comfort the short term demands of investors.  Here's a guide to the five tactical rules you should follow when you're introducing your sustainability program to your board and/or shareholders.

Read More

What's the ROI for a sustainability initiative?

/
What's the ROI for a sustainability initiative?

More data comes out all the time on companies, both large and small, that are making corporate sustainability a cornerstone of their management style. For that reason lots of management teams are beginning to look around and ask themselves, "What would it cost us to do the same? What's the learning curve? What can we expect to get back and how quickly?"  Many individual initiatives will be amenable to a quick ROI calculation but the reality is that most won't. Let's look at both kinds.

Read More

Sustainability's Mystery Metrics

/
Sustainability's Mystery Metrics

Articles have been published recently making the case that for all of it's importance to corporate strategy, sustainability isn't valued yet by corporate investors and that the disconnect comes from a lack of clear metrics to report.  While it may be true that a difference in reporting will better connect financial stakeholders to sustainability's value if you drill down you'll find that the underlying assumptions are a little silly and a lot counterproductive.  Here the case will be made that there are lots of critical business functions that add value but suffer from difficult and dis-uniform metrics.

Read More

4 things to help you separate Sustainability Pros from Amateurs

/
4 things to help you separate Sustainability Pros from Amateurs

Everyone you will ever meet has a story about a good mechanic and a bad mechanic. Not so for sustainability professionals.  The screening process is clumsy. How long should they have been in business? Is it even credible to claim that you've been in sustainability for more than a few years? Keep your mind on these four points and you should be able to hedge your bets.

Read More