Idle Thoughts Those of you that wit-


nessed the shambolic efforts of the England team at this summer’s World Cup will attest to the importance of good communication. For all the debate about over- paid players lacking effort, lightweight foot-


balls and the absence of goal-line technology, it was clear that something fundamental was wrong inside the England camp. Of course, there are many rea- sons why we failed (again) and we’ve spent the sum- mer (not) getting over it. But led by a coach with, at best, pigeon English, the inability to communicate properly no doubt played a part.


Communication – or stakeholder engagement – has always been key to effective business manage- ment. And sustainability demands it receives extra attention; so often I meet sustainability managers whose companies are doing some extraordinary things and yet have failed to tell anybody about them – even their colleagues. We’re all guilty of it, of course. Even publishing companies, which pride themselves on being able to deliver cutting edge communication platforms fail to get even their vari- ous departments to talk to one another. But, as we’ve reiterated time and again in these pages, sus- tainability strategies only really work if the goals you are trying to achieve have been bought into by the whole company. Part of the reason environmen- talists fail to get their message across – whether to the media, or merely to the accounts department – is that some of the data is hard to translate into real


life. So what if the company is trying to cut its CO2 emissions by 100,000 tonnes by 2015; what does that mean anyway? It’s no wonder most people remain unconcerned by climate change. But, rather helpfully, we are witnessing a trend for


This month...


Green works


SPONSORED BY


WHETHER RUNNING BUILDINGS AND VEHICLES OR MANAGING INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES, THE BUSINESS CASE FOR ADOPTING GREENER TECHNOLOGIES IS STACKING UP


CRC kick-off


You only have until 30 September to register for the CRC Energy Efficiency scheme. Get in touch with the Environment Agency now > environment-agency.gov.uk


Supplement


Don’t miss this month’s free Green works supplement, produced with Siemens, exploring why and how low-carbon technologies will power our future cars, factories and businesses


Tweets


You can now follow Sustainable Business on Twitter, where editor Tom Idle can be found irregularly moaning/tweeting about a range of environmental policy issues > twitter.com/tomidle


SB - The Event


The Sustainable Business annual exhibition and conference returns next May, but you can get all the latest info on what to expect at > sbtheevent.com and on pages 16-17


Sustainable Business | August/September 2010 | 3


We need to find creative ways of speaking to our sceptical stakeholders


simplifying environmental impacts that might offer an interesting way of getting your colleagues to buy in to what you are trying to achieve. WWF’s One Planet Living principles emerged in 2006 to show how many planets we would need to sustain our current way of living. (It’s currently three). And this has led to an emergence of ecologi- cal footprinting, which has the potential to go even further than carbon footprinting (by including things like biodiversity and land use) and offers environmental impact results in the form of the number of hectares each of us has to live within – the level of bio-capacity against how we use it. Most recently, Global Footprint Network calcu- lated the 21 August to be the day when our envi- ronmental resource budget for this year ran out, and the world is now plunging into ‘ecological debt’. Of course, none of these footprinting methods are perfect and not all make complete sense. But cre- ative communication is better than no communica- tion at all – and might just prompt your teams, man- agers, customers or investors to join in.


Don’t miss this month’s free supplement. Green Works, sponsored by Siemens, explores, among other things, the technology needed to green our buildings, offices and factories. It’s already here and ROI isn’t as frightening as you might think.


TOM IDLE EDITOR


‘Investing for Sustainability’ 27 January 2011,London In the current climate, making investments in new technology to improve the sustainability of your business – whether it be installing energy efficient industrial motors or installing LED lighting – can seem daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. Our first conference, coming in January, aims to help you realise the business case for investing for sustain- ability, with advice, tips, case studies and a chance to network with the firms that have already done it. For all the info visit the website > investingforsustainability.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44