SUSTAINABILITY
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L–r:Gabriel D’Arcy,CEO,Bord naMóna;GaryMcGann,CEO,SmurfitKappaGroup; Jim Corbett,MD,Bewley’s
known coffee producing countries. “We felt it was important that money we were spending on
purchasing offsets would actually be going into economies where it would benefit our supply chain.” In 2011, Bewley’s moved even closer to the ground and this
year’s tranche of offsets is being purchased directly froma coffee cooperative in Peru which has a new CarbonFix rated reforestation project. “Again, we’re buying coffee fromthis co- operative and paying the money for the carbon offset, so we see that as closing the loop fully in relation to Bewley’s obliga- tions to its supply chain.”
A NEW VISION Fromits foundation in the Thirties as a peat harvesting com- pany, today Bord na Móna is an integrated utility service provider of electricity, heating solutions, resource recovery, water and horticulture. Shortly after his appointment as CEO of Bord na Móna in 2008, Gabriel D’Arcy announced a new business direction for
the semi-state organisation, which would see it invest up to €1.4bn, diversifying and growing over the following five years. It was all part of a new vision for the business that it would ‘work in harmony with, and minimise the impact on, the envi- ronment’. It was named ‘A New Contract with Nature’. One of the drivers on the sustainability path has been the
company’s transformation froma peat-based operation. “When I came into the company it was a successful, proud company, with a very good loyal workforce, but it faced key challenges,” says D’Arcy. “It was essentially a peat-based com- pany and the pure laws of supply and demand were beginning to take their toll.We were running out of peat. “Rather than making disparate strategic decisions, we
asked ourselves was there an overarching context in which we could set the organisation, and put in place a pathway to where we would be positioned in five, 10, 15 years’ time.” There followed what D’Arcy describes as an “exhaustive
process” of consultation with all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders. Out of this process was born A New Contract with Nature. D’Arcy is adamant that sustainability cannot only be about
the environment. “There is no point in being environmentally sustainable if you are economically unsustainable, and there is no point in being economically sustainable if you’re socially unsustainable – something we have really learnt in Ireland in recent years. “I think we were one of the first companies to introduce the
concept of triple bottomline reporting.We report on our eco- nomic progress in our annual report, but for the last three years we have also produced a sustainability report and in this we focus in on the three areas that I’ve outlined: the people part, the planet part and the profit part.” Today Bord na Móna has ambitions to become one of the
largest renewable energy players in the British Isles. In 1990, it was the first company in Ireland to build, own and operate a commercial wind farm in Bellacorick in north-west Mayo. Sustainability too is driving the success of its €52m com-
post business, the vast majority of which is exported. “More and more of it is composted green waste materials, and we are looking at a whole other range of new technologies as well,” says D’Arcy. “Our key market is the United Kingdom, and they have a
government-backed target to get to peat-free packaged com- post by 2021. Obviously that creates a huge challenge fromour point of view but also a massive opportunity.We’re beginning to show clear commercial success as evidence that you can be sustainable in your practices and be profitable.” D’Arcy reiterates that sustainability is about opportunity,
not cost. “I think this is probably the biggest challenge for those companies that haven’t made that link. They see the whole issue of carbon management as a negative and as a cost, while in fact the successful companies are getting ahead of this curve and embracing technologies and opportunities that are built on sustainable building blocks.” Principally sponsored by the NTR Foundation, the CDP
2011 report for Ireland was prepared by KPMG. CDP in Ireland is also supported by the EPA, the Sustain-
able Energy Authority of Ireland and McCann FitzGerald. This article is reproduced courtesy of Irish Directormagazine
Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 73
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