In a recent white paper, KPMG explored “ten sustainability megaforces” in the natural and human ecosystems that increasingly impact long term opportunities and the cost of doing business.  The study, Expect the unexpected: Building business value in a changing world, reinforces the resource pressures, regulatory evolution, and increasing volatility challenges for the coming decades.  Most strikingly, KPMG’s research concludes that the external environmental costs of 11 key industry sectors increased 50% from $566 to $846 billion in the eight year period from 2002 to 2010.  This represents a doubling of these costs every 14 years.

The ten megaforces described by KPMG are: climate change, energy and fuel, material resource scarcity, water scarcity, population growth, wealth, urbanization, food security, ecosystem decline, and deforestation.  Applying best practices in sustainable theory is a strategy that addresses short term goals for enhancing profitability, engagement, and brand equity.  It also is a best practice philosophy that directly contemplates and anticipates the megaforces identified by KPMG, and allows its adherents to identify opportunities and reduce risk in an increasingly volatile and complex world.

The draft plan can be reviewed at www.cityofnapa.org/cleangreennapa

Thousands of sustainability practitioners and executives leading organizations into sustainable models across the US are challenged by keeping up with the latest best practices and cases, innovative strategies and governance. That’s why, we here at Sustainametrics are excited to announce two new online courses for sustainable innovation-one for business and one for higher education. These two courses, are the most comprehensive set of sessions on this topic that are available online nationally.

I am one of the co-developers/faculty members who worked with the University of Vermont and University Alliance, a leading consortium of Universities developing online master’s level curriculum across a wide range of topics. The technical and production partner is BISK Education, the nation’s largest online course developer for professionals. Together, there are three master’s certificate courses, totaling approximately 180 sessions of 15-minute video sessions, with assessments. It’s on-demand executive education, mirroring the delivery of an increasingly large amount of college-level content to make it accessible and affordable to busy professionals who cannot attend classrooms in person.

The classes cover a full range of innovative strategies and practices for businesses and higher ed institutions related to carbon/GHG reduction and management, energy, water, waste, land use, curriculum development, research, governance, funding, community outreach and engagement.  It launches in May nationally. You can sign up now at http://www.universityofvermontonline.com/

Each of the three courses in these video-based programs – presented by noted professors and environmental experts – builds on the last. Each of the courses gives you expertise and credentials that can position you to lead sustainability initiatives within virtually any discipline or organization.

Each of the certificate programs consist of three eight-week certificate courses –

1) Principles & Strategies for Sustainability

Includes: Trends, business case, goal setting and planning, stakeholder and employee engagement, metrics and tracking/reporting progress, outreach and communications

2) Sustainable Operations

Includes: Climate Change science and its impact on your operating environment and organization, renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste and recycling, water use and conservation, green buildings, health and safety, community impacts

3) Sustainability Best Practices & Advanced Techniques

Includes: Carbon accounting, sustainable product design, life cycle analysis, biomimicry, transportation and logistics, supply chain management, sustainable agriculture and food systems, social justice and labor relations, lobbying and public policy

The primary benefits of the courses include learning how to:

• Reduce costs by lowering energy and water use, minimizing waste and diverting from landfill, green purchasing, transportation programs reducing total vehicles miles travelled and emissions.
• Boost productivity by riding major sustainability waves, emerging technologies and market movements
• Improve brand equity by authentic efforts to responsibly use natural resources, being a good community citizen, and marketing effective green products/services with high value.
• Establish and maintain your organization’s reputation for environmental advocacy
• For businesses, empower employees and management who have both the consciousness and habits to execute on the key initiatives.
• For schools, increase enrollment potential by appealing to eco-savvy prospective students and attract/retain key faculty/staff who seek to align their core values with their employer and cultivate new generations of environmentally conscious citizens by engaging students in sustainable campus initiatives

For more information about the online courses, go to http://www.universityofvermontonline.com/

This rich content is also available in shorter, customized offerings by Sustainametrics in the form of planning and strategy retreats, briefings, and workshops. Contact me at chris.yalonis@sustainametrics.com, 415-309-0331 to discuss.

We have learned that schools that tie together multiple areas of sustainability into a comprehensive, holistic plan or roadmap tend to be more successful — at getting buy-in, funding initiatives, and achieving results.  They also tend to enjoy more of the full benefits of “going green.”

What are these benefits?

-  Stronger recruitment and retention

-  Enhanced reputational value

-  Leveraged academics to solve important societal issues

-  Enhanced curriculum providing students with required knowledge/skills for future jobs

-  Operating cost savings

-  Healthier work environment that attracts/retains faculty and staff

-  Stronger, win-win school-community relationships

It’s easy to see why there is interest in sustainability, even with all the other priorities and challenges higher education is facing.  It can also be daunting, because sustainability is complex and rapidly evolving.  It helps to have organizations like AASHE and Sustainametrics to connect the dots and provide support.  

AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) is an organization that “provides administrators, faculty, staff and students…with: thought leadership and essential knowledge resources; outstanding opportunities for professional development; and a unique framework for demonstrating the value and competitive edge created by sustainability initiatives.”  AASHE’s framework is called STARS, for Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System.

Columbia College Chicago leveraged Sustainametrics’ expertise and AASHE guidance to develop their first Sustainability Roadmap.  Our engagement began with facilitating visioning sessions and conducting an assessment of sustainable practices and opportunities for the College using STARS as a guide.  The STARS-based assessment led to forming eight Green Teams around the areas of greenhouse gas, energy/buildings and water, academics, transportation, waste/recycling, procurement, information technology, and communications/engagement. Sustainametrics worked with and across each team through goal setting sessions. The resulting goals provided the basis for implementable action plans with corresponding metrics, many of which are in the published Sustainability Roadmap.

For more on Sustainametrics work on that project, click here.

At the AASHE conference last fall, we drank from the fire hose of three days of packed content, and found several major trends emerging, such as:

-  Innovative financing for a wide variety energy conservation measures, because these projects have financial returns that far exceed traditional investments.

-  Student funded and run Green Revolving Loan Funds that often take on creative visible sustainability projects.

-  The use of workshops, retreats and case studies to raise sustainability literacy among faculty so those interested can incorporate sustainable principles into their curriculum and learning outcomes.

-  The development of cross disciplinary co-majors, and cross team teaching that brings an interdisciplinary, systems approach to sustainability challenges and solutions.

-  “Town-gown” collaborations that view the school and it’s surrounding community as a system, and in fact, an eco-system.

-  Increasing number of schools measuring, making commitments, and reporting on their Greenhouse Gas emissions, often as part of the ACUPCC

Each of these could be a separate topic; but for now, I’ll end with kudos to the many, many colleges and universities that are leading the way to a more sustainable and truly prosperous future.

Take carbon foot-printing for instance. Reducing carbon is all about energy per unit of production; nationally the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And since the industrial revolution, economic power has been inseparable from energy. The world’s most dynamic economy, China, has pledged “to reduce its CO2 output per unit of GDP by up to 45% through 2020 compared with 2005 levels”(1). In 2009, the U.S. was 27th among OECD(2) in its energy efficiency per unit of GDP(3). As a country, the U.S. economy must become more efficient to be competitive. This is just as true for companies, communities, and educational institutions. Energy efficiency and renewable energy also provide an important hedge against energy market volatility. And given the progress of regional greenhouse gas regulation regimes and the Durban Platform along with the increasingly obvious economic and societal costs of petroleum, it’s clear that efficiency and renewable energy are in our future.

The same is true for material efficiency. Globalization has fundamentally changed and tightened the worldwide market for commodities. This rising competition has increased pricing pressure and volatility. This trend is fueled by annual growth rates in countries like China, India, and Brazil that routinely exceed 7% and it is only expected to continue as world population expands towards 9 Billion.

And customers and employees care. Ever year they care more deeply about environmental issues; even through this global recession. That ties green credibility directly to brand equity, employee satisfaction, productivity and profitability. Sustainability is a core strategy to reach more and more loyal customers and inspire innovative, productive employees. The collaborative tools, transparency, and objectives fundamental to sustainable business are recognized best practices. Taken together, this means that Sustainability has become a business imperative.

One example of market forces driving both change and opportunities is in green chemistry. Increasingly green chemistry is as important as energy and branding. People have shown a clear interest in removing toxins from products that touch their children, themselves, and their environment. The green cleaning industry is leading the wave with the worldwide compounded growth rate in household green cleaning products predicted to be about 25% through 2017(4). The demand for green cleaning services is also growing as public interest and certification standards like the USGBC’s “LEED” continue to gain momentum. The desire to avoid toxic chemicals is expanding into green building, fabrics, landscaping, and other products that we routinely come into contact with.

As companies attempt to leverage this increasing public awareness, and organizations such as the Sustainability Consortium bring transparent and consistent information regarding the impact of products and services to the marketplace, sustainable practices will continue to expand into all elements of our economy. Increasingly, the sustainability of a business, community or educational institution will define its access to capital and insurance, and define competitive advantage now and in the future.

(1) China announces targets on carbon emission cuts

(2) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

(3) GDP per unit of energy use

(4) Global Industry Analysts, Inc., “Household Green Cleaning Products: A Global Strategic Business Report”, September 2011

The development of a sustainability management plan engages the entire campus community to create, embrace and execute green practices and policies.

September 8, 2010: Columbia College Chicago has embarked on the development of a sustainability management plan that engages the entire campus community to create, embrace and execute green practices and policies. The intention of the plan will be to save money, lower environmental impact, attract students and faculty with sustainability consciousness, and increase the reputation for environmental and social responsibility of the college.

The college has hired the sustainability consulting team of Sustainametrics and TerraLocke to help engage the stakeholder community as the first phase in the development of the plan. The consultants will work closely with Columbia’s Sustainability Task Force, a working group which was established in May of 2009.  Comprised of students, faculty and staff which represent the various departments of the college, this group was created to help guide the development of the sustainability plan to act as ambassadors to their respective departments, and to pilot sustainable initiatives.

The engagement is expected to take approximately seven months and will include a systems oriented, cross functional approach with the following phases:

• Assess the status of current sustainability initiatives;
• Analyze initiatives using College specific metrics;
• Recommend potential initiatives based on collaboratively defined criteria, and then
• Deliver a Sustainability roadmap document that has the support of College stakeholders.

The entire campus community of students, staff, faculty and administrators will be encouraged to contribute to this effort through small group meetings, town hall gatherings, online forums, and surveys, and by joining green task teams. The green task teams will be broken out by key areas such as GHG emissions, energy, building, waste, water, academics, food/dining, purchasing, and transportation. They will develop and prioritize initiatives and make recommendations to the Sustainability Task Force and the Administration.

For more information on the sustainability plan development and to get involved, Columbia staff and students can contact Joe Leamanczyk, Project Manager, Office of Campus Environment, Ph: 312.369.7119, jleamanczyk@colum.edu Updates on Columbia Green efforts and programs are found at http://www.colum.edu/Administrative_offices/Recycling/

Columbia continues its green journey

Alicia Berg, Columbia’s VP of Campus Environment, highlights that, “the development of a more formal sustainability plan is a natural progression to the college’s commitment to sustainable practices and policies.”

Columbia’s President, Dr. Warrick Carter, along with over 600 college presidents, has signed the American College and University President Climate Commitment. The commitment letter states that:

We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions, and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality. Campuses that address the climate challenge by reducing global warming emissions and by integrating sustainability into their curriculum will better serve their students and meet their social mandate to help create a thriving, ethical and civil society.

We further believe that colleges and universities that exert leadership in addressing climate change will stabilize and reduce their long-term energy costs, attract excellent students and faculty, attract new sources of funding, and increase the support of alumni and local communities.

The school is also a member of AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The project and resulting plan will conform to best practices and reporting formats recommended by the Association.

Consulting team brings expertise in helping schools go green

John Mascarenhas, the consulting team project director, said “Sustainametrics and TerraLocke are excited to be working with Columbia on such a strategic engagement. This effort will have a long term positive impact on the community, as well as help to educate influential media and arts leaders who will graduate and take with them a consciousness of environmental and social responsibility in whatever careers they embrace.

The consulting team of sustainability professionals from the Chicago area and California, brings its collective experience to this project, including greenhouse gas inventory and data analysis, information technology, sustainability training and curriculum development, stakeholder engagement and collaboration systems, social networks for enterprise feedback and communications, waste/water/energy audits and retrofits, recycling and waste management, LEED and Green certifications. The local team members have deep connections with Chicago’s sustainability community, including the Chicago Climate Action Plan mitigation and adaptation activities, Chicago’s local food movement including the State of Illinois’ Local Food, Farms& Jobs Report, the Chicago Center for Green Technology, Chicago’s Green Business Alliance, the Chicago Waste-to-Profit Network, and the Chicago Retrofit Program.

The project focuses on profitable strategies and best practices for small to mid-range rural economic development organizations to improve efficiencies, impacts and profits.

San Rafael, CA, March 26, 2010: The California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) has engaged the consulting firm Sustainametrics to create a sustainable business model for economic development corporations in rural California communities. Funded with a grant by the US Department of Agriculture-Rural Development (USDA), the study will include research from interviews and group sessions with leading EDC’s across California, online surveys across a wide cross section of economic development entities, and research on best practices and sustainable models nationally that are appropriate for California. The primary goal of the research is to identify the critical issues with respect to rural EDC’s needs, best practices for economic sustainability, exemplary operating models, revenue enhancement, and partnering as well as shared service opportunities. This project will be completed by June 30, 2010 with a published report and presentations to CALED, its members, the California Office of the USDA and other economic development groups.

“There are well known challenges to California EDC’s, including infrastructure needs, broadband availability, capital access, regulations and permit process, and workforce development,” says Chris Yalonis, Sustainametrics Partner on the consulting team. “But, we do know of highly effective EDC’s around the state who are self-supporting, thriving and able to inform us on best practices and support needed to make an even larger group more successful. We are pleased to be working with CALED and leveraging their leadership to identify different models around the state that are successful, and identify performance metrics and reporting mechanisms, like online dashboards, that can be used by EDC’s and their stakeholders to track their efforts and successes.”

Wayne Schell, President and CEO of CALED, also noted, “With the experience and enthusiasm of the Sustainametrics team and the knowledge network of CALED, our members, and partners, we believe this will be a great partnership resulting in a viable sustainability plan for Rural EDCs.”

(download announcement in Adobe PDF)

Focus on profitable green strategies for small to mid range businesses and local government groups to improve efficiencies and profits.

San Rafael, CA, February 10, 2010: Sustainametrics announces the launch of a suite of advisory services and tools to help small to medium sized businesses and government entities grow revenues and reduce costs by greening their operations and products and services. The founding team comprises a comprehensive set of sustainability business expertise with over 150 years of collective experience in business and public sector operations, energy, water and material efficiency, environmental engineering, green certifications, renewable energy, green product design and marketing, stakeholder communications and engagement. Offices are located in Northern and Southern California and the Chicago area.

Designed to serve a growing market need for sustainable best practices that have quick payoff.

The SMB (small/medium business) segment in the US, comprised of over 12 million entities, is estimated to be responsible for as much as 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions and generated waste through direct or indirect energy use, transportation, manufacturing, supply chains, and product use and disposal. While many large businesses and cities are adopting green practices and even creating new sustainability director titles, many smaller-mid range organizations have neither the expertise nor the resources to make the full systems transformation required to get the promised economic and environmental benefits they seek. The Sustainametrics team focuses on this underserved segment. It also has the capacity to serve larger clients? needs and act as the internal sustainability team.

Sustainametrics uses a comprehensive approach to assess the client organizations? current path and goals, set up a profitable pathway to green operations and products, and provide the technical skills and strategies needed to execute. This is typically not available from neither capacity constrained sole practitioner green consultants nor large management consultancies and engineering firms that typically lack the needed suite of technical sustainability skills and business operational experience.. Sustainametrics offers a unique combination of:

1) comprehensive, systems approach to the entity;

2) formal, state of the art sustainability tools and training, and

3) a focus on profit and business value enhancement.

Through Sustainametrics customized approaches, guides, knowledge bases as well as licensable software, a large number of organizations will be able to affordably plan and execute initiatives to reduce their environmental impact, maximize efficiencies, green their products and services, and improve their brand/corporate value and profitability while improving their financial bottom line. .

Businesses are adopting sustainability as a profit enhancing strategy.

According to a recent study of several hundred organizations by Bob Willard, sustainability expert and author of the best selling book, The Sustainability Advantage, businesses that adopt sustainable practices achieve on average, between 20-35% annual improvements in profitability.

According to a 2009 Economist Intelligence Unit study of US executives, 40% of businesses have developed new products or services in the last two years that help to reduce or prevent environmental problems — and the demand for such goods and services is likely to rise as other firms and consumers seek to improve their energy efficiency. Even if some of this is just marketing — and eight out of ten (79%) respondents agree that too many firms use climate change as merely a marketing tool — a serious effort is under way in many industries to develop wholly new products, from electric cars and energy-efficient microprocessors to new home loans. Nearly one in three (30%) executives say such development will be a high priority in the coming years.

Drivers of adoption

Sustainable practices are becoming increasingly essential in this competitive and litigious business environment. Sustainametrics identifies the primary business drivers for adopting sustainability including:

Cost Savings-Energy efficiency: Many facilities can realize 20-30% improvements in energy use with little or no capital investment. Energy efficiency and leveraging government incentives where possible provides exceptional return on investment and market advantages. Energy audits and carbon foot printing can identify the easy to implement savings that can be derived by such actions as lighting conversion to CFLs or LEDs, weatherization, HVAC analysis & retrofits, Energy Star equipment purchases, less packaging, greener information technologies, business travel reduction using virtual meeting technology, and solar and wind based electricity generation.

Cost savings-Waste Reduction: The application of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle considerations drive reductions in material, transportation, manufacturing, and disposal costs. We focus on applying Lean concepts to identify and reduce waste throughout the enterprise.

Risk avoidance: Compliance with statutory regulations is the first step to avoiding penalties, negative press and keeping executives out of jail. Anticipating and developing strategies for impending regulations is a proven way to avoid costs and gain advantage over competition.

Revenue Enhancement: A growing customer preference for sustainable products and services represents opportunities for innovation and market share growth.

Product and Service differentiation: Design for sustainability methods allow companies to realize cost savings and differentiate products and services to satisfy customer expectations for minimizing environmental impact.

Supply chain optimization: Collaborating with suppliers on green initiatives helps mitigate the overall regulatory risk, increase control on supply chains, generate cost reduction opportunities, and enhance responsiveness to market changes

Transport costs optimization: Substantial benefits are derived from optimizing transportation logistics, including energy use during tendering and dispatching loads.

Materials risk mitigation: Reductions of energy and raw material consumption bring costs down and assure a higher resiliency to energy and raw material price volatility.

Team

The core team consists of a well integrated group which brings over 150 years of collective experience in sustainability operations, operations, environmental engineering and science, LEED and green certifications, energy management, lean manufacturing, marketing, green product design and development.

Sustainametrics Team

Top from left: Mike Harrison, Kristin York; Bottom from left: John Mascarenhas, Chris Yalonis, Mike Olson, Doug Carter

For additional information on Sustainametrics, contact Chris Yalonis at 415-453-9030 or go to www.sustainametrics.com.

Sustainametrics provides consulting expertise, web based tools and knowledge bases to businesses and government agencies to help them achieve high sustainability performance. Services include research/planning and assessments, energy/climate program planning, water/carbon/waste reduction, green certifications, eco-market opportunity analysis and strategies for revenue growth, and sustainability training. www.sustainametrics.com