2Sustain

Today we offer another post from our distinguished co-sponsor, WSP, written by Josh Whitney:

On the heels of numerous recent conferences and wide-spread media attention on the energy impact and carbon footprint of consumer products, WSP recently hosted a breakfast seminar in Santa Clara. The workshop explored various methods and standards used to analyze products and sought to emphasize the value that product and supply chain carbon footprinting can provide to a company. Clearly the carbon market has arrived and it’s certainly here to stay. There’s money to be made, the winners and losers have yet to be identified, and for those who understand the business implications of carbon, first movers will be rewarded with clear advantages.

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I must say I was pretty inspired to see so many enthusiastic, energetic people at the Business for Social Responsibility conference a few weeks ago here in San Francisco. Getting 1000+ senior executives to carve out three days from their busy schedules to get together and share ideas on building more sustainable businesses is no small feat…and the success of the conference says a lot about where sustainability now ranks in the pantheon of public awareness, corporate priorities, and citizen consciousness.

It also speaks to a fascinating convergence we are seeing among the worlds of business, government and nonprofit advocacy. For evidence look no further than the event’s keynote speakers: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Venture Capitalist Vinod Khosla, Mattel CEO Bob Eckert, Greenpeace Executive Director Gerd Leipold and KPMG Chairman Sir Michael Rake, most notably. What’s more, the attendees were a veritable who’s who of nonprofit sector leaders, top government officials, and heads of sustainability for Fortune 500s.

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Today’s blog post comes from our distinguished partner and co-sponsor of 2sustain, WSP Environmental Strategies. The post is authored by Josh C. Whitney, one of WSP’s key consultants. We will have these partner perspectives a couple of times per month, with important updates from WSP’s vast experience in environmental consulting.

The Nobel Peace prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report yesterday summarizing over 5 years of scientific research on the impacts and future predictions of climate change.  It is not an uplifting read but important that everyone understand the scientific consensus.

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In Jason Busch’s recent posting on Spend Matters Your Supply Chain Carbon Footprint — Measuring it Ain’t Easy I think he really hits the nail on the head when he speaks to the need to "put science and process into measuring supplier practices." In my estimation, process standardization is the key to successful sustainable supply chain management.

Sustainable supply chain management is all about reporting data, monitoring compliance, and improving performance in areas ranging from toxics to emissions to packaging to logistics. But only by standardizing how we gather, analyze and report on this data can we begin to implement viable improvement programs and move up the maturity continuum.

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Below is an excerpt from a speech by Wal Mart CEO Lee Scott at a recent conference for Wal Mart suppliers. In case you missed it have a look below – very interesting comments, particularly in the context of our discussion here on the meaning of sustainability.

In my opinion Wal Mart is well on their way to achieving something that most companies have found somewhat elusive to date: not only talking the talk, but walking the walk. While it remains to be seen if Wal Mart can execute on their lofty goals around reduced energy usage, less wasteful packaging, reduced toxicity, energy efficient stores, etc, I would say they are off to an admirable start. They are even doing things like working with Act Now (Adam Werbach’s sustainability consulting firm) to educate the 1.3 million Wal Mart employees on what they can do to improve sustainability in their own lives.

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