Do director and senior management-level executives view “the green agenda” differently than their junior and young mangers?
Absolutely.
That’s according to new research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
“Lean and Green,” CMI’s new report, analyzes the results of a survey of 1,500 managers in the U.K. at a range of levels of seniority up to directors and chief executives. Here a few of the key findings:
Back in 1992, consumers in North America recycled an all-time high of 68% of used beverage cans.
Now, we’re recycling only 52%.
But, leading aluminum producer Alcoa wants to reverse that downward trend. The company plans to increase used beverage can (UBC) recycling to 75% by 2015. After all, aluminum is a “manufactured resource” that can be recycled extremely efficiently. In fact, recycled aluminum requires 95% less energy to produce.
In addition, Alcoa estimates that by raising the U.S. recycling rate to 75%, the industry can save the electricity equivalent of two average-size coal-fired power plants and avoid more than 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
A few months ago, Scot Case, the Vice President of TerraChoice, testified before a congressional subcommittee that of all the products claiming to be eco-friendly, a whopping 98% are guilty of greenwashing.
Now, BSR and Futerra Sustainability Communications have teamed up to publish a new report to help companies “rise above the noise of greenwash” and effectively communicate the true impacts of their environmental initiatives.
“Greenwash is more than a distraction for the consumer; it threatens the entire market for green products and services,” says Lucy Shea, Chief Executive of Futerra. “Even while consumer trust goes down the drain, with only 10 percent believing green claims, demand for credible, environmentally friendly products and services is rising. Greenwash exacerbates this tension. The danger is that consumers lose all faith in green advertising, in effect dragging demand down.”
The UK Government Department for International Development has published a report that reveals how the supply chains of businesses involved in timber, beef, soy, palm oil, and biofuels production all contribute –both directly and indirectly –to deforestation.
Titled “Global Forest Footprints: How businesses around the world contribute to deforestation –the risks of inaction and the opportunity for change,” this 23-page document is part of the Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) Project and represents a starting point to help businesses begin to realize: a) the impact of their supply chains on forests, and b) the impact of deforestation on future earnings.
The report is loaded with facts and figures regarding deforestation. For example:
This month’s edition of McKinsey Quarterly has a fascinating interactive report that explores a variety of strategies for increasing the energy efficiency of supply chains.
According to the study, the transportation of goods now consumes some 15 million barrels of oil each day—that’s roughly equivalent to one-fifth of total production.
Tobias Meyer, the author of the report, sums it up nicely. “Supply chains are hooked on oil,” he says. ” There’s no industry in which so few substitutes to oil are available.”
