2Sustain

A diverse collection of some of the world’s leading companies have joined forces to create the Sustainability Innovators Working Group, an organization that will work to define and develop new approaches to environmental management and corporate sustainability.

Esty Environmental Partners (EEP), the organizer of the group, and IBM, a participant and supporting partner, announced the launch of the group last week.

The Sustainability Innovators Working Group –which includes global corporations such as Boeing, CH2M Hill, Coca-Cola, Delhaize Group, Disney, Diversey, Dow Chemical Company, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc., Shaklee, Unilever, and Xerox — will define a new set of management systems and tools for achieving greater value from sustainability strategy.  Each company will be able to apply the best practices from this collaboration within their own organizations not only to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in their operations, but also to better identify and develop related opportunities for innovation and growth. (more…)

I’ve written plenty of blog posts that highlight the business benefits of sustainability. But today, I’m going to let someone else do the talking. I hope you’ll spend a few minutes listening to this video clip featuring Ray Anderson, the founder of Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet. Anderson is a sustainable business pioneer who, since 1994, has focused his company’s attention on creating an alternative to the traditional, linear “take –> make –> waste” industrial model.  In this short talk, recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California, he artfully outlines the business logic of sustainability, using specific examples from Interface’s groundbreaking business plan.

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