The meaning of local

July 3, 2008 – 10:42 am
Local implies a geographic or spatial entity. In the past week I have been exposed to some very dubious local claims, so thought I would do a quick check on how local applies in the context of sustainability. Not straightforward or clear! In the context of labour, the accepted definition seems to be the widest area within which employees with fixed addresses would accept employment. For some commuters I know this would stretch local to 3/4 of the country so perhaps this should be refined -e.g. closest 80% to eliminate the exceptionally committed travellers. For travel, the only local definition I found encompassed trips to work, school, shopping, entertainment and visiting friends & family. In my case family trips could involve Scotland, Ireland and France which I don't consider to be local, so perhaps this definition is from an era when people didn't fly so far from the nest. In politics and local ...

Posted in Resources, Social | No Comments »

Ten Propositions Supporting Green Development by Jerry Yudelson

May 13, 2008 – 6:09 pm
This article in Building, reflects the vibe I got from the presentations at Think 08 regarding commercial developments.  The propositions start about half way down the article!

Posted in Economic | No Comments »

Profit

May 8, 2008 – 5:07 pm
Sustainability - management of resources to enable good performance today without compromising your ability to perform well in the future. The performance definition boils down to the triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental.  Some have bastardised this initial concept to be profit, people and planet. There is plenty being written (me included) on people and planet, but rather less on the current favourite bottom line - profit.  Clearly this is a key element of the economic aspect of sustainability and top of the priority list of many stakeholders. So, does profit inevitably suffer to satisfy the people and planet aspects? I have been hunting for hard data but alas have been found wanting (any links gratefully received!). However consider what the following list have in common (source): Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (1999) Calvert Social Index in the United States (2000) ECPI Index Family for European and global portfolios Humanix Index for global portfolios (2001) FTSE4Good ...

Posted in Economic, Profit | No Comments »

Sustainability and CSR

April 19, 2008 – 5:46 pm
A recent conversation on this subject left me confused so here is my attempt to clarify the issue. Sustainability  is about the management of resources - natural, human and financial.  In managing them sustainably you need to meet the needs of today's stakeholders without compromising you ability to satisfy future stakeholders (or even the same ones tomorrow, next month, next year etc ............). CSR is about behaving ethically and making a positive contribution to wider stakeholders, particularly the communities of your staff, suppliers  and customers as well as society at large. Clearly there is considerable overlap between the two agendas, mainly in the human aspects.  Good CSR is built into the day to day operations of businesses, not just making charitable donations.  For a concise CSR statement  address the following: Our main social impacts are _____________ Our current and target performance levels are _____________ We are going to close performance gaps by doing the following  _____________ The following ...

Posted in Social | No Comments »

Are you managing your water?

April 13, 2008 – 8:26 am
On holiday in France I noticed a neighbour watering his immaculate lawn with a very impressive sprinkler system and distinct lack of rainwater capture systems, not even a water butt. My French isn't good enough, and my attitude wasn't tough enough to ask him if he has considered the energy he is wasting due to: water supply and conveyance water treatment water distribution. By the same token, how many construction sites and even businesses pay any, let alone proper attention to their water cycle? Would this be a different story if they had to pay for the energy used in the volume they consume? In the absence of financial incentives, and assuming morality by-passes are in place for most business leaders (harsh but probably fair?), this is a difficult problem to tackle. The construction industry is probably better placed than most to understand and deal with this issue due to the increasing pressure to design ...

Posted in Resources | No Comments »

How do you deal with staff working from home?

March 26, 2008 – 5:26 pm
Tricky one in construction!  My experience to date is that most try to avoid it, but is it time to take the bull by the horns?  Research has indicated that working away from the office has more pluses than negatives for people and the companies that employ them.  The researchers even found that managers who oversaw telecommuters reported that the telecommuters' performance was not negatively affected by working from home.   BT claim that on average, home workers at BT are 20 per cent more productive and they save BT £6,000 a year each in office and other costs. The pros (in no particular order): Carbon footprint reduction - commuting accounts for a significant chunk of most construction sector 'management' carbon footprints Office space cost savings Productivity improvements when executed well Employee satisfaction increases The cons (in no particular order): Fear factor - they'll be getting up late and knocking off early etc.  Ultimately a lack of trust! Management by output ...

Posted in People | 1 Comment »

Does everyone in your company advocate what you do?

March 18, 2008 – 10:08 am
In organisations of over 1000 people, pride in their employer drops to only 38% compared to 57% for people in organisations under 100 people.  These were the findings of an Interbrand survey in April 2007 http://www.ourfishbowl.com/images/surveys/IBInside_Whocares.pdf What does this have to do with sustainability you may be thinking?  Well, how sustainable is a business where less than half the employees if asked in the pub, would recommend the products / services to a friend or acquaintance?  This attitude must show through to customers.  57% doesn't seem too clever either. Interestingly, overall the larger organisations results were worse.  My gut feel on this would be that genuine (two way!) communication is harder and therefore frequently poorer in larger organisations.  How much more successful would these organisations be, if they managed to engage just 60% of their staff to 'sell' their services by virtue of being proud of what they company does in the context of ...

Posted in People | No Comments »

Avoid the temptation to green wash

March 10, 2008 – 3:11 pm
Wikipedia defines Green-wash as a term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.  The term Green sheen has similarly been used to describe organisations which attempt to appear that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment. Making the right noises may give you short term benefits.  In the medium to long term such an approach may come back to haunt you!  People who have blagged there way through other issues normally come a cropper when competitors with a CV containing genuine evidence based actions enable customers to see through their claims.   Moving to a genuinely positive attitude towards improving the sustainability of your business means you will have to confess a recent change of attitude, perhaps leaving you at a competitive disadvantage for a while, but getting you out of a vicious circle. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware ...

Posted in Authenticity | No Comments »