These slides are from a workshop I facilitated for the Sasin Center for Sustainability Management (a Net Impact affiliated organization) at Chulalongkorn University.
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Working
Alberstons/SuperValu
Led Zero Waste Programs designed to divert at least 90% of waste from landfill
Project Manager leading multi-year, multi-firm, & international projects
Writing
Columnist/Contributor: Salt Magazine, Harvard Business Review, CSR Asia, Sustainable
Brands
Publisher/Editor: The Wicked Problems Collaborative
Learning
Olin Business School; Washington University in St. Louis: Executive MBA
Harvard University: Masters in Environmental Management (ALM)
Serving
FRSA and RSA Connector for Thailand
President – St. Louis PMI (Project Management Institute)
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Supply Chain & Retail Recycling Programs
Cardboard, Plastics, Metals, Wood (Pallets), Styrofoam
Special Projects
Carts, Check processing machines, etc.
Food Diversion
Donations, Waste to Animal Feed, Waste to Energy
Internal Zero Waste Certification Program
Cost Saving Mandate
Results:
Reduced costs, increased revenues, and saved jobs (and programs from being cancelled)
during an economic downturn.
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1) The “What”
The Changing Paradigm
RSA Bangkok Stammtisch/George the Poet
on Climate Change
Inverting the Waste Pyramid
2) The “Why”
Avoiding Complexity/A Note of Caution
The SDGs
3) The “How”
Story: Ugly Fruits
4) Case Studies
Guidelines
Story: Compete on Execution
Case #1 – Philanthropic Fiasco
Story: Bio Bean
Case #2 – Coconut Castoffs
Making it Work (Hard & Soft System
Design)
Case #3 – New Horizons or Holistic Hotels
Balanced Approach
Case #4 – Floundering Fishermen
Maintaining Momentum
Case Study Review
5) A Journey Without End
6) Wrap-Up
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Herman Daly’s Model:
1. For renewable resources: The rate of harvest should not exceed the rate of
regeneration (sustainable yield) Ex: Fish, trees, water
2. For pollution: The rates of waste generation from projects should not exceed the
assimilative capacity of the environment (sustainable waste disposal) Ex: Sewage,
CO2
3. For nonrenewable resources: The depletion of the nonrenewable resources should
require comparable development of renewable substitutes for that resource. Ex:
Developing solar/wind to replace coal/oil use
Potential business approaches:
CSR Leader/Department
Integrate Sustainability
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Old: Big world, Few people, Plentiful
resources
New: Small world, Many people,
Fewer resources
Take Make Waste
Take
Make
Replace
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Listed Thai companies are encouraged to draft CSR reports
Governments tend to start with “Encouraged” before going to “Required”
A growing number of customers demand it
Avoiding Complexity – A Business Transformation Opportunity
Staying ahead can provide competitive advantages and helps avoid the need to react to
regulatory changes
It’s about staying ahead of regulations, and the competition
Waiting to react can lead to the Rube Goldberg Effect
Done properly, it can improve business performance
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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Treat the case studies as initial committee meetings designed to seek options.
Please use the ideation process that’s requested with each case.
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions!
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Format: Group Brainstorming
Work together to seek opportunities that might be worth further investigation.
Questions to consider if you get stuck
What communities do you serve and what are their most pressing needs?
Do any of their needs align with your company’s products, services, or competencies?
Review the SDGs for potential opportunities.
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Format: Note and Vote (We can skip the voting part)
Work together to seek opportunities that might be worth further investigation.
Questions to consider:
What communities do you serve and what are their most pressing needs?
Do any of their needs align with your company’s products, services, or competencies?
Review the inverted waste hierarchy.
Review the SDGs for potential opportunities.
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Format: Brain Writing
Work together to seek opportunities that might be worth further investigation.
Questions to consider:
Who might you put in charge of this work? Will it be a specific department’s
responsibility, or could it be integrated throughout the firm? Should they limit their
activities to the problem/opportunity at hand, or should they
If physical systems (the “hard” stuff) are needed, how might those be designed?
How might you get the company culture to accept and support these changes? (How will
you get the changes to stick?)
Can the firm handle the work that’s needed, or do you need to find partners?
Given the circumstances, what criteria might be important for evaluating partners beyond the
ability to provide the desired service?
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Good “Hard” systems make it possible for the system to work
Good “Soft” systems make it happen
Good “Hard” systems on their own will often not be used
Good “Soft” systems might work on their own, but they’ll be dependent on
individuals to keep it going
Note: Having people committed to make the system work is crucial. Brining them
to the table when the system is designed/tested can help a great deal.
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Format: Split Session
Work together to seek opportunities that might be worth further investigation.
Questions to consider:
What are likely the firm’s capabilities?
What are adjacent industries
What could they do to minimize the changes to their business?
What big changes could the consider?
Could they pilot something small to reduce risks?
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Were these cases helpful for helping you frame some of these issues?
Did you prefer any of the formats more or less?
What did you like/dislike?
Do you feel like you could start looking at problems like this for your firm?
Cases – Underlying Themes:
1. Philanthropic Fiasco (Internal Consistency)
2. Coconut Castoffs (Reducing Waste)
3. New Horizons & Holistic Hotels (Aligning Strategy with SDGs & Creating
Opportunities)
4. Floundering Fishermen (Adapting to Changing Circumstances)
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The SDGs: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs
Resilience Exchange: https://resilience-exchange.sphaera.world/
Sustainable Brands: http://www.sustainablebrands.com/
CSR Asia: http://www.csr-asia.com/
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD): https://www.iisd.org/
Practictioner’s Hub for Inclusive Business: http://www.inclusivebusinesshub.org/
CSRwire: http://www.csrwire.com/
Triple Pundit: http://www.triplepundit.com/
The Donella Meadows Institute: http://donellameadows.org/
Food Marketing Institute – Sustainability: http://www.fmi.org/industry-
topics/sustainability
MSI Apparel Coalition: http://msi.apparelcoalition.org/
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Internal consistency
Ensuring that the values of sustainable development permeate throughout the company usually starts at the CEO's office.
However, the best intentions are meaningless if they are lodged in the mind of one individual. Changing a company's culture and
outlook requires a contribution from everyone, working as a team.
Prepare a mission statement
Measure and report on your progress and performance
In-house waste reduction and pollution prevention teams
Materials that inform employees about economic, environmental and social trends
Lines of communication
External credibility
Customer loyalty, public credibility, and investor confidence are gained by companies that are perceived to be doing things right.
Perfection is not possible, but definable progress and effective communications are essential.
Annual sustainable development report
A commitment to honest and accessible public relations
A commitment to community development efforts
Forging external relationships
Work with innovative business associations
Tap the expertise of non-profit organizations
Contract with the best
Have fun, stay healthy, and enjoy your work in an increasingly stressful world
We’re here to talk about business transformation. You probably expected discussions of strategy, operations, finance, accounting, and others. You probably didn’t expect to discuss sustainability. Right? That save the planet stuff costs money, right? In my experience, it depends on how you do it.
How might we define it?
-We tend to think of it in terms of the environment, but that’s just the way it tends to be used. It’s really just about any behavior being able to continue.
Herman Daly – Well known American Environmental Economist
Renewable Resources: Fish stocks
Renewable Resources: Fish stocks
For pollution: Cars, coal-fired energy plants
For nonrenewable resources: Coal
Business approaches:
CSR Department – Area which focuses on these matters. Possibly a good way to get started
Integrated – The entire firm is expected to focus on this.
World population reached:YearTime to add 1 billion
1 billion 1804
2 billion1927 - 123 years
3 billion1960 - 33 years
4 billion1974 - 14 years
5 billion1987 - 13 years
6 billion1999 - 12 years
7 billion
Current: 7.3 billion
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
The top 50 listed firms already do create sustainability reports
Poverty - End poverty in all its forms everywhere[20]
Food - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture[21]
Health - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages[22]
Education - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all[23]
Women - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls[24]
Water - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all[25]
Energy - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all[26]
Economy - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all[27]
Infrastructure - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation[28]
Inequality - Reduce inequality within and among countries[29]
Habitation - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable[30]
Consumption - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns[31]
Climate - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts[32]
Marine-ecosystems - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development[33]
Ecosystems - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss[34]
Institutions - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels[35]
Sustainability - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development[36]
Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
Conceptually, I want you think of sustainable business systems in two different ways. The first one is the more obvious physical parts that will interact in the system. An example would be all of the parts necessary for a recycling program. This would include the bins for collection, the areas for staging, and the trucks which would be used to pick the material up. We could include the broader ecosystem which would include the material sorting facility, the recycling plant, and the various machines and vehicles that are involved with the full circle of the recycling loop.
This is basically the engineering problem side of things. It’s like designing an engine. If you leave out a key part, like spark plugs, or a fuel line the system won’t work from the start.
To get to a point where you have a working physical system, we have to start by designing one which we think might work. We test that model and collect data to help determine what is or isn’t working. We tweak the system and continue to test to see if the changes we make improve the system. The goal is to work to rapidly evolve the system to one that works well enough to implement in a business environment. But when we get to that point, the job isn’t done. We should continually look for opportunities to improve the system’s performance.
The other side of the system design coin is the harder bit to get at, which is getting the firm’s culture to adapt to these changes. A perfectly designed physical system tends to be useless if you can’t get the people to use it. For this, it’s important to gain a better understanding of how the business as it currently is. What difficulties exist? Could those somehow be removed or mitigated by the new system? Also,
Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
We’re here to talk about business transformation. You probably expected discussions of strategy, operations, finance, accounting, and others. You probably didn’t expect to discuss sustainability. Right? That save the planet stuff costs money, right? In my experience, it depends on how you do it.