The Green Stairway: Surviving and Flourishing in Environmental Management
April 7, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: * + The Goal of the Environmental Manager, General
Since the early I99Os, many corporate environmental managers have seen their progress grind to a halt. The search for explanations included the powerful imagery of the “Green Wall” spelled out by Robert D. Shelton in 199_5(see CES Vol. 2 No. 2). An alternative interpretation may help explain this lack of progress and the corporate environmental managers’ perpetual struggle up the Green Stairway. This model looks at environmental programs in relation to the business, rather than in a vacuum. The Green Stairway identifies six stages beginning with “Denial” and continuing on to “Sustainable Competitive Advantage.” It suggests a more dynamic way for corporate environmental managers to look at their current situation and their aspirations. It is a model that puts much more responsibility for the success and failure of corporate environmental programs on the strategic capabilities of those programs’ managers. It suggests both a greater burden, and greater opportunity for corporate environmental managers to take control of their own fates as they move forward into a period of continued pressure and uncertainty.