May 28, 2008 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: From Eco-Efficiency to Eco-Effectiveness [1,2],Overview | No Comments »
Consensus was reached during this workshop that Eco-Efficiency is simply not enough, with regard to “proper” environmental performance. Essentially, the main agreement throughout the course of the workshops was that a move toward a new paradigm was needed; a paradigm in which Eco-effectiveness is more sought after than is Eco-efficiency.
The summary statement for this workshop could be explained as Eco-efficiency being the desire to minimize our footprint (with regard to environmental impacts) as opposed to Eco-effectiveness being the desire to stabilize our footprint.
There was much discussion on the topic of how to bridge the gap between Eco-efficiency and Eco-effectiveness; disruptive innovation was one method that was discussed as a driver for the move toward Eco-effectiveness. Also discussed was the idea of creating incentives for industry to adopt more Eco-effective activities, as opposed to only thinking Eco-efficiently. Improved purchasing decisions and volunteer programs were other suggestions in this regard.
You can view the powerpoint from the symposium HERE.
May 28, 2008 by
Brian Butler and
John Morelli | Filed under: Overview,The Goal of the Environmental Manager [1, 2, 3, 4] | No Comments »
During this workshop the hypothesis was posed that environmental sustainability is the ultimate goal of the environmental manager. There were varying opinions on this and no consensus. However there was consensus regarding the belief that the profession should have a unifying goal. What that goal is or should be was not determined during the brief discussions. Current examples of lesser “goals” included regulatory compliance, pollution prevention, and environmental risk/liability avoidance. A question was asked whether these were actually goals, or rather objectives along the way. The workshop groups briefly explored what each of these goals were actually working toward accomplishing, and considered whether or not these goals were a means to an end, or if these goals were the end. No consensus was reached on the ultimate goal of the profession.
May 28, 2008 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: In the host community [1, 4],Overview | No Comments »
The general findings at the conclusion of the symposium workshops included the idea that CSR is a necessary pre-cursor to Corporate Citizenship. There was a consensus of opinon that sustainability creates a moral and ethical imperative in relation to the host community. Also discussed was the notion that in addition to the needs of future generations, there must be a concern for other group’s/company’s/individual’s needs in the present. Also, knowing the community and understanding how the community feels about your company is vital component to idea of Corporate Citizenship. Environmental managers must encourage their companies to go beyond compliance to help create a better community response.
It was agreed that in building trust between the company and the community, often times the environmental manager is the face of the company in the community; in this regard, the environmental manager’s role encompasses the fostering of trust by the community in the company. Transparency is important in this regard; reporting performance helps to strengthen trust with the community.
There was a common understanding that as the global reach expands, there is no “one-size-fits-all” for a company’s social behavior; companies and their environmental manager must get to know their communities!
As is the case with most of what we do, it is essential to ensure that internal controls are established to provide continuity in relations with the community for future environmental managers. Also, there needs to be good communications with employees concerning the company’s relationship with the community
May 28, 2008 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Environmental Valuation and Accounting [1],Overview | No Comments »
Accounting and economic valuation may be separate although related issues. The tools and insights of economics can be used at an organizational level to enhance insights into what organizational options might be, but some of the tools need to be developed and explored in more detail. We would encourage the development of bridging tools that work on different levels of aggregation.
Integration of concepts and tools, such as valuation, accounting methods, performance metrics, LCA, eco-efficiency, eco-effectiveness, and the scorecard might benefit from integration of these concepts into a systemic filtering and bundling tool. This might come in the form of a technology complementary to or built into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. (ERP provides the level of oversight and control necessary to ensure that all resources are all working towards the same goal.)
Sharing corporate level environmental cost and benefit information is very difficult and is complicated by issues of trust; loss of competitive advantage; and exposure to potential liability at many levels. Addressing this challenge will require industry level standards and possibly new regulations or new forms of industry collaboration to enable information across supply chains and overall environmental performance enhancement in an industry. The environmental manager might play a role in formulating industry and corporate response to these new standards.
Accounting methods can and should create a system of incentives supporting sound environmental management decisions. Environmental managers need to understand the methods of financial analysis that enable them to make the case for both investment and cost saving measures. Having this knowledge would enable them to better inform decisions related to the reduction of environmental externalities. Unfortunately, most participants did not feel like they were in a position in their organization to truly effect the final decision. Also, many felt the leadership of the organization ultimately determined the extent to which externalities were considered and fully incorporated into the management system and ethos of the company.
EHS managers are recognized as multidisciplinary resources within their firms, interacting with many functional areas within the company. The extent to which they interact with other functional areas varies greatly by firm. Some interacted with product development, marketing, finance, accounting, etc, but others were more limited.
March 3, 2008 by
John Morelli and
Brian Butler | Filed under: From Eco-Efficiency to Eco-Effectiveness [1,2],Overview | No Comments »
Dyllick1, Thomas and Kai Hockerts2*, “Beyond the Business Case for Corporate Sustainability”. Business Strategy and the Environmnet. Vol. 11, pg 130-141 (2002)
1 University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
2 INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France
The article is intended as a contribution to the ongoing conceptual development of corporate sustainability. At the business level sustainability is often equated with eco-efficiency. However, such a reduction misses several important criteria that firms have to satisfy if they want to become truly sustainable. This article discusses how the concept of sustainable development has evolved over the past three decades and particularly how it can be applied to the business level. It then goes on to describe the three types of capital relevant within the concept of corporate sustainability: economic, natural and social capital. From this basis we shall then develop the six criteria managers aiming for corporate sustainability will have to satisfy: eco-efficiency, socio-efficiency, eco-effectiveness, socio-effectiveness, sufficiency and ecological equity. The article ends with a brief outlook towards future research.
Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
March 3, 2008 by
John Morelli ,
Brian Butler and
amathew | Filed under: From Eco-Efficiency to Eco-Effectiveness [1,2],Overview | No Comments »
Welcome to the discussion! Researchers working on this important subtopic include: Stefano Pogutz, Änna Wilson, Gregory Hilton and Lynn Daley. Below are the various postings from the research team. Some will be abstracts of and links to relevant literature. Others will be original work posted here for comments, criticisms, suggestions, questions, etc. from professional environmental managers who visit this site. If you are interested in participating on this professional research team, or learning more about it, please contact us by clicking here.
