Lately, the mythical silver bullet for our ailing economy has taken on an emerald hue. While “green jobs” have been heralded as a source of employment, the true complexities of “eco” are just starting to take shape. As you read this, the outdoor apparel and footwear industry is in the midst of a major collaboration to measure, define, and refine each stage of the design, manufacturing, and delivery process. The result –and consequential shift- promises to affect every job in the industry, including yours.

Amidst growing skepticism from green washing, and after a generation of scattered, but well-meaning attempts around the world, the Outdoor Industry Association’s Eco-Index is establishing a framework to measure and analyze concretely a product’s impact from cradle to grave. By establishing a common language, providing supporting tools, and seeding with the right questions, the Index will enrich internal dialogue and strengthen the business case for environmentally responsible decisions. A consumer-facing component is still under consideration.

Recently, I asked Jamie Bainbridge –Director of Textile Development, and Sustainability at NAU, and long-time member of the Eco Index’s advisory council- about the motivation behind the project, now in its beta phase. “Sustainability is one of the most chameleon components of business today,” Jamie told me. “What is ‘fact’ one day changes a year later. Instead of black and white answers, manufacturers have to navigate a series of trade-offs and judgments.”

As to the Index’s impact on individual job descriptions; “Rather than creating an entirely new department to tackle these questions, I think the future of sustainability lies in its integration into every existing position. For example, the shipping department will tackle the logistics piece; the people in charge of manufacturer relationships will approach opportunities in the facility. Everyone will integrate these questions into his or her responsibilities.”

The sweet smell of opportunity.

The proactive executive who embraces this change ahead of the curve will tap an enormous opportunity. If you want to be credible and marketable after this initiative comes on line, you need to take action now.

Convinced of the opportunity, but concerned that your higher-ups aren’t? According to Darcy Winslow, a major change-agent at Nike in the 90s, “It’s great if you have leaders’ buy-in, but you don’t need them to initiate change. If you want to start the conversation that will progress into positive, responsible decisions, you have to draw a direct connection with the bottom line. For example, greater efficiencies in facilities can be your first point of dollar savings: greener tech and production can save money. That’s how we started at Nike.”

Winslow – now the Director of Willamette University’s Sustainable Enterprise Certificate – says “You have to be able to see the entire system. Substituting eco-friendly materials is just the first step. It’s when you step back and look at the systems – the whole design of the product through to the supply chain- that you get into a re-design capable of incredible change.”

Some companies already require hiring candidates to have real-world education or experience in this field. Executives who want to remain competitive are actively sharpening their skill sets. That’s why you’re seeing more programs like the Sustainable Enterprise Certificate.

One final thought:
Since the Index has had so many companies contribute to its development (75 at last count), it’s very likely that it will drive the direction of the industry. In fact, many ‘outsiders’ are also participating; I wouldn’t be surprised to see the process –once completed- adopted by many different consumer product industries. One more reason to get involved early.

How should executives ‘get on board’?

1. Jamie Bainbridge: “There are number of experts in sustainability and environmental sciences, but few that mix it well with business. To get started, learn about the Eco Index. How will it relate to your current work and your professional aspirations? Find ways to incorporate it into your job, even if it is not yet an expectation.”
2. Darcy Winslow: “Earn the Sustainable Enterprise Certificate. Of the many options out there, this program’s beauty lies in its quality and brevity. We teach systems thinking, how to shift your business and engage others in collaboration through the best leverage points.”

If you’re confronting these questions in your current position, please share your thoughts and experience.

I couldn’t believe it when my husband first told me his law-school roommate went ‘grocery shopping’  in dumpsters.

The thought of wading through trash for something to eat turned my stomach, but it had me wondering: was financial desperation forcing him to explore those smelly, over-sized trash cans?  Wouldn’t eating garbage affect his amazing athleticism?

Since that first shock in 1982, I’ve realized that this student had intentionally joined a growing movement challenging the concept of food waste and provoking the question: “Who decides when food becomes garbage?”

Last fall, my writer friend Mike Russell attended a networking event at Keen Headquarters – an admirably eco-conscientious company where my son works – and saved a small tub of olive oil from the trash at the end of the night.  “It hadn’t been opened, and no one else seemed to be interested,” Mike told me.  “I piped up just before someone tossed it out, and then I had gourmet oil for a month!”

When I brought up Mike’s experience to another friend, Suzanne Pinckney, she shared how she and her partner ate gourmet food for six months without spending a dime.  “Once we found enough cheese to make our own wheel!  Those big ‘scores’  boosted our confidence and curiosity to see what else we could find.”

BrownFlynn

Leading ahead of these isolated, individual efforts are charitable organizations around the country that divert edible food from the waste stream. One sterling example operates in the nation’s capital. DC Central Kitchen began redistributing the excess food from the presidential inauguration in January, 1989 and now fights poverty and hunger by re-purposing food that would have otherwise been thrown away.  Obviously, DCCK is far more sophisticated than dumpster diving.  They’re coordinating with providers before a dumpster is ever an option.

In each case, perfectly good food was diverted from the waste stream and consumed without consequence. If the idea turns your stomach, ask yourself why there is no waste in Nature, yet millions of people go hungry every day while mountains of food are thrown away.

According to this article by Next Generation Food:
• It is estimated that food wasted by the US and Europe could feed the world three times over.
• Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels, which, along with methane and CO2 emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change.
• In the US, per capita food waste has increased by 50 percent since 1974.

Brown Flynn

How far are you willing to challenge the concept of food waste?

EmoWare

Disclaimer: Some municipalities treat dumpster diving as a crime.  Check to make sure you’re not planning anything illegal in your town.

Depending on your view, this once easy choice has become an awakening for mainstream environmentalism or just the latest effort of big business greenwashing. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition “consumption of single use and disposable plastics has spiraled out of control. They are used for seconds, hours, or days, but their remains last forever.”

In 2007, San Francisco became the first of many world cities to move toward banning plastic grocery bags.  The medium-term solution -reusable polystyrene bags- is far from a true green option for shoppers.

A worldwide, systemic issue like plastics won’t be solved by swapping materials.  Framing this as an environmental issue, without considering social or economic ramifications, will not produce an enduring solution.  Businesses won’t shift their practices without clear economic benefit.  Nor will people change their lifestyles or habits without some personal incentive.  We must offer economically viable and socially supportive alternatives for the people and industries that will be affected by the environmental stewardship we seek.

On February 17^th, I had the honor of welcoming the second cohort of Willamette University’s Sustainable Enterprise Certificate (SEC) program.  Participants are exploring the intersection of environmental responsibility, economic prosperity, and social well-being; the components of triple bottom-line business practices.  Our first session focused on the dynamics of complex systems.

Limiting our discussion of plastics to its life cycle restricts our understanding of the pervasive nature of the challenge.  Systematically mapping out the unintended consequences of single use plastic reveals the magnitude of the problem.  Near the end of the first session, Prof. Bill Harris invited the students to play ‘stump the chump’ in a live system dynamics mapping exercise.  The participants chose plastic pollution – and it was game on!

Plastic is used everywhere, so it’s the responsibility of everyone.  While no one person or organization can create the needed shift, never doubt the influence and inspiration of your personal choices.

1. Keep canvas bags made from organic materials in the car, so you’ll always have them for the grocery store.  The hot “green” giveaway item of the moment, those cheap, polystyrene bags, are anything but: they are often made in China, break well before organic cotton or hemp bags, and take longer to degrade than the thin plastic bags they replace.
2. Support the movement to ban plastic bags in your area.  Make a quick phone call or write a short note to your representatives.  If San Francisco and Mexico City can do it, why can’t your community? Let’s make Portland, OR next!
3. Take the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s pledge; help create a global community and ignite a social movement to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impacts.

So it’s now in your court  – how will you carry the answer?

Nike is considered a top example of corporate social responsibility.

Back in the late 1990’s footwear and sports apparel giant Nike was hitting a rough patch. They were dogged by furor over labor practices in overseas manufacturing facilities and worried about waste in manufacturing. They were looking for substitutes for toxic solvents used to bind shoe parts together, and a new gas to fill the famous Nike Air shoes with that wouldn’t add to climate change woes. They were seeking to eliminate wasted fuel and trips in shipping.

Now, a little more than a decade later, Nike is considered a top example of corporate social responsibility. They lead the rest of the field in setting standards for ethical labor practices at overseas manufacturing facilities. They’ve reduced their ‘carbon footprint” by 75%, by finding a non greenhouse gas to fill Nike Airbags, and have dramatically reduced waste in their footwear and apparel manufacturing by adopting “closed loop” strategy of zero waste, zero toxics, 100% recycling, 100% clean energy. They are a huge user of organic cotton and helped found the Organic Cotton Exchange to connect cotton farmers with cotton users and bring more organic cotton online. They have an entire line of products — Considered Design, which considers the future, the impacts, the waste, the energy and so on of every aspect of a product throughout its life.

What fomented such a dramatic turnaround in just a dozen years? Well, a key part of it was an initiative that Nike launched in 1999 called Team Shambhala. Nike wanted to get their entire company- 20,000 people worldwide- grounded in a way of thinking that naturally took environmental and social issues into account in every decision the company made and every action they took. My wife and then work partner Sara Schley and I were fortunate enough to be part of that effort, helping to design a yearlong learning experience for 100 key Nike executives. They idea was to take a group of key leaders, networkers, and influencers across the company and build their capacity to think systemically about ‘green’ issues, to accelerate their learning path about them and empower them to take action on real time business projects and objective. This was the Team Shambhala effort — named after the Tibetan warriors who act for the common good without recognition.

There was a reunion recently of a number of Shambhala “graduates” including our friends Greenopolis blogger Darcy Winslow, formerly VP of Women’s Footwear, Apparel and Equipment for Nike, and Sarah Severn, the catalyst behind Shambhala, currently Director of Horizons for Nike.

Nike hosted the lunch to try to capture the “magic’ of Shambhala for anew generation and a new era. As Darcy summarized the experience:

“In 2000, a small team of Sustainability leaders at Nike engaged in a yearlong employee learning and engagement initiative, aptly named Shambhala. The result of this one year intensive helped transform Nike’s approach to sustainability, created 100 internal champions who launched dozens of landmark projects that continue to deliver against our 2020 goals. These 100 champions continue to influence this work around the world and epitomize the ‘genealogy of influence’!”

Nike now has a shared environmental vision, stated in their Sustainability Report :

• We design for recycling
• Consumers bring their products back to us to be recycled into new products
• Waste that cannot be eliminated is recycled
• Product is less reliant on oil and water
• We all step lighter, faster into a future low-carbon sustainable economy
• We use healthier chemistry to minimize the impact of product ingredients through lifecycle

So the work continues, Nike continues to be leader in environmental and social responsibility, and the ongoing influence of the Shambhala participants proves that organizational learning and systems thinking are two keys to unlock a sustainable future, and transform the path of companies from pariahs to prophets/profits!

Visit http://greenopolis.com/goblog/joe-laur/team-shambhala-nike-s-journey-wasted-reputation-corporate-responsibility-icon to see the original blog post.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

First, a team of people just to keep everything straight. Thirsty participants would demand lots of water and a way to drink it quickly. Don’t forget signage and flagging so everyone stays on course. Remember all that registration paperwork ahead of time. And it would be nice to give out small ’awards’ to each participant afterward.

Multiply all that stuff by the hundreds of races held each summer and waste of marathon proportions may seem inevitable.

Fortunately, innovative and conscientious event organizers have the Council for Responsible Sport (CRS) to coach them through a comprehensive certification process for sustainable athletic events. Like a professional trainer, CRS defines realistic objectives and provides a framework for achieving them. Race organizers get guidance for reducing their events’ impact as well as a platform to promote their efforts.

“The ultimate goal is not simply to grade events on how well they’re doing, but to provide a holistic framework to measure sustainability strategies in the sports industry,” says Marisa McGilliard, Executive Director of CRS. “The greatest change will come when every member of the sports community becomes involved in a fundamental shift towards sustainability. Community partners and strong alliances are at the heart of systemic change in sports.”

Leading the way are events like the Marin County Triathlon in San Rafael, CA, which has roared out of the starting blocks with a host of innovative solutions.

Thanks to the efforts of volunteers at the garbage/recycling stations, the entire event produced just 40 pounds of landfill waste in its first year. With roughly 500 participants, that’s less than 0.08 pounds per athlete; a fraction of the average 4.4 pounds/person Americans throw away every day.

The triathlon creatively minimized the pervasive problem of single-use water bottles. Before the race, athletes were encouraged to bring their own reusable bottles. At the finish line, participants were rewarded with metal, reusable Klean Kanteens®.

All paper-based materials created for the event used recycled paper and soy-based inks. Vendors were required to follow these guidelines with their promotional materials. Online registration eliminated excess paper waste.

Excitement has rippled across the country as racing events put their competitive nature to environmental good on many levels. First, athletes and spectators see what is possible and return home inspired to examine their own lifestyle choices and then become advocates. Second, other race event organizers wanting a slice of the publicity start to improve their own practices. Finally, the certified race can power up for CRS’s ultimate standard the next year – Evergreen!

The possibilities of the Council for Responsible Sport’s mission are bounded only by the enthusiastic support of athletes and spectators. Endurance races are just the beginning; think how your favorite sporting event could become more sustainable with some vision and encouragement. However you choose to participate, just know that small choices can add up to make a huge difference. You can help change the course…and the race is on!

Ready to green your local sporting events?

Visit http://resport.org and http://dswcollective.com for more ideas.

• Help you to recycle easily
• Help to save our natural resources for our children’s children
• Track conservation through recycling and re-use
• Educate and reward conservation

Darcy recently was asked to be a Pro-Blogger on their website!  Her first blog post, “Darcy’s Trip to Antarctica,” was all about recent trip this spring along with the 10 Things You Can Do from our website.

To read the blog post, please click here.

To learn more about Greenopolis and get involved, please click here.

On October 22^nd, Darcy will be guest lecturing as part of the Fall Sloan Innovation Period, and again sharing her Sustainable Inspiration: Lessons from Antarctica presentation. During this session she will focus more deliberately on the student experience and how this expedition has shifted their studies and entrance into the business world. She will be joined by several of the MIT students who also joined the expedition.

Here’s to getting A’s (or 4.0), Darcy!

The night’s conversations focused around the SustainAbility Institute’s C-LEARN module to be used this December at the upcoming U.N. Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen.  Tyler Katzenberg, the Net Impact Chapter President at PSU, said that the goal of this event is to raise awareness of environmental issues and the upcoming Summit, as well as bring people together on the issue.

“It’s not just the U.S. signing on to the Kyoto Protocol but also about me turning down the thermostat and taking shorter showers,” said Nate Young, Vice President of PSU’s Net Impact Chapter.

DSW Collective was excited and inspired by the students who showed up to the event.  We are glad to see more people getting involved in global climate change issues and are looking forward to many more conversations with Net Impact.

To check out PSU’s Vanguard article on the event, please click here.

Involved with Net Impact anywhere?  Leave us a message letting us know!

I thought the Eco-Visionaries panel as one of the most thought-provoking sessions of the day.  Your panel members [Sheri Flies, Costco, Sarah Severn, Nike and Joyce Lavalle, Interface] all brought good reflection and preparation.  Most importantly, all 4 of you used it as a forum to present ideas and models for action.  Your point that we have a lot to do and a long way to go was a welcome and appropriate message.

Some of the other observations Ure made included:

1. Leveraging market presence for change: Organizations can leverage their market presence to affect real business practice change with suppliers, competition and customers.  This was Ure’s biggest takeaway from the whole day.  The examples discussed showed results with real impacts (Costco & product pricing, Nike & competitors + Green exchange).
2. The power of ideas & their expression in mantras:  Mission Zero, Get off oil, Closed loop products, Eliminate VOCs, Paul Hawken and Ray Anderson.
3. Valuable Wisdom: We can only be as sustainable as our suppliers and our partners (Darcy Winslow).  If you don’t hit bumps, you aren’t going hard enough or fast enough (Darcy Winslow).  Stay true to your highest intentions (Sarah Severn).  Meet people where they are (Joyce LaValle).  The person who disagrees with you is your best teacher (Sheri Flies).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Jim Ure!  Did you attend Go Green 09?  Post your thoughts below!