SBN is on the air

[Greg Bell]

Welcome to the Sustainable Business Network where companies in South Eastern Wisconsin share their ideas, challenges and best practices for committing to sustainability and social responsibility.

In tough economic times is sustainability a distraction for businesses just trying to keep their enterprise going? The answer depends on your approach.

If you think of sustainability as “being green,” then the answer is yes. Everyone’s been going green lately. It’s a hot, feel-good trend. Mostly, however, it can be a lot of hype and for most businesses a distraction. Lake Superior State University put “green” and “going green” on their annual list of words submitted by people all over the world to be banned from use. Terra Choice did an analysis of claims made by manufacturers of more than 1000 consumer products and found only one product didn’t violate in some way one or more of their six sins of greenwashing. Greenwashing will kill the green movement because consumers will either become desensitized or simply not believe all the green messaging.

But if you think of sustainability as a comprehensive approach to driving out cost and driving up revenue, then of course your answer is no. It’s not a distraction; it’s an essential way of doing business. A growing number of companies in SE Wisconsin are embedding sustainable business practices in their operations to reduce energy and resource use, to watchdog their supply chain, and to manage regulatory, litigation and reputation risks. They’re also adopting sustainability in product and process development and innovation to create competitive advantage and grow their business. This approach takes sustainability way beyond a mere fad and into a megatrend for conducting business in the 21st century.

Here’s a question: Do we make the business case for sustainability or do we make the sustainable case for business? Let’s discuss!

Greg Bell

[Suzanne]

Greg, this is exciting, and that being good stewards of how we do business with our employees and supply chain and customers is critical in today's economy. Do you know of any businesses in SE Wisconsin that are willing to share what they're doing? I'd like to learn more. Suzanne

[Barbara Haig]

Treehugger had a great discussion on a similar topic last month. Brian Merchant wrote about how many magazines had a "green issue" and seemed to think that was good enough - just as perhaps some businesses think green is just a fad or label you can stick on a program.

But Mitchell's conclusion draws some interesting parallels. He says, "Environmentalism will continue to hold public interest—Americans say they’re more inclined to pay attention and fight climate now more than ever—it just needs a break from celebrity saturation and being treated like a fad. And this could be a truly beneficial period for green journalism--if people are indeed tired of 'green' celeb stories, perhaps that will open the channels for more and better in-depth environmental news."

I think the same will happen in Milwaukee. There are leaders who truly understand that green strategies must be integrated into their business or organization for the long term or they'll lose money and competitive edge. They will open the channels for more and better in-depth information and services that will help them achieve their sustainability goals - and with some guidance, the rest of the community will fall into place.

[Kris Evans]

It is so exciting to see this ongoing trend where the ideas of business and sustainability are shifting from opponents to members of a shared symbiotic relationship - success of one cannot exist without success of the other.

When looking at the ongoing "sustainability" trends, the long-term prosperity of any entity, be it a city, an individual organization, et cetera, will be very dependent on its respect for their triple bottom-line, paying close attention not only to its economic well-being, but also to the way it influences the social and ecological spheres we are all a part of. While keeping thoughts of strengthening our communities and improving our natural world in our minds for all business decisions, we can proactively prevent economic obstacles before they ever become problems.

This initiative to make Milwaukee as sustainable as it can be is very incredible, and a very important part will be for organizations as a whole to work at ethically ridding of greenwashing. We can do it! I am excited to see where we all go from here.

Kris Evans