When I begin to discuss sustainability with people, I get a lot of blank stares and questions. I then default to the buzzword ‘green’…

“Oh, I understand what that means!”

But that easy and fast response tends to make me cringe.

I am so passionate about sustainability but qualifying it with the concept of green, triggers images of hippies chained to trees. What I am talking about is an all encompassing term that defines responsibility; responsibility to our environment, our local communities and the world. I don’t want to deemphasize the importance of sustainability with such a simple word but I also know that an easy understanding of the concept is the only way we will grow the importance of sustainability…and, I will admit, in the world of SEO, green is a major keyword.

So what does green mean?

As a marketing mind, I consult Wikipedia for societal and trending definitions, and I found exactly the cliché explanation I was looking for:

“Recent political groups have taken on the color as symbol of environmental protection and social justice, and consider themselves part of the Green movement, some naming themselves Green parties. This has led to similar campaigns in advertising, as companies have sold green, or environmentally friendly, products.”

Another cringe-worthy moment as I read about the Green movement and green products in one paragraph. One speaks to capitalism and a greater economy; the other, to that “green” cleaning product you just bought that is “better for you and the environment”.  Green tends to be overused and misused, usually highlighting only a small piece of sustainability; I want to broaden people’s view with a much wider range of topics, the important ones.

In an article by Bahar Gidwani, he identified the rainbow of sustainability, the numerous “colors” that define this growing market. He surveyed a few thousand users from his site, CSRHub, and assigned a color to the different focuses of each group.

Green: environment focused; this group ranked environmental issues as their highest concern.

Blue: community and employee focused; this group pushed up the importance of community and employee engagement, and de-emphasized environment and governance.

Red: governance focused; this group wanted companies to be ethical, have a balanced and diverse board, and to be transparent about their behavior.

Grey: “all things being equal”; this large group of people declared all topics of sustainability to be more or less equal.

White: follow a leader; these members did not have a strong opinion, or they were more interested to know how “everyone else” feels about various issues.

Perfect; we now have a wider spectrum of colors to help us break down sustainability but what will really help professionals define this growing industry?

Robert Pojasek, via GreenBiz.com, defined sustainability as follows:

“Sustainability is about behaving in a way that can be continued or sustained. To operate sustainably, an organization must act in a way that is consistent with and supports the well-being of the physical environment and all of the biological communities and economies of the locations where they operate.”

He didn’t mention ‘green’ once and defined sustainability in a way that people can understand, well most people; Pojasek’s definition may elicit a few blank stares as it is strongly intellectual.

I want to move away from the simplicity of green but still use common words that give a smart, but understandable definition.  Then I came across and article by Tim Mohin titled “Less is More Obvious: Why Sustainability Is So Hard To Define.” Mohin put it as simply as this,

“It is an expectation that you treat people and our planet with respect.”

Amazingly well put. Society lives off this planet, we will affect it but we can control the repercussions by respecting the world around us.

What do you think? Is ‘green’ too strong and important of a buzzword to leave out or can we start to explain sustainability by using words such as respect and responsibility?

At this contentious time in American politics, it seems like just about everything is becoming a political issue.  Sustainability, sadly, hasn’t been spared the wrath of heated political rhetoric.

The ongoing debate about issues like federal subsidies, climate change mitigation, and natural gas fracking might make corporate sustainability look like a politically divisive thing.  But that’s simply not the case.  Corporate sustainability is as mainstream as it gets, so you’d better commit your company to a greener future if you want to remain competitive in the years to come.

The rift between Americans and businesses on green

Only about half of Americans even believe in man-made climate change, but according to an Accenture study, 93% of global CEOs say that sustainability is important to their company’s future success.  What does this tell us?  It says that corporate sustainability isn’t about looking good to consumers; it’s about remaining viable in today’s ever-changing marketplace.

“It’s about economics, not politics.”

Sustainability isn’t a political stand; it’s a commitment to being economically successful in years to come.  Protecting the environment is good business, and companies are starting to realize that.  As natural resources become harder to come by, only the companies that use them efficiently and effectively will be able to succeed.  Rising oil prices, increasing water scarcity, and sharp population growth will make environmental sustainability and economic sustainability impossible to separate.

Don’t wait for regulation. Act now, it’s in your best interest

As laws trend toward better environmental stewardship, some companies may choose to wait.  They want to know exactly what the law will require before they start working to become more responsible.  This is not the best plan.  The business case for sustainability already exists, and green is as much a competition as it is an imperative.

Your company doesn’t need to worry about which laws exactly are going to win out, you should start running the sustainability race now.  We know the general direction, and even though the exact destination isn’t clear, it’s in your best interest to start moving in a sustainable direction.  You can course correct later, but you’ll definitely be better off than those who are still sitting at the starting line.

So what are you waiting for?

Left vs. Right is wrong

At BusinessEarth, our team represents views across the political spectrum.  We may not agree on everything, but we all agree that sustainability is a vital component of any business.  We’d love to have a conversation with you about the business opportunities that better environmental stewardship presents.

Tweet at us (@BusinessEarth) or leave a comment below, and we can talk about the business case for sustainability.

Image used under Creative Commons from crazygeorge.

One of our goals at BusinessEarth is to prove that socially and environmentally responsible business is possible and profitable. When we find a company that embodies these principles, we highlight their achievements and challenges so you can apply their lessons to your business. BusinessEarth invested in HireBetter in early 2011, and with it has shown how a unique company structure allows them to deliver more value to their clients while enriching their employees’ lives.

From the very beginning, HireBetter was a unique company.  Jonathan Davis, the company’s founder, set out to create an organization that focused only on things that added value.  By eschewing many “normal” business ideas and honing down on what truly matters, HireBetter has been delivering top-notch service to its clients while enriching the lives of its stakeholders since 2004.  Their business model is rewarding to their employees, good for the environment, and most importantly, highly effective.

About HireBetter

HireBetter is, at its core, a recruitment process outsourcing – or RPO firm.  HireBetter works with fast growing, middle market companies to determine how their workforce can be improved, and it helps clients promote, recruit and hire the A-players that they need (and rave about) to grow to the “next level.”

“Always add value. Always.”

When they started, Jonathan took a holistic look at what the business would and wouldn’t need to be successful.  He knew that HireBetter’s workforce needed to be dependable, flexible, and creative.  He also realized that in order to serve it’s clients needs across the U.S. and at all hours of the day, HireBetter would benefit from a team that was geographically dispersed across the country.

Jonathan also noticed a few things that HireBetter didn’t need.  Many companies would, without even considering the alternatives, build their business around a centralized office with conventional hours.  But HireBetter concluded that their clients didn’t really get any value out of that.  The Internet made it possible for most of the work to be done from just about anywhere.  So instead using an outdated, expensive, and inefficient model, he structured the company so that telecommuters could do the majority of the day-to-day client service.

The work at home mom phenomenon

In order to staff this unique company, HireBetter needed a different kind of workforce.  They found that “work at home moms” (WAHMs) had just the right make-up and skillset that HireBetter desired.  Moms are naturally creative, organized, and dependable, which is just what the young company needed.  And HireBetter’s virtual model was perfect for moms who may need to work unconventional hours to continue to be “on-call” for their families.

The WAHM phenomenon has allowed thousands of women who would have otherwise been left out of the workforce to enjoy real, meaningful employment while still being available for their families.  HireBetter’s expertise is based on making sure that top talent is used in the most productive way, and WAHMs possess a wealth of talent that is too amazing to let idle away.

No success at work is worth failure at home*

In order to make a great working environment for WAHMs, HireBetter places work-life balance as a top priority.  Family always comes before work, period.  HireBetter has figured out that placing family first actually results in outstanding service for its clients.  In fact, because HireBetter’s employees know that they have the company’s support, they are happier, more creative, and more productive…and clients rave about its service.  A company that truly cares creates value for its employees, its clients, and itself.

Telecommuting is lean, green, and it works!

By employing a workforce centered on telecommuting, HireBetter saves time, money, and the environment.  Employees spend the thousands of hours that would have otherwise been wasted in traffic, serving clients and their families.  Traditional commuting is also expensive and, often, very harmful to the environment.  By not needing an office big enough to house all of their employees, HireBetter also saves money (and carbon) in facilities costs; savings which it passes along to clients.

Though HireBetter’s management team meets in person and will travel to work with clients, most of the employees work exclusively out of their homes.  In order to keep everyone in touch, the team has group phone calls, shares pictures and stories via a team intranet, and stays in close contact with each other by instant messaging every day.  Many of HireBetter’s employees have never even met in person, but the collaborative nature of the company and the work has created a very tight-knit group.

How values add value

Today, with BusinessEarth’s Founder, Kurt Wilkin, serving as its Managing Partner, HireBetter enables work at home moms to use their unique professional skills and situations, while their clients get to reap the benefits.  The company’s low-overhead, highly flexible model allows them to deliver top-notch service to every client in a cost-effective way.  While minimizing wasted resources and maximizing work-life balance, they have and continue to help companies around the country hire better.

If you’re interested in getting a better talent management strategy, or you just want to learn more about the company, contact HireBetter.

*This is the mantra of Maxwell, Locke, & Ritter, an Austin-based accounting firm.

We’ve talked about how CSR helps companies before on the BE blog, especially with regard to Gen-Y employees.  Responsible companies are much better at recruiting, engaging, and retaining employees than ones without a sustainable focus.

I got to interview Aman Singh of In Good Company about this very idea for HireBetter’s blog.  (HireBetter is one of BusinessEarth’s portfolio companies.)  In our interview, she laid out how good corporate citizenship helps firms recruit and engage top talent more than ever.

Here’s an excerpt from our talk:

“Today, HR professionals might believe that the market is tipped on their side with much more supply than demand. However, this will eventually shift. And that is when employers will realize the efficacy of having sustainability as a priority. From a candidate’s perspective, a sustainable company is comparable to a long and lucrative career path today. This opportunity to mesh professional and personal development is significantly key for candidates and will act as major distinguishers for companies’ ability to attract top talent.

Edelman’s 2010 Good Purpose study revealed that 87% of consumers believe that business needs to equate at least equal weight on society’s interests as on business interests. This centrally places the onus on HR professionals to communicate their company’s strategic and sustainable mission to candidates and employees. Because we are getting to a place where we are beginning to make the same informed decisions as professionals as we have for the longest time as consumers. Decide with your dollars is now translating into deciding with your skills and professional choices.”

To see our full interview and my blog post, head over to “What Goes Around, Comes Around: How Corporate Social Responsibility Helps Your Recruiting.”

Lots of people may ask, “Why should a company implement a corporate social responsibility program?”  But what they really mean is, “Why should my company buy into CSR?”  And it’s a valid question, especially for a small enterprise.  Why should a small company devote the time and resources it takes to become more socially responsible?

Small companies have MORE incentive to be responsible

Small and medium-sized businesses, arguably, have more reasons to act responsibly than others.  Good companies have better access to capital.  Especially in today’s volatile financial climate, being able to get cheap capital is vital to small enterprises if they hope to survive.

Responsible companies are more innovative

Responsible companies are more adaptive and innovative.  Social responsibility requires a firm-wide focus that helps innovators recognize opportunities throughout the organization.  Since small companies are better poised to make big changes quickly, they are better positioned to take advantage of these opportunities.

Recruit and engage your workforce

The best and brightest workers flock to responsible companies.  Especially when you look at younger employees, corporate responsibility is just the kind of differentiator small businesses need to stand out to top performers.  And current employees who feel like their jobs are doing good in the world around them are significantly more engaged at work.   Small companies don’t have room for disengaged employees, so a responsible focus will help them accomplish more with their current workforce.

CSR works for large and small companies alike

Corporate responsibility has already caught on with big businesses.  But it’s time for smaller one to receive CSR’s benefits, too.  If your small company already practices CSR, please tell us about it.  And if it doesn’t, now is the best time to start!

Imaged used under Creative Commons from lumaxart.

For many customers, green has lost a lot of its luster.  Yes, consumers care about the environment.  Yes, they reward good corporate citizens and punish bad ones.  And yes, sustainable companies often outperform the general market.  But mainstream America still has yet to embrace green practices as the norm.  How do we revive mass-market sustainability now that the “green party” is over?  How do we take green from niche to normal?

How to create behavior change:

Enter Gamification.  As explained in the video below, “gamification is the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems.”  In simpler terms, gamification takes the same reward systems that make games fun and applies them to real life actions.

Games are designed to push the little buttons in our brains that signal rewards for certain behaviors (which is also why they’re so addictive).  If you can align your green product or service with that primitive desire, you’ll reap profits while we all receive environmental benefits.

So what does gamification have to do with sustainability?

Game mechanics can take an idea that is sometimes associated with guilt: green, and turn it into a competitive and engaging social activity.  What if “green living” turned from a culturally divisive lifestyle choice into a friendly competition?

How would this look in practice?

For this illustration, let’s use a public transportation company.  It could be a bus system, a subway; it doesn’t matter.  What if this PT system successfully designed an online game where users competed against their peers to earn rewards by utilizing public transportation rather than driving places?   Users would earn points by swiping their metro card, and by doing so, would achieve a higher status in their online world.  They’d compete on things such as pounds of carbon saved, or gasoline saved, or something of the sort.  Furthermore, they would be able to see the points and status of closely ranked friends, and the service would tell them how to “beat” the person directly above them, encouraging deeper engagement.

Of course there are environmental flaws in a system like this, but you get the point.  Soon enough, riding the bus isn’t about saving a couple of bucks on gas, it’s about beating your friends and becoming the winner…for now.

Now, come up with your own ideas!

Our example is enough to get the point across, but you all probably have much better ideas.  How would you use gamification strategies to drive your customers (or your employees) to green action?  And for a deeper explanation of gamification and its opportunities, check out the video below.    It might just make for the most interesting hour of your day.

Image used under Creative Commons from harrisonweber.

In business, all roads lead to the customer.  Whether you’re selling fabric softener, alarm clocks, or electric vehicles, this is true.  Last week, GreenBiz ran an article describing three ways that plug-in EVs (electric vehicles) could make it in the mass market.  Reading it made me realize that all three of their recommendations could be boiled down to overarching challenges green (and even non-green) products face.  And below them all remains the point that can’t be said enough: Always focus on the customer, not the product.

How the mass market will adopt green

Leslie Guevarra (whose work I’ve commented on before…I’m a fan) laid out three ideas for electric vehicles.  I’ll explain each of her ideas, and then show how they each correspond with a lesson that all green products should take to heart.

Idea 1:  “Fitting in” – Here she explains how EVs shouldn’t look like space ships or weird little buggies like many of them do, they should look like cars.  EVs need to “fit in” with customer expectations, she argues.

Lesson 1:  Exceed expectations – All products need to at least meet the expectations that customers already have!  If there isn’t a good reason to go out of your way to differentiate, then don’t.  Take a desk chair, for instance.  Customers want a chair that is comfortable and sturdy.  Greener computers and desk chairs work and look just the same as or better than the conventional ones.  The “fit in” with what customers expect of any chair or computer.

Idea 2:  “Tackling Range Anxiety and Charging Challenges” – EVs need to find a way to alleviate consumers’ worries that they’ll end up stranded when the juice runs out, she says.

Lesson 2:  Always perform – Green products need to perform as well or better than their non-green counterparts in order to achieve mass adoption.  EVs are almost to the point where they’ll be able to say that (that is, perform the way the mass market demands), but until they do, they’ll remain a fringe good.  To be truly competitive, green cleaners have to clean better, green clothes have to feel better, and green food will have to taste and nourish better than conventional products already in the market.

Idea 3:  “Investing in Innovation and Sustainability” – Electric vehicle makers need to keep improving their products to keep their customers satisfied and interested.

Lesson 3:  Keep it fresh – Customers have short attention spans.  Americans, especially, are always looking out for the “next big thing.”  So always be ready to meet your customers’ next need.  This doesn’t mean you should create planned obsolescence.  It means that you should continue to innovate and make your products even better and more exciting…or else others will make them obsolete!

Green = value

Green products have to play by the same market rules as non-green ones do.  The test is, will they be able to deliver?  My money says that green products will be the only ones that can make it in the near future.  What do you think?

Very rarely does one get the chance to talk about these two cultural opposites in the same sentence.  But in different ways, they both know one fundamental truth.   Green doesn’t sell. 

What’s in it for the customer?

Would you rather buy the “green” refrigerator or the one that saves you hundreds of dollars in energy bills?  Well, luckily, they’re probably the same thing.  It all boils down branding.

Then how do green products make it? 

The same way all products do!  They provide superior value to customers (and make sure that they know it).  Green provides some psychological value in and of itself, but that’s not the main reason green products sell.  To be viable, green products must perform as well or better than their non-green counterparts.  The fortunate thing is, they usually do!

Traditional green marketing made the mistake of letting “green” be the main selling point.  The focus was on the credentials, not the user.  Like all other marketing, the focus has to be on the customer.  Every product must start and end with the customer in mind.

NPR reported on a branding failure

Last week, NPR ran a story about wastewater-to-drinking water conversion and the resistance that water companies were facing.  Even though converted wastewater is actually chemically purer than river or aquifer water, the public still pushed back because psychological aversion to water that was, in their mind, still associated with sewage.  The former wastewater was the “greener,” cleaner, more logical choice, but nobody wanted to think about where it came from.  The water company needed to sell the water on the premise that it’s the pure choice, not the green choice.

How NASCAR got it right

Leslie Guevarra made waves last week with her article about NASCAR’s sustainability efforts.  Though it may take a lot to get past the seemingly contradictory marriage of NASCAR and sustainability, the article shows an organization that gets it, at least from a branding point of view.  Stock cars on the circuit now use a cleaner burning ethanol fuel, which is, by most accounts, greener.  It also resulted in a horsepower increase in the cars.  Which point do you think NASCAR talked about the most?

Green doesn’t sell, but you should still make green products 

Slapping “eco” or “green” on a product doesn’t cut it, but letting sustainable principals guide the way you make, market, and sell does.  Nobody cares about green lip service, but the value that true sustainability adds to customers is undeniable.  So, you’d probably do well to take a sustainability tip from NASCAR, as crazy as that sounds, and sell the benefit, not the green.

In the push to become a better, more eco-responsible small or medium sized business, sometimes the best you can do is start small.  Just because you can’t do something revolutionary like replace your materials with flowers and soy, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make a green difference somewhere.  Environmentalism strengthens company culture and saves money too, so if you haven’t yet, start taking small steps toward sustainability and then see where it leads you.

An inexpensive way to drive green thinking

Encouraging employees to reduce waste and recycle is a good and easy entry point to a green culture shift.  But putting recycling bins out isn’t enough (everyone does that!).  Dartmouth College traded its regular trash bins for tiny ones with large recycling boxes and saw great cuts in their waste.  They also required staff members to empty their own trash (but the recycling was taken care of for them) and it ended up gamifying the way they thought about trash!  Making recycling the easier option made it simple for them to do the right thing.

Connecting actions to impact

You may think that a small action like that has little effect on the environment, but small activities really add up.  And the most important thing is that it gets your employees to think about what their actions really mean.  True corporate sustainability requires a culture shift, and that doesn’t happen all at once.

Take that first step

All of the focus on large-scale corporate environmental action (like switching to renewable power sources or cleaning up your supply chain) can make the road to sustainability seem too difficult for some smaller companies.  Or maybe environmental challenges can seem too daunting for one business to make a difference.  Though large-scale environmentalism is a great thing, and indeed is necessary, don’t hesitate to start small green initiatives before you’re ready to “take the plunge.”

As the old saying goes, “Just because you can’t do everything, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something.”

Why is Austin, the “Social Startup Capital of the World”, lagging behind New York and others who have created citywide social networks encouraging and driving green action and conversation?  It’s time for Austin’s techies and green entrepreneurs to earn their stripes by developing Austin’s own green network.

New York’s sustainability social network gets buzz

Reading about NYC’s new green social network, Change By Us, NYC, last week made me feel an interesting mixture of emotions.  First, I was excited that such a thing had been launched.  Then, I started feeling jealous and a little confused.  I thought to myself, “how come New York, a bastion of traditional media, gets to have this and Austin, the high-tech and green mecca that it is, does not?”

First mover is already building a green social community

New York’s move to create the network does make some sense.  Lately the city has been moving in a more social media-focused direction, and some rank it as the greenest city in the US.  Change By Us NYC is fun, engaging, and already enabling good work around the city.  Gamification strategies and motivations are at play that make the network successful and it looks like they intend to move it to different cities in the future.

But it’s time for Austin to become the successful second mover

Rather than dwell on the fact that NYC did it first or sit and wait for it to expand to our city, I want to challenge my city’s techies to learn about what Change By Us has done and do it better.  Austin has the technical skills and investment capital to launch its own social network and use a second mover advantage to make ours even more engaging and successful than theirs.  If Austin’s tech community made a green social network, I’d bet that it would be the best one out there.  Let’s prove that we are the new Valley and help out the world why we’re at it.

Competing for sustainability benefits everyone

Why shouldn’t we just wait for Change By Us to come down to other cities, since it does look so good?  Because that’s not how the market works.   Sustainability can benefit from the same market forces that gave us computers, vaccines, and every other major invention.  The difference is, in most capitalistic endeavors, the few at the top reap almost all of the rewards, but in sustainability, everybody wins!  Green can be the next big competitive space, and as for me, I want Austin, Texas to be on the cutting edge.

Have a green technological idea?  Am I simply not aware of the green networks that are out there?  Please share in the comments section or send me an email if you’d like to talk more about it!