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10 Steps to Profitable Sustainability Innovation: An Introduction

The Opportunity
An article published a few weeks ago by Sustainable Brands reported that “UK Firms could generate $156 Billion in annual productivity gains generated by innovations designed to address environmental and social challenges,” based on a report by Accenture, Business in the Community and Marks & Spencer. Yes, $156 Billion with a “B.”  Now, that’s definitely a report that makes a business case for sustainability that’s nearly impossible to argue with.

With these findings, the obvious question is why aren’t we reading articles daily about the capital gains companies are seeing from sustainability initiatives? The simple answer, as I see it, is that innovation is frankly easier said than done. Everyone talks about the need or want to innovate, but very few actually make it to the follow through phase, and innovation that adds real value to a company’s top or bottom line can prove elusive without a roadmap and clear strategy.

Innovation
There is more literature than you could read in a lifetime on innovation. Books like The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen, Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, Open Innovation by Henry Chesbrough, The Innovative Leader by Paul Sloan, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to writing on innovation. New articles pop up daily about how to innovate, entire sections of business magazines are devoted to the it (Inc.’s Innovate Section). So much has been made of this buzzword that there are now at least twelve common “schools of innovation:”

  • Classical: Bessant @ U. of Exeter, UK; Tidd @ U. of Sussex, UK
  • Customer Centric: Von Hippel @ MIT
  • Disruptive: Christensen @ Harvard
  • Management: Hamel @ London Business School;  Semler @ Semco
  • Open: Chesbrough @ UC Berkeley
  • Outcome Driven: Ulwick @ Stratygen
  • Orbit Shifting: Narang @ Erewhon; Sharma @ NXTLYF
  • Strategic: Markides@ London Business School
  • Radical: Rice, Bentley & O’Connor @ RPI
  • Relentless: Phillips @ OVO; NetCentrics
  • Reverse: Govindarajan & Trimble @ Dartmouth
  • Value: Kim and Mauborgne @ INSEAD; Lee @ Value Innovations

At GreenBlue Advisory Services we’ve embraced the Value Innovation methodology, with the help of Dick Lee, founder, CEO and Chief Innovation Officer at Value Innovations, Inc., for our own work driving innovations in sustainability. Value-based innovation has as its central tenet: “delivering exceptional value to the most important customer in the value chain, all the time, every time.” If practiced appropriately, Value Innovation for Sustainability is not innovation for innovation’s sake, but innovation that will deliver returns to your top or bottom line. Like many business improvement methods, such as the well-known Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and Continuous Improvement, the Value Innovation process for Sustainability is an application of common sense and logic that has been organized in a clear and concise process and is incredibly straightforward. It’s broken down into ten actionable steps, each of which I’ll explain in more detail in my next few posts. But for right now, the steps are as follows:

1. Define the Project, Mission and/or Objectives
2. Define the Value Chain (or Value Web) to Identify Your Most Important Customer
3. Develop “As Is” and “Best in Class” Value Curves with Metrics
4. Perform Contextual Interviews
5. Develop the “To Be” Value Curve
6/7. Validate the “To Be” Value Curve with the Most Important Customer
8. Define the Value Proposition
9. Define How to Deliver the What
10. Confirm with the Most Important Customer that the How (the Innovation) is Compelling

Feel free to keep the conversation going; we’d love to hear your stories about innovation in business, and especially sustainability innovations. How’d it go? Were their unexpected roadblocks? Comment below or feel free to tweet at us @greenblueorg

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Top Five Fun Facts: August

Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here.

1. A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics finding showed that in 2011, the average US household spent more on pets ($502) annually than they did on alcohol ($456), landline phone bills ($381), or men and boys clothing ($404). Households comprised of only a husband and wife spent the highest amounts (just below $700).
2. Federal campaign rules allow Americans to make political candidates or committees the beneficiaries of their estates. Since Jan. 1, 2009, thirty-two people listed on federal campaign records as “deceased” have contributed more than $586,000 to congressional and presidential candidates and political parties.
3. August 12 marked the second annual World Elephant Day.  The street value of a single elephant tusk is approximately US$15,000 with the main market for illegal ivory being China. Poaching and habitat loss are two significant threats to Asian and African Elephants.

4. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Almost 6 billion hours of YouTube are watched each month.
5. Earth Overshoot Day—the approximate date our resource consumption for a given year exceeds the planet’s ability to replenish – was believed to occur on August 22, 2012.  Since 2001, Earth Overshoot Day has occurred an average of three days earlier each year. Today, August 20, is Earth Overshoot Day 2013 and we have now consumed our annual resource allotment for 2013.

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David Suzuki takes a look at the link between toxic pesticides and dying bees

Check out David Suzuki’s excellent blog piece on the dramatic decline in honeybee populations.
It ties in really nicely with two recent In the Loop blog posts, one by Katherine O’Dea on the link between our food supply and honeybees, and the other posted by me about the challenges facing the honeybees on my farm.

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Carbon Neutral Wine, Without Compromise

“What we’ve really tried to do here is produce great wine, which is something we are not willing to compromise on but do it slightly differently…” – Simon Back
The National Academy of Sciences expects climate change to shift wine producing regions over the next 40 years. While vineyards like Backsberg Estate in South Africa seek to prevent and mitigate some of these impacts, a red Bordeaux or a Napa Chardonnay may eventually be a thing of the past.
Backsberg Estate is South Africa’s first carbon neutral vineyard. As Living on Earth recently reported, Backsberg’s goal is to continue producing great wine, with a few adaptations. To reach this goal, Backsberg conducted a carbon audit on farming and winemaking activities. Some of their activities include planting trees for carbon sequestration, diversifying crops, and producing biodiesel on-site.
This climate shift could be bad news for my hometown of Charlottesville, VA. As part of the Monticello American Viticultural Area, local vineyards draw tourists and locals alike. Not only do we enjoy our Viogniers, but concerts and gatherings at local vineyards are a way of life. I wonder how our local varietals and wineries will be impacted?

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Making a Point for the Bees

There are many ways to get a point across. Many of us prefer a subtle approach that might include storytelling or dropping hints. Others like a more “in your face” approach, banging us over the head with a message in a way even the most disinterested can’t ignore. Then there is the approach of the Whole Foods market in Providence, Rhode Island. The produce department took one of the boldest approaches I’ve ever seen to illustrate the critical role bees or pollinators play in our natural, human, and business ecosystems. They emptied more than half of their produce bins, reducing product availability/choice by 52% to help consumers recognize what our produce choices without bees might look like if we don’t begin to reverse the decline in the world’s bee population. It’s a shame more businesses aren’t willing to put some profits on the line like that to drive home important sustainability messages related to their business and the risks of operating without a sustainability strategy.

More than 85% of the plant species on earth require bees and other pollinators to exist, and these plants include some of the most nutritious parts of our diet.

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30×30 Nature Challenge: The Challenge Within

On May 1, GreenBlue staff committed to participating in the David Suzuki Foundation’s 30×30 Nature Challenge to spend at least 30 minutes outside for 30 days in May. We can’t believe how the month flew by, but the unanimous reaction was that our outside time was beneficial and is likely the start of many new good habits. Here are a few of our group’s reactions to all that outside time:
Office Manager Keeby Ipsan:
When I first heard of the 30 x 30 challenge, I thought it was odd that people had to be challenged to get outside for 30 minutes every day for 30 days. How can people NOT be outside for at least 30 minutes every day? So, I thought this should be an easy challenge. The being outside part was easy. However, I found it a problem to blog (even small amounts) or post photos on a daily basis. I don’t normally carry my phone or camera while I’m working in the garden or walking the dogs. Mostly because I’m afraid they would be damaged in the process. But I did manage to get in enough photos to give others a glimpse into my daily outings. I have to give credit, in part, to my dogs for insisting on a daily routine walk. Such conscientious animals. The challenge did encourage the office staff to make the most of it with trips for gelato, ice cream, or frozen yogurt. Yeah! And we enjoyed taking chairs out under the trees for lunches and breaks. I think these excursions will continue, at least until it gets cold. The bigger challenge would be getting outside every day in January or February. Anyone up for snowball fights?
Project Associate Danielle Peacock:
Participating in 30×30 made me acutely aware and appreciative of the time I spend outside. While I try to make walks a part of my daily routine, the challenge pushed me to make time for myself outside every day. It was a chance to stretch my legs, garden, reflect, and brainstorm new ideas. 30×30 also gave me a chance to reflect on how my outside time positively impacts my life. Rainy days were the hardest, but gave me opportunities to take advantage of the rocking chairs on my porch. I’ve created a routine that I will continue.
Office Hound Dog Bernie the Beagle (selected daily musings, as transcribed by Senior Manager Minal Mistry):
May 4 – Mud salamander, Cold and slick, Splash in the creek.
May 14 – Western storm cloud, Grey and black, Sunbeam splits the dark.
May 22 – Two dove babies, One thrasher too, Each awaits mother’s beak.
May 26 – Azure blue sky, In cool of night, Firefly in May!
Project Associate Eric DesRoberts:
We donated our car (for safety reasons) about 6 months before the 30×30 challenge, at which point a 25 minute commute to work turned into a 2.5 hr public transit adventure through the metro DC area for my better half. We had always planned to get another vehicle, and last month that time came.
We put in a lot of time researching vehicles, dealerships, customer reviews, etc. but when it came time to check them out in person, the question became how are we going to get there? Think about all of the car dealerships in your area – could you walk to them? Would you feel safe or want to walk to them? Does it sound outrageous for someone to walk to a car dealership (as we did) looking to buy a car? It shouldn’t – you buy a car because you don’t have one (or something along those lines). At the same time, it does sound a little outrageous when you consider the patchwork of occasional crosswalks, walking signs, and sidewalks that suddenly end and leave you stranded or forced to cross 4, 6, or 8 lane intersections with traffic islands that have been replaced with turn only lanes.
The walkability of many of the communities I have recently lived in is not for the faint of heart. This is not the fault of town planners or city officials. I think that it largely reflects our preferences. We prefer an extra vehicle lane over a wider sidewalk, we prefer a parking lot grid to an overgrown field. Nature has become the stuff on the perimeter of these things – sometimes it is harder to find the nature than it is to find the time to enjoy it.
Read more about our experience with the 30×30 Nature Challenge.

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Game-changing Sustainability

What’s in a game? Depending on which game you are playing you might say: chance, imagination, strategy, fun, intrigue, concentration, challenge, excitement, competition, reward, sport, and team building. Interestingly, most of these words might also be used to describe the work environment in many of the companies ranked highest in annual “best places” to work polls. So, what if you could gamify your workplace for a purpose? What if you could capture all of those stimulating attributes of game-playing in an employee engagement process to embed sustainability into your company’s core values; into its very DNA? What if you could leverage the power of game-playing to establish a sustainability knowledge baseline and framework that would enable and motivate all your employees to contribute, ideate, and innovate more sustainable processes, products, or business systems?

I’d argue that you would likely see a creative disruption born of cause-based inspiration and the kind of business transformation that would take companies well beyond doing less bad (where sustainability has gotten most companies today) to becoming more resilient and restorative contributors to human and planetary health. Imagine a world where business and nature thrive in harmony. The only way we are going to reach that required state is when we all recognize that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. That’s what gamification for sustainability can do.

Okay, so I can hear all you naysayers – and I was most definitely one myself not so long ago – questioning the premise of gamification for any purpose in the workplace, let alone applying it to something as fundamentally important as sustainable development. But, let’s look at some recent statistics on employee engagement and gamification. A 2012 Global Workforce Study conducted by Towers Watson found that companies with high levels of employee engagement reported same-year operating margins that were nearly three times higher than companies with low levels of engagement. Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, argues that turning a challenge into an interactive, even competitive, adventure provides employees with the purpose and motivation they need to get involved.

Still not convinced? Then see what others are saying about gamification and employee engagement, and think about the possibilities.  Sustainability leadership companies will recognize the power. Sustainability laggards will eventually play, too – but they’ll be playing catch up. Which do you want your company to be?

By the way, GreenBlue Advisory Services now offers The Sustainability Game as a powerful employee engagement tool. Originally developed as a “board” game to engage an internal corporate leadership team, we have evolved the game into an on-line, jeopardy-like competitive challenge that is a fun way to get all employees in an organization to better understand what sustainability is and why it is important to the organization and its bottom line. E-mail me to learn more.

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Top Five Fun Facts: June

Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts.
1. The Environmental Working Group analyzed pesticide tests on 48 popular conventional produce items and found that apples, strawberries, and grapes had the highest pesticide levels and pineapples, onions, and sweet corn had the lowest. The group goes on to say that the health benefits of eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risk of exposure.

2. According to a USGS report, the historical average rate of groundwater depletion in the U.S. was about 9 cubic kilometers per year from 1900-2008. From 2000-2008 the rate of depletion averaged almost 25 cubic kilometers. The full report goes on to state that oceans represent the ultimate sink for essentially all depleted groundwater – US groundwater depletion alone accounts for up to 2.3% of the sea level rise from 2000-2008.
3. Over 40,000 projects have been successfully funded through Kickstarter, raising roughly $536 million. In 2012 alone, 2.2 million people (from 177 countries) contributed over $300 million to fund 18,109 projects.
4. On average, a US family consumes about 5kg of food per day that has cumulatively traveled over 4,000 miles throughout its lifecycle. This ranges from about 700 miles for some beverages to about 13,000 miles for some meats. However, the majority of food impacts still occur in the production stages. Accordingly, a dietary shift away from red meat towards a more fruit and vegetable based diet is one of the most effective ways of reducing a household’s food related climate footprint.
5. June 5 marked the 41st annual United Nations World Environment Day. This year’s theme was Think.Eat.Save – an anti-food waste and food loss campaign to combat the 1.3 billion tonnes of food lost or wasted annually.

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Welcome Introduction: Kelly Lahvic

This summer, Kelly Lahvic joins the GreenBlue team as a summer intern. Kelly comes to GreenBlue as a recent graduate of the University of Virginia. Learn more about Kelly in the interview below.

Tell us about your background
I’m from Richmond, Virginia, where my family has lived for over 20 years. About a week ago, I graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Environmental Sciences and a minor in Global Sustainability. I originally wanted to study engineering, but a class on living simply and sustainably that I took during my first year of college shifted my focus to environmental science. 

Why were you interested in working with GreenBlue?
Over the past few months I had interviewed for multiple jobs, and GreenBlue was a company that was different from the rest both on paper and in person. As a small non-profit, GreenBlue was a refreshing change of pace from the typical huge company looking to hire an entry-level college graduate to make copies and take coffee orders. I could tell that GreenBlue practiced what they preached. In fact, the day I interviewed, I wasn’t even sure if the office was open since there were few lights on in the building, as most of the lighting comes from natural light through the windows.

What are you looking forward to in your internship?
I’m looking forward to having an internship where I am able to stay busy with valuable tasks. I am also looking forward to learning a lot throughout the whole process. I’ve only been here for a few days so far and I’ve already learned more about packaging and recycling than I thought possible. All of the work that I’m doing is encouraging me to dig deeper and discover as much as I can about sustainable packaging outside of what I might learn at this internship.   

What are your first impressions?
My first impression of GreenBlue came from the employees that work here. Everyone here has been warm, welcoming, and they are all genuinely motivated by what they are working towards with GreenBlue. As I stated before, this is a work environment filled with recycling bins and minimal energy usage; it’s obvious that everyone here cares about sustaining the environment.

Fun facts about yourself?
My parents own a bread company in Richmond, so I will never go hungry! As a result of growing up with a bakery family, I have always loved cooking and baking.

When I was younger my grandparents had a pool, so I learned to swim when I was three years old and have loved doing so ever since. I had a brief moment in the spotlight with one swimming state record, but a fellow teammate beat it in less than a year.

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Bee populations continue their decline

I love bees. My husband and I started bee-keeping two years ago in Canada to help the local bee population. You may not know it, but bees are an important contributor to our economy. The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service reports that bee pollination provides Americans over $15 billion in increased crop value – about one in three mouthfuls of food in our diet depends on bees. Pollination is one of the “free services” we get from our environment. We take free pollination for granted, and like other nature-provided ecosystem services, including water and air filtration, climate mitigation, soil creation, storm surge buffering, and the provision of natural beauty, we don’t assign a value or cost to them.
I could watch our bees for hours. They are very inspiring. When a bee is born she becomes a hive bee taking care of the brood and cleaning the hive. When she is a bit older she starts foraging. This is heavy work and will eventually kill her in four or five weeks. The queen works hard to keep laying eggs so the colony will have replacement workers. The workforce is very regimented, but each hive has its own flavor. We have six hives all located next to each other, yet the honey is different in each hive. They each seem to have a favorite area to forage. Our bees live on an organic farm surrounded by many other organic farms, so there is a lot to choose from.
I am happy to report all six hives made it through the Canadian winter. Most bees weren’t that lucky. The 2012/2013 Winter Loss Survey by The Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), indicated, “On average, U.S. beekeepers lost 45.1% of the colonies in their operation during the winter of 2012/2013. This is a 19.8 point or 78.2% increase in the average operational loss compared to the previous winter (2011/2012), which was estimated at 25.3%.”
Bees are struggling to survive for other reasons, too. Our agricultural practices contribute to the stress on bees, along with a nasty pest called the Varroa mite. Urban sprawl has also reduced the variety and amount of natural food available to the bees. Our large lawns and parking lots do not provide much nourishment. Our industrial system also creates stress for bees. A recent example that has been in the news lately is the use of neonicotinoid pesticides. These are made from nicotine-like compounds and are used to treat seeds. They are absorbed by the plant, making the whole plant toxic to insects. These compounds have been found in honeycomb and in honey. The neonicotinoids act like neurotoxins. The dose from the pollen isn’t enough to kill bees outright, but it weakens and disorients them. Outright bee kills occur in planting season when the treated seeds create a dust as they are being planted that settles on everything. The European Union has recently agreed to a two year restriction on the use of 3 neonicotinoids while further scientific research is conducted.
We can help the bees. We can support local honey producers, plant native plants and wildflowers in our gardens, and ignore the weeds that might be food for bees. Bees love clover; why not encourage it in our lawns? Dandelions are also great bee food. We can measure the decline in commercial honey bee populations, but it is also occurring in native bee populations. If they disappear, the food chain for many species will be affected and other serious ecosystem changes will occur, the effects of which we can’t even predict.