Summit Recap: Women's Network for a Sustainable Future

This past week I was fortunate to attend a West Coast Sustainability Summit hosted by the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future. WNSF is a national association of women professionals who are passionate about integrating sustainability principles into their organizations and businesses.

This year’s second annual West Coast Businesswomen’s Sustainability Summit, hosted by IBM at the company’s Almaden Research Center, attracted over 200 professional women from a variety of companies and fields to discuss opportunities, challenges and best practices in corporate sustainability.

Through a diverse set of presentations and panels, including a keynote delivered by Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, WNSF managed to pack a ton of learning and questioning into just a few hours! For those of you not able to attend, I thought I’d provide my take on key learnings and themes from the day.

The morning started off with a short welcome from Ann Goodman, co-founder and executive director of WNSF. WNSF’s goal, she said, is to inspire and educate women and provide opportunities for women with similar interests to network with each other and create change within their companies. She asked the crowd to think through how we can prepare the next generation of women to take the helm in sustainability in business, and she said she hoped that Summit attendees would identify “a seed of an idea” during the conference that would later grow into a tangible difference made in our organizations.

From there my fellow participants and I were treated to a variety of talks and panels from some terrific sustainability professionals, with representatives from IBM, IDEO, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric, Siemens Corporation, and others speaking about innovating through sustainability as well as integrating sustainable values and behaviors into an organization.

Certainly a highlight of the day was Nancy Sutley’s discussion of sustainability in the Federal Government. As someone who (admittedly) often thinks of sustainability only in a business context, I thought it was fascinating to hear Sutley’s take on what a sustainability or green agenda looks like in the government sector. And trust me: as Obama’s right-hand woman on all things environmental, Sutley should know!

“Sustainability is destined to grow in scale and stature,” Sutley said, “and the Federal Government has an obligation to lead by example.”

Throughout her talk, Sutley cited examples of how the Obama White House is taking “green” seriously, including the President's GreenGov Challenge (essentially a crowd-sourcing initiative among federal employees to identify opportunities to reduce waste and increase efficiencies within the government) and the recent publishing of over 50 sustainability reports by various Federal Agencies.

But perhaps my favorite example was Sutley’s description of the Department of Defense and its role in pushing its own sustainability agenda, including setting a goal to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020. Certainly the DoD doesn't always automatically come to mind when I'm thinking of sustainability, and yet Sutley says the department’s commitment to sustainability is actually deeply linked to the successful execution of the agency's mission.

In fact, Sutley said the Department of Defense has actually been very forward-thinking about sustainability, a surprise at first even to Sutley. As an example, the Department of Defense sees the transport of fuel to troops around the world as an increasingly crucial, and dangerous, operation. According to Sutley, when the DoD strategizes about fuel sourcing, transportation and threats, it’s impossible not to think about climate change and other related sustainability issues. The tactical application of sustainability, then, becomes a crucial consideration for the Department.

While Sutley’s examination of greening the Federal Government was definitely a standout, a number of other key themes emerged throughout the Summit:

• Human Behavior Matters: Dr. Sharon Nunes, VP Smart Cities Strategy and Solutions at IBM, talked a lot about creating and understanding “value networks” in sustainable innovation. Rather than just focusing on innovation itself, Nunes stressed the importance of looking at all of the players and people that stand to gain/lose through the type of innovation you’re developing. How will this new technology or system affect the people who will use it? An example she gave was charging tolls for commuters who use highway systems during peak hours. You can deter people from driving on roads, but if you don’t have adequate infrastructure or access to public transportation as an alternative option, your plan to reduce car emissions won’t work. As she wisely said, “Innovation for sustainability will fail miserably if you don’t think about the people who are adopting it.”

• Innovation is Messy - and Necessary: While Sharon Nunes discussed innovation at IBM, by far the best analysis of the topic was provided by self-proclaimed “innovation evangelist” Judy Estrin, serial entrepreneur and author of Closing the Innovation Gap. Through interviews with over 100 business innovators, Estrin developed what she calls the 5 Core Values of Innovation: Questioning, Risk, Openness, Patience and Trust. The way she sees it, balanced innovation (that is, innovating using all 5 core values represented in equal parts) has been on the decline for decades in this country, with people instead choosing to simply take quick risks (aka: the Great Financial Crisis of 2008). She also noted that in order to innovate, people and organizations have to be willing to invest in outcomes that are unknown, messy and potentially even a little uncomfortable. Ultimately, though, the ability to innovate speaks to our capacity for change – and as sustainability professionals, our job is all about change.

• Green Job Creation: Although this only came up a couple of times, I thought the issue of green jobs was worth highlighting, if only because there did appear to be some consensus on the topic. Panelist Kimberly Hosken, Program Director of Green Building at Johnson Controls, said it best: in her opinion, her responsibility is to “green the people who already have jobs, not create new green jobs.” She said people often come to her looking for work in sustainability, and her response to them is “But what can you do?” As she put it: “You need a ‘thing’ that you can do, and then you can go and green that.” Nancy Sutley from the White House also confirmed this idea, and I even heard Summit attendees discuss the same idea in passing at lunch. Seems to be interesting advice for anyone looking to find work in this field!

As you can tell, it was an action-packed day filled with interesting insights and eye-opening takeaways (and honestly, this post just scratches the surface!).

Perhaps most importantly, I was keenly aware throughout the day of just how smart, engaged and networked these professional women were. Each attendee brought such a unique and intelligent perspective to the table, an insight that was especially obvious when WNSF broke us up into small brainstorm groups to discuss sustainability challenges facing each of us in our companies. In my opinion, the women (and the handful of brave men!) who came together last week at the Summit represent some of the best leaders and thinkers in sustainability today, and WNSF did a terrific job bringing us all together for learning, sharing and networking!

Thanks to WNSF for including me in this great conference – I hope to see many more faces at next year’s Summit!

Running with the Big Dogs: CSR in Small Business

Often when we talk about corporate social responsibility, we assume people are talking about "the big dogs" – companies like Proctor and Gamble, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and of course Walmart.

And certainly these powerhouses dictate a lot of what gets discussed, watched, and measured, if only because of their sheer scale and impact on the global business community.

But what about companies that don’t fit into the same tiers as these big players? What does sustainability or CSR look like for small and medium-sized businesses?

Recently I attended a talk at Mills College featuring the EVP of Marketing at Clif Bar and Company, Michelle Ferguson.

Before the talk I didn’t necessarily think of Clif Bar as a small company, but in fact it only employs 250 people. What the company might lack in size, however, it makes up for in passion for its consumers and its products. Whether through in-person events, an accessible social media presence, or high-touch consumer service, it’s clear that Clif Bar really does value the people who buy its products (and doesn’t just think of us Luna and Clif Bar eaters as a transaction to be managed).

And, in large part thanks to its founder Gary Erickson, Clif Bar and Company also boasts a very well-rounded, active and engaged sustainability program (for example, choosing to use only all organic and natural ingredients because it’s healthier for us and healthier for the environment).

Overall Clif Bar’s sustainability agenda rolls up into one philosophy called the 5 Aspirations, which include:

1. Sustaining Our People
2. Sustaining Our Brands
3. Sustaining Our Communities
4. Sustaining Our Planet
5. Sustaining Our Business

While each Aspiration is important, Michelle said she considers Sustaining Our Business to be the foundation for everything else because, at the end of the day, Clif Bar and Company is a business. In order to support the other four Aspirations, Clif Bar’s business needs to be profitable; and, as the business grows, so do the other Aspirations.

This may not be a surprising statement, especially given the fact that most big companies will say the same thing. Still, when you’re talking about a small or mid-sized business – when there’s generally just less money and fewer resources to go around – ensuring a solid financial foundation really must come first.

Nowhere is this idea more evident than in my mom’s business, The Bead Shop. My mom Janice has been a small business owner for over 30 years, and recently her company has gone through some growing pains as the economy weakened and her customers changed their buying habits. In fact, in 2008 she closed her brick and mortar store and chose to focus exclusively on online sales through www.beadshop.com.

With only three employees (including my mom), you might initially guess that The Bead Shop isn’t doing much in the way of CSR. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

Much like Gary at Clif Bar, my mom is a business owner who believes in giving back – and so she’s made charitable giving and environmental sustainability two very big business priorities, even with the economy the way it is.

In fact, this year she committed to giving 5% of all sales (not profits, but sales) to two very important charities doing great work in the arts and for women (the way she sees it, if Target can give 5%, why can’t she?!). She’s also starting to explore more sustainable options for packaging and mailing out customer orders, including using biodegradable popcorn packaging and stringing bead orders on string instead of tossing them into plastic bags.

That said, as her business grows and changes over time, sometimes it's a challenge for my mom to find the balance between making money and giving it away! She wants to be committed to supporting various nonprofits and investing in more sustainable packaging, for instance, but knows that those kinds of actions can't come at the expense of her business. Ultimately, The Bead Shop's financial health, its financial sustainability, must come first.

In general Clif Bar and The Bead Shop are two very different companies, with very different products and customer bases. Still, as two businesses committed to bettering their communities and the world, perhaps in some ways they’re actually quite similar.

Using their stories as a guide, I've developed the following conclusions about small and medium-sized companies and CSR programs:

1. Environmental (or social) sustainability can’t happen if financial sustainability isn’t there. As I said before, you may think this is a no brainer, but sometimes I think the CSR advocates out there (even including me at times) forget that CSR is a business strategy that requires money and other resources to thrive. And nowhere is this more true than in a small to medium-sized company where each sale can determine how much you can return to and invest in the community.
2. CEO/Founder buy-in for sustainability – plus staying private – makes a huge difference. Unlike publicly-traded companies that have shareholders to consider, private companies like Clif Bar and The Bead Shop are led by committed sustainability champions who have the freedom and authority to make ethical, values-driven behavior a priority in their businesses, no matter how tough the economy or how small the budget.
3. Often small and medium-sized businesses have no model to follow. Unlike big brands who have competitors to mimic and consultants to pay, smaller businesses have to figure out their CSR programs on their own (or in my mom’s case, with my help!). Deciding what causes align with your business model and how much to commit to which organization, not to mention learning how to evaluate your carbon footprint, can be a daunting task for a small business owner with a million things on her plate.
4. Transparency and communication with consumers is king. Sure, transparency is the buzzword of the year. But when your business is small and each sale makes a huge difference, explaining your goals and mission clearly and authentically can be a tremendous differentiator for your company and help you build long-lasting relationships with your customers. In my opinion, the smaller you are, the more your consumer relationships (and by extension, your CSR communications) matter.

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced of the important role small and medium-sized businesses can play in shaping the CSR conversation on both a local and national level. While they might not be as flashy or loud as the campaigns being run by larger brands, these smaller businesses are making a difference and impacting local economies and communities.

I encourage you to think through what small and medium-sized businesses in your neighborhood are running their own CSR campaigns – what do you think of them? What unique challenges or opportunities are they facing compared to bigger companies? And how can you help support them?

(PS: A quick and shameless plug - if you're looking for fun, creative holiday gifts and inspiring jewelry ideas, not to mention a way to support a small business's CSR program, check out my mom's store!)

Flipping the Switch

Everyone knows the saying, Change is Hard. And anyone who’s ever tried to lead change – whether starting a new diet at home or starting a new initiative at work – knows that it can be incredibly tough to create lasting, effective change, even on the smallest of scales.

What stinks about that, though, is the fact that change – and the need for change – is everywhere.

In many ways my life, especially over the last couple of years, has been my own personal study of change. Whether it’s starting (and finishing business school), getting married, or looking for a new job, the one constant in my life has definitely been change (I mean, even my blog is about change!)

Of course, I know I’m not unique in this regard.

CSR practitioners often talk about driving change internally or influencing others to create change within their organization. In fact, as I learned last year, one of the most crucial core competencies for CSR professionals, as identified by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, is the ability to lead change.

After all, when we’re asking our coworkers, our bosses, or our peers to integrate sustainability or CSR values and behaviors into their routines, we’re asking them to change.

And of course, we end up right back where we started: Change is Hard.

All of these questions and issues have been on my mind a lot recently, as I think about both the changes I am going through in my personal life, as well as the changes I am undertaking professionally.

For that reason, I felt inspired almost the instant I started reading Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by brothers Dan and Chip Heath.

If Dan and Chip’s names sound familiar to you, it’s because they probably are – both are business school professors, and a few years ago they published their much-acclaimed book Made to Stick (another fantastic read that I recommend highly).

Over the course of 250 pages or so, the Heath brothers break down change into three buckets:

• Direct the Rider
• Motivate the Elephant
• Shape the Path

At this point you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. So, here’s the deal:

According to Dan and Chip, inside everyone is an Elephant and its Rider.

The Elephant is our emotional side, our irrational side – the part in each of us that worries, loves, fears and acts on impulse. On the other hand, each of us also has a Rider – that is, our ability to reason, to analyze, or to look at things with black and white objectivity.

The relationship between the Elephant and the Rider is based on one simple idea: The Rider believes that through reason and logic, it can control the Elephant.

If you think about this for a second, you’ll know it’s true: how many times, for instance, have you forced yourself to sign up for that project, accept that job offer, or generally do something you didn’t really want to – just because it was The Right Thing to Do?

I know I certainly have.

The problem is, however, that the Rider exerts a ton of effort and energy in trying to control the Elephant. It’s hard work to force that Elephant to take a different path, and after a while, the Rider will inevitably lose because the Elephant – the emotion – is just too strong. At some point, emotion will trump reason and the Elephant will go wherever it wants. (One of my favorite examples in the book is the dieter trying to forget about the fresh baked cookies in the kitchen. No matter what, chocolate chips will always win against willpower!)

And this, in effect, is what happens with change.

When trying to influence change – for example, getting employees to recycle at work – you can start by appealing to people's reason. Recycling, you’ll say, is the right thing to do! It saves our office money, it reduces our contributions to landfill, and it helps us meet our sustainability reporting goals.

Sure, providing the business case or the ROI for recycling may make sense initially, but to make any lasting change in office recycling, Dan and Chip would point to the Elephant. Remember: the Rider can force the Elephant to do something for a while, but he probably won’t be successful long term. For people to adopt a change initiative for good, we must create an emotional tie or personal relevance to that activity or behavior. In short, we must motivate the Elephant.

In this case, Dan and Chip might suggest collecting all of the aluminum cans thrown out in one week – and then displaying them very visibly for everyone to see in the cafeteria. Such a clear and tangible reminder of people’s waste – that my five soda cans per week, and your five soda cans per week, really do add up – might be just the hook you need to capture the Elephant’s attention. Do that, and then add your ROI calculation to the mix. Suddenly, the Elephant and the Rider are heading in the same direction!

The third part of their theory relies on something Dan and Chip called Shape the Path; that is, rather than making people do the changing, think about how you can actually tweak the change that’s needed to so it seems more manageable and less daunting.

A great example they use in the book is getting people to eat less. We all know that overeating is unhealthy and can lead to obesity, and by extension how important portion control can be. Yet how hard is it to stop eating pizza when you have that huge pie in front of you?

The Heath brothers point to a research study that showed people ate less – but felt just as satisfied – when they were automatically given smaller portions. Instead of trying to get people to change, the researchers actually changed the portion size of the foods people were given. You certainly can’t overeat when your pizza’s been shrunk!

All in all I thought this was a fantastic book with immediately applicable lessons and ideas, and I highly recommend it for anyone implementing any kind of change, either personally or professionally.

We all know that, cliché or not, change really is hard. And yet when so much of our day at work and at home is built around creating and implementing it, knowing how to tackle that change (and people’s aversion to it), is crucially important. Switch is one book that will help you get there.

The Job Seeker's Dating Game

Imagine the following scenario:

A young woman is at home, getting ready for a first date on a Saturday night. She’s picked out her outfit and just jumped out of the shower, about to put on her makeup.

As she gets dressed, her thoughts drift to who she’s meeting – what he will look like, what questions he will ask her, and how she might answer.

Above all else, she wonders, will he like her? And will she like him?

As she approaches the restaurant for dinner, her hands shake a bit and her heart pounds in her chest. She introduces herself, makes eye contact, and takes a deep breath.

During dinner, she thinks it’s going well, but she’s not quite sure. He seems to like her, but then again, who knows?

After dinner she says good night, and that she hopes to see him again soon. He says the same, and they part ways.

For the next few days she waits by her phone, hoping it’ll ring. She checks her email frequently, and when she doesn’t hear anything, she starts to get nervous. Finally the phone rings, and it’s him. As she goes to answer, she wonders: does he want to see her again? Or is this it?

You might be wondering why I asked you to visualize this first date experience (and I can bet my husband is definitely among you!).

The reason is simple. Over the last few months I have come to believe in one simple but powerful truth:

Looking for a job is, in many ways, the same as looking for love.

You might think this is an oversimplification, but actually I don’t think it is. To start, take the above story and change every dating reference to an interview situation instead. It’s not a Saturday night, but a Friday morning. She’s not going to a restaurant, but an office building. In most ways, the thoughts, questions and nerves are, in fact, totally the same in both scenarios.

Trust me, I know what I’m talking about here. As you may know, I’ve been on my own job hunt for a little while now, and throughout it all, I’ve been struck by how often it’s felt like dating.

The reason? It’s all about fit.

Ah yes, fit – that elusive, yet all-encompassing three letter word that sums up just about every job search process. Just like in relationships, when it comes to job searching – and more importantly, receiving and accepting an offer – it’s all about fit.

Like looking for love, finding the right job is a process that takes time. Sometimes you find a job that fits right away, and sometimes (ok, oftentimes) it takes longer than you’d expect.

Everyone has dreams of finding that one person to spend their life with. And while finding a job in the short term may not be nearly as important as finding “one true love,” it can be easy to put just as much pressure on your job search as you do on dating.

Unfortunately, after a few unsuccessful attempts, finding the right fit can feel next to impossible.

Take another example. Throughout my job search I’ve had my eyes on one thing and one thing only. I’ve been specific when it comes to the type of work I want to do, and the people I wanted to work with. This has been, in effect, my own version of Tall, Dark, and Handsome (as in, Ladies – what kind of man are we always looking for? Tall, Dark and Handsome of course!).

What I’ve learned, however, is that what I think I want is not necessarily what’s best for me, or what will make me happiest in the long-run (in dating terms, we often call this “going after Bad Boys”). Like looking for love, what we say we want in a job and what we actually want in a job can often be very different things.

Recently my homework assignment has been to think about what I am really good at and what I really enjoy. Rather than labeling it with a specific job or industry title (my own professional version of Tall, Dark and Handsome), I’ve been trying to think more broadly about what skills I have that I enjoy using.

What’s amazing is that when I am honest with myself about what I do well and what I enjoy doing, suddenly so many other doors swing open. Industries I’ve never considered, job functions I’ve never thought of, and opportunities I’ve never looked at suddenly seem interesting to me.

All of a sudden, finding the right fit seems possible again.

I once heard Ami Dar, founder of Idealist.org, talk about the interview process for new hires at Idealist: “I wouldn't propose marriage after the third date,” he said, “so why would I hire someone after only a few interviews?”

While every job seeker wants to find a job as quickly as possible, ultimately finding the right fit is important for both sides and it's something that takes time. When you’re honest with yourself about what you’re looking for, though, your odds of success – whether in work or in love – can only go up.

Remembering What Matters Most

This morning started out like any other day.

I was scheduled to attend the Communicating Sustainability conference in Santa Clara, CA, and in typical fashion, I was running a few minutes late.

Running out to my car, I didn’t notice anything amiss – at first.

But upon closer inspection, it hit me: shattered glass covered the driver’s side seat, the glove compartment was open and bare, and paper and trash littered the interior. My car had been broken into.

Practically everyone has had an experience like this – expecting your day to look one way, and in a flash, everything changes. Whether it’s getting your car broken into, or something more serious like being in an accident or being the victim of a crime – everyone knows that feeling of the pit in your stomach. How quickly things can change.

Thankfully, in my case, the story appears to end well. I didn’t have much of value in my car, and at the end of the day, all of my “stuff” is replaceable. I got lucky.

But this got me thinking.

Every day, people start their mornings expecting life to look a certain way. The community in San Bruno, for instance, who lost loved ones and saw their homes go up in flames, could never have imagined their lives would change forever, in an instant.

Today, in my own small but very real way, I was reminded how it feels to be vulnerable, like a victim. To have something happen that, no matter how random, felt intentional and hurtful. And I needed help.

As I waited for the police, my thoughts drifted to what I was missing at the conference. I looked at my watch and thought about who’d be on stage now, and what they’d be talking about.

I wondered how many of the panels and sessions today would talk not just about trends in CSR reporting, or measurement, or best practices. Instead, I wondered how many times everyone in the room would talk about the people their programs are trying to help.

Recipients, constituents, stakeholders – yes. But in many cases, the people who benefit from the “social” side of CSR work are victims. Victims of violence, of natural disaster, or even of lack of access to things like education or health care.

As someone who enjoys talking about the “business side” of CSR, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the issues of strategy, implementation and others.

But this morning reminded me the reason I fell in love with CSR in the first place: People.

At the end of the day, what I love most about CSR is the very real opportunity that the business community has to effect change and impact the lives of people who need help.

The people are what matter – in my opinion, they are what makes this work all worthwhile.

As I wait to have my window repaired and get all the glass swept up, I’m going to give myself permission to put down the CSR theory, and to stop thinking about the business behind CSR.

Instead, I’m going to spend some time remembering what matters most.