World is Green

Andrew Winston provides an explanation of what can be termed as green leadership taking the example of Toyota.

So given the anti-environmental lobbying of Toyota, shouldn’t Honda be crowned the green leader? Yes, but only if we define green leadership to include only the environmental actions. Yes, the lobbying deducts from Toyota’s green bona fides, but the commercial success of the Prius is an overriding factor. Toyota won the marketing battle in a big way.

My point is this: green success cannot just be about being green and creating good eco-products that find a niche. Points have to go to those who can market the best and play somewhat rough with the competition.

GreenBiz.com reports on a SmartMarket report released by McGraw-Hill and produced in partnership with Siemens Building Technologies.

“Today’s corporate leaders are already very conscious of using green practices when considering new facilities, and they expect green building to have an increasing impact in the future,” said Brad Haeberle, director of marketing for Siemens Building Technologies. “Moreover, they believe that green building is in their company’s best interests, not only for the clear economic benefits, but for the market differentiation and competitive advantage.”According to the study’s findings, 18 percent of the corporate leaders surveyed are in a position to transform the market — 15 percent view sustainability as a competitive advantage and the other 3 percent are actually driving their entire businesses through this value-driven lens.

Over the next three years, more companies see themselves as entering this top tier, with nearly a third of the sample aiming to be market leaders in sustainability. The report found that by early 2009, but perhaps sooner, American businesses will have reached a tipping point in embracing green as a cornerstone of their corporate philosophy. At that point, 82 percent of the companies will have greened at least 16 percent of their building stock.

And over the weekend, the CERES annual conference, Advancing Sustainable Prosperity, in Boston conducted a survey. The CERES conference is based on the premise that “businesses can use their market-economy power for environmental good, which at this year’s conference largely means blunting climate disruption, while making an honest profit in the process.”

According to the “Advancing Sustainable Prosperity” survey conducted by Ceres last week at its annual conference in Boston, direct action by government and corporations are the best ways to improve the sustainability of the global economy.

Nearly 80 percent of the nearly 300 respondents cited climate change as the biggest global sustainability challenge today, while an overwhelming majority — 90 percent — of those surveyed said greenhouse gas emission reductions and improved energy efficiency are the most important sustainability issue that corporations need to address in 2007. Two-thirds of the respondents — 67 percent — cited renewable energy technology as the technology with the biggest opportunity for achieving sustainable prosperity.

“Achieving sustainable prosperity will require integrating environmental and social challenges into corporate strategies and capital markets so that the global economy and the global community can flourish hand in hand,” said Ceres president Mindy S. Lubber.