Daily Archives: July 16, 2007

Environmental challenge for a wood products company

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To increase my understanding of the environmental management issues and to gain a professional accredition I have joined the “Integrated Environmental Management” course from the University of Bath by Distance learning. This core module when completed will provide a Associate Member accredition to the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (UK) and can lead to the Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) qualification in the future after many years of experience.

The initial section of the study workbook explains the Environmental Challenge for a business. A small exercise in this section is about the environmental challenge faced by a Wood products company. The simple response that I have written is an example of “sustainability and business strategy”.

The Exercise:

You have recently been appointed environmental manager of a wood products company. One of the first requests made of you is to make a presentation to the board of directors explaining the environmental challenge confronting the company. In preparation for your presentation, draft an outline of the general issues that you wish to cover. (emphasis in original)

My response:

Environmental challenge for a wood products company.

A definition of a wood products company is one provided by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) of “wood products manufacturing”.

This subsector comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing products from wood.

There are three industry groups in this subsector, comprising establishments engaged in

• sawing logs into lumber and similar products, or preserving these products;
• making products that improve the natural characteristics of wood, by making veneers, plywood, reconstituted wood panel products or engineered wood assemblies;
• and making a diverse range of wood products, such as millwork.

And the exclusions:

Establishments primarily engaged in the following activities are excluded:

• logging; and chipping logs in the field (NAICS 113, Forestry and Logging);
• manufacturing wood pulp, paper and paper products (NAICS 322, Paper Manufacturing);
• manufacturing wood kitchen cabinets and counters, and bathroom vanities (NAICS 337, Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing); and
• manufacturing wood signs and coffins (NAICS 339, Miscellaneous Manufacturing).

[Source: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/canadian_industry_statistics/cis.nsf/IDE/cis321defe.html]

The Environmental challenge for the organization is:

The current scenario:

1. Even though wood is a renewable resource; due to the non-sustainable use of forest land (grazing, agriculture, timber production, logging and natural causes) there is a trend towards a decreasing source of resources for the company.

2. Greater consumer and NGO involvement in the sector in connection with climate change issues.

3. Consumer activism is driving people away from natural products.

4. Investor concern in managing stakeholders and natural resources risk.

The challenge:

1. To continue to maintain a supply of sustainable resources; further defining, branding and communicating what it means to be sustainable

2. To create production processes which will increase the productivity of the use of these resources

3. To change design and product development to create long lasting and alternate products (e.g sustainable bamboo, recycled wood chips, wood waste from manufacturing)

4. To create a new marketing system where these changes are communicated, a new customer segment is targeted which understands and pays for the value of the sustainable products.

5. To create a new business model for the company which can combine the above requirements to create a viable, profitable business which is attractive to investors.

The benefits:

1. A more environmentally friendly company (more efficient, less waste production, higher productivity & lower costs)

2. A lower risk from stakeholders

3. An avenue for talent management (Gen X & Y, attraction and retention of current talent)

4. Creation of new products and markets

5. Targets the new and growing LOHAS customer segment

6. A new business model which is more attractive to investors (lower risk, new markets, higher profits)

Systems Thinking and Environmental issues

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In a previous post, I pointed out to the news report where the Royal Bank of Scotland was held responsible for the carbon emissions “of oil and gas projects which it finances” and the banks’ Chairman, Sir Tom McKillop suggesting that this would mean “banks would be responsible pretty much for the carbon emissions of the world”; assuming that everything is financed by banks in some sense.

I suggested that this was a non-sensical view to take by the report authors PLATFORM.

Rob Mattson, a long time Canadian reader of this blog comments that:

To take a lesson from ecology, everything is connected to everything else. As for cars …yes, the banks are to blame. So is the auto manufacturer, the guy who designed the ICE, the advertiseres who make us (some of us) believe we need SUV’s and the guys who drives them. Of course the government gets tax on it all. This mess is going to be a great finger pointing!!

I further added some ideas from Dr. Edward Deming:

Some quotes from Dr. Edward Deming…What is a system?

“A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.”

And the 85/15 rule:

Use statistical techniques to identify the two sources of waste — system (85%) and local faults (15%); strive to constantly reduce this waste.

When you consider these two statements, in the bigger picture it is the system which needs to be changed and not any one single entity is directly responsible.

If business need to understand that the economic system is part of the environment; then environmental activists need to understand that a “corporation” is part of the larger economic system.

In the IEM workbook from the University of Bath there is a good example of this in the context of transportation; especially cars.

  • At the business level you need product and manufacturing eco-efficiency.
  • At the local level you need facilities for inter-modal linkage with local, regional and national transport infrastructure (i.e. trains, buses, local car usage.)
  • At the national and international level, you need developments in transport infrastructure and actions to motivate usage of alternative modes of transport.
  • At the societal level, you need people and communities to alter their habits and expectations.

Thinking like a Mountain

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Ron Pernick on the importance of long term thinking.

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when I lived and worked in Japan, I spent time studying and practicing Zen meditation at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Nara. One thing I learned in my meditation practice, and in my work with such large Japanese corporations as Sharp and Osaka Gas & Electric, was the art of long-term thinking.

Some people call this “thinking like a mountain,” and I believe it should be a key tenet for companies, governments, investors, and others striving for clean-tech success. The general idea is that significant monumental shifts rarely happen in days or weeks, but take years or decades to materialize. In this world view, it takes the perspective of a mountain – something that has been around for millennia – to put human activity and aspirations, and natural systems, into perspective.

In our just-released book, The Clean Tech Revolution, coauthor Clint Wilder and I discuss why clean-tech markets are finally – after years of pioneering efforts – hitting their stride, building momentum, and, most importantly, going mainstream. We show how clean tech is penetrating both Wall Street and Main Street. We argue that clean technology will have decades-long staying power and that it offers the greatest opportunity for wealth creation in a generation.

Green Chemistry: Changing An Industry

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Jeremy Faludi in WorldChanging:

You can’t do green design without green materials, and material innovations tend to come from chemists. Chemists also produce many products in their own right: paints, adhesives, cleaning products, whole industries. So what are chemists doing to save the world?

[...]

For a less technical introduction, they have a web page listing their Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry:

1. Prevent waste
2. Design safer chemicals and products
3. Design less hazardous chemical syntheses
4. Use renewable feedstocks
5. Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents
6. Avoid chemical derivatives
7. Maximize atom economy
8. Use safer solvents and reaction conditions:
9. Increase energy efficiency
10. Design chemicals and products to degrade after use
11. Analyze in real time to prevent pollution
12. Minimize the potential for accidents

Most of these principles are aimed at being less bad. Michael Braungart argues convincingly that we need to shoot higher than that, we need to aim to be good. Zero is not a positive outcome. But some of them are positive goals, and for those that aren’t, even if less-bad is as good as we can do for now, we need to keep a longer-term positive goal in mind.