Background
"[M]odern industries still operate according to paradigms that developed when humans
had a very different sense of the world" - when resources were thought to be infinite.
(McDonough and Braungart Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New
York: North Point P., 2002. 26)
The green movement has evolved considerably since its early days. Although many
people would point to Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring and the legislative
fervor of the 1970s, the philosophical roots of environmentalism can be traced back
the intellectual thought of the 1800s, to enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau
in France and, later, the author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau in America.
Organized environmentalism began in late 19th Century Europe and the United States
as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution with its emphasis on unbridled economic
expansion.
An article at the website webecoist.com (http://webecoist.com/2008/08/17/ ) provides a brief history
of the modern green movement, identifying some key individuals who have fostered
the environmental focus in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Indicators of Sustainable Development
A set of 58 indicators and methodology were derived from working list of 134 indicators
and related methodology sheets that were developed, improved and tested as part
of the implementation of the Work Programme on Indicators of Sustainable Development
(ISDs) adopted by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at its Third Session
in April 1995 and presented to the CSD in 2001.
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/indisd-mg2001.pdf
After the rapid acceptance of ISO 9000, and the increase of environmental standards
around the world, ISO assessed the need for international environmental management
standards. They formed the Strategic Advisory Group on the Environment (SAGE) in
1991, to consider whether such standards could serve to:
- Promote a common approach to environmental management similar to quality management;
- Enhance organizations' ability to attain and measure improvements in environmental
performance; and
- Facilitate trade and remove trade barriers.
In 1992, SAGE's recommendations created a new committee, TC 207, for international
environmental management standards.
The basic systems requirements for these are codified in the ISO 14000 series of
standards. ((see
also "Next Steps" tab))
During the 19th and 20th centuries, there has also been a growing awareness in the
need for Corporate Social Responsibility. "Social responsibility is an ethical or
ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization
or individual has a responsibility to society. This responsibility can be "negative",
meaning there is a responsibility to refrain from acting (resistance stance) or
it can be "positive," meaning there is a responsibility to act (proactive stance)."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_responsibility)
MBNQA Core Values
- visionary leadership
- customer-driven excellence
- organizational and personal learning
- valuing workforce members and partners
- agility
- focus on the future
- managing for innovation
- management by fact
- social responsibility
- focus on results and creating value
- systems perspective
Although, there are still many individuals and organizations that still restrict
the focus of environmentalism to only ecological concerns, the greatest success
have come from organizations and activities that consider the entire (human) system
not just a subset.
This is analogous to the "Quality Movement" which started in the mid 1900s with
an emphasis only on the economic control of product quality. With its initiation
in 1988, the criteria of the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) include
the core values:
- customer-driven excellence
- valuing workforce members and partners
- focus on the future
- social responsibility
- systems perspective
The final core value (systems perspective) means that the MBNQA process considers
the entire business system not just product quality.
This is seen in the ISO standards on quality. The ISO 900x:1993 standards looked
at individual elements of the production process. Its replacements (ISO 9001:2008,
2008) was changed to take a systems approach to Quality.
The same is true for Environmentalism which today "advocates the sustainable
management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public
policy and individual behavior. In its recognition of humanity as a participant
in (not enemy of) ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human
rights." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_movement)
History of Major US Statutes
1947 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
1970 Clean Air Act (CAA) - amended 1990
1972 Ocean Dumping Act
1974 Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA)
1974 Clean Water Act (CWA)
1975 Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA)
1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability
Act (CERCLA)
1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)
1990 Pollution Prevention Act (PPA)
1990 Oil Pollution Act (OPA)
add regs after 1990
What is sustainability?
The most widely quoted definition internationally is the "Brundtland definition"
of the 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development - that
sustainability means "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Sustainable development means sustainability not only ecologically (= environmentally)
and economically but also socially and culturally. Lately in the EU and UN, an expression
"the three pillars of sustainable development" is often used; the pillars are said
to concern economic, environmental and societal (= social, cultural, ethical etc)
development.
Building Blocks
The ISO 14000 series emerged primarily as a result of the Rio Summit on the Environment
held in 1992. The Rio Summit generated a commitment to protection of the environment
across the world. A world summit was held 1 year later, in 1993, by ISO, for the
purpose of preparing of international environment management system. The technical
committee (TC 207) formed had representatives from 50 countries. ISO 14001 environment
management system was issued in September 1996. Since then other environmental standards
and guideline have been issued.
But the following graphic (adapted from NASA) shows that the compliance to these
basic standards are only the starting point of sustainability.

Affirmative procurement is a term used to describe an organization's policy to purchase
products made with recycled material. (Under Section 6002 of Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act, this is a requirement for Federal Agencies.) The term also encompasses
a policy to purchase environmentally friendly products including those with reduced
packaging, that use biobased material, or have a known (and low) carbon footprint.
Environmentally Preferred Products expand this idea by looking at all products and
all of their contents and their processing from raw material through disposal. Life
Cycle Assessments expands all subsequent ideas by looking at the effect of all actions
for a project or program, cradle-to-grave. Sustainable design and development goes
the final step by considering and minimizing all environmental, health, safety,
economic, and societal impacts from planning through to final disposal.
Although Corporate Social Responsibility is a foundation for successful Sustainability
and "Corporate Responsibility" reports are often found under the Sustainability
banner, they are not equivalent. An organization can take a narrow (environmental
only) focus of sustainability and be successful at their efforts without considering
the societal impacts of these activities. Conversely, an organization may put all
their efforts on the civil rights and human rights of their employees but act in
a manner that is ecologically not sound.
Further compliance or certification to the ISO 14000 standards is not equivalent
to Sustainability. Organizations can, and have, engaged in activities consistent
with Sustainability but are not compliant with or have not address the requirements
of the ISO 14000 standards. Conversely, there are organizations which have become
certified and the only thing they "sustain" is a piece of paper (the certificate).
To be successful in Sustainability an organization must recognize that they are
dealing with a (human-based) system and that all these are synergistic - all are
part of the same system. To try to optimize one part of an interrelated system in
isolation - even with all the best intentions -- will always subotimize the entire
system and often yield contrary results. (see A Cautionary Tale in Next
Steps).
This also means that Sustainability cannot be initiated as a separate "project".
It must be integrate within the business system.
So What - Why should you care?
You have read all the available information on sustainability and "green" but you
still are undecided on whether your organization should take the next steps. There
are several reasons why you should consider including environmental concerns among
your customer requirements:
- Your competitors are increasingly touting their "green" initiatives.
- The percentage of advertisements in six national magazines that made environmental
claims rose nearly five-fold from 1992 to 2008. (USA Today 6/22/09).
- Individual customers are becoming more aware of environmental concerns.
- People are exposed to ever increasing number of environmental news reports and dire
predictions; from global warming and increased ocean levels due to shrinking ice
shelves to loss of rain forests and fauna and flora species going extinct.
- Corporate customers are increasingly requiring suppliers to be compliant to environmental
standards, such as ISO 14001.
- Altruism: you believe what the "green gurus" say and want to "save the environment".
- (This is the right one) It helps the bottom line profits.
- You need a systems perspective and focus on the future. This gives an understanding
that an individual organization does not exist in a vacuum; that focusing on short
term economics can only lead to chaos (e.g.: the large banking and automotive companies);
that to succeed and be profitable an organization must focus on economics, environment,
and societal concerns.
- This is similar to organizations' experiences with Quality. Pre-1950, quality was
considered a cost item - if you wanted better quality you need to spend more to
produce it. By the 1980's, Phil Crosby touted that "Quality is Free". Actual experiences
by the MBNQA awardees and other best in Class companies showed that, by using preventive
and performance excellence approaches, Quality increases the bottom line profits.
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