Grown Skis: a sustainable business walking their talk

Grown Skis

Munich, Germany
http://www.grownskis.com

Products: high tech eco freeride skis - light, durable, aesthetic, eco and beautiful.

 

As a mountain and snow and ski lover I wondered, is there really a company out there that is changing the face of a distinctly environmentally unfriendly, unsustainable outdoor sport? I found one that is head and shoulders above the rest. This is what the team at Grown have to say about their company:

Grown is a young innovative eco-entrepreneurial company that was founded in 2007. Visions are at the beginning of change - the necessary change of our current way to do business which exceeds the biocapacity of our planet by far. Visions need to be put into practice though in order to foster change, and we are developing our vision of more sustainable production and consumption. We use our business to inspire and implement solutions to interrelated ecological and social concerns.

We develop and design products of premium quality that are high tech and eco – high performing products on the cutting edge of technology that cause no unnessecary harm to the environment with the lowest possible ecological footprint. We currently offer allmountain freeride skis – eco-rrect skis and other models.

Grown is pioneering alternative materials and concepts in the ski industry. It has been the first ski company introducing an eco-efficient ski at the most important international sports industry fair, the ISPO in Munich, Germany.
 

In 2008 our efforts were awarded with the ISPO Volvo sports design award ECODESIGN. This event triggered the ski industry to develop their own sustainability efforts. We offer the most eco-efficient skis on the market, emitting at least 40% less CO2eq emissions than skis of comparable high quality produced in Europe. The skis are the first on the market to be climate offset or climate neutral, as is our company.

As the leader in sustainable ski design, we are proud that major ski companies took our design ideas and our results as a benchmark for their further development in this direction. Unfortunately, many of our competitors remain in greenwashing their conventional business with a single 'eco' ski.
Still, sustainability is a process, and the path to walk is a long and difficult one of entrepreneurial risks and investments. We admit that our business and our products are far from being perfectly sustainable as any kind of production and consumption has negative impacts on the environment. 

We strive to constantly improve our practices and believe that one should not leave the good for the better. If you want to be dedicated to growing a sustainable business, you must build up a community of like-minded people who contribute with their creative ideas and experiences to an open innovation process. So our Alpine or Telemark ski were just the first products - other ideas will follow.

Colpac: SME aiming for sustainability

Colpac is a SME specialising in the design and  manufacturing/production of paperboard foodservice disposables, and the distribution of specialised, complementary sealing and forming machinery, exporting to some 40 countries world-wide. We spoke with Neil Goldman, Managing Director/CEO, about how his company is making packaging a sustainable business.

Q: How has Colpac been building a sustainable business, 
particularly in relation to CSR guidelines but other ways?

A: The company has targeted its growth and CSR goals towards two markets: a) foodservice distribution of disposable packaging and b) the food production supply chain into supermarkets. The company itself is part of the paperboard industry supply chain which of itself is inherently self-sustaining. Trees are harvested and replenished in much the same way as crops are. Self-interest dictates that the supply chain is in healthy order and sustainable.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about how you target specifically the green/CSR side?
 
A: Our products have always been at the higher end of the price range with regard to other food service packaging and disposables materials, such as plastics or foil. In the past, such a price factor meant that the cheaper, less environmentally friendly products dominated most of the global foodservice markets. Around the year 2000, there was a remarkable sea-change , brought about predominantly by British supermarkets and food retailers, such as Marks and Spencer, who announced their own CSR strategies and their intention to rid themselves, as far as possible, of environmentally unfriendly products, plastics in particular, in favour of biodegradable packaging options, ideally with a lower carbon footprint (not necessarily the same thing!)

The standards sets by the British supermarkets have gradually cascaded down not only to their own smaller competitors and suppliers in the UK market, but have also set bench marks in other major global markets, such as France, USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Germany, where the UK’s  best practices and innovation  have been noted and replicated.

Colpac has taken up the challenge with gusto. We have been working with our raw material suppliers, the paper and board mills, as well as polymer and film producers, inks and glues suppliers, to develop ever more sophisticated materials to conserve and preserve food contents within packaging, whilst maintaining biodegradability and eco- credentials. Although we have not yet won award for CSR issues/sustainability, we have won awards for product innovation.
In terms of the product itself, we have concentrated on providing a product range in its own right, ie. food containers, rather than secondary packaging, the need for which is often questioned. We try to build novelty and innovation into the design and construction of our product range.

We complement our product development strategy with a philosophy which is geared towards ensuring that our employees understand the bigger corporate and environmental issues, through regular in-house briefings and presentations. We also support a local woodlands charity and a school –building project in Nepal which hopefully underlines our belief in education leading to self-help for all. 
We are in a fortunate position. Unlike large multinationals like BP or MacDonalds who perhaps have to work hard at their social responsibility and green credentials, (in order, cynics might say, to divert attention away from their core activities), we at Colpac are in a naturally ‘green’ business environment, well- supported by our major customers, with a product range that is both necessary and demanded on a world-wide basis.

Q: What are the main challenges you see in the next 5-10 years in terms of ethical, 
social, and especially ecological aspects of sustainability?

A: The challenge for the next 5-10 years will be the supply of raw materials to cater for an increasing global population. Socially, will people continue to buy into such a green philosophy if times are hard? If food prices continue to rise, downward pressure on packaging prices will put huge pressure on green products ability to compete profitably. Ethically, and ecologically, will people still want packaging that puts such demand on renewable resources? The answer will depend on how the supply chain reacts, and what resources individual countries put towards such targets, perhaps in conflict with other demands for land to grow food, for example.

 Q: What is the opportunity you see for companies like yours to go beyond CSR to become an "no footprint" ecologically minded business? What kind of actions would you recommend following?

A: To go beyond CSR to a ‘no footprint’ status is going to be extremely hard. The paperboard industry, whilst sustainable, self-sustaining and green, is a big user of energy. Producer/converters like Colpac would have to be re-sited next to the forests ( impractical, politically doubtful) in order to try to reduce carbon footprint, but then, extra energy would be consumed in getting the products to market. The products themselves are recyclable as well as biodegradable, so there is some wastage in new production that can be cut out. I doubt however that the industry can ever be carbon neutral. This is an extremely specialised area in which I cannot claim expert knowledge.

Q: Which company (international or UK) is your 'role model' in terms of doing greener business?
 
A: Given my previous comments, it is not easy to answer this question. I don’t think there is a ‘green’ idol! We just continue to improve our methods and products and processes, and see how far we can go!

Q: If you could say one inspiring thing to the world (clients, manufacturers, suppliers, innovators) 
about your vision of the future of packaging, what would you say?
 
A: ‘The medium is the message. So don’t shoot the messenger!’   The industry knows what has to be done. The key for a successful future in packaging is to be able to do the most with the least’.
-maximise product features and benefits
-maximise product efficiency
-maximise material utilisation
-maximise waste utilisation
-maximise personnel creative and technical expertise via training
-maximise personnel awareness of global issues such as the environment, and raw materials scarcity, as well as application, and how they affect long term sustainability.
-maximise appreciation of such issues in schools.




For more inspiration we recommend the book  Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage by Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston (2009).

Towards a Green Economy: groudbreaking report 2011 out today!

Towards a Green Economy: are we really headed that way?

Derek Eaton, an economist and programme officer at the United Nations Environmental Programme is in Brussels today presenting his answers to this question. In a long awaited, groundbreaking report, he is setting out new "Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication" that every entrepreneur and aspiring sustainable business should take note of.

As I watched the stress and saw care Derek has taken with his team to put this monumental project together over the past year, and I'd like to honor UNEP in this blog by sharing with our community about the report -- a must if you want to be ahead of the game on how to build a sustainable business!

As Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director writes,
"Nearly 20 years after the Earth Summit, nations are again on the Road to Rio, but in a world very different and very changed from that of 1992.
Then we were just glimpsing some of the challenges emerging across the planet from climate change and the loss of species to desertification and land degradation. Today many of those seemingly far off concerns are becoming a reality with sobering implications for not only achieving the
UN’s Millennium Development Goals, but challenging the very opportunity for close to seven billion people − rising to nine billion by 2050 − to be able to thrive, let alone survive."

The report points out that a sustainable future "will only be possible if the environmental and social pillars of sustainable development are given equal footing with the economic one: where the often invisible engines of sustainability, from forests to freshwaters, are also given equal if not
greater weight in development and economic planning."

The report makes the "economic and social case for investing two per cent of global GDP in greening ten central sectors of the economy in order to shift development and unleash public and private capital flows onto a low-carbon, resource-efficient path."

The outcome could "catalyze economic activity of at least a comparable size to business as usual, but with a reduced risk of the crises and shocks increasingly inherent in the existing model. New ideas are by their very nature disruptive, but far less disruptive than a world running low on drinking water and productive land, set against the backdrop of climate change, extreme weather events and rising natural resource scarcities."

The concept of a green economy is powerful because, according to the authors, "one political perspective over another. It is relevant to all economies, be they state or more market-led. Neither is it a replacement for sustainable development. Rather, it is a way of realizing that development at the national, regional and global levels and in ways that resonate with and amplify the implementation of Agenda 21."

Looking at the world today, we can see that a transition to a green economy is already underway, but that there are many challenges to keep going on this path. If we beyond 2012, we will desperately need a far more intelligent management of the natural and human capital of this planet, as this is what, according to Steiner, "finally shapes the wealth creation and direction of this world."

You can read the full report online or download parts of the report on the Green Economy site:

http://www.unep.org/GreenEconomy/Default.aspx?alias=www.unep.org/greeneconomy/v2

The Green Economy Report was produced in close partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Seeking Talent: Sustainability in business and Cosmopolitanization.

There is a new wave of change impacting the world of business: cosmopolitanization. 

Cosmopolitanization is a change process that is transforming how people think and act, as well as social structures, balances of power and influence. It is the result of the far-reaching international integration of economic activity, beyond globalization, which includes the decreased importance of the nation state, and the changing importance of nationality and ethnicity. According to researcher Jonathan Friedman, whereas in 1968 the focus in many societies was on the national, local, collective, Social(ist), homogeneous and monocultural life, where people were striving for equality (sameness), since 1998 a shift towards the post national, global, individual, Liberal, heterogeneous, multicultural society has occurred, with more hierarchy (difference) rather than less.

In his book ‘The Cosmopolitan Vision’, Professor Dr. Ulrich Beck, a sociologist at Munich University and at the London School of Economics, also points to a growing awareness of global risks and crises that are transcending boundaries, including national, cultural, industry, sector, company and personal demarcation lines. This is creating a kind of ‘Cosmopolitan empathy’, a feeling of transnational connection which opens up room for understanding and sympathy on the one side, and disgust and antipathy on the other side for suffering caused by increasing famine, global warming, terrorism, and peak oil prices. There is a sense of an international ‘community of fate’, where we recognize our global interdependencies and respond more strongly to international problems such as the South East Asian tsunami disaster, the suppression of human rights, the fall-out from the financial crises in 2007 and 2008.

What does cosmopolitanization mean for sustainable talent development and HRM?

It is becoming clear how the sociological, or the people side of doing business, is also changing worldwide as a result of cosmopolitanization. Rolf Illum-Engsig, a Doctorate in Business Administration candidate at Business School Lausanne and with many years of experience in international business, sees a clash between what "millenials" or "Gen Y" employees in the 25-35 age group need and what multinationals actually have to offer.

When pay scale doesn't cut it anymore

One aspect he describes of the cosmopolitan generation (people with about 3-5 years of work experience) is that they are not likely to be attracted to or wanting to adhere to hierarchical career paths. Even when embarking on a hierarchical career, often the motivation to do so is related to another more altruistic purpose than the career in itself. In this sense, organizations need to rethink careers as means to an end, rather than as motivational in and of themselves. In many large companies, management and HR still believe they can motivate young talent by offering an attractive pay scale and career ladder. However, the new generation has a totally different experience and set of criteria for work, and perks like pay scale and time scale do not cut it anymore.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

According to Engsig, the discrepancy occurs because multinationals tend to be hiring according to an image of a middle class American business school graduate, which is an out of date model. Recent research by the Economist Intelligence Unit on the composition of Global Fortune-500 boards indeed shows that fully 85% are men and 70% are Caucasian. Malcolm Gladwell in Blink notes that the majority of US Fortune 500 CEOs are over 6ft tall (compared with a mere 15% in the US population) and a third are over 6" 2 (ten times more than in the general population). Most of these are educated at a top university or business school, forming a homogeneous elite. According to Engsig, managers in large multinationals tend to look for examples of what young talent 'are like' by searching inside the box; that is, staying with a comparison of what slightly older employees in other multinationals are doing, and reading business sources about other successful managers who are like themselves in order to give a role model. In this kind of corporate culture, the Economist report quips, "perhaps the greatest talent of all then is to look the part and be able to climb the greasy pole."

Diversity, sustainability and opportunity

Another problem in multinationals is that despite all the talk about on getting women on board, there's no real diversity. By contrast, many more entrepreneurs in western societies are now women rather than men. And there is a large gap between what women with commercial talent are achieving, and what corporations who stick to the traditional line, are offering them. According to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report 2010, the gap between women and men on economic participation and political empowerment remains wide, because there is strong salary discrimination against women, and a lack of opportunities for women to rise to positions of leadership. In most countries -- and in many multinationals -- highly talented young women who began making careers in corporations are leaving before they get to the top, in order to find their own way in business on their own terms. This includes better pay; more shared participation in childcare, more equitable distribution of labor at home, and better work-life balance for both women and men. Only in Nordic countries have new laws made it possible for parents to combine work and family, resulting in high female participation rates. Policies applied in these countries include mandatory paternal leave in combination with maternity leave, generous federally mandated parental leave benefits provided by a combination of social insurance funds and employers, tax incentives and post-maternity re-entry programs.

Cosmopolitans and competence

A third aspect that Engsig points to, is that the new cosmopolitan generation has a view on learning and personal growth that is embedded in an extrovert context (“I learn together with others for the world and me”, connected to what is happening in the world) rather than an introvert context (“I learn for me and my job”, serving only the organization). Organizations have to design learning and personal development that goes beyond the narrow milieu of a job/the organization, and enable the development of competencies beyond simple knowledge transfer or learning from specialized training or books. Want to know more? Engsig is presenting his research on this topic at the 60th annual conference of the British Sociological Association in April 2011.

Conclusions

The impact of the 'cosmopolitan' generation on HR and recruiting in large companies is becoming clearer, and needs to be addressed. Although many large companies are focusing on business as usual, all but ignoring big social movements and crises worldwide, the young generation (highly concerned about immigration, refugees, famine, water wars, distribution of power, human rights and financial collapse) has very different ideas. Their need and expectation is that the companies they work for will do something about these crises, are accountable for their actions and will help prevent problems.

Currently, not enough international companies are looking at what the young generation is looking for in an employer: environmental responsibility, social responsibility, instant feedback and gratification, freedom of action, flexibility, and transparency in how the company acts in the marketplace.  Consequence: companies are finding it harder and harder to find and keep key talent on board. If global companies continue to hire people who are like them out of sync with the rest of world, then they will keep missing opportunities to benefit from the knowledge and talent of a cosmopolitan generation, and to build a sustainable future for their business.

How big is the sustainability challenge for business?

This article was written by Dr. Katrin Muff, Dean of Business School Lausanne.

The most recent Living Planet Report (WWF, 2010) highlights the fact that already today, we are using resources that account to what 1.5 planets can sustain, up from 1.3 planets just 3 years ago. If current practices and consumption continued, we would need 2 planets by 2025, brought forward from previously 2 planets by 2030. Our current behavior, nothing new here, is dangerously unsustainable. One wonders how we can pretend having more than one planet we can live on!

By 2050, we will be sharing our planet with some 30% more people totaling a world population of some 9 billion. While this perspective of billions of new consumers who will want homes, cars and TV sets, may be a source of joy for the entrepreneurial-minded spirits among us, the shrinking resources and potentially changing climates present a limitation for all the 9 billion of us to maintain or attain the consumptive lifestyle that defines today's affluent markets.

The WBCSD Vision 2050 (World Business Council for Sustainable Development: Vision 2050 – The new agenda for business) describes the desire for a planet with a population of 9 billion people to be "living well and within the limits of the planet". The vision outlines a critical pathway with clear measures to ensure a world on-track towards sustainability by 2050. It highlights a number of significant changes and improvements required to get there, whereby behavioral change and social innovation are as crucial as better solutions and technological innovation.

For the WBCSD, this critical pathway includes the following elements:
    •    Developing radically more eco-efficient lifestyles and behaviors and solutions to enable education and economic empowerment for billions of peoples, women in particular.
    •    Incorporating the cost of externalities, including carbon, water and ecosystem services.
    •    Doubling the agricultural output without increasing the amount of land or water used.
    •    Halting deforestation and increasing yields from planted forests.
    •    Halving carbon emissions world-wide, and providing universal access to low-carbon mobility.
    •    Delivering a four-to-tenfold improvement in the use of resources and materials.

So what is the "sustainability challenge" all about? The sustainability challenge, simply put, represents the challenge for us, as a global community, to ensure that we together return to be "living well with the one and only planet we have". This challenge is significant given that right now, we are far beyond this basic premise, using resources of 1.5 planets with the roughly 7 billion world citizens we represent of which many aspire to a lifestyle that would lead us to need to have resources of 2 planets available by 2025 if we continue as we do right now. This does not include the fact that we can expect to be some 9 billion citizens by 2050, with an increasing appetite for our consumptive lifestyle that we seem to take for granted.

Given where we are today and how ineffectively the legislative frameworks have managed to safeguard the planet from our consumption-oriented aspirations, I question the effectiveness of the many significant, yet often sadly compromised, efforts of many concerned players to set-up and enforce legislation we can rely on to address the sustainability challenge. I would challenge that unless business embraces the sustainability challenge as its key contribution to fulfill its responsibility to serve society and the planet at large, we are unable to turn-around the one-way track we are all on. It is this premise that serves as the foundation of this effort to develop a definitional framework in order for business to act and start becoming part of the solution towards addressing the burning issue the planet and with it we all as global citizens face.
 
How good are companies at this thing called sustainability?
Only a minority of companies today are acting decisively in favor of embedding sustainability in their business with the majority of "sustainability action" undertaken to date limited to those necessary to meet regulatory requirements (BCG Report 2009). The report is based on a global survey involving 1500 corporate executive and highlights that despite the fact that there is a strong consensus in corporation world-wide that sustainability is having a material impact in how companies think and act, 70% of corporate executives say that their company has not developed a clear business case for sustainability.

"Sustainability is a bit like teenagers and sex: lots of teenagers are talking about; only some are doing it; and the ones who are doing it aren't doing it well."-- Baroness Barbara Young, former head of the UK Environment Agency

Enabling business to become good at sustainability has become an urgent priority given where the world is heading. The WBCSD Vision 2050 sets the standard of the challenge ahead of us. Most importantly the report stresses the interconnectedness of issues such as water, food and energy and points out that these relationships must be considered in an integrated and holistic way. Both management and business educators as well as business are required to step-change to contribute to these challenges.

Trends to watch in sustainability

Welcome to BSL's news and updates on sustainable business. 

Everyone affects the sustainability of the marketplace and the planet in some way. The reason we created a blog dedicated to the topic of building sustainable business, is that BSL wishes to support students, sponsors and relations as much as possible to make the future sustainable. A sustainable business can create value for customers, investors, and the environment. A sustainable business meets customer needs while, at the same time, treating the environment well.

According to wikipedia, a sustainable business is an enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the "triple bottom line"  of benefiting people and the planet, not just going for profit. 

Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, a business is described as "green" (more than just sustainable) if it matches the following four criteria:
    1.    It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.
    2.    It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for nongreen products and/or services.
    3.    It is greener than traditional competition.
    4.    It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.

Building a sustainable business involves a process of assessing how to design products that will take advantage of the current environmental situation and how well a company’s products perform with renewable resources. Sustainable businesses with a supply chain try to hit the triple-bottom line by using sustainable development and sustainable distribution to impact the environment, business growth, and the society.

Over the past years, a few pioneers have led the way in the design of sustainable business. 

One of the most important companies to know about in this arena is MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC), a global consultancy helping clients create a positive footprint on the planet by implementing the so-called Cradle to Cradle® framework. This framework has been formalised as an internationally acclaimed Cradle to Cradle sustainability certification for business, which shows the global industry’s deepening commitment to re-think and re-design products and processes for human health, environmental health and recyclability. MBDC’s international client base includes companies in Spain, Germany, Italy and Japan, Chinese urban developers, and clients like Nestle Waters North America, Method Products, Kiehl’s Since 1851, Aveda Corporation and Van Houtum Papier BV.

Last year, MBDC certified more than 100 products, bringing the total number of products certified to more 300 since the program launched in late 2005. Lauded by governments and industry around the world, more and more companies are going for Gold-level certification, Cradle to Cradle’s second highest level of achievement, which implies that product manufacturers have eliminated chemicals assessed by MBDC to be a high hazard to human and environmental health, and final assembly processes are powered by 50 percent renewable energy. 

“Over the past year, we’ve noticed more companies coming to MBDC because they see an opportunity to be recognized as leaders in sustainability from governments and NGOs, but also by consumers,” said Jay Bolus, VP of Technical Operations at MBDC. “Even in challenging economic times, sustainability is becoming more central to their way of doing business, and they’re willing to put in the work.” 

An organization pursuing sustainability as a growth opportunity engenders a focus on enhancing benefits (not only reducing costs) through its decision-making and actions -- taking an approach of optimization rather than minimization. The organization can understand the perspective of “people, planet and profit," as expansionist and enabling leadership through the achievement of advanced success metrics. For example, the concept of ‘good design’ of products and services should move beyond typical measures of quality -- cost, performance and aesthetics -- to integrate and apply additional objectives addressing the environment and social responsibility.

Co-founder of MBCD, the reknowned architect William McDonough, was named by Vanity Fair magazine as one of the Top 100 Influential People in 2010, and named by Design Intelligence the No. 1 “role model” for sustainability in the world. McDonough has crusaded since the 1970s with an uncompromising environmental credo—he believes in re-using just about everything—and has inspired some of the highest-profile green projects of our time, including his big cool buddy Brad Pitt’s Make It Right houses in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward.

He developed the Cradle to Cradle® framework to move beyond the traditional goal of reducing the negative impacts of commerce (‘eco-efficiency’), to a new paradigm of increasing its positive impacts (‘eco-effectiveness’). MBDC has developed a white paper that compares the approach of eco-efficiency (or minimization) and a more comprehensive, sustaining approach that integrates eco-efficiency within the larger eco-effective goal of optimization.

Upcoming blog posts in 2011

This space is for all those who wish to contribute to business & management by embracing our responsibility to become a positive force in solving the burning issues of the 21st century. 

We aim to inspire business practitioners to apply their experience to cutting edge business research, and to share breakthrough thinking with the world. 

We will focus on topics that contribute to the well-being of the business community and of the planet. Themes include:

1. Business sustainability and ethics

• Embedding sustainability into the core strategies
• Clarifying requirements and examples of truly sustainable products and services
• Developing tools, solutions and measurements to make business sustainable

2. Entrepreneurship and strategic thinking

• Developing entrepreneurial approaches to strategic development (e.g. blue ocean strategies)
• Organizing objectives, resources and decision-making effectively and sustainably
• Improving approaches to ensure effective implementation of ideas and goals

3. Leadership and management effectiveness

• New approaches to develop reflective and courageous leaders (e.g. coaching)
• Developing new solutions for managerial, personal and operational effectiveness
• Exploring effective ways for team and communication effectiveness

4. Alternative business models and new ideas

• Integrating business profitability with sustainability
• New models to ensure effective corporate governance
• Applying emerging ideas (e.g. brand aesthetics, understanding customer satisfaction)

5. Higher business education

• Explore new ways to create powerful and safe learning environments
• Clarify requirements for business schools to prepare future leaders
• Explore and integrate new ideas and concepts to address and deal with future challenges