Five Steps to Achieve a Competitive Sustainable Advantage
Posted by Integrated Designs, Inc on
On the prairies we have a large number of sustainability champions that are pioneering this new way of business. The process is really straightforward and the bottom line is that it will help your organization to become more profitable.
1. Commit to sustainability leadership
To get started taking advantage of those incredible sustainable business opportunities you need to:
a. Engage key stakeholders
b. Establish sustainability as a strategic mandate
c. Assign a leader to champion the initiative
d. Integrate sustainability into the strategic planning process
e. Establish measurable and attainable targets
f. Establish accountability responsibility
2. Benchmark your emissions
The first stage is to benchmark emissions. For large corporations it is recommended to register with the Climate Registry. For smaller companies like ourselves we internally manage our benchmarking by accounting for operations emissions and resource use.
By analyzing the data we discovered that our largest Green House Gas (GHG) contributor was the owner of Integrated Designs Inc., Murray Guy, who was continually flying to Winnipeg. We decided to do something about it!
3. Investigate opportunities
There are a number of investments that not only help with saving energy and money but also help to improve the efficiency of your operations. By investing in a video conferencing set-up, IDI has significantly reduced inter-provincial trips, lowered expenses, improved the president’s quality of life and improved communications between branch offices. An excellent investment!
a. Set GHG and Energy reduct ion targets
b. Audit operations and facilities
c. Develop strategies, programs and projects
d. Analyze and select investment opportunities
4. Invest in projects that meet strategic objectives
There is plenty of low hanging fruit investment opportunities out there that can provide a 50% return on investment. Retro commissioning is one of these types of investments that helps to improve the quality of the indoor environment, lower operating cost and normally has a payback of less than two years. In the case of one project, a $5000 retro-Cx investment postponed a $1.5M capital investment.
a. Sustainability programs
b. Energy Management programs
c. Energy Management Projects
d. Renewable Energy Projects
5. Measure, report and develop new opportunities
The old saying holds true in CO2 management, if you measure it you manage it. Whats not to like when there is the potential to become 38% more profitable!
- Use a scorecard approach for accountability
- Report in accordance with industry standard protocols
- Monitor investments and take advantage of new opportunities