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As I wrote about earlier in the week, the US Chamber of Commerce's corporate citizenship affiliate the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) hosted their first environmental sustainability focused conference, in Las Vegas this week. The National R4 Conference was aimed at Business Leaders in Environmental Innovation.
In case you're wondering, the four R's stands for Revitalization, Reinvention, Resilience and Responsibility.
Many of the conference sessions and much of the dialogue centered on the second "R" -- and specifically how businesses can drive reinvention in the form of accelerating the pace of environmental innovation among the corporate sector.
Here are a couple of key takeaways from the conference that hopefully will spark an idea of two about how you can push your company to use sustainability as a key driver of innovation.
Don't overlook incremental innovation. As companies constantly seek to find new and innovative ways to be more sustainable it's important not to overlook the small steps that you can take that can have big impacts.
For example, UPS Director of Global Reputation and Management Sustainability Lynnette McIntire explained that while UPS is deploying various alternative fuels to power their fleet, they are also exploring ways to improve fuel efficiency by reducing the weight of their delivery trucks by utilizing lighter weight plastics. These plastic trucks, which weigh 1,000 pounds less than their traditional trucks, achieved fuel savings of 40 percent -- comparable to reductions with some of UPS's alternative fuel vehicles.
Take your cues from your customers. How should companies prioritize their R&D investment in environmental innovation? Listen to what your customers are asking.
For example, Gary Niekerk, Director, Global Citizenship at Intel explained that at Intel their focus on designing more energy efficient chips was due in part to interest from some of their largest enterprise data center customers. Those customers recognized that more energy-efficient chipsets could help reduce energy use and ultimately energy costs at increasingly larger data centers.
Look for partnership opportunities on the local level. Businesses have readily embraced national public private partnerships like EPA's Energy Star program, which now counts 18,000 US businesses as partners -- but there may be other opportunities. Local organizations and local chambers of commerce can be an untapped way to open the doors for environmental innovation.
A great example of a regional collaboration in the environmental space that was highlighted at the conference is the work of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA) and their St. Louis Climate Prosperity Project that strives to "unite the St. Louis regions economic competitiveness with sustainability.
The goal of the RCGA is to encourage sustainable business practices, foster clean-tech industries and grow a robust green workforce. Currently the RCGA is running the St. Louis Green Business Challenge aimed at helping local St. Louis area companies takes their first steps toward sustainable business practices. What a great way to drive environmental innovation among local businesses!
While big companies seem to get the lion's share of attention and media focus for their environmental innovation efforts, they certainly haven't cornered the market on innovation, and it was refreshing for me to hear about the numerous local public partnership opportunities taking place at the state and local level.
The BCLC is going to be putting out a white paper in the next few weeks with additional key learnings from the R4 Conference. You'll be able to get it from the BCLC website or check out their blog.
Based on the comments to my earlier article from the R4 conference, it seems there is still a healthy skepticism about whether the Chamber of Commerce is serious about green. What do you think?
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Battles Anti-Bribery Statute
Posted: 8/12/11 08:00 AM ET
WASHINGTON -- More than three decades after the United States Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act -- striking a major blow against international corruption by criminalizing bribes to foreign officials -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is trying to carve out some major exceptions in the law to prevent prosecutors from enforcing it too aggressively.
The move by the increasingly activist Chamber has led critics to fear there may be no checks left on the corporate lobby's ambition -- or its influence.
Not only is the Chamber taking on something as seemingly unassailable as an anti-bribery law, but it's doing so just as the movement the FCPA launched is finally taking hold across the globe, corruption fighters say.
US Chamber, Big Oil, GOP
US Chamber, Big Oil, GOP Thwart EPA Ozone Action
The Environmental Protection Agency will not meet its July 29 deadline to issue final rules for tightening ozone standards that were put in place during the George W. Bush administration.
EPA’s effort to tighten standards the Bush administration issued in 2008 is drawing heavy pushback from such groups as the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute, to name just a few.
Hi Alex, Thanks for the
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the reporting on the #R4 event. It was the first time we have extended our work from our disaster recovery agenda to looking at the different issues that fall broadly under the heading of environmental innovation.
What's going on is general fatigue with a few things -- (1) that we are returning to the same sites on a regular basis for continuing natural disasters -- floods in the upper midwest, droughts and wildfires in the desert southwest, hurricanes in the Gulf, etc., and that these cost the public and private sectors almost double ($37 billion average/year) during the 2000s, as they did in the 1990s ($22 billion average/year). (2) That there is a lot of heat, passion, confusion and cross-purposes under the climate/environmental label, and that different positive contributions are being lost in the general argument.
Lynette McIntire is on the right track and reflects a growing sentiment in the business community. We don't want to over-sell what any single company or group of folks can do. Most change is incremental. That being said, local chambers and small businesses are doing a lot of innovating behind the scenes, and our thinking at BCLC is that the coalition of companies, chambers, public, and private entities that support this kind of evolution could make a big difference in accelerating new approaches. I know I for one, would like to see what's possible.
Maybe "environmental innovation" might be too grandiose a label, but very real progress can be made on things like energy efficiency, alternative energy price reductions, "smart" materials, bio-mimetics, waste management, and natural infrastructure design and co-evolutionary planning and urban/regional sustainable planning and eco-eco development. I just don't want folks to think we're doing some kind of radical re-orientation -- this is a logical extension of a lot of the work BCLC has been doing.
For the folks who dismiss this out of hand, there's not a lot to say, except to encourage them to take a look at what businesses and chambers are doing in places like Joplin, Tuscaloosa, upstate New York, Kalispell, Montana, etc. Don't take our word for it. Just look at the evidence. There are a lot of great business innovations happening around the country and BCLC is committed to identifying ways to advance how businesses are helping to solve problems.
Comment on the US Chamber
Comment on the US Chamber
While I cannot comment on the Chamber through any direct participatory experience, I do have a generalized experience with their organization and other business associations.
Just yesterday my solar venture was invited to join a large established “innovation friendly” Economic Development Council's High-Skill High Wage Investor Committee via an e-mail invite.
Upon learning that ours was a solar-based venture via my response e-mail, they conveyed no interest what-so-ever in our innovation in their first reply.
I then pushed them out in a friendly business-like inquiry in my return e-mail where I pointedly stressed that I suspected they were actually anti-renewable, and actively engaged in rolling back and/or suppressing solar technology. [see below]
In my e-mail I invited them to dispute my opinion of their group, and they did not - and actually suggested I try another group!
Personally, after I have read many reports over the years describing the Chamber’s aggressive moves against all things green, I’m not sure there would be anything they could do to resurrect their image in my mind - especially not the lame actions mentioned in this article. BTW - I'm not a "Tree Hugger."
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Hi XXX,
Thanks for your excellent clarification and link. I spent over an hour reviewing your website.
Now that I see it is not a grass-roots startup support group, I can’t see a match. Sorry.
I’m sure the group works great for entrepreneurs based in XXX, but my experience is that the Good Old Boy / Chamber / Republican mindset is fairly entrenched in this area. My experience also has been that this crowd not only doesn’t welcome solar or renewable innovation, but is actively engaged to rollback and/or suppress this technology.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin has a huge and very active public-private support network offering business opportunities, incentives, programs and other direct support if our venture decides to select them as a manufacturing location for developing our solar product. They are also a member Solar America Cities, an organization which seeks to attract new manufacturers in the solar thermal market, and promotes solar technology adoption through collaborative alliances.
My brother is the top certified solar engineer in XXX, and I helped develop his e-commerce site and supported numerous PR campaigns for his renewable technology business, and have first-hand knowledge of how solar politics work in the “XXX State.”
If the Committee believes I am misinformed regarding their position on renewable technology, please feel free to let me know.
No offence, but I have to be very focused with my time and energy, so disproving this perception through my attending several meeting simply isn’t logical.
Hey, best of luck XXX with your new Meetup project. – XXX
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