What Gets Measured Gets Managed

Companies across industries also need experts who can implement and measure the results of environmental impact programs, such as reducing water usage or greenhouse gas emissions, says Mark McElroy, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Innovation (CSI) in Thetford Center, Vt.

CSI was formed in 2004 to conduct research, development and training for companies interested in managing and improving the environmental impacts of their operations.

While much of the focus has been on developing tools and metrics to measure performance, its training component is gaining prominence in the nonprofit group's offerings as more and more companies come to CSI asking for help.

"Training is how we disseminate the results of our work and make it available to companies around the world," says McElroy.

CSI offers training in corporate sustainability management, which looks at how to incorporate environmental management criteria into the core business strategy; a Social Footprint Masters class that teaches students how to use CSI's measurement and reporting tools to quantify the environmental management performance of an organization; and the theory and practice behind performance metrics.

"We see corporate sustainability management as analogous to financial management," he says. "Just as financial managers track financial performance, corporate social managers should track how the company performs on environmental, societal and economic issues."

That, he says, takes training.

"If you make an executive commitment, such as reducing water usage, you have to know how to execute against that commitment and that's a complex process."

And as more and more companies set these substantial reduction goals, they need a leadership team that knows how to establish a baseline and prove results.

"Most of the companies that come to us are looking for knowledge into our approach to metrics and how to apply them because to say you are going to reduce your carbon footprint by 10 percent says nothing about the sustainability of your organization," he says. "You have to put it in context to the related conditions of the business and the world."

Sam Spector, a hospitality consultant based in Culver City, Calif., agrees.

"You can't just pull this kind of information off the web, you have to develop a knowledge and understanding of how to measure results to make it authentic," he says. "What's measured is managed. Being able to put it in numbers makes the business case for sustainability much more persuasively, and it helps get people on board with the program."

Spector is currently taking two courses on sustainability leadership and management through the UC Irvine program and a course on the principles of environmental sustainability at UCLA. Along with furthering his own knowledge of key issues, he sees the training as an opportunity for him to get ahead in his field.

His UC Irvine courses focus on marketing and ways to sell green projects and avoid greenwashing. They are also teaching him how to define the triple-bottom line results of green initiatives by first identifying project goals and metrics, establishing baselines and tracking results throughout the project.

The UCLA course is focused on the legal perspective of environmental issues, such as preparing for environmental regulations and approaching waste management and recycling programs from both a municipal and environmental standpoint.

He plans to use all of the knowledge from these courses to help his clients reduce waste and cut costs while reducing their environmental impacts. He also intends to help them prepare for future environmental regulations that could impact the way they use and dispose of resources.

"I'm learning that eventually there is going to be legislation that impacts my client's business. If I'm on the forefront of helping companies stay ahead of this legislation then I can position them -- and me -- for long-term success," he says.

Outside the Classroom

Professionals interested in obtaining a stronger knowledge of environmental leadership and practices will find more opportunities for training in the near future as local colleges and corporate training programs see the need for this kind of education, says Rockefeller.

"This is not a fad," he says. "There is a confluence of drivers moving the demand for training forward, making it a necessary component of business process for the long-term."

In the meantime, there are ample opportunities for less formal education about green issues through seminars, conference workshops, and networking, suggests Elizabeth Seeger, project manager and Geballe Fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in Washington, D.C.

The fellowship is a two-year program chartered to train rising business leaders in EDF's approach to achieving environmental solutions with business benefits.

As a fellow, Seeger attended several major green conferences -- the Sustainable Agriculture conference, the Sustainable Packaging conferences, and a Ceres conference on responsible investment.

"These were all huge events that helped me understand the issues and meet people," she says.

She has also taken media presentation training to give her the skills to speak eloquently and knowledgeably about green business issues. She regularly participates in corporate partnership meetings. Her biggest project, though a partnership with private equity firm KKR, gave her the chance to review their portfolio of projects to identify ways to green their operations. She was able to help them avoid 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, which led to $16.4 million in savings.

"All of these opportunities were designed to expose me to industry issues around sustainability," she says, noting that some of the biggest challenges the EDF partners face is understanding how to address environmental issues within the context of business. "It can be difficult to define and drive a sustainability program without a champion who has the training to understand the issues and constraints that a company will face."

And while most of the people participating in training programs, such as the one at UC Irvine, are self-motivated and attend because they are actively pursuing personal career advancement in green business leadership roles, Sayre predicts that more companies will start sending their management teams through this kind of training, particularly as legislation sets stricter requirements for conforming to better environmental practices.

"It's like a mini-MBA program in sustainability," she says. "Companies that  are serious about impacting their bottom line while making the earth a better place to live should be sending their people through this kind of training, because without a trained team, you are just winging it."

Sarah Fister Gale is a freelance writer based in Chicago.