From a bottom-line perspective, linking environmental and business objectives is simple: efficient operations mean minimum resource consumption and waste production. But how can businesses push their environmental programs beyond efficient production and minimal resource use? The Global Environmental Management Initiative’s recent conference in Atlanta, Ga., examined innovative methods for integrating EH&S and business value -- in order to green business operations from the supply chain up. According to Jack Stein, director of strategic environmental initiatives at Anheuser Busch, Inc., the key is to look beyond production, integrating environmental objectives throughout the entire company. Anheuser Busch is a long-time member of GEMI that has spearheaded industry recycling initiatives, and, by 2000, had fully implemented environmental management systems at all of its facilities. The company’s manager of pollution prevention and environmental performance, Bert Share, was a presenter at the GEMI conference. GreenBiz.com’s Kelley Kreitz asked Stein and Share for a review of the session and for insight on keeping a commitment to continuous environmental improvement on tap.

Kelley Kreitz: Beyond bottom-line concerns, what are the reasons for implementing environmental initiatives?

Jack Stein: Stakeholders are key to whatever we do in the business. As a consumer products company, we realize that our customers are concerned about environmental stewardship. Many of them spend a lot of time outdoors. To the extent that we can explain our support for environmental preservation and conservation, it helps us align with our customers.

We also have to look at the people who are going to be buying our stock, lending us money, and approving our permits for our facilities. The more positive picture they have of us, the more successful we’re going to be as business people.

Bert Share: Our CEO has always said that if it’s good for the environment it’s good for business. When you really challenge people to think in those terms, environmental initiatives don’t have to be an either/or proposition. When you begin to have some successes and publicize those within your organization, it encourages people to work together.

KK: What’s innovative about Anheuser Busch’s approach to environmental performance?

JS: Traditionally companies have focused on environment in compliance terms and have looked primarily in their production area for environmental opportunities. As time goes on, customers are challenging all of us to think about the environment not just in terms of how we make a product or deliver a service, but to consider what is rolled into that product -- as it moves from conceptual development and the preparation of the different components and materials to distribution, marketing, and ultimate end use. That’s challenged us to reengineer our thinking around what environmental excellence is all about. It’s not enough to look within our own fence line at the impacts that we’re creating. We have to reach back into the supply chain, reach forward into the distribution chain, and think about how we can improve performance in ways that we hadn’t thought about before.

To give an example on the distribution side, our logistics group has developed transportation schemes primarily for production and cost-saving reasons. Yet we found significant environmental benefits as well. Improving the transportation efficiency of our products also led to tremendous reductions in air emissions from our vehicles. The key is getting people to think in terms of synergies between basic business needs and environmental needs.

KK: How does this approach apply to the supply side?

JS: I think companies and suppliers have traditionally looked at their relationship as centered around the question: Who can give us the highest quality product, at the most competitive price, within the time frame that we need to meet our production needs? As time goes on, both purchasers and suppliers are seeing that that relationship can go deeper. There can be benefits for both sides. We’ve seen many cases through the last decade, starting with our pollution-prevention efforts, where suppliers have been key in helping us achieve our goals of improving environmental performance. Working with vendors, we’ve been able to find ways to reduce a lot of packaging and to bring in reusable containers. It happened because we asked suppliers what they could do to help.

BS: A case in point is the light weighting of aluminum cans. Since 1974, the weight of aluminum cans has been reduced by one-third. That was through a lot of hard work with our suppliers. A similar thing happened with long-neck bottles and with some secondary packages. Sometimes it goes both ways. A lot of times we initiate it from our end.

KK: Do suppliers ever initiate changes aimed at environmental improvement?

JS: Suppliers today are seeing that they can develop a competitive advantage by stressing the EH&S performance of their products. They are now much more likely to come to us and say, “We realize we still have to meet your basic quality needs, we still have to compete on price, but we think that there are some other factors here that will give our product an edge over the competition, and we want to talk to you about that.”

BS: A lot of our suppliers are large companies like us. They all have EH&S management systems in place and are facing some of the same strategic issues that we are. Some of the large packaging suppliers that I’ve talked to are very interested in sitting at the table with Anheuser Busch and figuring out how we can work together on this.

KK: What advice do you have for companies that are just starting to green their supply chain?

JS: The first thing to recognize is that in many cases suppliers are simply waiting to be asked. Many of them have the technology or capability to improve environmental performance, but if they’re not getting the right message from their customers, they’re not going to offer it. If all you’re looking for from your supplier is quality, cost, and timely delivery, that’s likely all that you’re going to get. But if you ask and demand more of your suppliers, the good ones will reach down into their organization and into their technology to respond.

KK: How do you involve key players in a company in environmental initiatives?

BS: It takes time and patience. For example, we’ve been working with our purchasing department since 1996. Our approach was not to tell them how to do their work but to look for opportunities to integrate EH&S into existing programs. For example, we integrated an EH&S standard into the department’s supplier certification programs.

KK: What should companies keep in mind when developing a corporate environmental program?

JS: There are three basic things that are key to a company’s environmental program. First and foremost is compliance. If you don’t do that, then nobody’s going to listen to what else you’ve done. The second thing you need to do is to really focus on efficient use of resources, whether it’s energy, utilities, or packaging. The third thing is to look at opportunities to improve shareholder value. Certainly, if you can drive better use of resources, you have great opportunities to improve shareholder value. At the end of the day, if we have a high compliance record, if we are using products and resources more efficiently, we’re creating shareholder value, and people are going to look at us and say, “That’s a company that I want to emulate. That’s a company whose products I want to purchase. That’s a company whose stock I want to own. That’s a company I want to work for.” It enhances our total reputation.

KK: What would you like to see other companies doing?

JS: Environmental expectations are going to continue to evolve. To be successful, a company has to keep asking questions over and over about its environmental performance, and never become satisfied with the status quo.

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By Kelley Kreitz, a GreenBiz.com staff researcher and writer. Copyright 2002 Green Business Network, all rights reserved.