Protecting the world is everyone responsibility and obligation.
In the end, all the Manufacturers will see the Bottom-Line Benefits Of Designing For The EnvironmentMarketing coup. by designing for the environment
Then came talk about the environment. People started thinking about the consequences of throwing away all those widgets.
They started worrying about their carbon footprints, and they wanted widget manufacturers to do the same.
Thus was born the cradle-to-cradle and design-for-environment manufacturing mindset: Make products that easily can be
recycled, reused and re-purposed.
Through the years, many manufacturers have embraced a design-for-environment mentality without much notice from consumers. For example, remember the black plastic base on two-liter soda bottles? To make the bottles easier to recycle, manufacturers did away with the unneeded component. Not only was it an environmentally friendly move, it saved manufacturers money on each bottle as well.
Ecomagination includes a $1.5-billion annual investment in research and development for cleaner technologies; plans to double GE revenue to $20 billion in 2010 from sales of products and services that provide big environmental advantages; and a corporate reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions.
HP is constantly tweaking how its products use energy and refining the materials it uses -- either trying to use fewer materials, use materials that have a lower environmental impact or use materials that make more use of renewable resources. The company's goal is to make products that can be recycled, reused or taken apart and used for something else.
One of the ways to limit environmental impact is to offer a global recycling program. "Ultimately our customers are going to want to either give back those products or they are going to quit using them," says Frey.
HP's program enables customers to take any electronic product from any manufacturer to designated drop-off locations. HP will then recycle the materials and re-purpose them, or discard them in an environmentally friendly way. Last year, for instance, HP took back 140 million pounds of materials. So in addition to being environmentally responsible, HP also benefits by getting a look at the guts of competitor's products.
"When you are responsible for and overseeing the recycling, you get to see your own products and other people's products at end of life and say, 'OK, had we not designed it this way or that way, it would have been easier to recycle,'" Frey observes.
True to its design-for-environment initiative, HP places environmental stewards on every design team to identify design changes that may reduce environmental impact throughout a product's lifecycle.
"Our environmental stewards help product designers see that if you make a product that is easier to take apart at its end of life, it's easier to put together in the first place," says Frey. "You induce an efficiency in the process.
Today, environmental thinking has become second nature at HP. "We no longer have debates with design teams about energy efficiency," Frey points out. "That's now an inherent part of what they do."
Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike Inc. is another contender in the design-for-the-environment arena.
The company, which began operations in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, in 1972 introduced a new brand of athletic footwear called Nike, named for the Greek goddess of victory. Early on, founders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight knew victory could be achieved by designing products that tread lightly on the earth.
In 1983 the company established the Nike Environmental Action Team (NEAT) to focus on recycling, education and innovative programs like Reuse-A-Shoe. This program, which collects millions of pairs of returned and post-consumer footwear annually, recycles shoes and turns them into new products.
The recycled material is called Nike Grind. To get the Grind, machines granulate and separate shoes into three main materials -- rubber from the outsole, foam from the midsole and fabric from the upper. The Nike Grind is used in myriad products, including synthetic football and soccer fields, basketball courts, running tracks and playground padding. Once destined for the landfill, more than 7.5 million shoes are finding new life.
Also on the road to environmentally sound practices, Ford Motor Co. has employed Kermit The Frog to sing "It's Not Easy Being Green" to tout its line of Flexible Fuel Vehicles. The vehicles run on E85 ethanol, a renewable fuel made from 85% corn or other starch feedstock and 15% gasoline.
Ford, along with DaimlerChrysler and General Motors, recently announced plans to double annual production of vehicles capable of running on renewable fuels to 2 million cars and trucks by 2010.
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Creating a Great Place to Work
Griffin Hospital created an award-winning work environment by honoring its commitment to open communication. Our columnist explains how by Carmine Gallo from www.businessweek.comGriffin Hospital leaders tell me the secret to landing on the list for eight straight years is a policy of open communication and action with their patients, employees, and volunteers. They say their managers go beyond simply listening to actively soliciting input, and managers turn that information into tangible improvements.
The research and consulting firm Great Place to Work Institute recently issued its annual list of the best companies to work for in the U.S. In the past several years, I have interviewed leaders at some of the companies on the list, including Google (GOOG), Intuit (INTU), Cisco (CSCO), Paychex (PAYX), Baptist Health South Florida, and FedEx (FDX). While benefits are important, our conversations show that employee engagement is crucial—employees want to work in an environment where they have a voice. For one example of a company that has managed to create such an environment, consider No. 49 on this year's list, Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.
With all this pressure bearing down, Charmel and Powanda were beginning to wonder if holding the meeting was the right decision. They called a representative from the American Hospital Assn., who said that if their situation had been taking place in any other hospital, he would have also recommended that the meeting be delayed. But Griffin was different: "If you do not follow the open and honest culture you have created at Griffin, you will destroy in one day what has taken you 10 years to build." Charmel held a staff meeting as scheduled to communicate the facts of the case, the results of the tests, and how anthrax is spread.
Griffin leaders like Charmel have set a precedent with staff and provide a model for behavior that all employees—managers, doctors, nurses, and administrators alike—strive to emulate. Every employee is considered a "caregiver"—even the security guards, parking lot valets, and chefs—and they all feel comfortable addressing Charmel directly with praise, concerns, or suggestions. If an employee believes the hospital is failing to put the patient first in any area of care, Charmel is the first to know; he makes himself as available as possible. He keeps the lines of communication open with the following practices:
A long day's walk. Charmel spends most of the working day in the hospital, but out of his office. He typically starts office work after 5 p.m. because he meets with people in their own departments all day; they do not come to him. This is the ultimate open-door policy.
A biannual meeting for everyone. Twice a year Charmel hosts a "State of the Hospital" meeting for all employees and volunteers, where everyone hears exactly the same information as the board of directors: strategic information, market-share data, financial statistics, and plans for the future. Everything.
Many CEOs talk about creating a "customer-centric" organization. But the management at Griffin Hospital provides a working example of how it's done.
Not Serious Yet About the Environment
Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 05 from http://www.businessweek.comI won’t believe that the U.S. is serious about global warming until I see the feds start throwing real money into R&D into energy and environment-related R&D. After all, no matter what your political views, everyone can agree that more R&D in energy and the environment can only be a good thing.
Unfortunately, that’s not happening yet. Bush’s 2008 budget, released today, proposes a 1% increase in real R&D spending on these four categories—energy, atomic energy, natural resources and environment, and transportation. That’s 1%.
Our commitment of resources looks even more meager in historical perspective. In real terms, proposed environment and energy R&D is 17% below where it was in 1993, and more than 40% below its peak in 1979. As a share of GDP, environment and energy R&D is half what is was in 1993.
Economics and ecological disasters in the Philippines
Posted by: Michael Mandel on February 21 from www.businessweek.comWe don’t do as much environmental economics as we should, but I was really horrified by the February 17 mudslide in the Philippines which killed as many as 1800 people. It’s easy enough to treat it like a natural disaster, but there’s a sense in which this mudslide, as well as a 1991 mudslide which killed 6000 people, are the consequence of past economic development policies that encouraged overlogging. That’s according to Barbara Goldoftas, who recently published a book called Green Tiger: The Costs of Ecological Decline in the Philippines.
Design-for-Environment