Our firn's mission is to help manufacturers and distributors create environmentally-sustainable businesses. Our consulting services include: creating corporate-level environmental sustainability visions and goals; re-engineering internal processes to reflect environmentally-sustainable best practices; and  maximizing the environmental sustainability of product supply chains.

 

Our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we might help you. Call 212-343-1006 today.

 

Wind power ... still a work in progress, but gaining credibility worldwide. Will your business get some of its energy needs from wind power?

 

 

Recently, I enjoyed a special treat that reminded me of the importance of the environment in our lives. I attended a lecture by E.O. Wilson, the respected Harvard faculty member and Pulitzer Prize-winning expert on biodiversity. The lecture, held in New York City and sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, was entitled "Exploring and Saving Earth's Biodiversity."

 

In his lecture, Professor Wilson listed five main biodiversity threats that represent the consensus of the scientific community: habitat elimination; introduced species proliferation; pollution; population growth; and overconsumption. Most familiar to us these days, because of extensive news coverage, is the well-documented direct link between climate change and habitat elimination (e.g., the melting of polar region ice threatens the polar bear habitat). But the four other threats are not to be taken lightly; all four of them are exacerbated by human activity.

 

As I reflected on Professor Wilson's comments, I considered the intersection of business activity and biodiversity. My thoughts led me to ask: as we go about making our businesses robust and profitable, how can we mitigate the negative effects our business activities often have on biodiversity? In fact, the answers are many, but none are easy or straightforward (consider the manufacturing company that began a recycling program for all incoming packaging, only to find out that in doing so they had doubled their carbon footprint because the recycling trucks had to travel 75 miles each way to and from the recycling facility). Businesses are often faced with tough choices in this area.

 

But although the situation is complex, maybe there are guiding principles business leaders can use to help form a corporate strategy that will lead to a better result for our environmental future. One such principle is to view the environment and its biodiversity as an asset -- a corporate asset. If business leaders included this basic principle into their business's core values, then maybe they would have a starting point from which to blend the motive for corporate profitability with environmental sustainability and respect for biodiversity. And from this starting point, they and other business stakeholders can then make sound choices that help preserve our planet's amazing biodiversity.

Manufacturers ... did you know that approximately 40% of petroleum and petroleum-derivatives used in manufacturing are used for machinery and tooling lubrication and cooling? It's sometimes easy for businesses to neglect to think about MRO activities when it comes to analyzing environmental impact. But it makes a difference because these petroleum-based products, when not disposed of or recycled properly, can contibute to pollution ... one of the main threats to environmental biodiversity.

 

You may know that there are viable non-petroleum-based substitutes available that can achieve comparable results to their traditional brethren without the potential for environmental damage. What you might not know is that switching to some of these renewable or reusable resources might even save your business money!

 

So here's an idea:

 

Call your MRO lubricant supplier today and ask them about the possibility of substituting renewable lubricants for petroleum-based lubricants. And if your supplier can't help you, contact us ... we can probably help!

 

Here are some sustainability-related events for the coming months that may be of interest to you:

 

St. Louis, May 4 - 7. Institute for Supply Management's 93rd International Supply Management Conference includes a track entitled "Sustainability and Green Strategies." For more information, visit www.ism.ws.

 

New York, June 3 - 5. Green Manufacturing Expo at Canon's co-located manufacturing trade shows. For more information, visit http://www.devicelink.com/expo/gmx08/index.html.

 

Sacramento, CA, June 9 - 10. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals co-sponsors "Greening the Supply Chain" conference. For more information, visit http://cscmp.org/events/greensc.asp.

 

 

Chicago, September 23 - 25. Green Manufacturing Expo at National Manufacturing Week. For more information, visit http://www.devicelink.com/expo/gmx08/index.html.