Our firm's mission is to help companies throughout the product supply chain create environmentally-sustainable businesses. Our consulting services include: creating enterprise-level environmental sustainability visions, goals and strategies; re-engineering internal processes to reflect environmentally-sustainable best practices; and  maximizing the environmental sustainability of product supply chains through the design and implementation of supplier assessment mechanisms.

 

We work nationwide in a variety of industries. We are extremely sensitive to clients' budgets and their capacity for change.

Whether it's an energy, water, chemicals or solid waste issue, our team of professionals is ready to help your business. Please contact us to learn how we can help you.

 

For any manufacturer, developing a sustainability program will be a complex, multi-stage process, uniquely shaped by the situation of the individual company. No matter the organization, though, the process should begin the same way: with a thorough assessment of the company's current sustainability situation and a comparison of that situation to the company's sustainability vision. One way to carry out such an assessment is to think about environmental outputs/impacts and their sources -- that is, about the different ways in which a company can impact the environment and the various sources that contribute to each of these.

Generally speaking, there are four different  types  of manufacturing impacts on the environment. These are:

Each one of these outputs can be analyzed in terms of four possible sources:

In order to assess its sustainability situation, a company should look at how each of these outputs and sources interact. This will mean asking questions like: How much of the environmentally harmful chemicals we use are related to our processes? How  significantly do our employees' business travel practices contribute to our GHG emissions? What is the relationship between our water use and the way our facilities are designed?

By examining every intersection, a company can reference in each case what its ideal situation would be and whether the actual situation falls short of the vision. By picking out those areas where the difference between real and the vision is greatest and picking one or two to begin taking action on, the company moves into the next  stage of its sustainability initiative: prioritizing its goals and developing the strategies to achieve them.

Here are a few of the interesting sustainability events happening in the coming months:

Jun 7-10, Monterey, CA... The annual Sustainable Brands conference brings together brand leaders from across industry to discuss cutting-edge sustainable marketing and image strategies. Visit the website here.

Jun 17-18, New York, NY... The Conference Board is hosting a conference on Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability, with a focus on the role of innovation in driving sustainability solutions. See here for details and registration.