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We 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 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.
Call 212-343-1006 today.
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Greetings!
In this second newsletter of the year , our Feature Article discusses the Sustainability Assessment, an analysis that provides insight into the current state of a business (and, perhaps, its value chain) in terms of sustainability. It's a very useful tool for:
- C-suite executives who want an overview of where things stand
- managers who need to prioritize resources among a variety of important sustainability concerns
- investors and acquirors of businesses who want to perform thorough due diligence on their target companies.
In our Ideas You Can Use Now section, we provide some ideas about how to prepare for the assessment and get the best out of the results. Our Events Calendar has a list of events that we think might be worth checking into. Happy reading!
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Feature Article: The Sustainability Assessment
Do you have a clear picture of your organization's current state regarding environmental sustainability? What if you're making an investment in or acquiring another company ... do you know where that business stands regarding sustainability-related risks and opportunities? If not, then you should consider conducting a Sustainability Assessment. You might even choose to conduct repetitive analyses: your first assessment gives you a baseline to work from and subsequent assessments can track progress over time.
What is this assessment? It's an analysis of one or more of the environmental impacts associated with business activity (greenhouse gasses, water, chemicals and/or waste) from one or more business sources (people, places (facilities and land), processes and/or products). The scope of the inquiry can be quite narrow if you want to drill down into one issue (e.g., greenhouse gasses from manufacturing operations), but the most effective and useful analysis includes the full array of impacts and sources (i.e., 16 combinations). Analyzing in this broad manner will provide you with the opportunity to prioritize and helps to gain understanding in some of the trade-offs involved in sustainability work.
What's the deliverable? One of the most useful deliverable options is the "sustainability heat map" contained in the Sustainability Assessment Report, which is in some ways similar to a SWOT analysis map. An example is shown here:
This graphic, based on an expert analysis of several aspects of the company's environmental sustainability profile, shows where the company leads or lags versus either peers or best practices and whether that position is improving or worsening (if this is a first-time assessment, then this dimension primarily reflects the amount of resources being allocated to the issue). The heat map is invaluable for a variety of audiences:
- C-suite and managerial personnel can use the Sustainability Assessment to guide and prioritize sustainability initiatives.
- Supply chain managers can tailor supplier-facing sustainability work with confidence that they are prioritizing appropriately
- For investors or acquirors of businesses, the Sustainability Assessment is an important due diligence tool and can also reveal areas where advantages can be exploited and quick gains can be made.
How do you do this? Conducting a Sustainability Assessment requires a good deal of subject matter expertise and knowledge of best practices. It also requires a scan of the organization's peer group in order to understand where the company stands relation to these organizations. These requirements usually mean employing an outside expert to conduct the assessment and deliver the Sustainability Assessment Report.
What's the payoff? In dollar terms, savings throughout your operations and the value chain that come from addressing eco-inefficiences revealed by the analysis: conduct the Sustainability Assessment and get the ROI you deserve - and need - in order to be a leader. And, in today's challenging world where multiple stakeholders are demanding transparency about sustainability and supply chains are burdened by risks associated with environmental impacts, not knowing the current sustainability state of your organization can put you at risk in unnecessary ways. And if you're acquiring or investing in a business, the payoff is clear: knowledge about what you could be getting yourself into.
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Ideas You Can Use Now!
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Here are some ideas about how to prepare for a Sustainability Assessment: - Understand where information lies in your organization, as the assessment is dependent on both quantitative and qualitative data
- Process map your business, so that you can be ready to discuss the scope of the inquiry with the professional who will conduct the assessment
- Compile a list of "immutables" - things about your organization or its products/services that you think dare not be changed and be prepared to share these with the professional who will conduct the assessment
And here are a few ideas about how to get the best out of the Sustainability Assessment Report: - Approach it with an open mind, mindful that what the professional tells in the Report you might be very different that your own perceptions of your organization
- Be prepared to prioritize from among a variety of issues to tackle, all of which may seem important
- Understand your organization's culture and capacity for change before designing and implementing initiatives to address issues revealed in the Report, as this saves resources and lessens the chance of failure
We are skilled at Sustainability Assessments - whether for internal purposes, investigating the state of your value chain or for due diligence required in mergers and acquisitions. C all us today. 212-343-1006. And if you have questions or comments on what we have presented here, please contact us by telephone at 212-343-1006 or email us at info@kuhnassociatesllc.com.
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 | Calendar of Events |
Here are a few of the many interesting sustainability events happening in the coming months: May 6 - 9 (Baltimore, MD) - The Institute for Supply Management's 97th Annual International Supply Management Conference delivers four days of educational content and exhibits designed exclusively for supply management professionals. Visit http://www.ism.ws/confplanner/conf.cfm?confID=36 for more information. May 9 - 11 (Ann Arbor, MI) - The 7 th Annual Green Chemistry + Commercial Council Innovators Roundtable is a unique opportunity to engage with fellow business leaders in sharing up-to-date information, experiences and knowledge to advance the implementation of green chemistry and design for environment practices, and the production and marketing of safer chemicals, materials and products. Visit the website, http://www.greenchemistryandcommerce.org/events.roundtable.overview.php?pid=5 for more information and to register. May 17 (Portland, OR) - Finance for Sustainability: Innovative Strategies for Public and Private Sectors is part of the University of Oregon's sustainability educational offerings. This workshop focuses on how to finance projects that contribute to sustainability by highlighting capital allocation decisions and methods and tools for influencing these decisions. Visit http://sustain.uoregon.edu/workshops/course_desc.php?CourseKey=636350. June 6 - 7 (San Diego, CA) - Sustainable Brands 2012. Join 1000 innovation leaders from around the world for this 6th annual event as the Sustainable Brands community convenes for the first time in San Diego, California to discuss how better brands are responding to changing consumer sentiment and helping shape a flourishing future.Visit http://www.sustainablebrands.com/events/sb12. |
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Thanks for reading! Please contact us today to discuss anything you've read here, suggest a topic for a future edition or learn how we can help you build a more sustainable business.
Call 212-343-1006 or email us at info@kuhnassociatesllc.com for more information.
Sincerely,
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