Clear Communication Often Prompts Necessary Change

“Remove those liberal eye-catchers” was the advice I got from the college career counselor, referring to the leadership roles with environmental student groups I had listed on my resume. Although he lost points on delivery, I cannot say that the advice he gave was altogether bad.

I tweaked the resume, changing nouns like “Sierra Student Coalition” to less specific nouns such as “Student Organization” and achieved my goal of getting hired. The same type of linguistic flexibility is often required to garner the support necessary for a company sustainability program to succeed.

Although many champions of corporate responsibility are fueled by passionate values, one of the biggest challenges we face is learning to speak the precise languages required to motivate decision makers.

Developing and implementing a corporate responsibility program is a major organizational change initiative. A well-rounded sustainability program – focused on social, economic, and environmental interconnections – can lead to changes in virtually all facets of business operation.

For an initiative to work, visible support by senior executives is a necessary condition. To garner the executive support required for a successful corporate responsibility program, the benefits need to be reframed as solutions to existing business opportunities.

Proponents for change need to face reality: before becoming a legitimate end in itself, sustainability will likely start as a means to an end. So, what motivates an executive to adopt sustainability as a strategic lens for evaluating business? Select, accurate, relevant data and projections based on their own business – beyond that, how you frame the details will depend on the executive.

Decision makers in sales and marketing are likely to be persuaded by improved public relations, competitive differentiation, increased customer attraction and loyalty. A 2001 worldwide survey of 8,000 customers found that 66 percent of high-education/high-income consumers have considered switching brands because of corporate social responsibility issues. In B-to-B sales, responsible sourcing programs, such as those being implemented by Wal-Mart are increasingly being used in the selection of suppliers.

Heads of operations respond to the improvements waste elimination/reduction has on efficiency and costs. For example, not only did West Bend Mutual Insurance reduce energy costs by 40 percent after moving into a new 150,000-SF green building, the company also measured a 16 percent productivity gain associated with day-lighting, connectivity to nature, and individually controlled workstation environments.

By redesigning its manufacturing processes and engineering environmentally friendly products, Xerox Corp. has saved or avoided $2 billion in costs over the past ten years and kept 1.2 billion pounds of electronic waste out of landfills. An energy audit can provide company-specific data on the savings and costs of retrofits.

Human resource professionals are motivated by the positive effect a corporate responsibility program will have on  employee satisfaction and productivity as well as recruitment and retention of top talent. In 2004, Stanford University did a survey of MBA students that found 97 percent said they were willing to forgo 14 percent of their expected income to work for a corporation strongly committed to corporate social responsibility and ethics.

CEOs will want to know how sustainability as a strategy will help mitigate risk, improve financial performance and enhance corporate reputation. Quantify risks and benefits, calculate simple payback periods on tangible projects and keep it as brief as possible. People have a tendency to become paralyzed when faced with too much information.

The lesson I took from my encounter with the college career counselor was one of linguistic responsibility: the meaning of any communication is the response it elicits. The movement toward more environmentally and socially responsible business practices is quickening. And as Scott Noesen of Dow Chemical says, “it is happening one conversation at a time.” Choose your words wisely.

(Jenny Post is director of sustainability for Stribling Packaging & Display/Juiced Creative in Rogers. She may be reached at [email protected].)