An Interview with Scott Cassel, Executive Director of PSI

There has been much to celebrate in the field of product stewardship in 2010, including the new Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act that will make it easier to properly dispose of pharmaceutical wastes, recognition of the need for improved management of electronics, and the 10^th birthday of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) (December 5^th).

We caught up with Scott Cassel, Executive Director of PSI, for an interview in hopes of inspiring industries to think about how product stewardship can help their sustainability efforts in 2011 and the years to come.

GN: In a nutshell, what is Product Stewardship?

SC: We say that Product Stewardship is a policy that ensures that all those involved in the lifecycle of a product share responsibility for reducing its health and environmental impacts, with producers bearing primary financial responsibility. While product stewardship can include actions taken by any individual manufacturer, importer, retailer, or any other actor in the product supply chain, those with the greatest ability to reduce a product’s impact (e.g., manufacturers and retailers) have the greatest degree of responsibility. Only manufacturers have the knowledge about the materials contained in their products, and thus have the power to reduce potential problems at their source.

Another important facet of product stewardship is that these systems shift the cost of end-of-life management of products from the public sector to the private sector.  By shifting the funding source, product stewardship not only creates the reliable funding base needed to sustain programs that reduce public risk but it often creates efficiencies in operations that lower overall system costs.

GN: If we lived in an ideal world, is the ultimate goal of product stewardship that all components of a product are completely recycled/reused at the end of the products useful life?

SC: Reuse and recyclability are both very important, but the real vision of product stewardship is to reduce environmental impacts (and risks to human health) throughout the entire product lifecycle. This could also mean that fewer materials are used in a product, or that the product might be replaced by a new technology (e.g., viewing streamed movies on-line versus mailing or buying DVDs).  Government policies can drive this type of industry innovation by creating incentives. When we consider ways to reduce our consumption of raw materials and the release of toxic substances to the environment, reuse and recycling are just two strategies. These goals can also be achieved by changing product design.  Manufacturers can choose to design products that last longer, are easy to repair, and are made of materials that are sustainably sourced and do not include harmful or persistent chemicals.  And, of course, consumers can decide that they can still live happy lives with less stuff. Consumer purchases drive product impacts, with the manufacture of the product being the largest impact in the product’s lifecycle.

GN: Traditionally in the United States, product stewardship initiatives have largely, but not always, been the result of legislation.  Have legislation and memorandums of understanding for product stewardship been household hazardous waste (HHW) related industries only? if not, do you feel it is important to state that it has generally been for HHW related industries?  Certainly product stewardship benefits all industry?

SC: Extended producer responsibility, or EPR, is a central tenet of product stewardship. Today, we have more than 60 EPR laws in 32 states that require product manufacturers to provide for the collection and recycling or safe disposal of their products at the end of their useful life. Most of these laws apply to products that contain mercury or other toxic substances, such as thermostats, batteries, fluorescent lamps, or auto switches, but there are also laws now on carpet, phone books, and paint (including latex paint). There has also been legislation introduced on packaging (in Vermont in 2010), and there is a growing national conversation about what the U.S. can learn from EPR laws for packaging from Europe and Canada. As we consider the full lifecycle impacts of products, we will see that non-hazardous materials might have impacts equal to hazardous products, if we consider, for example, that toxic materials might be used in the mining of materials used in the manufacture of non-hazardous products. We need to expand our horizons about what is involved in making products and delivering them to the consumer, in addition to the end-of-life management of that product.

EPR can be applied to a wide range of product categories, and is one of the tools for communities pursuing “zero waste” goals overall, not just the kinds of products typically collected through household hazardous waste. It’s also important to remember that EPR can apply to products used in the commercial or institutional settings – not just those used by households. Finally, while voluntary programs can jump start product stewardship efforts, our experience has shown that most companies are reluctant to invest resources in reducing environmental impacts from their products unless legislation levels the playing field so that the good actors don’t put themselves at a competitive disadvantage to laggard competitors. Legislation is also needed to reach high rates of program performance so that risks (e.g., mercury in the environment) are truly minimized and benefits (e.g., jobs from increased recycling) are fully realized.

GN: What is most important thing that you feel a producer can do to make Product Stewardship work?

SC: The most important action a producer can take is to earnestly engage with other stakeholders to develop solutions.  Product stewardship relies on negotiations between stakeholders about their roles and responsibilities for minimizing product impacts. Several major industries (e.g., paint and rechargeable batteries) have demonstrated that they can find ways to work collaboratively with other stakeholders. Many individual companies have successfully made the transition to more sustainable production methods or establishing take-back programs that are not only better for the environment, but can be better for business as well. The majority of companies are eager to reduce their products’ impacts on the environment if the playing field is level, but of course some major industries continue to drag their heels. The thermostat industry, for example, asked us to develop model legislation that would level the playing field so all thermostat manufacturers had to collect and recycle used thermostats. After engaging in a full stakeholder process, and after consensus was reached with a multi-stakeholder group, they pulled out and opposed the consensus solution. Negotiating in bad faith has created distrust among all the other stakeholders working in the process. Such behavior is to be avoided.

GN: What is the most important thing that you feel consumers can do to make Product Stewardship work?

SC: Consumers have a responsibility to educate themselves about product impacts and take advantage of take-back opportunities available to them. Consumers also have tremendous purchasing power that can influence companies by demanding better products.  With that said, manufacturers need to provide consumers with safer alternatives that are competitive in quality, availability, and price, and retailers should make these products available to their customers. While the market will respond to consumer demand, if the consumer doesn’t have a choice, or does not know what choice is better owing to a lack of information, relying on them to demand product changes is unrealistic. We still have a long way to go in this area by providing the consumer with easily understood information that distinguishes environmentally preferable products from the rest of the pack.

GN: Ideally, how would you like to see all the players involved in Product Stewardship work together (e.g., company, retailer, consumer, government)?

SC: There are a number of successful examples of this type of collaboration.  Our eight-year effort with the American Coatings Association, which represents the paint industry in the U.S., is a perfect example of how cooperation can yield a solution acceptable to all stakeholders.  After much negotiation in which consensus was reached on every major issue, the paint industry has agreed to take responsibility for managing all leftover latex and oil-based paint generated in the U.S.  That result took an incredible amount of stamina from all stakeholders. It is also important for an entire industry sector to participate, which means that the association must be active as well as several of the key manufacturers. They must see it in their interest to invest resources in working with other stakeholders. Unfortunately, for many companies, that has meant that they need legislation introduced or threatened for them to raise stakeholder engagement as a priority.

GN: What is biggest thing missing at this time to make Product Stewardship the norm?

SC: The public needs to accept that they should pay for the full lifecycle cost of a product, and that the most efficient way this can happen is for manufacturers to take responsibility for incorporating these costs into their business model. There is a perception among some that product stewardship is a tax. What is not factored into that thinking is that, by not properly managing a product all along the lifecycle, there are environmental and social costs that translate into financial loss, whether in the reduced purchase of fish that contain mercury or health costs to treat mercury poisoning. Each year, about five tons of mercury enters the environment as the result of the disposal of common household thermostats. Fewer than five percent of these are being collected right now.  This is the direct result of the thermostat industry not putting the necessary resources into collecting those thermostats. The public needs to demand that these companies take responsibility for their actions, but they also need to express a willingness to pay for that health and environmental protection. We cannot expect a company to pay for costs that cannot be passed onto the consumers of their products. Otherwise, that industry will continue to pollute the environment in very significant ways.

For more information visit the PSI website and blog.

Scott Cassel is the Executive Director of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), which pursues initiatives to ensure that all those involved in the lifecycle of a product share responsibility for reducing its health and environmental impacts.  Prior to founding the Institute in 2000, Scott served seven years as the Director of Waste Policy and Planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He is a founding Board Member and past-President of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association, whose mission is to reduce the toxicity of the municipal waste stream. He is also a founding Board Member of the Global Product Stewardship Council, which harmonizes product stewardship programs internationally. Scott has worked on product and waste management issues for the past 25 years, for a start-up solid waste management company, a non-profit statewide environmental group, and several other government agencies, including the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. He is author of a comprehensive book chapter on product stewardship in the 2008 Handbook on Household Hazardous Waste.  He was also a syndicated newspaper columnist in Massachusetts, including the Boston Business Journal. Scott has a master’s degree in environmental policy and dispute resolution from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an undergraduate degree in Geology and Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

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With grape-flavored Liquid Children’s Tylenol coming back on the shelves after a long absence, I was reminded of the thoughts I had when the voluntary recall of this popular children’s medication was announced back in April of this year.

While McNeil did a semi-adequate job of informing the public of the recall and had information on their Web site for the proper disposal of unwanted/unused/outdated medication, the fact that McNeil was not itself taking back the medicine at their expense for proper disposal left me with the same pit I get in my stomach when I see the “gotta-have-these-new” electronic gadgets flood the market every 6 months or so (especially during the holiday season). Something about the “planned obsolescence” of electronics followed by the ensuing flood of not-always-proper disposal of the “outdated” electronics angers and saddens me at the same time.

And, as strange as it may seem, the pharmaceuticals and the electronics have a tie that binds them in my mind – the need for improved product stewardship.  While both industries are working hard to remedy my perceived concerns with a new reality through product stewardship, there is much work to be done.

Product stewardship is not just for the pharmaceutical or electronics industries and is a term that might strike fear in the hearts of some companies and industries, but these days, it only makes good business sense.

Ensuring that each product that comes to market is environmentally safe and is accounted for throughout its entire lifecycle is what it is all about. At its best, the ultimate product stewardship involves thinking through every component of a product to help ensure it can be safely handled from cradle to cradle or cradle to grave. In this day and age, product stewardship is not just something to aspire to; our environment needs it and our future depends on it.

Let’s face it, in an industrial economy, producers and retailers are in it to make money, and consumers wanting to reduce consumption but also wanting to do good when they do make purchases simply can not research every component of every product much less every product they buy. On the road to a sustainable future, we all need to do good, even when no one is watching.

Traditionally in the United States, product stewardship initiatives have largely, but not always, been the result of legislation. It would be good to see more and more industries getting on board with product stewardship simply for the triple bottom line benefits.

For some businesses, the words product stewardship may make them fear unreasonable costs and burdens; however, companies that take greater responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products can lower overall costs through proper planning, design, and product management. Sometimes end products can even become new products after take back.

In Chapter 7 of the Handbook on Household Hazardous Waste, Scott Cassel, Executive Director of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), discusses five reasons manufacturers, retailers, and other industry stakeholders are motivated to become better product stewards. Cassel cites, competitive advantage, reduced business risk (including threat of legislation), an image of sustainability, corporate ownership control and company leadership.

If we all had a better connection with our environment and were in “harmony” with nature, as His Royal Highness Charles, the Prince of Wales emphasizes the need for in his new book, it seems like product stewardship would be the norm. In Harmony, he points out that it is possible to produce materials as strong as Kevlar (made from petroleum and sulfuric acid) with natural products like spider silk that do not require toxic chemicals or leave behind toxic by-products.

I see glimmers of hope, and much forward progress in 2010 alone with our first national drug take-back day, and increased electronics waste oversight to protect developing nations and all workers from harm, but there is much to be done. The costs are high for not participating in radically rethinking the way we do business.

It seems that even our health care costs could be lowered by having a healthy environment as the result of product stewardship and preventative care for our planet and ourselves. I for one do not wish to continue drinking the cocktail of chemical and pharmaceutical waste in our waters, nor do I wish to support environmental harm in developing countries.

As consumers, we must do our best to let our hard-earned dollars speak when we make purchasing decisions and do our best to properly reuse, recycle and dispose of products at the end of their life.

Producers, retailers and governments must do their best to manufacture responsibly and with the ultimate health of the environment (and the global citizenry) in mind and help keep the public educated and informed about product care and management.  Along the way, we thank organizations like PSI for helping to guide us all and shape a more sustainable future.

Start the conversation…™

What can your company do to better incorporate product stewardship into its products and services?

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Even at the office, the winter holidays can be an exciting time of the year with parties and gift giving. But this joyous time can have a downside – its effect on the environment.

“Americans throw away 25 percent more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year,” according to the Use Less Stuff Report. This is the equivalent of 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week, the report added.

Officially starting the day after Thanksgiving, the winter holiday season provides one of the best times of the year to put your best “green” foot forward. By adopting a use-less-stuff attitude and thinking outside the box to express season’s greetings, we can all reduce our impact on the landfill.

Just because we are reducing waste does not mean that gift giving is out of the question. Some green gifts keep on giving. Ideas for both company clients and employees include the following:

• Use e-cards for your holiday cards. They send a purposeful message that you and your company are conscious of saving trees.
• Encourage a green home makeover by giving faucet aerators, low flow showerheads and CFL or LED light bulbs.
• Show continued support for environmentally-responsible travel with coins for the light rail, bus passes, and pedometers.
• Give native flowers and trees. They can be used to brighten spirits and keep the air clean in the office, or to help offset carbon emissions and assist our pollinators when planted outdoors. Get more information from your local extension agent.
• Create a fun, shared experience with tickets to ballgames, plays and movies, or locally-owned restaurant gift certificates.
• Show green practices extend within and beyond the reach of your company with reusable items such as coffee mugs, travel mugs and water bottles with the company logo and an eco message.
• Include practical gifts that anyone can use like a 100 percent recycled-content plastic, or cotton, cloth grocery bags.
• Contribute your time or support on behalf of your company to local restoration and preservation efforts. In addition to community organizations, there also are national programs in need of assistance such as Habitat for Humanity, UNICEF, The American Red Cross, The World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and so on.

Remember, if a gift needs to be wrapped, be sure to use materials that are recycled and recyclable, or reusable. Shredded documents make great filling for reusable baskets and packing material, and be sure to use recycled-content/reused boxes for items that need to be mailed.

To further get your office into a green festive spirit:

• Get creative – hold a recycled ornament competition to trim the tree and the office using office recyclables and company discards.
• Consider a live, native tree that can be planted on the company grounds or in the community after the holidays. If you use an artificial tree, be sure to keep track of it and reuse it year after year. If you use a cut tree, be sure to check with your local recycling program to have it properly recycled.
• Be sure to go local for your vendors and food for any holiday parties. Don’t forget to use reusable plates, glasses and cutlery or use 100% recycled paperware that will be composted afterwards. Donate any leftover food to your local shelter or food bank.
• Consider holding a raffle for a new bike or yearly commuter pass on local transportation with the proceeds going to a favorite charity.
• Volunteer in your community whether it be singing carols at a local hospital or nursing home, helping to serve food at a local shelter, or gathering and distributing food and green gifts for those in need.

Start the conversation…™

How will your company green its holiday season and New Year’s resolutions?

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This is part two of a three-part series on Transforming Your Waste Stream into a Recycling Stream.

America Recycles Day is November 15^th — the perfect day for your company to pledge to start or enhance a business recycling program.

Implementing a plan for recycling the big five at work can be challenging. Four common barriers include:

Availability
While most communities with residential curbside recycling programs also offer commercial recycling programs, communities in more rural areas may only have access to drop-off programs where users must bring their materials to a facility for recycling.

However, when it comes to paper recycling, which is often the largest component of the waste stream in the workplace, the outlook is promising.  According to a 2007 American Forest and Paper Association Community Survey, there has been marked growth in curbside recycling for paper in both small and large communities since 2005. Access to curbside recycling certainly makes it easier to recycle materials from work; however, drop-off recycling programs can still be feasible if you are located in a small community or remote location with no recycling service providers available to pick up materials.

Collection
Finding space for not only interior and exterior collection bins, but also for such equipment as a baler to compact cardboard or cans, can be a challenge to some businesses. Further, initial investments for equipment may be required if not supported or supplied from community recycling programs and recycling vendors. For example, you may find that you generate enough cardboard and/or aluminum cans to warrant the investments into special interior collection bins and/or a compacting baler.

One solution to consider if you are tight for space or funding is to work with other businesses in your area.  For instance, if your business is a part of a strip mall or office complex, devising a cooperative plan may save not only on equipment space and investment costs, but also on waste removal and recycling costs as well. If large quantities of recyclables are generated by collective efforts, you may even increase your market share of profits.

Negotiations
When negotiating for waste and recycling services, be sure that you are not paying for waste hauling services and then tacking recycling services on to that cost. When you begin or enhance a recycling program, your waste generation should go down and in turn your waste hauling charges as well.  Scott Mouw, Environmental Supervisor for the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, explains, “depending on an individual business’s situation, there could be a marginal cost of recycling if the service provider needs to charge for collection (which is often the case).”

Mouw goes on, “Businesses must sharpen their pencil on the waste side to make sure they take advantage of waste service cost savings when they implement recycling. In general, finding a service provider is a big step in the process but businesses can often get help from local and state government recycling programs in helping find recycling service companies.”

Most communities have local- or state-government recycling coordinators (check the listings in the government pages of your phonebook under Recycling, Public Works, Environmental Protection or Solid Waste Management) who can assist with information about equipment and markets and information about community recycling service providers. If you do not have a recycling coordinator to help you, check with your current trash hauler to see if they offer recycling pickup. This may be the most economical option when you are already an established customer with them, but not always.  The question you want to ask is, ‘What type of package deal can I get to reduce waste hauling charges and include recycling pickup?’ Ideally, you want to keep your costs the same or reduce them by adding on recycling services.

Engaging Employees
When starting or improving a recycling program, involvement and education of all employees is key.

“It is important to involve all parties in the company that take part in the generation and management of waste – production workers, the business office, shipping/receiving staff, etc,” says Mouw, who works to expand recycling markets in North Carolina as well as the southeast.

“Time and time again, the most successful waste-reducing businesses are those who take a team approach to the problem and get ideas from everyone involved.”

Recyclers will be interested in quality and quantity of your materials. Keep them clean and free of contamination to receive the best share of market revenues if available to you and to avoid your recycling efforts ending up in your dumpster where they will waste resources and increase waste hauling charges.

Involvement of all employees from the start, and initial training and signage reminding everyone of your policies and procedures will go a long way in making your big five recycling programs successful. Use signs to clearly indicate recycling bin locations and instructions about what, where, how and why they should recycle. Consider mass e-mails to keep employees abreast of recycling goals met or ones the company is striving to achieve.

An online guide from The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University says, “Giving people an immediate incentive, if possible, also makes behavior change easier.”  Posting the department with the highest recycling rate each month can help foster team spirit, motivate friendly competition and increase recycling rates within your organization.

Monday in Part 3, starting a business recycling program.

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This is part one of a three-part series on Transforming Your Waste Stream into a Recycling Stream.

America Recycles Day is November 15^th — the perfect day for your company to pledge to start or enhance a business recycling program.

In today’s green economy the goal for the business waste stream should be zero waste. To get there, businesses are increasingly diving into their waste stream to really understand what it is comprised of and how they can properly, and successfully, reduce, reuse and recycle it.

“In 2008, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash,“ according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Waste from commercial and institutional locations, such as schools, hospitals, and businesses, amounted to 35 to 45 percent of total waste generation.” On the path toward zero waste, recycling still plays an important part of the “three R’s” equation.

For years recycling programs have focused on reducing residential waste. Now it is time for businesses to focus on their recycling efforts as well. If your business does not have a recycling program, it is time to start. If you have one, it is time to re-evaluate and enhance it. In either case, begin with the basic building-block materials of recycling…

Aluminum, glass, paper, plastic and steel are the crux of most recycling programs. Collectively, these materials are known as the “big five” in the recycling industry as they comprise more than half of the municipal (combined residential and commercial) solid waste stream. They also are easily collected and recycled through most established recycling programs in the United States.

Recycling saves energy, resources and landfill space as well as reduces the environmental impacts caused when creating new material from virgin resources. The big five commodities are prime candidates for helping businesses reduce waste and improve sustainability because aluminum, steel and glass can be recycled infinitely; paper, which is so prevalent in the workplace, can be recycled from its highest-quality form seven times before fibers are too short to recycle further; and virgin plastic is made from non-renewable petroleum resources.

“It is important for businesses to participate in sustainable solutions, and recycling is often the easiest and one of the most powerful ways to start,” says Scott Mouw, Environmental Supervisor for the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. “By feeding valuable materials back into the economy, they help other companies grow and create jobs, helping expand our economy and feeding manufacturers who rely on recycled materials to make the products we use every day.”

Six Reasons Businesses Should Recycle the Big Five

The environmental impacts of a carefully formulated solid waste management plan can do more for the environment, and your business, than you might think. There are multiple beneficial and compelling reasons to recycle the big five—in general and at work.

1. Lower Cost for Waste Removal – Reducing your waste stream through recycling can lead to lower waste removal costs. Recycling services may still cost; however, rates can be negotiated to equal or better than waste removal costs alone.

“Many businesses that start comprehensive recycling programs also find that they can avoid waste collection and disposal costs that can only be expected to rise over time,” Mouw adds.

2. Income – When markets are good—especially for paper and old corrugated cardboard—recycling contracts can be negotiated with your recycling service provider to create income for your business as well.

3. Tax Credits – Twenty-five states offer tax credits for recycling market development. This means that if you work for a recycling industry or manufacturing business that uses recycled materials, you may qualify.

4. Recognition– Many communities and trade associations have recognition and awards programs for companies that recycle. Waste Wi$e, and the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Paper Recycling Awards are good places to start.

5. Corporate Social Responsibility: Recycling is a long-term sustainability investment with triple-bottom-line rewards. Aside from the environmental ones, benefits also include improved public image, reaching new markets and improved employee morale.

6. Creates Green Jobs – In today’s economic climate, this speaks volumes. The EPA Jobs Through Recycling program estimates that recycling creates almost five times as many jobs as landfilling. That is 103,000 jobs in the northeastern United States alone, according to the EPA. Jobs created through recycling include collection and hauling, brokering of recovered materials and processing as well as the manufacturing and distribution of the new recycled-content products.

Tomorrow in Part 2, a look at common challenges encountered with business recycling programs.

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Sustainability often strikes people as being a six-dollar word for a collection of little things they do. So-called ’sustainability practitioners’ are not always the ones who have written a paper on carbon footprints or ‘food miles.’

They are people you meet every day in the coffee shop, the church group, or the post office. Sometimes they are a bit weird –in a good way.

Two articles crossed my path that made me think about this. The first was an article by Gareth Kane who makes an interesting point ‘getting green out of the boardroom’ in his article in Management Issues. The second was by Park Howell, who applies the lens of ‘Rudolph Thinking’ to look inward for managing business tough times.

Park’s blog post, “The 15 characteristics of Rudolphs and how they can help steer your company thru the fog of the recession” addresses one of our favorite books, The Rudolph Factor by Cindy Laurin who was a guest on our radio  show.

You see Rudolphs are a bit ‘weird’ to most people just doing their thing. But in any business, in any generation, they are the ones who get it, who stick their snouts out, and are quickly labeled misfits. It reminds me of the line Apple used when it celebrated the ‘rebels’ and misfits’ who believed in the personal computer back in 1997.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.”

To bring sustainability into the workplace, we need to recruit –meaning motivate, or hire– more of these square pegs’ and Rudolphs. Because, as the Apple ad had it, “You can ..disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.”

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When it comes to projects, the health care industry is no different from other industries.  There are projects in constant motion. The health care industry addresses issues of competition, time to market, new product introduction (includes new processes and procedures), and enhancements to technology, equipment or existing policies.  The discipline of project management can and should be applied.  Of course there is no guarantee for project success, no “silver bullet,” but a disciplined approach gives you more of a chance for project success than a random, haphazard, “seat-of-your-pants” approach.  And, with the “green wave” of environmental awareness, mandates and guidelines, as well as regulatory efforts, more and more organizations, including those in health care, are adopting and having to adopt, a greener focus.  Again, without some structure those approaches are hit-and-miss at best.  So as more and more heath care organizations are adopting the disciple of project management, it only makes sense to couple that discipline with an Environmental Management Plan (EMP).

So what is an EMP and how can it help you, as a project manager, your project team and your enterprise?

I am making an assumption here that your organization has an environmental policy, or at the least, contained within the mission statement, is some statement of environmental commitment.  If there is none, then the first job of anyone who manages the organizations projects is to suggest/implore/demand that policy.  For the reasons outlines above, the “green wave,” regulations etc.,  is no longer an option but a necessity to have a green commitment at the organization level.  Projects are where ideas become reality, and those who manage projects make those ideas real.  Because managing projects is the business end of business, those who manage projects, therefore, have the duty to require that commitment.  It is good for the business.

As mentioned before, the EMP is focused on the environmental and sustainability aspects of projects.  Like all good plans, the EMP has some inputs and the results of the EMP will be used as inputs to other plans.  Inputs to the EMP are the organizations environmental objectives, policies and the environmental risks.  The plan will contain considerations for the project’s scope, stakeholders, organizational policies, and risk register.  It will use tools like benchmarking and cost-benefit analysis to determine best practices, as well as using the cost of greenality for decision making.  Outputs of the EMP will drive other necessary project management plans like risk, quality, communication, human resources, cost, and procurement management plans.

As an example of how you might use the information from your EMP, I’ll use procurement.  If the intent of your organization is to use “green” suppliers, like Wal-Mart does, then the EMP will provide clear criteria for choosing an environmentally friendly company.  Remember, the EMP is a project-guiding document, not mandate.  The ultimate decision on whether or not to use one company over another, whether environmentally friendly or not, will still be an organizational decision.  The EMP will have those guidelines, but there are instances, where something is prohibitively costly, where the decision will more than likely not be made in favor of the environment.  This can be frustrating for you, especially if you are passionate about the environment, but you must realize that there are other factors at work.  However, this should not dissuade you from putting the best EMP together that you can.

The green wave is gaining strength, and so is competition within the health care industry.  An effective EMP is a way to differentiate one organization from another.  I’ll talk more about how to “green up” your health care projects in my next blog.

The concept of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP)© was first offered by Rich Maltzman and me  in our proposal to The Project Management Institute® for inclusion of environmental considerations for project management, in the future Fifth Edition of The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). ® The PMBOK Guide is the “bible” for project managers.  Its primary function is to provide those who manage projects with a framework for application of the project management disciple.  The EMP is specifically focused on the environmental and sustainability aspects of the organization’s projects.  It is also tied to project activities like scope, stakeholder considerations, organizational policies, risk registers.  In addition, the EMP will use measurement tools like benchmarking, cost-benefit analysis, and the cost of greenality to insure that the environmental and sustainability aspects of their projects are considered.  Greenality, a new word coined in Green Project Management, CRC Press 2010, as the “degree to which an organization considers green (environmental) aspects of their projects throughout the project life cycle.”  The cost of greenality therefore is divided into two categories, the cost of good greenality, audits, training, etc., and the cost of bad greenality, the cost of internal and external failures.  I’ll talk more about greenality and greenality measurements in a future blog.

For more information about EarthPM®, see http://earthpm.com.

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Disengaged employees can be a real drain on businesses. They can negatively impact the people they work with, as well as the bottom line. Often the problem lies not so much with the employee, but rather in a lack of clarity given to the employee about his or her responsibilities. 

According to the Blessing White 2008 study “The State of Employee Engagement,” employees at the lowest level of contribution need greater clarity about their tasks and the reasons for doing them. This is a two-fold issue:  first is the issue of clarity and second is the issue of understanding the reasons for what is being asked.

Being clear about what is expected of an employee means communicating in a manner that leaves no ambiguity about their responsibilities. Writing down goals and expectations, meeting with employees and discussing the expectations, answering their questions, and asking for and giving regular feedback will help ensure there aren’t any misunderstandings or lack of clarity.

But what if an employee doesn’t really understand why he is doing what is asked of him? What if he doesn’t see how his efforts contribute to the company? Or that his work is of any value?

Perhaps even more important than clarity about expectations is clarity about an employee’s value within the organization. Everyone, from the mailroom on up, needs to feel that they perform a necessary and important function in the organization. Spelling this out for your employees upfront, when they are first hired, can clear the way for immediate higher engagement.  And, reminding employees of their value, by pointing it out on an ongoing basis, will continue to elicit higher contributions from them.  But this value should be real.  If someone is not performing some necessary and important function in the organization, maybe the position should be eliminated.    

So, elevate employee engagement.  Be clear about your expectations.  And be especially clear about the value you place on your employee’s work.

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Would you shy away from using a business tool that entices the best and brightest of the largest segment of the world’s population?

Many business owners and managers fear social media type applications, believing them to be time wasters and distractions. But social media applications have many business benefits.  Perhaps most importantly, internal social media applications are going to be a key aspect of recruiting and retaining the next generation of business leaders.

About 18 percent of the global workforce is comprised of Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. An additional 7 percent of the workforce is made up of Traditionalists, or the Silent Generation, born between 1900 and 1945. In some companies, the percentage of these older workers is even higher.  At Dow Chemical, approximately 40 percent of its workforce is likely to retire over the next five years, according to Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance (Jossey-Bass, Publishing) by authors Arthur L. Jue, Jackie Alcalde Marr and Mary Ellen Kassotakis.

As this large generation retires, we face a “global talent shortage.” The urgency for succession planning has never been greater for organizations looking to replace large segments of their workforce. And the next generation is dramatically different from those who came before.

Retiring Traditionalists, who value security and stability, and Baby Boomers, who value teamwork and human rights, are being replaced by Gen X, who values empowerment and demands corporate responsibility. Born between 1965 and 1976, they make up only 14 percent of the population. Gen Y, or the Millenials, born between 1977 and 2000, comprise the largest segment of the global population, at a whopping 24 percent.  As they mature, and the Traditionalists and Baby Boomers retire, they are going to dominate the workplace. This group values technology, personal growth and social activism.

By far the biggest portion of the population, Gen Y was born into a digital world, connected to video games, computer programs, the Internet, and to each other since they could hold a keyboard.  Technically savvy, they navigate the ether world and its ever changing tools instinctively. 

The Millenial perspective on work is that: they work to live; they want to contribute and make a difference; their work must matter; and they trust people, not institutions. They see that career lifespans can be short, and they want to be flexible and creative with their careers.  They are connected outside of work, and they expect to be connected inside the organization, as well.  Seventy-seven percent say that social aspects at work are very important to their satisfaction on the job. They see digital connectivity as essential to communication, collaboration and productivity.  If they don’t find it with one employer, they will leave and go to another that does provide it.

Many organizations fear social media applications.  Yet, studies have shown that business-oriented social media applications contribute to productivity, including speedier idea generation and product development.

Progressive organizations that have adopted internal social media applications are seeing the many benefits, not the least of which is attracting the best talent from the up and coming, technologically connected workforce.

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The key to success with corporate sustainability programs is employee buy-in and engagement.   Park Howell, of Park&Co, recently wrote a blog post “Feeling all green and tingly inside: How to promote your corporate sustainability initiative internally”  that explored how some organizations are using sustainability programs to involve their employees in “greening” their organizations.

There are those systems, such as “Personal Sustainability Projects,” and “Green Champions,” that encourage employees to take small steps to reduce waste, water and energy use. Park went on to say how GreenNurture’s  online system not only helps other companies do just that but also rewards employees and allows them to pledge to “eco-actions,” or ways to improve efficiency in the workplace that are suggested by anyone in the organization. Other systems involve people within and outside the organization, as does Environmental Entrepreneurialism.

Small steps over time…

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Sustainability is a term that can be applied to just about any human activity.  Mostly used in reference to the natural world and man’s impact on it, sustainability can also mean those business practices that contribute to the lifespan of an organization.  Sustainability encompasses activity both within the organization, as well as its impact on the environment and people outside the organization.

Some indicators of “internal” sustainability include:  employee engagement, employee satisfaction, turnover and absenteeism rates, morale, levels of collaboration and communication.  These indicators may be more difficult to quantify than other “hard” indicators, such as financial data, but they measure aspects of an organization which ultimately impact the bottom line.

Absenteeism and turnover is significantly lower in organizations that have high levels of employee engagement, collaboration, communication and morale. To that point, engaged employees stay for what they give (they feel their job has purpose) and disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security) according to the 2008  Blessing White study titled The State of Employee Engagement.

Happier employees work harder, are more innovative, provide higher levels of customer service and contribute positively to the bottom line.  This synergistic cycle perpetuates the life of the company.

How can your organization create a sustainable culture?

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When it comes to having engaged employees, perhaps even more influential than an employee’s direct boss is the boss’ boss. According to Julie Gebauer, Don Lowman and Joanne Gordon, authors of Closing the Engagement Gap: How Great Companies Unlock Employee Potential for Superior Results (Penguin Group), the top driver of employee engagement is “senior management’s sincere interest in employee well-being.”   Yet while 75 percent of employees trust their immediate managers, only about half (53 percent) of employees trust their organization’s senior leaders, according to the 2008 Blessing White study The State of Employee Engagement.

How can senior management earn the trust of their employees and drive employee engagement?

Because senior managers’ main focus is on their direct reports, they tend to overlook employees at lower levels. While it may be difficult to enlarge the scope of senior management responsibility by dedicating more time and energy to lower level employees, it is certainly worthwhile.  Engaged employees contribute more to the bottom line, and their turnover rate is significantly lower.

The authors have devised five ways to increase employee engagement through more involved senior management.  Regarding lower level employees, senior managers need to:

1. Know them – As companies spend enormous resources analyzing the preferences and habits of their customers, so they should get to know what is important to their employees. This is the first step in getting employees to change the way they work and improve their level of engagement.
2. Grow Them – Creating a culture of learning that furthers the financial advancement of the company, while simultaneously giving professional and intellectual opportunities for growth of the individual, is paramount to stimulating employee productivity and engagement. 
3. Inspire Them – Employees want to feel like their work has meaning and value. Managers can inspire their employees by clearly setting forth their values and priorities and by creating a sense of pride in the work that they and the company do.
4. Involve Them – People give more to their jobs when they feel like active participants. Involving them includes informing employees about business operations and challenges; gathering employee input; encouraging collaboration with colleagues; and giving people freedom to act to further the mission of the company.
5. Reward Them – While pay and benefits are important and cannot be overlooked, appreciation and recognition are even more effective at boosting engagement.

Engagement is the key driver of overall organizational performance.  Reaching out to your employees, getting to know them as individuals, and being open, communicative and helpful is the most direct route to higher engagement.  

As Expeditors International of Washington Inc. CEO Peter Rose said to the Wall Street Journal, “You take care of employees. They take care of customers. And that takes care of Wall Street.”

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Last week’s blog post “The Challenge of Change” discussed the three steps to change as according to authors Chip and Dan Heath in their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Random House Inc.).

Of the three steps in bringing about change, the second is the most critical. That step is to appeal to the emotions, rather than to the reason, of the people you want to change. If someone agrees to make a change on an emotional level, from their heart, most of the work is already done, and the change will be lasting. That’s because decisions they make will come from the perspective of who they are and what someone like them would do if faced with a challenge like they are facing. 

Any effort at change that contradicts or violates someone’s identity is likely to fail.

The difficulty is finding out what appeals to the emotions of a variety of employees, and what they identify with, as each has his or her own needs and values.

According to the authors, one way to get a number of people “on the same page” emotionally is to create an identity that they all willingly adopt. One example they provide is of a can manufacturing company in Brazil. This company had been in business for many years and was doing well, but management wanted to take the company to the next level. They decided to address all their employees as “inventors” and to challenge them with being on the lookout for new innovations.  When new employees joined the company, they signed “Innovation Contracts.”  “Inventing” became a part of everyone’s job, even though most of the workers had no experience in engineering or mechanics.  Procedures were set up so that submitting ideas was easy.

In 2008, employees submitted 134,846 ideas – an average of 145.2 per inventor!  Most of the inventions were for new products and energy-saving ideas.

Another example provided by the authors was of an accounting department manager who was rigid and uncompromising when he was asked to alter his invoicing and funds disbursement system to accommodate some valued clients. It wasn’t until this manager was taken to the offices of one of their non-profit clients and saw first-hand how his system was negatively affecting them that he changed.  At that moment, he realized he was not being the person he wanted to be – he did not want to be seen, or to see himself, as the “problem.” He identified so much with being part of the “solution” that he became an advocate for them, rather than the opponent he had been, and he innovated changes to his accounting system above what had been requested of him.

Zappos, the online shoe sales company, has a rigorous hiring process, making potential employees go through several rounds of interviews and personality tests. When they have made it to the final stage, potential employees are offered a relatively large sum to not take the job. This last weeding out phase ensures that Zappos only hires the people who have the qualities they are looking for. Once hired, Zappos employees are a part of an exclusive group, with a strong identity of being one of the chosen few to work for the best company in that space.

Aligning the identities of your employees with the values and goals of your company will go a long way towards bringing about changes that last. How can your company reinforce or cultivate its identity and those of its employees to maximize employee engagement?

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You can argue for incremental change if things are good enough. Until they get bad enough, you can’t talk about transformational change.”

–Rick Stansley, chairman of the board at the University of Toledo’s Innovation Enterprises, as quoted by USA Today

Adaption and change are essential to the survival of species. They are equally essential to the survival of companies, especially in environments that are rapidly evolving, such as this “Great Recession” we are currently experiencing.

Yet making transformational changes can be one of the most difficult things an organization can undertake. Many people resist change, for a variety of reasons. They don’t like leaving their comfort zone. They don’t feel the need for or are afraid of change. They don’t see a personal benefit to change. Or they actively disagree with the change.

How do businesses successfully implement change? How do they overcome the resistance that commonly accompanies change? How can they make the changes last over time? According to Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Random House Inc.), there are three steps to implementing change:

1. Provide a clear, specific picture of the change to all those who are involved or affected

2. Appeal to the emotions, rather than to the reason, of those who are needed to implement the change

3. Outline the steps or provide a “script” for employees to follow when implementing the change

Providing a clear picture of what the changes will look like gets everyone on the same page. If only a few people in upper management understand what the changes are about, it won’t make any sense to those who are asked to implement the change. Not knowing what the end result is supposed to look like will keep people confused, resistant and immobilized.

But even if the changes are spelled out, illustrated, supported with facts and figures and presented to everyone in the organization, you can still find your organization at a standstill. That’s because the most important element of initiating change is to obtain emotional buy-in. Without emotional support, all the logic in the world will fall on deaf ears.

The power of emotion cannot be underestimated – it is the difference between success and failure in implementing change. In one non-profit, the board and staff had been conducting their affairs in the same way for the past 30 years. Everything was still done manually, without the use of computers. It wasn’t until the organization felt the pain of losing its endowment fund and closing its doors that they moved into the digital age and began to operate more efficiently, despite numerous attempts by a couple of newcomers to convince them to do so much earlier. Finding the right emotional motivator can be very challenging. Some people are motivated by risk aversion (losing market share, losing one’s job), others by the potential of growth (potential for career advancement, more income), and yet others are motivated by doing good (reaching more people who need the organization’s products or services). People can be motivated by multiple, changing emotions, which adds further complexity to the issue. Finding the right motivators is critical, however, even if it means repeated attempts to do so.

Once you have buy-in, you are well on your way! Now, you need to provide goals and steps along the path. Of course, situations are fluid so the steps should not be overly detailed, giving your employees the option to improvise, if needed. Follow-up and feedback are essential, too, until the changes have taken root.

Adapting and changing will not only help your company survive, but indeed thrive, in an ever-evolving environment.

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It seems so simple, almost as if it should go without saying.  But so many of us forget to do it that it is the number one reason employees quit their jobs.  What is this simple thing?  Recognition.  Recognition for a job well done on big projects as well as for small, daily contributions.

Studies have shown that the overwhelming reason people leave their jobs is because of bad managers.  A 2010 Towers Watkins Global Workforce Study showed that 80% of companies in 2009 said that leadership was a top driver for engagement. But “confidence in leaders and managers—particularly their competence and support—is low, especially in terms of interpersonal or “relational” (versus operational) aspects of their roles. Employees appear hungry for an emotional connection to their management teams that they feel is conspicuously absent right now. This is especially disturbing given the central role that leadership continues to play in driving employee engagement.” And the biggest complaint about leadership is that managers ignore their employees.  Why is this such a widespread, destructive phenomenon?

Managers are often not trained to become managers – many are promoted to management positions because they did their prior job well.  Of course, the skills for doing a particular job don’t necessarily lend themselves to knowing how to be a good manager.  Management primarily entails planning, directing, supervising, monitoring a group of individuals to accomplish goals and directives, but very few new managers are given adequate training for these new responsibilities.

It’s been said that it takes five compliments to outweigh negative feelings from a single criticism. That’s a lot of positive feedback to counteract the negative!  And yet, being ignored completely can be even worse than  being criticized.  People who are ignored by their managers dislike their jobs, and feel that they are not doing anything important.  They feel invisible, their productivity drops, and they are merely at their desks to put in their time until they can find a better job.

Engaged employees, those who like their jobs and who stay with their employer longer, feel like valuable members of a team, that their contributions count.  They are significantly more productive.  Studies have shown that the energy level of engaged employees stays high throughout the workday, while the energy level of unhappy employees falls dramatically from 9 a.m. until they are ready to go home, according to Tom Rath and James K. Harter, authors of Well-being: The Five Essential Elements (Deckle Edge).

In the 2008 Blessing White Study “The State of Employee Engagement,” the correlation between engagement and retention was clear, with 85% of engaged employees indicating that they plan to stay with their employer through 2008. Further, the study states that “engaged employees stay for what they give (they like their work); disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security).”

 The difference between happy, productive and engaged employees and those looking to find another job usually boils down to managers who recognize their employees on a regular basis, versus those who do not.  Some managers use salaries and titles to motivate their employees, but these have proven to be less effective over time than praise and recognition.

Recognition must be genuine and specific.  It must be tied to a particular act or accomplishment.  General statements, such as “good job,” are usually meaningless and ineffective. Better to say, “I really appreciate your comments in the meeting today – you gave us something to think about.”  And while praise should be given on a regular, ongoing basis, it must be sincere.  Saying something just to do so will sound hollow.  If you can’t find something positive to say, either work harder at it, or perhaps you actually have a problem employee.

Recognition for small things goes a long way towards keeping employees engaged on a day to day basis.  But if you want to motivate your employees to go to an entirely new level, consider combining praise with rewards.  Rewards can range from inexpensive gift cards given on a sporadic basis to larger, more expensive prizes for accomplishing major goals. 

Praise, especially when given publicly, combined with valuable rewards, can excite employees to go beyond their normal duties, to think outside the box, and to take “ownership” of their work.  Now, that’s employee engagement!

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Part III:  Today’s Idea Management and Employee Engagement Systems

Everyone is familiar with the image of the suggestion box as the front end of a trash can. Suggestion boxes are, by themselves, of little value. Reaping the benefit of “suggestions,” or, more generally, ideas, requires more than simply writing down a suggestion and putting it into a box. Indeed, the old fashioned wooden suggestion box has come to symbolize the failure of idea and suggestion systems in general. 

 Successful suggestion systems are much more comprehensive and share several common characteristics: 

• They are simple to participate in and all employees are actively encouraged to participate
• All ideas, not matter how trivial, are subjected to a structured process of evaluation that provides rapid feedback
• Ideas that are accepted are implemented as rapidly as possible
• Rewards–whether monetary, recognition or merit based–are made commensurate with the value or benefit of the idea 

Computers helped us in many ways move beyond the simple wooden suggestion box and slips of paper, serving as collection points with electronic forms and storage devices for ideas with databases. As the Internet took hold, organizations could rapidly and cheaply gather input from more and more people. 

Now, taking that process to a whole new level are the Web 2.0 tools, in particular social media tools. They have opened up the suggestion box to internal and/or external stakeholders, enabling robust idea management:  the inventing, refining, commenting on and rapid ranking of ideas in an open forum.

Companies can now make use of their organization’s collective intelligence, engage employees and, in Lincoln’s words, bring that collective intelligence “to bear on decisions as they are made,” in other words, in real time. 

Idea Management has become the replacement term for the suggestion box and associated suggestion systems. As a buzzword, Idea Management has been defined as the practice of gathering and evaluating ideas in a structured fashion, with a goal of selecting the best ideas with the greatest bottom-line potential for implementation.  

Indeed, all suggestion systems that provide benefits of any kind can more broadly be seen as “employee engagement” systems. Such systems foster the ongoing development of employee capabilities, create desire on the part of employees to use those abilities cooperatively for the benefit of the entire enterprise, and then provide the processes, tools and techniques for harnessing and mobilizing increased employee capability and desire. 

The wooden suggestion box was simply a primitive tool for gathering ideas. It was merely the tip of an iceberg. From the beginning, truly successful suggestion systems have relied on much more than just the wooden suggestion box:  They have been comprehensive employee engagement programs.

Read Part I and Part 2 of the Suggestion Box Series by Sally.

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It’s not pretty to those who even notice it.  Lined by a long chain link fence on one side and by walled-off tile-roofed houses on the other, the wash is by most accounts an unattractive, left-over piece of undeveloped desert scrub.  But to those of us who walk down the neighborhood drainage wash on a daily basis, it is our link to nature, to hidden beauty and to improved mental health.

Numerous studies have shown what many of us already know instinctively, if not subconsciously: being in nature is therapeutic.  I’ll admit that I can’t even start thinking about the day until I have been outside in the morning, either walking down the wash or hiking in the nearby mountains.  Being outside, whether I am actively looking for wildflowers, saying hello to the birds (I know where they all live now), or if I am not seeing anything at all for being consumed by my own thoughts, lifts my spirits and gives me clarity of thought. 

Children who are allowed recess outside show fewer discipline problems in the classroom.  Nursing home patients who garden are more sociable, have stronger focus and show higher levels of engagement.  But until now, no one knew how much green exercise it took to reap the rewards.

 Researchers at the University of Essex have confirmed in a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology that just five minutes a day of outdoor exercise contributes to mental health. 

 Improved mood and self esteem are greatest for the young and the mentally ill, but people of all ages and social groups benefit.

Just five minutes a day of outdoor exercise can improve our disposition, boost our self-esteem and focus more at work.  Urban parks and rural farms work equally well, but water seems to increase the benefits.

Businesses who want happier, more engaged employees can encourage their employees to get outside during lunch and breaks.  They can recommend nearby parks for employees to visit during lunch, or they can set up their own green areas.  Here are some suggestions for encouraging employees to get their five minutes of green exercise: 

• Set up paths through grassy areas around the grounds
• Plant flowers and shrubs along the walk way between office and parking lot
• Install a fountain

If changing the grounds is not possible, consider bringing some nature indoors:

• Use full spectrum light bulbs that mimic real daylight
• Bring live plants to the office and assign various employees to take care of them
• Consider a simple fishbowl with a single beta fish, or for the more ambitious, an aquarium with a variety of plants and fish

Reconnect with nature every day, even during work hours and have happier, more engaged employees.

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From October 2007 to January 2010, a mere 2.25 years, the face of Facebook changed radically.  It went from being a social media platform populated overwhelmingly (62%) by college students (18-24) to one dominated by the “working class” (those beyond college and out in the workplace).  In 2010, those aged 25-34 totaled 25% of Facebook’s user base and those aged 35-54 totaled 29%, for a grand total of 54% of Facebook’s user base.  And, if you include those over 55, the total is 64% of Facebook’s user base, a complete reversal of demographics.  In just 2 ¼ short years!    

 Here are the stats, direct from Facebook:

While Facebook grew a staggering 515%, from 20 million users to 103 million users, the numbers show a much faster acceleration of growth in the 35-54 demographic, as well as a huge change in the 55+ demographic last year. 

 There are many implications for this shift in Facebook’s user base.  However, one seems to stand out:  everybody is turning to social media. 

 Social media is no longer for the young.  Social media will soon be as ubiquitous as e-mail.

 In 2008, when Facebook, YouTube and MySpace were really beginning to build up a head of steam, many marketers were talking about a coming tsunami based on the age of social media users. The young, they pointed out, were becoming comfortable with the use of social media tools. The tsunami would occur slowly over the years as those young users grew older. Who could have anticipated that the tsunami would occur not over the course of many years, but literally within the span of a few short months? Virtually overnight everyone will be comfortable using social media tools to communicate and collaborate in ways no one has previously anticipated.

 What will this mean for the way companies communicate, not with the outside world, but within? 

It is very possible that the social media communication revolution will change communication patterns as much as or even more so than the Internet and e-mail.

 Businesses have a real opportunity here to  . . . start the conversation.

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We are so proud to announce our launch at DEMO Spring conference  today in Palm Springs.

The 6-minute presentation at 11.00 am was available on several feeds –the Ubergizmo live blog, Facebook, and via  a broad spectrum of tweets.

GreenNurture’s CEO, Derrick Mains talked of the central concept of GreenNurture’s application as the “virtual suggestion box” – and its tie-in with sustainability. As he stated (in today’s Phoenix  Business Journal), “We’re essentially launching a new market segment.”

DEMO is obviously an exceptional launch pad. (Go see why.) “As a start-up company, we could not think of a better way to introduce our technology than launching live at the DEMO Spring 2010 conference among the ranks of such previous DEMO presenters and technology giants as Salesforce.com, E*Trade and Symantec,” noted Mains.

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All life depends on water on our big “blue planet”, and while Earth is covered with it, only 1% of all the water on the Earth is actually drinkable.

Because of this, many feel that water will be the next ‘peak oil’ – water scarcity is no longer an issue that effects just the desert southwest, especially in times of drought, in the United States. The good news is that, when we understand and appreciate the importance of water — conserving it and protecting it — we can put less stress on our available water resources and make every drop count.

We tend to take for granted our access to safe, plentiful drinking water from our tap. UNICEF estimates that “over 900 million lack access to it and nearly half of those people are children.” This is why UNICEF is expanding its Tap Project nationwide for 2010. After debuting in New York City just three years ago, the Tap Project concept has caught on.

As part of World Water Week (which runs from March 21 through 27th) UNICEF is conducting the Tap Project to help raise funds for water, sanitation and hygiene programs. They are asking restaurants to sign up to participate and diners to donate $1 to UNICEF for the glass of tap water they usually enjoy for free. Restaurants and patrons can also donate online.

Funds UNICEF collects through the 2010 Tap Project will go to countries and areas UNICEF has identified as among the most in need, including Haiti.

“Clean Water for a Healthy World” is the theme for World Water Day 2010 (March 22nd). The overall goal of the World Water Day 2010 campaign is “to raise the profile of water quality at the political level so that water quality considerations are made alongside those of water quantity.”

In the US, our own water infrastructure received failing grades from the American Society of Civil Engineers last year. By being informed and having a voice in your local, regional and national water issues, businesses and individuals can help ensure safe drinking water for our future generations here at home.

In the workplace, businesses engaged in water conservation can not only save money, but make significant contributions to our secure water future. Learn more about water issues. Start with making every drop count.

Take back your tap and contact your local utility company or water management district/water management board for water conservation and water protection tips that are most useful for your community.

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Everyone is aware of how social media has taken the Internet by storm.

Facebook, the leading social media application, grew from 20 million US users in October 2007 to 103 million US users, about one third of the entire population, in January 2010.But not everyone is embracing it.

Today’s front page of the Arizona Republic ( “social media raise red flags for employers“) worries that “bosses have struggled with managing employees’ Internet access at work since e-mail and web browsers became part of the daily grind,” the article stated the additional fear driven by social media technology:

“The explosion of social media, which encourage users to spend a moment here and a moment there all day long, has given workers even more reason to use their office computers for personal activity.”

But is it really so bad? Will social media be merely another distraction to already distracted employees further reducing productivity?

There are three reasons why this fear is misplaced. You shouldn’t fear social media.:

1. If you are a CEO trying to create a workforce that responds rapidly to changing situations, taking initiative independent of the central management structure, without a lot of overhead.
2. If you want to design and implement a corporate system centered on constant improvement and change.
3. If you want to engage employees and unleash their experience and creativity to improve both products and process.

Welcome to the developing fields of collective intelligence and collaboration science. And welcome to the use of social media tools in the daily fabric of business.

James T. Lincoln, the founder of Lincoln Electric Company,  and one of the pioneers in employee engagement programs, succinctly stated the problem in 1946, saying that“Management, if it is to be the best obtainable, must be the collective intelligence of the whole organization.” (Yes, people actually had some useful ideas prior to social media!)

To harness this “collective intelligence,” Lincoln designed an “incentive management” system that enabled Lincoln to become and remain for more than 100 years the world’s largest manufacturer of arc-welding equipment and supplies.

A major limiting factor in the development (and exercise) of “collective intelligence,” however, was the limitations of paper and face-to-face communication systems.

Fast forward 50 years — the rise of the Internet. It’s how hundreds of millions communicate and collaborate on a scale previously unimaginable, leading scientists to focus on the processes of communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing that take place among all these connected individuals.

Take for instance what Dr. Thomas Malone, Director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence observes about intelligence gathering,:

“With new information technologies—especially the Internet—it is now possible to harness the intelligence of huge numbers of people . . . however, we need to understand what the possibilities are in a much deeper way than we do so far. The time has come make collective intelligence a topic of serious academic study.”

What does all this have to do with social media technology? Simply put, social media is the prime engine driving the rise of collective intelligence and collaboration networks. More and more businesses are turning to social media tools and methods to build internal communication tools that build on the strengths of applications like Facebook. Starbucks has been using a social media approach in My Starbucks Idea to ask customers for ‘big ideas, little ideas, revolutionary ideas.’ Services such as Idea Scale help a company tap into such ideas from the community.

Most CEOs have received advanced education in business processes which allow them to design successful manufacturing or sales outcomes. But few have received any training in fields of knowledge that will be necessary to understand how to deliberately design what MIT researcher Peter Gloor calls Collaborative Knowledge Networks leading to Knowledge Flow Optimization. Knowledge of how to use social media tools will be a critical part of know-how to create these new processes.

Fortunately businesses won’t have to spend much on training. Facebook users aged 55+ grew 922.7% in the last year, to 10% of all Facebook users. Amazingly, the 35-54 age group, (29%) is now the single largest demographic, replacing the 18-24 demographic, which was the largest (at 40%) at the beginning of 2009. It grew from 7M to 30M, while the 18-24 grew from 17M to 26M.

Businesses should not fear social media tools. Rather, they should embrace them as valuable ways to channel the collective intelligence of their employees.

So, all you CEOs out there, it is up to you to harness the power of social media to … start the conversation.

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