CT Green Scene

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Corporate Sustainability: Employees Want the Change

Via Fresh Marketing

"It's a new era for business:  more and more business leaders recognize that their company's future is increasingly intertwined with the needs and demands of society.  What many executives don't understand is how best to manage that changing relationship."

New research by Fresh Marketing reveals that employees are embracing the principles of corporate social responsibility - they want the change and they are looking for ways to bring their values to work. The research also reveals the uncertainty felt by executives over how to successfully address the environmental, and social impacts of their businesses.

Fresh Marketing has engaged many peers and business leaders in this conversation over the past few years. With the goal of supporting employees, we conducted the Corporate Sustainability Employee Study, a 9-minute online survey, in the first quarter of 2008. Study sponsors included Re:Vision, Kelley Campaigns and Natural Logic.

Addressing the environmental, social and economic impacts of business, or corporate sustainability, includes many areas that run deep and wide in an organization.  This can include eliminating waste in the supply chain, reducing the carbon footprint of office buildings, ramping up corporate wide volunteer programs, ensuring that all workers are paid fair and equitable wages and reducing the toxins or harmful ingredients in products. 

The 2008 Corporate Sustainability Employee Study reports on data collected from 129 employees from a range of large corporations to small and medium enterprises. 

To delve more deeply on this topic, we also held in-depth conversations with thought leaders and willing employees. 

Those who agreed to be quoted include interviews conducted with:

Michael Dupee - Head of CSR, Green Mountain Coffee
Tavia Bentley - Community Affairs Executive, PriceWaterHouseCoopers, UK
Amy Hall - Director of Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher
Justin Smith - Business Development Manager, Domtar 
Catherine Sanders - Project Manager, Morningstar, Inc.
Dianne Dillon-Ridgley - Board Member, Interface

Email: Saaron@freshmarketing.com for the full report.

Green Jobs, Green Jobs, Green Jobs

We've made a modest attempt at listing green jobs in Connecticut with that little widget on the right hand side bar, and from the number of email inqueries we receive, it's clear that lots of you are out there looking.

So...here's a wee roundup:

Vertrue, with offices located in Norwalk has at least a half dozen positions open.

The Stamford Nature Center needs a Head of Media Relations and Marketing. Contact Kate Combs, 203-977-6522. kcombs@stamfordmuseum.org.

Early Childhood Educators needed in totally green facility in Stamford.

Sustainable Business has the following positions listed:

-Solar Installer, Milford

-Green Building/Sustainability Consultants, Norwalk

-PV Sales, Milford

-Environmental Engineer, Farmington

Sleep Better with IKEA

Last year, Sweden-based IKEA launched an initiative called “Bag the Plastic  Bag.” 

The  goal was to reduce the more than 100 billion plastic  bags used annually in the United States. Beginning March 15, 2007,  they began charging customers 5 cents for every plastic bag; they  also reduced the price of their durable, reusable IKEA blue bag from  99 cents to 59 cents. 

And, to make it a win-win for everyone, all proceeds from the plastic bag sales are donated to American Forests, the  nation’s oldest non-profit citizens’ conservation organization.   IKEA North America has partnered with American Forests through the  Global ReLeaf Tree Planting program and over ten years, has planted 
more than 500,000 Global ReLeaf trees in environmental restoration  projects.

So how much  money has been raised by selling the plastic bags, by what percentage were they able to reduce the number of plastic bags used, and what are their plans for the next phase of the “Bag the Plastic Bag” program?  (The  goal was a 50% reduction in bag usage, but it’s projected that that they surpassed expectations.) Stay tuned or read on for reasons why banning plastic bags is vital.