Should management support the greening of their organisations?

This months B&T magazine (July 9th 2010) has posed the dilemma from a reader about how to turn management around to support basic environmental principles, rather than a crappy attitude that the individual employee should push through green initiatives at this workplace. This person is questioning his/her own personal concern and is asking “what can I do to change management attitudes, and is it really my look out to be an agent for change is this business?”

Well recently I have decided to champion some change in my own organisation. To be honest it’s quite possible that the greening of the business has already started within individual departments, so I think that would be a great place to start. The key for me is to up skill in this area, so I’m off to an AIM session to see what wisdom I may be able to absorb But to answer the big question of how you make management care; I would love to have an educated opinion and provide some first hand advice, however the most obvious influencer is the bottom line. Money talks to Management, CEOs, boards and share holders. Greener businesses also mean more supportive customers. Adam Joseph talked about the benefits from a consumer perspective earlier this year (Professional Marketing, “Sustainable Marketing & CSR: Just do it”, Adam Joseph, April-June 2010, page 30-31). Over the past ten years, environmentalism has become an increasingly important issue for consumers, Adam Joseph said, “the implications for marketers are wide-ranging and far-reaching:” Sustainability has become evident in the food market (eg, chocolate, coffee), and is emerging quickly within the fashion industry.

The most effective argument however is put forward by The Chartered Institute of Marketing http://www.cim.co.uk/resources/ethics/tbl.aspx who released the Business Case for Sustainability, this includes; (with my well thought out comments in brackets)

1. Compliance with sustainability reduces the risk of public disillusion, boycotts and negative press (saving money)
2. Sustainability helps to stimulate innovation and find new solutions in R&D (making money)
3. It creates a competitive advantage through customers wanting to buy from ethically minded companies (loyal money)
4. It generates cost savings, for example, locally sourcing produce saves transportation costs, creating a culture of reducing usage and wastage lower costs (more profit more money)
5. Companies that reduce their energy bill by 20% could add the same amount to their profit as a 5% rise in sales. (same as above)

So yes lets look out for the environment and promote a win win augment to the big guys. If we can show them they will look good, the business will look good, and the bottom line will look good, how could they possibly not support this?

Do you support an organisation or product because it genuinely cares about being green?