Sustainability Services

We show companies how to strategically design and integrate sustainable practices into their products, services, and processes, in their own facilities and throughout their supply chain.

For over 20 years we’ve been helping companies protect the environment, keep people safe, and deliver social value – the cornerstones of sustainability – while reducing costs, enhancing their reputation, and not just meeting, but exceeding the growing requirements and expectations of government, industry, and their customers.

Our approach is pragmatic – we can transform a sustainability strategy into a clear, achievable action plan, and then provide the expert technical skills to implement sustainable solutions.

Sustainability Roadmap

In helping corporations design and implement sustainability, we have found the roadmap typically follows this path:

1. Create strategy

Define Priorities: What areas matter to us from an environmental, social, and economic standpoint?
External Assessment: What are others doing, and what do customers and regulators expect of us?
Internal Assessment: What is our estimated baseline impact and risk (GHG, water, chemicals, hazardous waste, safety, community impact)?
Define Targets and Gap: What are our key targets? Gaps between current state and targets? What initiatives need to be put in place?
How Will We Make it Happen? Governance Structure, Resources, and Investments

2. Capture low-hanging fruit

Infrastructure: Put in place governance and measurement structure, including information system solution.
Baseline and Report: Perform detailed environmental inventory and put reporting structure in place. Draft first sustainability report.
Capture Efficiencies: Energy efficiencies and reductions, waste reduction or reuse potential, travel reductions, IT efficiencies, local green teams
Measure Results: Capture savings and environmental impacts.

3. Create market opportunity

Market Opportunity Assessment: What ‘green,’ sustainability, environmental, or social responsibility services or products do our customers want that we may not be delivering? What global, social, and environmental problems are emerging that we are in a unique position to address?
Product and Service Reformulation: How can we deliver our products and services in a more environmentally and socially responsible way?
Service Development: What services do our customers or target markets buy that could be replaced with a more sustainable service that we could deliver?
New Markets: Are we capturing market opportunity with developing market customers at differing price points?

4. Address stakeholder impacts

Supplier Responsibility: Assess supplier labor, economic, and environmental status and requirements. Perform supplier audits and manage corrective actions. Determine future sourcing requirements. Address supplier community impacts and development.
Public Advocacy: Is our public policy and advocacy position consistent with our responsibility goals?
Partnership Strategy: Engage in industry and other partnerships to standardize and drive more efficient change. Expand NGO and government partnerships to create market, political, and customer opportunity.
Customer Influence: Enhance brand loyalty and sustainability impact through engagement with customer or customers’ customers behavior.

Sustainability services that we offer

Sustainability Strategy

Environmental and/or social responsibility strategies and implementation plans
Market studies
Stakeholder analysis
Communications strategies
Employee training

Environmental Impact Analysis And Reduction

Direct and indirect greenhouse emissions
Direct and indirect energy consumption
Water consumption and quality
Solid waste (hazardous and non-hazardous) and packaging
Green chemistry and toxicity footprinting

Sustainability Data Management and Communication

Environmental and/or social responsibility data collection, analysis, and reporting
Reporting based on standards such as GRI and UN Global Compact
Data management software selection and/or implementation

Supplier Responsibility

Supplier or global responsibility strategy and standards development (including environmental, health and safety, and social welfare)
Auditing and corrective action oversight
Other voluntary corporate or industry standards compliance (including EPEAT, EICC, and PSCI)

Sustainable Buildings

LEED assessment, auditing and certification
Operational efficiency analysis and implementation
Design for environmental, health, and safety

Standards Development or Assurance

Environmental and/or social responsibility standards development
Standards auditing or implementation that go beyond compliance, including ISO 26000, EPEAT, EICC, PSCI, and other voluntary standards

Product Responsibility

'Design For Environment’
Lifecycle analysis
Environmental product declarations or subcomponents thereof (product environmental, safety, or social responsibility analysis)

Social or Community Responsibility

Human rights
Labor practices
Local community impacts

How we help

While we have experience in all four of the path elements outlined here, we specialize in the following areas:

Strategy development
Environmental impact measurement
Sustainable buildings/LEED
Reporting and data management
Supplier responsibility measurement, standards, auditing, and implementation

We have particular technical expertise in the high tech, biotech, solar, and manufacturing industries.