What does it take to plot a path to a sustainable business?

Tomorrow's company will be environmentally sustainable* - or it will not survive. In this conviction we invite you to join us in a collaborative research programme into how such a major strategic transition can be planned.

The SUSTAINABLE COMPANY PROGRAMME brings together collaborative research with organisations in different sectors of business and the economy. The aim is to explore how to become sustainable and competitive at the same time.
 

About the Programme

Summary

Our purpose is to answer the key question -
How can individual businesses plan to become ecologically sustainable?
This is a more demanding aim than current policies of "continuous improvement" which do not ask how far the planned improvements measure up to the challenge of actual sustainability. To answer this key question we are developing collaborative projects with individual organisations operating in different sectors of business.

Aims

1. To clarify practical and feasible paths towards environmental sustainability for individual organisations
2. To develop a set of tools (e.g. guides, presentations, learning designs) which can be used by organisations planning for environmental sustainability.
3. To assess the effects of government and industry policies and actions in helping or hindering individual organisations in their progress towards environmental sustainability

Method

The major method we propose is Collaborative Research. This involves our working collaboratively with individual companies who wish to take steps towards environmental sustainability of their own business, through a series of joint projects, making full use of available information resources and dedicated pre-project research. As in all collaborative research, the detailed methods employed are agreed between the partners with a view to assessing -

• the sustainable and unsustainable aspects of the business,
• how to move to a fully sustainable business,
• strategic opportunities, such as innovation, resource savings and market leadership,
• the obstacles in the way,
• the synergy to be gained from integrated social, economic and environmental development.

Project Phases

The proposed model involves a number of successive phases, with the collaborating company being invited to commit to one phase at a time on the basis of the results so far and the project team's estimates of time and cost for the next phase.

The main phases are likely to be -

1. SCOPING
2. SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW
3. REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVES
4. STRATEGIC & FINANCIAL EVALUATION
5. ACTION PLANNING & FOLLOW-UP

Strategic Opportunity

Such a project is an opportunity to review the company's strategic response to the inescapable business challenge of the 21st century - how to serve customers profitably while safeguarding our common life support system. Spin-off benefits of being among the first who are taking up the challenge can include optimisation of natural and human resources, competitive advantage, technological breakthrough, economic leadership and political influence.

About the Team

Edwin Datschefski specialist in sustainable product design concepts, founder of Biothinking International (www.biothinking.com), consultant & trainer to many leading business & public organisations, writer on sustainability, former director of Business and the Environment.

Tony Emerson researcher & consultant on the human resource implications of sustainability and the environmental aspects of transport & company travel planning. Principal, Travel Light (www.travellight.org)

Dr Robert Holmes spent 15 years directing & working with leading environmental consultants Specialisations include Geology, Geochemistry, Waste Mgt, Water Resources, Environmental Audit, Tourism. Principal, Holmes Environmental (www.holmesenvironmental.co.uk)

Goodspeed Kopolo Sustainable Development consultant, currently specialising in climate change issues, clean development mechanisms, emissions trading. 18 years in UNIDO managing international technology transfer programmes.

Andy McGeeney Eco-Management Consultant with a background in Change Management and Facilitation, combining the soft skills of enabling change and innovation with scientific & technical expertise on environmental sustainability. Also a Wildlife Photographer and Writer.

Peter Martin Organisational change and sustainable development consultant for10 years; now a director of brainwaves, specialising in research into attitudes and perceptions as a basis for integrating customer values into business strategy

Bruce Nixon Facilitator of organisational learning & transformation, specialising in whole system change processes, management & leadership development, mentoring senior managers and the impact of global forces on the company (the subject of his latest book).

Romney Tansley Organisational Development & Training Consultant. Works on staff travel planning with other aspects of business strategy and environmental policy. Investors in People adviser, Principal of Travel Light (www.travellight.org)

Penny Walker Facilitates sustainable solutions to challenges in the private, public, academic and voluntary sectors. Experienced Natural Step Trainer, has advised govt & parliamentary bodies. Former Local Campaigns Director, Friends of the Earth. Works with Forum for the Future

Sally Watson Research Fellow, Hydrogeology Group, University College London. Worked as a hydrogeologist in the Water industry and for a firm of consulting engineers. Currently researching implication of European Water Framework Directive for groundwater contamination

Ross King Managing Director, CSEM
Established the Environmental Management Centre and its successor the Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Management. Worked on comprehensive seminar and Masters programmes in environmental and sustainable management at both centres and launched new approaches and practices in the field. Has worked on a range of collaborative projects with industrial and public organisations.

Strategic Collaborative Research

In a collaborative project, the objectives, steps and methods are agreed jointly by the collaborating organisation and the research team, information is shared and checked jointly at each stage and conclusions are jointly agreed. The research team does not make recommendations unless asked, as the organisation is in a position to decide how best to use the knowledge gained in order to achieve organisational goals.

This approach was pioneered by Professor Elliot Jaques at the Brunel Institute of Organisation & Social Studies. It can be particularly useful for investigating strategic questions in business and public service organisations because it enables real life issues to be researched in a way which both produces practical options for the organisation and enables socially useful knowledge to be built up and tested by the research team. It can provide more realistic and practicable information than arms-length survey methods drawing on the views of uncommitted informants.

Organisation & Administration

Management
The Sustainable Company Programme (SCP) is directed by the Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Management (CSEM ), an independent Centre for Education, Training, Research and Consultancy in the field of Sustainable Management. CSEM is the successor of the Environmental Management Centre (formerly located at Brunel University) and is run by the same people (Ross King and his many Associates).

Origin
The Programme was initiated within the Sustainable Development Network (SDN) of AMED (Association for Management Education & Development) and maintains an ongoing association with the Network. Most members of the SCP team are members of SDN as well as Associates of CSEM .

Funding
Funding for each project is sought from the company involved, taking account of the considerable strategic benefit to them of engaging in such a study. Complementary external funding will be sought as appropriate to cover extraneous parts of the programme and for work with organisations unable to meet all or part of their project costs.

Responsibility

• Members of the SCP team work on the programme as autonomous Associates of CSEM .
• Programme and Project Supervision is the responsibility of CSEM's Director of Research
• Project funding and finance is channelled through CSEM .

Confidentiality and IP
Commercial confidentiality regarding information obtained in the course of a project is assured by the individual Associates and by CSEM . Agreement to include project outcomes in publications arising from the programme (in non-attributable form if desired) is sought from collaborating organisations at the outset. Intellectual property of material arising from projects will be shared by the associates involved in its origination, the company and CSEM .

Information
For further information e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it