“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” ~Martin Luther King
At the beginning of each year we get together as a team to refine our strategy; this year we also set time aside to confirm our values. I wanted us to cement our values to be a driver for everything we think, do and say, and ultimately help with any the decisions we need to make. The Rotary’s four way test is a great example of what I had in mind to achieve for our team. After a fun session of debate and deliberation, the team agreed on: authenticity, growth and respect as our key drivers.
Each of these resonates deeply with us on a personal and business level. When stuck with a decision, it really helps to use these values as a guide. The other day we had a meeting with someone in the ‘environmental’ space. Being environmentally conscious has always been a key focus for us, which is evident from the long list of clients and projects that we are involved with. We were therefore keen to hear more. The innovation is impressive. Unfortunately, it is imported from China, and shipped over, having an enormously high carbon footprint associated with it. When asked how they justify this carbon footprint, they said they rather don’t think about it and avoid the question. During the conversation it also became evident that they were purely after our database of clients and had no interest in the work that we do. Having our values in place, we could then very quickly ascertain: authenticity, this company had none, how can you be in the ‘environmental’ space and justify importing a product via a high carbon footprint and a potential for oil pollution? Respect, there clearly wasn’t any for the environment or for our business.
This was an unfortunate incident. There are sadly, many businesses out there who say that they wear a ‘green’ hat, but do they really? Does the environmental ‘gene’ filter through all the different business areas? Getting to the bottom of these answers, we saw this as a great opportunity to leverage off our successful methodology of our reputation measurement tool, the Repudometer®, and give it a green filter to find out whether an organisation is perceived to be as green as they think and say they are. So, in order to provide greater reputation management support, we recently launched our “Sustainability Check” where we assess how environmentally conscious and responsible an organisation is perceived to be. We help companies to check whether their stakeholders are aware of their sustainability commitments and can then pin point gaps which the business can then use to up their green game.
We are seeing the pressure everywhere, on a personal level we are feeling it with the water restrictions in Cape Town, and on a business level where ‘green consumerism’ is becoming a lot more significant. Contributing to the green economy is becoming non-negotiable.
How can we become more environmentally mindful? It does sometimes feel a bit overwhelming of where to start and what to do. Extreme adventurer Braam Malherbe’s latest initiative is focussed just on that, encouraging people to ‘do one thing’ (DOT) for the environment. He and Wayne Robertson have set out to row (unaided) from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro. They have also developed a DOTChallenge app, where you can log your ‘DOT’ for the environment and also challenge others to get involved and to log their DOTs. There are great, easy to implement, ideas of how you can do one thing each day. Personally, my ‘DOT’ and challenge to everyone is to stop using straws. Also, consider showering with a bucket and use the grey water for watering your plants, this will really make you a lot more conscious of how much water can be saved and reused on a daily basis.
From a business point of view, the greatest negative environmental impact in a typical office set up is from the energy consumption from computers running throughout the day. The carbon dioxide emissions associated with this high rate of energy consumption is exorbitant. For every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy consumed approximately 700g of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. A desktop uses an average of 200W per hour and will run eight hours throughout the working day. This equates to a total of 175kg of carbon dioxide released per year for one desktop*. What is interesting too is that standby mode uses energy as well. The best is to turn off all technology at the end of the day.
As part of our values we’ve linked our own Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiative to being more green-minded. One of the things that we are doing this year is instead of buying flowers for someone’s birthday we are rather opting to invest in the future. We are buying a tree for a reforestation project through Greenpop. I encourage you to have a look at their projects and see how you, as an individual or how your organisation can get involved to help them contribute to a sustainable future.
Keen to continue the reputation conversation? Join Regine on Twitter @ReputationIsKey or Facebook www.facebook.com/yourreputationmatters. Reputation Matters often host information sessions including internal narrative develop as a topic. Visit www.reputationmatters.co.za for more information.
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