This oath I make freely, and upon my honor.

I just thought I'd give a little shout-out to the fine folks who put together the MBA Oath, an attempt to hold business professionals to the same standards of doing no harm to society as doctors, lawyers, and other trade professionals.

Check it out here.

On corporate responsibility

My bank does--and communicates--this well. USAA : Our Responsibility

On "shared value"

Michael Porter has become one of the greatest, most articulate advocates of business's increasing impetus to create shared value for the community as a means of competitive advantage. It's something that seems intuitive to us CSR/sustainability nerds, but has been thought anathema to good business by many for a long time. Porter also has some great publications on the subject, but I figured I'd link to the recent HBR interview, which sums up the articles nicely.

Rethinking Capitalism - Video - Harvard Business Review

Three on sustainability

They're maybe not as related as I generally like my aggregated links to be, but I need to clear out my backlog of links I've been meaning to share.

First (and oldest), a post on how the prices of PV are falling, but why it still doesn't make much sense despite the falling prices (hint: it largely has to do with the other associated costs).

Second, a piece on Walmart's decision to source with a more local/regional focus. The gist: assuming they stick to their word, we may have a battle on our hands of Homeric proportions.

Third, UNC's Morrison Residence Hall receives top billing in the EPA's first-ever National Building Competition. This link is particularly important to me, since Morrison's energy-efficiency initiatives were made possible by the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee, a student-run group established to manage the $4/student/semester fee passed by the Green Energy referendum. Full disclosure: I was one of the key people involved with the referendum, and an initial appointee to the committee once it was formed. The time I spent working with a handful of other dedicated students is still one of the most gratifying periods of my life, especially in the success borne of our efforts. This award, then, is the proverbial icing on the cake.

Now, I'll try to stop glowing and get back to you with more links forthwith.

What color is Triple Bottom Line sustainability?

A thought-provoking question from Joel Makower of GreenBiz.com. Just what color is the Triple Bottom Line? "Green" seems inappropriate, but is "blue"--as is suggested at one point--too loaded with political baggage? Is there a better term for folks concerned with the 3 P's (People, Planet, Performance/Profit)?

I'll be interested to see what emerges in the common lexicon.

"I think our problem is going to be: Are six acres enough?"

Fantastic news from out of Cleveland, with land-use management tactics that should be applied in every urban municipality.

Paper Life Cycles

CSRwire has published a press release for a new paper life cycle tool. Hopefully, this will be a useful tool for individuals and businesses hoping to go green with their paper, but not necessarily sure how to.

The actual site for The Paper Life Cycle.

Durham cares

No, not the (quite neat) charity, which matches individuals interested in volunteering with charities and non-profits based on skill/interest matching.

Rather, I'm referring to a pride-swelling summation from former DCVB-head Reyn Bowmann on the state of giving-through-volunteerism in Durham. As far as personal volunteerism is concerned, Durham is close to the top of the state in percent of citizens actively volunteering (33.3% to Asheville's 36.5%), but the tops in average number of volunteer hours per person (an impressive 49.4 hours averaged per person, versus the national average of 34.4 and North Carolina average of 30.6).

See the original (national) report here.

Sustainability as Savior

Apparently, sustainable business isn't just a passing fad. In fact, 93 percent of CEOs from 766 businesses surveyed said they think sustainability will be key to their future success, and 81 percent have incorporated it into daily operations in some form, a la Newsweek.

While I think that sustainability as a concept still isn't well understood by many in business, they're starting to catch on that strategic efforts to lessen environmental impact and improve communities can be, well, strategic.

the times, they are a-changin'

In sustainability news, HBR brings yet another report on how businesses are going to have to shape up or ship out on the sustainability issue, this time because of the ginormous disparity of values between current CEOs and the replacement crop.

Interesting times, these.

sister values

The more I read this list of tips to improve supply chain visibility from the Global Transportation Management newsletter, the more I think transparency and sustainability (along all 3BL dimensions) are analogues for one another. Really, they go hand in hand.

We'll take a few points and compare:

1. Accommodate Multiple Fulfillment Models.
Visibility solutions need to be highly configurable to accommodate all of the various fulfillment models in operation across the enterprise. [...] Supply chain visibility solutions that are flexible enough to accommodate multiple fulfillment models allow benefits to accrue across the enterprise and not within a specific product line or operational model.

Like supply chain fulfillment, sustainability is definitely not a one-size-fits-all model. It requires flexibility, meeting businesses' unique needs, and adapting to differing demands across industries, geographies, and business sizes.

2. Create an ‘Information Hub’.
Visibility solutions not only extend processes outside the four walls, but must integrate and aggregate key information from within the four walls of the enterprise. The ‘Information Hub’ creates a one-stop-shop for key order, shipment, and inventory information from all internal ERP, TMS, WMS and other inventory planning systems.

Having a central location for all data surrounding business-related activities helps not only track and manage a business's social and environmental footprint, but also aids in continuity in the event of turnover or promotion.

And we'll cherry-pick through the rest, but I think all points are pertinent.

3. Don’t Assume Data Quality.
Aberdeen Research recently conducted a survey and discovered that only 16% of Visibility implementations have data quality above 91%.

Always try for better data. If your data are corrupt, noisy, or just incomplete, you may be missing a big part of the picture regarding your business's impact.

6. Push Visibility Back to Origin

This should go without saying. Informational linkages back to the source mean easier, more complete tracking of your impact, especially if these informational linkages are high quality and automated.

7. Finally Manage Trading Partners with Scorecards.
The by-product of operational Visibility is a rich repository of supply chain data that can be aggregated across the enterprise and with all trading partners year after year after year.

Once you aggregate data on yourself and on your suppliers, you should aim to evaluate your suppliers with a well-defined scorecard at least once a year. If suppliers fail to meet sustainability goals, and if they can't be pressured to meet them, it's a big ocean out there, and rapidly increasing in size.

8. Track Landed Costs Along the Chain.
Aberdeen reports that companies that implement visibility are twice as likely to reduce total landed costs over the past two years.

This should go without saying. If you know what the impact of your business is along its chain and at each stage, then you can manage and improve it.


Again, I think the case could be made for any of the ten tips, but these are the most obvious ways in which visibility and sustainability are really complementary values.

The Great Gulf Debacle

I'm not going to get into a detailed opinion of the events that have taken place since mid-April, but I will voice my agreement over this bit of the whole mess--that a criminal investigation while the spill is still happening is making things worse, not better. I recommend a read for a much more detailed understanding of the argument, but here's a snippet:

"[I]magine being a hospital physician who discovers he is under criminal investigation for causing a situation—hard-to-control hemorrhaging or sepsis, perhaps—in which he is still desperately trying to save the patient. Suddenly, every decision—whether in treatment, testing, or diagnosis—would be haunted by possibly increasing the likelihood of going to prison after the episode is over."

Dis Orientation

I've just completed orientation for my summer fellowship. For those not familiar, I'm working with a non-profit that consults with small businesses and non-profits on Triple Bottom Line sustainability and how to improve their performance on the different dimensions of people, planet, and performance.

It was a long orientation, with a significant time investment (generally 9am to 9pm every day), but it was pretty superior, as orientations go.

Obviously, whenever you get together with a new group of people there are always ice breakers involved. Most of the time these are painful and contrived, but I actually think these folks did a decent job of keeping it casual and organic.

One question I appreciated quite well was thus: If you could change one and only one behavior of everyone around you, what would it be?

There were some great responses on composting, eliminating disposable water bottles, educating, and more. By the time it got to my turn, I was worried I'd have nothing left.

Still, having spent so much of my life in school buildings and windowless dungeons offices, I've been thinking a lot about how much harm our architecture is doing us.

In the end, I suggested that I'd like for people to better understand how our environment (both ecological and social) affects us mentally, physically, and spiritually, and how our use and/or abuse of it can harm or help us as individuals and as communities.

The purported reason school buildings all look like prisons is because windows are a distraction from learning. I have to say, though, that natural lighting helps keep the soul from being deadened by its surroundings. Plate glass windows in each classroom with sun tubes and exposure to outdoor and to constructive social time would do wonders for most kids (and adults in offices, for that matter).

Anyway, that's just been on my mind a bit, and I figured I ought to post an update on my silence while I'm waiting in this (naturally lit, open) office for a meeting.

Illegal Education

It's interesting that, despite the general trend of the long arc of history to bend toward justice (forgive me, Dr. King, for butchering your beautiful words), how generally xenophobic we're becoming. Take, for instance, this missive I received on international export laws and how they apply to international students. My international classmates are already having an incredibly difficult time finding internships in the US. It's not that the process of sponsoring an intern is that complicated, and it's not that it's expensive. Someone explained to me--in a more approving way than I'd have mustered--that it's because they use internships as funnels for employment, and to hire a non-citizen for a position, you have to prove that there was no qualified US citizen that you could have hired instead.

Frankly, I'm a fan of US citizens being employed, but I think it's pretty malicious to lure students here with scholarships and the promise of world-class educations, educate them with US resources, then refuse to hire them. Ultimately it hurts the US most, by choking out talented knowledge workers, and by wasting resources on a person who'll eventually be forced to leave the country for work (thus never paying back into the tax base). Even factoring out all moral arguments, it's fiscally irresponsible to treat international students and applicants that way.

Add to that, international students will probably no longer set foot in Arizona, since they can be stopped and detained until the Feds can prove their legal status on the basis of an assumption by a state or local police officer. Nope, no racial profiling going on there!

incomplete at best

A somewhat disappointing slideshow from HBR on the wage gap. In the end, it's not all that lucid or convincing.

an excellent opportunity

for MBAs with an interest in consulting, or for nonprofits in need of some business help.

The Micro Consulting for NC program offers (volunteer) North Carolina MBAs and needy nonprofits the opportunity to connect for some business consulting interchange.

2010 best places to work

The HRC has posted the 2010 best of the best--the Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their policies re: LGBT inclusiveness and parity. We Q's feel left out, but hey... if a company gets 100+, we're probably doin' ok, right?

wind energy controversial? still?

Thanks to AWEA for posting this article about a "controversial" wind farm in Wisconsin. As a fan of modern minimalist design, I suppose I'll never be on the same page about wind turbines being "ugly" (to me they're kind of a benchmark of beautiful design), and I've never heard a "jet engine" sound come from any so much as a heavy whooshing one. [ I am willing to stand corrected on that, since NC is wonky and I've never spent an extended amount of time near one. ]

One of the consistently frustrating things for me, as one interested in renewable energy technology, is the lack of quantification behind the claim of increased bird deaths. This article illuminates the data:

Since the turbines started spinning, the state Department of Natural Resources says it has recorded bird and other wildlife deaths attributed to the wind farm at a higher-than-average rate.

Dave Siebert, director of the DNR's energy office, said the national average for wind farms is slightly more than two bird deaths annually per wind turbine. As many as 10 deaths per turbine have been recorded at Forward.

Certainly, at a wildlife refuge (10/year/turbine) that's a significant amount, but the 2/year national average seems a bit... miniscule compared to other ways birds die, no? Is there no way to modify wind turbines to emit some sound or signal that would be heard by flying creatures within a certain range? The person who figures this out will make loads of money, I suspect.

On charitable giving

(gleaned from Steve Allen's blog)

This article suggests you DON'T give to Haiti.

An interesting (though not entirely beautifully written) piece. He makes a good point. For one thing, there are the points in his article [sketchy organizations, limited ability to use the funds currently, permanent earmarking of funds unnecessarily], but then there's also the 9/11 effect: people give more than is needed--usually to the Red Cross--and other charitable organizations suffer as a result. If you're thinking of texting to donate, consider just giving a $10 bill to your local charity or donating to a general fund, not a Haiti-specific one.

Thoughts?

[ author's note: if you would like to give to Haiti anyway, Google has put together a nice list of ways to do so, along with a--slightly voyeuristic--Google Earth satellite view of devastated areas. ]

oh dear...

the tragedies that look preventable in retrospect always feel worse. ugh.

Both Haiti’s endemic misery and the obstacles for rescue workers are in the spotlight. Earthquakes of similar magnitude have struck bigger cities in richer countries and claimed just a few dozen lives. But the absence of building codes in Haiti, as well as a severe wood shortage because of mass deforestation, mean that many structures in urban areas are made of thin, low-quality concrete. Such concrete is both prone to collapse and dangerous for those who are hit by it or buried beneath it. Ironically, some of the country’s poorest benefited from living in tin-roofed shacks, which were much easier to escape from.

Yet the majority of victims did not perish during the 35-second tremor. Ted Constan of Partners in Health, an American NGO, says that some 200,000 people were probably injured or trapped but not killed by the quake. He estimates that an additional 25,000 of them have died on each day that has passed since the tremor, as a result of treatable ailments such as bleeding, dehydration, suffocation and infection.

what black hole does our development aid fall into that Haiti's capital (and mark my words, countless other cities and capitals throughout the developing world) was in the sort of conditions that led to the deaths of tens of thousands? what exactly does our development aid go toward?