September 15, 2010
Hello World! Welcome to Concept Green’s Inaugural Blog!
Wow! Go-live…it’s finally here. We’re so pleased with the new Concept Green site, the look and feel, new logo, new everything. It’s a lot of heavy lifting to get a company re-branded while running a top-notch sustainability services firm. Many thanks to Portland, Oregon web design studio Cococello for their incredible creativity, technical savvy and project expertise. Without them, this effort would not have happened.
So Let’s Talk Sustainability. Organizational Sustainability.
Understanding Sustainability In Context
Where do you begin your sustainability journey? By thinking about your organizational boundaries and stakeholders. This provides the basis for looking at your organization within a broader sustainability context.
Where does your organization begin and end? These boundaries may be more fluid than you think.
How are your suppliers involved with your company? How about your customers? Your regulators? What is the “push” and “pull” of influence along this spectrum?
Start thinking about your organization’s boundaries as a permeable cell wall:
- The nucleus comprises the entities upon which you have direct control—typically, your legal corporate structure(s).
- Further out are those entities upon which you have significant influence—joint ventures, strategic alliances, supply chain, distribution channels and others.
- Extending the circle out even further are opinion leaders—the people and entities who form important opinions about your organizations. Opinion leaders include industry analysts, your customers, neighbors, communities, industry colleagues, social and environmental advocates and others.
And it goes both ways. Regulators certainly have direct influence over your operations. So do capital providers, climate watch groups, corporate governance organizations, analysts and neighbors.
Spheres of Influence
Think about how your organization interacts with different stakeholders. What are the spheres of influence and interdependencies?
Map this out to really see how your organization fits within a sustainability context and you’ve laid a solid foundation for your organization’s sustainability journey.
