“Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – a strong sustainability story is a necessity for any reputable company in 2012.” — Andrew Ure - Ogilvy Earth
Lee Stewart is the Principal Consultant, Sustainability Lead for Fujitsu Australia and is also the global practice lead for Sustainability Consulting. His role at Fujitsu is to lead sustainability consulting engagements, implement IT Sustainability Frameworks and Strategies that help reduce the impact of IT on the environment while also delivering true business benefits to customers.
Why develop sustainable practice in the business?
There is a definite business opportunity for Fujitsu and it is an area where we are global leaders and excel in. Other drivers include rising energy costs, increasing use of IT, and digital storage needs – all are major issues for the industry. Energy costs alone are becoming a limiting factor for growth for many companies. Especially in large companies there can be significant savings unlocked by having a ICT Sustainability Strategy and Framework.
In what ways has your company implemented sustainable practices?
Globally Fujitsu has been implementing sustainable business practices since the late 1930’s. Where we had a park style design for a factory in Japan through to more recent practices of zero waste in factories, ISO 14001 certification and the development of sustainable data centres. Locally we have a robust policy that includes ambitious targets for our office energy, energy efficiency in our data centres, travel, paper and waste reduction, and renewable energy.
What has been your biggest hurdle so far when considering sustainable practices for the business?
I can really only speak for our customers in relation to ICT sustainability; I see the biggest hurdle is the visibility of the ICT energy bill. According to our global research less than 15% of CIO’s and Senior IT managers know their ICT energy spend. Unfortunately that figure is only 1% in Australia. Given that for some organisations ICT energy can account for over 50% of their total energy and emissions for the IT industry to become sustainable this practice needs to change.
What excites you most about the sustainability movement in business and what are your personal hopes for industry adoption?
I straddle the unique and exciting area of technology and sustainability. Both are fast moving and driven by innovation and then need to really think outside the square. There is something new and innovative happening almost daily in these industries which is really exciting. I also really enjoy the working in the community of dedicated sustainability professionals who are all ready and willing to share information and support each other.
What are your predictions for sustainability as a role discipline?
The role and discipline will continue to be extremely diverse and challenging in the next few years. As a profession we are usually the lone outpost in organisations and those that are successful will be the good communicators, networkers and speak the business language of the industry they operate in. We are well position to be provide guidance, agitate for, and be catalysts for, organisations implementing and achieving “sustainability” and ultimately better performance.
Turning Green is a recruitment and executive searchfirm specialising in the corporate responsibility, energy efficiency, carbon and environmental markets. Managing Director, Lisa Tarry, is a member of the Advisory Board for the Australian Sustainability Conference & Exhibition. Here Lisa addresses a few questions we put to her about careers in sustainability and how the industry is evolving.
How long has Turning Green been around and how have you seen market demand change in that time?
Turning Greenwas set up in 2008 and in the first years we saw a demand for consultants of all disciplines – environmental, sustainability, climate change strategists. These roles focused on auditing and reporting requirements. The GFC saw organisations look more at efficiency projects around water, energy and waste and this opened up opportunities for technical professionals and we also saw an increased uptake of post-graduate courses in Environmental Management, Sustainability and Carbon Management.
The main gap for Australia has been at the strategic level which has seen many senior professionals move into the not for profit and industry association arena where their skills could be utilised to affect change. Demand for more strategic roles will now increase as a result of the carbon tax and clean energy plan, and as momentum builds there will finally be a need at the top end and gaps will emerge.
What skill sets and personal attributes do you see employers favouring in sustainability roles?
The Turning Green Sustainability Roles & Salary Survey highlighted 22% of 400 respondents operate in a stand-alone capacity. Assuming this to be the status quo for the immediate future, sustainability professionals face continued pressure to be across a number of key areas.
Technically they will need a good grasp of the impact their organisation has on the environment through its operations, which requires a good understanding of the impact of waste, water, energy, packaging and lifecycle analysis for goods and services. They will need to find innovative solutions in all these areas appropriate to the industry sectors they are operating in.They will need to minimise any skills gap within a range of fields, including legislation compliance, emissions trading, renewable energy, risk management, sustainability principles, governance and disclosure, carbon management, CSR program implementation and communication and marketing. The more multidisciplinary the approach is, the more we can recruit people with a sustainability mindset that will be of great benefit to the organisation.
What are your predictions for sustainability as a role discipline?
I think that leading companies will develop innovative products, processes and business models to meet both financial and non-financial objectives. Embedding sustainability into core business will see corporate decision-makers balance investors’ expectations of financial performance along with the non-financial performance demands (environmental, social and governance) of other stakeholders.
This is inevitable as it becomes common practice to distinguish between “normative” and “business case” CSR intentions (ie, altruistic rationale or “doing the right thing” versus purposefully designing and implementing a CSR strategy for competitive advantage).
Sustainability is very much the key philosophy of CSR, driving companies to act for the long term good of all stakeholders and they correspondingly therefore must be able to account for their actions within this framework.
What excites you most about the sustainability movement in business and what are your personal hopes for industry adoption?
What excites me most is being mindful and present as this era unfolds and witnessing the changes that ensue. Whilst the industrial revolution changed our quality of living, what we now know about climate science, finite resources and how we can better care for our planet leaves us with no excuse but to act accordingly. It’s fascinating to watch how innovation applied in the corporate world can result in positive change that enables continued growth but in a sustainable manner. This is not easy and the question of whether economic growth and sustainability can co-exist is continually debated.
I am also excited by the increase in industry adoption, in a growing trend whereby many countries have begun requiring companies to report their environmental, social, and governance performance. There is now evidence to show that reporting actually induces companies to improve their non-financial performance and contribute toward a sustainable society.
Find out more about Turning Green.
We’re pleased to welcome Zero Waste Australia as an Event Partner for Australian Sustainability.
A leading Australian NGO, ZWA’s mission is to advise, coach, facilitate, fund, cajole and persuade Australian businesses and households to adopt new sustainability practices in relation to waste.
As one of Australia’s leading sustainability practitioners, ZWA CEO, Kellie Walters also joins the Advisory Board for the event. After spending 15 years in key government sustainability roles, she has recently taken up the role of CEO with ZWA. Kellie’s strengths lie in translating government programs, funding and regulation into economically viable business opportunities in the sustainability sector. We look forward to benefiting from her expertise!
She and the ZWA team firmly believe that the future is about eliminating waste from the world’s production streams, rather than just waste management.
ZWA will be exhibiting on Stand #1464 at the Australian Sustainability Conference & Exhibition on 8 & 9 November 2012 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Keep up to date with other event news, speaker announcements and join the discussions on Twitter, Facebook!
Australia’s first zero-carbon housing project - the proposed Cape Paterson Ecovillage in South Gippsland, Victoria - suggests we have reached a tipping point, where it makes sense to invest in carbon neutral housing.
With the rising cost of energy, water and oil and the decreasing cost of sustainable systems like solar panels, is building green becoming a financially superior proposition?
Project Director, Mr Brendan Condon, initially believed its high environmental standards would entail a large price premium for residents. But this was not the case, according to a Zero Carbon Study conducted by the Ecovillage Partnership and a subsequent peer review commissioned by Sustainability Victoria in 2011.
The report included a cost–benefit analysis of the buildings’ sustainability features from a consumer’s perspective.
If I am building and I spend an extra $30,000 on sustainability features in my new home, [the report shows] I am going to get a return on that investment.
Anthony Szatow - Independent Consultant & Author, “Zero Carbon Study Peer Review”
So, have we reached a tipping point where the financial benefits of building and living sustainably outweigh the costs?
(Source: ecosmagazine.com)
We are thrilled to announce that Environmental Building Supplies (Carbon Green Group) have signed up to be part of the Australian Sustainability Conference & Exhibition.
They conduct energy audits and offer a range of products and services to reduce clients' carbon footprint, helping them to save on electricity costs by providing a range of energy saving products including LED lights and solar hot water.
This seems particularly pertinent in light of the results from a UN-backed research survey showing that financial “short-termism” is continuing to prevent companies from becoming more sustainable. A low awareness of the potential financial benefits of greener practices was one of the main reasons cited for the lack of action.
Case in point…an energy audit and recommendations from Environmental Building Supplies has - in most cases - resulted in their clients being cash flow positive from day one.
Either businesses need to be more open-minded, or sustainability providers needs to be more vocal!
(Source: businessgreen.com)
In a positive step this week to address alleged complicity in a long string of human rights violations in its supply chain, Apple - for the first time - disclosed the names of most of the suppliers in its supply chain.
Whatever the reason for the disclosure, the fact remains that Apple is several years late. In the apparel sector, such disclosures have been common practice for some years now with Nike being the first to make a full disclosure of suppliers in 2005, followed by Levi Strauss, Gap and others. Hewlett-Packard disclosed their supplier list with their 2007 Sustainability Report
Elaine Cohen, CSRwire
Despite the time it’s taken Apple to make this move…better late than never, we think.
Read more at CSRwire.
(Source: csrwire.com)
The highly anticipated climate change conference was held in Durban last week, and has passed with a mix of outcomes.
A major milestone in climate change has been achieved through a collective agreement to see a new global treaty to limit greenhouse gases by 2020. The treaty will be back by legal force, however what this involves is yet to be defined.
“The deal managed to bring major emittors like the United States, China and India into a roadmap to secure an overarching gloabl deal” says Chris Huhne, MP and Climate Change Secretary UK.
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, president of the talks: “No one can walk out of this room and say we don’t care about climate change”
Despite this outcome, some details remain unclear. The scale of cuts, by who and by when is still yet to be decided.
Major gains have been made by establishing a global agreement on a pathway of how to cut global emissions, but the closure of the deal lacks some urgency and required detail around how this will be achieved.
Read more on this report at www.bbc.co.uk
(Source: BBC)
“
We live on a planet - there’s just one of them.
We need to wake up to the fact that we don’t have any more, and this is a finite planet. We know the limits of the resources we have. We may be able to use them differently, we may have some innovative new ideas, but in general, this is what we’ve got - there is no more of it.
There’s a basic equation which we can’t get away from. Population times consumption has got to have some kind of relationship to the planet - and right now it’s simply not equal. Our works shows that we’re living at about 1.3 planets. Since 1990, we crossed the line of being in a sustainable relationship to the planet. If we were farmers, we’d be eating our seed, or bankers, we’d be living off the principle, not the interest.
” —Jason Clay, WWF
TED Talks
(Source: ted.com)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change present The Durban Climate Change Conference | 29/11 - 9/12
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban 2011, brings together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society. The discussions will seek to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached at COP 16 last December.
Want to be a part of the discussion locally? Sustainable Business Australia will be hosting a Sydney-based event next Tuesday, 13th December, to discuss the outcomes of the UNFCC Conference.
Key members of the business community will participate in a special panel discussion to examine the technological, financial and legal ramifications of the Durban conference. Participants will include Felicity Rourke, Partner, Norton Rose; Brett Janissen, Director, Meta Economics Consulting Group; Sheree Hardy, Principal Consultant, Sustainability & Climate Change, ERM; Katrina Pollard, Hidro +.
Register to attend the SBA Event
(Source: unfccc.int)