Forbes.com recently published a very interesting essay that was written by Nick Main and Joseph Stanislaw. In the article, the authors correctly note that every company must be energy-conscious in order to achieve maximum profitability.  “Energy consumes a significant portion of an enterprise’s spending, accounting for 5-20 percent of a typical company’s costs. Yet, many organizations have a poor understanding of their energy consumption and how to reduce it. Their unawareness of how they consume energy is analogous to an individual paying for a grocery cart full of food at the supermarket, but without knowing what is in the cart or how much any individual item in the cart costs…..There’s no reason for companies to wait a decade – or even a year – to move towards an energy strategy.” Until a company acknowledges that energy consummation is a reducible expense, it will continue to unnecessarily expend resources that it…

A follow up on Stakeholder Influence on a Company’s Public Reporting  Participating in integrated reporting does not necessarily mean a company is sustainable. Integrated reporting- reporting that goes beyond traditional financial statements to include information about a company’s impact on the community and the environment- is only a means for a company to express their sustainability measures, although some companies who do voluntarily provide such information can misconstrue their actual practices. Environmental Leader recently wrote an article on research conducted by a management professor at the University of Notre Dame, Sarv Devaraj, and a 2010 MBA graduate student at Notre Dame, Suvrat Dhanorkar, which compared the relationships between the statements companies made regarding “their beliefs and actions on the dimensions of sustainability” and the actual performance of these companies on these sustainability dimensions. To measure such relationships, Devaraj and Dhanorkar correlated a company’s annual 10-K report and the statements they…

Energy is the telecommunications industry’s biggest operational expense. For example, a large cable television company can spend more than $300 million on electricity annually to deliver programming, Internet and digital phone service to its subscribers. However, rising global energy prices and the continued economic downturn are forcing many in the industry to seek ways of reducing the amount of energy they consume. At the same time, public opinion over climate change is shifting—stakeholders are pressuring companies to disclose the impact of their operations on the environment. Since much of the electricity in the U.S. is generated by fossil-fuel-burning power plants, cable television companies are indirectly responsible for a substantial share of carbon emissions. It's the Economy & the Environment, StupidSignificant attention is now focused on the intersection of these two macro trends: economic and environmental sustainability. The good news is that companies that reduce the amount of energy they are…

In today’s world, an increasing number of companies are beginning a journey towards environmental sustainability; however, many corporate leaders are finding that it is not the easiest road to travel. Common issues, such as lacking the capital needed to make an initial investment towards sustainable practices and methodologies, or not having sufficient knowledge of which “green” changes will actually have a positive impact, can be a direct hindrance to companies seeking to improve their environmental performance. However, there is a third hindrance that Kathy Miller, CEO of Miller Consultants, has identified-an equally restricting obstacle that can plague even the most enthusiastic visionary. In her article, “Sustainability: Can Leaders Meet the Challenge?” Miller wrote, “Another significant roadblock is that many companies lack a common definition of what it means to be sustainable. Some companies define it in terms of compliance with environmental regulations, while others, on the opposite end of the…

Despite current legislation in Congress attempting to block any requirements of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission regulating or reporting from organizations, there has been an increasing trend among large companies to voluntarily report on issues relating to sustainability. Giants such as Bank of America, Avaya, and Best Buy are among some of the many US-based companies who have released company-wide data on GHG emissions as well as details regarding their reduction goals. What has motivated these companies to release such information? According to Donald Delves, founder of a compensation consulting firm in Chicago and regular contributor to Forbes Magazine, such motivation comes from a company’s stakeholders. Delves recently published an article on Forbes’ website in which he examined the influence of shareholders versus stakeholders within a company. In his article titled Whom Do Public Companies Now Serve? Delves writes, “Increasingly, large companies are demonstrating direct responsibility not just to shareholders, but also to employees, communities and the environment.” Stakeholders include…

Very important news on the GHG regulatory front - California voters defeated Prop 23 which would have put the State's Climate Law AB32 on hold. The State of California has long been setting standards in the environmental regulatory arena - this could be a sign for increased pressure across the entire United States for industries to report and reduce their CO2 emissions. As reported in the article: "It's also viewed as a turning point for the U.S. in terms of whether the nation will back away from supporting stronger climate change laws or move toward stronger greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions" http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/11/03/california-voters-reject-prop- 23-save-climate-law/