GreenMedia Newsletter

Like many of you, I’ve been involved in a number of initiatives over the years that promised much but delivered less. The exciting thing about the sustainability movement is that it is good for business. And for the most basic of reasons: it requires assessment, monitoring, cross-company teamwork, integrated tools and clear communication. In short, sustainability
means better management and that produces a more efficient and productive enterprise.

As turnaround president of a local ad agency a few years ago, we were dealing with the effects of Microsoft’s reducing their marketing suppliers from 400 or so to 3 major agencies and 30 small local businesses. Hard for 370 businesses but consider how out of control marketing had gotten. No organization can manage that many outside suppliers for virutally the same
service. You can’t control what they’re doing, pricing, their business practices. Microsoft made a good management decision.

Signing up to a Triple Bottom Line assessment and reporting demands hard decisions but results in better management. And that means greater proftiability.

If you’ve been exploring Sustainability Reporting for your enterprise, you’ve come across the term “scorecard.” As you might guess, it’s a framework an organization can use to promote sustainable development and profits. It differs from a dashboard in that a scorecard is a tool for both internal and external communication.

To be comprehensive and effective it should meet four important criteria:
* It must address Sustainability’s Triple Bottom Line: Environmental, Social and Economic performance.
* It must have performance metrics that are clear and easily communicated.
* It must be integrated into the organizational systems.
* It needs to be supported by management tools and resources.

We’ve been asked by a number of people how they can develop a scorecard and use it to drive their sustainable development.

We assume that you have already written and published to your employees, board and executives your Corporate Sustainability Statement. It is a good idea to inform your supply chain vendors and put them on notice with copies
of this statement. Essentially you’re saying, “We’re taking Sustainability to heart and making it a part of how we function. You’ll be hearing more from us in this regard.”

Before you implement a scorecard, think through its function, discuss its likely reactions, and explore with relevant executives what you are willing to do given various inputs. You might include consultants, customers and suppliers in these discussions along with a compre- hensive internal team. This is not a simple or quickly achieved task. Your planning might involve a
3-5 year (or longer) timeline. And don’t necessarily think of one comprehensive scorecard covering every aspect of sustainable practices. This is a tool and, as such, the simpler the more effective it may be. Think perhaps of several scorecards relative to your business.

Wal-Mart held a meeting at their home office for those vendors who cared to attend. H. Lee Scott, President and CEO led that meeting and spoke at length about Wal-Mart’s dedication to sustainable practices. His message came down to, “This is the way it’s going to be if you want to be favored as a supplier of Wal-Mart.” Wal-Mart released a comprehensive packaging scorecard that evolved from a set of favorable attributes: “7 R’s of Packaging”: Remove, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Renew, Revenue, and Read.” They issued a scorecard showing how they would rate suppliers, providing percentages for
each of nine specific criteria. This model gives suppliers the opportunity to focus on specific changes and constant improvement the supplier can drive across a spectrum of packaging attributes.

If you are a marketing department, you might think of an advertising scorecard as a start. You could create a direct scorecard that reflects print and digital communication to customers. You might find it more effective to focus one scorecard on all print-based communication and another on digital-based communication. You are developing a tool to be used by your company and its vendors over a period of time to improve specific metrics and achieve sustainability objectives.

In our discussion above concerning scorecards we talked about process and focused on early steps. GEMI has developed a Metrics Navigator, we recommend as an excellent tool to support your deliberations. It starts where you are;
helping you set out how your organization currently addresses social, economical and environmental performance.

The Navigator presents a six step metrics development process, helping you determine what is material, what and how to measure and how to assure effectiveness.
Click here to download the GEMI Metrics Navigator

Email Management Studies – Top Findings

eROI recently reported on an interesting study “The Cradle and The Grave.” Over 500 emarketers were surveyed. The summary brought forth the following:

1. Email marketers are not matching up other marketing efforts like they
should. Email, search, DM, Print, Call Centers, and sales teams need to get
on the same page.

2. Email marketers are not monitoring feedback loops and complaint rates.
Nearly one-quarter of email marketers don’t know what they currently do with
abuse complaints or how they are handled. Only about one-half currently
monitor feedback loops.

1. 67% prefer email as a communications channel over other online vehicles.

2. 69% expressed concern about being victimized by email fraud.

3. 88% wanted more choice over content and frequency including ads, white
papers and articles.

4. Monthly emails, content and frequency options positively impacted a
compay’s reputation.

Reading List : “Sustainable Value” by Chris Laszlo and “Making
Sustainability Work” by Marc Epstein

Sustainable Value
At a time when more and more business people are talking about the
importance of moving towards sustainability, tools that provide “how to” do
it are valuable. Make Sustainability Work
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Laslo fills the gap between talk and action. with his book focused on how
leading companies are adding to their corporate value by “doing good.” He
dispels the myth that environmental responsibility is expensive and offers
compelling storytelling with actual cases – inside stories from the largest
corporation in the world. Here’s another practical tool for businesses
moving into sustainability programs.