| Nearly a dozen companies - including
the likes of IBM, The Coca-Cola Company, CH2M Hill, Johnson
& Johnson and General Motors - have joined forces to identify
the innovations needed to create the next generation of sustainable
practices in traceability, infrastructure, water management
and logistics.
The companies have partnered with the World Environment Center
(WEC)
to form the Innovations
in Environmental Sustainability Council. Charter members
also include Boeing, The Dow Chemical Company, F. Hoffmann-La
Roche AG and The Walt Disney Company.
"When you look at the companies coming together under this
council, they have been implementing sustainability in their
individual businesses for some years now, so I think what
they're looking to do is take sustainability to the next level,
in terms of best practices and looking to further differentiate
themselves in the marketplace," said Terry F. Yosie, WEC president
and CEO.
The idea for the council came from IBM, which approached
WEC several months ago about launching the initiative.
"What drove us is a recognition that it's going to be innovation
that drives demonstrable improvement in the environment and
sustainability - not tweaking around the edges, not some one-off
cool green gadget, but fundamental systemic innovation," said
Wayne Balta, IBM's vice president of corporate environmental
affairs and product safety.
Council members will meet four times this year, with each
meeting addressing one of four sustainability issues -
- Traceability
The council's first meeting, to be held Feb. 7-8
in Orlando, will focus on managing traceability issues in
the value chain, which may vary depending on section, but
may include chemicals, extracted materials or food ingredients.
- Sustainable infrastructure
"How do you implement sustainability across various
kinds of infrastructure that companies have?" Yosie said,
citing buildings, pipelines and fleets as examples of corporate
infrastructure.
- Water management
An intensifying issue, with climate, food and energy
dimensions. It would be useful to focus on water management,
Yosie said, not from the 50,000-foot strategy level but
from an operational perspective.
- Logistics
"This is an area that doesn't get a lot of public
attention but is vitally important to the global economy,"
Yosie said.
At this point, Yosie and Balta said, the council will deliberate
amongst themselves over these four key challenges, but will
share their learnings through publications that will be made
available to a wider audience.
"Our hope," Yosie said, "is that we'll have something concrete
to discuss in the spring."
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