Savoring Sustainability

PINK salutes the Top Women in Sustainability while doing our part to conduct business in ways that restore and enrich the environment – rather than deplete it.

Now totally digital, PINK limits the use of paper, saving thousands of trees. We install energy saving lights at the office and we telecommute part of the week.

At home we’re making an effort, too. My family has begun raising chickens. Today, we have two: Betty White and Princess Lay-ah (who actually lives up to her name, sometimes delivering two eggs in a single day!) We eat grass fed beef and free-range chickens. We support independent farmers, buy local, and try to consume less overall.  We use Kindles and iPads along with books to save paper. Most days, my husband and I carpool to work. My brother Glendon created solar panels that move with the sun. Our kids pick up litter at the local park.

We don’t do any of this for the sake of philanthropy. If you have doubts, just imagine a child’s (or a husband’s) eyes the first time he finds a fresh egg in the nesting box.

Sustainability benefits all stakeholders.

In PINK’s list of the Top 10 Women in Sustainability and Five Women to Watch, you’ll see how companies that embrace such practices make their employees, customers, community, and stockholders happy. Every enterprise featured has gone beyond mere compliance, resulting in long-term benefits to the health of their business and society.

Some have prioritized the environment from the beginning, long before it was chic. In 1943, Johnson & Johnson codified the firm’s socially responsible approach in its Credo, listing a hierarchy of values that remain true today. Their first responsibility, the Credo states, is to those who use J&J products and services, followed by employees, then community and environment, and finally stockholders. The leadership said, “If the first three are met… stockholders will be well served.”

Today, most agree that corporate America has a responsibility to protect and preserve the environment. It’s also smart business. You’ll read how the companies on PINK’s list not only save money, but they’ve also discovered new business opportunities by conserving resources and devising solutions.

They enjoy a financial and competitive advantage because of their efforts: think a car that operates on a battery or a PC that does 17 times the work while using less energy. Such innovations have produced billions of dollars in products, technologies and services that never previously existed. There’s wisdom, and profit, that comes from working with, rather than against nature.

With interdependence of world economies now clear and the threatened depletion of renewable resources globally, women leaders showcased through PINK are aware that you can only manage what you measure. So they’re tracking environmental impact and mandating transparency.

These women are tapping into corporate resources with the support of their corporations. Each enterprise on this list sees the clear competitive edge that comes with promoting sustainability: enhanced reputation, retention, recruitment and revenue.

And women are uniquely poised to lead the way. Numerous studies back this up. For instance, Ogilvy & Mather’s report “on the mushrooming class of ‘green consumers’ showed that 62 percent of those most likely to buy so-called green products are women. It is women who are most concerned about social and environmental welfare says, Dr. Ann Goodman, executive director of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future. “A lot of the women I come in contact with want to feel that they are really making a larger contribution to society, to the world,” Goodman tells PINK. “The elements of sustainability, environmentalism and social progress inspire [us].”

Stephanie Armistead, general manager of Green Business Works, adds, “Women are the world’s natural caretakers, so it’s not surprising that they show tremendous interest in sustainability along with the capacity to advance their careers and their companies.”

Their enthusiasm is contagious. Some of the women on our list ensure that their companies, which span the globe, only move into buildings that are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certified, thus mainstreaming the move into green buildings. They know there’s no excuse not to consider the big picture.

And they tell us that once they engage employees in sustainability programs, the workers themselves expand initiatives with innovations of their own. Each woman on our list is proof that, as Margaret Mead famously said, “one determined person can make a significant difference, and a small group of determined people can change the course of history.”

By Cynthia Good