stampede II

[S.Annadana]

There's a stampede to jump on 'green' wagon
Cosmetics company a good corporate citizen before it was fashionable
Gillian Shaw, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Government and regulatory measures are also pushing sustainability issues higher on the corporate agenda. But for some organizations, moving in the direction of sustainability simply makes good business sense, regardless of rules and regulations.

"First and foremost, [sustainability] is really important to our members," said Ellen Pekeles, senior vice-president of strategy at Vancity. "We have 385,000 members, and in all the research we do, climate change is top of the agenda for them.

"They say it is critical, and it drives what we do."


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Font:****It's difficult to estimate precisely the impact on the bottom line. Some expenses and benefits can be tallied up, but others, like the value in terms of bringing customers in the door, are more difficult to measure.

Vancity has saved $2 million in energy costs over the past 10 years with measures such as cutting energy use, encouraging employees to take transit, bike, carpool or walk, and reducing paper consumption.

These efforts recently helped the organization reach its goal of becoming the first North American-based financial institution to become carbon neutral.

That means the carbon emissions Vancity creates, now 50 per cent lower per employee than the average Canadian financial institution, equal the emissions it has reduced or offset elsewhere. What it couldn't reduce, Vancity is offsetting by investing in verified emission-reduction projects.

Vancity's offsets are being provided by the Offsetters Climate Neutral Society (www.offsetters.com), a non-profit organization co-founded by its CEO James Tansey, who holds the W. Maurice Young Chair in Business at UBC's Sauder School of Business.

"Most businesses we work with aren't seeing this as a defensive strategy," he said. "They want to make decisions that show leadership in the space."

Harbour Air, another Offsetters client, is the first air carrier in North America and the only seaplane airline in the world to become completely carbon neutral.

While air travel comes with a high carbon price-tag, Tansey said the B.C. company didn't face the challenges of a larger airline.

"They're not flying around the world," he said.

"We said to them, 'The cost for you of being climate-neutral is relatively low, and the value of being a company that is climate friendly is very high,' " said Tansey.

He said companies are rewarded for such moves with contracts and business being sent their way by agencies that appreciate their climate neutrality.

"Companies that are early movers, and consumers, are going to thank them," he said.

Mickey McLeod, co-founder and president of Salt Spring Coffee Co., has followed the triple-bottom-line strategy since the company was launched in 1996. From serving organic, fair-trade and shade-grown coffee to recycling and other measures, the company has balanced sustainability with the bottom line and found it profitable.

"Maybe the bottom line might be better if we didn't do it this way, but we've always had one that is positive," McLeod said. "We've always done it this way.