The Sustainability Forum

This workbook is meant to help you familiarize yourself with sustainability and prioritize your sustainability initiatives based on the issues important to your company.

Want quick examples of sustainability lessons learned? Download this document, which includes company’s experiences with sustainability.

This report compiles data on the return on investment and intangible benefits of sustainability as well as more practical questions such as: Where is sustainability housed in the company?

We’ve asked Innovest Strategic Value Advisors to let us peek at sustainability rankings that they make available to institutional investors and anyone else who wants to buy a membership.

Do you have visibility into the company’s financial returns from its sustainability initiatives? If not, this report will help you coordinate your initiatives and drive tangible results from sustainability.

The Sustainability Forum has created a comprehensive, enterprise-wide map of the key elements of a world class sustainability organization, which allows executives to better focus sustainability initiatives.

Sustainable Business Strategy

Learn how Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Microsoft implemented sustainability in their organizations.

This research brief provides case studies from six companies on how to report sustainability activities and create sustainability reports.

Sustainable Supply Chains

The title says it all: there are inherent sustainability risks in your supply chain, especially if you are sourcing globally and cannot oversee your suppliers.

How do you assess the relative magnitude of reputation risks? Cadbury Schweppes looks at the product’s country of origin and its relative importance to the brand.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce analyzes the type and level of risk associated with each step of outsourcing a process to a supplier.

Perhaps the greatest risk in the supply chain is limited visibility into the operations of second- and third-tier suppliers. BT trained tier-one suppliers to overcome this risk.

Supplier Guides and Questionnaires

BT developed a Product Stewardship Questionnaire to screen new suppliers.

BT also uses the Sourcing with Human Dignity Guide to promote a set of standards on working conditions throughout the supply base.

HP’s Health & Safety questionnaire helps to ensure that suppliers stay within the company’s code of conduct.

HP’s Labor & Ethics Questionnaire is a supplier self-assessment on labor ethics.

HP also has an Environment Questionnaire for suppliers regarding environmental performance.

Companies seeking to evaluate the environmental sustainability of suppliers should establish a buyer checklist.

Environmental Codes of Conduct

Ericsson’s code maintains that suppliers consider the environment in their manufacturing process

HP requires that suppliers sign an agreement that they will comply with environmental laws.

BMS works with its major suppliers for them to adopt a commitment to environmentally responsible products, services, and management.

Communication and Reporting

Learn how to think of sustainability as a business benefit to drive actionable and economically sound decision making.

UBS developed an assessment process to drive an objective and holistic evaluation of sustainability issues.

BT's sustainability team developed an assessment framework which forced a balance between stakeholder interests and company interests.

Suncor and Cox developed communication templates, tools, and workarounds to report on sustainability efforts.

This resource provides advice on proper methods of sustainability reporting.

If your sustainability strategy is managed by your company’s community affairs or philanthropic function, this report is for you.

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Product Innovation

You may have heard of banks making “green loans”: learn about the trend in this piece.

Energy Management

This study profiles the energy management processes of five companies, including Google and Agilent. It’s the easiest way to get started on sustainability.

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Green Building

Browse through case studies of companies that built green buildings (and are now reaping their benefits).

Employee Engagement

This three-page executive summary provides brief descriptions and case studies of how to embed sustainability into your company’s corporate culture.

Green IT

This brief examines the drivers of green IT initiatives and provides case examples of how companies have made IT more environmentally friendly by altering data center and end-user computing practices.

Green Manufacturing

This report provides process guidelines for complying with European Union’s Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) and Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS), as well as two company case profiles. Additionally, the report includes two tools to help members determine whether a product falls under the scope of either WEEE or RoHS.

Manufacturing accounts for 30% of total carbon dioxide emission in the United States, but manufacturing executives struggle to effectively measure their organization’s actual environmental impact. This research offers strategies for measuring and reducing manufacturing environmental impact.

Contact the Sustainability Forum

For further information, please email us at sustainability@executiveboard.com.