The Good Guide website and iphone app. magnify the need for transparency
If you’re a chief marketing officer, or a sustainability executive, shepherding a green product, service or initiative, take note: Survival will mean complete transparency, full disclosure of your entire manufacturing and distribution.
Andrew Winston of Harvard Business Publishing, in a recent article, “How the Wal-Mart Eco-Ratings Will Save You Money,” details Wal-Mart’s plans for targeting supplier sustainability performance. From his article:
In short, Wal-Mart will be asking all suppliers 15 questions about their approaches on four key issues: energy and climate, material efficiency, natural resources, and people and community. A few sample questions:
- Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions?
- Please report total water use from the facilities that produce your product(s) for Wal-Mart.
- Do you know the location of 100% of the facilities that produce your product(s)?
If you’ve read Adam Werbach’s book, “Strategy for Sustainability,” then Wal-Mart’s approach is not surprising. He essentially drafted it for them. You’ll note it’s not just about being green. It’s also about a company’s impact on cultural and social environments.
How scalable is the transparency of your organization about its green initiatives and sustainability, and how effective is your communication?
The public, with Wal-Mart’s help, will be demanding more and more information about you and yours. If you think this is a passing fad, just check out the GoodGuide.com. This is a site that culls from some 200 databases to rate products on their environmental, health and social impacts. And this is only the beginning.
Another great article to read in this series is by Daniel Goleman, “Winning in an Age of Radical Transparency.” From his article:
Radical transparency has arrived. Radical transparency converts the chains that link every product and its multiple impacts — carbon footprints, chemicals of concern, treatment of workers and the like — into a force that counts in sales. Radical transparency leverages new software capabilities that render massive collections of data into a simple read-out. An eco-mom can take GoodGuide.Com (in the form of a free iPhone app) with her while she shops.
What are you doing about transparency?
