Sustainability fits with a stewardship culture

Enlarge Image

There are many reasons a business may choose to employ sustainable practices: personal conviction, cost savings, appealing to a target audience. For resource-based businesses, it can be a logical extension of what they do: stewardship.

When it comes to service companies such as health insurance, people think going paperless and turning off the lights are the main contribution we can make to sustainability. But stewardship can be a strong component of the heritage of a service company.

For any company with a culture of stewardship, sustainability is already part of its DNA. We see conserving the Earth’s resources on our customers’ behalf as a natural extension of our mission. And like any corporate initiative, going green takes leadership, planning, accountability, engagement and measurement.

The hallmarks of companies with successful sustainability programs are remarkably consistent:

Lead from the front. It’s vital that everyone understand the drive comes straight from the C-suite. The CEO’s vocal and visible support goes a long way toward getting everyone on board. And extensive CEO/C-suite engagement will be key to long-term success.

Name a champion. Call it a project manager, advocate or evangelist, deem one leader who will champion sustainability throughout the company. That person needs direct access to top management, to ensure sufficient two-way flow of information, and authority to get the job done.

Bake it into key goals. There are many paths to sustainability. Identify and define those that best link to your corporate strategy. The closer the fit with existing initiatives, the more likely it is that sustainability becomes an essential ingredient in future planning. It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay.

Build it in the culture. Understand your corporate culture and frame your sustainability efforts within that culture. At Regence, we framed sustainability as an ethical activity that fits with our historic commitment to support the communities where we live and work. This means sustainability is everybody’s job, no matter what department they’re in, from facilities, to travel to IT.

Tap the passion. Your champion will need help from others who see the possibilities related to sustainability. Our employees have increasingly expressed interest in sustainability. Their passion gives them a particular vision for green possibilities, and makes them natural ambassadors who will educate others and radiate energy throughout the company to activate employees.

See the forest and the trees. Everybody is an expert in their own area. Invite all employees to share their ideas of how the processes they do every day could become more sustainable. For example, Regence employees generated hundreds of ideas for cost-savings.

Measure and communicate success. Benchmarking progress is vital to any sustainability program and should not be overlooked. At Regence, many of our measurement methods were jointly developed as part of a case study for an MBA program at Portland State University. In several targeted areas across the company, several million dollars in costs were avoided in the first year. Communicating successes, even small wins, builds momentum. The more you tell your own story, the more employees become engaged: They keep each other on track and look for more ideas.

The recession has forced a lot of companies into more rigorous accounting of costs and seeking savings. Sustainability certainly has a role to play in thrift, but it transcends good times and bad. In fact, the better our society gets at sustainability across the board, the greater our ability to influence the cycle of our economy, and equity in resource use.

We owe it to each other to make sustainability part of our business plans, and our pattern of living.

Dan Medin is the director of corporate sustainability at Regence.