Adam Menter’s Blog

This morning I participated in a Net Impact conference call with Paul Murray, the Director of Environmental Safety and Sustainability at Herman Miller. The topic of the conversation (which can be heard here) was “The Power of One” - how individuals at Herman Miller who are passionate about and committed to the environment are making a big difference at the firm.

His talk ended up being largely about how to implement corporate-wide initiatives. Takeaways for me were:

• Set a solid structure - Set up teams to coordinate actions arcoss the company and tap into individuals’ passions. These teams don’t need to meet full-time or meet for a lot of time (~1 hour/month). In addition, Paul’s staff is actually pretty small. They see themselves as coaches and facilitators rather than environmental police.
• Set ambitious goals - Having something to shoot for motivates people to act. Their first goal, back in the zero solid waste…drives ACTION, 2020 - Perfect vision - zero hazardous waste, air emissions, water, etc… footprint free …more holistic)
• Be measurable - Executives speak the language of numbers and a set of metrics will allow you to track progress over time. And don’t make purely environmental measurements/arguments for new investments or policies - any changes have to first make business sense from a cost or revenue standpoint.

Also, I was interested in how their design team incorporates the environment into their product development process. Their Design for Environment process includes five parameters:

1. Appropriate Durability - Don’t overengineer OR underengineer anything. Design it to meet expected and intended use.
2. Low Impact Manufacturing - Since they were pioneers in the field, they created their own manual back in 1992.
3. Innovative design - First and foremost, folks have to like the product regardless of the environmental impact. It’s not doing anyone any good if it sits in the store and accumulates dust on the top of the box.
4. Longevity of design - Is this thing still going to be in fashion in 12 years?
5. Cradle to Cradle - Herman Miller helped Bill McDonough write the C2C protocol and they have a staff of four chemists that analyzes all of the materials they use and aims for complete recyclability. Their new Mirra chair is the first C2C certified chair.

At the end I asked if he could tell a story about an individual’s actions leading and perseverance leading to a big win. He told a memorable story about a particularly dedicated groundskeeper. In broad strokes:

A nest of wasps had moved into the increased green space that the LEED green building guidelines had required at one of Herman Miller’s plants. They were stinging people and generally wreaking havoc. The grounds-keeper was charged with getting rid of the wasps by whatever means necessary. Instead of blasting them with harmful insectaside, he looked for a more creative, holistic, and environmentally friendly solution. He found that honeybees are natural competitors to wasps - and that they would help pollinate the flowers near the plant - so he worked with a beekeeper to establish hives of honeybees to displace the wasps. It worked - and as an added bonus, Herman Miller now actually harvests honey from the bees and gives small jars of it to customers!

This groundskeeper was acting entirely on his own. He turned what could have simply been an additional cost into a big marketing and customer relations win. What’s more, he helped inspired and empowered others within Herman Miller. That plant manager, who had been an environmental skeptic, set a goal for the plant to have zero landfill waste. They aren’t there yet, but they’ve made dramatic improvements and the plant of 350 employees sends less than 1,000 lbs per year to the landfill.

Now that’s a cool story! Remember, each of us has a part to play!

I recently came across an article from the McKinsey Quarterly about green branding and green product development (Helping Green Products Grow). It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s interesting to see what consulting firms are putting out there in an effort to be thought-leaders in sustainability.

Highlights for me:

• The ever-present rift between the desire to help the environment (87% green is important) vs. willingness to actually do something about it (33% actually buy green).
• Businesses are really failing to to educate consumers re: green. (Understandable given all of the cluttered marketing messages - green and otherwise - out there).
• There are barriers to buying green at every stage of the buying cycle. Now this is an interesting idea that deserves a bit more thought. There is a powerful framework waiting to happen in there.
• Example: P&G’s future friendly campaign (http://www.futurefriendly.co.uk/ - interestingly, only in the UK).

With all this talk about how to green branding, I think more and more about the simple virtues of empathy and honesty. It seems to me like you can get to the core of a lot of this advice by running a company like you would any good relationship. For example, transparency is a theme you see over and over again.