Social media drives green values to business (Vol.4)

Turning environment..

Let's move on from environmental challenges to new business ideas evolving from the need of sustainability.

I believe the only way to weave environment into business is by looking at the entire environment of the business through value chain thinking.

Environmental value chain analysis offers a way to manage the business processes as an entity that takes environment into consideration.

..into new business ideas

Passion drives change. BSAG was born of the relentless passion of Ilkka Herlin. Same passion drives environmental investments in Canada.

Private passions that have driven the environmental movement for decades are now spilling over into mainstream business ventures.

Material efficiency is often the key factor in cutting variable costs. But that efficiency should be looked at as a bigger picture: one must optimize the entity. It is possible to streamline the use of a certain ingredient in the production process and, at the same time, increase the cost of its final waste disposal. There, too, the answer lies in life cycle analysis.

Material efficiency should thus be connected into the management system, as is often done with the energy efficiency. Efficiency thinking should be based on value chain analysis, says professor Juha Kaila, Helsinki University of Technology (InnoSuomi 2009). R&D is facing the challenge of how to get the most out of the raw material in its total life time. The scope is about to change as the life cycle cost must include also the cost of recycling.

A change toward non-tangibles?

How about Slow movement? It offers yet another view in consumption. Slow life allows room for services that do not exploit the environment. Non-tangible services are bound to burden less than producing tangible goods. An excellent example on that are different charity projects: Buy a cow - donate a well - buy a vaccine - or plant a tree are all examples of a non-tangible gift (F) to someone who already has everything.

As you can see, sustainabity makes sense. It also opens new horizons for innovation.

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.3)

If you care about you reputation, you'll know, both intuitively and explicitly, what and how to do - and how not to. This should apply to business, as well.

Brand is definitely one of the most valuable assets to any business. Brand management must bring along risk management covering customer experience. Customers nowadays live more and more constantly in their social networks.

Firms may "own" their brands, but brands really live in the heads of their consumers. Companies must constantly nurture and actively manage their brands at the speed customers form opinions about them. -Real-time Brand Management, Harvard Business Review

Therefore quality of service, the core product itself, must be supported with an excellent array of customer service use.

Managing environmental risks

But the core processes need to be acceptable, too. The business is not allowed to bring harm to people, never to its customers, nor to its employers; but not to the environment. Not any more. Today business processes need to be sustainable.

I believe Nestle was one of the first 'naughty ones' I remember hearing of when I was a kid. Back then there were no computers in every day life, and the most 'social media' there was, was shopping at the same time with your neighbors =) Well, 30 years later, Nestle is in trouble again. This time in Facebook. The topic has changed: this time it is palm oil.

They will not accept unethical behavior. Their opinion might matter to your customers. (Vol.2*link corrected*)

Even the most cautious preparations get caught by surprise. Preserving the environment, let alone the ultimately vulnerable rain forest, must have been a top priority in an multi-million investment of Botnia in Uruguay.

Environmental challenges bring sustainability and new business ideas. To be continued..

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.2)

It is time to dive into the bigger picture. You might have been asking, what on earth connects the dots from green values to hardcore moneymaking.

The answer is customer, the citizen, the Conscious Consumer. He or she is more and more often willing to enlighten also others in his or her no-cost social media networks.

Not hurting the nature means most of all responsibility in all business processes. And this is where we bump into ethics. If the right choice costs more, your bottom line is bound to suffer. Mission impossible? My previous post at Vol.1

China and Finland, cases mentioned in Vol.1, were crimes covered by the traditional press. South-Korean girl not taking care of her dog waste or a blogging mother at the mercy of a multi-national conglomerate are examples of the power of this new media. It offers those long-needed channels through which to participate and do our share for the mutual cause.

That's why nature is also your business!

Social media is a means to build social (environmental) awareness. That's why sustainability is a value that is - and must be - on the rise. As Esko Kilpi put it: There is a shift of paradigm going on.

That paradigm is something big; so big that not one business can afford to neglect it.

As people are testifying odd weathers, reading scary reports and watching terrifying pictures from natural catastrophes they are also searching for information. Web offers them loads of details, also and more and more often misbehavior and neglect of companies, among other things.

Be aware: those who care just won't turn away. They will not accept unethical behavior. Their opinion might matter to your customers.

Gradually this "Mission impossible" type of equation is becoming reality. Winning fast profits at the expense of someone else - and the nature - is turning social media audience against anyone trying it. Dare you try?

To be continued..