The 7 Leadership Practices by Bob Willard

I had the chance today to hear Bob Willard discussing his new book, The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook (New Society Publishers). The book is about leading organizations in the sustainability movement. He talks about the 7 Leadership practices essential for moving a company towards sustainability;

1. Get credible, stay credible: Leaders must establish their credibility and build trust with their group and/or organization.
2. Dialogue: Hone in on the communication skills and engage in thoughtful discussions. Be a good listener and be ready to hear about success and challenges.
3. Collaborate, educate, network: Encourage collaboration and education among employees.
4. Influence and influencers: Don’t do it alone, engage those individuals who have influence in an organization and seek their help, guidance and advocacy.
5. Meet them where they are: Don’t push the skeptics, meet them where they are and show how sustainability strategies are important to their job and the organization.
6. Piggyback existing initiatives: Create sustainability initiatives that align with current company goals and objectives.
7. Practice ‘planful opportunism’ : Engage senior leadership in the initiatives.

If you haven’t read it yet, I also suggest Bob’s book called the Sustainability Advantage where he discusses the business case for sustainability.

Why Isn’t the Brain Green- New York Times Article

The NY times had an interesting article on the challenges of getting people to make changes for the green movement. Great article for discussion within your green team or sustainability group.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/magazine/19Science-t.html

State of Green Business 2009

Greenbiz.com has released its second report for 2009 on the State of Green Business. A great overview of various business sustainability sectors. It reviews various measures, best practices and successes of companies and the area in general. Could provide for some companies good baseline targets, metrics and goals to reach in the coming year.

SCORE Assessment

A great new easy assessment tool, SCORE is a sustainability self-assessment that identifies opportunities to improve sustainability performance within small and medium sized companies. It also provides a baseline measure against other companies who have taken SCORE to determine where a company lies with sustainability measures within different departmental areas. It was developed by AXIS Performance Advisors in conjunction with the International Sustainable Development Foundation and the Zero Waste Alliance. On their website, they have licensed facilitators to administer SCORE, including eco-officiency who services the Denver/ Boulder metro area.

Environmental Leader: eNewsletter

Environmental Leader is a great web newsletter that focuses on the latest news for business and sustainability. The daily briefing provides information on what companies are doing to become more green in their operations. It also provides information to newly released white papers and research on various topics related to sustainable business. It is an excellent source of information to learn about new ideas and resources related to corporate social and environmental responsibility!