Corporate Sustainability Becoming "Force of Its Own" in Global Marketplace
New conference report from AltaTerra Research and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group highlights growing force of corporate sustainability in the global marketplace, and how leading companies are creating business advantage through innovation in products and operations.
Palo Alto, CA, June 25, 2010 --(PR.com)-- AltaTerra Research and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) are pleased to announce the release of a new conference report featuring key takeaways from SVLG’s March 2010 conference, “The Sustainable Corporation 2010: Solutions from the Innovation Economy.” This report highlights sustainable business approaches of some of the world’s most innovative companies, including: HP, eBay, Samsung, Flextronics, Applied Materials, IBM, Intel, Yahoo, Kaiser Permanente, Adobe, Accenture, Nvidia, and many others. Key conference takeaways are captured in the report, addressing leading practices in consortia participation, stakeholder reporting, procurement and supply chain initiatives, operational improvements, and top-line growth through green innovation.
A number of common themes emerged across multiple conference panels and presentations:
Corporate response to sustainability will create winners and losers. Companies that fundamentally integrate sustainability into their strategy will have greater access to capital, talent, and natural resources.
Green is not a fad. New requirements for environmentally preferable products and services are driven by fundamental, transformational forces in the global marketplace, including rising standards of living, resource costs and supply limitations, global energy, climate, environmental regulations, new stakeholder and competitive pressures, and rising customer expectations.
Stakeholder pressure for transparency is growing. The development of social networks has enabled the creation of “pop-up stakeholders,” a shifting network of nongovernmental organizations and other interests that come together outside of institutional structures. For corporations, this represents both a threat and an opportunity.
Green markets are vast. Across virtually all industries, significant opportunities exist for innovation and competitive differentiation to improve the resource efficiency and environmental performance of products.
Sustainable product innovation takes many forms. Green innovation involves improvements to existing products or development of fundamentally new products. Clean technology startups are generally pursuing market innovation, while established players are investing in greening existing product lines and customer offerings and developing breakthrough market innovations.
Employees are a source of power. By leveraging employee engagement, companies are able to find and deliver on innovation, both in internal operations and in the marketplace.
Change takes time. Large-scale changes in operations and product lines take time. A realistic time for launching meaningful corporate sustainability efforts might be 18 months, with some results in 4 to 5 years and results at scale in 10 years.
“In the space of just a few years, the notion of sustainability has expanded to impact corporate buying and selling functions around the world. Customers are articulating new ‘green’ requirements, and increasingly, suppliers are seeking to define and differentiate their products on this basis. Corporate sustainability is rapidly becoming its own force in the global marketplace,” said Don Bray, President of AltaTerra Research.
“The report offers quantifiable and useful measures for incorporating sustainable practices into any business model,” commented Bob Hines, Vice President, General Counsel and Energy Director at SVLG.
Further information and a link to download a free summary of the report are available at: http://altaterra.site-ym.com/members/blog_view.asp?id=272897&post=102573.
About AltaTerra Research
AltaTerra Research is a research consultancy specializing in sustainable business and the commercial marketplace for clean technology solutions. Through research reports, executive events and advisory services, AltaTerra helps forward-looking organizations improve resource-efficiency in their operations and capitalize on new 'green' market opportunities. From our headquarters in Silicon Valley, we have been serving a global base of corporate, institutional, and government clients since 2007. More information is available at www.AltaTerra.net.
About Silicon Valley Leadership Group
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, represents more than 300 of Silicon Valley's most respected employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in Silicon Valley, including energy, transportation, education, housing, health care, tax policies, economic vitality and the environment. Leadership Group members collectively provide more than 250,000 local jobs, one of every four private sector jobs in Silicon Valley.
Contact:
Anne Smart
Associate Director
Energy and Environmental Policy and Programs
asmart [at] svlg.org
###
A number of common themes emerged across multiple conference panels and presentations:
Corporate response to sustainability will create winners and losers. Companies that fundamentally integrate sustainability into their strategy will have greater access to capital, talent, and natural resources.
Green is not a fad. New requirements for environmentally preferable products and services are driven by fundamental, transformational forces in the global marketplace, including rising standards of living, resource costs and supply limitations, global energy, climate, environmental regulations, new stakeholder and competitive pressures, and rising customer expectations.
Stakeholder pressure for transparency is growing. The development of social networks has enabled the creation of “pop-up stakeholders,” a shifting network of nongovernmental organizations and other interests that come together outside of institutional structures. For corporations, this represents both a threat and an opportunity.
Green markets are vast. Across virtually all industries, significant opportunities exist for innovation and competitive differentiation to improve the resource efficiency and environmental performance of products.
Sustainable product innovation takes many forms. Green innovation involves improvements to existing products or development of fundamentally new products. Clean technology startups are generally pursuing market innovation, while established players are investing in greening existing product lines and customer offerings and developing breakthrough market innovations.
Employees are a source of power. By leveraging employee engagement, companies are able to find and deliver on innovation, both in internal operations and in the marketplace.
Change takes time. Large-scale changes in operations and product lines take time. A realistic time for launching meaningful corporate sustainability efforts might be 18 months, with some results in 4 to 5 years and results at scale in 10 years.
“In the space of just a few years, the notion of sustainability has expanded to impact corporate buying and selling functions around the world. Customers are articulating new ‘green’ requirements, and increasingly, suppliers are seeking to define and differentiate their products on this basis. Corporate sustainability is rapidly becoming its own force in the global marketplace,” said Don Bray, President of AltaTerra Research.
“The report offers quantifiable and useful measures for incorporating sustainable practices into any business model,” commented Bob Hines, Vice President, General Counsel and Energy Director at SVLG.
Further information and a link to download a free summary of the report are available at: http://altaterra.site-ym.com/members/blog_view.asp?id=272897&post=102573.
About AltaTerra Research
AltaTerra Research is a research consultancy specializing in sustainable business and the commercial marketplace for clean technology solutions. Through research reports, executive events and advisory services, AltaTerra helps forward-looking organizations improve resource-efficiency in their operations and capitalize on new 'green' market opportunities. From our headquarters in Silicon Valley, we have been serving a global base of corporate, institutional, and government clients since 2007. More information is available at www.AltaTerra.net.
About Silicon Valley Leadership Group
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, represents more than 300 of Silicon Valley's most respected employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in Silicon Valley, including energy, transportation, education, housing, health care, tax policies, economic vitality and the environment. Leadership Group members collectively provide more than 250,000 local jobs, one of every four private sector jobs in Silicon Valley.
Contact:
Anne Smart
Associate Director
Energy and Environmental Policy and Programs
asmart [at] svlg.org
###
Contact
AltaTerra Research
Anneke Hohl
+1 (720) 989-1640
http://www.altaterra.net
Anneke Hohl
+1 (720) 989-1640
http://www.altaterra.net
Contact
Categories