GEF Institute Sustainability Workforce Development

GEF Institute

Sustainability Education Programs

for Corporations

Copyright © 2012 GEF Institute. All Rights Reserved. www.gefinstitute.org

About the Institute

GEF Institute was established to meet the increasing global market demand for sustainability education and training.

The Institute develops state-of-the art online courses and training in sustainability concepts for employees, managers and executives.

The Institute’s robust certification programs offer distinct certificate levels to distinguish organizations with a proven, comprehensive understanding of important sustainability topics.


What is Corporate Sustainability?

"Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long-term shareholder value by gearing their strategies and management to harness the market's potential for sustainability products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding sustainability costs and risks.“

- Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)


“Companies are included

on the basis of displaying

high levels of competence

around sustainability in

variety of areas including

managing human

resources to maintain

workforce capabilities and

employee satisfaction

through best-in-class

organizational learning and

knowledge management

practices…”

Dow Jones Sustainability

Indexes Corporate

Sustainability Assessment

Criteria

Sustainability is a Strong Corporate Strategy

• Brand Identity – Drive sales through brand association with environmental responsibility and sustainable practices.

• Employee Engagement – An engaged and educated employee is your best brand ambassador, and will feel a deeper connection to their work and the company.

• Shareholder Value – Be consistently included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Goldman Sax, NASDAQ, Newsweek, etc.

• Real Dollar Savings – Affect the bottom line through office efficiency as well as in operations.


"In good times, sustainability can be a competitive

differentiator, in lean times, it's a defensive strategy, and

in really hard times, it can determine your survival."

~ Richard Goode, Director of Sustainability, Alcatel-Lucent

The Benefits“Various benefits of sustainability (in decreasing order of importance as perceived by the practitioners):

• improved brand reputation• increased competitive advantage• access to new markets• increased margins or market share due to sustainability positioning• reduced costs due to energy efficiency• better innovation of business models and processes• better innovation of product/service offerings• improved perception of how well company is managed• reduced costs due to materials or waste efficiencies• improved regulatory compliance• improved ability to attract and retain top talent• enhanced stakeholder/investor relations• reduced risk• increased employee productivity.”

Source: New Sustainability Study: The Embracers Seize Advantage, MIT Sloan Management Review


The Adoption Curve

The trouble with integration

sustainability into business is

the lack of familiarity with

environmental issues. TD

Bank “has made efforts to

bring more of the staff on

board to spread

understanding of everything

from energy markets to

customer preferences” (3).

“’We engaged all our internal

constituents, all the

employees, management,

senior management and the

executives,” says Mike

Pedersen – TD Bank, VP of

Operations.

Beyond the Tangible“Improved brand name reputation” is the biggest reason to adopt sustainability-driven management. It is an intangible benefit, which most visibly correlates with more people interested in joining the company.

Brand-name reputation in comparison to tangible benefits like waste reduction, energy savings, operational efficiencies, etc. rates higher, and thus sustainability’s appeal more indirect in its relation to a business’s ultimate success:

“Making savings just won’t affect a company’s bottom line very much. Attracting more customers at better margins, on the other hand, or bumping employee productivity by just a few percentage points, would have catalytic effects on a company’s bottom line.”

Source: New Sustainability Study: The Embracers Seize Advantage, MIT Sloan Management Review


“In the process of

conducting a recent study

with 25 leading companies

to identify best practices in

sustainability, we

discovered many formal,

established sustainability

programs originated from

“grassroots” employee

efforts unknown to senior

executives.”

- KPMG International’s

Corporate Sustainability: A

Progress Report

Train Employees to Improve EfficienciesA successful building operations and maintenance efficiency plan requires educating all occupants• Drive real dollar savings through collective understanding of sustainability

issues and corresponding actions. Collective behavior change, driven through education, can make an enormous impact on resource efficiencies

• Existing investments in energy efficiency will not reach their full potential without buy-in and behavior change from building occupants


In 2008, Stonyfield

challenged its employees

to save energy at the

company’s facilities.

Savings were tied to

employee bonuses for all

workers, providing

additional motivation. The

company achieved its

annual goal, reducing

company energy use by

over 22 percent.

Business Case for

Environmental and

Sustainability Employee

Education, National

Environmental Education

Foundation (NEEF)

Create Value by Engaging Employees

• Studies show employees with the highest level of commitment perform 20 percent better and are 87 percent less likely to leave the organization

• Only one in 10 employees feel completely prepared with regard to their knowledge and understanding of the environment

• After learning that a company is socially and/or environmentally responsible, 44 percent of Millenials are likely to actively pursue working at that company

According to a 2009 ING poll of

6000 employees:

• 89% are concerned about environmental issues

• 84% about climate change

• 96% about recycling

• 98% about rising energy prices

• 97% about pollution

• 97% about waste disposal

Engaging Employees in

Sustainability webcast by Center

for Resource Solutions


9 out of 10 employees link brand reputation to how companies address environmental and social issues

GEF Institute Corporate Sustainability Opportunities

• Employee Education

• Mid & Executive Level Management Training

• Sustainability Intranet Portal Development

• Green Team

• Employee Community Volunteerism Programs


Green Team Support

10 Best Practices for Green Teams

• Start with the visible and tangible: focus on internal operations• Get senior management involved, but don’t lose the grassroots

energy• Engage employees to capture ideas• Communicate and share best practices• Engage employees with their bellies: Low carbon diet campaign• Engage employees in their personal lives• Engage customers to be part of the solution• Use art to raise awareness• Create a toolkit to support and guide green teams• Align green teams with corporate sustainability goals


In the process of conducting a recent study with 25 leading companies to identify best practices in sustainability, we discovered many formal, established sustainability programs originated from “grassroots” employee efforts unknown to senior executives.

GEF InstituteSustainability Education Programs

• Self-guided access to GEF Institute’s online courses – Online courses are self-paced and incorporate dynamic instruction methods,

video narration, application based activities, discussion forums, assessments, etc.

• Employee on-demand video training– Downloadable to smart devices

• Train-the-trainer workshop instructions

• PowerPoint Presentations

The top three ways for

(individuals) to reduce

their own emissions are to

drive more fuel-efficient

cars, improve the

insulation of their homes,

and eat less beef. Yet when

we asked the consumers in

our study to name the top

three, they fingered

recycling, energy-efficient

appliances, and driving

less.

Helping Green Products

Grow, McKinsey Quarterly

GEF Institute Certificates in Sustainability

• Earning a certification boosts credibility in the workplace and provides the foundational knowledge for successful sustainability initiatives or behavior change campaigns.

• GEF Institute certifications are comprised of online education that provides big picture analysis and local application of important concepts to foster awareness and enthusiasm for sustainability.

• Distinct levels of certification in sustainability concepts motivate participants to take steps toward sustainability literacy and action.

• Courses required for certification are eligible for academic (graduate or undergraduate) credit.

“I think the best example is to lead by example and be sustainable. The incentive is to clean up our mess and make the world a more

livable place. If employees don’t already feel a sense of obligation and stewardship, then they need to be educated.”

Employee Engagement Survey: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Employee Sustainability Programs, BrighterPlanet

Sustainability in Operations Real World Examples

• At a Lockheed Martin facility, green team activities led to more than $200,000 in savings and reduced CO2 emissions by 2,332 metric tons.

• When Verizon focused on creating more sustainable operations, the company generated $27 million by sorting out and selling recyclable materials from its waste stream, while also saving over a million dollars in waste removal costs.

• P&G has gone so far as to say that they will generate $50 billion in cumulative sales from "sustainable innovation products" in a five-year period ending in 2012.

• Johnson & Johnson has undertaken 80 sustainability projects since 2005 and achieved $187 million in savings with an ROI of nearly 19 percent, and rising.

• Diversey, a leading B2B global provider of commercial cleaning and hygiene solutions states that for every $1 they invested in 2008 they expect to recoup $2 in 5 years.

GEF Contacts

Victoria WatersPresident & CEOGreen Education [email protected] 508-668-2278

Molly Hislop Program Director [email protected] 508-318-6618

Leslie TaylorDirector, Partner [email protected] 508-668-2278

mailto:[email protected]

