Green Marketing

Getting a grip on environmental impact through your ERP

[Note: Chris Lemoine, the regular author of this blog, is out on a month-long sabbatical. This guest post is from his colleague, Tyson Supasatit.]

I was at the bus station this morning when a small headline in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer caught my eye. Microsoft had released its much-anticipated Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX, the company's foremost enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. The dashboard tracks four key environmental impact metrics, as standardized by the Global Reporting Initiative:

Direct energy consumption, such as on-site use of fossil fuels

Indirect energy consumption, including energy bought from utilities

Greenhouse gas emissions from the total energy consumption

Greenhouse gas emissions from standard business practices, such as transportation, commuting, and business travel

Businesses can use this information to communicate their progress on environmental sustainability to business partners, investors, government agencies, or when applying for tax credits. It's a great addition that enables companies to capitalize on their ongoing environmental sustainability efforts.  

Creating change in a conservative culture

Environmental business consultant Anna Clark writes wise words in an article about introducing environmental change in conservative cultures, such as you sometimes find in large companies or certain industries. She writes:

"As specialized as the sustainability field is becoming, the gulf between where the experts are heading and where everyone else still remains continues to widen. In trying to solve complex problems, we create solutions that make sustainability ever more confusing for conservative cultures to embrace. ... In order to get green off the ground within a change-resistant culture, try going back to basics. Even a program as simple as the three R's: reduce, reuse and recycle, can be effective. Companies that put into place a simple but measurable program may see enough positive evidence to inspire more strategic actions down the road. Slow and steady wins the race."