TURN OVER A NEW LEAF IN 2015

Are you looking to reduce utility costs, increase operational efficiency, attract/retain/engage employees, drive innovation and create new business opportunities?
GEM can deliver sustainability solutions that drive real business benefits.
Speak to us today about how GEM can help lead you through a more sustainable strategy for the future as well as with key findings from studies and help you plan how to leverage this information to enhance your company’s sustainability story to drive greater brand value.

Sustainability: A Better Way To A Bigger Profit!

Based on the fundamental concept of continuously improving social, environmental and economic performance across the value chain, Sustainability is simply, a better way to make a bigger profit.
While organizations have attended to Social and Environmental performance for decades, it is traditionally economic performance that drives strategy and decision making. Sustainability offers a revolutionary business model by including social and environmental factors in the strategy and decision making process to maximize organizational performance and produce superior profits.

 
Building A Strategy That Is Sustainable
An organization without a strategy is like a ship without a rudder, the outcome is unpredictable and left to chance. In today’s economy, are you willing to leave your business to chance? Competing and winning in today’s economy not only requires a strategy, but one that includes sustainability. Even with a strategy, many organizations mistakingly ignore tenants of sustainability or develop a side strategy for Sustainability that is separate from the business strategy and fail to realize optimal results.

GEM’S proven, dynamic methodology provides organizations the ability to develop an integrated strategy. By combining strategy with sustainability, GEM coaches organizations to produce a Strategy that is Sustainable. Based on proven models such as the Rockefeller Habits and CERES Sustainability Roadmap, this powerful approach maximizes social, […]

By |January 7th, 2015|News, Sustainability|Comments Off on TURN OVER A NEW LEAF IN 2015

Driving Sustainability Through Procurement

Becoming a sustainable organization requires a multi-faceted approach that reaches across the full enterprise, unfortunately there is no silver bullet.

The good news is an increasing number of tools, techniques and processes are emerging to drive sustainability.

One tool that is often underestimated is the power of a policy approach and one policy area that is becoming increasingly popular is procurement. With many organizations already having some form of procurement or purchasing policy in place, enhancing the sustainability of an existing policy or developing one from scratch, is a natural next step for organizations looking to embed sustainability across value chain.

Focusing on procurement as a vehicle for Sustainability has many benefits from the reduction of costs to avoiding supply chain disruptions to meeting expectations of customers. The rub is that with no directions or a process to follow, sustainable procurement can seem like a daunting challenge. Here are 4 steps any organization can take to move procurement in a more sustainable direction:

1. Scope/Boundary Setting: Identify the scope and boundary for the policy.  Start with a general area focusing on the most commonly purchased items and expand from there. For example, start with a scope of general office supplies and focus on those items purchased regularly. Develop an inventory of these common items such as paper, pens, folders, note pads etc.

2. Define Sustainability Attributes: Once the scope and boundary is decided, determine the desired sustainability attributes for the targeted items. When developing these attributes it helps to look at 3 general areas: Economic (i.e cost, quality and delivery) Environmental (i.e recycled content and recyclable at end of life) Social (i.e working conditions, testing practices). With a list of attributes decided, rank the top attributes and decide how […]

By |November 26th, 2014|Sustainability, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Driving Sustainability Through Procurement

Gaming for Green

Who says games are just for kids? People of all ages enjoy playing games in their free time. However, games are quickly becoming a must have in the toolbox of sustainability leaders across the globe. In fact, experts and practitioners around the world are coining gamification as the most disruptive force to engagement since the emergence of social media.

Traditionally defined, gamification is the use of various game based mechanics such as the accumulation of points, awarding of badges, issuing of challenges and development of leader-boards. A traditional example includes existing loyalty programs such as the airline frequent flyer programs where participants accumulate points that are redeemable for various “prizes” but are also rewarded handsomely via lounge access, priority boarding etc. when a certain points level is achieved.

With the proliferation of social media, smart phones, tablets and other devices, leading organizations across the globe have realized that leveraging the concept of gamification to engage employees, suppliers and other stakeholders in Green and Sustainability can lead to some epic wins.

Take the Partners in Project Green “People Power Challenge” for example. Companies in the GTA sign up to participate in this year long challenge. Participating companies are awarded points for completing tasks across 3 categories in 3 different challenges related to Energy, Waste and Water. A live leader-board shows which organizations are currently “winning” and at the end of the game, the leaders in each challenge along with an overall leader receive cash prizes to go towards a green initiative suggested by an employee during the game. The result is a win-win for all involved as companies drive employee engagement and awareness, receive innovative ideas for projects, have the opportunity to raise capital for green projects, not […]

By |November 26th, 2014|Sustainability, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Gaming for Green

Benefits of CSR Reporting

Let’s face it, becoming a Sustainable Organization is a challenge. There are many factors in the equation, from the obvious things like energy and material consumption to the less obvious community support and supply chain engagement. Even though it can be a challenge, Sustainability is not going away. Organizations need to start somewhere if they are going to compete and win in the new economy.

CSR, aka Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting is a great place for companies to start their journey towards Sustainability and with this, brings a number of benefits. To start, more and more organizations are demanding suppliers report progress towards Sustainability and develop a plan for moving forward. Meeting these expectations will help organizations retain current customers while attracting new ones. CSR reporting is also a great way to get buy in and support from Sr. Mgmt as they are forced to make public facing statements and commitments towards sustainability. In the process of developing a CSR report organizations will also take stock of their current progress, have a means for showcasing these efforts to stakeholders while developing a structure and plan for moving forward.

For organizations that have yet to develop a CSR report it can seem like a daunting task but like anything,  it’s important to start small and build from there.
Here are some tips for getting started:

 

 
Assess key impacts, risks and opportunities:
This can be done by asking a few simple questions. What are the key impacts the organization has on the environment, its community and its people? What risks and opportunities does this present? When looking at key sustainability trends such as climate change, resource depletion etc., what impacts, risks and opportunities will this present?

 
Develop a Sustainability Vision:
What is the […]

By |October 16th, 2014|Sustainability, Workshop|Comments Off on Benefits of CSR Reporting