Fiksel, Joseph. THE EMERGENCE OF A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS COMMUNITY
Vice President, Life Cycle Management, Battelle Memorial Institute, 505 King Ave., Columbus, OH 43221 (fiksel@battelle.org)
Global population and environmental pressures are challenging multinational companies to develop new business strategies founded upon the principles of sustainability – assuring that they can meet the needs of both present and future generations of customers and stakeholders. Corporate sustainability requires understanding the "triple bottom line" which includes economic, societal, and ecological performance. It involves designing products and processes with a full awareness of their life cycle costs and benefits, and seeking new technologies to create more value with fewer resources. To put sustainability into practice, companies are beginning to transform their core business processes and develop environmentally and socially responsible products and services. This changing business climate is creating new opportunities for breakthrough research and development, ranging from nanotechnology to green chemistry.
This talk will illustrate some of the tools and practices that Battelle clients are currently using to both stimulate and measure sustainability improvements in their businesses. One striking example is the ambitious transformation of Ford Motor Company’s historic Rouge Plant, in Dearborn Michigan into a sustainable automotive manufacturing center. By investing in a state-of-the-art workplace with an ecologically harmonious architectural design, the company expects to improve employee morale, loyalty, health, safety, and productivity, thus contributing significantly to both the bottom line and the corporate image. Another example is a $3.5 million project that Battelle is conducting on behalf of the global cement industry, sponsored by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development in Geneva, Switzerland. This study is developing a 20-year roadmap toward a sustainable cement industry, ranging from stakeholder engagement to sustainable technology innovations.