NA 2008 keynote focuses on redesigning business

We’re all familiar with the three Rs of waste reduction: reduce, reuse, recycle. But what about redesign, rethink and reimagine?

Corinne Kator, Modern Materials Handling -- Logistics Management, 4/22/2008

CLEVELAND—During yesterday’s keynote session at NA 2008, author and environmental strategist Andrew Winston spoke of the great opportunity today’s companies have to redesign their businesses to make them more sustainable.

Today, he said, the pressure to make business more environmentally friendly comes from all sides: from regulators, the media, business partners, consumers and even banks and other investors.

Winston said he believes these pressures will cause a fundamental shift in the way business is done. For companies to remain viable, he said, there will be no alternative—they will have to focus on sustainability.

Winston then offered a three-part toolkit for tackling sustainability within an organization.

The first tool in the toolkit, he said, is “eco-tracking.” This involves measuring and recording what goes into a company’s products as well as measuring and recording what stakeholders expect from the company.

The second tool is culture. When a company’s culture includes dedication to environmental change, he said, employees are more apt to think creatively and environmental projects are more likely to get done.

Winston’s third tool is redesign. Wal-Mart has redesigned refrigerated store aisles, adding doors to save energy. UPS has redesigned its driving routes to eliminate left turns, reducing the time trucks spend idling in traffic. These are just some examples, Winston said, of companies who’ve already begun to redesign, rethink and reimagine a more sustainable way to do business.