MANAGEMENT AND THE NEW FRONTIERS (Managing Efficiency)

By Jonathan T. Scott

(All rights reserved. The following text and material is copyrighted.)

First, the Bad News:
Many people are aware that our environment is undergoing changes, but few appear to understand – or seem to want to know - the implications of this fact (equally ignored is the fact that there is money to be made in reducing this problem - not in an opportunistic manner, but in a long-term, sensible, ethical, and responsible way).
To begin with, our atmosphere contains forty percent more carbon dioxide today than it did at the start of the industrial age and the apparent consequence is that temperatures are rising around the globe. The five main culprits behind this carbon dioxide buildup are:

1. electricity
2. heat
3. transportation
4. agriculture
5. and deforestation

To put the problem in perspective, keep in mind that only five degrees in average temperature separates us from the last ice age. A few degrees in the other direction, therefore, may have an equally disastrous effect. No one is certain what that effect will be, but the warning signs have been evident for years. Property damage is rising an average of ten percent per year due to natural disasters caused by shifts in weather patterns and crop yields are dropping. Equally as worrying, open water was recently discovered at the North Pole for the very first time – a sign that warming trends could discharge tons of CO2 now lying dormant in tundra wastelands (about a third of the planet's CO2 is currently locked in permafrost regions) and the huge deposits of methane gas trapped in the freezing sludge at the bottom of both poles. The release of methane gas is very troubling - methane is twenty-one times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Agriculture
Meanwhile, one-third of the world’s croplands is losing topsoil at a rate that nature cannot replace. As a result, commercial agriculture, heavily dependent on chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides, is experiencing diminishing returns – as is the livestock industry. For years both have steadily required more input and effort. Half of the world’s range lands have also now deteriorated into desert and water tables are falling. Indeed, it was predicted some time ago that one third of the world’s population would lack access to clean water by the year 2025. This prediction has come true twenty years early. Compounding this problem is the fact that the world’s forests (the earth’s lungs) are being cleared at an astonishing rate (half have been cut down since the agricultural industry began and more are being cut down now to compensate for the declining productivity of once-prime farmlands) and the world’s eighteen major oceanic fisheries have either reached or exceeded maximum sustainable yields.

Population
Yet the world’s population continues to grow and emit ever-increasing levels of pollution, garbage, and consumption. In 1950, the human population stood at around two billion people. Today the number is six and a half billion. By 2050 this will increase to somewhere between eight and ten billion (approximately 10,000 people are born every hour). Judging by our previous history, overpopulation and the limitng factors inherent in the world's resources will probably lead to more violence, more consumption, a further deterioration of the earth and its resources, and an escalation of toxins poured into the air, ground and water. Today we pollute our planet with 300 times more lead, 23 times more zinc, and 38 times more antimony (a metallic element used in alloys) than can naturally dissipate - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Daily, on average, every person generates 4.4 pounds of garbage (2 kilos), much of which is laden with toxins, an amount that is projected to rise to 4.8 pounds ( 2.2 kilos) in the near future.

Disease
One of the more disturbing consequences of all this is that life-threatening health problems appear to be on the rise – not just for humans, but for plant and animal life as well (perhaps even bees, which are crucial to plant life). Indeed, some scientists believe there is a link between an upsurge in viruses that used to be considered rare and the increase in global temperatures (i.e.: bird flu, mad cow disease, SARS, Lyme disease, Ebola virus, Lassa fever, etc). For example, chytridomycosis (a waterborne fungus) is currently wiping out the world’s frog population (which is an indicator that an entire eco-system could be eliminated). Other viruses and/or parasites are ravaging trout stocks in Europe, decimating shellfish, and even killing off plant species (Margolis, 2006). In other words, minor changes in temperature are causing micro-predators to flourish faster than the species they prey upon can evolve natural defense mechanisms.

The Economy
Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that the world economy, which amounts to over US$40 trillion, is in trouble (Palley, 2006). As it is now structured, the current job market cannot grow fast enough to provide opportunities for the tens of millions of young people who wish to join the labor force every year – a situation that many experts believe will continue to contribute to terrorism. In the meantime, the gap between rich and poor is widening at an alarming rate. Since 1960, the world’s wealthiest individuals have increased their control over global production by fifteen percent (the rich currently control eighty-five percent of global GDP) while the poorest have lost more than half of the 2.3 percent share they once had. Today, large multi-national corporations account for a quarter of the world’s global economic activity while employing less than one percent of the world’s labor force. As if that isn’t enough, most of the world’s profits are produced by focusing on only the top third of the global economic pyramid (i.e.: the richest consumers) leaving two thirds of humanity out of the world’s economic loop (Hart, 2005).

Now the Good News: There is Another Way
Fortunately there are profitable solutions to these problems say numerous business and environmental specialists, including Stuart Hart, author of the book Capitalism at the Crossroads, but they involve changes in behavior. These changes include: (1) having businesses convert to efficient practices (which are defined as):

1. achieving optimal outputs with minimum inputs (doing more with less)
2. producing less waste, and,
3. reusing outputs (heat, discharge, waste, used goods, etc) wherever and whenever possible

And (2) reducing the distance between industry and humanity by bringing into the fold the over four billion people on the earth whose needs are currently not being met.

Far from being expensive, these paths have reduced production costs and greatly increased profits for many companies. Just ask Dow Chemical. Their pollution reduction programs and efficiency pursuits (led by employees) have saved the company over $1 billion over the past thirty years. By replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs, using large super-insulated windows and/or skylights for most lighting needs, incorporating wind turbines and solar cells for energy production, and making products from recycled and/or recyclable materials, most businesses - like Dow did - can start saving enormous amounts of money.

What this means is that the solutions to the world’s major environmental dilemmas are no longer a technological problem. Humanity has already developed the technology it needs to solve its environmental problems as well as quite a few economic problems. The real challenge is trying to convince managers that many of the business processes they manage are wasteful, costly, and self-destructive.

Saving Money, Saving the World, and Winning Over Customers
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to developing a clean, streamlined, and productive business operation is getting over the absurd notion that efficiency and sustainability are expensive. The practices of reducing waste, saving energy, and treating resources as precious commodities pay for themselves in the long run and more often than not reap huge financial dividends to boot. For example, the head of the UK Government Economics Service (Sir Nicholas Stern) recently reported that the costs of taking action in regards to global warming are much smaller than the costs of business as usual – by a factor of between five and twenty. Stated differently, teaching businesspeople to be efficient is contingent upon trying to get them to understand basic math.

Take the Hudson Bay Company in Canada as a case in point. By refitting its stores and offices with more efficient lighting systems and lowering its thermostats, Canada's oldest company saved $12 million in energy costs. Corporate giant 3M saved $500 million between 1975 and 1990 by reducing its pollutants by more than fifty percent and DuPont saved $45 million over a four-year period by reducing waste and emissions (they expect to save over $1 billion in the coming years). Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, as well as companies like The Body Shop have also shown that being ecologically friendly gives concerned customers one more reason to choose their product over someone else’s.

Still not convinced? Think about it this way: there is little doubt that rigid environmental laws can be expected soon due to the world’s worsening state. Germany and Japan, for example, make many manufacturers legally responsible for their products after a sale has been made (although somewhat toothless, these laws will be strengthened) and dozens of other countries have already initiated similar programs. Failure to adhere to this incoming legislation may result in hefty fines or the closing of non-complying businesses. You have been warned. Astute entrepreneurs should get off the fence and prepare for these upcoming changes while saving money, reducing waste, winning over customers, and maximizing profits in the process.

There are two messages here. The first is that soon no one will be allowed to conduct business under the false assumption that the earth remains unscathed while being raped, pillaged, and fouled at every turn. Second is that opportunities and yet undiscovered riches lie in wait for businesses that are willing and able to capitalize on the seven new frontiers that make up the components of basic business efficiency.

The Seven Components of Business Efficiency
(Preparation – People – Place – Product – Processes - Production –Preservation)

Preparation
In the 1970’s, many businesses were forced to comply with environmental laws by, in part, placing expensive pollution control devices and filtration systems in their smokestacks and drainage pipes. Today, waste and toxic emissions are being addressed where they should have been in the first place - at the source rather than the end result. Unfortunately, although some enterprises profit handsomely from this concept, the message doesn’t seem to be spreading fast enough. The experts think that a lack of education combined with the ‘hassle factor’ is to blame for much of the world’s lack of enthusiasm, however, part of the problem probably also lies with the word ‘prevention’. In a world where prices are always taken into account, but value or long-term thinking rarely is, prevention is too often seen as a waste of time and resources. In other words, because it’s difficult to prove the overall effectiveness of preventative measures in a ledger book, it sometimes seems easier (and safer) to stick with known, albeit wasteful, practices.
Therefore, the first step to becoming clean, green, and more profitable involves acknowledging efficiency and sustainability as an opportunity rather than an expense by learning about the value of waste prevention and its long-term rewards. The message is as easy as it is unmistakable: waste in any form is either wasted money or a future cost. Period. The other rather astonishing bit of good news is that most of the solutions that make a business more efficient and less harmful to the environment are very simple (which, ironically, is often why they are so easily ignored or dismissed). Here’s how to begin making your business more efficient, cost-effective, and clean:

1. Create a ‘process map’ of your business, which shows all of its work processes (and products) plus the inputs and outputs of the activities that constitute them. A process map is a graphic illustration that shows the source and collection methods of raw materials, the distance and modes of transport used to bring these materials to your business, how these materials are used and disposed of in your business, the processes of the suppliers you use, your business’s energy needs, and so on. (For more information on process maps, enter the term into any Internet search engine) By mapping out each activity of your business - and its supply chain - it becomes easier to determine what areas need to be focused on in your search for efficiency.
2. Measure and track the waste emitted from your business (packaging, paper, waste water, chemicals, emissions, etc.) and keep an eye on what it consumes (energy, water, raw materials…). Measurement involves reviewing utility bills, counting how many trash bags your business fills every day, or bringing in professionals who will assess the business and recommend ways to reduce waste and save money, usually for free. In the USA, contact the DOE (Department of Energy) industrial assessment center or a nearby environmental institute for details. Those living outside the USA should try the latter.
3. Know the size of your ‘environmental footprint’ (the amount of pollution you and/or your business creates) or ‘carbon footprint’ (the amount of carbon dioxide you and/or your business creates). According to a recent British government report, every ton of carbon emitted by a person or industry causes over $100 of economic damage (the average person produces nine tons of carbon dioxide per year through energy consumption alone, which is why the elimination of energy wastage should be high on every agenda). To determine your business’s footprint, enter the term ‘carbon footprint’ into an Internet search engine. There are websites that will deduce this measurement after a series of questions have been answered.
4. The ultimate goal in becoming efficient is to embrace the concept of sustainability. In general terms, sustainability means creating products and services that eliminate the need for vast quantities of energy and virgin raw materials by recycling and reusing these commodities as much as possible. Think of it this way: on average, three times as much energy is used to extract virgin materials as is used to manufacture products from existing recyclable products and materials. Therefore, it is financially prudent for every business to seek ways to develop its current products from sources that can be converted into future raw materials for re-use or re-manufacturing. For example, some types of plastics are recyclable and others are not. Use recyclable alternatives.
5. Find out if your business is entitled to financial incentives for its environmental efforts. Ask your nearest environmental protection office or environmental institute for details.

People
Building an efficient, sustainable, and more profitable business is not a solitary affair. All the individuals who work in a business as well as those who buy the business’s products must get involved. Without their input the entire concept of efficiency is compromised. By factoring in the enthusiasm and input of others (including paying customers) alternative solutions can be explored, improved upon, and added to the mix. Remember, waste and inefficiency are mostly a behavior problem; that's why getting everyone involved is so important.

1. Update and/or improve your management skills. Become familiar with setting objectives, practicing the true purpose of management, knowing the basics of change management, working with teams and groups, leadership, getting the most from employees, managing conflict, and understanding the importance of customers (please click on the Management Education Services icon of this website for more information).
2. Empower you people with the following five fundamental rules of efficiency:

   1. Always question every aspect of every process and system (is every part needed?)
   2. In every system, the entire sysytem should be streamlined and optimized (not just parts of it)
   3. To eliminate wasted tme, wasted energy, wasted money, and unwanted discharge, in every process make certain that the right steps are taken in the right order
   4. Whenever possible, use non-toxic, recylable, and biodegradable materials in place of toxic, virgin, or non-degradable materials
   5. All inputs and outputs should be measurable (and counted) and judged in terms of long-term gains rather than short-term savings

3. Reinforce efficiency and environmental successes both internally and externally by sharing them with others. Efficient businesses and ecologically friendly products are more attractive to customers when the benefits are on display for all to see.
4. Dare to look for markets where others fear to tread. For example, the Nobel Peace Prizewinner in 2006, Mohammad Yunus, confounded the critics by helping to establish a business that sells mobile phones to villages rather than people (GrameenPhone). Today, annual revenues from this project are estimated to rise to over $100 million – in a country where the average yearly wage is $286! Similarly, the Grameen Bank he founded provides small loans (currently over $445 million each year) to the world’s poorest people while maintaining the highest payback rate of almost every other bank in the world. In Mexico, the Cemex cement company saw its annual profits increase by 250% year after year by also concentrating on its poorest customers (Hart, 2005). Time and again people with courage, brains, and an entrepreneurial spirit are proving that money can be made offering modified products and services to underserved or neglected populations – thereby helping to lift these populations out of poverty while easing a growing world problem.

Place
The area where work is performed includes office buildings, factories, shops, and the home. Although buildings consume a sizeable percentage of the world’s energy, creating a self-contained structure that is more efficient (as well as more enjoyable to work in) is not difficult and more often than not is less expensive than constructing an inefficient one. For example, a well-designed building that takes advantage of natural light while deflecting unwanted heat and wind can save thirty percent in energy costs. In addition, well-designed buildings that take advantage of natural resources, rather than artifcial ones, have been shown to reduce employee illness and absences by up to sixteen percent.

1. The color of a building often has a dramatic effect on its energy needs (in warm climates light colors help avoid the need for air-conditioning and dark colors absorb the warmth of the sun thereby reducing the need for heating). Even the surface color of a nearby parking lot can impact the heat levels of a building. Paint your place of work accordingly (with non-toxic paint) and surround it with trees and vegetation.
2. Put your roof to good use by covering it with reflective roofing material (which keeps heat levels down) and/or installing wind turbines or solar panels. If you think you can’t afford these items (prices go down every year) consider pooling resources with other tenants and/or look into government grants. As with all preventative measures, solar and wind power options usually pay for themselves in the long run via the law of increasing returns. Low cost houses are now being built around the world that can be rigged to produce more electricity than they use. (For more information on these types of structures, enter the word(s) 'passivhuas' or 'passive buildings' or 'passive homes' etc, into your favorite search engine)
3. Reduce heating and cooling costs by lowering your thermostat setting in winter and raising it in summer (a one-degree thermostat change can reduce fuel bills by ten percent). Then lower the temperature of your hot water heater.
4. Thoroughly insulate your place of work on the inside (with traditional wall, floor, and ceiling insulation) as well as the outside (with sprayed polyurethane). Again, these extra costs pay for themselves in the long run. Low-cost buildings pioneered by architects in Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany are so well insulated they do not require a heating system. Think of the money that saves!
5. Check current ventilation systems as well as heating and cooling systems. Make certain they are efficient and in good working order. Consider replacing your current climate-control system with an energy efficient, ground-source heat pump that can also supply cooling when needed. A heat pump uses liquid natural gas in a closed-loop system that exchanges heat, or when reversed, coolness. Equally as beneficial, the entire system requires only a small amount of electricity to keep its compressors running.
6. Use energy efficient lights. A good rule of thumb to remember is that for each $2 energy-saving bulb used in a building approximately $30 in electricity can be saved during the life of the bulb.
7. Use skylights wherever possible. Apart from decreasing employee absences, the use of natural lighting also reduces fatigue and increases work performance – thereby saving money and making labor more efficient and productive in the bargain.
8. Turn off lights on bright days and keep them off in unused rooms and offices. One study revealed that a factory saved $30,000 per year simply by turning off unnecessary lights.
9. Unplug all electrical appliances when not in use (including computers, adapters, copying machines, battery chargers, etc…). In any home or business, up to forty percent of a normal day’s electrical energy is sometimes needed to power unused equipment that although may be turned off, is still on stand-by (such as remote controlled TV’s). Cut off the power at the source of these items.
10. Allow for natural air circulation to reduce the need for cooling.
11. Use thicker copper wiring in electrical systems. The reduction in electrical friction means significantly reduced energy bills year after year.
12. Reduce water consumption. Install efficient water fixtures such as flow aerators and toilet ‘dams’ that pay for themselves in no time at all.
13. While you’re at it, fix leaks in pipes, toilets, and faucets (which can account for ten percent of water usage), and promote efficient landscaping.
14. Toilets are among the worst wasters of water – using up to twenty-five percent or more of a building’s water needs. Replace inefficient toilets with new models, which have inside surfaces that are so slippery they can be flushed with a light mist. Alternatively, consider using other models that automatically (and odorously) separate solids from liquids.
15. Ensure your water heater and appliances are all super-efficient. Efficiency standards for most energy-consuming items such as water heaters, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, and so on, have drastically improved over the years. According to one study, utility bills can be reduced by as much as forty percent by simply replacing inefficient everyday electrical equipment with more efficient models.

Product
The goods or services a business sells in exchange for money (as well as the packaging materials that wrap a product) fall under the product category. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, only about one percent of all materials mobilized to serve the United States is made into products that are still in use six months after the sale. The rest is thrown away (Hawken & Lovins, 1999). To avoid contributing to the mountains of garbage clogging up the world’s landfills and poisoning its ground water:

1. Re-design products so that they require less raw materials and less toxins in their make-up and fewer processes and components to put together.
2. Design and/or sell products that can be easily taken apart after their use (for recycling).
3. Use biodegradable materials whenever possible. Many products can take thousand of years to decompose. To avoid forcing future generations to deal with our waste, ensure that your products are made from environmentally friendly (recyclable) raw materials.
4. Eliminate the over-use of packaging. Studies show that ninety-eight percent of secondary packaging is a complete and utter waste of materials.
5. Use recyclable materials or biodegradable alternatives in all your packaging components. McDonald’s, for example, is currently determining if eco-friendly potato-starch and limestone containers are a viable replacement for polystyrene burger holders.
6. Do your homework. Even plant-based biodegradable materials are damaging to the environment if the agricultural procedures used to grow them damage the soil and contaminate water supplies. For example, the production of one pair of cotton jeans requires three-quarters of a pound (1/3 of a kilo) of fertilizer and pesticides. Similar ratios are found in a host of other non-food products as well as farmed commodities such as vegetables and meat. A typical European aluminum soda can, for example, takes 319 days and countless energy-wasting processes to manufacture while its raw materials criss-cross the globe. Meanwhile, in the USA alone, enough aluminum is thrown away every three months to rebuild the entire American aircraft fleet. Despite these facts, however, most aluminum manufacturers still insist on producing their product from scratch, even though it costs ninety-five percent less to manufacture aluminum from recyclable scrap (Womack & Jones, 1996).
7. To ensure your products are not compromised by inefficient outside sources, locate and hire suppliers that use ecologically friendly methods in their production.
8. Provide incentives for customers to return old used products to their place of purchase (if your products are recyclable, this will provide you with free raw materials). For example, the Collins & Aikman Floorcovering Company in the USA reuses old carpets to make new carpets. Not only is this cost efficient, the final product is both cheaper and a vast improvement over carpets made with virgin materials (Hart, 2005).

Processes
A business process is defined as the human-related actions that create a specified outcome. Put differently, process actions define the way a business goes about its business. These actions include sales models, work practices, communication techniques, employee training methods, shipping systems, and transportation needs (including employee transport). To focus on maximum efficiency, cost savings, and clean environmental practices:

1. Operate your business under the philosophy that those who are wasteful must be held accountable. Regularly educate yourself and your employees and encourage the input and development of new waste-saving ideas, methods, and procedures.
2. Encourage car-pooling, the use of public transportation, and even the use of bicycles if appropriate, for the transportation needs of your business and its employees.
3. Ensure that your company’s vehicles are tuned, fuel efficient, and safe.
4. If possible, allow employees to work from home. In Canada, for example, a successful engineering company with hundreds of employees (in seventy locations) found that it did not need a central headquarters – so the company’s staff now work from home (Hawken & Lovins, 1999). Similarly, in the USA, JetBlue Airways runs its booking system with employees who also work from their homes. The CEO calls this practice ‘homesourcing’ and says he learned it at another job where it drastically increased employee loyalty, resulted in higher productivity, and decreased employee turnover (Friedman, 2006).
5. Use less paper and office supplies and incorporate ecologically sound substitutes (i.e.: bleach-free and recycled paper and products). Talk with your suppliers about biodegradable alternatives to toxic substances such as paint and solvents, cleaners, computer and copier toner, glue, batteries, etc.
6. Introduce the concept of ‘Whole System Thinking’ or ‘Lean Thinking’ into the workplace. Whole system thinking helps eliminate the all-too-common mindset that believes most processes must stay the way they are. To avoid this costly practice, thoroughly examine, question, and improve entire systems as opposed to improving only one or two components of these systems. Organizations that streamline all their business processes and eliminate wasteful practices typically increase production levels by two hundred to four hundred percent while decreasing accidents, defects, delays, errors, and inventories anywhere from four hundred to one thousand percent (Womack & Jones, 1996).
7. Consider converting your business from one that sells products to one that also leases and services them. For example, many customers are not interested in owning expensive items like wall to wall carpet, vehicles, copying machines, washing machines, machine tools, and so on. Instead, what they want is the convenience or outcome these commodities provide. The alternative is for customers to the outcome or convenience they seek through a leasing arrangement. In the book Natural Capital, authors Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins use the example of heating and cooling companies in France and the United States to illustrate this concept. Rather than sell oil, gas, or electricity, these innovative companies now offer warmth or coolness as their product (which is what customers really want). To accomplish these aims, the companies provide insulated retrofits inside their customer’s businesses, install super-insulated windows, and regularly service the heating and cooling systems. The more efficiency the company delivers the more money both the company and the client save and make. The added bonus is that these companies usually end up hiring more employees to cover the growing service aspect of their business. In addition, service based business have been shown to better ride out the volatility of up and down economic cycles. This is because, in part, selling produces a one-time-only outcome (which, like all sales, is heavily dependent on economic cycles), but leased service agreements are subject to longer-term commitments.

Production
The production aspect of the Seven Components of Business Efficiency includes all the mechanical systems of a business that are directly linked to the creation or manufacturing of a product. (Production can be lumped together with Processes if you so desire. I simply separate the two to make a distinction between human and mechanical systems.) Despite the almost daily advances being made in manufacturing technologies, many businesses still cling to their existing production processes, which waste huge amounts of money, time, and materials. To offset this waste:

1. Switch to ‘closed-loop’ practices that reuse, energy, heat, water, chemicals, waste, and (as mentioned earlier) even the used product itself. For example, the Interface company in the USA manufactures a floor surface called ‘Solenium’, which is made from used and discarded floor-coverings. This closed-loop product lasts four times longer than contemporary products, can be cleaned with water (instead of toxic cleaning solutions), and requires forty percent less raw materials in its manufacturing processes, all of which are free of chlorine and other poisonous materials. Since Solenium also requires eighty-six percent less raw materials and energy to manufacture the results have led to sixty percent less waste and an increase in revenues of $67 million (Hawken & Lovins, 1999).
2. Keep your equipment in good working order. Items not running at peak efficiency are wasting money. Regularly clean compressors, replace filters, and lubricate moving parts.
3. Replace old production equipment with energy-saving models. Old cooling units and poorly insulated industrial furnaces and smelters are among the worst energy offenders. Studies show that energy costs can be cut by up to sixty percent by using efficient pumps and motors in production processes. (Nowadays, many efficient machines, motors, and appliances [including circulation pumps, ventilation systems, office machines, coffee makers, refrigerators, and so on] actually cost less than their energy-wasting counterparts.)
4. Reposition production lines to take advantage of the heat or energy generated from certain processes. For example, in some Japanese companies, heat from blast or industrial furnaces is also used to generate electricity – thereby reducing power costs by seventy percent.
5. Recycle oil and solvents.
6. Use collected rainwater or re-circulated (and filtered) discharged water instead of tap water (drinking water) for production purposes.
7. Convert water usage systems from continuous flow to intermittent flow and eliminate plenum flushes.
8. Use biologically produced polymers (plastics) from ecologically sound sources instead of oil based ones.
9. Ensure that toxic waste products emitted from your business are disposed of properly. This includes oil, solvents, hazardous office supplies, and so on. If you don’t know how to dispose of these items contact your local environmental agency for details.
10. Determine if the waste from your business can be reused, sold, or given to another business. This includes paper, plastic, metal, glass, food waste, electronic equipment and so on. You never know who will find your waste valuable. For example, the ScotAsh Company in Scotland uses waste from coal-fired power stations and recycles it into products for the construction industry. In Ludwigshafen, Germany, BASF runs a series of inter-locked factories that help power one another with the heat from chemical processes. At the Harjavalta industrial eco-park in Finland, metal-making companies collaborate in the same fashion, saving money and materials by using each other’s waste materials.

Preservation
The last of the business efficiency frontiers, preservation, deals with fixing the everyday damage being done to the environment while ensuring that it does not happen again. It goes without saying that a cleaner, healthier environment makes all of us richer in every conceivable way. Preservation, therefore, entails keeping records of your environmental and efficiency efforts (they may be useful for legal and tax purposes), compensating for your carbon footprint with the suggestions below, and keeping in mind that education is perhaps the most integral part of efficiency, profitability, and conservation.

1. Encourage legislation that penalizes wasteful, inefficient, pollution-producing business practices. Such laws give an efficient business (i.e.: yours) a greater edge in the marketplace. This is one of the main reasons why industrial giants Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, the FPL Group, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, PG&E, and PNM Resources recently petitioned the American president pleading for reduced carbon emission legislation.
2. Put to good use the unused areas around your business (or home) that are smothered with asphalt or concrete and seed them with indigenous plants.
3. Plant trees and nurture indigenous greenery wherever possible (it increases the value of the property) and encourage your employees, family, and friends to do the same.
4. Water all outdoor greenery using drip irrigation methods.
5. Participate in environmental protection schemes and support energy efficiency projects.
6. Buy organically grown vegetables and produce and insist that local markets provide it. The amount of soil in the world that is being burned to a crisp with fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers, and other chemical additives is among the greatest problems humanity faces. These chemicals are also the single greatest source of water pollution.
7. Buy meat products from producers that do not pump their livestock full of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs.
8. At home, turn off the tap when brushing your teeth as well as in between soapings while taking a shower. The amount of water saved really adds up (remember, there are 6.4 billion people on this earth).
9. Cancel subscriptions to unneeded catalogue and magazine mailing lists (sign on to e-mail alternatives instead).
10. For more suggestions on these and other efficiency and environmental matters, visit www.globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm or www.greenbiz.com or www.nrc-recycle.org

Sources

Business and Source Reduction, www.nrc-recycle.org, September 2006.

Elegant, Simon, Barely Breathing, Time World, 13 November 2006, www.time.com.

Friedman, Thomas L., The World is Flat, Penguin Books Ltd., London, 2006.

Fussman, Cal, ‘The Energizer’, Discover Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 02, February 2006, pp. 23-26.

‘Greening Your Business: A Primer for Smaller Companies’, www.greenbiz.com, September 2006.

Hart, Stuart, Capitalism at the Crossroads, Wharton School Publishing (Pearson Education), New Jersey, 2005.

Hawken, Paul & Lovins, Amory & Lovins, L. Hunter, Natural Capitalism, Little, Brown and Company, Boston/New York, 1999.

Lovins, Amory & Lovins, Hunter & Hawken, Paul, ‘A Road Map for Natural Capitalism’, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1999, pp. 145-158.

McDonough, William & Braungart, Michael, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, Northpoint Press, New York, 2002.

Margolis, Mac, ‘Why the Frogs are Dying’, Newsweek International, 16 October 2006, pp. 10-14.

Palley, Thomas, ‘A New Development Paradigm: Domestic Demand-Led Growth’, Foreign Policy in Focus, www.fpif.org/papers, September, 2006.

Prahalad, C. K. & Hart. S., ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’, Strategy + Business, vol. 26, 2002, pp. 2-14.

Prahalad, C. K., & Lieberthal, Ken, ‘The End of Corporate Imperialism’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 76 (4), 1998, pp. 68-79.

Womack, J.P., & Jones, D.T., Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996.

The World Bank, World Development Report, Oxford University Press, 2000.

(All rights reserved. The above text and material is copyrighted. The titles ‘Management and the New Frontiers’ and ‘The Seven Components of Business Efficiency’ a.k.a. 'The Seven Segments of Business Efficiency', as well as the derivatives depicted herein (e.g. the seven P’s alliteration), are from an original university course taught by Jonathan Scott [2006]. The information and the way it is presented is also part of an upcoming book by the same author, which is due to be published in 2008.)