Email feature to a friend
Printable version
Leo Martin: Lessons from eight years of GoodCorporation
Date: 28 Feb 2009
Author: Mallen Baker
5. The environment: moving from management to performance
| Video: Leo Martin challenges environmental managers to reduce impact, not just focus on management systems |
Leo saves some of his most passionate commentary for how companies are currently approaching their environmental impact.
He is, he said, concerned about what the business community is doing on environmental performance – and he puts the blame for the problems squarely on management systems such as ISO 14001 and the European standard EMAS.
The problem is that such systems start with a safety model – they ask the question about the likelihood of something going wrong, and what the company can do to mitigate that possibility.
"Whereas anyone who's fluent from the planet Mars will say 'excuse me, company, you're having a big impact right there, just by being at work, doing what you're doing. What are you going to do to make it smaller?"
"Most environmental managers, even in the big companies we're working in, are flummoxed by the question when we say to them 'when you come to work tomorrow, how will it be a smaller impact than today?'".
Even apparent progress, he complains, is not always real progress. "One of the big telecoms copanies in the UK made a big thing about this huge reduction in carbon, and then you found that it actually shut some of its offices a few years earlier and that was its big reduction of its impact. That wasn't quite the spirit of what you're trying to claim, so there's still those dangers."
Ultimately, the answer to this one goes beyond GoodCorporation – beyond any standard – "because that answer's got to be on a scale that's so global and in every business, every household, that it just requires all organisations to be doing their bit."
<< Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Further reading
Bookmark with:
Del.icio.us |
Digg |
reddit |
Facebook |
StumbleUpon
Comments
You must be logged in to add comments
"Most environmental managers, even in the big companies we're working in, are flummoxed by the question when we say to them 'when you come to work tomorrow, how will it be a smaller impact than today?'" Leo Martin
Key facts
The GoodCorporation standard sets out 62 management practices that are individually assessed.
GoodCorporation was founded in 2000, and since then has carried out assessments in 40 different countries in every continent.
Other features
Values carved in stone
While TV documentaries focus on children working in textiles, an altogether tougher, more difficult issue gets little attention. Watch this - and you'll never buy paving for your patio or driveway without asking a few questions first.
Currently most popular stories
No comments added - be the first!