May 20 2008
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger and distinguished CEOs, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today launched its inaugural report "Innovations Review 2008: Making Green the New Business as Usual." The report highlights the latest trends and best practices that demonstrate how environmental sustainability efforts are creating new markets, providing competitive advantages and saving companies millions of dollars. The report is a first of its kind, featuring business solutions that are replicable and ready for implementation across business sectors and industries today.
“Environmental Defense Fund recognized that ‘business as usual’ is changing, so they created a new way to assess environmental innovation,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “More than a third of the companies showcased are based here. I love it when California is number one and it is a big thrill to see businesses in our state leading the way.”
CEOs of businesses featured in the report were on hand at EDF’s San Francisco office to discuss the benefits of the innovations to their companies. Speakers included: Ken Grossman, Founder, Owner and CEO, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.; Charles (Chuck) Kavitsky, Chairman of the Board, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company; Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President, Sun Microsystems; Casey Sheahan, President and CEO, Patagonia, Inc. and Richard Swanson, Founder, President and CTO, SunPower Corp.
“This report is a roadmap to the future. Whether you work at a company or you're a shareholder and you've wanted to go green, this is the answer book,” said EDF Executive Director David Yarnold. “The ideas in ‘Innovations Review 2008’ show how building environmental considerations into basic business processes can create competitive advantage. We hope these ideas inspire others to reduce waste or improve energy efficiency in their operations, services and supply chains – and strengthen the bottom line in the process.”
EDF leadership and a distinguished advisory panel of experts from the fields of environmental science, law, finance and management consulting assessed hundreds of business products, practices and technologies, selecting more than 20 innovations from around the country that are highlighted in the report.
In keeping with EDF’s market-based approach to solving major environmental problems, the "Innovations Review 2008" features game-changing best practices that can influence nearly every functional area within a company – including real estate, operations and manufacturing, fleet management, human resources, IT and finance. Additional innovations highlight transformations underway in the shipping, food and agriculture, retail and insurance sectors. All the innovations were selected based on four key criteria: environmental benefits, business benefits, replicability and creativity.
This report is a natural extension of EDF’s track record working with leading businesses to demonstrate that good environmental stewardship and competitive business advantage go hand in hand. McDonald’s elimination of its clamshell packaging, FedEx’s hybrid delivery trucks and Wal-Mart’s greening of its supply chain are all examples of EDF’s intensive work with corporate partners.
The Innovations Review is the first product of a new EDF initiative to catalog and widely disseminate environmental best practices to a broad corporate audience, and catalyze a new generation of corporate environmental leaders. Later in the year, EDF will launch additional Web-based tools to help companies reduce their environmental footprint and share information on environmental innovations.
A downloadable version of the report, quotes from featured business leaders and a podcast of today’s event are available at www.EDF.org/InnovationsReview.