ClientsAxis Performance Advisors uses Ralph Estes concept of a Corporate Annual Report as a way to track how socially responsible we are. Unlike the typical annual report, this describes our contributions to all our stakeholders--not just owners/shareholders, but also employees, customers/clients, the community and the environment. The real bottom line is about more than just money. The following report summarizes our contributions to our various stakeholder groups. Since the employees are also owners, we combine those two stakeholder groups.
ClientsFor AXIS adding value to our clients' organizations is
our primary mission.
Here are some highlights of our work in the last year.
Darcy and Marsha, in collaboration with Portland State University, designed and launched the Implementing Sustainability Professional Certificate Program. This program is intended for those who are responsible for guiding the implementation of sustainable business practices in their organization or who would like to encourage their business to pursue sustainable practices. It includes four core classes and four project-focused electives. After a lot of hard work, our dream of a "Sustainability Institute" which marries sustainable practices with organizational development theory has been realized. For more information go to http://www.SUSTAIN.pdx.edu.
Marsha facilitated a six-month, multi-stakeholder process for the Unified Green Cleaning Alliance to identify preferred criteria for sustainable commercial cleaning products. The 40+ member alliance which included manufacturers, purchasers, cleaning services and government agencies, produced a consensus report of the process that was published last July.
Marsha facilitated a staff planning session for the Bonneville Environmental
Foundation to help them set strategic goals.
In collaboration with Linda Brentano, Darcy designed the Integrating
Sustainability into your Work:
Leaving a Legacy workshop to help organizations energize employees
and help employees translate the concept of sustainability into their daily
work.
In collaboration with Scott Dethloff at CH2M Hill, Darcy helped METRO develop RFP criteria to make their waste transfer stations more sustainable.
Marsha developed a process for the Washington Dept. of Ecology to help them get more people on board with and excited about sustainability. It included a process for helping employees and managers translate sustainability into everyday work practices and responsibilities.
Marsha and Darcy, in collaboration with ZW Associates, worked with the Oregon Sustainability Coordinators to help them develop a sustainability plan as directed by the Governor.
The Oregon Natural Step Network has recognized AXIS as having achieved the top level of their sustainability guidelines, issuing a case study on how we operate so others can learn from our experience. You can find the case study at ortns.org/resources.asp.
CommunityIn addition to our work with clients, we make a point
of adding value in our communities,
often "adopting" a non-profit to which we provide no- or low-cost
services.
Together, Marsha and Darcy provided over 300 hours of direct probono assistance to worthy organizations...
Darcy was nominated to sit on the Oregon Sustainability Board but was not confirmed due to a technicality. She has instead volunteered her time as an advisor to the Board.
Darcy and Marsha participated in the Oregon Natural Step Network's coaching service, supporting the transition of the following organizations to sustainable practices:
Marsha and Darcy did seven public presentations to organizations including OD Network, Sustainability Forum, Society of Women Engineers, and the Rotary. Darcy also was a keynote speaker at the Alaska Forum on the Environment.
Marsha and Darcy launched and facilitated a Sustainability Salon, a place for those actively working on sustainability to get help and advice. Our meetings included topics such as how to use "backcasting," how to communicate sustainability to people who aren't tuned in, how to turn around a failing multi-stakeholder consensus process related to electronics take-back/product stewardship.
We continued our free services: the Axis Advisory, a quarterly newsletter (4 issues covering topics on what we can learn from indigenous tribes, sustainability as an organizational development/change task, stages of adoption of sustainability and globalization). Past issues are available on our website. [To get these automatically, send an email to AXIS-Advisory-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.]
We also continued our newsflash service (14+ issues), a summary of interesting articles and books. [To join, send an email to AXIS-newsflash-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.] We also continued moderating NW-Sustainability listserve to support people in the Pacific Northwest who want to know what's happening locally around the topic of sustainability in an organizational context. [To join, send an email to NW-Sustainability-subscribe@yahoogroups.com]
EnvironmentThough as a consulting service we have low environmental
impact,
we still feel a responsibility to being good earth stewards.
Darcy changed their invoicing procedures to reduce paper use.
Our biggest environmental impact is associated with transportation. We continued tracking the percentage of trips where we used alternative transportation (mass transit, biking or walking.) We've increased our use of alternative transportation methods to over 60%, a 20% increase over last year. If we counted car pooling as alternative transportation, this percentage would be higher.
Again this year, AXIS is climate neutral. We purchased carbon credits to offset our greenhouse gas emissions for the previous year. This year we used a local organization, The Climate Trust.
Employees/OwnersAs owner/operators we naturally set business goals for
our own development.
This year, we focused on deepening our knowledge of sustainable metrics/indicators
and systems thinking.
Darcy and/or Marsha attended sustainability-related workshops on metrics, human resources, indicators, and systems thinking.
Profits were down somewhat this year, due to the soft economy, but our sustainability work continues to grow. Approximately 55% of our revenues (up from 40% last year) and approximately 70% of our time is now allocated to doing sustainability work. The remainder of our projects are more traditional organizational development work (e.g., team building, conflict resolution, executive coaching, facilitation, etc.).
To solve complex issues associated with sustainability, many organizations are engaging in multi-stakeholder processes to generate innovative new solutions. Industry sectors such as cleaning products, electronics, forestry, apparel and agriculture have come together to set higher social/environmental industry standards or create eco-labeling frameworks. Some businesses have focused on "greening their supply chain" by collaboratively involving their suppliers in uncovering waste and inefficiencies. Governmental agencies frequently involve many stakeholders to spur sustainable economic development, solve persistent social problems, or to identify key conservation areas. Architects and builders now use an integrated design process, involving all the contractors in "eco-charrettes," to optimize the performance and cost-effectiveness of the building. Since these multi-stakeholder projects often have the potential for greater benefit than those undertaken by individual corporations, we plan to focus our energies on identifying multi-stakeholder opportunities and facilitating a consensus process for solving tenacious economic, social and environmental problems.
Curitiba is known for creative solutions to many gnarly social, environmental and economic problems. Darcy is going on a sustainability tour of Curitiba, Brazil with a group from Portland State University to learn first-hand from their sustainability innovations around urban planning, transportation, public health and poverty.
Making Complex, Sustainable Decisions: Untangling the Triple Bottom Lines -- Scott Dethloff at CH2M Hill has developed a software package that helps organizations compare options against "triple bottom line" criteria (social, environmental and economic). Together, we are developing a workshop to help organizations make complex decisions, including how to speed up the consensus process and develop innovative, high-quality options, where this software can be a tool.
We plan to offer the PSU program again in the spring and the fall of 2004, with new electives being offered.