Page 102 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

GREEN FROM THE INSIDE OUT 81

Lesson: Sustainability must be fully embraced through all aspects of an organization
and its product and service lines. If it is not, the finicky marketplace will move on to a
company that does. To be seen as giving lip service to sustainability—providing it only
when it is convenient or when a client specifically requests it—or to be found to be
greenwashing can be a fatal flaw within the ever-growing sustainability community.
So how does one avoid being labeled well-intentioned but lacking authenticity?
While the degree at which the bar is set varies with each partner/vendor/client/
investor, the rest of this chapter will suggest a framework for moving an organization
from being a company that has a green product to one that embodies sustainability in
its everyday business practices.

What Does Sustainability Mean
to Your Organization?

In the past few years, sustainability has become a buzzword that’s tossed around on
every topic. Many organizations issue an annual sustainability report. In fact, if you
Google the word sustainability, you will get over 13.5 million hits!
One early and oft-cited definition of sustainability comes from the Brundtland
Commission. Its Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development 3
defined sustainability as that which “meets the needs of the present without compro-
mising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sufficiently vague?
Whose needs are to be met? Those who need a three-car garage to keep their boat out
of the weather, or those who are on the street without food and shelter? This definition
is often one’s first exposure to sustainability, and while it conveys the right message—
we need to balance our needs against those of future generations—a company’s defi-
nition of sustainability needs to be much more specific. The details will vary from
organization to organization and person to person. This is OK—what it means to a real
estate company will play out much differently than what sustainability means to a
large manufacturing company.
At Melaver, Inc., there are several components to our definition of sustainability.
First, we aim to have a profound, positive impact on the communities in which we live
and work and a notable lack of impact on the environment in those communities.
Second, we examine every decision we make according to a triple bottom line: Deci-
sions made must not only be financially profitable, but environmentally and socially
beneficial as well. The decisions we make fall into the sweet spot identified by the con-
fluence of all three components, seen in Figure 3.1.
As a general concept, triple bottom line sustainability is easy to understand. It
means that we are turning a profit (so we can stay in business), but not harming our
environment, all the while bettering our communities and society. For us, the meaning
of sustainability comes through many actions we take and even more through actions
we do not take. But what about for your organization?