Page 323 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

MARKETING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 301

Figure 10.3 Core values “packaged” in a terrarium.

it was and would continue to be a service-focused company, serving the land and com-
munity of which it is a part. The central mechanism for this service was a sustainable
orientation that called for providing cutting-edge, innovative products in its develop-
ments—innovations that would assist the company’s clientele consume less and be
more organizationally efficient. The company indeed touched upon three disciplines—
service, innovation, and efficiency. But its primary focus was service to land and com-
munity. The light bulb went off in staff members’ heads as we shaped a statement of
purpose for the company. One sentence, but it took a full day of discussion at the com-
pany’s annual retreat to shape it fully: To envelop our community in a fabric of inno-
vative, sustainable, inspiring practices.

Element #4: Internal collateral materials. As a follow-up to the company’s
retreat, Cayenne created a series of posters built around the company’s four core val-
ues. In addition, a series of four photographs—stand-alone shots that when combined
provided a story of the company—was created, each one built around a core value
and containing visual clues or “inside jokes” that only a staff member would know and
understand. The point here was clear: the branding was internal, not meant for an out-
side audience. The company had to get the walk right before it would do any talking
to the outside world.

Element #5: CommPost materials. We recognized in the course of learning
about sustainable development (as part of the process one Cayenne employee became
LEED accredited) that sharing of information was vital to this very new sort of
endeavor. No single person or company knew all there was to know about sustainable
development. Exchange of information with groups outside the company was impor-
tant, exchange of information within the company even more so. CommPost is the
idea of an open network of information exchange. As part of the retreat, we created