Page 89 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

68 CHAPTER 2

their actions, every day, in the respect they accord one another, the degree to which
they engage in active listening, the extent to which they seek to understand first, the
manner in which they keep themselves open to new and different ideas.
Each concept calls for processes and metrics to ensure that staff members are indeed
walking the talk because in this language of a green culture, its walk is its talk.
Granted, this emphasis on speaking softly and letting your actions do the talking has
its challenges, particularly when it comes to issues related to marketing. But funda-
mentally, the language of deeds-over-rhetoric is an important building block of the
values-centric company. Without it, the authenticity of a green bottom line company
becomes questionable.

History

Every culture has a history. Business cultures do, too—even start-ups that have only
recently received a business license. We all have stories to tell of the diverse roads that
led us to this present moment. A collection of individual stories from the past helps
comprise a collective history that is updated continually. We sometimes forget this in
our race to get ahead or move forward. The old adage, You can’t know where you are
going if you don’t know where you came from, is apt.
Melaver, Inc. is particularly fortunate in that it can draw upon a seventy-year com-
pany history that is steeped in values lessons. Annie Melaver, who started the family
business with a corner grocery store in Savannah, Georgia, in 1940, used to close the
store on occasion to bring soup to a sick neighbor. Norton Melaver, who took over lead-
ership of the grocery business from his mother Annie, was noted for, among other things,
taking a principled stance for racial integration that resulted in a boycott. The predeces-
sor business to Melaver, Inc., M&M Supermarkets, was renowned for cutting-edge
innovations and a strong customer service ethos, practices that enabled a small company
to buck national trends as an independent operator that out-competed national chains. In
the late 1970s, a new M&M store was developed around dozens of centuries-old live
oaks, the first of many environmental practices engaged in by the company and its share-
holders. Various family members involved in the business over the years managed to
find time to devote to numerous community causes. Melaver, Inc. has a business history
of a company in the community serving that community. Sound familiar?
Interestingly enough, while this rich company history was known to staff members
of Melaver, Inc., it was more of a vague background than something everyone knew
and referenced. Intent on its metamorphosis into a sustainable real estate company, the
leadership team generally—and Martin Melaver particularly—seemed more focused
on the road ahead than on what had brought them this far. So part of my work with the
team was delving into company history, asking about the connections between the past
and the present, digging up archived pictures from the early days, encouraging the
leadership team to invite retired family members to talk about their days in the gro-
cery business, and so on.