Strategy, Sustainability

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Strategy, Sustainability the Design Profession

• Rob Abbott
• www.abbottstrategies.com

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A Little Diagnosis

• Global View
• Climate Change
• Farming
• Reducing Toxics
• International Tourism
• Population
• Resources Vs. Repression
• Global Governance

• Closer to Home
• Traffic congestion pollution
• Loss of agricultural land
• Paving over of streams habitat
• Impersonal, car-dependent cities
• Concerns about provincial economy

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Within this Context

• Business is trying to
• Produce offerings that customers value highly
• Outperform the competition
• Create value for shareholders

• Planners and designers are trying to
• Foster a sense of community
• Lead environmental stewardship efforts
• Protect economic opportunity and security
• Promote equity

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The Built Environment

• Building operations account for
• 30-40 of total energy use
• 35-40 of municipal solid waste
• 25-30 of wood and raw materials use
• 25 of water use
• U.S. Green Building Council

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And 3D Opportunities
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Sorting Out the Business Case

• Step 1
• Ask your customers, shareholders, employees, and
  the communities in which you operate what matters
  to them the results must inform your strategy.
• Step 2
• Think of value in terms of stakeholder
  satisfaction this drives future financial
  performance.

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Thinking Clearly about Strategy

• The essence of strategy is in the activities
  choosing to perform activities differently or to
  perform different activities than rivals.
• Michael Porter

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And Sustainability

• Choices about activities that
• Meet the needs of business.
• Meet the needs of stakeholders.
• Protect, sustain and enhance human and natural
  resources.
• Creative destruction, anyone?

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A Caveat about Sustainability

• Ultimately, sustainability may be seen to be an
  emergent characteristic of a properly constructed
  global economic structure a property of the
  whole, not the parts.
• This shouldnt stop us from making the
  incremental improvements today that are possible
  we need progress on both the whole and its
  parts.

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Linking Strategy Sustainability

• Competitive landscape of tomorrow likely quite
  different from today.
• To succeed tomorrow, organizations must change
  sometimes radically.
• Sustainability may be the strategic
  discontinuity that forces radical change - across
  all aspects of your business.

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Taking it One Step Further
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The Pay-Off

• BUSINESS
• Top Line
• Market share
• Stakeholder perception
• Bottom Line
• Reduced costs per unit of output
• Reduced compliance costs
• Due diligence

• SOCIETY
• Cleaner air, land water
• Fewer species at risk
• More renewable energy
• More green jobs
• Safer communities
• Greater citizen engagement

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B.C.s Most Respected Companies

• 3 Key Points of Differentiation
• Customer service
• Treatment of employees
• Environmental performance

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Design Pay-Off

• Obvious Benefits
• Integration of natural daylight
• High indoor air quality
• Reduced utility bills

• Less Obvious
• Low VOC finishes materials
• Healthier workplaces ? gains in productivity
• Reduced construction impact
• Use of local materials
• Enhanced social interaction

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Design the Eco-Economy

• Architects are learning the principles of ecology
  so they can incorporate them into the buildings
  where we live and work.
• Lester Brown

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What Do You Need To Do?

• Define a vision of your organization as
  sustainable what would be different?
• Same business? Focus on products or results
  (means versus ends)?
• How would you hire people? What skills would you
  look for? What kinds of opportunities would you
  create for them?
• How would you engage your customers? Your supply
  chain partners?
• How would you measure success?
• This vision should be nothing less than a
  manifesto for change.

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Writing the Manifesto for Change

• You need to be excited about doing something
  different with your business.
• You need to integrate top down and bottom-up
  ideas.
• You need to look for advantage in every aspect of
  your business.
• You need to think about different ways of
  creating value.

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Getting Excited About Design
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In Defence of the Wow

• I unashamedly create dialogues between the new
  and the old as a means of reinvigorating
  buildings with a historical legacyEvery
  architect has a language, a palette of light,
  colour and proportion a recognizable hand.
• Daniel Libeskind, Globe and Mail, March 14, 2002

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Seeing the Whole Board

• Common Business Objectives
• Time to market
• Innovation
• Cost
• Customer Service

• What Sustainability Can Offer
• Faster permitting
• Product takeback
• P2 footprint reduction
• New combinations of products services
• Continuing sources of differentiation

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Where Might This Lead?

• Stakeholder Capitalism
• Business behaviour that sets a high standard,
  recognizes the common-sense practical world of
  global business today, and asks managers to get
  on with the task of creating value for all
  stakeholders.
• Ed Freeman (2000) Business Ethics at the
  Millennium, Business Ethics Quarterly.

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Exhibit A

• C, a contemporary fish restaurant in Vancouver.
• Marketing focuses on two things (i) being 21st
  century responsible and (ii) being committed to
  sustainable harvesting practices.
• Vancouvers first environmentally responsible
  menu focus on local stocks that DFO considers
  to be at safe levels.
• Partnership with Suzuki Foundation.

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Exhibits B, C D

• West Coast Sustainability Centre proposal (Domtar
  Salt Building in SE False Creek).
• Thoreau Center for Sustainability (San
  Francisco).
• Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center (Portland).

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Thoreau Center

• Green building materials
• Maximize use of natural light ventilation
• Ergonomic workspaces
• Natural fiber insulation
• Electric car parking recharging

• High efficiency boilers
• Occupancy sensors
• Bicycle storage, lockers, showers
• High efficiency fluorescent bulbs
• Separation, reuse, recycling of materials removed
  during construction

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Shape of Things to Come?

• From the pages of Interior Design, February 2002
• Earth friendly wallcovering Innovations in
  Wallcovering, Inc.
• Alternative wallcovering Blumenthal
• Profile on Dublin Office of SAP (BMA)
• Profile of Fingal County civic hall (BMA)

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What it Takes to Make it Happen

• Management
• Ability to cope with complexity
• Planning budgeting
• Organizing staffing
• Controlling problem solving

• Leadership
• Ability to cope with change
• Setting a direction
• Aligning people
• Motivating inspiring

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The Way Forward?

• I believe we can accomplish great and
  profitable things within a new conceptual
  framework one that values our legacy, honors
  diversity, and feeds ecosystems and societies.
• Will McDonough

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Last Word

• Today we have to ask ourselves if it is ethical
  to design a non-sustainable project.
• Neil Frankel, Past-President, IIDA

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Contact Us

• ABBOTT STRATEGIES
• www.abbottstrategies.com
• 604-222-8852
• ideaguy_at_shaw.ca