Getting to Zero Waste

Editor's Notes

• #2: We’re here to talk about business transformation. You probably expected discussions of strategy, operations, finance, accounting, and others. You probably didn’t expect to discuss sustainability. Right? That save the planet stuff costs money, right? In my experience, it depends on how you do it.
• #6: How might we define it? -We tend to think of it in terms of the environment, but that’s just the way it tends to be used. It’s really just about any behavior being able to continue. Herman Daly – Well known American Environmental Economist Renewable Resources: Fish stocks Renewable Resources: Fish stocks For pollution: Cars, coal-fired energy plants For nonrenewable resources: Coal Business approaches: CSR Department – Area which focuses on these matters. Possibly a good way to get started Integrated – The entire firm is expected to focus on this.
• #7: World population reached:YearTime to add 1 billion 1 billion 1804 2 billion1927 - 123 years 3 billion1960 - 33 years 4 billion1974 - 14 years 5 billion1987 - 13 years 6 billion1999 - 12 years 7 billion Current: 7.3 billion http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
• #10: The top 50 listed firms already do create sustainability reports
• #11: Poverty - End poverty in all its forms everywhere[20] Food - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture[21] Health - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages[22] Education - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all[23] Women - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls[24] Water - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all[25] Energy - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all[26] Economy - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all[27] Infrastructure - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation[28] Inequality - Reduce inequality within and among countries[29] Habitation - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable[30] Consumption - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns[31] Climate - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts[32] Marine-ecosystems - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development[33] Ecosystems - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss[34] Institutions - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels[35] Sustainability - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development[36]
• #18: Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
• #20: Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
• #21: Conceptually, I want you think of sustainable business systems in two different ways. The first one is the more obvious physical parts that will interact in the system. An example would be all of the parts necessary for a recycling program. This would include the bins for collection, the areas for staging, and the trucks which would be used to pick the material up. We could include the broader ecosystem which would include the material sorting facility, the recycling plant, and the various machines and vehicles that are involved with the full circle of the recycling loop. This is basically the engineering problem side of things. It’s like designing an engine. If you leave out a key part, like spark plugs, or a fuel line the system won’t work from the start. To get to a point where you have a working physical system, we have to start by designing one which we think might work. We test that model and collect data to help determine what is or isn’t working. We tweak the system and continue to test to see if the changes we make improve the system. The goal is to work to rapidly evolve the system to one that works well enough to implement in a business environment. But when we get to that point, the job isn’t done. We should continually look for opportunities to improve the system’s performance.
• #22: The other side of the system design coin is the harder bit to get at, which is getting the firm’s culture to adapt to these changes. A perfectly designed physical system tends to be useless if you can’t get the people to use it. For this, it’s important to gain a better understanding of how the business as it currently is. What difficulties exist? Could those somehow be removed or mitigated by the new system? Also,
• #23: Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
• #25: Take a minute to read the case together and then spend a couple of minutes thinking up ideas individually before discussing them as a group. The focus should be on generating ideas which might be worth researching to see if they could be useful options. At the end of the activity, each group will share some of their ideas.
• #32: We’re here to talk about business transformation. You probably expected discussions of strategy, operations, finance, accounting, and others. You probably didn’t expect to discuss sustainability. Right? That save the planet stuff costs money, right? In my experience, it depends on how you do it.