February/March 2009
Sustainable Strategy
C O N T E N T S
Executive Director's Corner: Crossing The Potomoc
LEED: Fort Carson Building Awarded First Army LEED Gold
Neighborhood Development: LEED Neighborhood Development in Colorado
Recyling News: Some Thoughts on Recycling Old Office Furnishings
Sustainable Development: Creating a Sustainable Future
Getting Green Done: Forgive Me Father, I Don't Have the Money
Sustainable Strategy: Creating Effective Collaboration and Leadership Tactics
Executive Director's Corner: Major Speaker Announced for May Conference
Metro Branch Update: Denver Metro Branch is Looking for Volunteers
VISION
Promote responsibility for Colorado's environmental legacy.
MISSION
Advance and promote sustainable planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment through education, improving industry guidelines, policy advocacy, and information and resource sharing.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dana Kose, Chair
Universal Development Company
Jim Bradburn, Vice Chair, Chair Elect
RMH Group
Megan Christensen, Secretary
US LendLease Communities
Sebastian De Atucha, Treasurer
3BY
Clay Benson, Director at Large
Mortenson Construction
Mike Lowell, Director, Advocacy
US GSA
Bobby Molinary, Director, Membership
Julie Edwards, Director, Education
Oz Architecture
Matt Arabasz, Director, Northern Colorado Branch
RB+B Architects, Inc.
Joshua Radoff, Director, Resource Development, and Communications
YRG Sustainability Consultants
Bethany Trumble, Director, Southern Colorado Branch
Farnsworth Group, Inc.
Liz Sharrer, Director, Metro Branch
Holland & Hart
Mike Kolesar, Director, Emerging Green Builders
Facilities Engineering Associates
Deb Kleinman, Executive Director
USGBC Colorado Chapter
Colorado Building Green is the official newsletter of the U.S. Green Building Council – Colorado Chapter, and is published bi-monthly. If you are interested in submiting a story, ideas or other information for publication, please contact the editor at dgloffreda@msn.com
Creating Effective Collaboration and Leadership Tactics
Renewables, Sustainables and the Path to Profits
By Tracy Houston, Chairman of the Board, iCAST
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Development and energy executives face a decade of unprecedented change and uncertainty. Forces that include growing social trends around energy use, increased scrutiny of environmental effects, and wild card regulations with strategic implications that appear almost overnight are shaping the competitive landscape.
Trend-setting energy and environmental factors are evolving from being part of corporate social responsibility to being framed as a business problem. And, while the strategic solutions are never simple, we certainly can improve in our ability to face them, shape them and profit from them.
In any industry there are inside and outside stakeholders. “Mapping” the values and concerns of stakeholders with company strategy can produce the following outcomes:
- Increased strategic agility in relation to areas of vulnerability from stakeholders
- Expanded capacity to anticipate and develop strategies for business opportunities
- Enhanced ability to facilitate knowledge sharing that strengthens risk intelligence
- Advanced understanding of the dimensions of strategy that enhance collaboration and business development
The quandary lies in how stakeholder concerns will be prioritized. Beyond compliance, how can decision makers create a sustainable future?
Strategic intelligence created from a relationship model has defined characteristics. The approach includes both internal and external stakeholders as part of the model. Feedback is systematically gathered, mapped and prioritized. The mapping process shows the current and emerging stakeholder concerns next to those of the company. The company then can act rather react to each position.
A strong assumption can be made, for example, that the big Three Car Companies have not been in a mapping mood for quite some time. Imagine how the transition to producing a new line of car based in revolutionary technologies for basics like batteries and fuel use might have been influenced with this type of mapping? The process would have discovered emerging concerns for lower emissions, greater gas mileage and smaller cars. If energy companies, as another example, map stakeholder concerns and find lower emission and greater efficiency concerns to be sound business strategies, moves could be made to align with that concern. The building industry, would not want to find themselves in the same position as the automobile industry – behind in profits, market share and lacking in competitive advantage.