•Wal-Mart’s initial request was for an environmental footprint to help them understand their risks. We proposed looking at the environment as a chance to lead, and develop a business strategy using sustainability as a lens to reveal hidden opportunities to create value.
•Year 1 implementation resulted in >$500M in ROI (revenue enhancement and cost reduction).
•Met or exceeded stretch goals around in-store and truck efficiency (between 2005 & 2008, Wal-Mart increased trucking efficiency by 38%, with plans to have it doubled by 2015).
•Drove product innovation and supply chain transformations in fish, jewelry, textiles, electronics, and other categories. (e.g. Wal-Mart is working toward making all of its appliances Energy Star-rated).
•Created a source of competitive advantage to recruit and retain key leaders. Successfully differentiated Wal-Mart in the marketplace.
•Our client has a wide range of businesses including distribution and merchandising for music, video, books, and magazines as well as design, manufacturing and marketing of picture frames. For four businesses, the client wanted a comprehensive sustainability strategy that would drive innovation and proactively prepare for a future where customers and other stakeholders would increasingly care about sustainability.
•90% of Wal-Mart’s environmental impacts are related to the products they sell. The Sustainability Index announced by Wal-Mart is a world-changing effort that will assess products across impact areas and drive innovation.
•We developed a working model and roll out plan for the Index and socialized the concept within Wal-Mart leadership, a stakeholder steering committee and key suppliers, incorporating revisions along the way to create a truly collaborative approach to the Index.
•We organized and facilitated a summit of 170 stakeholders in July of 2008 to tackle key questions about design and implementation of the Index.
•A community of 170 diverse stakeholders committed to partnering in this effort.
•The first phase of the Index launched in 2009.
•Product category pilots continue to launch, further developing the product-level metrics.
•A food retailer approached Blu Skye for help in rapidly framing a strategy to improve the health of their employees and customers by improving the nutritional content of the American diet.
•We designed and facilitated a one-day working meeting with the company’s food merchants and a selected group of 10 nutrition experts and advocates including Kelly Brownell, Marion Nestle, David Ludwig, Michael Jacobson, Barbara Rolls, and Hank Cardello.
•The meeting engaged the group in defining the issues related to food and nutrition which, if addressed, would have the biggest impact on health; identifying the actions the company could take that would make a difference in these issue areas; and developing leadership strategies in 6 key areas arising from the brainstorm. The company’s executives then created an action plan for implementation.
•A client wanted to develop a global employee engagement program that was connected to their overall corporate values and successful sustainability strategy. The company hired Blu Skye to assess the situation and develop the overall strategy, framework, and content.
•The business value of an effective employee engagement program was far wider reaching than anticipated. Aside from increasing productivity and reducing retention, there was potential to reduce health care costs. In addition, this program could be adapted to engage customers in sustainability, increasing customer satisfaction, building trust and brand reputation.
•The program was rolled out globally in 2010. An online social networking tool allowed employees collectively track and share their progress. Performance was tracked using a management dashboard with key direct and indirect metrics.
•In order to focus the efforts of their internal venture team in creating systemic change, our client wanted to understand what the world might look like at a time when 100% postconsumer take-back business models are viable.
•Microsoft had committed to rolling out a series of sustainability initiatives to its global network of field offices, including ambitious global carbon footprint reductions for each of the next three years. To be successful, the company needed to enable the local markets to effectively execute on these initiatives. Our role was to help empower their global team of environmental sustainability leads, some of whom had minimal experience with sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, to deliver against company targets.
•Our goal was to create a group of energized leaders, equipped with the tools to successfully execute the sustainability initiatives and achieve ambitious carbon reduction targets.
•Co-created a three-day training summit for the environmental sustainability leads. This summit, which we co-led and facilitated, received outstanding feedback: 91% of participants rated it as “highly successful” in preparing them to execute against the company-wide targets.
In 2010 legislation to mandate the collection and recycling of primary batteries was accelerating, which if enacted would likely lead to higher costs for battery companies and sub-optimal environmental outcomes. It became clear that in order to have a battery recycling system that was economically and environmentally viable, the industry needed to work together with NGOs and regulators to create a national system.
The potential for a patchwork quilt of regulations and collection systems at the state and local level, tensions between stakeholders and the environmental performance and lack of national recycling infrastructure had prevented the creation of a viable national recycling system that battery companies would support. Blu Skye helped the industry create a stakeholder engagement strategy that drove towards a unified vision and a roadmap.
Analyze the system: We mapped the recycling system, identified the key stakeholders and value potential for them, and analyzed the environmental and economic impacts of the most compelling models for battery recycling. We summarized the challenges and opportunities in a briefing paper to help shape stakeholder dialogues on how a national system was possible.
Convene the system: We designed and facilitated a 3-day “System-In-the-Room” summit with the key stakeholders focused on creating a shared vision and rapid proto-typing action plans for the creation of a national recycling system for household batteries.
Build momentum: We have been advising the steering committee to plan, fund and drive implementation of action plans developed at summit.
Aligned participants representing the five major battery manufacturers, NGOs and legislators around a common vision to develop a nationwide system that maximizes reuse of spent batteries with the goal of zero waste.
Guided the industry coalition, The Corporation for Battery Recycling (recyclebattery.org), in implementation of action plans developed at the summit.
Led the design of the national program for household battery recycling (in process, scheduled for launch in 2013), informed by six existing municipal battery collection programs that we are managing and gathering data from to support the program analytics and modeling.