Saving Green By Going Green

By Envision Magazine on October 15, 2016

 

Environmentalists may have an unlikely new ally in the fight for a greener planet. For many, corporations may seem the antithesis of sustainability, but Michael Crooke, the former CEO for Patagonia, said major companies, from McDonald’s to Walmart, are looking to lessen their carbon footprint as a way of saving money and boosting sales.

He spoke Thursday as a guest presenter for the University of Oregon’s Net Impact chapter, a group that seeks to equip students with ways to incorporate environmental sustainability in their personal and professional lives.

Crooke, now the senior associate dean at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, has a hefty track record as a business leader. He’s headed such companies as Yakima and Pearl Izumi; regardless of the company, Crooke said sustainability became the core business value driving new growth.

“Sustainability is more than just a social benefit,” Crooke said. “It’s a business strategy that works.”

 “Not only can recycling efforts and investment in renewable energy help businesses save money, going green can also be a valuable branding tool.

“When people agree with your business values, their willingness to pay goes up,” Crooke said.

When Patagonia began to use organic cotton, for example, Crooke said the company was able to raise prices by more than 11 percent. That’s a serious sales pitch.

The marketability of green business has great potential to change how companies around the world are run. According to the Global Policy Forum, corporate business makes up more than a quarter of the world’s economic activity. Crooke believes that with such large budgets, these businesses could dramatically aid environmental efforts by investing in sustainable solutions.

“I think what we are seeing here is a paradigm shift of how the world’s biggest companies will be run,” he said.

Crooke said the point behind creating a sustainable company is creating a company with authentic values that people can support. This means making sure business is as transparent as possible.

This can be an especially risky business model in the clothing industry, where products are often made in warehouses infamous for human rights abuses and poor worker compensation. Patagonia itself has faced criticism after it was found in 2014 that the producers of the company’s raw materials were made with exploited labor.

That is part of the reason why Patagonia unveiled Footprint Chronicles on its website. Customers can now obtain the locations of Patagonia’s supply chain, as well as observe the working conditions at each site through live footage of factories.

“Even with that, you’re still going to find that you miss things,” Crooke said. “But you have to be ok with the surprises that go on in the factories.”

Brian Amdir, the president of Net Impact, said Crooke was the perfect person to speak on sustainability in business given his work with Patagonia and other companies.

“I think everyone adores the Patagonia business model,” he said. “They do business right; they do it ethically and with environmental consciousness.”