Susan Labandibar - Activist CEO » SBN

Ghandi, Business Values, and Green IT

Susan — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:02:07 +0000

I attended (and spoke at) the Eleventh Annual Symposium on Spirituality and Business yesterday. I am not a religious person. But it was a great opportunity to step back and reflect. The highlight of the day was listening to Kevin Lynch, Executive Director of Rebuild Resources. He reminds himself daily of all of the advantages that he was born with that he has not earned. That he has suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, like those he serves. The people Kevin works with are not clients, but fellow human beings.

This is the concept of the servant leader that I spoke of earlier in the day. My speech was called: Satyagraha for the Business Leader:

What is Satyagraha, and what does it mean for business leaders?
Has the business world anything to learn from the philosophy that enabled Ghandi to lead a popular movement that freed India from British rule? The term Satyagraha was made from two Hindu words: Satya, or Truth, and Graha, which means Firmness. Satyagraha, therefore is Firmness in Truth. It is a way of creating change by embodying the truth. It’s a way of prevailing over others– not by force, but by force of example.

Now, compare the principle of Satyagraha to the principle of leadership given by this writer: “You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” It’s a quote from the #1 bestseller business book, Good to Great.

Good to Great is an analysis of how good companies become great companies. Jim Collins, the author of the book, said that the leaders of these companies achieved spectacular results by blending extreme personal humility with unwavering resolve to achieve their goals. Jim Collins originally called this leadership style “servant leadership” but later changed it to Level 5 leadership. Ghandi originally called his leadership style passive resistance. But the words “passive resistance” did not work for him just as the words “servant leader” didn’t work for Collins. Ghandi’s passive resistance wasn’t passive just as Collins’ leaders weren’t servants. So Ghandi actually had a contest to name the movement, and this was the way the term Satyagraha was adopted.

If you are just looking at what it takes to make a great leader, it would seem that both Ghandi and Collins are in agreement: A person who combines clear-sightedness with perfect self-mastery and enormous resolve, can do almost anything. That is the power of Satyagraha. But there is a point where the worlds of Ghandi and Collins diverge. And the crucial point of difference is values. Some of the companies that Collins called “great” were NOT great. Companies like Philip Morris and Kimberly-Clark generated a lot of money for their shareholders. But, when it comes to values, they fall short. Let me read you a quote from the interviews Mr. Collins conducted with executives from Philip Morris and Kimberly-Clark.

In wrapping up my interview with George Weissman of Philip Morris, I commented, “When you talk about your time at the company, it’s as if you are describing a love affair.” He chuckled and said, “Yes. Other than my marriage, it was the passionate love affair of my life. I don’t think many people would understand what I’m talking about, but I suspect my colleagues would. “ Similarly, Dick Appert of Kimberly-Clark said in his interview, “I never had anyone in Kimberly-Clark in all my forty-one years say anything unkind to me. I thank God the day I was hired because I’ve been associated with wonderful people. Good, good people who respected and admired each other.”

Okay, Kimberly-Clark is the number one driving force behind America’s love affair with soft and squishy bathroom tissue. They are the creators of the Mr. Whipple ad campaign: “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin.” Do you know why Charmin is squishy? Because its made with virgin paper pulp. And Kimberly-Clark is–even to this day–proud to advertise on their website that Kleenex contains 100% virgin pulp. Most of this pulp comes from Canada, where they are clear-cutting ancient Boreal forests to make this stuff.

So this is the problem in the business world. We have great people with tremendous leadership skills. But what direction are they leading us in?

How do we know if we are–in fact–leading in the right direction? Ghandi devoted his life to the pursuit of Satya, or Truth. He wrote a biography called My Experiments with Truth. In this book, he said that all his life was devoted to a search for truth because Truth is God. So, Ghandi was a “seeker” in the classic sense of the word. But he was not content with merely seeking the truth. He was also a doer. He wanted to LIVE the truth. And, for him, this meant devoting his life to leading India back to the simplicity of her ancient civilization. Maybe under other circumstances, Ghandi would have been content to live his life as a seeker, as many Indian gurus and swamis have. But circumstances compelled him to become a leader of his people.

Today we are facing our own crisis. And it is not just the financial crisis. No, the crisis I am talking about is much worse. Our world is warming. Our oceans are rising. And we, for the moment, at least, stand powerless to stop it.

Not that we need a reminder of more bad news, but over the last two years, scientists from over 60 countries have participated in a research program called “The International Polar Year.” This $1.2 billion dollar program funded more than 160 multi-disciplinary research projects. The final report was released on February 25th. It says that ice over both poles is melting much faster than scientists had thought possible. And the rate of ice loss in Greenland is increasing as well.

Many of us urgently feel the need to stop global warming. But it’s easy to feel powerless when we think of the task ahead of us. How do you choose what to do every day when there is no path before you? How did Ghandi, for example, decide that he would march 240 miles from his ashram to the sea to defy the British salt tax by making his own salt? He thought the British would kill him for this, which would have ended his campaign.

This is the power of Satyagraha. It is the power of the will to live the truth, regardless of the consequences.

Now I’m going to tell you a personal story of something that did a lot to deepen my will. Although it had nothing to do with freeing India or stopping global warming, it taught me that everyday people like me and my Dad can summon the strength to fight these forces that are far greater than we are. Now notice I didn’t say “fight these forces and win.” Because we didn’t win.

Eight years ago, my dad was diagnosed with a very rare form of melanoma. It was growing, not on his skin, but in his sinus. And Dad and I fought that disease. Dad fought his disease in order not to leave my Mom and the rest of his family. And I fought it because he asked for my help. For the next three years, I went to medical libraries, pored through listings of clinical trials, wrote to doctors all over the country, and fought with insurance companies. I even created a website where I listed clinical trials and tracked my dad’s medical history. And I did this knowing that my Dad was not going to beat this disease.

How did I know this? Because, within three weeks of his diagnosis, I had found a retrospective study on melanoma of the sinus. A retrospective study is when a researcher goes back through the records of many hospitals to locate every recorded case of the disease. In the case of my dad’s disease, they hadn’t found even one patient who had survived for more than a few years.

So I knew he was going to die. And I was almost positive that nothing I could do would prolong his life. Actually, in some ways I made it worse because I’m sure Dad would have been a lot more comfortable, and he would have been in the hospital a lot less if he hadn’t gone through all those clinical trials.

But, for our family, what we did was right. They say that “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” But they’re wrong. Because, even though melanoma did kill my father, what he he endured to try to be there for his family was a shining act of bravery that will resonate forever for everyone that knew him.

One of the things that changed after my Dad died, was me. In 2003, when my Dad died, I was a successful entrepreneur. My eight-year old computer business was profitable and growing. But I wasn’t making a difference for any of the causes I cared about, like protecting the environment. In fact, I wasn’t clear why I had started the business in the first place. One day, I had picked up an old hippie book called Earning Money without a Job by Jay Conrad Levinson. The advice was basically to start several businesses at the same time and see what panned out. That’s how I started selling used computers to college students. It was such a rough and tumble affair, it seemed more like an adventure than a business to me. One day I was even held at gunpoint when I tried to repossess a computer.

Not really a credible beginning for a values-driven business. The truth is, I didn’t start Tech Networks with a social purpose. But after my dad died, I started to realize that I had the strength and courage to try to address real problems in this world. Even if, like when I fought my Dad’s cancer, I didn’t think we would win. So, over the last few years, I have changed my business.

My company still helps people use technology. But we are also trying to reduce the environmental impact of computing. This has proved to be more difficult than I thought. At first, we thought we would reduce computer energy use by making a more efficient computer. Our Earth PC was one of the first computers with a power supply that was more than 80% efficient. It was endorsed by the EnergyStar program and by utility companies who gave us a $5 rebate for every PC we sold. The media loved us. We even landed a front page article in the Boston Globe.

But how much energy did we save? Actually, very little, even though we were very successful at selling them. By recommending Earth PCs, we failed to take into account all of the other solutions that were actually more efficient. Sure, an Earth PC used less energy than one that was exactly the same except for a less efficient power supply. But what about buying a laptop instead of an EarthPC, or what about a thin-client solution? Maybe our customers shouldn’t buy anything new at all. If they just kept their existing computer and installed power management on it, so the computer goes to sleep when they are not using it, that would save more energy than anything else.

In fact, the deeper we dug into the issue, the more confused we became. Some of the data we have found says that 81 percent of the lifetime energy use of a PC is expended during the manufacturing process. So the very idea of replacing your computer to save energy becomes ridiculous. Not only does it take a lot of energy to make a new desktop computer, but it takes a lot of resources. In 2006 it took 528 lbs of fossil fuels, 38 lbs of chemicals and 400 gallons of water to make the average desktop computer. That’s the same resources as it take to build a mid-sized car! And when you dispose of these computers, you release toxic waste materials such as dioxins, mercury, lithium and lead.

So now we are asking people:

•    What problem are you trying to solve by purchasing new equipment? Is there any way to reconfigure existing equipment to achieve the same result?
•    Are you buying hardware or software from vendors that promote equipment obsolescence in order to sell more stuff?
•    If you don’t need your equipment anymore, who else can get some use out of it?
•    And, finally, what will happen to your equipment when it dies?

Sometimes, these questions are as counter-intuitive for us as they are for our clients. What is better? To spend $500 on a new computer or repair your old one? When you purchase a new computer, most of your money is sent to far-away companies that are polluting our planet . When you pay a technician to fix your computer problem, your money stays right here in the community, which sounds good, unless, of course, your repaired computer breaks again, and you throw it out the window.

So, how do I know if I am leading my company in the right direction? Obviously, I don’t. None of us ever do. As Al Gore said at the climate conference in Fiji last year: “Path walker: There is no path. You must make the path as you walk.” Ghandi was a great path walker. He made a path that led India out of British control towards self-rule. He did it not by telling others to change, but by BEING the change he wanted to see in the world. Making a new path is hard. But it’s the only way that we are going to get out of the blind alley we are in today.

Helping Businesses Survive and Thrive in a New Economy

Susan — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:48:03 +0000

As President of the Sustainable Business Network, I have been reflecting on our mission in the context of our current recession. Are local business owners are fully aware of the new economic, environmental, and political realities? What does it mean that we are just coming out of 8 years of hypnotism and denial from the Bush administration? During tough times, it is important to cut back on business activities that are not destined to provide value in future years (although they may have in the past) and to start building some resiliency into the business model by developing products and services that are non-polluting, energy-efficient, healthy, and sourced from the local community.

Now is the time to make critical decisions. Which business models will thrive in the new economy and which legacy operations should be pruned now? Many business decision-makers assume that normalcy will return towards the end of 2009, or, at the latest, early 2010. But there are countervailing forces that will make it difficult, if not impossible for America to return to an economy based on infinite resources, unlimited transport,and blatant disregard for the environment.

For example, there is the issue of peak oil. Robert Hirsch, author of Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management (a.k.a. the Hirsch Report), has said that new technologies and new drilling won’t solve the peak oil problem, and that we should expect $12-15/gallon gasoline followed by rationing. If businesses are not waking up to the possibility that they cannot count on cheap energy prices, many American cities are. At least twenty-five American cities are creating contingency plans based on the possibility that oil prices will remain highly volatile. They recognize that we are heading into a time when both energy costs and pressure to lower CO2 emissions will be high. Public sentiment may turn against businesses heavily dependent on products sourced from halfway around the world.�

Is Big Business Sustainable?

Susan — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:19:58 +0000

In most industries, large-scale enterprises can extract resources, create product, and distribute finished goods more efficiently than locally-owned, small-scale businesses. They can use their economic clout to develop new products, broadcast marketing messages to a national audience, and influence government regulation to their benefit.

Despite real economic disadvantages, the small business continues to flourish in some market segments. Small biz advantages include agility, understanding community needs, and ability to cost-effectively utilize resources not easily aggregated for use by larger-scale industries.

More recently, small firms have been touted as one of the building blocks for creating strong local economies. Local businesses can contribute to a community’s development by involving more local partners, creating jobs and offering fair wages to employees. But are small businesses more sustainable? We could argue that small businesses–unable to take advantage of economies of scale–waste more resources than larger businesses. Think of the prepared foods section at a little-trafficked store. Markets, catering shops, and restaurants–most of them small businesses–generate 27 million tons of food waste annually.

High-volume distribution centers such as Walmart would appear to be the most efficient method of distributing foodstuffs and consumer goods. One would think that efficient distribution would be the sustainable choice. Especially at a store like Walmart, which has the following environmental goals:
1. To be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy.
2. To create zero waste.
3. To sell products that sustain our resources and environment.

So, should we all shop at Wal-mart? The answer is: “No.” Sustainability cannot be achieved by centralizing resources and distributing on a large scale. According to “It’s Not Easy Being Green: The Truth Behind Wal-mart’s Environmental Makeover,” big business means bigger environmental impacts. The average Wal-Mart supercenter is a 200,000+ square foot behemoth sitting on 20 to 30 acres of land. There are over 2,200 supercenters in the United States, and they are adding more at such a rate that even if they meet their goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2013, in the interim, they will have built enough new stores to completely offset emissions reductions at existing stores.

Let’s return to small businesses and vibrant local economies. Suppose that local businesses are created to fulfill local needs. When local businesses use local resources, sustainability and environmental protection become a necessary component of the production lifecyle. More importantly, it will not be possible to produce locally-made goods at the same variety and scale that we do in today’s global market. Not all resources required for producing products will be locally available. Also, production labor will be priced at the local prevailing rate. This means that the price of locally-made goods will be more congruent with the time required to produce it. It will once again be less expensive to have a product repaired than to replace it.

Sociologist Paul Ray, who pioneered the concept of “cultural creatives,” estimates that 36 percent of Americans (45 percent of voters) fall into what he calls the “Wisdom Culture Paradigm.” Among its characteristics are: an “anti-materialism . . . that comes partly from movements like voluntary simplicity and ecological sustainability”; an “emerging post-Eighties dimension [that] wants outright prevention of ecological destruction, a slowing of economic growth for saving the environment . . . and an anti-big business, anti-globalization position”; and “a mainstream concern for relationships, altruism and idealism.”

Much of what we hold dear is neither enhanced nor accrued through improved efficiency. We do not seek to love efficiently, to eat efficiently, or to experience beauty efficiently. Then let us not praise big industry for consuming our natural resources efficiently. Small, local businesses are more sustainable in the long run not because they are more efficient, but, because they are less efficient.

Laury Hammel’s Birthday

Susan — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:39:15 +0000

Before I met Laury Hammel, I had many heros. People like Wangari Maathi, Mohammed Yunus, Mother Teresa (yes, I know they’re all Nobel Peace Prize winners.) Not that I was friends with these people. In fact, I have never met any of them personally.

When I first met Laury, it didn’t occur to me that he would become one of my heros. I thought he was more of a character, a rebel, and an idealist. He showed up at meetings dressed in gym clothes, even when they were held in formal settings. He would say injudicious things. Like the time he clashed with someone over a green justice issue before he had really made the connection between the problems of the inner city and the degradation of our environment. And I thought he talked too much at our Sustainable Business Network board meetings.

But, I was wrong. Laury did not talk enough. So it took some time for me to learn that there are hundreds–no, thousands–of people whose lives he has enriched. Laury’s inspiration and hard work built the Longfellow Tennis and Sports Clubs, and many other vibrant organizations, including the New England Business Association for Social Responsibility, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, the International Symposium for Spirituality in Business, Cambridge Local First and other Local First campaigns.

Laury is one of the very few people in this world who successfully combines passion for his ideas with compassion for the individual. Like me, Laury wants to save the world. And he’s allotted himself another 60 years to succeed–or die trying! Yet he never sacrifices anyone–no matter how antithetical to his views they may be–on the alter of his idealism. He believes in people, he cares about people, and he puts his heart on the line every day.

Laury is the ultimate coach. How many people have received the gift of encouragement from Laury–both on and off the tennis courts? If you need an example of Laury in action, here’s one: The message Laury left on my cell phone voicemail after I represented the SBN for the Boston launch of the Sustainable Business Leader’s Program.

Hey, Susan. Woo Hoo! Congratulations to all of us. A great job on a great talk. I thought that the morning just went great. It’s a breakthrough moment justifying all our good work over the years and your investment in time, energy, resources and inspiration.

It’s a blessing to know you, Susan, and to work with you. It just feels so good. And, watch out world, cause here we come! We’re going to save the planet!

I’ve listened to that message at least ten times. It’s a punch in the arm. It’s like having Lance Armstrong praise your bike riding or Tiger Woods praise your game of golf. That’s why Laury is one of my heros. One of only two I have actually met. Who is the other hero, you ask? It’s my Dad, who taught me everything and whose bravery in sickness and death gave me and my family courage to go on.

I must be dreaming

Susan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:22:22 +0000

No, seriously. That’s how I was feeling last Thursday when I attended the SBN Annual Conference at the Hampshire House. What a beautiful venue! It was set up like a Victorian library with antique books lining the built-in bookshelves and squat little vases filled with roses scattered artfully around the room. But, I digress.

As I mentioned, it was a dreamlike atmosphere for me. So many of my ideas for SBN had come to fruition. From changing our name, to the Boston Green Business Awards, to the Sustainable Business Leaders Program… It had all happened in just 18 months.

And we’ve gone from a sleepy little non-profit with a $10,000 annual budget to a staff of 4! As Laury Hammel would say: “Rock on!”