WEB SITES SHOW GREENING OF CORPORATIONS BY SCOTT BUTNER Battelle Seattle Research Center The "state of the art" in environmental management has changed a great deal in the 1990s. Environmental managers are increasingly finding themselves caught between corporate downsizing and increased public and shareholder concern over environmental issues. Challenged to do more with fewer resources, environmental managers are adopting a more strategic view of their jobs, with an increased emphasis on risk reduction and cost avoidance. And while environmental regulations are still a major force, more firms are moving beyond compliance to prevent environmental concerns from occurring in the first place. Nowhere is this trend more visible than on the high-gloss, high-tech corporate web sites that are popping up all across the Internet. Eager to establish a presence on the Internet, businesses of all types and sizes are setting up web sites to sell services and promote products. But especially among global companies, the World Wide Web serves another purpose: establishing an electronic "front office" for communicating with shareholders and the public at large. Sure, you can still find ads for computers at Compaq's web site) or find out all you ever wanted to know about tractors at John Deere's site -- but a visit to these sites also will reveal a great deal about the company's financial performance, career opportunities, and public service programs. And, with a little effort, you can also find out a surprising amount about the current state of environmental management in these and many other companies around the world. So what does a surf across the Internet reveal about current trends in environmental management? Recently, I spent several hours looking through nearly three dozen corporate web sites to see what trends were occurring in environmental management. Here's some of what I found: "Mainstreaming" of pollution prevention. Pioneered in the U.S. by companies like 3M and DuPont, pollution prevention is becoming broader in scope and more systematic in implementation. Predictably, it is also becoming standard practice as business seeks environmental solutions that can actually reduce operating expenses. Of the 35 corporate environmental sites surveyed for this article, all had at least some discussion of pollution prevention programs. Many of the sites had case studies of pollution prevention projects, or summaries of pollution prevention accomplishments. But the big news seems to be the extent to which businesses are developing tools and techniques for identifying, justifying and prioritizing pollution prevention projects. For example, United Technologies Corporation has established pilot programs to test streamlined approaches to pollution prevention opportunity assessment. Other sites include discussion of how pollution prevention influences R&D efforts at energy giant ABB and Intel. Designing for the environment. As pollution prevention efforts lead a company to look further upstream for cost reductions, the logical next step is to incorporate pollution prevention in the design of new products and processes. The emerging discipline of "Design for Environment" (or DfE) is gaining acceptance both among designers and environmental managers in a wide array of settings. Since as much as 80 percent of the cost of a new product is determined in the early stages of design, the financial returns on this early investment can be significant. DfE seems to be most common in design-oriented companies like Sun Microsystems and Xerox, where short product cycles provide designers with ample opportunities to test new techniques. However, look for DfE to become increasingly important in consumer products and durables as the techniques become standardized and consumer pressure for green products increases. The "green chemistry" initiative recently announced by Monsanto is a good example of this trend. Companies seeking to practice DfE face the non-trivial challenge of integrating environmental factors into a design process which is often already overwhelmed with too many constraints and not enough data. A few companies have responded by developing "short-cuts" for DfE which make it easier to factor environmental issues into early stages of design. A common approach is the use of "hitlists" -- lists of compounds scheduled for elimination or phase-out. For example, Dow Chemical maintains a list of chemical attributes including bioaccumulation and persistent toxicity, which are used to flag extra attention to the environmental aspects of design. The Swedish automaker Volvo takes this approach one step further, listing more than a dozen specific compounds which designers may not specify in the manufacture of their cars. Volvo has developed a number of tools for further integrating environment with design, many of which are described at their site. Environmental management standards. Increasing responsibilities and shrinking environmental management budgets have forced environmental managers to work both harder and smarter. As demonstrated at sites like Northern Telecom's Nortel Habitat, environmental management is better wired, has an increased emphasis on business outcomes, and is more important to the bottom line than ever before. And increasingly, industry is looking to externally-developed standards to help streamline the process of insuring their shareholders and customers alike that their environmental management practices are up to the task. Here in the U.S., the emphasis is on the newly-completed ISO 14001 standard for Environmental Management Systems. Heralded as a new paradigm for environmental management by some, and a "make-work" program for environmental consultants by others, there is little doubt that the ISO standard will have a profound impact on environmental management throughout the rest of the decade. But the ISO standard is hardly alone as a framework for environmental management. Industry-specific standards such as Responsible Carer will continue to play a role, as will performance-oriented standards such as the British Standard 7750 and the Eco-Management Assessment Scheme (EMAS), which is widely accepted throughout Europe. The next several years may bring the equivalent of a "shake-out" in the standards business, as companies around the globe seek to align themselves with one or more of the standards. However, it currently appears more likely that a rough equivalency will emerge as more and more companies certify to one or more of the standards. In the meantime, a good discussion of the various standards is provided at the web site for Inveresk PLC, a British pulp and paper company. Product stewardship. An increasingly important trend among manufacturers is the adoption of product stewardship policies. Companies practicing product stewardship assume an active role in insuring the safe and environmentally responsible use of their products by their customers. The concept also can be applied back up the supply chain, leading manufacturers to insure that their suppliers reduce environmental costs and liabilities. A good example of product stewardship can be found at the web site of German chemical manufacturer BASF, which has seen the demand for its product safety seminars increase 12-fold in the past four years. BASF also routinely does an environmental performance review of its suppliers, including an extensive written review and follow-up verbal examination. According to BASF, as many as half of the toll processors which have been reviewed have been rejected because their environmental practices were not up to standards. Emphasis on product stewardship is likely to increase significantly in the coming years, driven by the ISO standards and by increased pressure from trade associations. Notable among trade associations promoting the idea is the Chemical Manufacturers Association, which has made the adoption of product stewardship policies one of the key planks of its Responsible Care Program. But product stewardship is not limited to the chemical industry, as seen at Ford Motor Company's web site. At the Ford site, the concept of product stewardship extends all the way to the final consumer. Product stewardship is a trend likely to have very far-reaching consequences. Already, stewardship issues are helping companies like Xerox shift their role from suppliers of copiers to suppliers of copying services. By retaining ownership of the machines, Xerox is able to better accommodate an aggressive recycling and reuse policy, while providing their customers with a high level of service. As suppliers and customers increasingly become partners in environmental management, the long-term business consequences are likely to extend far beyond the environment. So whether you are seeking to benchmark the environmental performance of your own firm, or to do market research for consulting services, the Internet can be a useful tool for the environmental professional. While quantitative data is readily available (especially mandated data like Toxics Release Inventory data), the web is particularly valuable for benchmarking the policies, practices, tools and techniques. Scott Butner is a researcher in the Environment and Society Group at the Battelle Seattle Research Center. You can reach him via e-mail at butner@battelle.org. For a more complete listing of Internet links related to the environment, check out http://www.seattle.battelle.org/p2online/