Synergies & Best Practices for Corporate Partnerships for Sustainability

by Christopher Juniper & Maggie Moore

Sustainability requires that problems be solved in a whole systems context, which there must be an understanding of inter-relationships between the parts of a system, e.g. human and natural capital as well as economic capital, in communities, regions, countries and the world. This article describes partnership strategies that some corporations have adopted to enhance the path toward sustainability, and demonstrates that through partnerships progress not otherwise attainable can be made.

The examples illustrate that companies often choose one strategy to begin their partnership work, and then gradually encounter both the challenges and benefits of other strategies as the relationships between partners grow and offer opportunities to impact larger systems. It is not unusual for multiple strategies to play out through a single partnership.

Early Leaders: The Body Shop and Stonyfield Farm
The UK-based Body Shop has been engaging in innovative local partnerships in its supply chain throughout its 26-year history. According to writer Elsie Maio, it “has long set the standard for both civic-interest stakeholder relationships and for reporting the social and environmental impacts of its business. Its historic, if unarticulated, emphasis on a core brand value and justice, led to a purity of intention and a mostly impeccable trust with the NGO community, a crucial new set of stakeholders.”

On the other hand, Stonyfield Farm, a family-owned organic dairy product company began with fixed level donations providing the resources for strong partnerships. Each year 10% of the company’s profits are given to efforts that help protect and restore the environment. This embodies the spirit of the company’s environmental and educational missions.

Projects must: (1) protect and restore the planet; (2) generate measurable results; and (3) promote Stonyfield Farm via sampling opportunities, collateral and media relations. The goal is to build mutual support between Stonyfield and each recipient.

According to vice president of communications, MaryJo Viederman, Stonyfield’s leadership has led to partnerships with large dividends. “Most environmental groups have sought funding or a partnership with us as a leading socially responsible company and brand, unlike other companies that may seek out sustainability groups to enhance their corporate identity. Because it is not possible to support everyone who inquires about a “Profits for the Planet” grant, we encourage groups to come up with creative ways to do something together.

Our lid program, for example, is looked at as a mini educational billboard, going to more than 1.2 million people a week with an environmental/ educational message and often a call to action. Regarding measurement of partnership benefits, she notes, “I don’t think we can ever truly measure the value of some of these benefits. I compare the return on investment of these partnerships with a rate of return on the environment. Investing in our planet’s future takes time – word of mouth value of these partnerships also takes time. But I do know that many of our partnerships have been a great source of mutual satisfaction in trying to move the needle forward on an issue of action item that is helping to make the world a bit better place.”

Wacker Siltronic, Oregon Natural Step Network, & Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality
Wacker Siltronic (Siltronic) of Portland, OR., a 1500- employee silicon wafer manufacturing subsidiary of German- based Wacker Chemie, has been involved in the establishment of one of the most successful learning communities in the U.S. and in the development of Oregon’s Green Permit regulatory system. Wacker Chemie adopted sustainability goals in 1995, which were extended beyond its own business practices in 1998.

Tom McCue, Siltronic’s Environmental Manager, partnered with Nike, Portland General Electric, Bank of America, Collins Pine and the North West Earth Institute to form the Oregon Natural Step Network in 1997. The ORTNS is the most successful U.S. learning community involving The Natural Step System Conditions for a sustainable society. It provides events, case studies, industry working group support and individual company coaching to its members, which include 39 “sustaining” or “founding” public and private organizations.

The Network has received strong partnership support from many other locally-based companies including Norm Thompson Outfitters, Rejuvenation Inc., Progressive Investment, and Gerding-Edlin Development Co. Coaching is provided through a contract with the Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality, an early network member and public advocate.

Siltronic also partnered with the Oregon DEQ and other environmentally progressive companies to craft and implement the leading edge Green Permit program. The system is designed to support “beyond regulation” strategies by regulated companies with regulatory flexibility and technical assistance. (Similar programs have recently been launched in North Carolina and Ontario, Canada).

Starbucks Coffee Company & Conservation International
Conservation International (CI), known for its innovative partnerships with corporations such as Ford Motor Co., approached Starbucks and asked them to be involved in a conservation coffee project in Chiapas, Mexico. Constraints are usually what prompt a partnership. In this case, Starbucks had a responsibility and interest in the tropics – where coffee is grown – but didn’t have direct contact. CI made it possible for Starbucks to extend its reach into places where they would otherwise have not had influence.

Through this project, created by CI’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, Starbucks has been working with coffee farmers and exporters in Chiapas, providing economic benefits for local farmers in the last remaining cloud forest in Southern Mexico. One result is the availability of Starbuck’s new coffee, Shade Grown Mexico.

Other achievements since the partnership began in 1998 include:
65% increase in compensation to farmers above local prices
50% increase in their coffee exports
$600,000 in harvest loans to farmers’ coops
220% increase in acres supporting biodiversity

Initially, Starbucks intended to raise awareness about conservation and coffee. Toward that end, they agreed to provide funding and technical support. The partnership became more robust when the company saw the benefits to farmers. There are less tangible benefits too: company pride; employees who are motivated to work for a company that does good work; and the support of customers who are impressed by the company’s efforts.

Lessons learned through the Chiapas project are in Starbuck’s new Coffee Sourcing Guidelines, announced in l
ate 2001, which are intended to support their commitment to purchase coffee that has been grown and processed by suppliers who meet environmental, social, economic and quality standards. The response has been unexpected enthusiasm up and down the supply chain. Other coffee companies have been calling to learn more about the project, wondering if they too should get involved in something similar.

The Starbucks/ CI partnership began as a restoration strategy, gradually became a community development strategy, and has now become a standards development strategy, all benefiting the company’s position in the marketplace. A second partnership program between the two groups is underway to replicate the Chiapas project in five sites around the world.

BC Hydro, British Columbia Provincial Government & the Canadian Federal Government Partnership
BC Hydro is one of the largest power companies in North America, and is a Crown corporation owned by the province of British Columbia. Because effective water use is such a fundamental part of the company’s success, it committed to Water Use Planning (WUP) – a joint initiative of BC Hydro, the provincial government and the Canadian federal government, in consultation with First Nations and the public. It was developed in response to ever-increasing competing demands on the province’s abundant water resources. The goal is to find a better balance between competing uses of water that are socially, environmentally and economically acceptable to British Columbia.

WUP is a 5- year, $25 million capital project now in its fourth year. Water use plans will provide clear boundaries within which to operate and to plan for future electricity supply. The results will comprise water use regulations for the 23 watersheds in which BC Hydro operates.

WUP was one of the initiatives that led BC Hydro to formally adopt sustainability as a goal. Access to public resources, especially water, and confidence in environmental management at existing and new facilities must be actively maintained to ensure the success of the business. The partnership allows the exploration of interests that require trade-offs among wildlife and within species. WUP provides a basis on which long-term relationships can support complex decision making.

Some of the benefits BC Hydro’s WUP project manager John Kelly identifies are:

* development of analytical tools and processes in structured decision-making within multi-stakeholder groups;
* power and environmental modeling;
* criteria/ performance measures that form a common language across interests and guide water management decisions going forward;
* increased power generation while enhancing all other objectives;
* scientific conclusions that contradicted strongly held professional beliefs were accepted and acted on;
* development of communication skills among scientists and engineers;
* support for the corporation on difficult issues, especially by the public;
* improvement of relationships between public and regulatory participants.

Suncor Energy Inc. et. al. & Cumulative Environmental Management Association
Suncor, Syncrude Canada Ltd., Albian Sands Energy, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Conoco Canada Resources Ltd., ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., Husky Energy Ltd., Japan Canada Oilsands Ltd., Pan Canadian Energy, Syncrude Canada Ltd., TrueNorth energy and other companies joined with four First Nations and affiliates, nine government agencies, and six environmental NGOs to form the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) and work toward responsible practices as the oil sands industry invests $7 billion in the development of Northeastern Alberta, Canada. Funding comes from the members who have assessed themselves flat fees based on the development stages of their projects, plus a fee based on the environmental footprints of those projects. CEMA’s 2002 budget is $4.6 million.

In 1996 a combination of tax law changes, technology, and good oil prices made the oil sands area of Alberta more attractive for development. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) required that the cumulative impacts of impending development be researched and measured. Industry representatives met to consider how they would deal with the CEAA. The government of Alberta met with stakeholders to consider a Regional Sustainable Development Strategy and identified 72 issues that needed to be addressed. In June 2000, industry and government representatives agreed to form CEMA to implement a regional resource development strategy.

“The evolution of CEMA involved a shift from establishing a common approach to conducting cumulative effects assessment to managing cumulative effects using an array of environmental management tools such as environmental limits or thresholds. The diversity of environmental values and interests in the region prompted the need for a multi-stakeholder forum to, among other things, establish environmental management objectives for the region, ” CEMA Executive Director Ken Weagle said.

Industry wants a streamlined regulatory system. Government approvals for CEMA proposals come faster because their process includes public input and builds consensus. In the absence of CEMA, public hearings held by individual companies would probably be adversarial in nature. CEMA will provide research on all 72 issues identified in early stakeholder sessions, reducing costs for member companies considerably.

Conclusions
Our examination of these and other partnerships leads us to believe they all become forms of learning communities if the efforts move beyond the corporate environmental staff. In addition, partnerships consistently lead to unexpected benefits, whether it be international sales leads from a totally locally-focused network, innovative practices such as home ownership support programs, or anlysis tools leading to cooperative solutions for contentious issues.

Best practices for sustainability partnerships include:

* using self-organizing systems to capture the rhythm of change inspired/ stimulated by the partnership;
* business leadership so the partnerships feel and act like a business led organization;
* transparency of motives, objectives and results;
* whole system approaches beyond environmental management foster synergies in corporate learning, supply chain development, employee training and retention and ultimately design of facilities and products.

We agree with the Aspen Institute’s thorough examination of corporate and nonprofit partnerships, which concludes:

When alliances are carefully crafted, cooperatively pursued, and successfully implemented, they benefit both corporations and the environmental NGOs by synergistically achieving the objectives of improving environmental protection and enhancing corporate performance.

Although some environmental advocacy organizations remain skeptical about the effectiveness of voluntary partnerships, particularly as substitutes for regulatory requirements, local sustainability partnerships can be very effective. Corporations unanimously report to us positive experiences and enthusiasm for continuing the partnership strategy.

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More Information:
Rondinelli, D., & London,, T., “Partnering for Sustainability: Managing Nonprofit Organization- Corporate Organization- Corporate Environmental Alliances,” The Aspen Institute, 2001.

Excerpted From Corporate Environmental Strategy, Vol. 9, #3, 2002,
a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.