Sustainability

Procter & Gamble and General Motors are leading a small but growing group of manufacturers beginning to embrace wind power, which so far has been among the least embraceable forms of alternative production of electricity.

Plastic waste floating in our oceans has become a significant problem, and it's important that manufacturers who use plastic in packaging and shipping materials should contribute to the solution.

Manufacturers have made huge progress in reducing their environmental footprints with everything from water husbandry to slashing carbon-dioxide emissions. But one area where factory chiefs can do much better is in recycling plastic packaging, according to environmental groups that increasingly have the ear not only of regulators but of American consumers.

Method Products has opened the doors of its sustainability-oriented “South Side Soapbox” factory in the economically depressed south side of Chicago, and the move should boost the environmental chops of the “planet-friendly” brand of household, fabric and personal care products.

Besides recent efforts by many states to cut business and personal taxes recently, one of the most notable strains of economic-development policy has been the growing use by cities and states of tax incentives to drive their green economies.

Green groups have been expressing support for protesters of the Brown and Garner decisions, though there’s no direct connection to sustainability concerns, and CEOs themselves have expressed concern over the melding of the two.

Manufacturing CEOs are making sustainability an increasingly important criterion in siting, constructing and operating their facilities today.

Sustainability has become a priority for most companies these days primarily because constituents, including customers, investors, suppliers, employees and the public at large, are demanding it.

Sustainability is more than just a fad— but that doesn’t make it easy.

Many business experts say that with increasing natural resource costs, regulation and public scrutiny, companies today need to go beyond traditional efficiency, and that requires a highranking manager with a specific mandate—a chief sustainability officer.