Introducing RILA’s 2015 Retail Sustainability Management Maturity Index

By: Alexandra Kueller

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) recently announced their brand new Retail Sustainability Management Maturity Matrix. The Matrix, which is based on Deloitte and RILA’s knowledge of the retail industry and its sustainability programs, hopes to be a tool that will be used by sustainability executives, individual companies, and industry-wide.

(Although this matrix is designed with the retail industry in mind, we think that it has a wide applicability beyond just the retail sector.)

While there are many aspects of sustainability, the Matrix focuses specifically on environmental sustainability. The Matrix has seven sectors that helps break down the different components of environmental sustainability:

1. Strategy & Commitment
2. People & Tools
3. Visibility
4. Retail Operations
5. Supply Chain
6. Products
7. Environmental Issues

Each sector is then broken down by dimensions, and each dimension is ranked by five categories: starting, standard, excelling, leading, and next practice. RILA acknowledges that only a few companies are in the “leading” category, but hopes that over the next few years more companies can get to that level. The main goal of the Matrix is to identify all of the possible pathways to strong environmental sustainability.

Here are some of the ways the Matrix can be useful:

• Identifying and assessing the maturity of your sustainability program and opportunities for improvement
• Helping to facilitate conversations about your sustainability program’s development
• Finding ways to access for funding for your sustainability program
• Training employees to have more sustainability responsibility
• Allowing internal, external evaluation of your program’s perception, gaps it might have

It’s RILA’s goal to use the Matrix to benchmark the industry in 2015, while annually updating the matrix.

Over the course of the next two weeks, we will be further breaking down the Matrix by sector to get a more in-depth look at how the Matrix will work.

Last fall we took an in-depth look at SSC's peer benchmarking system that we used against the athletic wear industry. Catch up here.

How Sustainability is Saving Chinese Textile Mills Money

By: Alexandra Kueller

It’s no secret that China is not an environmentally progressive country. Beijing is plagued by air pollution, over 100 cities are facing water scarcity issues, almost a third of China’s rivers are too polluted for human contact, and to top it all off, as a nation China is one of the highest emitters of carbon dioxide. 

One of China’s largest polluters are their textile producers. Responsible for roughly 50% of the world’s fabrics, textile manufacturing is a very environmentally un-friendly process that results in high energy and water use. The industry is responsible for the being the third largest dischargers of wastewater and the second largest user of chemicals in China. 

All hope is not lost, though. With the help of the National Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Clean By Design program, Chinese textile manufacturing facilities are using green tactics to not only reduce energy and water consumption, but also help them save money as well.

The NRDC recently released a report stating that the 33 textile mills that are using the Clean By Design program are saving an estimated $14.7 million annually. By going after the “low-hanging fruit” – the low-cost, easy to implement projects – the textile manufacturers are helping to make a strong business case for sustainability.

Here are some of the ways the Chinese textile mills have not only reduced their environmental impact, but also saved money along the way:

Electricity Reductions

10 of the 33 textile mills went after projects that helped reduce electricity consumption. While the average reduction was only 4%, some of the more impactful projects yielded a 9% reduction with over $21,000 in annual savings. As a bonus, this project paid for itself in only a month!

Water Reuse

31 mills implemented 53 projects that resulted in an average of 9% water savings, with some of the top mills reducing water consumption by 20%. A lot of the reuse efforts focused on targeting process water and grey water, because those tended to yield the largest and most cost-effected reductions. Some mills installed a water treatment process, and that initial investment of $7,600 paid for itself in three months.

Energy Recovery

Through 173 projects that focused on electricity reduction, every participating mill saw an average reduction of 6%, with the top mills seeing a 10% reduction in energy. A majority of the projects saw efforts to recover heat from exhaust gas, water, and oil due to the fact that they produced that largest, most cost-effective reductions: a $500,000 investment yielded roughly $650,000 in annual returns.

Looking for ways to reduce your company's carbon footprint? Learn more by checking out our white paper!

Do Sustainability Consultants Need to Blog?

We like to update the SSC website twice a week with blog posts, and these are some of the reasons why. Enjoy this post from the SSC archives:

Short Answer: YES! 

Read on for the long answer…

Last week we established the fact that every sustainability consultant needs to have a website. Let's take that thinking a step further and talk about adding a blog to that website. Here are three reasons why sustainability consultants should have a blog.

1. Blogging keeps your content fresh.

We did a survey last year that collected information on more than 75 sustainability consultancies in the United States. All of these companies had websites (and so we're sure that there are dozens more that haven't gotten around to creating a website yet). As we delved deeper, trying to identify the "real players" in the industry, we discovered that many of the websites were static. It was hard to tell if these were actively practicing sustainability consultants—or if they had thrown in the towel (as many did in 2010 and 2011) and just had another year or two on the domain before the website expired. Blogging is one of the easiest and fastest ways to continuously add information to your website—making it clear to prospective clients, partners, and colleagues that you are still in the game.

2. Blogging gives you a chance establish thought leadership.

It's pretty easy to throw up a sustainability consulting website—and a quick Google search will reveal that many of the sustainability consulting websites are using the same language and offering the same services (sustainability gap assessment, anyone?). It can be really hard to tell the differences between boutique consultancies—especially those that are relatively new and haven't put a lot of effort into developing their website. Blogging is a great way to quickly build out the breadth and depth of your sustainability services. It allows you to demonstrate that you are more than the bland service descriptions you provide. You have ideas! You have suggestions! You have great case studies! You have resources to share! All of this information can easily and effectively be disseminated via a blog—and it will keep people coming back for more.

3. Blogging allows you to express personality.

Other areas of your website may be pretty standard and straightforward, but a blog allows you to talk directly to your readers in a natural voice. You can be controversial, you can be funny, and you can be inspirational — just be authentic. Prospective clients and partners reading your blog can get a sense of what it will be like to work with you — and that can be incredibly helpful in advancing your business development goals.

Wondering what are some of the skills all sustainability consultants should have? Read more here.