How To Benefit From A Sustainable Business Mindset

Reduce Your RiskBeat Your CompetitionIncrease Your ValuationSuccess through sustainabilityThe Benefits of a SUSTAINABILITY MINDSET:• Remain a trusted and valuable supply-chain partner.”You watch – this will be the most powerful, popular uprising that corporate America• Accelerate your rate-of-return on corporate sustainability.ever saw.”• Reduce costs through efficiency gains.• Put some distance between you and your competition.Jeffrey Swartz, CEOTimberland• Attract and retain the best & brightest employees.”Sustainability continues to make Walmart a better company; by • Increase the value of intangible assets like brand image reducing waste, lowering costs, and collaborative networks.driving innovation, Increasingproductivity and helping us fulfill our mission of savingour customers moneyA SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MINDSET can have a dramatic so they can live betternet-positive impact on your organization’s performance.lives.”Mike Duke, CEOWalmartSuccess through sustainabilityWhat is PROBE for Sustainable Business?• PSB is a corporate sustainability self-assessment tool designed to run in less than a month – start to finish.• The Natural Step is a co-developer of PSB. Since 1989, PROBE for Sustainable Business was their simple approach to organizational sustainability has developed in collaboration between these two informed Walmart, IKEA, Nike and many other corporate organizations.leaders.• PROBE for Sustainable Business (PSB) allows organizations like Development partnersyours to harness sustainability, drive profitability, and include these organizations. accelerate rate-of-return and product development cycles.• PSB is the 7th tool in the PROBE suite. Since January 2010, fifty PSB facilitations have been run in 7 countries. Many thousands of mid-sized organizations across forty-one countries have run PROBE’s other assessments since 1995.• PSB is the key to accelerating your rate-of-return on corporate sustainability.“PROBE” is an acronym for “Promoting Business Excellence”PROBE is a trademark of Comparison International Our 4-Step Process: PROBE for Sustainable BusinessWeek 2Week 1Week 3The team leaderTeam learns basics A cross-functional begins compiling of corporate We facilitate a half-team of five to eight quantitative data: sustainability & day session and use individuals are procurement, receives qualitativeboth quantitative selected within usage, disposal, assessment forms and qualitative data your organization.etc...to complete.to produce an initial scorecard.Just The Facts:square footage, employee count, kWh consumption, You’ll invite staff etc...from Accounting, Design, Sales, and Senior Mgmt forms Operations to join are also distributed.Week 4the team.Within 10 days you receive a concise, actionable Executive Report - we’ll review that with senior management.A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MINDSET:• Provides you with a rational basis for strategic prioritization “We really appreciated the structured around sustainability. and rigorous assessment that PROBEprovided. It helped us ‘hold up a mirror' • Connects your people and their knowledge with the sole to our own performance and progress and deepened our awareness of theintent of improving your performance. complex interplay betweenthe economic, social and• Identifies risks & exposures, and shine a light on blind spots environmentalin your operations.effects of ourbusiness.”• Clarifies the return-on-investment in your own sustainable business best practices.John Twigg, Group Planning Director Manchester Airports Group (UK)• Propels your business into the 21st century.“The opportunity, experience, and team building were absolutely priceless. The [PROBE] assessment was right on targetReady to get going?about where our strengths and Run a self-assessment, usingweaknesses are at thisPROBE for Sustainable Businesspoint in time.”Janet S. Griffey, President/CEORLCBSuccess through sustainabilityOne Client’s SUSTAINABILITY WINHere’s how a southern California business used a series of Businessessmall wins to boost their profitability:with a sustainability mindsetconsistently out-perform1.First they implemented an energy efficiency program, saving their more conventional $3,500 per year.competition…2. They invested the savings into an employee-wellness program. …Middle-market pressure forFewer sick days and reduced insurance premium resulted. sustainable business best practices is rapidly 3. The combined savings were re-invested in a switch from single-accelerating... use bottled water to filtered tap water. 4. 18 months later they’re saving four ways: energy costs, sick …Sustainability isthe next corporate mega-trend. days, insurance premium, and drinking water. They’re also reducing plastic bottle use, creating an authentic, marketable business story. A Sustainable Business Mindset regularly produces double- and triple-wins like this one.Whether you’re just getting starting, or are already getting How did they get started?better…By running a sustainability self-assessment.…Don’t get left behind.Success through sustainabilityTo evaluate PROBE for Sustainable Businessand our other business tools for yourself,call Jeff Hayes at 323.549.9787After you’ve run the assessment, then what?...After running your first PROBE for Sustainable Business assessment, you’re primed to maximize both the rate and size of your returns. Maintain your momentum with The Vector Group’s:• Workshops & Continuing Education.• Gap Analysis & Strategic Planning.• CONDUCTOR - our proprietary execution model.“The Vector Group shows their clients how to convert the waste and risk associated with old-school business practices into leading edge competitive advantage. These guys are business performance experts AND sustainability experts - in today’s increasingly competitive business environment, performance and sustainability are joined at the hip. If you want sustainability to be the best investment your company ever makes, don’t wait and wonder - call them and get started today.” -Jeff Kleid, President, Elite Risk Services