Certified Success: Integrating Sustainability into Corporate Management Systems

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ABSTRACT

Environmental certification is a costly proposal if it is merely added to a company's existing practices to appease consumer sentiment. In the forest products industry, this add-on approach to sustainability has not produced financially successful companies. If sustainability goals are integrated into the core business values, however, they can generate savings that can offset the increased costs of conforming to standards. Drawing from the organizational management literature and two examples in theforest industry, we find that senior managers must assume leadership in making sustainable practices a core business value, then establish a rigorous environmental management system and confirm the company's commitment by implementing training and reward programs for employees. Unlike quickfixes, which do not generate consistent results throughout the organization, full integration is the best way to achieve sustainability.

Keywords: certification; environmental management systems; industry; sustainable forestry

The forest products industry faces growing internal and external pressures to demonstrate sustainability. Global concerns about the environment and a growing demand for forest products have led to international treaties and agreements to protect natural resources, such as the International Tropical Timber Agreement, and also to a search for valid measures of environmental quality, such as indicators of sustainable forest management (Russell 1999; USDA-FS 2000). In the United States, regulations affecting forest management on private lands have been increasing; 43 states now suggest best management practices for forest management (USDA-FS 2000). Consumer and environmental organizations with vocal and increasingly global memberships also urge the industry to demonstrate the use of sustainable practices. These external pressures for sustainability add to internal pressures on forest products companies to develop sustainable sources of supply and use available resources efficiently.

The forest products industry has responded by adding costly forest management certification programs and environmental management systems to demonstrate corporate responsibility. In this article, we identify problems with an "add-on" approach and recommend that companies approach sustainability as a business value that is integrated into core business strategies. We review the components and processes of an integrated management system and develop five criteria that companies can use to assess success at integrating sustainability into a management system. Finally, we discuss the efforts of two forest products companies-UPM-Blandin and MeadWestvaco-to integrate sustainability using these criteria.

Integrating Sustainability

Beginning in the 1980s,...