Joining Forces: Case Studies in Business and Environmental Integration

Synopsis: In many firms, coordination of activities and goals between business managers and environmental staff is minimal at best. This "green wall" prevents those concerned with profits and productivity from appreciating and supporting environmental initiatives. In Joining Forces: Case Studies in Business and Environmental Integration (Mark Haveman and Mark Dorfman, 1998, 32 pages), researchers from the Waste Reduction Institute and INFORM describe three manufacturing plants that have recognized the importance of integrating business functions like design and manufacturing with improvements in pollution prevention. At all three facilities--SC Johnson's consumer products manufacturing plant in Racine, Wisconsin; DuPont's chemical manufacturing plant in LaPorte, Texas; and General Electric's equipment fabrication and assembly plant in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico--this effort to bring together environmental and business goals has proved beneficial for both the environment and the company's bottom line. The report addresses such issues as identifying and evaluating trade-offs between environmental improvement and more traditional performance measures, redefining environmental management issues as materials use issues, making environmental improvement compatible with other management goals, and the changing role of environmental management.

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Read related article from Corporate Environmental Strategy, Volume 6, No. 1.: Breaking Down the "Green Wall": Early Efforts at Integrating Business and Environment at SC Johnson

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