Call for Content! SB Issues in Focus: The New Metrics of Sustainable Business

Calling all innovators & implementers! During the month of September 2012, Sustainable Brands will be publishing daily features, interviews, columns and case studies on “The New Metrics of Sustainable Business.”

As guest editors of this effort, corporate sustainability architect Bill Baue and Paul Herman and Nick Gower of HIP Investor are seeking content to publish during the month. This is a great opportunity to showcase the innovations you and your organization have pioneered – sustainable business metrics that strategically link to financial, ecological and social performance.

Content Guidelines:

WHAT: Written, audio or video perspectives on your implementation of New Metrics of Sustainable Business - namely, metrics that measure impacts on the full range of capital beyond financial and monetary, such as quantifiable human, social and natural capital. For example:

• balanced scorecard that includes eco or social metrics
• environmental profit and loss statement
• putting people on the balance sheet as an asset

If written, please edit to 600-1000 words. See previous submissions here.

WHO: CEOs, Board Members, CFOs, and VPs and chiefs of sustainability, products and business units, as well as advisors, academics, social leaders and NGOs or any leaders actively innovating new sustainability metrics.  

WHEN: Specific ideas due by end of day Tuesday, August 14; editorial selections made by Friday, August 17; author final submissions or interviews by Wed, August 29. Publishing will occur on a rolling basis during September 2012.

Examples of Possible New Metrics of Sustainable Business:

All sustainable business metrics are welcome, including those that help frame the “context” of how and where organizations operate and interact inside the earth and society at large, or the following categories of “impact” that HIP Investor outlines in its methodology for rating and ranking sustainability:

• Health:  Physical and mental health and quality-of-life of staff (i.e. wellness, body mass index), as well as ongoing employee engagement and staff satisfaction indicators
• Wealth:  Growing the income and wealth of employees and contractors (e.g. wealth matching, ratio of CEO pay to all staff pay)
• Earth:  Reduced or optimized natural resource usage; clean air, water, land and waste metrics, including carbon or greenhouse-gas intensities; lifecycle analysis ratings
• Equality:  Opportunity for a diverse staff to lead and contribute to the enterprise (e.g. women, ethnicities), as well as serving a global population across countries and income levels
• Trust:  Transparent and ethical behaviors (e.g. third-party certifications that drive results, open-source sustainability metrics and reporting)

Send submissions to guest editors:

Nick Gower – Nick.Gower@HIPinvestor.com
Paul Herman – Paul@HIPinvestor.com
Bill Baue – BBaue@verizon.net
Mark McElroy - mmcelroy@vermontel.net