Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

A year ago we started an employee-led group called Capstrat Green. Our purpose was to collectively understand sustainability. Most important for our professional lives, we have to understand how to communicate sustainability. We hope to know the sacrifices individuals may need to make and the expected outcomes. Then, understand the balance needed between the two.

This living experiment learning has simple objectives.

• We seek to help our clients better understand how sustainability plays into Corporate Social Responsibility by being a living example.

• We want to inspire our colleagues to think creatively, yet pragmatically when it comes to solving complex problems.

In short, sustainability is the ultimate in step ahead thinking. We’re required to learn, explore, analyze, refine and implement solutions that will have a guaranteed impact on our company’s culture, our client’s business and the environment. After determining our objectives here’s how we set it up:

Establisha cross-functional core team and a management representative.

We have representatives from all areas of our company, including accounting. We determined early that measurement is key. The team leads our company to find creative ideas that can be practically implemented. It’s worth noting, this is not planned as a Capstrat cost savings initiative. It’s reasonable to assume that conserving environmental resources may also have an impact on our spending. However, we are looking for the biggest impact we can make with the smallest sacrifice. Again, we want to create sustainable solutions to learn from and use to inspire others.

Solicit sustainable ideas from colleagues. The criteria are fairly simple.

Ideas must be implemented within reason. The team reviews ideas for:

• Expected impact versus cost to implement

• Ease to implement and adopt

• Results that can be documented

•Originality

Distribute rewards and recognition as appropriate to drive behavioral change.

The mission is to drive creative thinking with a purpose. Admittedly, that’s easy in a culture like Capstrat’s. Our passion for the world around us is hard to contain. The Green Team helps us balance all of the fantastic suggestions.

I’m sitting at an intersection on March 31, the last day of the economy’s 2008 first quarter rollercoaster ride. On one corner is a Crown station selling regular unleaded gas for $3.23 a gallon, on another corner is Mobil selling a gallon for $3.24, still on another corner is BP with a gallon going for $3.27. I realize a few pennies per gallon are nothing huge but when all three stations are within spitting distance and equal convenience, I wondered what makes the cost difference?

I did a little research and found that Baltimore-based Crown Central Petroleum (the cheapest of the corner), owned refineries and convenience stores but fell on hard times and put all assets up for sale. A small oil company in North Carolina bought all Crown’s local properties.

Okay get this, I also found that very same small North Carolina oil company owns and operates both the Crown AND the BP station. The only difference between the highest (BP) and the lowest (Crown) is brand perception. Given their industry, I immediately see a corollary to sustainability communications.

Toronto-based socially responsible investing research firm Jantzi Research ranks 23 oil and gas companies on their social and environmental performance.

UK-based BP topped the list of high performers. No US-based oil company ranked higher than 12^th. The report states, “…top performers are dominated by European and Canadian companies, while all eight of the US companies evaluated for this report received below-average scores." ExxonMobil, the world’s richest company, securely holds down position 18.

ExxonMobil's environmental record has been a consistent target of critics, not only from outside organizations such as GreenPeace but also from institutional investors who disagree with its stance on global warming. On February 13, 2007, ExxonMobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson acknowledged that the planet was warming while carbon dioxide levels were increasing, but in the same speech said, "I'm no expert on biofuels. I don't know much about farming and I don't know much about moonshine. ... There is really nothing ExxonMobil can bring to that whole biofuels issue. We don't see a direct role for ourselves with today's technology."

A few days earlier on February 11, BP announced that they would spend $8 billion over ten years to research alternative methods of fuel, including natural gas, hydrogen, solar and wind.

So, BP (remember, that’s Beyond Petroleum) gets high marks for trying to be a solution to global warming. Given my little market research corner, do you think the higher gas costs are a brand premium, an investment in alternative energy or oil tycoon pocket padder?