Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Today I saw a quote from Andrew Wyeth. "I do more painting when I am not painting. It's the subconscious."

Which got me to thinking. Whether you are a painter, a leaf blower, a mayor or a surgeon, don't you do more of what you do when you aren't actually doing it? Isn't your subconscious constantly busy making what you do a core part of who you are?

I don't know about you but I hire my subconscious to do the job of improving me when possible.

Years ago I had a client at the University of Chicago who was a psychologist, genius, heretic and a man who never paid his bills. He wrote a book called Flow. It was about how people drop into slots of concentration and lose time while doing what they do.

When talking to this man, he mentioned that when not doing what you do, you open a channel to figure out how to do it better or how to derive more pleasure or satisfaction from the event the next time you do it.

Bottom Line: Notice what you are thinking about when you are driving to the store, waiting in line, watching mindless television, sleeping/dreaming, taking a shower or exercising. You just may notice that you are re-inventing how to do whatever it is that you do so that when you next do it, you do it better. 

Consumer interest in sustainability is at an all time high, and many companies are scrambling to understand, embrace and communicate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

For Capstrat, this means clients are seeking our counsel on strategy and communications for CSR.  But to offer sound and credible work, we know it was critical that our own CSR house be in order.

And so 2007 for us was a year of introspection about our own practices and how they fit into the larger social and business context of CSR.  With our management team in the lead, we embarked on a series of self-evaluations to bring our agency into alignment with CSR.  We share here what we learned.

Our Triple Bottom Line

To begin our analysis, Capstrat's management team took a hard look at our "triple bottom line" - the hallmark of Corporate Social Responsibility.  Triple bottom line is a buzz phrase of CSR, and refers to a businesses' financial, social and environmental impact. 

Financially, Capstrat has always adhered to strident ethical principals with respect to our business practices and we employ a policy of financial transparency at every level of our company.  Financial results are shared semi-annually with all employees and financial goals are set through a collaborative process.  

On the social front, Capstrat is an agency that seeks to do "work that matters".  We accept projects and clients based on whether we think the work will make a positive difference in the world.  And, we have been recognized for a number of our philanthropy programs.  One is the "Boomerang Society", an employee driven program that delegates 1% of Capstrat net annual revenues to local and regional non-profit organizations. We also assist in the planning and implementation of Capstrat employee volunteer initiatives, and offer matching gifts for employee volunteerism.  Finally, our CapstratCares program offers an easy way for employees to set aside money from each paycheck to go toward a charity.

But when it came to our environmental practices, and our love of all things paper (in all colors), we really needed to take a hard look at the environmental impact of our little corner of Raleigh.  We dug deep and realized that our corporate practices needed to come in line with the sustainability interests of our employees. 

Always quick to take action, our management team appointed a "Green Team" representing employees from all departments. Their charge:  take Capstrat to sustainability in 2007!

Capstrat Goes Green

While management was working on macro changes around our office energy consumption, the Green Team set out to change the ingrained behaviors of our more than 90 staff. Daunted by the many items needing attention, they began by launching "Green Month":  an extravaganza of employees carpooling to work, reusing materials, reducing carbon footprint and expanding recycling efforts.  This was followed by "lunch and learns" and seminars helping employees change their behavior. 

By the year end, we had tangible results and increased attention to keeping the office green.  Some of our new approaches include:

• Hosting paperless meetings – a difficult but necessary transition involving laptop- projected agendas.

• Placing recycling bins at each worker’s desk - no more excuses of the long walk to the copy room!

• Changing printer settings to double-sided (we are in the process of training our clients to "turn over")

• Restructuring office supply orders (refillable pens, recycled paper, etc.) to be more eco-friendly.

• Sending an electronic internal newsletter to employees to keep us all updated on latest progress.

• And finally, holding a competition of employee teams to encourage individual green efforts.  Posters tracking team progress were mounted prominently in our office, and the winning team members each received a basket of green products to take home – bringing green behavior beyond the office!

Looking Ahead

So, as we launch into 2008, we have an exciting plan for a Greener Capstrat. 

At our year-end company meeting, our management announced a number of green incentives for employees, including a loan program for purchase of a green vehicle.  It’s a $2000 no-interest vehicle loan for any employee who buys a personal transport that uses alternative fuel – hybrid; electric; hydrogen; bio-diesels or it fuel efficient at the ultra low or super low level.  Two employees have already taken advantage of this great benefit.

Other plans for 2008 include:

• Reducing white paper consumption by 10%. (We have been admonished against hoarding!)

• Installing light motion sensors to reduce energy usage in our office suite.

• Conducting energy audit in cooperation with our property management company to see where we can reduce energy usage.

• Replacing our many light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.

• Ensuring our future appliances are energy star.  Our new dishwasher just arrived!

What We Learned

This year-long process not only improved our CSR, but it was equally important in helping us understand what large companies face in moving toward sustainability.  We appreciate that getting serious about CSR can have far reaching challenges in scope and impact for some of our clients.  But our commitment to this important work remains steadfast, and we are proud and excited about what lies ahead as North Carolina’s companies join the movement to make sustainability central to doing business.