Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Today is about making our world work better. It's the fourth year that the Usability Professionals Association has celebrated the second Thursday of November as World Usability Day.  The event was created to bring attention to usability and its importance in a technology-driven society.  Many local events are scheduled around the world today, including one here in RTP. This year the focus of the event is transportation and the UPA is sponsoring the Global Transport Challenge.  The goal is to encourage individuals to measure, monitor and minimize the carbon footprint of their travel.  While it might be a stretch, it's a great idea to talk about usability and sustainability in the same conversation.

To learn more about World Usability Day, visit the primary site at www.worldusabilityday.org or check out our local event at www.triupa.org.

I recently picked up a copy of Designing the Moment a new book on Web interface design by Robert Hoekman.  When I flipped through the book for the first time, I found this listed in the acknowledgments:

A portion of my royalties from Designing the Moment will go towards offsetting the carbon footprint of the book's printing process, so you can enjoy the comforts of the printed word without worrying about damage to the environment.

Before even reading the first page of the book's content, I am impressed by the author's attention to detail as evidenced by this message.  I think that Robert Hoekman deserves significant credit for understanding the environmental impact of his book.  Moreover, I think he should be praised for cutting into his own profits to do something about it.

This is is a significant accomplishment for the publishing industry and it sets the bar for other authors and publishers.  Does anybody know of any others who have taken similar steps?

I look forward to reading the book and I'll report back about his thoughts on interface design.

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.

It’s easy to get bogged down trying to solve our environmental problems. But we have to do it. We caused it, we need to advocate solutions. Capstrat looks at sustainability as balancing all of the moving parts to understand all sides of the issue. Then using innovative thinking to design a solution that works fairly for all concerned. Finally documenting the results for future learning. It’s easy, try it.

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?

About a year ago we started Capstrat Green, an employee-led group that helps us collectively understand sustainability. By doing this we’ll know the sacrifices individuals may need to make, the expected outcomes and understand the balance needed to make both work.

We approach Capstrat Green as a living experiment to provide both external and internal learning.

• We help our clients better understand how sustainability plays into Corporate Social Responsibility by being a living example. We learn to communicate sustainability efforts with credibility.

• We inspire our colleagues to think creatively, yet pragmatically to solve problems. We get paid to do this every day. This program helps keep us in top form.

In short, sustainability is the ultimate in “step ahead” thinking. We’re required to learn, explore, analyze, refine and implement solutions that have a guaranteed impact on our company’s culture, our client’s business and the environment.

Our core 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. The team solicits sustainable solutions to learn from and inspire others.

Criteria

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

• expected environmental impact versus cost to implement

• ease to implement and adopt

• results that can be documented

•originality

The team promotes Capstrat Green throughout the company to drive behavioral change. More importantly, the team shall drive creative thinking with a purpose that balances all the moving parts to understand all sides of an issue. Then they promote innovative thinking to design a solution that works fairly for all concerned.

As more companies want to understand their impact on the world, I imagine we’ll see more internal teams pop up like Capstrat Green.

AIGA Raleigh is conducting a unique poster contest called ReThink. They asked the NC and SC design community to: 

Believe creative professionals can make a difference.

Believe individual small steps have a huge impact toward sustainability.

Conceive an idea promoting everyday practices with direct, sustainable results to preserve resources.

Create adigital poster inspiring Carolinians to protect the environment by making sustainable decisions in their everyday lives.

The Capstrat creative team hit the collabratory and came up with interesting results.

1. Wear your clothes more than once.
Copy: Save energy and water by wearing clothes more than once between washings.*
*Unless you’re a smelly lady or dude. Remember Sunday is not pants day.

      Conceived, designed and mostly written by Brandon with a little help from Lindsey.

2. Bathe less.
Copy: The average shower uses two and a half gallons per minute and lasts nine minutes. Less is best.
Conceived, designed and written by Todd and Shane. Grossed out by Scott.

3. Wasting water is sad.
Copy: Don’t run water continuously while you brush your teeth, wash your dog or rinse your dishes. That’s a waste and that’s sad.
Conceived, designed and written by Todd with input from Scott and Shane.

4. Essequam videri* (NC State Motto: To be rather than to seem)
Copy: Green is not a fad. It’s a way of life. Take action.
Conceived and designed by Shane. Written by Matheson.

5. A piece of paper is not unlike your brain. Use both sides.
Conceived by Scott, designed by Scott and Katie, written by Scott.

6. 12 Quadrillion.
Copy: 12 Quadrillion BTUs are saved annually in the US by proper insulation. Be green. Save some green. Add insulation.
Conceived and designed by Chad, written by Matheson.

7. Flush only when absolutely necessary.
Copy: A family of four flushes away about 100 gallons of water per day. Double that if your toilet is older than 1982. Remember, if it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it brown. It’s probably a good idea to only do this at home.
Conceived by Todd and Shane, designed by Todd, written by Elizabeth’s little boys.

House Bill 267 requires that all North Carolina businesses with alcohol permits sort and have collected all glass, plastics and cans. Furthermore, any new businesses wishing to obtain alcohol permits must provide proof of contracted service to have recycling picked up. I salute such a huge step in the direction of sustainability. Business owners are sure to feel the pinch, however, and there is little doubt that consumers will share in that discomfort. It's important that the General Assembly run with the ball it's picked up and not drop it. Currently only 5 of 100 counties are offering to collect businesses' recyclables. Only 51 are going to allow businesses to drop off at community collection centers. Hopefully this burden will continue to be eased. As the old adage goes, you can certainly catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Senate Bill 862 - Smoke-free UNC - serves to:

"Allow regulation of smoking on the campuses of the UNC Health Care System, the facilities of the East Carolina School of Medicine and Physicians Practice Plan, and the buildings and grounds of the constituent institutions of the University of North Carolina."

To clarify, 'constituent institutions' means all member schools in the University of North Carolina system, and 'regulation' is defined as the prohibiting of smoking inside and within 100 linear feet of any building on the campus of any aforementioned institution. Legislation like this, and programs such as the North Carolina Health Wellness Trust Fund, are helping to shape and articulate national opinions on a number of important issues, from the economics of health care to the responsibility required of all of us in order to affect change. North Carolina is clearly ready to honor its legacy on Tobacco Road with smart, progressive decisions that will help safeguard its future.

Both pieces of legislation deserve kudos, and both have me feeling pretty great about Capstrat, and about my work that matters. To read more about new NC legislation ringing in with the new year, try these tips:

• Download the PDF . WARNING! EXTREMELY DRY READ!

• Grab your nearest Google search bar and type: "effective january 1, 2008" legislation inurl:ncleg. Takes you straight to the meaty bits. Supplement this search with additional keywords ('recycling,' for example) to further narrow the search. 

And if you see something you don't like, or otherwise have a strong opinion about, track down your representative and voice it.