We all are tempted to
blame our present condition on “them,” the unseen forces in high places whose
hands seem to shape our lives with Satanic zeal, but let me ask you to consider
for a moment Pogo’s mighty vision prompting him to state categorically, “We have
met the enemy, and he are us.”In those
lamentably rare moments when I’m able to back away from the here-and-now and
sprinkle myself with the wonderful elixir of perspective, I am able to put
Pogo’s brilliance into context, recognizing for the purposes of this commentary
that the “thems” aren't really the issue in my life: It’s my reticence in
addressing the bloat that permeates so many facets of my daily fare.
Perhaps you
read of the results of a recently released study in which parents were shown
iconic drawings of children ranging from skinny to fat and asked to select the
one most like their own children. The vast majority—even those whose children
were classified as obese—selected a middle-of-the-road representation. It’s all
so human, and there am I—along with most everyone else, I suspect—lacking the
ability to see myself with the same clarity with which I see others.
So,
given what appears to be a spring-loaded propensity for self-delusion—resistance
to letting our eyes see what our deep-seated beliefs won‚t—how do you and I make
sound and (dare I use the grossly abused word) sustainable resource stewardship
part our daily behavior?
Establishing Some Metrics
Yesterday I was
cleaning out a pile of stuff littering my overworked bookshelf, and stumbled on
a booklet from Caterpillar entitled, Tomorrow’s World: 2005 Sustainability
Report, in which the company’s chairman and CEO, Jim Owens, affirmed that
sustainability issues offer far-reaching challenges and opportunities for every
department and individual in his company. “We must establish and communicate
‘bold goal’ targets to drive the right behaviors,” Owens maintains, backing the
statement up with a suite of operational challenges already showing dramatic
results. Two that stand out have to do with waste and water use. Establishing a
recycling target of 70% by 2010, Caterpillar’s system-wide rate has gone from
21% in 2002 to 42% in 2004, while its water use relative to normalized revenue
has been reduced by half over the same period of time.
Sustainability Starts With Lean
Thinking
While
Caterpillar has a goal for recycling, it is tying performance to productivity, a
different mindset than one might expect. Moreover, the company has gone a step
further by inculcating its sustainability focus into its corporate culture via
its Code of Conduct, which spells out its expectations for itself and its
employees. What Caterpillar, along with an increasing number of other business
and institutions, recognizes is that not only is bloat unacceptable from a
business standpoint—it is suicidal from the global perspective.
What is
significant here is that the company has chosen to go to its core culture to
send the message and begin the change. Perhaps in its lean-thinking clarity it’s
an approach we should be adopting as part of our own organizational cultures as
well.