By John Trotti

John Trotti

According to some, getting rid of landfills will solve our waste problems, while others believe that we can achieve the magic zero waste—or at least a very high percentage of it. But in the case of the former I have found nothing to support the notion that swapping cause for effect ever made anything but mischief. As for the latter, I suspect that were money no object, we could recycle half again what legitimately we recycle today, but I have to wonder whether our heavy emphasis on recycling is sending the right message. Instead, let me commend to you 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 waste really isn’t the issue, it’s my reticence in addressing the bloat that permeates so many facets of my life.

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 received in the mail a booklet from Caterpillar entitled Tomorrow’s World: 2005 Sustainability Report, in which the company’s chairman and CEO, Jim Owens, affirms 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 chopped in 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 that 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.

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MSW - July/August 2006