Green Issues

The Green Guerilla: Tactics for Leading Green from the Middle

Presented by: Jacqueline Drumheller, CHMM ISSP 2013 Conference, Chicago, ILMay 9, 2013

1How do I get my organization to embrace sustainability and move beyond compliance? How do I get upper managements buy-in? What if I am just a middle manager without any resources? If youve asked yourself any of these questions, then this presentation is for you. This is a humorous look at using clever (and underhanded) tactics to get buy in and create support for green initiatives without using any official resources. (From Merriam-Webster: Guerrilla: a member of an irregular independent force that fights a stronger force by sabotage and harassment.)AgendaAbout Alaska Air GroupHistory/Background of CSR effortsEnvironmental ImpactsProblem StatementTen Lessons Learned: Leading Green From the Middle

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HoustonAtlanta

~7 million passengers/yr.3,100 employees58 aircraft40+ cities served390 daily departures

~17 million passengers/yr.9,600 employees117 aircraft60+ cities served400 daily departures

33AAG Environmental ProgramStaff of 3.6 FTEs (2.6 Managers, 1 Director)Report to Managing Director of Security in Legal DivisionResponsible for compliance with environmental regulations at ~100 locationsSupports both Alaska (AS) and Horizon (QX)

Environmental Programs

When I started the job, there were about 12,000 pages of environmental rules/regulations in the CFRs now there are over 30,000.Air Pollution Control EquipmentDrinking Water quality testing and control for our facilities and aircraftStorm water runoff and pollution prevention plansStorage tank requirementsFuel spillsRemediationTraining/TeachingHazardous materialsHazardous waste5Problem StatementHow do I get the company to embrace sustainability and move beyond compliance?How do I get upper managements buy-in?What actions can I take to prove the value of a sustainability program?How can I get more FTEs in the Environmental Affairs Department?How can I make sustainability my job?

I just can't believe that we can put polar bears on our marketing materials, but yet we do nothing to save them!Someone (gasp!) please call securityLeading Green from the Middle

Lesson #1:

You need a change agent8People will always think that it is someone elses job. They will look for guidance and be afraid to take new things upon themselves. You need someone with passion, knowledge of sustainability, brings forward the idea and rallies the organization to commence action. Gain converts and create a "core team" of movers. Champions are volunteers however, in over-worked competitive corporate world, fewer people are raising their hands for more work.

This is not for the faint of heart. If you are not 100% committed, passionate, fervent, energetic, and dare-I-say CRAZY you dont have what it takes to push the giant rock uphill from the middle of the corporation. If you are waiting for someone to give you direction you will wait forever. You must push the boundaries of your job description.

Youll need to have a vision of sustainability at your company. You will create a story around this vision and sell it to everyone. If they start believing it their behavior will follow.

Passion, persistence, and patience is the recipe for integrating sustainability into the corporation. ~Bob Langert, Vice President of Sustainability, McDonalds Corporation.Lesson #2:

Start Reading

9Who would've thought that someone else has already done most of your homework for you! There is a recipe. Or at least one you can modify or add to. If you are not already subscribing. (Environmental Leader, SmartBrief on Sustainability, etc, etc.) Then start. Yes, you get a lot of junk, but youll also get a lot of useful ideas.The Road MapProcesses & Methods for Improvement, Institution-alizing Systems, & MonitoringMetrics & TargetsMethods for setting prioritiesPolicy Statement & Commit-mentCorporate wide initiativeForm a Steering CommitteeGather Up line SupportForm Voluntary Green TeamGather like-minded peopleChange Agent10I started reading books. And quite a few of them had similar advice for folks like us where the change was being driven from the middle, rather than the top. As it turns out, this was also the natural progression of our sustainability program. Lesson #3:

Speak Their Language11.Lesson #4:

Don't Ask for Permission12As our ex CEO explains it. Its his job to determine the what. Its our job to determine the how. You can sit there and wait for someone to tell you how to get the job done youll need to take matters into your own hands. In this, Dec. 25, 2004 file photo, French urban climber Alain Robert scales the Taipei 101 building, the tallest building in the world, in Taipei, Taiwan. If Alain asked for permission, hed still be here filling out permit applications and awaiting approval while the bureaucracy argues about it.

Most of the great successes we've had is just by plowing ahead and doing it. Weve had some failures too but oh well. You'll never get anywhere by asking people for permission.

Lesson #5:Make Friends13Here's the beginning of your core team. You're going to need the help.

Attend all the networking events you can find and share your stories with like-minded professionals.

Lesson #6: Use this word:14You don't get anywhere complaining about the way things are being done (or not being done). The word "opportunity" is very valuable. People bitch that they get 4 copies of our annual report that's not very green, is it? Turn it around and say "I see a great opportunity here to go green by supplying Ars electronically".

Lesson #7:Tackle the Metrics15This is the most difficult and MOST important work of all. If it ain't documented you didn't do it. You can be the most wonderful company in the world and do seriously great things, but if you don't quantify them, you didn't do it.

Most execs dont listen to words at least ours dont give them a chart to look at. What do the Execs pay attention to? Media and metrics! (AND what your competitors are up to)If you come up with an interesting graph/story it turns into somebodys job Metrics Matter!!AS & QX recycle enough aluminum every year to build 3 new 737sManagement buy-in enhanced by:Media attentionMetrics + METRICS + MORE METRICSSuccessful projectsWhat are other airlines doing?

16AAGs Carbon Footprint1731% reduction in CO2 intensity since 2004. Absolute emissions are going back up were getting bigger, flying moreIntensity-based emissions are better for comparing performance against other companies. Emissions based on an output or unit of work.Metrics, Metrics, Metrics!Calculate the enterprise-wide carbon footprintMeasure the wasteCapture data about successful projects, even if theyre not originally designed to be greenTake picturesMake graphsHorizon Recycling: 2009We KNEW QX was doing a great job with inflight recycling but how great? Heck we did some waste assessments and found out that 69% of their garbage was being recycled. More than any other airline in the world! Measure it publish it Time Magazine picked it up a couple of months later.

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Lesson #8:Relentless Communication 20Guess what you do with all the metrics you captured? You communicate them. To individuals, management, employees, etc. Youre going to get anywhere if you are a wall flower.

Keep the Buzz GoingEmailsInternal newslettersInternal meetingsGuest SpeakersSpecial EventsGreen Team PartiesBrown Bag SeminarsExternal WebsiteAnnual/biennial Report

Externally: Be transparentInternally: Share your successes. You want to get people jazzed and keep the buzz going.

Email: send operational folks interesting stories, free webinars, scorecards, stories about what our competitors are doing. It just takes a minute to forward an email and keep ideas on folks screens.Newsletter: Recognizes employee efforts; celebrates corporate efforts; links to competitors; Green Tip of the Month; Involvement Events. You can repurpose information for other internal newsletters as wellGuest Speakers: You know all those friends you made? Bring them in! They can give presentations to your green team, to general workplace population; to management; etc. Horn in on all possible meetings to get a green word wedged in there someway. Offer to help!You need an external website. If you dont all those companies/blogs/NGOs/whatever are going to assume you are not doing anything.Brown Bags: Kevin Hagen, Tom Watson, Earth Share, etc.Green Team Party: We had a kickoff event, brought in food and booze, and got the CEO to make a presentation.Posters/signs: Paper saving tips, This TV purchased with steel can recycling funds., etc.Recycling drives: electronics, light bulbs, etc. Easy to do and helps a little.21

Spinning plates, keeping the buzz going in hopes that eventually it builds up momentum of its own to keep it perpetuating. But where do we start? What are the steps or the tactics for getting it off the ground?22

This week buzz is way up. Weve reconfigured our Green Team into an Employee Resource Group and decided to throw a party to announce the kickoff.23http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/company/csr/corporate-social-responsibility.asp

We started by building a microsite. Ultimately the final CER report would reside here. This is more marketing, less metric-based.24

Alaskaair.com >About US

There is a tremendous benefit to running around the organization and sweeping all the enviro stories out from the various corners and putting them in one place.

The most important thing is TRANSPARENCY. Talking about good and bad. This should be honest. Yes we pollute a lot, but we cant help a lot of it and we are doing what we can to stop it. Not our nature to talk about our faults but it gives credibility to the communication. Our first report was completed on a shoestring budget.

Hold mgts feet to the fire, drive accountabilityIts expectedRecognize efforts of the employeesConsumers are increasingly being guided by their valuesKeep the flywheel or plates spinning theres a lot of inertia to move the company which you have to overcome by spinning plates all over the company. This helps.Foundation/reference for all future enquiries your sales staff will love them. Increasingly they are being asked about environmental performance.Our competitors are doing it. Helps you organize your thoughts and clarify your strategy for communicating your efforts. Even if you never publish it.

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Embrace Resourcefulness26

27Lesson #10:

Get

Recognition

(and give it too)28Was it the medals that got your attention?People will start believing the story if they see that it is getting recognition. There are literally thousands of organizations out there that are willing to recognize you for your green efforts. Magazines, Recycling associations, government agencies, trade organizations, etc. All have awards programs.

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Corinne, Happy Spring!!During a time when the Pacific Northwest renews itself, I have the opportunity to thank you for making the world a better place and shrinking the impact of our environmental footprint.Alaska Airlines conducts trash/recycle audits multiple times each year; these are done by volunteer members of the Green Team at the kitchens. The process is to capture all trash & recycling off a number of flights, keep it segregated by flight, and then sort through it to see what percentage of the items that could have been recycled actually were. The most recent audit was in March at the ANC LSG kitchen, overall the results were great - Flight Attendants on average recycled 82.3% of what could be. On your flight (73/1MAR/JNU-ANC) the recycling was much higher an amazing 94%.This is a higher rate of recycling that we have found on any other flight thats been audited.Our goal in 2013 is to move onboard recycling from its current level of 63% on average to 70%. To support that effort weve reached out to Flight Attendants whose flights showed either unusually high or low results on the recent audit asking for their feedback and wed love to hear your thoughts as well. We, Alaska Airlines, Inflight, Onboard Food and Beverage, and Environmental Affairs, want to continue to support the grass roots programs youve already been such a significant part of and at the same time we want to thank you for your efforts.Please accept this eBag cooler as a small gesture of our appreciation, knowing the biggest reward is in the difference you are making in our world.With sincere thanks & respect,Shelly

30And Finally:Even if it looks like you have nothing to show for it, youll feel better afterwards.Its Great Exercise

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Thank you!The ENDParting thought: If all passengers on US domestic flights packed 5 pounds less, it would save 64 million gallons of jet fuel each year and have a climate impact equivalent to grounding all domestic flights for 3 days, or shutting down all the dirty power plants in the US for 4 hours.32Parting thought: If all passengers on US domestic flights packed 5 pounds less, it would save 64 million gallons of jet fuel each year and have a climate impact equivalent to grounding all domestic flights for 3 days, or shutting down all the dirty power plants in the US for 4 hours.

And dont forget to thank your flight attendants for recycling (and give them hell if they dont)

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