What does it say about a program that has a 100% client renewal rate?

– In our business, every year, every client needs to renew

– Every year, they have a go/no decision to make…and every year, 100% of them renew.  Example.

What does it say about a program that delivers the top tool to help your company differentiate?

– The #1 thing all companies need is to differentiate (to convince the consumer to buy from you versus the other guy)

– The #1 thing consumers are looking for, when deciding between brands, is if one is legitimately (ie, certified) sustainable

– If we marry those two points, what do we get?  7 out of 10 consumers will move their business to a certified sustainable company

– And, what does that mean for certified sustainable companies?  7x – 20x growth versus their non-certified competitive peers

– Here is one of many articles showing global studies

What does it say about a program that, once it gives you the top tool,  helps you promote it, to grow your business?

– An average cost per click across social media for your advertising is $3.00/click

– We are rated as the top voice/influencer for sustainability on social media (ie, when we post, a lot of people see it)

– As part of our service to our clients, we provide an average of 3x the cost of the client’s certification cost in free advertising

– Here is an example.

– Net, in just advertising alone, our clients receive a postive ROI on the cost of their certification

– This does not include the cost-reduction benefits to your operation or the brand/revenue-side benefits that the advertising delivers to your sales effort

What does it say about a program that helps you with the elephant in the room – employees?

– It takes a lot of LEDs to make up for one workplace violence event

– Your employees are probably your biggest cost, your biggest time commitment, your biggest opportunity and your biggest risk

– The cost to you, every year, from the Big 5 (insomnia, stress, anxiety, physical pain and mental acuity) is roughly $10,000/yr/employee

– We help your employees become happier, healthier and more productive – A Better World Starts With Me – which helps you

What does it say about a program that provides you a roadmap for selecting the right sustainability program for your company?

– If you follow this PPP you will be happy.

It says the program is the best game in town for you to do the right thing for future generations, make your employees happy, lower your costs, and also differentiate and grow your business.

If you care about the environment and want to differentiate from your peers with the top thing consumers are looking for, contact us.

Per this article, global ocean temperatures started breaking daily records in mid-March 2023 and have set a new record every day….and continue as of this writing.

• This will impact the coral reefs – We have already lost +80% of our coral reefs. This will negatively impact the balance.  25% of all marine life depend on the coral reefs.
• This will impact the fish population – We have already lost over 70%. The balance is at risk.
• This will impact the currents – see here.
• This will accelerate the thaw of ice on both poles – Raising sea levels and reducing our reflective barrier against the warming rays of the sun.

Our global warming is speeding up. 

Ignore or act. 

We continue to chase Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, but at #34, Edenark Group remains the top sustainability voice and is ahead of Coca Cola, Intel and Cisco on the top corporate blogs list of 2024.

The quick answer – No!

Per this article, another company lost a court case in which it was unable to support its sustainability claims.

We all know climate concerns are the #1 thing on consumer’s minds.

We all know consumers want your business to show it is a Good Corporate Citizen by showing you are sustainable.

We all know that consumers are speaking with their wallets and moving their support to companies they can verify as sustainable.

We all know companies that can prove they are sustainable are making more money and growing faster than their non-sustainable peers.

The question – Do you ignore all of this and let your competitors take market share from you; or do you exaggerate your sustainability achievements in order to take advantage of consumer demand and risk getting caught; or do you do it right and get certified as sustainable?

If you ultimately decide to do it the right way, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us.

The world needs all the environmentally-supportive programs it can get.

That said, this article on the struggles of a small program (approximately 1% as large as our standard) is a good backdrop for us to re-state what we believe in and deliver.

Per this master class, there are 8 components of a sustainability program that will be successful and make you happy:

• It MUST include Employee Performance / Health
  • Sustainability is not just about energy savings or ‘Greening Up’, it is about people
  • For most businesses, the employees are one of the biggest costs, one of the biggest risks (mistakes, insurance, law suits) and one of the biggest opportunities (new ideas, collaboration, product knowledge)
  • Every organization suffers from the Big 5 – insomnia, stress, anxiety, physical pain, mental acuity
  • You are losing 5% of your corporate profit/year to the Big 5
  • It takes a lot of LEDs to make up for one worker comp or workplace violence case
  • Make sure your program has a ‘people piece’ that addresses employee performance, health and happiness

• It MUST certify the business not the box
  • People care about things that involve people
  • Most building (ie, ‘Box’) certifications only care about building energy
  • Building certifications are expensive and hard to market (poor ROI)
  • You want to say, “Buy more of my product because we are a certified sustainable business”
  • You do not get much value from, “Buy more of my product because we are in an energy efficient building”
  • You want the certification on your business, not the building your business is in

• It MUST have a 3^rd party audit component
  • Oversight delivers credibility and trust
  • From passing your driving test, to getting your college diploma, to passing a bar exam, we use 3^rd parties to ensure compliance
  • There are many sustainability programs that deliver a certification based on your ‘word’…..and your payment
  • Don’t do it!
  • Make sure the program you choose uses a 3^rd party to validate your work

• It MUST follow a respected and integrated global standard
  • The sustainability industry is maturing and coalescing around few standards
  • The UN has created its SDGs (17 sustainability development goals)
  • 50% of the world’s economies require sustainability reporting
  • Greenwashing lawsuits are growing
  • Don’t pick a program that is not globally respected by, and integrated with, the world leadership groups; and that does not have the ability to integrate the other three legs of the stool – carbon neutrality, ESG and net zero
  • No reason to spend the time and money, then find you are not following the same programs and protocols that the leadership groups have adopted

• It MUST include promotion of the certification
  • Historically, sustainability has been a cost-side play
  • Most programs and providers have been 100% trained and focused on cost-side measures – energy reduction, carbon reduction, waste reduction, water reduction, travel reduction (ie, engineering)
  • But we know consumers are searching for certified sustainable companies
  • If you don’t talk about being certified sustainable they will never know you are (ie, marketing)
  • You want a program provider that is built to do the cost-side work AND the revenue-side work; and helps you promote your certification

• It MUST pursue continual improvement
  • Sustainability is not finite. It requires long-term commitment
  • But…change is hard for all of us
  • If the bar is set too high, we can get frustrated and give up
  • You want a program that lets you come as you are and allows you to continually improve
  • This will keep everyone happy and committed year after year

• It MUST require annual updates
  • Current = credible
  • Sustainability is not finite; we need to continually improve
  • You don’t want a program that does not have a date attached to its certification
  • You want to continually improve, see your success, and annually update your certification to show you are current and credible in your actions

• It MUST be at a price you can afford and produce a positive ROI
  • We could have started with cost but you need the above seven components at a price you can afford
  • It needs to show a positive and rapid ROI
  • The cost includes both money and time and covers everything – the certification, the 3^rd party audit and your work to become certified

As stated, we deliver all eight components mentioned above to our clients.

We enjoy a 100% client renewal rate – every year, every client has a decision to make and every year, every client has renewed.

If you use a program that delivers all of the above, you will probably be happy too.

Zalando, a publically-traded online fashion retailer with over 50 million active users, has agreed to remove misleading sustainability flags and icons that suggest products are more environmentally friendly than they are.

Why do companies overstep on their sustainability claims?  Because consumers are demanding sustainability and exaggerating is the easiest and fastest solution.

But it is clearly not the best long term solution.

Given that we know environment/climate is the top concern consumers have.

Given that we know consumers want to support companies that can prove they are sustainable.

Given that we know certified sustainable companies are growing materially faster than their non-sustainable peers.

Given that we know environmental activists are exposing greenwashers.

Given that we know government compliance is going to require 3^rd party verification.

Being able to prove your sustainability claims is going to benefit you.

If you are interested, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us

Due to studies, the #1 issue on the minds of people around the world is the environment (ie, we are using our resources faster than Mother Earth can replenish and we are accelerating our carbon-emissions-driven global warming).  The world we are passing to our children will be far hotter and angrier than the world we were given.  This is a bigger concern to the people of the planet than war, economy, politics, et cetera.

Turning this sentiment to the market place, consumers are more interested in a company’s ability to prove its sustainability commitment than they are in its brand names.  7 out of 10 of them will change brands if they find a certified sustainable company that offers a similar product.  They will even spend more for a certified sustainable product.

Driven by the above demand, certified sustainable companies are growing up to 20x faster than their non-certified peers – the market is rewarding companies that are able to prove they are sustainable (via certification/validation).

The Edenark Group ISO 14001 environmental sustainability certification program is the premier program of its kind in the world – You get to help the planet and differentiate and grow faster than your peers.

We have a 100% client renewal rate – every client we have ever certified has renewed, every year.

We get most of our new clients from referrals from existing clients.

However, we also get a good number of clients from referral partners who like what we do and introduce us to organizations they feel would benefit from our services.

This defines what we believe a sustainability program should contain. 

This master class explains why a company would want to do this.

We are looking for organizations that 1) care about the environment; 2) want to be part of the solution; and 3) want to be an example that other organizations can follow.

If you agree with our mission and our definition of what a sustainability program should be; and if you know some organizations that meet the above requirements; you might want to consider becoming a referral partner.

Send us a note and we can discuss.  

Per this article, sustainability can impact profit in at least these nine ways.  We like the article, but take the points further:

• Lower costs – Although the article does not give a percentage, a study by BAR shows 99% of certified sustainable companies under our standard enjoy lower costs.

• Increased revenues – The article talks about green buildings, but a better study, by Unilever, shows sustainable brands within the same parent organization exceeding their non-sustainable peers by a +30% revenue increase.  More recent studies show the gap being larger.

• Higher capital value – Again, the article talks about real estate, but a BAR study of businesses shows a +11% increase in EBITDA for certified sustainable companies. Conservative trading multiples of 4x – 8x would deliver a 44% – 88% value differential between certified sustainable companies and their non-certified peers.

• ROI – The article included ROI with capital value and did not give a number. MIT did a study that shows a +67% investor ROI increase for certified sustainable companies versus their non-certified peers.

• Leveraging broadband investment – The article speaks to this but we will not, as it is not a relevant issue for most businesses.

• Brand – Now we are getting somewhere with the article, as it talks about sustainable brands outperforming their non-sustainable peers by 120%.  NYU/Stern says it is 7x.  Symbola put the number at 20x.

• Customer engagement – The article speaks to longer customer visits in retail stores, but gives no hard study data. We have received reports back from our clients (however, this is a small sample size and certainly not a tight research study) on how their conversations with new prospects are over twice as long and produce (an average over the clients reporting) a 6x conversion to a follow on discussion when they incorporate their sustainability certification status early in the presentation.  Again, this is not a large, 3^rd-party-run study. 

• Recruiting – The article talks about younger workers caring about an employer’s reputation. We have reported on multiple studies that show +60% of all prospects want to work for a certified sustainable company.  That new hire may accept your job offer, but if you are not certified sustainable, odds are they will not stay, costing you the time and money of hiring/training.

• Health and wellness – The article talks about energy-related items positively impacting health and wellness. We take it much further and an entire part of our service (A Better World Starts With Me and Gym For The Brain) focused on the performance, health and happiness of your employees, which helps drive profitability.

The data supporting sustainability driving higher profits is consistent, strong and from many sources.  

If you are interested, read this on what you want in a sustainability program, watch this master class, and contact us

Per this article, a study by YouGov determined that

• 75% of consumers prioritize sustainability over brand name

Think about that the next time you spend money to advertise your company.

You and your competitors are all talking about how great your brands are; and the consumers are yawning.

One of you is going to become certified sustainable…..and will immediately turn the heads of 75% of those consumers currently tuning you out.

Per this release, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission voted yesterday (6 March 2024) to adopt rules to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures by public companies.

Over half the world’s economies now require their public companies (in many cases, filtering down to their vendors) to report on environmental issues (sustainability / carbon / climate / ESG).

This will continue to increase in number of countries and breadth of compliance.

With change comes opportunity.

The question – Do you see this as not involving you, or do you see the opportunity?