Hi-Tech has Tarnished its Clean Image

By Darcy Hitchcock, president, AXIS Performance Advisors

It used to be that high-tech was considered a clean, non-polluting industry. States competed to attract them. Since the factories didn’t have smokestacks belching black clouds, we thought high-tech was environmentally safe. But all this is changing.

	The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is still trying to get a handle on 178 groundwater contamination sites in Santa Clara County; how many other sites are there elsewhere?
	Certain countries and states are banning electronics, especially monitors and batteries, from landfills because of the high levels of hazardous waste, in particular heavy metals. Several states are already considering imposing “take-back” legislation similar to regulations in place in Europe to force manufacturers to take responsibility for their products at the end of their useful life.
	Recycling seems like a logical response, but most of the equipment has been sent to China where environmental protection is nil. They burn off the plastic, generating dioxin, and let toxic sludge flow into their rivers. All this was documented in a video, Exporting Harm: The High-tech Trashing of Asia.
	And in 2001, just in time for the holiday season, the Netherlands banned Sony Playstations because their cables had too much cadmium, causing a media uproar. Do you want to buy your kid a toxic toy for Christmas?

All of these situations may seem like random events, but they are in fact predictable, foreseeable, and part of a larger global trend. If you want to get ahead of the problem instead of dealing with the costs and image problems after the fact, you need to understand “sustainability.” This business trend is spurring innovation, reducing risks, and uncovering waste. If you want to know what the environmental regulation “end game” is going to be, investigate The Natural Step system conditions, a set of principles that define a sustainable society. Learn about design for environment (DfE), a methodology that Philips used to build “flagship” green electronics products as a way to uncover innovations that could be used in all their products. Learn how supplier workshops can uncover waste and unnecessary costs; according to a Business for Social Responsibility study, inefficiencies across your supply chain can waste up to 25 percent of a company’s operating costs.

What you don’t know can hurt you. Hi-tech companies pride themselves on being leading-edge. Andy maybe they are, in regards to technology. But many of your customers are getting ahead of you in regards to sustainability: companies like BP, Nike, Interface, DuPont Unilever, Ford, and Toyota, and communities like the State of Oregon, the City of Santa Monica, the European Union, and Japan are focusing on sustainability to improve their business performance and reduce risks. If you’re not already on the bandwagon, you better run to catch up.

Future articles include:

	How to use The Natural Step to make better business and environmental decisions
	Supplier workshops: How to collaborate to uncover win-win solutions
	Coming soon! Extended Product Responsibility (EPR): You make it, you own it for life. (Co-author with Wayne Rifer?)
	Design for Environment: Focusing on the environment lets you see product opportunities you’re blind to now (coauthor with Jeff Omelchuck?)