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In today's world of globalization and the way business calculus works, companies are committed to externalizing many of their business costs to the environment, to social systems, to other countries. This approach, however, is unsustainable in the long run, both for the business as well as society. Corporations must begin to internalize some of those costs by the radical adoption of sustainability principles into business systems.
Wal-Mart, the largest company in the world, is pushing the envelope in fading its carbon footprint on the planet by driving measures towards the sustainability of the environment. And, it is not doing this alone. The juggernaut has a strong influence over its suppliers, and intends to integrate its entire supply chain in its mission. It has planned a strict course of action on a global scale with measurable objectives such as:
Andrew Ruben, the VP for corporate strategy and sustainability at Wal-Mart, who heads the effort, and Jib Ellison founder of Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting, Wal-Mart's sustainability partner, talk to an assembly of MBA students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business about Wal-Mart's ongoing plans in the direction for the future. Their talk captures the rite of passage that drove Wal-Mart's mind shift from its myopic Every Day Low Price (EDLP) mindset to this broadened vision that they call the lens of sustainability. Wal-Mart, according to Ruben, categorizes its profitability avenues into "quick wins," "innovation projects," and "game changers." Ruben and Ellison describe sustainability as a game changer, which has the potential of changing the way the entire industry will conduct business. They finally field questions on the benefits of sustainability and on the credibility of Wal-Mart against its current image in some sections of the media by a missive, "hold us for our actions and not for what we say." They add that while Wal-Mart is learning from the constructive criticism, it is not possible to address individual criticism.
Andy Ruben is vice president of strategy and sustainability for Wal-Mart’s worldwide operations, a position established in summer 2005 as part of Wal-Mart’s drive to incorporate social and environmental sustainability into its business strategies. Wal-Mart operates more than 5,000 stores worldwide. Ruben began his career with Wal-Mart in 2002 as director of corporate strategy and was named VP of U.S. Strategy in 2003. Before joining Wal-Mart, he was a consultant with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s Strategy Practice.
Ruben sits on the MBA advisory board of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and is a founding board member of the Arkansas chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He holds a BS in civil engineering and an MBA, both from Washington University in St. Louis.
Jib Ellison assists senior leadership in creating new, innovative, and wealth-creating strategies. Through an unprecedented angle of attack, he helps clients create visions that have the power to transform markets. He helps CEOs understand sustainability as a business proposition, align behind a plan, and commit to the actions necessary to capture business value. He brings a select network of content experts and organizations to deliver the best solutions to his clients.
His work includes designing and overseeing organization-wide transformation processes for Fortune 50 companies, building high-performance leadership teams, improving cross-functional teamwork, strengthening corporate culture to deliver results, and one-on-one coaching for CEOs.
Recent clients include Wal-Mart, Kleiner Perkins, Environmental Defense, Conservation International, Vodafone, McKesson, Gap Inc., The Home Depot, Nokia, YMCA, and Barclays Global Investors. A class V river guide, he has led whitewater expeditions on five continents.
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