July 12th, 2010 by Jane Meier

Most people don’t think of employee investment as something that fits under the umbrella of CSR, but I counter with the point that conscious consumers do not just look at the end product–but also the treatment of employees, working conditions, and benefits.  An example that comes to mind is Wal-Mart, who experienced a heavy backlash from communities because of the health benefits, and working conditions for their employees in the U.S. and their manufacturers abroad and has caused them to look at their treatment of these folks as an extension of CSR.

Many employers act as if their employees are disposable, and as a result we have seen employees jump around to different employers, which was uncommon in our parents’ generation.   A key to employee continuity and retention is employee investment, and while I’m not an HR guru–expending resources to retain good employees has got to be more cost effective than recruiting and hiring new ones.

Now that you understand some reasons to invest in employees, here are some examples of how TerpSys invests in their employees:

Continuing Education

• Supporting employees financially through advanced degrees, certifications, conferences.  How to they do it?  Stipend per course with grade requirements, reimbursing for certifications with a passing score and using conferences as awards for employee excellence.

Ongoing Training Opportunities

• Use your internal experts to educate other employees!  By host educational seminars after work, dubbed “Pizza Nights”, employee expert share their proficiency with other employees, which builds relationships between employees and avoid the expense of “trainers.” 

Social Events for Employees & Families

• Children love to see where their parents work!  TerpSys hosts a variety of social events for employees & families, but my personal favorite is an Easter egg hunt at the office!  So fun watching the kids roam in an out of cubicles.

Team Building & Leadership Training

• Teams within TerpSys hosting twice annual team builds–where folks that are on the same team, but rarely see each other due to client demands–can get together to swap stories and ideas.  In addition, employees are invited to participate in Outward Bound events which bring together employees from different teams for a weekend retreat.

Committees

• Committees are an integral part of this model–by empowering employees and tasking them with the responsibility for planning and hosting events–TerpSys helps them build valuable leadership skills, while getting the all-important buy-in. 

How do you invest in your employees?

June 7th, 2010 by Jane Meier

Who has time or money for CSR? And what is it anyways? The following are four common myths about CSR – debunked!
Myth #1:
CSR stands for Customer Service Representative

It may, but it also stands for Corporate Social Responsibility — which was defined in the part one of this series. Simply put, it’s integrating your values into business practices.

Myth #2:
CSR takes too much time; I can’t squeeze in one more thing!

We’re all time-starved, but we’re enterprisng and I KNOW if there’s one thing we universally love, it’s EFFICIENCY. Crafting a common-sense approach to sustainability and strategic community partnerships can accomplish many things at once:

• conservation
• marketing
• business development
• brand building & retention
• competitive advantage over other businesses

Myth #3:
We’re in a recession; people don’t really care if I’m integrating CSR into my business practices.

Oh, really? According to a Working Mother article, “2010 Best Green Companies for America’s Children,” Clorox scarfed up Burt’s Bees & created a new Greenworks green cleaning products line — the result: a 23% increase in sales, in a recession.

A recent Forbes article, “Mandatory Social Responsibility” discusses how social responsibility has become almost mandatory for companies, and that some companies such as Patagonia and The Body Shop actually have an appeal based on their “ethical” appeal to consumers.

Think it’s only for the big guys?

What about some local entrepreneurs?  Seth Goldman & Honest Tea, and a couple of folks new on the scene with sustainable products: Lunch Skins, and Cattiwampus (proof that you can make money while investing in sustainability).

Myth #4:
I have to make money, right, before I can give it away?

True, part of businesses contribution to society is to make money, which gives them the resources to then give it away.

This myth perpetuates the belief that the only component of CSR is writing a check. Utilizing CSR can actually make or save you money by:

• forming connections through reduced fee or pro-bono work
• reducing shipping costs by reusing materials
• decreasing business development expenses by marketing through the organizations with whom you partner.

You don’t have to expend financial resources to have some component of CSR, and by integrating it wisely into your business; you can actually help to make or save money!

This post originally appeared on The Enterprising Moms Blog on May 7, 2010.

May 31st, 2010 by Jane Meier

To a small business person, CSR can feel nebulous and intimidating, and therefore end up way down on the long list of to do’s!

While there is no one definition for CSR, here’s a good working definition:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is operating a business in a manner that balances the social and environmental impact created by the business with the expectations of its “stakeholders.”

CSR is a big “umbrella” definition for many business practices. It covers the gamut — from fair treatment of employees, to monitoring and maintaining safety standards of products, to minimizing natural resource consumption to volunteering and community partnerships.

At The Enterprising Moms’ upcoming event, “Doing Well While Doing Good: Demystifying CSR,” we’ll narrow the focus on two areas of CSR vitally important to a small business owner: Community Partnerships and Sustainability.

Community partnerships are an effective way to engage with non-profits and governments to accentuate and strengthen shared values. A non-profit gets the benefit of donated time, services, and/or financial resources; and as growing business you form relationships and business contacts to build, strenghten and maintain your brand.

Sustainability should be a priority to all businesses, small and large, for many reasons, including that having a vibrant economy with enough natural resources is important to staying in business. As business owners, it’s important to look at the resources we are using critically and make choices to minimize our impacts. 

We’ll discuss these topics and more at next week’s event.

In the meantime to jump-start your process, you could …

• Hop on Hands-On Network to peruse potential non-profit partners
• Watch this 2-minute Sustainability Cartoon that provides a concrete definition to another mysterious buzz word

This post was originally published on The Enterprising Moms Blog on May 3, 2010.

April 12th, 2010 by Jane Meier

After two-record breaking snowstorms canceled my husband’s holiday party, TWICE, we finally got dressed up and attended this black-tie affair with the vast majority of his co-workers.  Pretty snazzy, huh?

 While having fun at this sit-down dinner complete with open bar,  generous door prizes, and live music, the CSR part of my brain was also spinning.   TerpSys, as my husband’s employer, has given me a first-hand peek in how a small businesses can integrate CSR into their core business to create happy employees, and business growth and success.  TerpSys started small….and has now grown to over 200 employees, but they started with and continue to support ideas that could be applied to ANY sized company.  My brain actually has enough fodder for series of blog posts!  

So over the next few posts, I am going to provide case study of examples of how TerpSys integrates their CSR into their business culture.  While this list in not exhaustive, and the caveat is that I am providing the view as an outsider…I am quite sure they do much more!  Here’s what in my humble opinion are doing well:

• Employee Investment
• Community Outreach
• Strengthening Company Culture
• Highlighting Recognition
• Measurement of CSR Values

In this series of posts, I will focus on examples of how TerpSys integrates CSR with their business goals, in order to provide insight on how your business can also do well by doing good.

March 29th, 2010 by Jane Meier

At our house, the 40 inches of snow has melted, and has revealed a very wet, very muddy front lawn in desperate need of attention.  I have been pondering what to do because our front lawn has not really supported grass growth well.    Then, I picked up my Eating Well magazine, and read about families and non-profit organizations such as Growing Gardens , that are helping low-income families create bountiful, organic gardens in their own front yards.  

By cultivating their own crops, these families are saving huge amounts on their grocery bills, getting kids outdoors and exposing them to a variety of fresh vegetables and teaching them about the lifecycle of food.  Another unexpected result was the increased interaction with neighbors  as people stopped by chat with the family working the garden. 

With childhood obesity on the rise and the economic and food-security issues families are facing, it seems like implementing this idea could be one part of  the solution to these  issues…not to mention decreasing one’s carbon footprint and decreasing the amount of water and pesticides used to maintain the green lawn out front.

I am already awaiting our share of the Spiral Path Farm CSA beginning May 22, and considering getting our dairy from South Mountain Creamery, which I located on LocalHarvest, but will our lawn turn into a vegetable garden this spring?  Well, we’ll have to assess the sunlight and our ability to maintain…but it does seem like a sunny idea!

Gardening, Local Food

February 1st, 2010 by Jane Meier

Last week, while discussing with a client her CSR partnerships and the direction for a new year, one partner was instantly crossed off the list.  Why?  I asked…as they were a good fit for the business mission, demographic, and they and already participated with them in 1 successful event.  Why?  Oh, they didn’t say thank you…  Ouch!  in  the current economic climate, these are not the words ANY nonprofit wants to hear.

Emily Post’s guide to thanks offers some advice stating that “all gifts should be acknowleged with a thank you” and that one should write their notes “as soon as possible, but a late note is better than no note.”   Great, but how do business groups, professionals and corporations want to be thanked?

Here are a few ways:

• A letter:   At the bare minimum, all donors should be thanked with a letter stating the value of the gift, & how it supports the organization.  Extra points?  A hand written note, and pictures from the event…it will make posting the note and pictures more likely and increase the connection to your organization.
• Public Mention:  For smaller gifts, can you broadcast your thanks on social media outlets like Facebook, or include the company name in the newsletter, let board members know?  For larger gifts, how about a check presentation at a public event?  Picture in your newsletter?  Blog post?  Press Release?  And don’t forget non-profits….if you make these efforts, let the giver know.
• Create Thank-you events:  Interfaith Works has an annual breakfast, Food & Friends has an volunteer thank-you picnic…these events create opportunities for donors and volunteers to mingle and gives them another chance to interact with your non-profit.
• Be Creative:  Think an e-mail slideshow would work best?  Hand-written cards from the kids your non-profit serves?   Being creative often means that you will be remembered, and that is a very good thing when it comes time to for businesses to reassess partnerships.

Got some folks to thank?  Do it well,on time, and often, and they’ll continue to be your partners for years to come.

January 25th, 2010 by Jane Meier

Entrepreneurs and large businesses alike clearly delinate their value propostion as a business.  Value proposition defined as the expression of  a key benefit that will meet a customers’ unmet need and how this unmet need will be met by said company.   The focus is not undeserved, as  businesses do not succeed unless they are providing a good or service that people are seeking. 

However, recently, while attending a seminar with a fabulous networking group, I was reminded how important it is for businesses to define their internal values to themselves.  While the seminar was entitled, Setting Goals & Intentions for 2010, the crux of the issue was to define values for your business, and after that goals would be easy to set.  Ahh, the internal value propostion….defining what  important values the business embodies for the owner/employees and how those values are expressed everyday in business decisions.

One excercise that got me connected to my business value was visualizing a “peak moment”–a moment when starting my business where I felt on top of the world–happy, excited, empowered and then after that visualization, I was able to extrapolate my own personal values for the business.  With a values statement in hand, and more importantly in my mind, I  then have the tools I need to make decisions.  Does XYZ decision fit in with any of my values?  NO?  Decision made—and I can focus my energies on efforts that do match both my internal & external value proposition.

January 11th, 2010 by Jane Meier

As municipalities and utilities face aging infrastructure and decreased revenues, one general manager is exploring ways to save green by going green.  Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) has had its’ fiscal woes, and faces an ongoing crisis of aging water mains bursting. 

So the new general manager, Jerry Johnson, has his work cut out for him,  and by harnessing the potential energy of the waste WSSC processes and decreasing the amount of sludge needing treatment, WSSC hopes to save some money and  in the process decrease their financial footprint.  Read full text of the Gazette article here.

Here are ways the new manager hopes to decrease WSSC’s environmental impact, while freeing up funds to for those water mains:

• Using a DOE grant, WSSC is currently doing a feasibility study to determine if the plants could utilize microbes in tanks to digest bio-solids and create methane that, in turn, would generate electricity.  A win-win-win:  using waste products, to make energy, and decreasing by up to 50% the amount of sludge processed & trucked elsewhere.
• Working on ways to decrease the amount of nitrogen and phosporus that is released into the Chesapeake Bay
• To cut vehicle emissions and costs, WSSC  has eliminated full-size cars and SUV’s and is purchasing  lighter work trucks.

So here’s to WSSC exploring ways to decreasing waste , generate electricity. save money, and decrease environmental impact.  I can’t wait to read about how the process went from idea to action!

fiscal responsibility, Green, WSSC

January 4th, 2010 by Jane Meier

Thanks the the DC City Council, Washington D.C. decided to start the new year off with a resolution of its’ own–no more free plastic bags.  Starting 1-1-2010, all market customers are being charged 5 cents per plastic bag used.   Read the Washington Post coverage of the story here. 

Not the first city to ban them, as San Francisco banned them a few years ago, but the first city in my neck of the woods to ban them.  Whatever your opinion may be about the ban, I am intrigued by the marketing campaign behind the new law, the city’s plans for the revenue, and the  grocers preparedness and response to the new law.

Skip the bag, Save the river. is the title of the marketing campaign intended to promote this new law.  The tag line is a good one as it both defines the problem, and succinctly describes how the funds from the tax will be used. Out of every 5 cent bag tax, 3-4 cents will be allocated to the Anacostia River Protection and Clean up Fund.  The council created incentive for businesses to give a 5 cent credit for every reusable bag, for if they do so, they retain 2 cents of the 5 cents bag tax, otherwise they retain just 1 cent from each 5 cent tax.

Businesses such as Giant, Safeway, and CVS were ready with a stock of free reusable bags to hand out on day one of the tax.   By providing customers with a free reusable bag, the stores likely diffused some ire on the customers end as well as did some brand promotion.  A reusable bag with branding simultaneously voices a commitment to the river clean-up and provides free advertising in areas likely very proximal to the store itself. 

The ripple effect of the law is interesting– how a law changes businesses’ behavior, which will likely result in a change of consumer behavior, and hopefully, do what the law was intended to do–decrease the  amount of plastic bags found in the river from 25% down to almost 0.

grocers, marketing campaigns, taxes

October 27th, 2009 by Jane Meier

As anyone would in business launch mode, I have been reconnecting with colleagues and friends to let them know about my business and catch up on what is new with them.  So, today, I found myself touring the campus Universities at Shady Grove.   I went in expecting a lunch date, but got a lesson in sustainability as well.

My tour guide was marketing director Elysa Fisher. We toured the latest edition to the campus, Camille Kendall Academic Center , which was built on time, within budget, AND still earned LEED Gold certification.  Throughout the building, it was easy to see how the designation was earned.   The building materials include tiles made with recycled glass, bamboo flooring, and skylights for increased natural lighting.  The building was built on an East-West orientation and includes state of the art classrooms, conference rooms, staff offices,  and a “green education room” showcasing methods utilized in construction.   The green roofs were constructed using a panel method, which  allows for easy repairs, and houses an ever changing array of Maryland native plants.    The building has WIFI, and houses an open to the public Locavore cafe and library.

I thought the sustainability initiatives would stop with the building, but as I learned more about the concept of the Universities at Shady Grove.  I realized that the university itself is a lesson in sustainability.   It is a collaboration of nine, public degree-granting institutions in Maryland,  thereby bringing degree programs from these institutions to one facility in Montgomery County.  Upperclassman through graduate students can take classes without spending countless hours in the car, burning time and fossil fuels, right in the area where they currently live and work.   In addition, my colleague, Bill Schlossenberg, Director of Development and Community Partnerships continues to work with smart companies who want to partner with the Universities at Shady Grove to continually advance the very degree programs that will meet their current and future workplace demands.

Sustainability in design, in concept, and in partnerships.    The Universities of Shady Grove is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and I am celebrating that it didn’t take me 10 more years to learn about this great example of sustainability in my community!

cafe, college, LEED, library, university