Subject: Driving Sustainability through Education (part II) 22 November 2011 Dear Friends, Last week we told you about Natural CapitalismÕs Madrone ProjectŠan ambitious approach to transform how sustainability education is delivered. In this second of the three part series, we share how NCS interactive learning platforms are enabling our corporate clients to go green. Part Two: E-Solutions for Company and Employee Training Natural Capitalism Solutions was created to implement change in the world. We educate senior decision makers is government, civil society, AND in business. After a decade of catalyzing business sustainability in large and small companies we have embedded our extensive experience in a series of web-based learning tools. These enable companies seeking authentic sustainability to implement cutting edge solutions that cut carbon emissions, reduce harmful impacts, and drive their profitability. Our interactive learning platforms enable the companies using them to make more money because they are behaving more responsibly. Joe Santana, COO at Mi Rancho Tortillas, is a good businessman. Sustainability was not on his radar, and he figured he had no time in his busy day to pay it much attention. But he wanted to sell to Walmart, and knew that to do so he needed to be able to demonstrate Mi RanchoÕs ability to meet the retail giantÕs Sustainability Scorecard. He turned to Natural Capitalism. Working with our on-line tools, Joe learned how to use resources more efficiently, eliminate waste in his operations, and understand such sustainability concepts as how to measure and cut his carbon footprint. What he hadnÕt counted on was that doing all this would add $450,000 to his corporate profits over the next couple of years. Joe is now a big fan of sustainability. Resource efficiency is the foundation of increased sustainability, but only the beginning. Employees, an organizationÕs greatest asset, are often left out when it comes to sustainability. Over the years, much of our work has been to help companies engage their people to achieve greater sustainability. Surprisingly, even companies with serious sustainability commitments often neglect to educate and engage their people, but the best planned efforts will fall short if workers are not a key part of the equation. Moreover, engaged employees bring that education back to their homes and into their communities, amplifying the impact. NCSÕ e-Solutions tools help companies educate and empower their front lines, allowing them to make more substantial progress toward sustainability goals. Corporate Services: 1. Employee Sustainability Training NCS employee sustainability training helps companies integrate sustainability deeper into the their operations and culture, resulting in more an engaged workforce that is empowered to implement sustainability in their daily work. These programs also tend to lift productivity, as employees find pride in the sustainability programs they have now been empowered to implement. 2. Sustainability Sales Training We believe in markets (Capitalism is our middle name, after all). Our customized sales training programs strengthen companies who offer sustainable products or services, giving them market advantage over their less sustainable counterparts and more importantly, shifting the market toward more sustainable alternatives. 3. Sustainability e-Solutions for Franchise or Retail Operations Franchise and retail operations can be difficult areas in which to implement more efficient and sustainable practices. NCSÕ e-Solutions tools use a dynamic visual platform to showcase how efficiency and sustainability measures can drive profitability across franchise operations, providing step-by-step action plans and tools to enable facility, franchise, and retail managers to cut resource use as they align their operations with corporate sustainability goals. Serving our Mission: The corporate work that NCS does not only creates real change in the world, it also drives our research and development department. It ensures that our information is pragmatic, meets real needs, and delivers significant outcomes. We then take the innovation created in our corporate engagements and incorporate it with our work in higher education and with small businesses. All of our corporate engagements are done at cost to increase their uptake and therefore our impact. Many non-profits offer free services. Our experience, however, is that companies take information far more seriously if they pay for it. Many non-profits work with companies. NCS, unlike others, never hesitates to fire a client if we believe that they are not serious about implementing real change. We can do this because our loyal donors give us a financial foundation. Your support makes this commitment possible. If you would like to support this or any of Natural CapitalismsÕ work please click here. Stay tuned for the final email in this series to learn more about how we are using innovative tools and creative collaborations to enable small businesses to implement sustainability. Thank you for your continued support. Cheers, Toby Also in this education series: Part I: The Madrone Project Part III: Reaching Small Businesses