|
Time to Dump Plastics Recycling?
Garbage Magazine (Spring 1994)
There COULD have been a terrific infrastructure in place for plastics
recycling. A visionary at Procter & Gamble actually proposed it. But
nobody, including P&G, was willing to do the necessary reaching across
institutional boundaries. That's just one message in this profile, coauthored
with Janis Dutton, of the reasons why the bottles put out at the curb
so often end up in the dump.
The Greening of the GNP
Garbage Magazine (Feb/Mar 1993)
You can't manage what you can't measure, or so it's said. This article
looked at the burgeoning field of environmental economics.and the ways
in which "externalities" could be accommodated on the bottom
line. If it happened, it might drastically change behavior, but not enough
people seem to think the way Herman Daly does.
The End of the Official Future
Garbage Magazine (Mar/Apr 1992)
The "official future" is a scenario planning term for the view
of the company's prospects that represents the conventional wisdom. Official
futures often turn out wrong -- as they did for Pacific Gas and Electric.
This piece, 10 years before PG&E went out of business, foreshadowed
some of the forces threatening it, and the scenarios that helped substitute
windmills for nuclear power in California.
Compact Packaging for the Compact Disk
Garbage Magazine (Nov/Dec 1991)
Remember when compact disks came in big long cardboard boxes composed
of throwaway material? You don't? That's because environmentalists had
a genuine victory.
Theater of the McServed
Garbage Magazine (Sept/Aug 1991)
McDonalds, in a much-noticed manner, suddenly dropped its "plastic
clamshell" containers and substituted the foil wraps they still use.
The Environmental Defense Foundation facilitated the effort, in an approach
that is still a model for corporate-environmental relationships. Here's
the inside story, including the perspective from jilted spouse Dow Chemical.
The Three Faces of Dow
Garbage Magazine (Jul/Aug 1991)
I am truly proud of this article -- an in-depth look at Dow Chemical's
claim to be an "environmental company" in the 1980s, a company
that "lets you do great things." There are three separate cultures
in most companies, I think -- one that barricades itself in, one that
tries to sell itself, and one that genuinely learns. Which will prevail?
(read article...)
Who Owns Exxon? We Do!
Garbage Magazine (May 1991)
David Isenberg singled this article out in his newsletter, isen.com, as
a way to understand corporate purpose. The perennial argument against
corporate responsibility is, "our primary responsibility is to our
shareholders." But as Peter Drucker noticed four decades ago, the
biggest shareholders are now pension funds. Why did Drucker turn out wrong?
Why did pension funds not drive corporate behavior? And why do they keep
trying? (read article...)
PR's Changing Face
Garbage Magazine (Nov/Dec 1990)
Having written an article on "the New PR" for Marketing Week,
I thought it would be interesting to explore the public relations side
of corporate environmentalism.
Brundtland's Legacy
Garbage Magazine (Sept/Oct 1990)
On assignment for Garbage Magazine, I went to a corporate environmentalism
culture. Why were we holding it at such a swank hotel, with so many energy-wasting
lightbulbs in the ceiling? This provoked a column on the inner contradictions
of corporate environmentalism, and the ways in which Gro Harlem Brundtland
was forcing those issues to the surface.
|