Trends in Sustainability Software

Speakers

• Jon Chorley, Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President, Supply Chain Execution and Product Lifecycle Management Strategy, Oracle Corporation
• Sarah Krasley, Product Manager for Sustainability, Autodesk
• Dan Vogel, Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, Enablon
• Vijay Kanal, Director, Information and Communications Technology Practice, Advisory Services, BSR (Moderator)

Highlights

• As companies integrate sustainability into their core business, software developers are offering an increasing variety of solutions to help drive change and measure performance at three levels: internally, in supply chains, and across peer companies.

• Successful implementation of sustainability software requires a clear understanding of the problem you are trying to address, how the software will fit into existing business processes, and the value proposition.

• The significant challenge is how to integrate different software systems to facilitate decision-making based on a holistic understanding of trade-offs.

Memorable Quotes

“If it’s not cost-effective, [many manufacturers] aren’t interested. … Sometimes we focus on the environmental or social side, and we don’t think as much about the cost side; but it’s very important to think about all of them in concert.” —Sarah Krasley, Autodesk

“[Sustainability] is increasingly part of the standard by which people need to upgrade their business. It’s not a separate process that needs to be run by a separate group with separate disciplines and separate recording mechanisms. … If you ghetto-ize sustainability, you’re not going to drive it into its maximum benefit to business and the environment.” —Jon Chorley, Oracle

“How we think about our business decisions really comes down to how we think about cost. And as long as we don’t assign a cost to things that have environmental impact or social impact, then we make decisions based on incomplete information. If we could include that in the process that determines ‘Is this product profitable?’, you would then have a much better decision made.” —Jon Chorley, Oracle

Overview

Kanal began the session by reflecting that a recurring theme throughout the BSR Conference was the importance—and challenge—of monitoring and tracking sustainability performance. Software is solving this challenge, as well as facilitating more sustainable design.

Vogel explained that Enablon’s mission is to “enable a sustainable company,” and that it envisions sustainability for software as providing environmental, social, and risk management solutions on three levels: company operations, supply chains, and industries. At the company level, software should be applicable both for those on the ground and for management. For the supply chain, software like the SEDEX platform allows supplier performance metrics to be collected in a central location, and it is increasingly incorporating content, such as codes of conduct, GRI reporting, and SA8000 data, into the platform. To facilitate collaboration within industries, internet-based solutions such as Wizness are allowing companies to share precompetitive information.

Krasley continued by explaining that Autodesk is a design solution whose target audience is not sustainable design experts or champions, but rather mechanical engineers and industrial designers who generally do not understand sustainability. Oftentimes these designers receive specifications to create more sustainable products, and they are not sure how to achieve this. Autodesk helps solve this challenge by embedding sustainability into dashboards of software that engineers already use, such as AutoCAD. Examples include incorporating data on ecomaterials, biomimicry, and product disassembly.

Chorley noted that Oracle is somewhat unique in that it is not only a software developer, but also a high-technology manufacturer with a physical supply chain. By bringing together best practices and prototyping them in its own operations, Oracle can develop and deliver better solutions to its customers. He also noted that while social and environmental impacts of direct operations are extremely important to the company, its biggest leverage for sustainability is in delivering solutions for its customers.

Kanal opened the Q&A portion of the session by asking about some of the challenges of getting buy-in and ensuring successful implementation. Chorley replied that you should first identify the problem you are trying to address, determine how it fits in with the business process you are trying to help support, and then demonstrate the value proposition. Krasley agreed and added that executive buy-in is critical. She also emphasized the importance of assigning responsibility to one person who is directly tied to the key performance indicator (KPI) that the solution addresses. “It’s a process problem, but it’s also a people problem,” Krasley said. “You’re trying to change the way people do things.” Vogel added that Enablon software helps companies embed KPIs and roll them out throughout an organization.

In response to a question from an audience participant, the panelists agreed that one challenge facing the industry is how to manage the tension between keeping intellectual property rights around the algorithm that is behind the software and the demand from stakeholders to “get under the hood” to understand what drives the decisions that are being made with software solutions.

The panelists also agreed that there is a continuing challenge in how to bring together all of these solutions into one platform for decision-making—for example, combining Autodesk’s eco-design, Enablon’s social indicators, and Oracle’s logistics. Chorley asserted that we need to better define and redefine cost. “To the extent to which this can be brought into process flow and analytics, this will allow companies to make big decisions,” he said.