Designing the Sustaining Organisation

March 12, 2005

Making new assumptions As human beings, what we see is in many ways a result of what we are looking. As Henry Ford said: “If you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right”. If we assume that green business is a fad, that our Environmental Management System is an overhead and…

Greening the Health Sector

December 1, 2004

Eastern Business and the Environment (EBATE) is a network group that has been helping businesses to reduce their impact on the environment AND improving their profitability. EBATE is supported by Least Waste (the Regional Waste Management Group for the Eastern Region of Melbourne) and holds seminars on issues such as minimising waste, efficient energy use and water…

Country businesses for living built on passion

August 4, 2004

What do I love? = What’s my business? One of the fascinations of our recent outback road journey was some of the unique businesses we came across: the coffee farm near Mareeba where the coffee is (almost) organically grown by Bruno, Maria and Mama; the fossicking tour on the road to Karumba that taught us how to…

Back from the bush

August 4, 2004

So how long is 12 weeks? It has been 15 weeks since our last newsletter was published. For 12 of those weeks, we’ve been on a camping/caravanning tour of Northern Queensland. During this trip, as in previous trips, our experience of time changed dramatically. Time stretches… Getting up with the sun (and going to bed soon…

Taking a chance and taking to the road

April 15, 2004

We’re skipping winter this year On the first of May 2004, we’re hitching up the campervan, loading up the boat, and heading our 4WD north for 3 months. After a challenging two years that included the death of a parent, we’re planning to skip winter this year. “Oh, aren’t you lucky?” Well, yes and no. Yes,…

Will your new year REALLY be new?

December 13, 2003

What will be NEW for you in 2004? Everyone says “Happy New Year!” It’s on its way, a whole new 366 days that haven’t happened before. Some people take full advantage of them, but too many people just re-run a previous year – same work, same relationships, same list of “one day I’ll …”. Avoid insanity Albert…

Sustainability and coaching

December 13, 2003

Business and sustainability Business has traditionally tended to treat environmental issues as an additional overhead to the production of quality products. Recently, a variety of businesses of different sizes in different industries have found that a more pro-active, creative approach can actually IMPROVE the bottom line. Done well, sustainability is PROFITABLE.

Continuous improvement and Enterprise Resource Planning

August 8, 2003

The MRP production line When a manufacturing business installs a new production line, the installation doesn’t stop the day the line is turned on. Excellent performance isn’t expected on Day 1, in Week 1, and often isn’t achieved in Month 1. The performance achieved initially isn’t accepted as the best possible – for a big…

Building your sustainability vocabulary

August 8, 2003

When a new field emerges, a new language (or jargon) emerges with it. Knowing the language gives you access to opportunities you might otherwise miss. From time to time, we take a look at some of these words, giving you our interpretation of them.

How do you keep score in the success game?

August 8, 2003

As a business, you can measure your performance against other companies in your industry through benchmarking. Standards are identified which are relevant to your industry, and you measure your current performance against them. These standards could be anything from phone response time to number of weeks of inventory coverage. In a game of football there are a range of statistics relevant to the…

We apologise for the break in transmission

April 21, 2003

Some of you may have noticed a long gap since our last publication (in fact, it’s a gap of 12 months). This has been due to my father’s losing battle with cancer. He died at the end of February, and now life has become more predictable, if sadder and a bit emptier than before. During this time, and particularly…