Facebook Codifies the Green Data Center

The article in which this post is based is from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, written by Katie Fehrenbacher.  

Facebook has recently taken the initiative to build new energy efficient servers and data centers in a new facility based out of Oregon. They will be more energy efficient in that they are removing large chillers that consume about half of a typical data center’s energy. Rather than using these large chillers, they are using evaporative cooling, which mixes water with incoming air to cool down the data center. 

Perhaps the best part of this initiative is that their designs and innovations for this initiative are being left open for others to study and adopt. I feel that this is representative of utilitarianism, which can be described by looking to ethical theories. 

Ethical theories fall into two distinct categories, those that deal with conduct of leaders’ actions, and those that are concerned with character, or who the leader is as a person. Those that deal with conduct are then split into two categories, as well: teleological theories, those that stress consequences of leaders’ actions, and deontological theories, which emphasize the duty or rules which direct their actions.

Teleological theories are broken down even further into three approaches: ethical egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism. Ethical egoism is representative of a leader who acts so as to create the greatest good for themselves. Utilitarianism is representative of a leader who acts so as to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Lastly, altruism is representative of a leader who acts so as to create the greatest good for other people.

Because Facebook has chosen to keep their designs and innovations open to other companies, they are allowing for more sustainable business practices world-wide among other Internet and IT organizations. This falls perfectly in line with utilitarianism as they designed it for themselves, thus benefiting from the design; yet, they are allowing others to use said design, thus benefiting other organizations. 

What do you think? Is this a utilitarian act? Can you make the case that this is representative of altruism? 

You can see the article here.

Posted by: Michael Condupa

Adam Werbach

Adam Werbach has done a great amount for the worlds of social responsibility, environmentalism, and environmental sustainability.  Especially for being so young, his career has provided inspiration for many individuals who strive to make Earth a more level-playing field and friendly place for all of its inhabitants.   Adam also provides a great example of an authentic leader, which is at the very basis of why he does what he does.

The article (linked below) states, “Adam Werbach is not only a staple of the environmental movement, but an authentic innovator and one of environmentalism's most honest critics. At twenty-three, he was elected president of the Sierra Club. He is now head of Act Now Productions and sits on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Werbach’s most recent endeavor is Ironweed Films, a DVD club and social networking site for the socially and politically progressive.” These credentials and experiences are impressive for an executive or environmentalist of any age.  He displays the types of traits that Luthans & Avolio associate with authentic leaders and their subsequent success in business settings.  These four capacities being confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience; Adam’s career has conveyed to the world that he is well versed in all of the above.  In the article, he conveys his confidence in the organizations and individuals currently in-line with his own efforts, “I’ve been impressed by the evolution of campus and online activism. I’ve also been pleased to see that organizations like the Sierra Club have been getting back to their community organizing roots.” His whole vision of “shifting social values” is predicated on his hope for our species and his resilience in fighting against the grain of an irresponsible Corporate America.  The whole effort has an air of optimism in trying to create a better world for generations to come.

 

Leadership: Theory and Practice contends that moral reasoning is a crucial aspect of developing authentic leadership and defines it as follows: “It is the capacity to make ethical decisions about issues of right and wrong or good and bad.”  Adam Werbach clearly is polishing this capacity and putting it into play by actively working against the forces of society that he has deemed wrong, while working for the vision that could craft the world to being more “good”.

 

Authentic Leadership is a process that takes experience and time to develop in an individual the capacity to act and be received as genuine or authentic.  Adam Werbach is in the first chapters of what will surely be a long story of developing authentic leadership, and he is making the world a more responsible and sustainable place with the journey.

-Kyle Hines

The article is linked below:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/01/dissecting_envi_1.php

Why Sustainability Is Winning Over CEOs

Depending on their point of view one may think of Pepsi as a tasty beverage, a sugary, chemically filled drink, or a business conglomerate.  However, few think of Pepsi as a company that is socially responsible.  However from reading the article, “Why Sustainability Is Winning Over CEOs”, it is clear that this is exactly the direction that PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Nooyi and her team of sustainability directors are headed.  The article describes how PepsiCo’s Walker potato chip plant plans to use the steam from their exhaust stacks to recapture water and use that to clean equipment, the potatoes, and even irrigate the shrubs in the facility.  Their sustainability manager, Martyn Seal, contends that this will save the plant $1 million annually and take the plant off the public water system.  Once these recollection systems are realized, PepsiCo plans to make them standard in the rest of their plants worldwide, which means that as a company they stand to save considerable amounts of money.  The article goes one to state that companies who are beginning to become more proactive in approaching sustainable means of business are in line to see big profits as sustainability is becoming a factor to building brand image.

Like most sustainable leaders, Indra K. Noovi exemplifies authentic leadership.  In class we discussed the various factors relating to authentic leadership including the positive psychological capacities and the moral reasoning capacities.  Indra K. Noovi certainly represents the positive psychological capacities of optimism and resilience through her continued efforts to pursue these green and sustainable operation practices and her commitment to using them throughout the PepsiCo businesses. She also demonstrates the moral reasoning capacity of promoting justice and greater good of the organization or community by utilizing sustainable initiatives that are not only good for the environment but also benefit the company and community by saving them money and keeping their operations off the public water system.  Another way that Indra K. Noovi relates to what we have discussed is her leadership role as a woman.  She represents only 2% of working women in her leadership position of CEO of PepsiCo.  Because of this Indra is one of the few women working that has effectively broken the glass ceiling and through her success at PepsiCo she is helping shatter stereotypes that are holding women back from higher leadership positions.

Attached below is a link to the article 

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_15/b4223025579541.htm

-Sean Morton

Winning with Sustainability

     Earlier this week I stumbled upon an article titled, "Technology Leader of the Year, Winning with Sustainability."  The article is talking about DuPont, yes, DuPont the chemical and material-oriented company.  The article is by John Teresko of Industry Week.  The article further examines the CEO's viewpoint of sustainability initiatives and what he has done to meet the demand of a sustainable industry and the changing times. 
     Charles O. Holliday Jr. states, "Putting the environment first doesn't thwart business opportunities, it creates them."  Charles has helped DuPont go from a world renowned chemical company to what it is today, a 21st century science company focused on sustainable growth.  The article goes on further to explain that although chemistry is such a big part of their success, the addition of biology has brought forth new opportunities for the firm.  Because of this, I want to analyze why Charles decided to take a sustainable path recently in DuPont's industry, and figure out what kind of leader he really is.
  After reading the article, I believe that Charles O. Holliday Jr. is most definitely a transformational leader among others forms of leadership.  Below, I will outline why I think he is a transformational leader by aligning my ideas with the fundamental practices of this form of leadership that is described in our text by Kouzes and Posner's model.  The practices are as follows:

Model the Way:  leaders need to be clear about their own values and philosophy.  In this situation, Charles acts upon this move to sustainability in that it will not only better the industry and environment, but he believes that it would help their sales and revenues by opening many different opportunities for them.

Inspire a Shared Vision:  leaders create a compelling vision that can guide people's behavior.  For this, Charles and the company understand the changing times and the impact that they are having on the environment, so being inspired to change for the better was already in place.

Challenge the Process:  be willing to challenge the process and change the status quo.  Charles really didn't know what they were getting into until they figured out their strategy to enter into their sustainable efforts.

Enable Others to Act:  build trust with others and build collaboration.  Because DuPont has so many constituents, Charles and partners had to trust each other in order to build on their relationships and to be successful in their goals to reach sustainability.

Encourage the Heart:  reward others for their accomplishments.  In this,  Charles has not rewarded too many people besides letting them be a part of this huge project that DuPont is undergoing.  If in fact that they reach their goals by 2015, their will be a lot of opportunities opening for DuPont, which in turn will allow extensive rewards to the employees, partners, and shareholders. (everyone has to be on board)

     As we can see, Charles O. Holliday really is a transformational leader.  He has taken  this chemical producing company, and is forming it into a leader in sustainability, especially in their industry.  To add, he has set forth goals and time lines for the transformation of his company in which they are encouraged to meet by 2015.  Thus, Charles is a transformational leader because he has attempted to set out to empower followers and nurture them in to change.  By doing so, Charles has created a completely changed company, as well as added consciousness to the individuals within the company and among their constituents.
    Do you think that Charles O. Holliday is a transformational leader?  If not, what type of leadership style do you think he portrays, or if he is a leader at all?  Is there anything that I missed that would show that he is a transformational leader?  If so, then what?

To view the full article, please click here

Jeffrey Parrish

You're Gonna Pay for That!

     I ran across this article today that was very interesting.  The article was found at environmentalleader.com and is titled, "National Manufacturers Would Be Forced to Dispose of Products under R.I. Bill."  The article is about the governor of Rhode Island and his administration signing a bill that would ultimately force certain manufacturers to pay for their wastes.  The governor, Lincoln Chafees, ultimately wants to expand this bill to other sectors since it will only be in effect in the Rhode Island area.  If the bill passes, certain products will be decided on whether they are needed to be paid for in order to dispose of them.  From the article, items like; mattresses, paint, and syringes need to be paid for because they are either harmful to our environment or cause an increased cost to the government in order to dispose of them.  Obviously this is a step towards a more sustainable future, even if it only starts with Rhode Island.

     After reading the article, I think that it would be beneficial to analyze Lincoln's leadership through the Authentic Action Wheel portrayed in Chapter 10 of our text. The wheel was developed by Robert Terry in which it portrays six components that are used to locate a problem on the wheel (pertaining leadership), and to strategically select an appropriate response to the problem.  As for the wheel, I went through all six components for Lincoln.  My reasoning behind each components are as follows:

Meaning: Lincoln and his administration are guided by their values, principles, and ethics to make a difference when it comes to being able to dispose of harmful materials so freely.
Existence: Manufacturing plants have been freely disposing of harmful substances without realizing the overall detriment to the environment (History).  Also, Lincoln is the Governor of Rhode Island which lends him power and credibility (Identity).
Resources:  Lincoln controls a vast amount of resources due to the position held. (people, time, capital, etc.)
Mission:  Lincoln wants to reach a more sustainable environment in Rhode Island and later expand his objectives and policies further throughout the U.S.
Power: Has power due to the position that is held, through motivating his administration, and for maintaining high morale through times of change.
Structure:  Has a great deal of structure through the government and also through the policies (like this one) that he makes and incorporates into law.

Thus, all six of these components revolve around the idea of fulfillment.  Fulfillment is the stage that an Authentic leader will see themselves at once the process has been completed.  For Lincoln, I would argue that he will find himself here once the bill is passed and put into practice.  Thus, this wheel is usually for finding a problem with leadership, but after going through the process, I wasn't able to find any.  The only thing that is wrong here, is that the process is not 100% complete.  Therefore, I will state that the Governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee, is most definitely an authentic leader.

If you read the article, do you think that Chafee is an authentic leader?  Do you think that it is safe to say that most politicians should be able to classify themselves as authentic leaders (be there no criminal tendencies)?  Let me know what you think.

To visit the full article click here

-Jeff Parrish

Walmart’s New Sustainability Mandate in China

Retailing conglomerate Walmart appears to be keen to adopt the ever growing trend of sustainability practices.  An article in BusinessWeek entitled “Walmart’s New Sustainability Mandate in China”, describes the steps Walmart plans to implement to achieve their goal of being a more sustainable business.  Walmart unveiled this plan in the Walmart Sustainability Summit which was held in Beijing, China.  As you can tell from the name of the article as well as the location of the summit,  Walmart was primarily addressing China.  According to the article, “if Wal-Mart were a country, it would be China's sixth or seventh largest trading partner”, this shows the extent of significance that both entities have on each other.   Despite this symbiotic relationship, CEO Lee Scott and Vice Chairman Mike Duke chose this summit to lay out a new business guideline that all their suppliers must follow.  These guidelines included: supplier agreements to comply with environmental laws, strengthening of the auditing programs, energy efficiency improvement-top 200 suppliers must have 20% improvement and by 2012 95% of all product source mu st come from companies with highest auditing ratings.  Additionally, Scott and Duke also stated that suppliers are expected to have zero defective merchandise by 2012 as well as for suppliers and products to become transparent.  Failure to comply with these standards would result in Walmart refusing to buy from them. 

                When I first saw the article I initially I could not believe that first, Walmart was seriously trying to become sustainable and second that they would really impose their will on China.  Ever since taking MQM 385 I have watched videos and read articles condemning Walmart from its unethical employee treatment to its poor environmental practices.  During all this, management has seemed to be concerned with the bottom line and was willing to cut corners to achieve it.  However, after reading this it appears that management at walmart is being very proactive in setting sustainability goals.  It is clear that CEO Lee Scott has improved the vision of his company from just the bottom line to look at Walmart in a bigger picture.  Scott and Dukes plan is a great example of transactional leadership.  From our text transactional leadership describes a leader who does not individualizes the needs of subordinates or focus on their personal development.  In this instance, Scott addresses Chinese suppliers as his subordinates or followers and really does not make concessions for them, you either comply or you will be dropped. Moreover, it appears from the article that Scott’s leadership is similar to factor 6, management by exception.  The text describes management by exception as a style that involves corrective criticism and negative reinforcement.  It also describes that this comes into forms passive, where action is taken only after standards have not been met and active, where leader monitors their followers closely looking for mistakes and violations.  In this case, it would appear Walmart will be employing an active management by exception rule as they have set strict guidelines for suppliers with the negative reinforcement that you will be dropped if you cannot meet Walmart guidelines.   While, I feel that this form of management is usually something I view negatively, in this case it appears to be the most effective way for Lee Scott to accomplish the goals that he set for Walmart.  With over 900 suppliers it would be near impossible to try to work on an individual basis with all of them to promote a more transformational and individualized approach that I would have liked.  In the end, I am glad that a corporation that has the power that Walmart possesses is thinking more forthright and is being proactive and responsible instead of worrying about just the bottom line.  I feel that in this way Lee Scott and the Walmart leadership team are setting an example for the other big box retailers in this country.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/oct2008/ca20081028_632455.htm?chan=careers_managing+your+company+page_top+stories

--Sean Morton

Ecover Cleaning Products- So Over Wase in the Manufacturing Process

Ecover is a Belgian consumer products company and also the world’s largest supplier of ecological cleaning products.  Concept Manager Peter Malaise is partially responsible for integrating environmental consciousness and sustainability into each and every business decision made across his fifteen year tenure.  Ecover and Peter Malaise have even used supply-chain management to impose on its suppliers the same strenuous demands on which they grade themselves. 

As Concept Manager for Ecover, Malaise has achieved such feats as screening out every harmful toxin present in the process of manufacturing cleaning products and establishing an on-site water treatment facility.  The article linked below even mentions that Malaise boasts that Ecover’s products result in an astonishingly low two grams of waste for every kilogram manufactured.

These feats and Ecover’s continued success in the ecological cleaning products industry and the realm of sustainability are a direct result of the presence of two of the Big Five Personality Factors outlined by Peter Northouse in the Fifth Edition of Leadership: Theory and Practice.  The first factor, openness, led Malaise and Ecover to exploring unprecedented alternatives and solutions to reducing the firm’s negative impact on the biosphere.  Creativity, insightfulness, and curiosity are all characteristics of an open personality.  Malaise displayed curiosity in searching out new methods to reduce environmental harm caused by the manufacturing of cleaning products.  He was very creative in devising the solutions, and he showed a great deal of insightfulness while integrating sustainability into each and every decision faced by the firm.  The next personality factor that propelled Malaise and Ecover to industry success is conscientiousness.  The best example of his conscientiousness in action is the ISO14001 auditing to which the firm’s manufacturing is subjected.  These very meticulous standards could only be met by someone who is as thorough, organized, and dependable as Mr. Malaise. 

The quote at the beginning of the article demonstrates Peter Malaise’s and Ecover’s dedication to sustainable manufacturing, “It’s amusing to me that you are studying Sustainability now in the U.S. because here in Belgium we’ve been working on it for thirty years.”

Article Link: http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/06/ecover-cleaning-products-so-over-waste-in-the-manufacturing-process/

-Kyle Hines