Environmental Sustainability

What does environmental sustainability mean to my business?

Environmental sustainability is key to whether your business will survive in the long term. We only have finite resources available and if you are not operating in a way that balances your demands with the environment, your business days may be numbered.

Do I really need to worry about environmental sustainability and being eco-efficient now?

Any business relies on forward thinking to survive. Being proactive, not reactive. But when faced with difficult truths, why do most choose to hide from them? By continuing to operate as normal despite knowing that our resources are limited will unfortunately only lead to more serious problems for your business in the future. Whether your business focus is in manufacturing or human resources, you still need to ensure that your business operates in careful balance with the environment. This is known as eco-efficiency and is set to be the game-changer for companies over the next 20 years. Can you afford to be left behind?

Eco-Efficiency is the game-changer

“In early 2010, IBM brought together some 1600 business executives, government officials, NGO leaders, journalists, analysts, and environmental experts for what IBM terms an “eco-efficiency Jam”.  IBM released its summary report from this Jam, which included three key conclusions:

• Eco-efficiency is poised to become the biggest economic game-change for organizations over the next 20 years.
• Direct and collaborative action will be needed to address the challenges and opportunities posed by eco-efficiency.
• There is a strong imperative for stakeholders to advance an eco-efficient economy. "

The first point is particularly compelling as previous game changers have been such important milestones as the advent of the internet. Adopting eco-efficiency will not only contribute to the survival of your business but also become a unique point of difference in your organisation, setting you apart from your competitors as well as showing customers your corporate responsibility to the environment.

What is eco-efficiency?

In brief, eco-efficiency is reached when all of the points below are met:

• The delivery of competitively priced goods and services
• These goods/services satisfy human needs
• These goods/services bring quality of life
• These goods/services progressively reduce the ecological impact and resource intensity throughout the life cycle to a level at least in line with the Earth’s carrying capacity.

Environmental Sustainability through Eco-Efficiency

With the help of Living Wealth, it is possible for your business to achieve environmental sustainability through eco-efficiency. Join the forward movement of businesses making this decision and securing their future. By partnering with Living Wealth, we can assist you in creating green solutions in order to comply with the 7 aspects of eco-efficiency, namely:

1. Reduce the material intensity of your goods and services;
2. Reduce the energy intensity of your goods and services;
3. Reduce the dispersion of any toxic materials;
4. Enhance the recyclability of your materials;
5. Maximize the sustainable use of renewable resources;
6. Extend the durability of your products; and
7. Increase the service intensity of your goods and services.

To find out more about eco-efficiency and how we can help you,
call Ivan today on 021 434 4384

Green Business

Why should I green my business?

To save money. Surprised? You needn’t be. Greening a business is about creating a clean and lean business strategy. Lowering your operational costs, reducing your impact on the environment, finding clever green solutions to add value to your products or services and save you money. But saving money is only one of the many benefits of accepting this greater change towards a green business.

By making a responsible business decision and moving forward with this greening process, you are in fact paving the way for a better future. Not just by ensuring the environmental sustainability of your organisation, but by creating a new environmental awareness with everyone your business touches. At Living Wealth, we assist in this holistic adoption of green solutions throughout your company, working with all levels of your staff to help them to understand the impact of their actions and to create a new climate of responsibility within your organisation.

Once your staff has an understanding of the greater good this process creates, a ripple effect is started. You not only motivate your staff to be responsible for their actions, but create an air of participation that would never have existed before. Your staff will show more commitment and will use this newfound knowledge to realise further ways to help green your business, reduce resources and save you money. And this is just the start. By adopting this process each staff member now passes the knowledge on to family and friends, enlightening future generations. Customers and suppliers will notice and appreciate this commitment, adding even more value to your brand.

In this highly competitive business environment, can you afford not to go green? For friendly advice and to find out about our services, call Ivan on 021 434 4384.

How do I green my business?

Greening your business could not be simpler. Living Wealth offers a complete greening solution and will ensure that change is affected across your company. Our green consulting service will offer green solutions to help you attain environmental sustainability through eco-efficiency. Our eco- business advisors will project manage the entire process and stay a continued partner into a greener future.

To give you more insight into this process, we have developed the following 5 modules as a platform for a clean, green business. We then benchmark your operations against these 5 modules, however as your needs will be specific, any one or all of these modules may apply to your organisation.

Module 1: Strategy to reduce / eliminate unusable waste

This is a natural starting point for all companies introducing environmental policies into your business, and can have the biggest impact on operational savings.  An awareness of the actual environmental impact and consequences to people and environment is key to starting this process.

Module 2: Clean/renewable energy strategy

This module in the strategy highlights the benefits of mapping the way to introducing clean or renewable energy to secure your business. These benefits apply to both your bottom line and your brand.

Module 3: Supply chain

The substantial majority of a company’s environmental footprint is incurred before 3rd party products and services reach the company.  To be completely sustainable, all your suppliers need to be engaged in the process or selected based on their green credentials.

Module 4: Closing the Product Loop

Closing the loop refers primarily to converting linear processes into cyclical ones, as well as adopting the attitude that anything toxic/synthetic inside the production loop, or introduced into the production loop, remains someone’s responsibility and is not allowed to leave this loop and pollute the environment.

This module focuses purely on your company’s products and/or services with a view to bringing them ever closer to the “cradle-to-cradle” (cyclical) design paradigm.  It takes into account the raw materials and resources consumed, the manufacturing process, waste & emissions and it considers the end-to-end lifecycle and impact that your products and/or services have on the environment, which includes post consumer responsibility.

Module 5: Corporate Social Investment

Many companies recognise that the most significant challenge facing and threatening humankind today is the reduction of greenhouse gases which is imperative to combat global warming, as well as preserve natural resources and life-supporting ecosystems.

This is a general overview of our platform which has proven success in organisations.

Find out how we can help your company today. Call Ivan on 021 434 4384

Service Philosophy

Living Wealth is committed to ensuring you receive a memorable, positive experience through consistently exceptional standards of service that are underpinned by our organisational values.

Dedication: Living Wealth partners with you during our intervention and beyond to achieve a shared vision of success and in doing so, we promise to over-deliver on your expectations.

Understanding: We take cognizance of the individual circumstances and budgetary requirements of your organisation and value the distinctions that set you apart from your competitors within the marketplace. We seek to leverage your existing qualities, as well as identify additional opportunities that will ensure the sustained profitability of your operations.

Responsiveness: Living Wealth provides a life-long support service to you, our client and all queries are responded to within 24 hours.

Reliability: All projects undertaken by Living Wealth are delivered in accordance to strict time-lines and are monitored internally through a leading software programme, which unifies all activities undertaken by management, partners and associates.

Quality: The quality of Living Wealth's service is based on the passion and dedication of our leaders and associates, as well as our consistent research which enables us to remain abreast of current and projected global conditions and trends.

Contact us today to find out how we can help your business realise a greener future.

Green Consulting

How can your green consulting service help my business?

Without a green business strategy and action plan in place, you are losing money daily. Everything in your organisation, right down to water and electricity consumption is costing you more money each day if it is not as lean and clean as it could be.

Besides being an environmentally responsible choice, hiring a green consultant like Living Wealth can actually save you money and help your business survive in the long-term. Our Eco-business advisors help to provide green solutions to reduce operational costs, create awareness amongst staff and develop a clean and lean business strategy to follow.

Our Approach to green consulting

Living Wealth has created a toolkit designed to deliver results in most companies, industries and cultures. Our approach is simply comprised of four phases.

This is your company's Environmental Baseline Assessment, looking primarily at your Water, Energy and Waste but may also include other aspects such as hazardous ratings of chemicals used and so forth.  Once this measurement is complete and we understand the impact your company is having on the environment we are then able to do something about it by looking in the right places.

Phase 2: Generating Awareness

This can happen in parallel with phase 1, and it simply brings everyone in your company on to the same page in terms of why change is so important, what improvements can be made, and to generate ideas to take your company forward.  Please refer to our Environmental Awareness page for more information on this.

Phase 3: Strategy

As soon as the awareness has been created we assist with developing a management strategy to map your route forward.  Within this phase we have developed a Clean & Lean Business Strategy consisting of five modules, which you will see represented on our Green Business page.

This framework is based on our Clean & Lean Operating Principles which focuses first and foremost on all types of waste - including that of time and money - and on the concepts of:

• Closed Loop Production: cyclical approach, with zero unusable waste
• Cleaner Production: removing or replacing harmful materials and processes
• Lean Manufacturing: reduction or reuse of raw materials through innovation
• The Natural Step: 4 system conditions of sustainability

Phase 4: Implementation

This we support through our project management (see green solutions) and project collaboration tools and techniques.  Our in-house project management skills and experience are enhanced by a very clever, simple tool which turns an administrative task into a collaboration enterprise – ensuring each internally-spun idea is nurtured in a very cost and time effective way - while also simply managing communications and deliverables to target.

Hiring Living Wealth as your Green Consultant will no doubt improve your organisation and make a positive impact on your staff and how both clients and suppliers view your business. Please contact us to find out how we can help you.

Call us today on 021 434 4384