Business Leadership for a Sustainable Future

As a business owner or manager, you no doubt rely on common sense for your success. You treat your customers and employees well, offer high-quality products and services, and keep costs in line. But there's another level of business sense that, although not yet the norm, becomes more important every day.

UnCommon Sense will help you design more efficient operations that reduce waste and pollutants, decrease water and energy consumption, and expand purchases of local and nontoxic products. We will introduce you to concepts of social cohesion for the workplace and explore how your business may enhance community progress. You will receive ongoing guidance in all these areas as you initiate, manage and track the changes within your company. Each business that completes the program will be profiled in a sustainability report to be published yearly by YBP. This report will quantify how our collective business efforts are improving the region’s economy, communities and environment.

THE PROGRAM

UnCommon Sense is a two-year leadership program that is helping businesses become more sustainable in all aspects of their operations. Responsible businesses in our region are recognizing that a healthy environment and strong communities are vital to their longterm prosperity. By adopting sustainable practices, each business can help preserve the region’s social and natural assets, strengthen the local economy, and enhance the growth potential of its own business in the process. The program encourages its participants to incorporate environmentally-sound and community-friendly practices that make long-term business sense for a variety of enterprises within the Greater Yellowstone area.

YOUR LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT

UnCommon Sense is much more than a manager or employee training program in sustainability. Each business is expected to apply what they have learned back at the workplace and to measure and report their accomplishments over a two-year period. Many businesses become leaders within their industry sector and have impact well beyond their own establishment. To “graduate” from UnCommon Sense, participants prepare a written summary of their improvements and operational results, and make a multi-media presentation to YBP and their peers.

To be successful, businesses need to identify two individuals who can attend workshops, sit in on conference calls, and implement action plans between workshops. This will ensure that vacations, work pressures and unexpected events will not preclude full participation in the program. Most businesses find that their representatives need an internal working group back at the business to carry out the action steps and make long-term operational changes.

TO APPLY:

Please describe your interest in sustainability by completing the application form and answering three questions ( Apply online here). Submit your completed registration application to the YBP office no later than March 1, 2008. A team member will be available to consult with your business should you have more questions about the program. The number of businesses accepted for this third class of UnCommon Sense may be limited to ensure a quality experience for all participants. The first workshop is set for April 24-26, 2008 in West Yellowstone, MT.

PROGRAM FEES AND LOGISTICS:

$1,200 OVER TWO YEARS (payable in two annual installments), plus workshop costs (travel, lodging and meals).  Interested businesses should become YBP members before they apply for UnCommon Sense. Fees cover all instruction and materials for seven modules taught over the course of four workshops plus graduation recognitions at the fifth session. Workshop meals are covered for two persons per business (delete this sentence). Monthly conference calls and ongoing support from YBP staff and learning team advisors also are included.

Please budget adequate funds for travel, lodging and meals so representatives can attend workshops that will rotate around the Greater Yellowstone region. Allocate sufficient staff time to allow for completion of pre-assignments such as facility audits, waste inventories and employee surveys. UnCommon Sense has been a transformational experience for the first three classes of participating businesses, and their success is a reflection of the time and resources committed to the program.

THE PROGRAM FORMAT:

UnCommon Sense integrates education and peer-support by requiring businesses to attend five group workshops over a two-year period and participate in monthly teleconferences. Each training module explains how to conduct self audits, make operational improvements and measure and communicate results. In addition, participants are assigned to a “learning team” led by an experienced advisor who serves as a resource and coach.

Module 1 (Workshop 1): Leading the Way
In Leading the Way, businesses gain knowledge about initiating and managing organizational change: they learn how to organize a sustainability working group, identify internal champions, create a sustainability mission statement, and communicate that mission with employees and clientele.

Module 2 (Workshop 1): Waste-Stream Management
Module 2 looks at effectively reducing waste, segregating the waste stream, and cost-effectively transferring waste to its next destination.  Businesses learn how to identify local and regional waste management resources, and how to audit and measure their waste stream.  They create a system for reduction, reuse and recycling and communicate their waste management policies with their employees.

Module 3 (Workshop 2): Responsible Purchasing
Responsible purchasing means to consider what is in the products that are used to operate each business and from where those products come.  Businesses learn how to create a purchasing tracking matrix to track information on purchasing habits.  They create a purchasing policy and communicate with vendors the implications of their new policy.  They also identify products to analyze for preferred alternatives.

Module 4 (Workshop 2): Social & Community Investment
Module 4 helps businesses build strong social structures to strengthen their businesses AND enhance the social fabric of their communities.  Businesses learn how to define social sustainability both inside and outside their organizational walls, and develop a work plan for social sustainability. 

Module 5 (Workshop 3): Resource Management—Energy Efficiencies
In the Energy Efficiencies module, businesses learn how to complete baseline energy audits and create a system for tracking their usage.  They plan for and implement facility improvements, and track the results over the course of the program. 

Module 6 (Workshop 3): Resource Management—Water Efficiencies
Water use is an important, and sometimes overlooked, component of sustainability.  In Module 6, businesses learn how to complete a baseline for water usage and track utility data, and how to identify areas with the greatest potential for improvements.

Module 7 (Workshop 4): Transportation Efficiencies
The Transportation Efficiencies module looks at how people and goods are moved across the region, and how customers access each business.  Businesses perform a baseline audit to identify transportation needs, and they learn about CAFÉ standards and local alternative fuels and transportation options.

Module 8 (Workshop 4): The Business Response to Climate Change
The Business Response to Climate Change is the “Closing the Loop” module.  Businesses learn about Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Carbon Offset programs, species extinction, and other environmental issues not yet addressed.  From that point they decide, “What next?”

Program Review and Graduation (Workshop 5)
Learning Teams report on their individual and collective progress; participants receive certificate of program completion.