Sustainable Technology Management

Technology plays a big role in the pursuit of sustainability and economic development.  Sustainable technologies include technologies that use durable, low-maintenance, recyclable and economic materials and technologies, including materials and technologies that can be locally sourced to reduce transportation costs.  Sustainable technologies may be incorporated into sustainable design practices for products that are focused on designing products to leverage materials and technologies that will reduce product life cycle environmental impacts.  An effective sustainable technology will facilitate improvements in the appearance, performance, quality, functionality and ecological, social and economic value of the products. 

Sustainable technology management is based on the premise that individual companies can and do make an impact on sustainable development through the decisions they make as part of their technology management programs: what products should they manufacture and what technologies should be included in those products; what process technologies should be used; what types and amounts of resources should be used in the manufacturing process; how much should be invested in research and development (R&D) and which R&D projects should be given the highest priority; and can the company deploy technologies that do not harm the environment and improve the overall quality of life of their employees, customers and members of society in general.

Developing and implementing a sustainable technology management initiative begins with identifying and understanding when and how the operational activities of businesses can have an adverse environmental impact.  A good starting point would be to think about the following areas and issues[1]:

• Air Pollution:  Companies should consider and implement technological solutions that increase the efficiency of energy supply and energy use.  An effort should be made to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and when such fuels are used it should done in a manner that reduce pollution.  Companies can help reduce air pollution, promote climate protection, and save money, by employing energy-efficient technology in their business operations and implementing strategies to reduce the environmental impacts from commuting, fleet and business air travel. 
• Renewable Energy:  Companies should consider embracing renewal energy initiatives, sometimes referred to as “green power” or “clean energy”, which involve reliance on energy sources that are continuously renewed (e.g., wind, solar, geothermal, hydro and biomass). 
• Infrastructure: Companies make decisions relating to technology-based public infrastructure all the time and consideration must be given to selecting communications and transportation solutions that are the most efficient in terms of cost and which have the most modest environmental impact.  When companies are identifying sites for manufacturing, R&D and other activities, consideration should be given to ease of access for personnel.
• Water:  Companies often engage in activities that raise issues regarding excess water usage and pollution and it is incumbent upon them to operate in a manner that does not harm their surrounding communities. Technologies are available for controlling many types of pollutants and manufacturing processes should be modified to minimize water consumption.
• Product Design and Manufacturing:  One of the tenets of sustainable development is to create industrial ecosystems that imitate natural ones and companies have been drawn to finding ways to reduce, re-use, and recycle materials and products.  The most innovative companies have used technology to aggressively redesign their products and processes and have formally embraced environmental issues as being just as important as the cost and quality of their products and the safety of their workers.  In the manufacturing area, consideration should be given to energy and water use, water generation, emissions, noise and odors, logistics and operations.
• Materials:  Companies need to consider the environmental impact of the materials that they manufacture and/or use in their products.  New technologies have revolutionized the properties of widely-used materials such as steel, concrete and plastic and can also be used by scientists and engineers to design new materials that facilitate the development of products that are more energy efficient, consume less mineral resources for their manufacture, and are lighter, stronger and recyclable.
• Green Building Design: Companies realize substantial benefits from applying green design principles to their design and construction projects at their facilities, both new building projects and major renovations of existing buildings.  Green building design includes both selecting energy efficient equipment and using natural sources for energy needed to power activities within the facility.  Companies can seek LEED (“Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”) certification to benchmark their efforts with respect to resource efficiency in their facilities.
• Paper Usage: Paper manufacturing consumes a significant amount of energy and natural resources and companies can contribute to reducing these harmful impacts on the environment by reducing the amount of paper they use in day-to-day activities (e.g., two-sided copying and emphasis on electronic distribution and use of documents), selecting paper with a high recycled content and recycling paper products.
• Recycling and Waste Management: All companies can find ways to reduce waste and improve their overall efficiency and productivity while enhancing their public image.  Waste reduction begins by tightening up purchasing practices for raw materials, office supplies and equipment including purchasing environmentally preferable products.  When designing products and packaging, companies should look for ways to reduce the amount of materials.  Companies should also mandate participation by all personnel in recycling initiatives.
• Environmentally Preferable Purchasing:  Environmentally preferable purchasing (“EPP”) has become popular among governmental agencies and call for procurement of goods and services that have a reduced impact on human health and the environment as compared to other goods and services serving the same purpose.  When practicing EPP, governmental agencies and companies must take into account numerous environmental considerations, such as post-consumer recycled content; energy and water efficiency; durability; low/zero air emissions and hazardous substances; easy, non-hazardous maintenance; end-of-life management that keeps materials out of landfills (e.g., reuse, recycling, return to manufacturers); low life-cycle cost and packaging and distribution efficiency.
• Information Technology:  Companies must track advances in information technology and consider adopting new technologies that will allow them to exert better control over their industrial processes, thereby creating opportunities to make those processes more efficient, safer and less damaging to the environment.  Information technology can also be used to collect and analyze data from the supply chain and thus make it easier for companies to manage suppliers and ensure they are acting in a socially responsible manner.

Addressing many of the areas and issues mentioned above will require the development of new processes and procedures, including implementation of environmental management systems and changes to existing compliance programs, and investment in new technologies and platforms; however, sustainable technology, for all of its anticipated benefits, is not the end goal.  When making decisions about sustainable technology management, companies must be satisfied that the technology and processes will make them more productive and efficient can contribute to the overall success of the business.  While it is possible to create customized technology solutions internally, it is easier and less costly to rely on the work of others.  Companies must create a dedicated team to scan for new solutions and test them before they are seriously considered for full-scale implementation.  Any new solution must be adequately supported and training must be available.

For most companies, management of “technology” involves both engineering/product development activities (i.e., incorporating technology into products and/or the processes used to manufacture products) and information technology activities that include internal and external communications and other projects and support.  In some instances, these companies will create separate management structures for each of these functions, although a single senior executive, who is generally referred to as either the “chief information officer” or the “chief technology officer”, will still retain ultimate responsibility and the leaders of each function will report to that executive.[2]  The activities and responsibilities of the technology executive will vary depending on the size and business focus of the company and the skills, experience and job descriptions of the other members of the senior management group; however, the executive should expect to be involved in the development and implementation of a technology strategy for the company, including identification and implementation of sustainable technology initiatives and solutions; planning and coordinating R&D activities to support the company’s technology strategy; coordinating the technology strategies and activities of divisions and business units; acting as the functional manager of the activities of the technology managers for each of the company’s divisions and business units; overseeing technology sales, purchases and licensing activities; providing information and advice to the senior management group and other company managers regarding technology-related issues; and supporting new technology-based business initiatives launched by the company.[3]

A company’s efforts regarding sustainable technology management should be carried out in an organized manner to ensure that the principles and goals of the initiative are clearly understood and widely disseminated within the organization and among the company’s important external stakeholders.  The board of directors and members of the executive team, led by the executive with responsibility for technology management (i.e., the chief information or technology officer), should prepare and adopt a mission statement that includes the guiding principles for the initiative, the goals of the initiatives and guidelines for the operational procedures that will need to be implemented in order for the initiative to be successful and for progress to be measured.  As companies identify the areas of interest for their sustainable technology management initiative, they need to develop methods for measuring performance and commit to reporting the progress that the company is making against its performance goals; proactively involve employees from all parts of the organization in the sustainable technology management effort by forming teams with members from different departments to coordinate certain activities such as reduction of waste, recycling and reducing/prevention pollution; implement training and education programs for executives, managers and employees; engage and communicate with external stakeholders about the company’s sustainability efforts and environmentally-related aspects of the company’s products (e.g., how they are designed, what materials are used, how they operate and how they should be disposed); and get involved with industry groups and other organizations working to develop innovative sustainability-related technologies and best practices for socially responsible technology management. 

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This article is an excerpt from the author’s forthcoming book on Sustainability Management, which will be published by Routledge in late 2020.  For further information, visit the following page on the author’s Sustainable Entrepreneurship Project website: https://alangutterman.com/topics/governance-management/

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About the Author

This article was written by Alan S. Gutterman, whose prolific output of practical guidance and tools for legal and financial professionals, managers, entrepreneurs and investors has made him one of the best-selling individual authors in the global legal publishing marketplace.  His cornerstone work, Business Transactions Solution, is an online-only product available and featured on Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw, the world’s largest legal content platform, which includes almost 200 book-length modules covering the entire lifecycle of a business.  Alan has also authored or edited over 90 books on sustainable entrepreneurship, leadership and management, business law and transactions, international law and business and technology management for a number of publishers including Thomson Reuters, Practical Law, Kluwer, Aspatore, Oxford, Quorum, ABA Press, Aspen, Sweet & Maxwell, Euromoney, Business Expert Press, Harvard Business Publishing, CCH and BNA.  Alan is currently a partner of GCA Law Partners LLP in Mountain View CA (www.gcalaw.com) and has extensive experience as a partner and senior counsel with internationally recognized law firms counseling small and large business enterprises in the areas of general corporate and securities matters, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, international law and transactions, strategic business alliances, technology transfers and intellectual property, and has also held senior management positions with several technology-based businesses including service as the chief legal officer of a leading international distributor of IT products headquartered in Silicon Valley and as the chief operating officer of an emerging broadband media company.  He has been an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and universities, including Berkeley Law, Golden Gate University, Hastings College of Law, Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, teaching classes on corporate finance, venture capital, corporate governance, Japanese business law and law and economic development.  He has also launched and oversees projects relating to sustainable entrepreneurship and ageism.  He received his A.B., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, a D.B.A. from Golden Gate University, and a Ph. D. from the University of Cambridge.  For more information about Alan and his activities, and the services he provides through GCA Law Partners LLP, please contact him directly at alangutterman@gmail.com, follow him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alangutterman/) and visit his website at alangutterman.com.

About the Project

The Sustainable Entrepreneurship Project (www.seproject.org) was launched by Alan Gutterman to teach and support individuals and companies, both startups and mature firms, seeking to create and build sustainable businesses based on purpose, innovation, shared value and respect for people and planet.  The Project is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation with tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code dedicated to furthering and promoting sustainable entrepreneurship through education and awareness and supporting entrepreneurs in their efforts to launch and scale innovative sustainable enterprises that will have a material positive environmental or social impact on society as a whole. 

Copyright Matters and Permitted Uses of Work

Copyright © 2020 by Alan S. Gutterman.  All the rights of a copyright owner in this Work are reserved and retained by Alan S. Gutterman; however, the copyright owner grants the public the non-exclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the Work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) 4.0 License, as more fully described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.

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[1] Examples in this section are adapted from “Pathways to Sustainability”, in National Research Council, The Role of Technology in Environmentally Sustainable Development (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1995).

[2] S. Hart, “Inside the Minds—The Role of the CTO in a Technology Company” in Achieving Success as a CTO: Leading CTOs on Building IT’s Reputation, Capitalizing on Employee Strengths and Creating a Productive Environment (Boston MA: Thomson/Aspatore, 2008).

[3] A. Gutterman, Technology Management and Transactions (Eagan MN: Thomson Reuters, 2019), 707.