7 Ways Going Green Impacted Our Bottom Line and Community

Even if you don’t think you’re ready to push for sustainability, your customers are, and if you’re not careful they’ll leave you behind. This is what prompted my company, Clarke,  to embark on a journey six years ago to become a sustainable business, although we didn’t know what that would mean or where it would lead.

We seemed an unlikely candidate for environmental leadership: a family-owned company using heavy trucks to spray chemicals that kill mosquitoes. We already were a market leader, respected in our field and our community. Why risk an expensive overhaul, with no clear payoff?

The answer, as it turns out, is that going green was not only a great investment in my community. It was a great investment in my business. 

The desire to transform our business was prompted by shifts in our industry—and in me. Clarke was rolling out its first organic product, an insecticide that targets mosquitoes in their larval stage. It was a new way of tackling an old problem. Around the same time, my wife and I adopted our son, Joseph, from Russia, and I saw how he began to thrive with a healthy diet and good medical care. I wondered how else I could effect such profound change. I wanted my life and my work to have a greater purpose.

So, over the next few years, we redefined Clarke as a public-health company, one that helps communities around the world become more livable, safe and comfortable. A multitude of projects evolved from that broad mission. Along the way, we learned that common concerns of many business owners, such as the cost of sustainability projects and the potential distraction from other goals, are simply unfounded.

The savings we’ve reaped from putting a sustainability filter on everything we do have been dramatic. But what’s more surprising is that the changes are helping us win customers and attract younger workers.

The worst seasonal job in our business used to be driving around neighborhoods in a gas-guzzling truck, treating catch basins and storm drains for mosquitoes. When we got those employees out of the trucks and onto bicycles, they became 50 percent more efficient, and the bicycle routes became the most in-demand summer job at our company. That change allowed us to eliminate 10 to 15 vehicles, about 10 percent of our fleet, which means lower insurance and fuel costs. Where we do need a driver, we try to use a Toyota Prius. Overall, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by 31 percent, saving more than $900,000 over six years.

There are many other examples. Today, nearly half of our energy comes from green power contracts, offsets and renewables; we’ve saved $16,000. Cutting our waste stream by almost 60 percent, by picking up used plastic drums from customers and refilling them, instead of sending them to landfills, and by redesigning shipping containers to use less cardboard, has saved $19,000. Moving to a paperless accounting system saved $28,000 last year alone.

Walmart and other retailers are increasingly evaluating suppliers based on how efficiently they use materials and energy, and by how well they protect watersheds. More farmers are growing organic fruits and vegetables, which can’t be contaminated with conventional pesticides. Watching these trends inspired us to develop an all-organic mosquito-spraying service, the first of its kind.

Our transformation has given us opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be possible for a business of our size. Our purpose, efforts and achievements have allowed us to develop relationships with large multinational companies. By size alone we look like odd collaborators, but we’re aligned on values and innovation. Potential suppliers and collaborators have been impressed when they visit our new facility, and have offered engagement normally reserved for larger partners. We also received a substantial grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to test a novel way to control mosquitoes that transmit malaria—one of the world’s most critical public-health problems.

Finally, to hire and retain the best young people these days, you need to offer them jobs that carry more than just a paycheck. Our employees have led the way throughout this process. For the past two years, Clarke has shut down for a full day, when we all volunteer on environmental projects. When a young employee first suggested that we do this at the height of our busy season, I resisted. But she convinced me that including the hundreds of seasonal employees we hire each summer would help us do more good and would help them understand our mission. Now, our Day of Caring is one of my proudest milestones. Many of our suppliers also have established a volunteer day, so we’ve been able to influence others.

There’s no end to this journey. I’m excited to come to work every day to see what we can do — and I know we’re a stronger enterprise because of what we’ve done.

If you’d like to join me in discussion about sustainability, I would love for you to join me in Cleveland in October for Flourish & Prosper: The Third Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. Vistage will be hosting a special breakfast the morning of October 16.

Click here to register for this special networking opportunity.

Vistage member J. Lyell Clarke, III is the president and CEO of Clarke, a global environmental products and services company founded in 1946 and based in St. Charles, Ill.

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