United States (English)

FedEx and Esty Environmental Partners join with 12 Leading Companies to Develop New Management Systems and Tools for Corporate Sustainability

What are the state-of-the-art approaches for environmental management and corporate sustainability? Strengthening FedEx long-established efforts at innovation and collaboration, FedEx is joining with Esty Environmental Partners and 14 leading companies to form the Sustainability Innovators Working Group and bring sustainability strategy and execution to a new level.

The Innovators Working Group will generate new management tools and models for business in incorporating sustainability more deeply into business strategy and corporate practice. In addition, each company will be able to apply the best practices from this collaboration within their own organizations to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in their operations,and to better identify and develop related opportunities for innovation and growth.

Members, along with FedEx, include a diverse combination of some of the world’s best companies, recognized for their advanced work in sustainability practices: IBM, Boeing, CH2M Hill, Coca-Cola, Delhaize Group, Disney, Diversey, Dow Chemical Company, Johnson & Johnson, Shaklee, Unilever, Wal-Mart, and Xerox.

A starting point for the group’s work will be the recently published Harvard Business Review article (May 2010), The Sustainability Imperative, written by Dan Esty and David Lubin, EEP Senior Adviser and Chairman of the Innovators program. This piece argues that companies need to have both a clear vision and a strategy for execution to deliver sustainability value, such as the role FedEx has in sustainability – to connect the world responsibly and resourcefully.