Tod Arbogast, Director of Sustainability at Dell, was described at Sustainable Brands 2009 on Monday as “a bright light of sustainability. With Dell’s recent success in reducing its carbon footprint and ARM Research award for leadership in sustainability, what can others learn from the company?

The Business Case for Going Green
Arbogast spent some time discussing the business case for going green. Some of the key points he made included:

It is good business: Investing in efficiencies and renewable energy is great for business from an operational perspective. By optimizing their consumption of fuel, Dell reduced costs and shrunk their carbon footprint. Kevin Hagen, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility for REI, echoed this sentiment—by focusing on their transportation infrastructure, REI has saved a quarter of a million dollars in transportation costs over the past 18 months.

Driving customer requirements: Dell is seeing an increase in customers who pay attention to green issues. Customers are requesting more efficient data centers and products. If they don’t respond to these needs and work to solve their customer’s problems, they can’t compete. A key issue he raised is the need to pay attention to the millennial generation because they are acutely aware of green. “And they are our future consumers, employees and regulators.”

Intangibles: He also spoke of the softer benefits, such as risk avoidance and attracting the best employees. Companies with a commitment to sustainability attract the best and brightest talent and can avoid risks to their brand value.

Tips: Lessons Learned from Dell
Arbogast offered the following tips for implementing a successful sustainability plan:

Engage with stakeholders

Prioritize issues

Develop internal partners to implement programs

Stitch it all together into a sustainable brand

Develop an aspirational goal to inspire and guide your work

Be authentic: report verifiable and true data

Empower your customers: Help customers understand the complexity of

sustainability and attempt to clarify the confusion around labels

Challenges Moving Ahead
What keeps Arbogast up at night? Top on his list of concerns is that regulation is going to force his industry to implement a carbon-based label that will add layers of complexity and cost, but not be a product differentiator nor change consumer purchasing behavior.

Deborah Fleischer is the principal and founder of sustainability consulting firm Green Impact