Helping corporate communicators and companies move along the road to sustainability with insights, models and advice since 1992

As a strategic consultancy founded on sustainable business principles advanced by Bruce Harrison and his associates, EnviroComm provides insights, models and advice to companies connecting with stakeholders in the era of carbon constraint.

Corporate Sustainability

Traditionally, sustainable development has meant that everything a company does — where it operates, its use of raw materials and fuel, operational pollution, product stewardship that goes from design to reuse — will have minimum or no negative impact now or in the future. Global warming and carbon reduction factors have changed the game. Corporate sustainability now addresses new economic, social and political realities that require adjustment in strategic business decisions and stakeholder engagements.

Corporate Greening 2.0

EnviroComm helps executives solve problems, compete and communicate effectively as they move from current environmental management into the management of climate change and energy issues.

Want a Quiet Checkup of Your Company's Greening Footprint?

An online one-page self-survey could do the trick for you. At no risk to you, you can see where your company stands — and possibly get some insights as to where you need to go — by trying out this scorecard. And, of course, if you want to get into this somewhat deeper, again at the confidential research level, look inside Corporate Greening 2.0 where the climate change/sustainability positions and public statements of 40 companies are reviewed.

CCO Role in Transformation Innovation?

If the CEO needs the entire company to get behind an idea with major money bet on it, whose help does he or she need? Hello, CCO! Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Ready for this? Is it real — or is it P.R.?

While efforts in the professional communications community to define and redefine "public relations" seem eternal, the dissing endures. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

What Do CEOs Admire?: Jeffrey Immelt, GE, on CSR and Ecomagination

In the March 1, 2012, online takeouts from Fortune magazine's annual "most admired" issue, the March 1, 2012 version of the 2012 "most admired" issue of Fortune magazine.here is Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, on CSR and the company's Ecomagination program. Read more.

What Do CEOs Admire?: Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox, on being a good corporate citizen

In Fortune magazine's March 1, 2012 online take-outs from its annual "most admired" issue, Ursula Burns answered several questions about CSR and reputation. Read more.

What Do CEOs Admire?: John Donahoe, CEO, eBay, on sustainable performance and social accountabiility

How do leaders communicate on sustainable business and social responsibility? Here are two of the questions and answers that John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, handled in the March 1, 2012 version of the 2012 "most admired" issue of Fortune magazine. Read more.

Can You Talk Your Boss Out of Pre-Crisis Decision?

Can consultants to leaders, including chief communication officers engaging with CEOs, keep bosses from creating crises? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Risk Perception: Communicator's Role?

Who is neglected in this article from Industry Week about 'risk champions' in the C-suite?

BP Crisis 2010: Update 2012, "BP Makes Amends"

A halo headline in the New York Times for an oil company is not something you expect to see very often. It is especially rare for a company blamed, condemned, excoriated and sued for its role in a disaster that inflicts severe damage, death, economic and environmental pain and suffering. Read Bruce's full article.

My Happy New Year Silent Spring Story

This is personal. One of those new-year-reflection things. It was teed up by a journalist, writing his piece — and maybe later a book — about greening. Read Bruce's full article.

Who's Talking Truth to the Boss? How is it Working?

The riskiness of citing risk in the C-suite is you can get fired for it. Or you can compromise yourself and your truth-telling principles by overlooking the boss' moves to silence a complaint. Or you can isolate yourself when the chief makes a lame comment in public that wasn't in the plan. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Where the Eye of an Icon Began: Harold Burson's Nuremberg Scripts

It's been said that journalists, men and women who work as on-the-scene reporters, serve a purpose higher than current informing; they provide the first drafts of enduring history. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Information vs. Defamation: Impact of Courtroom Communication

Why does the legal fight between BP and Halliburton remind me of Kramer vs. Kramer? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Subsistence Diets for CEOs, Politicians & Aardvarks

Frank Bruni in Sunday's New York Times makes an interesting comparison between politicians and aardvarks. You can't expect a person running for office to put aside his talking points, Bruni says, because "that's like asking an aardvark to go easy on the ants. A species can't be denied its subsistence diet." Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

VICTORY: Seven Traits of Business Leaders

Leaders like to win. In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins found the one-two winning combination for building a company's enduring greatness: a fierce, professional will and a comfortable, personal humility.Read Bruce's full article.

CCO as Advocate for C-Suite Openness

"Quick, boss, you need to apologize!" Are these the first words out of the mouth of the chief communication officer when the CEO owns up to personal accountability for a negative situation?Read Bruce's full article.

Nokia CEO Shows a Trait that a CCO Has to Love: Sisu

The CEO who metaphorically jumped off a burning platform into a dark and uncertain sea earlier this year has come up for air. He holds aloft a smartphone, the product that he says is a symbol of the answer to save his company, and he's very compelling. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Are Digitizing Executives Their Own Whistle Blowers?

While journalists and the public are poring through 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin's e-mails, corporate communicators may well be asking, could it happen with us? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Can You Counsel With Your Mouth Shut?

Chet Burger, one of the great corporate counselors of our time, told me at least 30 years ago that if I wanted to win the confidence of a potential client, I needed to talk less and listen more. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Leadership Ambiguity (Otellini, Intel)

Ambiguous messages can backfire. On the other hand, a lot of corporate executives love ambiguity. Making decisions that allow flexibility or wiggle room are fairly common in business, just as they are in the legal profession, and ambiguity is a natural opening move in legal negotiations. Read Bruce's full article.

Must CCO's be Cassandra at the C-Suite Table?

The Coast Guard report on blame for the Gulf oil spill reaffirms a crisis verity: somewhere in the story there's almost always the revelation that two organizational factors ? company culture and leadership communications ? are significant elements in achieving workplace safety and product reliability. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Are We There Yet? New BP Leader Faces the Slippery Slope

A company's stakeholders, particularly its investors, must seem to some chief executives like the pesky kids in the backseat asking the universal question, "Are we there yet?" BP's chief executive, Robert Dudley, knows his backseat of passengers and critics are not only asking if the giant oil company is back on safer ground after the disaster in the Gulf. They're asking, are you the guy to get us there? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Wisdom of Unorthodox Communications

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's now-widely publicized letter to employees prompts three questions. What was he thinking? Was it an effective letter? And did he have help from a professional communicator? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Is Time the Enemy of Truth for Business Communicators?

The New York Times ombudsman reveals how the Gray Old Lady, America's archetype of reliable journalism, was burned when she stepped across the digital divide on January 8 to deliver information on the Tucson shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Shrink Your Message to Nine Seconds?

Story in Boston Globe says politicians need to spit it out. They say sound bites have to shrink to nine seconds. Politicians have to say it fast, clean, clear. They have to figure out what works with voters. Same for corporate communicators? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

The CCO, Beyond Firefighting...Managing and Imagining Risk

The rising challenge of risk managing — the conflicts inherent in balancing stakeholder support, competitive pressure and government oversight with the value of taking risk in any business — is a corporate communicator's call to arms. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Is the Fed Leading Public Perception Toward Distrust?

Should an anxious stakeholder be given less information? All the rules and evidence available to corporate communicators confirm the opposite. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Did BP's Chief Deserve A 'Slams Media' Headline?

If it bleeds, it leads. And if the news media are the bloodied, even superficially, you've got yourself a surefire headline. Did Dudley earn the reaction? Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

What Have We Learned from the Ordeal of Crises?

Government gets it. Companies don't get it. What is "it"? The lesson of the BP oil saga, as judged by the New York Times' editorial, entitled "What Have They Learned?", suggests that Federal regulators will do a better job in future deep water drilling crises. When it comes to industry, the Times is not so sure. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Is Your Next Boss a Senator-to-Be?

In the rise of business executives as battlers for political office, Kimberley Strassel writes in the Wall Street Journal (Why Business Bashing Has Flopped, 9/24/10, page A21) that anti-Washington candidates are perceived as preferable to anti-business policy makers. Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

The CCO Advantage When the Boss Writes the Crisis Playbook

If you're the CCO when a crisis hits your company, what would you think if the CEO called you into his office to remind you to be open, straight-forward and transparent? To bring him the bad as well as the good news and to shut down anybody who tries to dissemble or hide the truth? You might leave thinking, "He sounds a lot like Arthur Page. Is he for real?" Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Culture Cohesion Requires Front-Line Attention

Rick Wartzman, who keeps alive the Peter Drucker management flame at Claremont University's Drucker Institute, raised in a Bloomberg Businessweek column the need to empower workers at the lowest level possible with both "autonomy and accountability." Read Bruce's full article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

The CCO Talks to Power: An Imagined Message Unheard?

Years ago, I wrote some plays. In the theater of my head, I'm seeing the CCO's possible conversation with the CEO, in the office, door closed, maybe after hours, early in the game that became a crisis: "Okay, boss, you depend on me to be smart for you on at least two things — the way information about you and the company flows — and the perceptions of our critical stakeholders." Read the entire article at the Arthur W. Page Society "Page Turner" blog.

Excuse me, professor, but would you say again what a culture counselor does?

"By serving as a 'culture counselor' and a conservator of corporate character to the CEO, demonstrating how a strong corporate culture shapes corporate reputation, and a leading voice in the C-suite, CCOs can use the culture-reputation nexus to align a company's workplace with its marketplace."
— From the Arthur W. Page Society slide on CCO role March 2010

Three Phases of Corporate Crisis Communications

There are three phases of corporate crisis communications: pre-crisis, crisis and post-climax.

Anticipating the Day When the Oil Crisis Reaches its Climax

In novels and the theater, the climax is the point at which escalating tension is relieved. Hamlet dies (apologizing). Burt Lancaster survives the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Boy finds girl at the top of the Empire State building. So, when will the gushing oil crisis reach climax? Don't look for it this week. Read Bruce's full article.

Remembering PR Legend Betsy Plank

I mailed the April birthday card to Betsy last month. We always exchanged cards. Our birthdays were both in April. I was not expecting one from her this time, knowing her condition. But it felt right, reaching out to her, letting her know her Bama friend and follower and admirer would absolutely never forget her. On the wall in my library there's a plaque. It says I won the Betsy Plank award for public relations achievement a few years ago. Well, Betsy, I followed, you favored and I along with a whole lot of folks in rooms and schools and corporate halls are winners for having known you. Thank you, Ron; your tribute touched our hearts and Betsy would have brushed it off and, I know, loved it. Read full article at culpwrit.com

Laurie's Lift of Earth Day

The date was April 22, 1970. Marilyn Laurie had helped New York City launch its first Earth Day. She could not have dreamed that the event she volunteered to publicize would make her the co-founder of an enduring international institution, and would put her on a personal career path as a corporate communications leader. Read Bruce's full article.

Business Roundtable's 2010 Sustainability Report: "Enhancing Our Commitment to a Sustainable Future"

Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 12 million employees. Member companies are committed to working with policymakers, NGOs and consumers to make their communities stronger and more sustainable. Enhancing Our Commitment to a Sustainable Future explains what they are doing to promote better business and a better world.

Sustainability Means Competitiveness

Three interdependent business factors — financial/economic, social/environmental, and political/government — must be combined to motivate companies to the practical application of carbon reduction and corporate sustainability. Read Bruce's full article.

Corporate Greening Checklist: 10 Points for 2010

Corporate greening moves up on corporate agendas as the economy strengthens and government pushes for private sector action. Here are 10 points, or reminders, for chief communications officers for 2010...and beyond.

Green Game Changes in Corporate Communications

As we edge away from what Time magazine called "the decade from Hell" and plant our feet on more favorable, if not exactly heavenly, economic grounds, communicators in C-suites will need to rethink their corporate greening options and reputation. Read Bruce's full article.

Ready for Your First Twitter Crisis?

Welcome to the world of Twitter, where everything you've relied on in corporate communications has been given racing wheels. Old crises peak faster, often hotter, engaging far more people, both important and not, and they take for granted that chief communications officers today are capable and already in the game. How will you manage your first Twitter crisis? Read Bruce's full article.

What's the next frontier in corporate greening?

Book-beat blogger Wayne Hurlbert recently asked CORPORATE GREENING 2.0 author Bruce Harrison what's ahead for companies and what stakeholders are expecting related to sustainability. Here are excerpts of the interview.

Executive Visibility Strategist

News and insights for managing your executive visibility initiatives, published quarterly by the Arthur W. Page Society in partnership with the Catchpole Corporation. For more on forums and organizations mentioned, visit the "Executive Visibility Resources" section on the Members-only tab of the Page Society Web site.

Corporate communications and government relations must align to engage stakeholders

Sharp, effective communications to manage the perceptions of stakeholders must wrap around the company's government relationships. That's the message in Bruce Harrison's remarks at the Arthur W. Page Society. Comments came after he received the Society's 2009 distinguished service award, which recognizes public relations pros who have helped to build and nurture the profession.
Read Harrison's Acceptance Speech.
Visit the Arthur W. Page Society Distinguished Award announcement

Green Career Advice:
Who would have thought, say five years ago, there would be a PR job in carbon capture advocacy?

The already broad scope of green careers is widening . Read more in Bruce's commentary on veteran communications professional Ron Culp's exciting, content-rich site that helps young people prepare for success in public relations careers, www.culpwrit.com/?p=410.

Bruce's GreenWatch:
Green jobs aplenty in stimulus and proposed budget

PolitiFact.com maintains a watch on "green jobs" to be created as the result of Administration initiatives. For an immediate current update, click here.