New CD Set 'Ecological Awareness' Helps Wal-Mart Explain Sustainability

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Though the use of LCA as a sustainability-benchmarking tool is rapidly spreading, the technique, importance, and meaning of it all remain unclear to many companies.

Northampton, MA (PRWEB) November 19, 2009

Wal-Mart has pledged to address the sustainability of every aspect of its business - from the energy-efficiency of stores to greening the supply chains that produce their private brands. But what does it mean to 'green' supply chains - and how do you tell with certainty which products are ecologically better than others, and in which areas? Wal-Mart is answering these questions in part by giving all its private brand suppliers a CD comprised of edits from the series 'Ecological Awareness' released by More Than Sound Productions (http://www.morethansound.net), to explain emerging consumer awareness through a process called life-cycle assessment (LCA) - a discipline of industrial ecology fast becoming the international standard to truly assess the environmental impact of a product, process, or company.

Though the use of LCA as a sustainability-benchmarking tool is rapidly spreading, the technique, importance, and meaning of it all remain unclear to many companies. 'Ecological Awareness' explains LCA and sustainability through a series of dialogues between Daniel Goleman, author of 'Ecological Intelligence', and industrial ecologists Dara O'Rourke(of the consumer awareness site GoodGuide), Greg Norris(of the open-source LCA platform Earthster), and health researcher Michael Lerner(of the cancer center Commonweal).

The dialogues with O'Rourke and Norris are in-depth primers on the specifics of consumer awareness and LCA. More Than Sound offered a streamlined version of the series to Wal-Mart that includes only what is most relevant to enhancing business understanding of sustainability efforts. The result is the introductory, made-for-business audio series, 'The Radical Horizon: A Primer on Business Sustainability', (http://www.morethansound.net/The-Radical-Horizon.php) given to all Wal-Mart's private brand suppliers.

More Than Sound co-released a download entitled 'Leading the Necessary Revolution: Building Alignment in Your Business for Sustainability'. Featuring Peter Senge, MIT lecturer and Founding Chair of the Society for Organizational Learning, 'Leading the Necessary Revolution' offers sage advice and proven methods to advance sustainability initiatives within any organization. As Senge explained recently in an interview with BusinessWeek, "This is a huge challenge for people in companies, because so many companies are dominated by short-term perspective and because lots of people in key positions simply aren't very good or don't care very much about the bigger picture. Watch how the decisions are made. Are they thinking of the value of the company 10 years after they retire, or are they thinking about the value of their stock options this year?" To work with existing mentalities, Senge introduces relational intelligence and methods for bridging assumptions and getting the right people on board. 'Leading the Necessary Revolution' (http://www.morethansound.net/Leading-the-Necessary-Revolution.php) explains the use of relational intelligence and other proven strategies to champion sustainability within one's organization.

Lyon Graulty from More Than Sound explains how these projects came about. "Given our mission of supporting collective growth, it's only fitting that our products help business get on board with sustainability. People need these tools to evolve and meet environmental challenges. 'Ecological Intelligence', written by Daniel Goleman, one of our lead contributors, provided the basis for these audio series, and we're really excited that it's catching on."

More information on these products as well as the rest of the More than Sound product line-up can be found at http://www.morethansound.net.

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