Achieving Leadership in Environmental R&D

Abstract

Protection of the environment is one of today's clearest societal imperatives. School children are learning about the dangers to the environment, activists are pushing for greater environmental protection, and legislators are creating increasingly tougher controls to reduce environmental damage. The R&D management community is clearly serious about rising to the environmental challenge. In money terms, estimates suggest that over $10 billion is being spent annually in the U.S. on industrial R&D related to environmental issues (1). Reviews of environment-related R&D initiatives of several companies have appeared in the literature (1, 2). The Industrial Research Institute is conducting a multiorganizational research project to identify best practices in organizing and conducting strategic management of environmental R&D. A working group convened by the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA) has concluded that R&D focus is clearly shifting from clean-up technologies to fundamentally cleaner and safer products and processes (3). However, review of the published literature and discussions with numerous R&D directors suggest a significant company-to-company variation in how R&D is approaching environmental considerations. Some are struggling with basic compliance requirements for the R&D laboratories while others are exploring environment-driven innovation opportunities or even leading their corporations to new strategic horizons. Some are focusing their attention solely on clean-up technologies while others are developing new, cleaner alternatives. Five Steps to Take The progression of an R&D laboratory from compliance management to strategic leadership on environmental matters can be described as a five-step evolution: 1. Reactive.--R&D organizations operating on this first level simply develop and implement basic management systems and processes to digest and address the multitude of federal and state environmental regulations specific to R&D facilities. Environmental management is treated as an administrative burden and delegated to a safety and environment manager. The R&D staff is told what to do and what not to do with respect to regulatory requirements. An environmental policy has not yet been developed, or if developed, not widely disseminated. 2. Participative.--At the next stage of evolution, the R&D management and staff are aware of the need to collectively manage the environmental well-being of the facility. Teams are in place to plan and implement such good citizenship programs as waste reduction and recycling, energy management and green alternatives, through facility-wide participation. Awareness and training initiatives are underway to sustain the momentum of the participative efforts. 3. Active.--R&D organizations at this third stage have moved on to establishing an environmental analysis and planning framework for their R&D projects. The management and staff routinely examine the environmental dimensions of all proposed R&D projects before they are undertaken, and regularly review the results from ongoing projects against original assumptions. Management systems such as environmental checklists and stage-gate analyses are in place to institutionalize the planning and review processes. 4. Innovative.--At this advanced stage of progression, the R&D organization is actively seeking out innovation opportunities in environmentally-friendly products, processes and services. Unlike the organizations in the active stage, those in the innovative stage place high priority on generating promising, environmentally-driven R&D project ideas. The R&D director has the explicit or implicit support n of some business unit managers for this opportunity search. The staff is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the potential for such contributions. 5. Leadership. …

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