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Heroes of Sustainability: Bob Willard

Bob Willard, Corporate Straight Shooter

Some people talk the talk about sustainability -- Bob Willard talks it, walks it, and drives it (he has two hybrid vehicles). A longtime businessman, Willard spent 34 years at IBM Canada before becoming a leading expert on corporate sustainability.

With three books under his belt -- The Sustainability Advantage (2002), The Next Sustainability Wave (2005), and The Sustainability Champion's Guidebook (2009) -- Willard is among the best at laying out a clear, actionable plan for business leaders to follow in order to institute more-sustainable policies within their companies.

"Sooner or later, there is a tough message that sustainability champions need to deliver to harried business leaders -- the business game they are playing can't continue, " Willard writes. "It's been fun, but if they keep playing the game the way they are, everyone will lose. "

Delivering that tough message is what Willard has made his mission, and to support it, he's developed hundreds of keynote presentations, numerous webinars, two DVDs, and a Master Slide Set to drive home the point that if we want to have clean air, potable water, nutritious food, and adequate shelter, something has to change in the way corporations do business -- and fast.

Willard's talent is in quantifying and selling the business value of corporate sustainability strategies to CEOs and other C-level personnel. "Executives might think you are trying to convince them that sustainability is a nobler goal than contending with gnarly business issues like complexity, resource scarcity, and talent shortages, " Willard writes. "It's sometimes better to back off and reframe sustainability strategies as enablers of executives' priorities, rather than as another nagging goal to worry about. "

To communicate effectively, Willard uses sales techniques widely successful in business: He talks the language of the decision-makers, meets them where they are, and makes the connection between what they're already doing and what they could be doing. He has a personal commitment to sustainability, having been turned on to the importance of the issue when, after plans surfaced in his community to build a water treatment plant downstream from a nuclear power plant, he realized that those in charge weren't looking out for the well-being of the community members. Since then, environmental issues and taking personal responsibility for making a difference have been at the forefront of his life and work. But even those who haven't caught the sustainability bug the way Willard has would do well to follow the advice he lays out. "The bottom-line payoff comes from increased revenue, innovation, and productivity, as well as risk-mitigation and eco-efficiency cost-savings, " he writes.

For more information about Bob Willard, visit www.sustainabilityadvantage.com, and read an excerpt from The Sustainability Advantage here.

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