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Building Green in a Black and White World-- Chapter 4

The following is an exerpt from the book Building Green in a Black and White World. Section 2; Chapter 4; Part 1; Introduction to Chapter 4

David Ritchey Johnston
January 1, 1900
HousingZone

Unless an organization sees that its task is to lead change, that organization (whether a business, a university, or a hospital) will not survive. In a period of rapid structural change the only organizations that survive are the "change leaders." It is therefore a central 21st century challenge for management that its organization become a change leader. --Peter Drucker, "Change Leaders," Inc. Magazine, June 1999, from Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Harper Collins, 1999.

Becoming a green company is an opportunity to add value to your company by incorporating some of the strategies used by Fortune 100 companies to align their vision with their businesses and increase their bottom line. Corporate America has been undergoing a quiet revolution for a decade, and since then, the United States has become the most productive nation in the world.

Management consultants like Peter Drucker have led the charge by guiding CEOs through the process of change. He now instructs them in how to become change leaders. Green builders are the change leaders in the building industry. By keeping one eye to the future and the other on the bottom line, you can learn how to do better business while creating a new market niche for your company.

Building a green company involves more than just using green products. For a green company to be successful and capture the market, all the employees and trades people need to buy-in to the green program and actively participate in it. One essential factor in achieving buy-in is to create a vision for your company. From the vision you create a mission statement, which establishes a framework for making decisions. Your mission statement is the glue that will hold the company together through time and employee turnover.

Continue to Creating the Vision