Check out Harvard Business Review’s latest blog, “Should Sustainability Have a Seat in the C-Suite?” – co-authored by MontaRosa’s own Rupert Davis and Eric McNulty.

June 2010: Private equity firms show $1B valuation increase in portfolio companies through sustainability efficiency program. A recent collaboration between a top five private equity firm and an environmental NGO has produced a portfolio valuation increase greater than $1B ($150M annual earnings increase/cost savings on 7x earnings multiple), from only a dozen companies. The sustainability cost cutting...

Forty years ago the first Earth Day was declared in San Francisco. From the point of view of avoiding dangerous climate change the prognosis is dire (just reading the latest, non-politicized, consensus science from such places as Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, Beijing, Tokyo and Copenhagen Universities is utterly frightening). Still, looking at where we are now compared to where we were then, there has been...

It seems that one thing you can always count on is that things get faster. Ever since the emergence of time-based competition, businesses have pushed for speed. Now one global company, the giant Danish shipping firm Maersk, is betting on slow. As reported in the New York Times, shipping quickly across the ocean burns a lot of fuel – driving up costs – which in turn increases the negative environmental...

So there I was, fortunate to be surrounded by an impressive array of sustainability professionals from top Bay area and Silicon Valley companies and others, including MontaRosa’s Sustainability Practice Head, Rupert Davis. Many had C-level titles while others were leading nascent green/energy/environmental initiatives at their companies. We had gathered in San Jose, CA, to attend the recent Executive...

BAE Systems, the global defense, security and aerospace firm, is searching for a Director, Energy Management. I was intrigued to read the beginning of the job description for this senior position: Working closely with potential customers and end users, identify, develop, and execute programs to provide for the energy management needs of defense, government, and commercial organizations, including monitoring...

I just got back from COP15, the Copenhagen climate talks. Despite all the rhetoric and the mighty PR push at the end to try and give the appearance of success it is quite clear that the talks failed. The essential issue, one that is being disguised by the PR efforts of various governments who wish to point the finger for the failure elsewhere, is that the U.S. will not come close to matching Europe’s...

Recently I attended a conference hosted by the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF) at the Institute for International Education in New York. I can’t remember the last time I was in a room with so many smart, and driven women (well, and a few men!). Much of the work we do in executive search and leadership consulting at MontaRosa involves sustainability and chief sustainability officers...

Chief Sustainability Officer is suddenly a term that is popping up all over the business media. Yet while awareness is growing about the CSO role and what it’s meant to do, some questions remain: where are good CSOs found? And what, for that matter, does good look like? Unlike established C-level roles the blueprint is not set for CSOs. Nor is it possible to find many candidates who have, say, ten...

The emergence of the new role of Chief Sustainability Officer signals the elevation of sustainability to a central strategic concern in the executive suites of leading companies in the United States. The majority of U.S. companies, however, still mistakenly see sustainability as an additional cost rather than a revenue driver. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Executed correctly a sustainability...