"Our Sustainability Goals Are Audacious"

...John Replogle, Burt's Bees at the Net Impact conference in Nov 2007, right when it was announced that Clorox was acquiring his company.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qimwa0mVz2g&feature=related

Even though this is a really long video (68 min), it was very thought-provoking to watch.

Some of the highlights of the video:
Business Mission: Consumers, Communities and Environment
Cultural Mission: "We care"

The company's business model has 2 rings: The outer ring focuses on Health and natural products, humanitarian well-being and environmental sustainability. The inner ring focuses on the company's relationship with the world around: consumers, customers, community, vendors, industry and govt.

By 2020, their goal is to become the greenest personal care company on earth.
Achievement of this goal starts with the engagement of all the employees – everyone has to take action by the ways they live at home and at work.

The company has to take a "Cradle to Cradle" approach to the way they make their products – should be 100% natural and packaging should be post consumer biodegradable

Their goal is to be Carbon free - 100% renewable energy. Today they are 100% carbon offset – buying wind and solar power but it is not direct – they are still plugged into Duke Power which burns coal

Their goal is to have 0% waste to landfill by 2010 and cutting the amount of waste water per unit by 50% which would involve a fundamental re-thinking of how they make their products and how they run their systems

They want to be a green building company: Aspiring to ISO 14001 certification

There is no direct ROI to making the changes. When you define your principles, you measure your ROI in different ways. If you address the People and the Planet, the Bottom Line will follow.

"If we want a new social contract, we need new leadership"

Regarding the Clorox acquisition:

Clorox is valuing Burt's Bees not just for the company , growth and profits but also for its intellectual capital, to help them solve the sustainability issue
Burt's Bees is moving from a $160 million company in U.S. with 385 employees to $4.5 billion in 100 markets and 7000 employees – make a difference. Burt's Bees will become an infectious force for change in Clorox.