CENTER FOR BUSINESS
AS AN AGENT OF WORLD BENEFIT

Culture change in an organization can be actuated through multitude of business strategies- redesigning the organization chart, articulating a renewed mission or revamping the human resource practices. But Alberici Corportaion chose to define and communicate its values through what it does best- constructing buildings. By designing a building that is a manifestation of the company’s message of environmental sensitivity, the organization has not only contributed to a greener planet but has accumulated savings for itself and created a productive, healthy and motivated workforce.

The third largest cement manufacturer in the world, CEMEX, decided it needed to move from selling materials to selling solutions. Using low fixed prices, materials on credit, pre-costed housing designs, and supervised construction services for Mexicans, CEMEX developed its "Patrimonio Hoy" program to make housing affordable and possible for 70,000 of the poor in Mexico.

Deep Water Ventures’ president, Brad Ives, has turned his interests in wood, sailing and ecology into a thriving business. The company is committed to forest stewardship and the method of selective cutting, which preserves a forest’s biodiversity, provides long-term benefits to the local population, and generates profit without adversely affecting the region’s ecosystem. By association with an independent agency that carefully monitors logging operations, the company can assure its customers that the product they are purchasing comes from sustainable forests.

KBA, a landscape architecture and environmental design firm, practices “restorative redevelopment.” This holistic approach calls for reclaiming and renewing existing property, and promotes economic development, sustainable design and ecological restoration. The company encourages learning from past practices in order to improve planning and land development.

Modine Manufacturing, a leader in heat-transfer-component technology, offers an innovative approach to the advancement of fuel cell technology – a popular alternative to fossil fuels. Internally, the company has been committed to the fuel cell research for the last five years. Externally, Modine helps other companies to utilize this technology and realize its commercialization. The effort has already yielded developmental partnership with Ballard, a joint venture of Daimler Chrysler, Ballard Power Systems, and Ford Motor Co. with the mission to develop, manufacture, and commercialize fuel-cell.

Noisette, a property development company, committed to triple bottom line principles, uses an integrated approach to engage community members in its development projects. Their innovative perspective: they see themselves as building sustainable communities, rather than merely developing property investments. Using this model, they have successfully developed an entire island.

Sustainability in architectural design is what fuels the creativity at Ten Directions Design. By employing practices like Not-So-Big House Approach, Sustainable Design, and Indoor Air Quality, the firm lives up to its name, taken from the ten directions of Buddha Land described in one of the principal works of Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra. The name implies multidimensionality and thus refers to the three-dimensional nature of this ‘green’ architectural firm’s work. Combining the analysis of a house with an understanding of the needs of the client, the firm creates a space that is a delight for the client and is friendly to the environment.

The ‘ethic of recycling’ at its best may look like the business model of TerraMai- reclaiming wood from demolished buildings, processing it, and selling it to be used in the construction of new structures. Identifying the opportunity created by a demand of the size and type of wood that is fast vanishing from the face of earth, TerraMai is not only flourishing as a business but contributing to the efforts of saving the depleting forests.

William McDonough & Partners are architects who design buildings and communities worldwide that tell stories of sun, wind, water that surrounds them and of the people who inhabit them. Using a creative balance of nature and culture, they strive to create a sustainable environment that honors the relationship between the human community and the nature that surrounds them.