Green CPA Looks Forward to the Future

Today I had the privilege of talking with Brian Setzler, MBA, CPA, and Co-Founder of TriLibrium, a “green CPA” firm in Portland, OR. The “tri” in TriLibrium stands for triple bottom line and the “librium” stands for equilibrium. To learn more, read their Story on their website.

Here are just a few things I got out of my meeting with Brian that you might want to apply to your business:

Look forward to the future. Brian says that traditional CPAs spend 80% of their time looking back and reporting what already happened. One of the key things that sets TriLibrium apart is that they encourage their clients to spend 80% of their time looking forward at what they can improve in the future. Once decisions are made and the bills are paid, you can’t do too much to change the past. TriLibrium encourages their clients to think about their strategy and spending going forward and what they can do to become a more sustainable company.

Get rid of the garbage. This sounds unthinkable for most businesses because most Americans have a throw-away mentality. Brian showed me a paper bag in the closet that’s there for emergency just in case something is no longer useful and can’t be recycled. The only thing in the bag that day was a small piece of plastic film from some packaging. When someone goes to the garbage in the closet, they joke with each other that it’s “the walk of shame.” In their kitchen area you won’t find any disposable cups. They’re all the real thing.

Replace garbage cans with recycle bins. If we all focused on producing less garbage and separating the garbage we did make, our landfill growth rate might slow down a bit. Replace the garbage cans in your office with recycle bins for paper, aluminum, glass, batteries, and any other common items regularly consumed by employees and your business processes.

Involve employees in shaping the company. TriLibrium employees don’t feel oppressed with a lean and green work environment. They all have a say in defining the company. Below is a collage they put together with words and photos that describing their ideal company. So it’s no coincidence that TriLibrium employees get a weekly massage by a masseuse in the same building.

See the bike in the picture? TriLibrium gives clients a bus ticket if they come to the TriLibrium office by bike or bus. Even clients partake in minimizing TriLibrium’s carbon footprint.

One of the other few works of art in the office is a painting entitled “Accounting Services for a Sustainable World” done by one of the employees, André Furin. Teachers take pride in their student’s work in K-12 schools every day, but this is usually where it ends. Why not include employee works of art demonstrating your company values?

Keep things simple.  The office has a courtyard entry from the center of the building. The courtyard includes a few large potted trees and a few chairs. When I entered TriLibrium’s second-floor office, I felt a sense of spaciousness and clarity. Because it’s a courtyard office, they’re able to light their office with a lot of natural light. There’s no place for clutter here, just the essentials. I really got the sense that I was in a business with focus where people not only believe in the work they do, but also enjoy it. One of the keys to sustainability is to weed out things that don’t serve a clear purpose. Brian believes in transparency and authenticity and he helps his clients achieve these goals. Brian is a graduate of Bainbridge Graduate Institute and now serves as a staff member going back once a month to teach. “It’s a great place to make connections,” he says.

Become a B Corporation. When a company earns the status of a B Corporation, they’re making a public statement that they’re committed to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

Use the GRI Reporting Framework. If you’re serious about sustainability, use the Global Reporting Initiative Reporting Framework to measure and report on the economic, environmental, and social performance of your company.

Say no. Brian invited me to check out their conference room, primarily lit by natural light, well as much as you can get in Portland, anyway. This March day happened to be unusually sunny for the green city which is usually covered by grey skies this time of year. The EnduraWood conference table is made of sunflower seeds, wood pulp and natural resins. One of the few things on the conference table was a copy of their 2009 Sustainability Report. I asked if I could have a copy and he very politely told me that they only printed ten copies, but I was welcome view the report on their website.

“We do very little printing in this office,” Brian said. “We only used three reams of paper our first year in business. When you hear the printer running in our office, you know it’s something that really must be printed.”

TriLibrium helps their clients develop business plans and strategies. Their typical client is a small to medium size company with under $10 million in revenue.

Keep up with the latest news and tips from Brian on his Green CPA blog.

Caution: Your Measures May Be Terminal

When I was growing up, I remember seeing signs on McDonald's saying "50 million served" or something like that, and years later seeing "over a billion served." It's logical to assume that if that many people have been served, then they must be providing a something that keeps people coming back. If their success measure is to continue to grow the number served, then they are succeeding by their own definition.

As a child, I remember crying when I had to eat something from McDonald's. The rubbery hamburgers, paper-like buns and greasy fries never sat well with me. To this day, I don't understand why people eat there, especially after the movie Supersize Me came out.

In my world of values and measures, McDonald's is not successful. Although they may be filling a short-term hunger need, they really don't have their customer's long-term health interest written into the vision and heart of their business. It's a major flaw of many major companies such as Pepsi, Coke, Marlboro, and even Starbucks. I say this even though I'm a big Starbucks fan. I go in for the coffee of the day and the great atmosphere. They've created a culture where customers hold the door open for each other and chat in line. People meet up with friends and tap their feet to good tunes. That doesn't happen just anywhere!

How do you know if you're providing good products and service? If you're organization is in growth mode and your profits are stable or increasing, then you're probably providing a fairly good offering relative to your competition. Companies who don't establish the right success measures, aligned with their vision and mission, simply don't grow. They die, sooner or later.

Smart companies seek customer feedback and continuously improve the customer experience. Many customers are very willing to offer feedback, if the company cares enough to ask. It's easy and inexpensive to ask for customer feedback. A few questions on a postcard or sheet of paper that costs a few cents to produce, may bring in priceless ideas. I believe that every company ought to offer to their customers at least one simple way to provide feedback on paper, on-line or both.

Feedback and measures influence behavior and build culture in businesses, families, churches and in societies. A parent who loved sports as a child may keep mental score on their own children, by bragging about how active their kids are. Another parent may pressure their kids to get a good highschool GPA. A church with a mission of winning souls may track their number of baptisms, a measure of people entering eternal life. China's one-child policy launched in the 1970s resulted in abortions, female infanticide and imbalances in the boy-girl sex ratio. Measures can be deadly!

Healthy companies have smart measures that encourage cooperation, good flow and growth. Unhealthy companies have measures that stifle their people and the body of employees feels the pain and stress. Unhealthy companies also lack measures where they need them. Any company that doesn't have an effective customer feedback system in place is doing business in the dark and puts itself at risk of finding its name on these types of sites:

• Complaints.com
• Better Business Bureau
• Complaints Board
• The Squeaky Wheel
• Federal Trade Commission

Attorneys track their caseload and their billable hours. Authors measure their success by the number of books or articles they've published. Magazines boast about their circulation. Churches track the number of members and their weekly tithe collection. Couples talk about the square footage of their home or their combined household income. Accountants talk about net worth. Individuals are often judged by their age. In January, the number one New Year's Resolution of Americans is a personal weight goal.

Measures and related activities need to change over time. What gets an individual or organization to one level may not get it to the next level or the next.

Toastmasters International has measures that define their distinguished clubs: number of members, number of new certifications and so on. The measures help to ensure that the members meet their speaking goals. This keeps the clubs alive and the organization increasing in number. Members become equipped to make a difference in their communities. This is a hard thing to measure, but Toastmasters just recently upgraded their website to feature member success stories and to automate their shopping cart. This is a great organization and I believe that it has been so successful because of the measures that they've put in place and adjusted over time.

How do you measure your success?

What measures are most important to you?

What feedback measures do you have in place?