Case Analysis: Sustainability at Millipore Introduction: Millipore Corporation is a provider of tools, services and technologies for pharmaceutical development

and research. In 2005, newly appointed CEO Martin Madaus, had the desire to shift Millipore to the path of sustainability. He encouraged David Newman, the director of Millipores Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) department to come up with innovative ways to improve environmental performance at Millipores plants. Serious about Sustainability: In 2007, Madaus drafted a memo to senior management sharing his vision for Millipore to become a more environmentally sustainable company. Citing that government was often too slow to change regulations, he stated Striving to be a sustainable company is partly about responsibility it is simply the right thing to do. With that, Madaus launched a Sustainability Initiative at Millipore appointing Newman as its director. Madaus was serious about sustainability. In his memo he listed several lofty goals: 1) Be carbon neutral in 15 years, 2) Be independent from oil in 25 years, and finally to 3) Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% from 2006 levels within 5 years. He also stated in his memo that he would like to use the absolute target for GHG reduction rather than the intensity target. This meant that he wanted to reduce emissions to a certain level by a certain date regardless of growth or change within Millipore. Initial Success: Newman and his team had some initial success with some low-hanging fruit sustainability initiatives. These included facility operations such as upgrading lighting systems, adding energy-efficient lamps, and fixing leaks in manufacturing plants compressed air systems. Other initiatives included replacing disposable cutlery in the cafeteria with washable ceramics and changing fleet vehicles to provide electric or hybrid alternatives. However, these minimal investment short term solutions were becoming few and far between. Newmans decision to provide the metrics about Millipores annual GHG emissions for the Carbon Disclosure Project was an important decision; it showed employees, investors and customers that Millipore was being honest and open about its effect on the environment. Sustainability Obstacles: Although the sustainability initiative had a good start, there were some obstacles. Madaus stated that Millipore wanted to double its business within 5 years and that sustainability would be part of that growth. The problem here is that with growth comes the increasing size of the carbon footprint. How can sustainability and growth projects be accomplished simultaneously? Another issue was that Newmans sustainability staff consisted mainly of volunteer members working in their spare time on sustainability projects. This would pose a problem if interest in sustainability faded and other growth projects pushed sustainability efforts to the back burner. It also seemed that Newman was stretched too thin, heading up both the EHS department, whose function it was to ensure compliance with government regulations at Millipore, and the sustainability initiative. In addition, Newmans Director of Sustainability position was reorganized and positioned 3 levels below the CEO level, giving Madaus less insight into what was going on with the sustainability effort. When Madaus presented his memo, some executives were hesitant of the costs that would follow with a plan for long-term sustainability within Millipore. It was going to be hard to convince some of these managers to invest in sustainability whilst having to achieve other targets of growth. Recommendations: Sustainability is not something that can be done as a set of skunk works projects. It is something that needs structure, funding and goals just like a new project created by R&D. The recommendation is that Madaus create a dedicated sustainability department with an executive level position for a Chief of Sustainability directly reporting to him so that he has direct access to the projects in that department. As part of the sustainability initiative, the dedicated department should setup a Process Excellence Program across all of the other organizations at Millipore. This program would help identify processes that could become more sustainable and help departments create a path to get there. Millipore should also create a hiring program for sustainability so that employees with sustainable values are hired in all departments. In addition, the sustainability team could provide training programs for sustainability throughout the company. It is also recommended that Millipore stay away from purchasing carbon offsets to help the company meeting aggressive GHG targets. It would simply send the message that Millipore was trying to buy their way to sustainability. In closing, Madaus needs to make some bold moves, this would help send the message that Millipore means business about environment sustainability.