Sustainability Helix

Come explore an interesting new way to look at sustainable manufacturing development! Through a partnership with Natural Capitalism Solutions, CMC will customize this comprehensive framework for sustainable business development with the experiences of Chicago area manufacturers.

The Sustainability Helix or The Management Helix for the Sustainable Organization was co-developed by Natural Capitalism Solutions, The Natural Edge Project and Global Academy and is summarized in Chapter 10 of The Natural Advantage of Nations , (Earthscan 2005). We began our partnership with Hunter Lovins and her team at Natural Capitalism Solutions in the fall of 2004. The online web course, Introduction to the Sustainability Helix shows a video overview of the helix, with an explanation by Hunter about how this tool was developed.

The exciting aspect of this partnership will be the expansion of the sustainability helix based on real-life situations of manufacturers who are finding new ways to deal with global competition.

Over the next two years, CMC will offer examples of Chicago companies who exemplify the ongoing commitment to sustainable development that this “sustainability helix” means to us. The power of the sustainability helix is that it gives a fairly easy to understand systems snapshot of the areas of sustainable focus for a company. An overview of the Sustainability Helix describes the basic concepts of steps and activities behind this framework.

Through our ongoing partnership with Natural Capitalism Solutions, a select group of GreenPlants companies will be tracked in the GreenPlants Sustainable Leadership Program . We hope you'll take the time to see how progressive manufacturers are changing business to affect not only Chicago , but the national and international contexts in which we all work today.

• CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
  
  "Chicago Manufacturing Center's partner, Aptium Global, went farther with specifications that I had ever done to ascertain the carbon content of the steel in the inner springs. Lisa Reisman's plan helped offset the post-Katrina price increase for foam."
  
  --Tim Enright, President, Estee Bedding
  
  "Although Aurora Bearing employees have had a lot of exposure to Lean, the Manufacturing Critical Path-time approach was new to us. We are better prepared to balance the production flow and deal with fluctuations in customer needs. The Chicago Manufacturing Center team did a great job. We found the experience very rewarding."
  
  --Jerry Ward, Plant Manager, Aurora Bearing