Lean thinking offers a powerful combination of “hard” and “soft” management techniques that have been proven by Toyota and many other organizations.  The answer to the question “what would green look like?” is a specific set of metrics, against which current performance and future goals can be benchmarked.  The metrics are the reference point for all conversations about continuous improvement.  The (so called) “soft” side is the level of collaboration, trust, and honesty in the culture that allows those conversations to be effective. Combining the two, there can be a realistic assessment of what is,  creative imagination of what could be,  collaborative prototyping of new tools and practices, and ongoing performance improvement.

Included in a well designed performance measurement framework, such as a Balanced Scorecard, sustainability initiatives can be linked to impacts on costs, revenues, and profits.  More and more companies, like Dell Computer are actually saving money by reducing their carbon footprint.  With the right metrics, sustainability efforts are going beyond idealism and becoming just good business practice.