Spotlights

Faculty Spotlight - Robert Hooker

USF marketing professor studies sustainable solutions

Rob Hooker examined corporate attitudes toward sustainability and its implementation.

"Sustainability" has become a catchphrase in business with the rise in public environmental consciousness. But the truth is, for a company to be truly sustainable, it takes more than just the corporate equivalent of turning off the lights before leaving the house.

Companies tout themselves as being sustainable, and consumers want convenient products that don't contribute to the decline of the environment. But what does being a "sustainable" business actually mean? And how do companies go about being more sustainable, not only in their own business but through their entire supply chain?

Those were some of the relevant questions that Marketing Assistant Professor Rob Hooker and his fellow researchers sought to answer with a study recently published in the Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, which looked at the drivers and barriers to sustainable purchasing and supply chain management. Hooker is one of the marketing faculty members involved in the new Center for Supply Chain Management & Sustainability at USF.

"We have to have an understanding of how sustainability impacts supply chains," he said. "Getting companies to think in terms of having a thread and culture of sustainability is critical."

A host of companies along the supply chain, from suppliers to the final distributor, need to adhere to sustainable business practices for the end product or company to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. And it's not just a local or national problem, but a global one. For instance, crude oil is shipped from one country, refined in another country, then returned to the original country as gasoline sold to consumers. Over the long term, the supply chain partners could have a discussion about whether there is a more cost effective and sustainable way to handle that production process, which would benefit everyone.

Although many companies say they want to be sustainable, the startup cost to do so is high, and without incentives, many companies just choose to forgo attempts at sustainability altogether.

"Unless it's just got the innate support of being driven top-down by top level management or the government, right now companies don't seem to be of the mindset of adopting these sustainable business practices, which may be partly due to the economy," Hooker said.

But he also noted that when companies choose to ignore sustainable practices, they also forgo the benefits that come along with them, such as reduced waste, improved costs, and improved public opinion. Trying to weigh the long-term benefits of increasing sustainability versus the short-term cons of higher costs becomes confusing for organizations.

"Adopting sustainable business practices can actually save money in the long-term," he said.

Going forward, Hooker hopes to further a dialogue between companies within their industries as to how the entire system can be more sustainable. He said he thinks the biggest impetuses to that conversation will be CEO-supported sustainability initiatives, government regulations for environmental protection, and consumer buying power.

But, he stressed, there is potential for CEO initiatives and government regulations to create problems as well as solutions by handing down mandates that may not work well in everyday business. The first step toward sustainability starts with a conversation between all parties on how best to move forward, he said.

"We can't just be paying lip service to this issue," he said. "We need to strive for actionable, measurable results."

Despite those barriers to sustainability, he said it's something companies need to look at now in order to prevent undesirable future outcomes.

Obviously, no one wants to live in a landfill. Hooker said he and his fellow researchers hope to spark corporate consciousness by asking the questions presented in their study.

Chief supply chain officers and chief procurement officers from major global companies were involved in this study — companies whose drugs are widely prescribed, who make the energy the public uses and the cars people drive. Many of these companies want to be sustainable, but Hooker said the business climate and regulatory environment must allow these companies to implement strategies that make good business sense.

"We saw that many companies were giving lip service to sustainability but not really doing anything about it," he said. "Hopefully, companies having conversations about these issues will not only bring the green and sustainable mindset into organizations, but help them learn how to measure it as well."