Professional Opinion

for improvement on the three goals; (2) redesign processes and products to be more environmentally

sustainable (and scale up successful experiments quickly); (3) analyze environmental life cycles

throughout the entire value chain inside the firm and with its suppliers; (4) seek to replace fossil-fuel

energy sources with renewable energy sources; and (5) seek to replace petroleum-based materials with

biodegradable materials.

After politely listening to your proposal, Andrew Chen, the General Counsel, interjects that in his

professional opinion, the sustainability project opens up the company to unnecessary legal risks. If the

company does go ahead, he advises that only one of the three goals be pursued and that it not be publicly

announced or promised until after a careful internal due diligence process. Then the CFO, Paul D’Arcy,

speaks up, adding that instead of focusing on a pie-in-the-sky sustainability project, the task force’s time

and money would be better spent on finding innovative ways for Spectrum to reduce raw material costs

and counteract the seasonality of its business. Just when you are about to inject a counterargument to this

increasingly negative reception, Luke Filer, the VP of Operations, states that he is concerned about a

product and process change that is likely to increase raw material costs and disrupt existing production

flows.

Breaking the impasse, Leslie Harris,