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evelopers of new facilities have a very basic decision to make at the outset of a project, be it a new manufacturing plant, a distribution center or any other facility. Will its impact on the environment be negative or positive in the long term? Those who choose to design and build a project that will have a minimal impact on the environment are engaging in what is called sustainable development.
Numerous examples of facilities that fit this model exist, and two new ones are in the works right now. Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc., Torrance, Calif., is in the midst of developing both a campus and a port facility that are part of the company’s
Process Green
strategy for implementing environmentally sound design processes while simultaneously improving the organization’s bottom line. Sanford Smith, Corporate Manager, Real Estate and Facilities, is overseeing a team of 40 professionals who are making Process Green a reality. Smith outlined his strategy at the recent conference of the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC) in Savannah, Ga. Following are excerpts of an interview with Smith conducted after his presentation.
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SANFORD L. SMITH
TITLE: Corporate Manager, Real Estate and Facilities, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. RESPONSIBILITIES: In his role as BACKGROUND: Smith is a registered architect (California) and attended Cal Poly Pomona, where he graduated with honors in 1979. He started his career in retail design and planning, where he was responsible for the expansion of a regional department store chain and subsequently led design work for Marshall Fields, Robinson’s/May and others. |
Site Selection: From where did your interest in sustainable development come?
Sanford Smith: The big picture came from the parent company [Toyota], which controls the manufacturing side, which has been much more aggressively pursuing that. As part of the manufacturing process known as kaizen, we look at things like energy in a case where it has a direct impact on the price of producing a vehicle. On the manufacturing side, they’re out trying to shave a fraction of a penny out of what it costs to produce a vehicle. And benchmarks are really important. On the sales side, that’s not the case, and we’re learning to look at it.
SS: You recently won a Site Selection Corporate Real Estate Leadership Award for, among other things, heading up Toyota Motor Sales’ sustainable development initiative known as Process Green. Was this an area you were involved in prior to joining Toyota Motor Sales Company?
Smith: I can remember the first Earth Day – I was in the fifth grade. I suppose I’ve always considered myself somewhat of an environmentalist. In the course of our profession, both as an architect and as a developer, which I practiced in prior to joining corporate real estate, the one thing that was really apparent is that you have a choice to make. The buildings and developments we do can either have a positive impact or not. Why not make that choice to try to be environmentally responsible?
SS: Management seems to have bought into the importance of sustainable development at a high level. What did it take to get that buy-in?
Smith: The high-level mandate came from the parent company. A lot of our sustainable efforts are really looking to align with the Global Earth Charter that TMC [Toyota Motor Corp.] developed.
As we have been executing our work and we’ve been looking, again, at products we were specifying, as we were able to find things that were more sustainable from a product standpoint, we could demonstrate to senior management that these things didn’t have to cost more, and they weren’t oddities. They were mainstream types of decisions that were being made in the materials and products we were specifying. When we were able to alleviate their concerns, they understood what we were trying to accomplish and how we were trying to accomplish it. The company recognizes the impact that our industry – and all industries – are having. Let’s be a leader in trying to make the change.
The progress we are making is only possible through the efforts and ideas of Toyota’s dedicated associates and business partners. They have taken a conceptual goal and given it form and substance. We are continually discovering new ways to implement Process Green, and together we hope to become leaders in sustainable design and development.
SS: How do your service providers fit into your Process Green development strategy?
Smith: When we meet with our business partners, I think everyone understands what we are trying to do, and initially, through that understanding, everyone is supportive of the concept. What they’re concerned about is whether it will negatively impact their business, and if they are not able to change rapidly enough, will we abandon them? We are trying to drive change into the industry and partner with the people who have been supportive of us and been our business partners for years. As we give them opportunities to go look at their processes and join us, while they may be skeptical at first, once they do a little investigating on their own, they find ideas and concepts that can help us with our objective and improve their bottom line and profitability as well.
SS: Does an individual within the partner organization typically champion the cause?
Smith: Typically, yes. Sometimes it’s a conduit through the business development side of the group, and sometimes it’s the project managers who are working with us on a daily basis. People get really excited about this. They realize they can make change. A good example is our relocations provider. They’ve told us they want to look at their own processes. And they came up with a whole returnable packaging and boxing strategy, where they’ve gone from cardboard boxes that were disposed of to reusable containers that on a life cycle basis are significantly less expensive for us. It’s made out of recycled material, and it’s recyclable.
SS: To what extent has the notion of sustainability caught on in the broader corporate real estate industry?
Smith: It’s gaining momentum, but it’s not quite there. People who haven’t put their toe in the water are a little afraid. One of the things we’re hoping our South Campus project will demonstrate is that it can be very mainstream, it can be cost-competitive, and if we can do it, anybody can do it. I’m hoping we’re successful and that this can be a good demonstration project for others to benchmark against.
I’d like to think that this is a step in the transformation of the industry. I’m encouraged by the signs we see from material suppliers and all the various companies and groups that are involved. If we’re really successful, we’ll have the paradigm shift. We won’t need to be giving special awards for sustainable design – we’ll all just be doing it.
