Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 17, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 25 Do not eschew the green economy The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. I t's gotten awfully confusing these days to figure out who is "The Best" and "Best of," and I'm convinced publishers are to blame. In 1974, Boston Magazine came out with its first "Best & Worst of Boston" issue. In just a few years the annual issue became a big hit among readers and advertisers, even as "The Worst" was dropped in 1994. Boston Magazine always had its edi- tors choose the best; no readers poll, no survey in the magazine – like it or not – they have their staff pick the winners. However, followers who picked up the "Best of " idea over time converted it to a reader survey. Today you'll find most dailies, community weeklies and monthly magazines with their own version of "Best of " issue derived from a readers' poll; even WBJ now does a "Best of Business" issue focused on business-to-business categories. With all these publications, companies have plenty of opportunities to land on a "Best of " list, as a point of pride for employees and a boost to marketing. In the 1990s, a similar measure of "The Best" was developed by business-to-business publishers, which grew into the "Best Companies" or "Best Places to Work" lists. Instead of reader surveys, outside firms with powerful software conducted con- fidential employee surveys, providing valuable data points for an organization to know where it stood with its people, as well as a list for publishers to promote the best-scoring companies. Survey firms gather extensive feedback from a representative number of employees on a company's corporate culture, lead- ership and planning, work environment, pay and benefits, training and development and employee engagement. Forbes magazine began its "Best Places To Work" issue in the late 1990's, an effort later adopted by business publishers. Daily newspapers jumped on board, such as the Boston Globe has been producing a "Top Workplaces" issue. While it is no doubt rewarding when a company makes the list, just as valuable are the survey results the company receives from its employees. It can be a powerful HR tool. I describe this clear distinction between a "Best of " reader survey and "Top Workplace/Best Places to Work" issues because unfortunately, those lines are getting blurred. Worcester's local daily has been heavily promoting a new "Best Places to Work" public survey – but there is no confidential survey of company employees. Instead, it's a straight readers poll, a popularity contest. The survey asks you and me to vote for a best company, a best benefits program, a best boss, a best workplace culture and other categories when we don't work there. While employees may no doubt put an educated vote in for their employer, the voting is open to everyone, and the sur- vey form encourages readers to vote daily over the period of a month. Allowing people outside a company to vote up or down on its workplace conditions, policy and culture clearly stands the Forbes/Boston Globe version of Top Workplaces on its ear. It's a wonkish issue, but is anybody else worried about the slippery slope here? Oh well – as my business partner likes to say, "You're the best." Peter Stanton is the publisher of Worcester Business Journal and CEO of New England Business Media. What it takes to be "The Best" N early a month has passed since President Donald Trump – along with a cohort of coal executives and climate-change deniers – walked into the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. to sign an executive order rolling back clean air, land use and other environmental protections. The scene made for intriguing political theater and helped Trump make good on his campaign promises to coal miners and others who see envi- ronmental protections as a detriment to the econ- omy, or at least their portion of it. Yet, luckily for the green industry – and the planet we live on – such political maneuvering doesn't change the reality of the marketplace: 1. Acting in the best interest of the environment is more often than not in the best financial interest of businesses. 2. Businesses tend to make decisions based on the best financial interest of their organization, regardless of the periodic shifts in political power. Most business decisions all boil down to return on investment; how long it will take to get a posi- tive return for the time and resources invested in an endeavor. If a manufacturer – or any other company for that matter – can pay off the cost of energy-efficiency measures in less than two years by cutting its power consumption, that decision is a no-brainer. If a corporate campus can see a net monetary gain by producing onsite electricity through a solar array or fuel cell within eight years – all while mitigating against a power outage of the main electric grid – of course the company will pursue that venture. Even though these examples represent pretty straightforward, monetarily driven decisions made in a complex world, most businesses see the big picture and make investments accordingly. In our cover story in this issue, First Bristol Corp. made the decision to put its Homewood Suites hotel in Worcester's Washington Square – and purposefully not have an in-house restaurant – in order to cre- ate a more tourist-friendly city where people will rely on area restaurants and other neighboring resources, which can have significant economic and environmental advantages. Also in this issue, the College of the Holy Cross made the conscience decision to keep its urban campus full of lush greenery in order to entice more tuition-paying students to enroll there. While the clean economy has insulation against the president's policies aimed to loosen environ- mental enforcement, there are still reasons for concern. Eight years of President Barack Obama's environmental policies certainly shaped how the country has come to view wind, solar and unde- veloped land, and the business world has respond- ed accordingly. The Trump Administration's atti- tudes are sure to seep in as well, so green economy advocates must remain vigilant against the coming political changes. Unfortunately for the coal workers who may have dreamed of a return to the glory days, cleaner fuels have outcompeted coal, and the country's desire for coal as a prefered fuel is unlikely to ever return. An executive order can't make a power company want to build a costly coal plant. That's because acting in the best interests of its neighbors and the environment is only good business. P U B L I S H E R ' S N O T E E D I T O R I A L BY PETER STANTON Worcester Business Journal Publisher Peter Stanton W WO R D F R O M T H E W E B Comments of the issue "Our job force has to be adaptable, and a community college is the perfect place to research change management and other ideas that will keep us competitive." - Anonymous commenter, April 4, on a poll question asking what is the best service community colleges can provide for their area's business community "If they're going to take business away from the already established businesses, they should be treated as the same." - Anonymous commenter, April 13, on a poll question asking whether businesses like Uber, Ly and Airbnb should be regulateda Facebook feedback "Standardized testing is not worth the paper it's printed on, whether it be entrance exams or MCAS." - Steve Quist, April 11, on a story on how more colleges are no longer requiring applying students to submit SAT or ACT scores WBJ Tweet of the week "Cogmedix is proud to be the @WBJournal Manufacturing General Excellence winner in the large employer category" - Coghlin Companies (@coghlin_cos), April 10, on its honor as a top manufacturer W

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