Client Testimonials
"Five Winds International has become a trusted advisor for us on strategic sustainability issues. Their willingness to work as partners and their ability to understand, and respond to, our unique business context, makes them stand out as a critical resource. Their insights on the business value of a sustainability strategy for our organization have been invaluable."
Debbie Baxter—LoyaltyOne
"Five Winds provided practical, focused support that enabled us to launch a comprehensive sustainability training module in 2005. The messages and content of the "Living our Values" training modules are well aligned with Alcoa's vision and business processes, and the exercises have enabled participants to easily grasp the linkage between our business sustainability model and long term business success. Five Winds is an excellent "go to" resource for quick and practical sustainability implementation support".
Anita Roper—Former Director of Sustainability–Alcoa
"Armstrong World Industries has been a leader in Environmental responsibility for over 140 years. We have recently embarked upon a journey to help transform the Construction Industry to utilizing Sustainable Building Principles. These principles are embodied in the LEED criteria as established by the United States Green Building Council. To this end we have determined that Life Cycle Assessment of our products and processes in a full Cradle to Cradle view is the most valuable method developed to properly evaluate the environmental impact of our decisions. Heretofore, single issue environmental criteria have been used by Architects and specifies to make their environmental decisions. Five Winds International is a wonderful resource that we have engaged to help us on this journey. Their knowledge of both the technology in conducting LCA as well as the global implications of evaluating businesses against Sustainable criteria has been valuable in achieving our objectives. Five Winds International have been leaders in the establishment of the ISO 14000 series of standards regarding how to conduct and use LCA."
Steven R Baer—formerly of Armstrong Building Products
(Now Five Winds International employee)
"We recently hired Five Winds to support development of our Sustainable Business Strategy at a corporate trailblazing event. The Five Winds staff members who attended were functional experts in their related fields; brought breadth to the discussion topics and were professional in all interactions with Armstrong team members. Their experience helping other companies develop similar strategies enabled us to effectively move through the steps in the development process and avoid false starts. Our working relationship felt more like a partnership than a consultant/customer relationship."
Dan Evans—Armstrong World Industries
"We see strong value for BASF and our customers in not only understanding the criteria of these eco-labels and rating systems, but also in assessing their credibility, in order to make decisions with scientific integrity. We want to make sustainable decisions."
Pat Meyer—BASF Corporation Product Stewardship
"The TCO tool has allowed us to begin to identify ways in which we can reduce hidden costs and take advantage of marketing opportunities related to our products. In short, it has become a central part of our efforts to provide value to our company's businesses."
Dan Steinmetz—BASF
"Five Winds provided BC Hydro with an innovative, cost effective web-based tool to simplify the management of our corporate GHG inventory. The tool is a significant improvement over our previous system, helping us meet evolving standards, regulations and management needs. Five Winds provided a strong balance of technical and business expertise on climate change and a pragmatic approach to IT solutions aligned with our business processes. Their staff was professional and responsive in identifying and satisfying our needs."
Tim Lesiuk—formerly of BC Hydro
"Five Winds has supported CSA on a variety of projects over the years from assessing the future of international environmental management standards to evaluating the role of CSA in supporting sustainable product standards development. Their strength lies in combining a strong strategic and technical understanding of sustainability issues with a deep respect for the importance of bringing different stakeholder perspectives to the standards development process."
Kevin Boehmer—Canadian Standards Association
"Carnival Corporation & plc is a global cruise company with a portfolio of 12 distinct cruise brands comprised of the leading cruise operators in North America, Europe and Australia. Our core values include preserving the marine environment and in particular the pristine conditions of the waters upon which our vessels sail. To enhance our ability to live these values, in February 2005 we embarked on a project to develop, implement and certify the environmental management systems in all of cruise ship operations and on board all of our fleet of 81 ships to ISO 14001. We employed Five Winds International to assist Carnival Corporation and our subsidiary Operating Lines with this project. Five Winds has consistently provided sound advice and exceptional professional service as an integral part of our steering committee and implementation teams. The spectrum of their services has ranged from studies, analyses, and evaluations, through planning, development and training, to administration and project management. Five Winds has drawn upon its deep experience in implementing management systems within large, complex, multi-national organizations under tight timelines with multiple business requirements. We believe that, beyond certification, this project will help to enhance our internal business practices to improve both environmental and bottom-line performance."
James R. Van Langen—Carnival Corporation & plc
"Five Winds balances a strategic view of where we need to go with a tactical view of how to get there. Their assistance brought the vision of the city's sustainability agenda together with the day-to-day practicalities of implementing an EMS. Our EMS is used to aggressively drive our sustainability agenda and Five Winds was a key player in that effort."
Paul R. Schmiechen—City and County of Denver
"We've received highly professional service from Five Winds International. Their outputs for us have been thorough, creatively presented and always delivered on time."
Julia Sussams—Defra
"The Sustainability Reporting Audit & Gap Assessment exercise Five Winds conducted helped us gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses associated with our public reporting and whether we are communicating what we intend to convey to our key stakeholders. The presentation of audit results was extremely professional and well received internally. Several recommendations were used immediately to inform development of our 2006 Sustainability Report. The audit also identified opportunities to advance our Corporate Responsibility Strategy."
Mike Hales—formerly of Dow Corning Corporation
"...I found that the team from Five Winds was very professional and I appreciated the fact that they kept in close contact with me to ensure that they were on the right path..." (in reference to Sustainability Assessment Framework and Tool (SAFT)
Matthew Schacker—Environment Canada
"I can't tell you how valuable the work was. Having Five Winds provide an outside perspective (on stakeholder engagement) provided a lot of credibility to the work we are doing. It was a tremendous asset."
Bill Brady—Exelon Corporation
"Five Winds provided a valuable and credible assessment of our situation, and delivered a very thorough and professional strategic plan."
Chris Duggan—Government of BC
"Five Winds International has been an integral part of the copper industry's strategic planning for sustainable development and stewardship and their implementation into the Association's programs. The knowledge and creativity Five Winds brings to the table is helping the copper industry get to the leading edge of the sustainable development movement."
Scott Baker—ICA
"ICMM has worked with Five Winds International since 2002, continuing a relationship which was established in the mid 1990's with our predecessors the International Council on Metals and the Environment (ICME). As a client committed to enhancing the mining and metals sector's contribution to sustainable development we have found Five Winds International's skills set highly relevant and very beneficial."
"Among the numerous projects which FWI have accomplished for us the most notable is the development of the concept of Materials Stewardship. This concept, built upon an earlier study conducted by FWI which examined materials ecoefficiency, has become a principal element of ICMM's activities promoting the optimal and appropriate use of minerals and metals in society. The Materials Stewardship concept was conceived through workshops and consultations facilitated by FWI, generating a body of information which, using their own experience and expertise, they refined and captured in a seminal publication "Maximizing Value: Guidance in implementing materials stewardship in the minerals and metals value chain."
"FWI have since assisted us in extending the concept of Materials Stewardship to stakeholders in the value chain of minerals and metals through Round Tables convened by ICMM and through their own network of contacts with other industrial and commercial sectors."
John Atherton—ICMM
"Five Winds' global reach delivered a breakthrough for me when I needed to estimate my Integrated Environmental Impact based on a Swedish research report. My local Boulder, CO office collaborated with a Five Winds colleague in Europe who was familiar with the methodology and even reviewed my project with an author of the research."
Joe Czyszczewski—InfoPrint Solutions Company
"The GaBi software system and its associated data sets have been a very useful tool for our company. GaBi has enabled us to develop a deeper understanding of the impacts of our product systems and operations, and it has greatly increased our capacity to quantify our footprint and innovate toward sustainable products for our customers."
Ray Anderson—Interface
"Five Winds is our go to consultant for everything product stewardship related."
Al Ianuzzi—Johnson and Johnson
"Five Winds has been a trusted consultant partner for almost a decade for our company. Over the years, Five Winds has considerably influenced the direction that our company takes in leveraging sustainability internally and with our customers, while providing best-in-class technical support on specific emerging environmental trends including associated with carbon, energy, water and waste."
Jack Hamilton—JohnsonDiversey, Inc.
"A job well done! The report is well written, accurate, and full of good information."
Paul Ackerman—Lexmark International Inc.
"The case studies are dynamite; overall I am extremely satisfied with the study." (in reference to Corporate Social Responsibility; Lessons Learned the CSR benchmark study conducted for the Government of Canada)
Jim Frehs—formerly of Natural Resources Canada
"...The best aspects of Five Winds service were the quality of the products, professional delivery and friendly, 'easy to get along with' staff. Overall, Five Winds did an excellent job developing the Sustainability Assessment Framework and Tool (SAFT) for us..."
Maria Wellisch—Natural Resources Canada
"Five Winds International has been a key partner for Rio Tinto Borax in the development of our life cycle expertise and capabilities. Their support, combined with our own internal resource investments, has enabled us to develop a core information base that we are utilizing in a range of applications such as meeting customer information needs, evaluating capital investments, supporting new product applications, and the development of credible marketing information on the environmental performance of our products."
Gerry Pepper—formerly of Rio Tinto Borax
"S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. has always prided ourselves as being among the leaders in the environmental sustainability movement but, it seems clear that many of the things we did well in the past to make us successful in this arena probably won't work as well in the future. Our work with Five Winds International and the Product Sustainability Round Table has provided unique insight into current best practices related to product sustainability. Five Winds has provided sagacious recommendations that have helped to improve the long-range product assessment systems that we use. Perhaps even more importantly, Five Winds has been a real 'nuts and bolts' kind of problem solver for our company. The systems that they have helped us develop did more than meet eco-efficiency criteria. They were marked by integrity and an aesthetic sense that really appeal to our company's key stakeholders."
Pat Guiney—SC Johnson & Son, Inc.
"Five Winds International's efforts were crucial in the development of our sustainability strategy and implementation framework. Their approach engaged our stakeholders, and was tailored to our business, resulting in a structured plan with a clear set of priorities. The Five Winds team was professional, knowledgeable and adaptable bringing great insight and experience to the project. They continue to be an important partner in the evolution of our efforts."
Andrew Gustyn—Unisource Canada
"UTC has been working with Five Winds International on environment and sustainability challenges related to our products for the past six years. What is unique about Five Winds is that integrating sustainability into business decision-making is their core business. Their focus on products, and their broad experience working in a range of sectors, enables them to design very practical training materials that resonate with people who need to make day to day decisions".
Tom Swarr—formerly of United Technologies Corporation
(Now Five Winds International Associate)
