Partnerships for Sustainability (PFS) is a regional initiative designed to provide practical steps that improve top-line revenue streams and bottom-line efficiencies through sustainable business practices for small- and medium-sized companies in southeast Wisconsin.  PFS is a private-public innovation of the Waukesha County Economic Development Corporation (WCEDC).

Bill Mitchell, WCEDC Executive Director: "WCEDC's Partnerships for Sustainability initiative is a huge win for leaders of small- to medium-sized businesses who are ready to move beyond the theory of sustainability. Our core focus rests solely on the fact that businesses can only be sustainable if profitable.  The job growth over the next decades in green jobs, that's what has our attention, with companies adapting their products and processes related to green. We see this as an initiative through which businesses across southeast Wisconsin can benefit. Our free sustainability resources show how serious PFS investors and volunteers are about helping these businesses."  


    
PFS Initiative Testimonials:

American Transmission Company

Franc Fennessy, Director of Land Management and Stakeholder Relations:  “Quad/Graphics, Johnson Controls, Kohl’s and others will serve as inaugural sustainability mentors. Mentored companies will in turn serve as mentors to others based on what they learn. Pay-it-forward sustainability, if you will.”



Environmental Systems Inc. (ESI) 

Paul Oswald, President:  “The chief drawing card for us is how this initiative brings businesses, who already are successful in managing operational costs, together with other businesses to achieve similar results through practical, measurable approaches to sustainability. Our customers have come to expect us to provide them with real solutions, real numbers and real cost savings. The no-nonsense approach to achieving business efficiencies by both of our organizations creates a sound private-public partnership. We see businesses spending money on things that they perceive as ‘green’ but that will not impact their bottom lines or the environment. We are looking forward to bringing our years of knowledge in achieving bottom line savings for businesses to the efforts of Partnerships for Sustainability. We can talk about cost savings a million different ways, but until you show a business owner the return on investment in real terms, it remains talk."



Karl James & Company Public Relations

Karl Robe, Public Relations Counsel:  "If you can reduce the environmental footprint of the people you supply then you become a strategic partner and more valuable."



MSI General

Craig Coursin, President:  "MSI General has demonstrated success in sustainable business practices and wanted this new opportunity to assist others. The idea of sustainability has been running around businesses for a while now. Many businesses don’t know what needs to be done.  They may think drastic changes are needed to the building when the real need is to become more efficient in their daily operations.”

Donalad Frost Jr., Vice President of Design and Estimating:  "This new program creates an environment where businesses will learn, share and profit from one another. Mentoring is definitely a goal of the partnership. We will mentor companies and they will mentor others to pay it forward.”
 


Quad/Graphics

Joe Muehlbach, Corporate Director of Facilities & Environmental Policy: “Government regulations are coming that will change how businesses operate. Partnerships for Sustainability is a great resource to help prevent your business from becoming a casualty of regulation. Those businesses unprepared to respond by operating in a more efficient and environmentally sensitive manner will struggle to exist going forward.”



Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.

Mike Simpson, Environmental Practice Chair:  “Our firm sees an evolution throughout the supply chain where companies are winning business because they can demonstrate sustainable business practices in addition to being price and service competitive. We joined this initiative because of its goal to create practical tools to help businesses jumpstart their understanding and implementation of sustainable business practices. Sustainable business practices will soon become the rule of the road regardless of whether it is driven by regulation or market forces. And in today's economy, sustainability is also about survivability. Businesses of all sizes are beginning to realize that if they implement sustainable practices, those practices will not only help their bottom line but may take them well beyond current compliance standards and keep them out of the regulatory web all together. Across the country and around the globe, there will be new compliance requirements and business standards focusing on a business' impact on the environment. Those companies that become more efficient by adopting sustainable practices will have a leg up when these requirements and standards become a reality.”



Waukesha County Government

Dan Vrakas, Waukesha County Executive:  “Sustainability is a crucial component to achieving business efficiency and economic development. The momentum behind sustainability from the federal level to the local level is creating a real need for businesses to become more efficient in their daily operations. But it also is creating the opportunity for innovation, which historically has led us to real economic growth.”