A 'green' director for the boardroom.

• Author: HANSEN, PAUL W.
• Position: Brief Article

As with any director, all a conservationist wants to do is to help the company make better decisions.

THE SHAREHOLDERS and directors of the forest products and building supplies company Louisiana-Pacific Corp. recently asked me to sit on the company's board of directors. I am the head of a national conservation organization that has locked horns with this company during our 77-year history.

This is a venture into uncharted territory for both me and the company, but it has the potential to set an innovative precedent -- one that every company with significant involvement with natural resources and environmental issues should consider.

This innovation could provide substantial advantages to companies interested not in window dressing but in the perspective a conservationist voice can bring to corporate decisionmaking in an increasingly environment-oriented marketplace. In the areas of product development, marketing, and environmental compliance, for instance, early identification of trends can yield significant improvements in efficiency and substantial competitive advantages.

For conservationists, there are similar advantages. The sooner we get an item on the corporate radar screen, the better our chances are of reducing resistance and securing a durable change in outdated, inefficient, and environmentally destructive practices.

Putting conservationists in the boardroom could also give environmental interests a better understanding of the difficult decisions and tradeoffs faced by businesses presented with complicated and often contradictory demands of their regulators, shareholders, and customers. Even better, maybe we can avoid some of the "train wrecks," mistrust and divisiveness of the past, or find some innovative, win-win solutions to some of the many problems we have historically fought over.

The adversarial approach to environmental issues may be necessary in some cases, but it always yields an unstable outcome for everyone -- your opponent lives to fight another day. The collaborative approach, when genuine, can yield solutions that are more permanent because they have the support of more stakeholders. Too often, past environmental conflicts have been characterized more by polemics or political posturing than problem solving -- by both sides.

One of the most pleasant aspects of my new experience has been the overwhelmingly positive response of company employees who, down the line, tell me that they want their company to be as...