I recruited participant organizations primarily via my own professional network in conjunction with
information publicly available on the Internet. I used three criteria to select the case studies; that is,
the organizations needed to have 1) had an on-going or recent CMS initiative, 2) espoused a
proactive environmental strategy, and 3) identified one or more individual employees responsible for
managing the CMS initiative. I approached three user organizations, and all agreed to participate in
the study. The organizations were a community-based not-for-profit environmental organization
(“NFP”), a public utility company (“PUC”), and an equipment rental company serving the film industry
(“ERC”). While these organizations were similar on the above selection criteria, there were
differences in other areas. The organizations were from different industries and varied in ownership
type, size, and the geographical reach of their operations, which Table 3 shows. The three
organizations also had different forms of CMS. NFP had adopted a formal, web-based, third-party
developed CMS that employees, volunteers, and, principally, members of the local community used.
In contrast, PUC and ERC had informal CMS that incorporated third-party carbon calculators, email
communications, and intranet sites that were targeted principally at employees.
Table 3.