Our language is constantly evolving alongside advances in our culture. For instance, words like “social media” and “defriend” have been added this year to the Oxford English Dictionary due to verbiage  relating to the internet.

Sustainability is another rising trend that with it, too, has a breadth of new terms to define.

Greenality is one such term introduced in the just-released book Green Project Management (CRC Press), which teaches project managers resource efficiency and bottom-line savings with a limited budget, by authors Richard Maltzman, PMP, and David Shirley. As the founders of EarthPM, a consulting company focused on project management and sustainable practices, they offer their experience in expertise in the book in the way of case studies, green incentive opportunities and tips to make all projects green projects.

And if EarthPM is “At the Intersection of Green and Project Management,” then “greenality” is a roundabout at that intersection, offering project managers a word to describe the endless circle of input and output with its relation to sustainability.

Maltzman and Shirley coined the term to merge the new trend of sustainability—or green—with a hallmark of the project management process, quality. And it is an equation that, for project managements and the business world alike, is worth noting: Green + quality= greenality.

So how does one use it in a sentence?

EarthPM offers this example:

“Because Organization Y has considered these environmental factors during the planning of their current project, they have achieved a greenality of 75 on a scale of 100.”

Greenality, a noun, is the degree to which a project has considered sustainability during the life cycle of a project.

Greenality has two project management processes associated with it: A plan to minimize the environmental impacts of a project, and the assessment of the output of the project—the product—and its environmental impacts.

Where would your current project fall on the greenality scale?

Have another way you might use the term in your day-to-day operations? Put your own sustainability spin on “greenality” by expanding on the definition on open4definition.org.

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We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.  ~Thomas Fuller,Gnomologia, 1732

GreenNurture has partnered with the Water-Use It Wisely campaign to bring their world-renowned water conservation message to the workplace.

 

Launched in 1999, the Water – Use It Wisely campaign aimed to promote an ongoing water conservation ethic among Arizona’s rapidly growing population. That mission has spread to nearly 400 towns, cities, states, utilities, and private and public organizations, making it one of the largest conservation educational outreach programs in the world. The universal water conservation message has been recognized with a flood of local, regional, national and international awards (“Excellence in Environmental Education,” Utility Communicators International Award, the Telly Award and the like).

And if you are located in the Arizona region, you may have stumbled upon the campaign while picking up some paint or garden pavers (or maybe even a low-flow showerhead) at Home Depot and Lowe’s, of which have designated an entire month to the Water-Use It Wisely campaign. They might have even prompted you to test your home water knowledge with the Online Home Water Challenge or the 100 Ways to Conserve list to how well you are doing or if there are more changes you can make. Tips like shorten showers by a minute or two to save up to 150 gallons per month or switch to a 2 gallon/minute showerhead to save around 2,000 gallons a year can make you a conscious consumer. 

The partnership between GreenNurture and Water-Use It Wisely will bridge the gap between water conservation at home and in the workplace. The new list, “We’re All in the Business of Saving Water,” includes such tips as switching to cold water for washing hands, dishes and items that need laundering and washing dishes without running the tap.

Want to earn some points with the boss? Check out the We’re All in the Business of Saving Water list for the workplace. Your company will thank you for lowering the water bill!

(Oh, and one more thing: I challenge you to a round of Tip Tank, the Water-Use It Wisely online game. It is harder than it looks…)

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Visual prompts can be a helpful addition to sustainability initiatives—especially when breaking old habits. Remembering what electronics to leave on or turn off can strain your brain. On the other hand, unnecessary energy usage can strain your department’s budget.

One method outlined in the book Greening Your Office: From Cupboard to Corporation: An A-Z Guide (Chelsea Green Publishing Co.) by Jon Clift and Amanda Cuthbert is a traffic light system. Place stickers or marker dots on items and post a code for colleagues to know which action to take.

•Red –Place a red sticker on equipment that should be turned off when not in use. Examples: computers, monitors, scanners, laminating machines and coffee pots

•Yellow – Place a yellow sticker on equipment that should be kept on during the workday but can be turned off at the end of the day. Yellow is for items that usually take a long time to warm up or are a newer model with a standby option. Examples: photocopiers and shared printers that are used frequently

•Green – Place a green sticker on equipment that should be kept on at all times. Examples: fax machines, alarm systems and servers

In addition to the traffic light system, visual written reminders work well and can be used in other areas of the workplace: over the sink as a reminder to turn off water while scrubbing lunch dishes, on recycling bins to outline what items to place in—and keep out of—receptacle.

You have enough to think about at work. Now you can be environmentally responsible without thinking. Prompts can help increase efficiency for a department or an entire company. It’s a quick way to reduce energy and costs.

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The SXSW panel picking frenzy has been going on for more than a week now. (Don’t know what SXSW Panel Picker is? Check this post out. )

 
We have spent quite a bit of time going through the myriad 2,398 panels and came up with our top five (other than our own) that we would like to see at SXSW. Some are fellow techies, some fellow sustaina-people.

TOP FIVE

1. What FarmVille Can Teach Us About Community Engagement

We have more FarmVille farms (30 million) than actual farms in the U.S. (2 million). It’s free to play and players are not there to win it big. BUT they are rewarded in many other ways—apparently, more important ways.
Loyalty: Building online communities requires constantly nourishing an audience’s interest. FarmVille slowly reveals new items as farmers advance levels to continue peak curiosity and provide new goals. Affinity: Collaboration is a social media fundamental. People rely on networks for referrals to useful information. Activities like barn building require farmers to ask friends for items like boards and nail — creating reciprocal relationships (and peer pressure). Visibility: Integrate content where your audience is already engaging. People can’t pull up their news feed, or walk into a 7Eleven, without seeing FarmVille paraphernalia. Players unlock exclusive bonuses by posting requests to Facebook pages (marketing FarmVille to their network), or by purchasing Slurpees with special codes redeemable for game items.

 
2. Smart Aid: Social Media and the 1millionshirts Debate
In April 2010 a project was launched to send 1 million used t-shirts to Africa. Within the course of just two weeks over 60 blog posts were written about the project from an incredible range of people—including TIME Magazine. The panel will discuss how to harness the power of social media for social good.

 
3.  Techies Can Save the World, Why Aren’t They?
A kick-ass panel made up of a rare breed of successful environmentally and socially focused tech pioneers provide insights, examples and practical inspiration for techies, bloggers, entrepreneurs and web-business people who are looking to do a world of good. Our expert panel includes founders from major web based businesses, founders of the new generation of successful social and environmental start-up ventures, and major VC’s who are all focused on the triple bottom line – making a bunch of money while doing something positive for the environment and society. A well respected news media editor at the intersection of green and technology will moderate this panel of innovators.

Come ask our panel how you can be the change you want to see! The panel will answer such questions as:  What is the relationship between technology and the global climate issue? What are the barriers that keep technology and green from being mutually inclusive? How do VC’s evaluate and bet on ventures that have positive environmental and social impacts? What are the unique challenges associated with building a business at the intersection of green and technology?Is every company going to become a green company?

4. Work Should Be Social Too
Collaborating with friends is easy with today’s public social tools. They require no training, and make the fun things in your life seamless to organize. So why is it more difficult at work? Join us for a panel consisting of executives from some of the leading collaborative tool companies, as we discuss some real corporate case studies, and the social barriers to sharing at work.
It will answer such questions as: What is the business case for being more social? What other businesses have seen benefits from enterprise social tools? What social technologies have crossed over from consumer to the enterprise? How can you pitch your superiors on embracing social tools? What are the people issues surrounding social adoption at work?

5. Your Content Stinks! Drive results with Content Marketing
Are you creating content that drives results? Marketers are jumping on the content marketing bandwagon in droves, creating mountains of boring, useless, copycat content that has no impact on their business. Join a panel of experts who wrote the book(s) on content marketing as we discuss how to use content to drive sales and customer loyalty, how to tie your content strategy to your search marketing and how to recognize and avoid common content marketing pitfalls.

 

 OK. OK. OK. I know you are wondering, “Now, what is GreenNurture’s panel all about?” We have a panel planned on the intersection of green, technology and social gaming/ game theory.

Hippies Get High…Tech: Game Mechanics Meet Sustainability.

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According to the authors of Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance (Jossey-Bass), there are three basic ways an organization can implement change. Though these methods lend themselves to many types of change initiatives, the book mainly focused on the adoption of business-oriented social media type applications in the workplace.

 In the first approach, top leadership mandates the change, and all facets of the change are implemented at once, across the entire organization. They call this the “all-hands-on-deck” approach, as everyone in the organization is required to adopt and participate in the new system. This works best for small organizations and where the employees are tech-savvy and ready for new systems to reduce confusion and increase efficiency.

With the second approach, the application is phased in with particular groups—usually based on geographical location or function—making the changes at different points in time. The change initiative is is still mandated from the top and requires 100 percent participation, but it allows for learning and adaptation along the way.

The third approach is the “bottom-up” approach, which is the most common way social media takes hold in larger organizations.  The “bottom-up” approach is voluntary, with a few people experimenting with the new system, then word spreads, and more people explore in their small subgroups. Over time, success stories promote more experimentation and critical mass builds within the organization.

Organically grown support initiatives allow for experimentation, learning and buy-in, without mandates from above. This gives employees ownership of the system and increases their commitment to it.  When executive leadership hears about tangible successes and benefits, it becomes viable to give structure and support to the system.

Change, to truly take hold, needs to be on an individual, internal, attitudinal level. Only when people are ready and willing to make the change, will they do so. This is the advantage of the “bottom-up” approach.

But what if you want to make change happen organically, without having long experimentation and buy-in phases?  

There are ways to speed up the implementation of all these methods of adoption. They will be addressed in part 2 of this blog.

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South by Southwest’s Panel Picker is live.

If you are not familiar with South by Southwest, it is a three-week-long conference set in Austin, Texas. Known to most in its abbreviated form as SXSW, its influence and audience has been growing frenetically each year since its beginning in 1987. With a focus on film, music and the interactive (emerging technologies, social networking and such), the 2011 shindig has attracted nearly 3,000 panelist proposals from such people and publications as USA TODAY, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Grist, NPR, Twitter, Yahoo! Inc, SocialYell.com, RecycleMatch, PepsiCo, and StubHub.

SXSW is a highly social conference so, in good form, the first round of voting is from the public in the form of a Panel Picker. Worth 30 percent of a panel’s score, you, too, can sign up to cast your vote. Create a free account, here. Confirm the account in your e-mail. Head to the Panel Picker and give your thumbs up or down on the various sessions vying for your vote.

One such session that is hoping for your thumbs up is…ours!

Hippies Get High…Tech: Game Mechanics Meet Sustainability explores how game theory and mechanics translate to the workplace. Why employee engagement is integral to successful corporate sustainability and how gaming can play an important role in this. Shockingly, social media/ gaming can be used to engage—not distract—employees. It helps bring recognition and rewards that are traditionally used in the workplace to another space—the social media and gaming space, also known as the space where most employees spend their time anyways.

 
Help us get an epic win under our belt…to be a panelist on SXSW! (Keep in mind you must log in to have your vote count. Follow the instructions listed above to complete the quick and free registration.) Thank you for your support, comments and thumbs up.

(Voting ends August 27.)

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Your organization is embarking on a change initiative. Top management is excited about it, and the organization’s managers have been tasked with pushing it out to staff. Your first step is to announce it to everyone in your division, and the easiest way is via email. But many a change initiative flounders before it even gets out the gate because employees don’t read the emails.

In a world of overworked employees, suffering from information and e-mail overload, how can you improve the chances of your e-mail being opened and read?

With e-mail, you only have a few critical seconds to grab your employees’ attention:  When they are scanning the subject line. If the subject line is compelling enough, you have almost made it across the finish line! E-mail experts have made a science of subject lines and e-mail content, but they are mostly designed to sell something to the public. Here are some tips for tailoring your emails to sell something – an idea or a process –  within your organization:

• Subject line – Shorter is better. Three to four words are best but use no more than ten. Those words need to be the most carefully selected words in the entire e-mail, as they will determine whether or not the email gets opened. Make it compelling, that is, in the employees’ interest. For example, “New App for Marketing Dept.” Urgency and surprise grab attention:  “New Marketing App Starts Next Week.” Questions that the reader wants to answer are also good for piquing interest:  “Would you like fewer staff meetings?” Last, never use an exclamation point — there’s no surer way for your e-mail to end up in spam!

• E-mail content:

• If you have a request, place it first and explain later. Assume no one will read beyond your first sentence
• Keep it brief and to the point.  Simplicity is key for ease of reading, remembering and replying to requests. If any scrolling is required, it is too long
• “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If you have an image that encapsulates abstract ideas, use it!
• Appeal to the emotions. A message that ignites desire/fear/greed is infinitely more powerful than a dry argument based on the facts
• Be quotable. Tell a brief story or use a pertinent quote, which are great memory devices and are apt to be cut and pasted and forwarded on to others.

Finally, test your e-mail with a couple different subject lines on a select group before sending it out to everyone on your list.  Ask for feedback on the subject line and the content. When you have refined it to the point that your test group finds it compelling, press that send button!

But don’t stop there. Follow up regularly until you get the response rate you are aiming for.

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Last week, Wall Street Journal journalist Christina Binkley wrote that a group of about 100 apparel makers and retailers developed a software tool that rates the environmental impact of their apparel and footwear, from production to garbage dump. The Eco Index is scheduled to be unveiled at the Outdoor Retailer trade show next month, but the group is unsure when it will be unveiled to the public.   

There are several stages companies should go through before publicly announcing their “greenness,” according to Christoph Lueneburger and Daniel Goleman in “The Change Leadership Sustainability Demands.” To do so (before going through the necessary stages) can set the organization up for negative publicity and the accusation of “greenwashing.”

As Luenenburger and Goleman state, “First, sustainability is about operational reality first, and public perceptions second. Companies that market their external image beyond their actual accomplishments are risking serious damage to their corporate reputations, the impact of which can extend far beyond any individual brands.”

The first stage of an organization’s sustainability initiative, when it just begins, is not the time to make public announcements, as there is no track record to substantiate claims of success. The sustainability initiatives are just being planted and haven’t been ingrained operationally, yet.

The second phase is when sustainability systems have been adopted and there are measureable, short-term commercial successes. The organization is proactive on sustainability and tracks its economic, environmental and social metrics over the business-planning cycle. 

But it is not until the third phase that sustainability becomes “embedded in the corporate DNA.” At this point, sustainability is incorporated into long-term strategic planning and decisions can be made that may not be immediately profitable, but have a greater positive business and environmental impact further down the road.

This is when an organization can publicly share its sustainability practices for maximum effect. Providing information on production processes—from acquisition of materials through production, to the obsolescence and disposal of the product—will be a competitive advantage for those organizations that have a longer term track record of sustainability. Consumers are demanding more and more transparency, and those who provide it, along with a history of sustainable business practices, will have the edge over those who do not.

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With the health care system trying to meet the needs of industry reform, hospitals and medical centers find themselves in a constant search to find innovative ways to cut costs. However, there is one very common challenge these organizations are running into with this health reform: cutting costs without harming the quality of service being offered to patients.

Medical facilities throughout the United States are trying everything they can before resulting to a staff reduction. In fact, in the 2010 Health and Well-Being Touchstone Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, it is mentioned that many health centers intend on cutting costs by increasing deductibles and co-pays for both medical and prescription drug cost-sharing. It is also stated that 67 percent of organizations plan to contain cost by improving wellness employee programs for employees, while 42 percent are increasing employee health care contributions. While these examples of shifting costs do provide short-term solutions to meeting new standards, they do not address the long-term sustainability of the industry and its plan for true reform.

One organization that has found more of a long-term approach to cutting costs is Fletcher Allen Health Care of Vermont. Fletcher Allen was able to integrate sustainability into several aspects of their organization – creating various streams of cost savings through increased efficiency in energy consumption, their food service program and more.

Starting with energy, Fletcher Allen Health Care was able to partner with their local utility provider while investing $2.2 million in facility upgrades to lighting and HVAC systems. By reducing electricity consumption by 350,000 kilowatt-hour and natural gas usage by 4,000 kilowatt-hours annually, the $2.2 million invested was paid back in energy savings in just 3 years. Most importantly the energy reductions have been a source of added available capital for the hospital ever since.

In addition, the organization has put forth quite a bit of effort in increasing the efficiency of their food service program. The facility now features a roof garden, growing its own fruits and vegetables to serve for consumption by both staff and patients. Various natural herbs are also being grown for medicinal purposes in the garden, as well as their first honey harvest produced in 2009. Fletcher Allen has also been specific in where the remainder of their food provided comes from. By sourcing all food locally from a variety of growers and ranchers, they have been able to see even further cost savings from their food service program.

This long-term way of thinking and innovative approach to cutting costs will not only help health care organizations meet industry standards now, but it will carry the success of the entire industry into the future.

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Recycling may be the most common environmental practice used in our everyday lives, but many people fail to realize that this is only the first step of an entire economic process. Currently, material collection and processing costs are far greater than the return coming in from the items sold back to industry. Recycling has become a victim of their own success. So what is exactly needed for the process to generate some revenue and make economic sense?

Federal, state and municipal governments have done their job in fighting the environmental issue of waste and growing landfills by increasing the availability of recycling and regulating it to their citizens. In some cases, city and state government have even made the act mandatory for businesses. However, this is where the cycle currently reaches a brick wall; the demand for purchasing these recycled products being produced just hasn’t been there. While government officials are trying to figure out the best plan of attack to reverse this trend, the private sector is in the right position to step in and take advantage of the situation all while increasing the profitability of the recycling process and their own.

Consumer and business demand for recycled products have not been matching up to the increases in materials being recycled. Some businesses have seen the economic benefits presented by recycled products and have formed alliances to purchase these products. One of the more well known alliances of this kind is the Buy Recycled Business Alliance, consisting of companies that include Bank of America, American Airlines, Bell Atlantic, Coca Cola and Anheuser-Busch. In not even just a year’s time, this alliance was able to generate $3 billion in purchasing recycled products and materials.

The continued increase of competitiveness in purchasing recycled products will provide the economic justification to the recycling process that has been needed. It will also allow for further government regulation in recycling, giving the ability to truly make a mark in the increasing environmental concerns of growing landfills and proper resource productivity.

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Disengaged employees can be a real drain on businesses. They can negatively impact the people they work with, as well as the bottom line. Often the problem lies not so much with the employee, but rather in a lack of clarity given to the employee about his or her responsibilities. 

According to the Blessing White 2008 study “The State of Employee Engagement,” employees at the lowest level of contribution need greater clarity about their tasks and the reasons for doing them. This is a two-fold issue:  first is the issue of clarity and second is the issue of understanding the reasons for what is being asked.

Being clear about what is expected of an employee means communicating in a manner that leaves no ambiguity about their responsibilities. Writing down goals and expectations, meeting with employees and discussing the expectations, answering their questions, and asking for and giving regular feedback will help ensure there aren’t any misunderstandings or lack of clarity.

But what if an employee doesn’t really understand why he is doing what is asked of him? What if he doesn’t see how his efforts contribute to the company? Or that his work is of any value?

Perhaps even more important than clarity about expectations is clarity about an employee’s value within the organization. Everyone, from the mailroom on up, needs to feel that they perform a necessary and important function in the organization. Spelling this out for your employees upfront, when they are first hired, can clear the way for immediate higher engagement.  And, reminding employees of their value, by pointing it out on an ongoing basis, will continue to elicit higher contributions from them.  But this value should be real.  If someone is not performing some necessary and important function in the organization, maybe the position should be eliminated.    

So, elevate employee engagement.  Be clear about your expectations.  And be especially clear about the value you place on your employee’s work.

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Would you shy away from using a business tool that entices the best and brightest of the largest segment of the world’s population?

Many business owners and managers fear social media type applications, believing them to be time wasters and distractions. But social media applications have many business benefits.  Perhaps most importantly, internal social media applications are going to be a key aspect of recruiting and retaining the next generation of business leaders.

About 18 percent of the global workforce is comprised of Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. An additional 7 percent of the workforce is made up of Traditionalists, or the Silent Generation, born between 1900 and 1945. In some companies, the percentage of these older workers is even higher.  At Dow Chemical, approximately 40 percent of its workforce is likely to retire over the next five years, according to Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance (Jossey-Bass, Publishing) by authors Arthur L. Jue, Jackie Alcalde Marr and Mary Ellen Kassotakis.

As this large generation retires, we face a “global talent shortage.” The urgency for succession planning has never been greater for organizations looking to replace large segments of their workforce. And the next generation is dramatically different from those who came before.

Retiring Traditionalists, who value security and stability, and Baby Boomers, who value teamwork and human rights, are being replaced by Gen X, who values empowerment and demands corporate responsibility. Born between 1965 and 1976, they make up only 14 percent of the population. Gen Y, or the Millenials, born between 1977 and 2000, comprise the largest segment of the global population, at a whopping 24 percent.  As they mature, and the Traditionalists and Baby Boomers retire, they are going to dominate the workplace. This group values technology, personal growth and social activism.

By far the biggest portion of the population, Gen Y was born into a digital world, connected to video games, computer programs, the Internet, and to each other since they could hold a keyboard.  Technically savvy, they navigate the ether world and its ever changing tools instinctively. 

The Millenial perspective on work is that: they work to live; they want to contribute and make a difference; their work must matter; and they trust people, not institutions. They see that career lifespans can be short, and they want to be flexible and creative with their careers.  They are connected outside of work, and they expect to be connected inside the organization, as well.  Seventy-seven percent say that social aspects at work are very important to their satisfaction on the job. They see digital connectivity as essential to communication, collaboration and productivity.  If they don’t find it with one employer, they will leave and go to another that does provide it.

Many organizations fear social media applications.  Yet, studies have shown that business-oriented social media applications contribute to productivity, including speedier idea generation and product development.

Progressive organizations that have adopted internal social media applications are seeing the many benefits, not the least of which is attracting the best talent from the up and coming, technologically connected workforce.

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The need for increased environmental regulation has become more and more evident to our growing population; however, this notion does not come with much popularity. There seems to be a belief buried in the mind of the 21^st century business person that further environmental regulation and increased standards can only cost money and destroy competitiveness, when in fact this is not the case.

With tougher environmental standards, businesses are being forced to find ways to use their resources more efficiently. In many cases, this is leading the development of many new exciting and innovative products, methods and processes – increasing efficiency and the competitiveness within an industry. Competitiveness can be lost, however, when an industry refuses to make this transition and innovate.

Companies embracing the transition are not only becoming compliant and coinciding with the environment in terms of resource productivity, but they are also becoming truly sustainable by maximizing the efficiency and long-term growth of their organization.

The progressive businesses that are leading this change have been seeing external benefits as well. The environmental awareness has helped create transparency inside companies, resulting in a positive reputation amongst the public and increased morale for its employees.

With this in mind, it may be about that time for business to stop resisting the new environmental standards set and instead embrace, meet and surpass them through innovation. Then, sit back and reap in the benefits from creating a culture of sustainability inside their organization.

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LED lights have come a long way over the last few years, with superior technology that allows them to last up to 100 times longer than incandescent lights, and they can be used in a much wider variety of settings and conditions than incandescent. LEDs use only about 20 percent of the energy that incandescent bulbs use and are gaining market share with governments and commercial and residential users.

Price has been the main barrier to widespread market penetration by LEDs.  At $25 for an LED bulb that works in a standard light socket, they cost more than many people are willing to spend, even though they are expected to last 25 years.

There are less expensive LEDs, but quality can be an issue.  Mike Rogers, EVP of Green Homes America, a green retrofitting company based in Irvine, Calif., says that while the big box store LED products are not really ready for prime time, he is willing to recommend some of the higher priced products for their unrivaled energy efficiency and quality of light.

Luckily, according to the New York Times, prices are dropping rapidly. The $25 bulb was about twice as expensive six months ago, and some analysts believe it will drop to around $10 within the year.

 “Lighting is going to completely change over the course of this decade,” said Alan E. Salzman, chief executive of VantagePoint Venture Partners, in the article.

What is the business case for LED lights? Read more about this energy efficient solution, here.

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With the gubernatorial election slated for November 2, 2010, things are starting to heat up in Florida…over paper clips.

As odd as it may sound, some of the debating has to do with counting paper clips and other office supplies and may add up to some serious — $20 million — cents.

Democratic candidacy aside, in her role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the State of Florida and “paper-clip-saving-queen”, Alex Sink believes that her department can save tax payers $200,000 this year simply by putting a freeze on office supply spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. That’s a savings she calculates to be 30 percent for just one governmental department.

Sink’s opposition in the race does not think this idea will create jobs, but that is not what she has set out to do in her role as CFO.

Last year, Sink formed a task force to inventory office supplies in an effort to cut costs. Staff found surpluses of 37,601 individual binder clips and 17,425 individual pens along with 537 pounds of paper clips in the Department of Financial Services inventory. Sinks aides also calculated that the State of Florida as a whole spent almost $47 million on office supplies in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

Another part of Sink’s initiative involves establishing the “CFO Depot,” an interoffice website where agency workers share and trade surplus supplies.  Further, Sink makes recommendations to other state departments so they can establish office supply reuse programs as well; Sink’s office reports that even NASA is interested.

And Florida is not the only state to be on board with office supply reuse.  Brian LaValle with the State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Consumer Programs Division says, “MassDEP encourages (and practices reuse) of office supplies for the obvious reason that if you maximize the use of the materials you have then there is less need to buy more items.” He added, “This results in the consumption of fewer resources, which saves money and reduces the strain on the environment through the production and distribution of those resources.”

Throughout the country, businesses and institutions are also realizing savings, and your business can benefit as well.

Four Ways to Make Reuse Work in the Office

1. It’s Not all Pens and Paperclips

Your office supply reuse program need not be only paperclips, staplers and pens. Paper items provide opportunities for significant reduction of waste and reuse.

For instance, double-siding paper is a reuse idea that is frequently overlooked because this resource may already be used – once. Reusing the blank side of unused print jobs at your desk and in the copier or fax machine decreases the need for the purchase of paper, notepads and sticky notes and fully uses paper resources before they are recycled.

Defaulting copy machines to duplex mode can also reduce the consumption of paper. In 2008, offices generated over 27 million tons of paper, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Double-siding print documents could reduce this rate by 20 percent or 5 million tons.

Further significant savings can be found with shipping container reuse.

After receiving office supplies from New England Office Supply (NEOS) packaged in nearly 50,000 delivery boxes in 2008, the State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Consumer Programs Division decided to run a pilot program for statewide package reuse in 2009.

“The beauty of the pilot was that you could point to both environmental and financial benefits,” said LaValle. Because NEOS collected its delivery boxes back from the state agencies for reuse, the state had less packaging to dispose, and there were fewer packaging costs for NEOS, which they could then pass on to the state.

The pilot revealed that if NEOS collected and reused the boxes it packaged office supplies in for delivery to the state agencies  just two additional times before recycling, the result would be 32,000 fewer boxes used overall.  At a cost of 55 cents per box, this adds up to approximately $18,000 annually in savings.

Further, the pilot found that the cost savings opportunities provided the incentive for both NEOS and state agencies to reuse and recycle. It was also evident that commitment from senior management for environmental initiatives is key. LaValle explained, “In the case of MassDEP’s package reuse pilot program the initial resistance of getting folks to change their habits was the most difficult. If there was support from senior management then that agency had success.“

2. Centralized Location(s) for Sharing

The idea of setting up a reuse cabinet for office supplies is not new, but with budgets tight nationwide, CFO Sink’s common-sense approach presents an ‘idea whose time has come again.’

LaValle uses MassDEP’s Boston headquarters as an example, “[It] has several reuse stations on each floor where folks can find used office supplies such as binders, folders, writing implements, scissors, books, envelopes, tape, staplers, you name it.” He adds further, “This greatly reduces the need for employees to have to buy new materials and it is much faster and easier to get a hold of something you need from the reuse station than it is to order something and wait for delivery.”

It may seem intuitive, but setting up a centralized location, keeping like items together (e.g., tape with tape dispensers) and labeling items goes a long way in keeping reuse items efficiently organized and easily accessed.

If you work for a large business or multiple facility operation, you can also consider using interoffice transport for your reuse program as well implementing an improved inventory system (e.g., an optical scanner) to provide a more precise control over supplies and aid in your re-ordering processes.

LaValle also recommends getting everyone on board from the start, “Send out an e-mail letting everyone know about the reuse stations, what’s in them, where they are and ask for donations.”  He adds that it’s even better if the information can come from management, “encouraging everyone to use the reuse station – it saves money, time, and resources.”

3. Let the Web Help Sort Things Out

In the first few months of operation, Sink’s “CFO Depot” has seen hundreds of items exchanged. According to Jayme O’Rourke, Press Correspondent with the Florida Department of Financial Services Office of CFO Alex Sink, the site is set up with two main sections, “’We Have It’ where divisions post notices of items they have to either swap of give; ‘You Want It’ where Divisions post items they need.” O’Rourke says, “It works like Craigslist.” 

The “CFO Depot” has even seen some surprises.  O’Rourke explains, “Some amazing exchanges have occurred – another aspect of the CFO Depot is that employees have been finding ‘out of stock items’ and other items they had long ago given up hope of finding – on the site, free!”

Similar to Sink’s “CFO Depot,” many states boast online material exchange opportunities that can prove useful with packaging and other office supply reuse. 

MassDEP developed the Mass Material Trader, a free on-line material exchange network for businesses and manufacturers in Massachusetts to assist with reuse of materials.

LaValle says he ”would encourage businesses in Massachusetts to use this resource if they are wondering what to do with surplus inventory, manufacturing by-products, or even office furniture.” He adds, “Businesses can post those items that would otherwise be disposed of. Businesses can also search for items that are in many cases free to avoid purchasing new items, saving money and the environment.”

The Mass Material Trader is linked to the Reuse Marketplace the nation’s first multi-state materials exchange, which enables businesses, government agencies and nonprofits that have unwanted materials to connect with markets beyond their local areas.

4. Order Consolidation

You need not have a moratorium on the purchase of office supplies like CFO Sink has instituted for her department, but don’t overlook purchasing practices as part of your overall office supply reuse plan. How you order supplies can have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line. 

The 2009 MassDEP pilot study also looked at order consolidation. Before the pilot, New England Office Supply was required to provide next-day service for office supply orders placed from participating agencies at $8.78 per order for packaging, processing and delivery (without fuel). The next-day service often resulted in multiple deliveries to state shipping locations each day.

By reducing deliveries to just one day per week, the 25 state agencies at more than 70 locations in nine communities participating in the pilot were able to help reduce the orders shipped by 26 percent.  This amounted to savings of roughly $46,000, and allowed NEOS to put 24,450 fewer miles on their delivery trucks – not to mention they saved 2,750 gallons of fuel.

LaValle says the successful pilot may be transformed into legislation this year, but you don’t have to have a law, environmental purchasing policy or large business to benefit from the way supplies are ordered. Consolidated ordering can be used by small businesses as well. Even individual businesses that share an office complex may get better rates and help conserve fuel if they work together to place orders.

LaValle says, “There would certainly be costs savings associated with the reuse of packaging materials and, as mentioned above, if you couple this with the practice of reusing office supplies to maximize their life cycle costs for each purchase you could see direct and immediate savings.” He adds, “there could be reduced fuel costs with less deliveries to a facility, but this would have to be measured against the supplier actually reducing its route for all its customers on that route not just for your delivery.”

Even consolidating orders within a single company can be difficult and may not produce benefits if there is no streamlined approach to ordering. “Those companies that use a more fragmented system will have more difficulty herding the cats so to speak and will have to resolve any issues related to budgetary management (making sure that there is no overlap between department budgets for the purchase of office supplies),” says LaValle. “Some companies operate under a more streamlined operational system where purchasing and warehousing is done in a central location and I could see those companies implementing this type of system [consolidated ordering] very easily.”

And how did Sink’s moratorium do since it was announced at the end of January of this year? According to O’Rourke, fiscal year-end figures from June 30^th revealed that they reduced expenditures on office supplies by $225,000 – exceeding CFO Sink’s goal by $5,000. Additionally, while final figures on the ‘CFO Depot’ component of Sink’s initiative are not yet available, O’Rourke said a report issued in March showed further savings – “ use of the ‘CFO Depot’ feature on our website along with other swap/reuse actions (instead of new purchases) [has] saved over $11,000.”

An office supply reuse program may not win you the governorship; however, it will be a big win for your company’s bottom line and our valuable natural resources.

Start the conversation…^®

A single standard 033 gauge paperclip from a local office supply store costs roughly 4.5 cents. What small-change items are in surplus in your office that can help contribute to significant reuse savings?

You can learn more about the Florida Department of Financial Services support of CFO Sink’s reuse initiative in their CREW (Commodities Review & Efficiency Workgroup) Project Report.

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If you have been stopping at a number of online publications on your environmental journey lately, you might have spotted GreenNurture along the way. So if you would like to read more of our insight on the business of sustainability—or if you are simply a dedicated GreenNurture fan (which we hope you are), I suggest you take a peek at the following articles:

As Seen on Triple Pundit: The Advent of Benchmarking Sustainability by GreenNurture CEO Derrick Mains. Derrick brings you through the importance of creating baselines for corporate sustainability initiatives. “Just a few years ago, sustainability was a PROFITS, planet and people movement focused on financial ROI and tangible, calculable bottom-line benefits. But an evolution has taken place…”

As Seen on Environmental Leader: Moving Toward a Post Deepwater Horizon by Derrick Mains. BP’s environmental disaster not only had severe implications for their own business model, but for businesses nationwide—and potentially seeping into the waters of businesses worldwide, to boot.  Your business has not quite yet addressed sustainability? See why you might not want to wait…

As Seen on AZ Big Media: Green Scene: Businesses Wasting Away by Derrick Mains. Waste is a waste, says Derrick. If you business is wasteful, your business might just waste away.

As Seen on AZ Big Media: Blog: I’ll See You on the B-side by Derrick Mains.  See how the B-side of a single correlates to reducing your company’s impact on the environment.  “What do “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, “Pink Cadillac” by Bruce Springsteen and “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart all have in common…”

As Seen on Green Economy Post: Sustainability: What’s In It for Me? Creating a Cycle of Employee Engagement with Incentives by yours truly. “Though environmental and sustainability education is an integral piece to fulfilling the corporate social responsibility puzzle, it seems it may not be enough. The truth is some employees might feel morally compelled to act, but most will not…”

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The key to success with corporate sustainability programs is employee buy-in and engagement.   Park Howell, of Park&Co, recently wrote a blog post “Feeling all green and tingly inside: How to promote your corporate sustainability initiative internally”  that explored how some organizations are using sustainability programs to involve their employees in “greening” their organizations.

There are those systems, such as “Personal Sustainability Projects,” and “Green Champions,” that encourage employees to take small steps to reduce waste, water and energy use. Park went on to say how GreenNurture’s  online system not only helps other companies do just that but also rewards employees and allows them to pledge to “eco-actions,” or ways to improve efficiency in the workplace that are suggested by anyone in the organization. Other systems involve people within and outside the organization, as does Environmental Entrepreneurialism.

Small steps over time…

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Sustainability is a term that can be applied to just about any human activity.  Mostly used in reference to the natural world and man’s impact on it, sustainability can also mean those business practices that contribute to the lifespan of an organization.  Sustainability encompasses activity both within the organization, as well as its impact on the environment and people outside the organization.

Some indicators of “internal” sustainability include:  employee engagement, employee satisfaction, turnover and absenteeism rates, morale, levels of collaboration and communication.  These indicators may be more difficult to quantify than other “hard” indicators, such as financial data, but they measure aspects of an organization which ultimately impact the bottom line.

Absenteeism and turnover is significantly lower in organizations that have high levels of employee engagement, collaboration, communication and morale. To that point, engaged employees stay for what they give (they feel their job has purpose) and disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security) according to the 2008  Blessing White study titled The State of Employee Engagement.

Happier employees work harder, are more innovative, provide higher levels of customer service and contribute positively to the bottom line.  This synergistic cycle perpetuates the life of the company.

How can your organization create a sustainable culture?

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It’s official:  Being out in nature is healthy. 

If you needed scientific proof of what would seem obvious to most people, you now have it.  And in this day and time of obsessive peering into computer screens, maybe everyone needs to be reminded on the powerful impact on human beings on being out in nature. 

A New York Times article this week revealed that scientists have proven that being outdoors leads to several health benefits.  Forests, parks and tree-lined areas can increase immune function, lower stress, lower pulse rate and lower blood pressure.  Indeed, in Japan, going to parks for their therapeutic effects has a name, “Shinrin-yoku,” or “forest bathing.”  So if you need to give yourself a reason to take a break during the workday, aside from the pure enjoyment of it, now you can rationalize it with science and taxonomy.

And as set forth in another Earth-shattering article from Outside Magazine, more and more research is revealing the health benefits of vitamin D.  This too, seems obvious.  But to get such benefits as strengthened immune system, lower risk of numerous cancers, protection against joint and muscle pain, osteoporosis and weakening muscles is whether we are  getting enough of it.

According to the experts, Americans are suffering from severe vitamin D shortages, with 77 percent of the population at insufficient levels and depression, hypertension, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autism, fibromyalgia all are being linked to its deficiency.

The experts agree that the current Recommended Daily Allowance of 400 international units (IUs) is woefully outdated and that between 1,000 and 2,000 IUs per day is more appropriate.  But getting this amount from food is difficult. An eight ounce glass of fortified milk only provides 100 IUs.  A seven ounce piece of salmon has a whopping 1,400 IUs, but if you are worried about mercury poisoning, you can only eat about 12 ounces a week.  If you can’t get it from food, you can take supplements, but even that is not a sure cure, when the experts disagree about what exactly the recommended amount should be, and what amount is safe.

At five to 15 minutes of sunshine, three times a week, it would seem a no-brainer to simply go outside.  But then, the American Academy of Dermatology insists that no amount of unfiltered sun is safe.  What do you do?   

I have had my share of sun damage, including a basal cell carcinoma. And living in Phoenix makes avoiding the sun particularly difficult. I have been covering up with sunscreen and long sleeve shirts for years, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. Call me reckless, but I will risk a few minutes of sunshine every day to get all the benefits of vitamin D, rationalizing that those will offset any harm that may be caused to my skin. And as a nod to my dermatologist, I do, however, still shield my face.

Forest bathing, sun bathing.  Call it what you like, just get outside and do it!

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When it comes to having engaged employees, perhaps even more influential than an employee’s direct boss is the boss’ boss. According to Julie Gebauer, Don Lowman and Joanne Gordon, authors of Closing the Engagement Gap: How Great Companies Unlock Employee Potential for Superior Results (Penguin Group), the top driver of employee engagement is “senior management’s sincere interest in employee well-being.”   Yet while 75 percent of employees trust their immediate managers, only about half (53 percent) of employees trust their organization’s senior leaders, according to the 2008 Blessing White study The State of Employee Engagement.

How can senior management earn the trust of their employees and drive employee engagement?

Because senior managers’ main focus is on their direct reports, they tend to overlook employees at lower levels. While it may be difficult to enlarge the scope of senior management responsibility by dedicating more time and energy to lower level employees, it is certainly worthwhile.  Engaged employees contribute more to the bottom line, and their turnover rate is significantly lower.

The authors have devised five ways to increase employee engagement through more involved senior management.  Regarding lower level employees, senior managers need to:

1. Know them – As companies spend enormous resources analyzing the preferences and habits of their customers, so they should get to know what is important to their employees. This is the first step in getting employees to change the way they work and improve their level of engagement.
2. Grow Them – Creating a culture of learning that furthers the financial advancement of the company, while simultaneously giving professional and intellectual opportunities for growth of the individual, is paramount to stimulating employee productivity and engagement. 
3. Inspire Them – Employees want to feel like their work has meaning and value. Managers can inspire their employees by clearly setting forth their values and priorities and by creating a sense of pride in the work that they and the company do.
4. Involve Them – People give more to their jobs when they feel like active participants. Involving them includes informing employees about business operations and challenges; gathering employee input; encouraging collaboration with colleagues; and giving people freedom to act to further the mission of the company.
5. Reward Them – While pay and benefits are important and cannot be overlooked, appreciation and recognition are even more effective at boosting engagement.

Engagement is the key driver of overall organizational performance.  Reaching out to your employees, getting to know them as individuals, and being open, communicative and helpful is the most direct route to higher engagement.  

As Expeditors International of Washington Inc. CEO Peter Rose said to the Wall Street Journal, “You take care of employees. They take care of customers. And that takes care of Wall Street.”

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After observing the PR Newswire’s Engage CSR 2010: The Growth of Corporate Social Responsibility in a Socially Connected World virtual conference for a few hours this past Wednesday, I came away from the event completely satisfied. While quite a few ideas and speakers have kept me thinking about the conference for three days now, one specific presentation from Maggie Kohn has really stuck.

As Director of Global Corporate Responsibility for Merck & Co., Maggie Kohn has had her share of CSR and sustainability reporting experience. Her presentation went in depth on the benefits, both externally and internally, of sustainability reporting within a large organization.

Internal Benefits of Sustainability Reporting:

• You manage what you measure
• Catalyst for internal evaluation and goal setting
• Raises awareness of what corporate responsibility truly means
• Fosters culture of transparency
• Drives employee motivation

A key point here is the increase of employee motivation with internal evaluation and goal setting.  Employee engagement can be a huge benefactor of sustainability reporting – as people typically work harder for companies that aren’t just out to increase their bottom line, but are environmentally conscious while doing so. But what is the result of increased employee engagement? According the Gallup Human Sigma study, companies that built a critical mass of engaged employees grew earnings per share at 2.6 times the rate of low-engagement companies. So by increasing engagement through sustainability reporting, a company can, in turn, expect to increase their profits as well.

External Benefits of Sustainability Reporting:

• Launching pad for initiating stakeholder conversations
• Help increase trust and build relationships
• Illustrate company’s good work
• Reduction in the # of questionnaires to complete

All of the external benefits in sustainability reporting mentioned by Maggie Kohn really relate back to one benefit she previously had mentioned, fostering the culture of transparency.  With companies growing in power and the recent happenings of Enron and now BP, transparency has been an ever-increasing demand for large organizations. Kohn mentioned she could relate to this directly as her pharmaceuticals research company Merck & Co., has had many critics question their operations during her tenure and the company has been perceived poorly by the public at times even.  Once transparency within a company is established however, it then becomes a launching pad for stakeholder conversations, helps increase trust and builds relationships with clients, and truthfully illustrates a company’s good work to the public.

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Tangiers, Morocco

It’s vacation season, and with the economy in the doldrums, many are staying at home (“staycations”) or traveling on the cheap.  Low budget travel does not have to mean low levels of fun and indeed is usually even more interesting and exciting than higher priced alternatives. Further, low budget travel can be sustainable and give many benefits to the traveler, as well as to the people and places one visits.

Budget travel usually means going to one place and staying there long enough to really get a feel for it.  Immersion in a small town or village can be quite an adventure.  It starts by:

• Staying in low budget hotels, hostels or pensions.  Often, people will rent out rooms in their own homes, giving you a real inside look at how people live in different areas of the country or world, and the opportunity to establish relationships with people you otherwise would never get to know. On a trip to Honduras, we stayed in remote areas with hostels that had outhouses and outdoor showers, but the owners of these places were so friendly that they went out of their way to help us.  At one hostel, they organized a spontaneous community dance, with our teenagers freely intermingling with the locals.
•  Eating what the locals eat.  Depending on where you go, you may have no choice but to eat what is served.  I can’t say I have ever had a craving for mashed plantains and beans since eating them daily for weeks in Uganda.
• Taking local transportation.  There aren’t many people who can compete with your stories of travelling on buses filled with chickens and goats strapped to the top.  It’s cheap, colorful and you never know when you will reach your destination! 
• Buying locally made mementos.  When you buy the arts and crafts made by the people you are visiting, you are supporting and strengthening their culture.  Some of the mementos that mean the most to me are those that cost next to nothing, but gave much needed cash to the artisan.  Trading is also a good way to bring home prized souvenirs.  We traded fishing hooks and line for wooden spoons carved on the spot by a Pygmy tribe in Zaire.

Sustainable travel overseas doesn’t have to be expensive.  Our 17-day Honduras trip cost $1,500 per person, including airfare.  A recent two-week overland trip to Mexico’s Copper Canyon only cost $500 a piece.  Buying local is not only less expensive, it also significantly helps the local economy by supporting family businesses and keeping revenues where they help most, in the community.  But traveling on the cheap is not for everyone.  To do it right, you need the following qualities:

• An appetite for adventure.  As Yvon Chouinard, of Patagonia, once said, adventure begins when things go wrong.  You need to see mishaps and failed plans as opportunities for new experiences and be able to go with the flow
• You like spontaneity; you are flexible; and you don’t have to plan everything out in great detail in advance
• You want to learn as much as possible about the local culture by immersing yourself in it, even if it means a little discomfort
• You are willing to slow down and to cover fewer miles in more time

My husband and I once met up with a friend who was traveling in Europe at the same time we were.  We decided to go to Morocco together by taking trains from France through Spain, then by boat to Tangiers.  As we got closer to our destination, and the environment more foreign, our friend became increasingly agitated.  Upon landing in Tangiers, we were surrounded by a large group of men and boys all trying to sell us something, or take us to a hotel, or give us a tour of the city.  Goats roamed the streets, it was dirty and totally exotic.  Our friend took a look around and after about ten minutes, re-boarded the boat and headed back to Europe.

Sustainable travel doesn’t only apply to faraway places.  You can enjoy the benefits by going somewhere close – even a couple hours drive from where you live will usually take you to a relatively unfamiliar environment.  You can save money, help sustain a local economy and culture, and have memories that last a lifetime.

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There were quite a few takeaways from Wednesday’s PR Newswire’s Engage CSR 2010: The Growth of Corporate Social Responsibility in a Socially Connected World virtual conference.

It was by far the most extensive virtual event that I have ever attended. Normally, “virtual” events consist of a GoToMeeting-esq platform, last one hour and explore one area of an industry. Engage CSR 2010 is one of the few that I would actually call a virtual “conference.”

First of all, it felt as though you were stepping into the virtual 3-D world of the Sims. You could “walk” into the pavilion and visit different booths. You could “chat” with other conference attendees. And choose the panels you would like to “attend” in the auditorium. Just as the actual platform was elevated, the panels included various high-level expert who explored different areas of sustainability, analytics, and how to integrate these concepts with social and new media to offer another layer of communication and transparency.

One key message that was brought up a few times was that social media, blogs specifically, allow you to take a meaty chunk of information and slice it up into “digestible” pieces.  So that is exactly what I am going to do with my CSR panel takeaways.

Today’s post is on Panel 1: CSR and Sustainability Reporting.  

The panel consisted of:

- Mike Wallace, Director Sustainability Reporting Framework of the Global Reporting Initiative

- Elaine Cohen, Co-founder and managing partner of CSR consulting firm Beyond Business

- Maggie Kohn, Director of CSR of Merck

-Kevin Moss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of telecommunications giant BT

- Michael Muyot, President of CRD Analytics and GreenNurture advisor

The Who, What, Why and How of Reporting:

 
-How credible are sustainability reports?

Sustainability Indexing can leverage sustainability reporting, increasing credibility through transparency to stakeholders. One example that Michael Muyot used was Nintendo Company Ltd. Nintendo demonstrated above average financial potential but reported far too fair ESG metrics to earn a competitive sustainable performance value.

Indexing shows what they are doing well and what they could be doing better. (Michael Muyot)

-Is reporting just for big global companies?

CSR has been led by the large, but many small to medium sized businesses can also realize great benefits. Even the small businesses have stakeholders. (Elaine Cohen)

 
-Do investors really take notice of sustainability reports?

If you are an active shareholder, you are going to look through this data and be most interested in the blanks. Why can’t some of these companies measure these things? Do they feel that they are important? Maybe they just do not want to share this information? (Mike Wallace)

 
-How to engage stakeholders through sustainability reporting? And why should a company report on sustainability if this is not a legal requirement?

It is a way to show performance over time. CRD Analytics has even created a new index for just this. The Sustainable Momentum Index looks at ESG momentum (from 2006-2009) and shows the momentum in those improving and if they have improved faster than peers.

Stakeholders want to see how companies are performing against their peers and against their benchmarks. (Mike Wallace)

It is not just companies doing well, but who is outperforming the market. (Michael Muyot)

 
-Are sustainability reports just a PR exercise?

Sustainability reports should include the good and the bad—the areas of improvement. The minuses of reporting the bad news is that it can be embarrassing and you’re going to have to know how you are going to respond to the public. But it increases the level of transparency and builds trust by being willing to include the areas of improvement. It is all about balance, though and how you get that balance right. (Kevin Moss)

To be credible you need to have the positive and the negative. If you are only reporting rosy pictures, smiling kids, you’re not going to be taken seriously by sophisticated readers of these reports. (Maggie Kohn)

-Who should lead the reporting efforts in a company?

There is a trend in Europe that companies have a board of director overseeing CSR initiatives. Are we seeing this here?

Kohn says yes, she sees the trend going in this direction. The key to making sure CSR is integrated into the company and isn’t something that just lives in a small group, is to have cross functional teams. She feels that possibly the best scenarios would be to have a board committee but then a full board review performance once a year against the ESG criteria.

As far as Merck goes, she went on to say that they have a number of internal groups as well as committees. They have a high level council, which reports up to an executive committee, and then a board committee of public policy and social responsibility reviews the CSR efforts three times a year. (Maggie Kohn) 

-What do you do with your report once it is published?

Panelists throughout the day seemed to agree to break it up into “digestible” bits and communicate the ideas through different channels—with a focus on social media.

-How to generate effective PR for your sustainability report without generating cynicism?

 Elaine Cohen said to create a delicate balance of transparency, process and PR with the following three areas of sustainability reporting:  

1. Concept

 2. Content: Include both internal and external stakeholders in the context of the content. It should include the materiality matrix, or the material information associated with the report.

3. Communication: The reporting is a platform for communication. It should not be the only thing a company produces. The information should be communicated through different channels (social media, podcasts etc.)

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If you haven’t seen the latest modular home designs, you really need to check them out.  If you think you’ve seen it all, you are infor a surprise: They are cool, funky, creative and green!

-There’s the Dice House, a 30’ by 30’ by 30’ cube that produces 90 percent of the home’s energy needs through a photovoltaic umbrella dome.  This dome traps heat, which warms water and heats the home, and with photovoltaic cells, produces approximately 33 kilowatt hours per day.

-Then there’s the Hip Pod House, made from renewable materials

 -The Magma Design LoftFloat, which is completely solar powered

-The Hillside Pod Home, offering 360 degree views

- Straw and Hemp homes, which are airtight, mold resistant and completely carbon negative

- and the Global Sustainable Home by John Farag, which eliminates sewer and water infrastructure by using dry composting toilets and  air-to-water condenser to create fresh water .

If ever there was an industry that needs an overhaul, it is the construction industry.  Most of its practices, from ripping apart and eroding the natural landscape to emitting untold toxins into the soil and air, can be eliminated, or nearly so, in the controlled environment of a modular buildings factory.  Why modular buildings have not gained greater ground in the construction industry is a mystery, but probably due mostly to inertia. Modulars are gaining ground, however. 

Once relegated to rural construction, where it wasn’t economically feasible to build site-built homes, modular homes are now becoming mainstream. 

Once relegated to rural construction, where it wasn’t economically feasible to build site built homes, modular homes are now becoming mainstream.  Not to be confused with mobile homes, which are built to codes generally considered to be of lesser quality, modular homes are built to the same high standards of site homes. They are constructed in factories far away from their ultimate destinations and when completed, are essentially indistinguishable from typical site-built homes. Yet, many agree that modular homes are not only equal to site-built homes, but indeed superior to them.

Consider these advantages of modular homes:

They are economical:  By being built in factories, economies of scale prevail and bulk pricing for materials are passed on to the homeowner. Delivery fees, which are significant for site built homes, are non-existent for modulars. Construction site theft is not an issue, and construction delays disappear. Finally, the speed of construction means a faster return on investment. 

They are environmentally friendly:  Under modular factory conditions, waste is monitored and reduced; with site built homes, the waste can fill several dumpsters.  Airborne dust and pollution are controlled in a factory setting, and workers are protected by state and federal health mandates.  With site-built homes, workers usually have to commute many miles to the worksite, as do delivery trucks, numerous times over the course of several months.  By contrast, the amount of energy spent on transportation with a modular home is reduced to a single delivery. Further, with site-built homes, the lot’s natural vegetation is scraped away so the typical two to ten delivery trucks a day can come and go easily. The land is often further degraded by toxins from engine leaks and spilled solvents. With modulars, toxins are minimized, and there is little disruption to the landscape, as there is no need to remove much, or any, of the natural vegetation.

They are stronger, tighter, more energy efficient:  When FEMA studied the destruction in Dade County, Florida after Hurricane Andrew, they concluded that modular and masonry homes fared best compared to other construction, such as typical “stick” construction.  In addition to being stronger, modular homes are more energy efficient.  Because it doesn’t face the vicissitudes of weather, the wood in modular homes doesn’t warp, leading to tighter construction and better insulation.  And some modular homes are built with solar panels, rainwater harvesting and water saving systems, as well.    

They are cool and customizable:  There are modular commercial, office, industrial, educational and health care buildings too, with designs that range from traditional to ultra contemporary. 

Next time you consider moving to or building a new home or office, look into modular buildings first.  You may be able to get exactly what you want for less cost to you and to the environment.

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Incentives and employee motivation go hand in hand, as we have been noting here.

So this story strikes close to our heart, since it is right here in Phoenix.

You may not hear the word ‘insourcing’ often, because its evil nemesis outsourcing gets so much of press. But drawing ideas from the well that’s within the organization is often overlooked.

Often there are no mechanisms in place for ideas to bubble up, resulting in apathy or timidness in generating suggestions.  This story by Lynh Bui today (in the Arizona Republic)  talks of 25 out of 175 ideas being implemented in 2009-2010. That’s about a 11 percent success!

Now what if Phoenix were to open up the valves in the employee idea reservoir, and say, aim at generating 720 ideas next year (a measly 60 a month). That same 11 percent rate would then triple the number of implemented ideas.

Incentives are great. But many employees don’t always wait for these to get started. Bui’s observation is spot on: “Employees aren’t necessarily turning in ideas just for the awards.”

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If the march of progress is inexorably forward, what happens when we reach the edge of a cliff?  This is the question asked by Yvon Chouinard, septuagenarian rock climber, surfer, founder of the Patagonia outdoor clothing line and philanthropist in the movie 180° South: Conquerors of the Useless.

This beautifully filmed movie features long-time friends Chouinard and Douglas Tompkins, founder of The North Face, and their attempts to save vast swaths of wilderness from the press of development.  It begins with the 10,000 mile sea voyage of Jeff Johnson, a young rock climber inspired by Chouinard and Tompkins, who aims to climb Cerro Corcovado peak in Patagonia, in southern Argentina.  During the voyage, the mast of the sailboat collapses and breaks, and the crew is forced to motor 400 miles to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) for repairs.

While on Rapa Nui, Johnson learns about the history of the island’s moai – the famous statues of large, stone heads carved by the indigenous population. The moai line the island’s coast, which is no small feat considering the lack of industrial tools when they were created. According to local legend, the problem of transporting these large rocks to every corner of the island was solved by cutting down trees and rolling the rocks on top of them to their destination.  Unfortunately, in each clan’s or tribe’s desire to create more statues than the next tribe over, all the island’s trees were cut down, leaving a denuded landscape void of timber. The population of the island dropped from around 3,000 to 111 people by 1877. (The effects of deforestation on the population, some say, were less than the slave raiding and disease introduced by Europeans, however).

Fast forward to Santiago, Chile. Repaired, the sailboat crosses to the mainland and Johnson lands in Santiago, the capital. Larger than Los Angeles, it is a sprawling megalopolis. To provide energy to its urban population, the Chilean government has “sold” its rivers to power companies, which are rapidly damming them. Further, wood pulp companies have built huge factories next to waterways to provide timber for urban development, poisoning the water and air, and destroying the local fishing and agricultural way of life of the area’s inhabitants.  

This is where Chouinard and Tompkins come in. Tompkins and his wife purchase 2 million acres of pristine, undeveloped land in Chile and Argentina, for the purpose of restoring, protecting and donating as national parks. Tompkins and local vaqueros then join forces and actively protest the construction of dams on two of Chile’s wildest rivers.

The primary consumers of the dam’s power are vast distances away from the dams, and, as pointed out by one Chilean researcher, are so removed from the process that they aren’t really aware of its true cost.

The Chilean saga is not unique – it has been repeated in its many manifestations since the Industrial Revolution.  But how long can it go on?  How long until, like the legend of Rapa Nui, there is nothing left?

Back to Chouinard’s question regarding the forward march of progress.  Many believe that moving toward sustainability requires us to move backward, backward along the path of progress.

As Chouinard points out in the movie, however, when you come to the edge of cliff, you never walk backwards from the cliff edge.  At the same time, you don’t continue moving forward right off the edge of the cliff.  Instead, what you do is turn around and move forward – but in a different direction.

In reality, sustainability is not about going backwards. It is about using what we know now to make ourselves more efficient and more effective in our use of resources, both human and natural.  Sustainability is about being creative, innovative, inventive and forward looking, not about returning to the Stone Age.

Sustainable business practices will improve your company’s profitability, contributing to its bottom line over the long-term.  But it will also contribute to the bottom line of reducing everyone’s “footprint” on the planet, making the planet a better place, for all of us, and our children, over the long-term. 

And don’t think that sustainability is only about big fixes and dramatic action. Small efforts add up quickly. Employees at Park&Co., an advertising agency, decided to limit themselves to one ream of paper per person per year, saving the company paper and saving trees in the process. What can you do to reduce your company’s energy demands?  What processes can you implement to save resources?

Many people believe we have reached a tipping point with the world’s resources—that we are on the edge of the cliff.  Can we turn around and move forward toward sustainability, rather than heading over the cliff?  It is up to us to decide.

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First, let’s define what is meant by social media.

 Melcrum, a research and information company that gathers best practices from businesses around the world, describes it as online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with one another. It can take myriad forms: text, images, audio and video. Blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis and vlogs (video podcasts) fall into these categories.

And in good form, the definition from social media monster Wikipedia states that it is “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social dialogues.”

Social media within the context of “transforming and broadcasting media monologues into social dialogues” doesn’t sound so bad when considering use in the workplace, does it?

Let’s face it: Business models and operations have changed and will continue to change. We have to keep up. Just as technology has transformed the print media industry, social media has and will continue to shift and mold business in general. It has stepped into our marketing and public relations—changing how we relate to our consumers and public, and how we build our brands. It has changed customer service, allowing for a two-way conversation among consumers who are now placed in the driver’s seat. And it has extended a big hand to HR departments, leveraging them to acquire the best possible workforce by seeking out qualified professionals and researching, or Googling, applicants. HR doesn’t just know what schools that person has gone to, they now know who their friends are and what their preference is in movies.

The list goes on and on.  

But social media to engage employees within a company? Really?

A 2007 Melcrum study, How to Engage Employees with Social Media: Strategies to Improve Communication and collaboration, says yes:

-71 percent of executives in the study said social media would improve employee engagement

-59 percent said improved internal communication

-51percent said development of internal communities

-47 percent said the ability to create a two-way dialogue with senior executives

Social media was said to hold all of this great power and potential, but only 28 percent of decision-makers were confident in how to implement or make use of it in their integrated communication strategy.

A Change in Strategy: 7 important issues to consider (Adapted from Melcrum’s Top Ten list)

1. Assess Company Culture:  Internal social media lends itself to flattening corporate hierarchies.  Will your company be receptive to such a shift?

2. Focus on People (not technology): The technology might sound great, but does it answer the needs or preferences of your people? GreenNurture writer Sally Russell mentioned in yesterday’s post, The Heart of Change-How to Make it Last, that change will not be successful if it clashes with the identity of your employees. The same can be said about technology.

3.  Business Drivers: Be realistic about goals to meet with the tools. Do not “get caught up in the hype.” Sure, it is supposed to do x, y and z, but will it? Will it do what is intended for YOUR company? Take for instance, the iPad. (It is not necessarily a social media tool, but it is technology and it is a tool.)  It’s new. It’s sleek. It’s savvy. It has all kind of apps and gadgets and gizmos. But does it have a purpose in the business world? Sure, I suppose for some businesses, it does. For others, it is simply a new toy.  Always keep ROI in mind when considering social media tools and technology. It might not cost $200 to buy social media, but it might cost you your employees’ time.

4.  Social Media is not Traditional Media: Do not expect a revenue stream directly from your involvement with the technology. It can leverage your brand and increase visibility that can, in turn, equal profits, but social media is not a money-maker in and of itself.  To that point, monetizing in the front has not been proven a successful business model. The Wall Street Journal found this out the hard way. Over the last five or so years, the prestigious publication has played an exhausting game of business model hopscotch—jumping from one model to the next. They put up walls around their content with a paid subscription, placed value on different forms of their content and finally, have become a free online publication. The audience has more power than ever, and the web is an endless supply of information. If they are not getting it from you, they will get it someplace else. One of the business drivers must be to not drive your audience away. Interestingly enough, a Wall Street Journal journalist summed up this phenomenon best: “For the Google Generation, the Internet is the land of the free.”

5. A Level Playing Field: All employees are invited to the table, or to the conversation. Top-down is now “side-to-side.” In other words, gather the collective intelligence of your employees.

6. Be Creative: There is no science to social media. Different strategies work for different industries. Different employees will offer different expertise. And, most importantly, social media is 9/10 times FREE. You will not lose an investment—other than, possibly, your employees’ time.

7. Instructions for Use: When handing out a new social tool to your company, think of it as if you are handing out a new device, complete with instruction manual. Studies have shown that one of the biggest drivers of employee engagement is being clear about expectations, goals and roles. To make sure employees are using the tools—and using them within the context and messaging of your company—set some guidelines. And make sure they are staying within those guidelines. Safeguard your company’s reputation. There is nothing worse than a 140-character faulty or inaccurate statement going viral—and it WILL go viral.

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Last week’s blog post “The Challenge of Change” discussed the three steps to change as according to authors Chip and Dan Heath in their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Random House Inc.).

Of the three steps in bringing about change, the second is the most critical. That step is to appeal to the emotions, rather than to the reason, of the people you want to change. If someone agrees to make a change on an emotional level, from their heart, most of the work is already done, and the change will be lasting. That’s because decisions they make will come from the perspective of who they are and what someone like them would do if faced with a challenge like they are facing. 

Any effort at change that contradicts or violates someone’s identity is likely to fail.

The difficulty is finding out what appeals to the emotions of a variety of employees, and what they identify with, as each has his or her own needs and values.

According to the authors, one way to get a number of people “on the same page” emotionally is to create an identity that they all willingly adopt. One example they provide is of a can manufacturing company in Brazil. This company had been in business for many years and was doing well, but management wanted to take the company to the next level. They decided to address all their employees as “inventors” and to challenge them with being on the lookout for new innovations.  When new employees joined the company, they signed “Innovation Contracts.”  “Inventing” became a part of everyone’s job, even though most of the workers had no experience in engineering or mechanics.  Procedures were set up so that submitting ideas was easy.

In 2008, employees submitted 134,846 ideas – an average of 145.2 per inventor!  Most of the inventions were for new products and energy-saving ideas.

Another example provided by the authors was of an accounting department manager who was rigid and uncompromising when he was asked to alter his invoicing and funds disbursement system to accommodate some valued clients. It wasn’t until this manager was taken to the offices of one of their non-profit clients and saw first-hand how his system was negatively affecting them that he changed.  At that moment, he realized he was not being the person he wanted to be – he did not want to be seen, or to see himself, as the “problem.” He identified so much with being part of the “solution” that he became an advocate for them, rather than the opponent he had been, and he innovated changes to his accounting system above what had been requested of him.

Zappos, the online shoe sales company, has a rigorous hiring process, making potential employees go through several rounds of interviews and personality tests. When they have made it to the final stage, potential employees are offered a relatively large sum to not take the job. This last weeding out phase ensures that Zappos only hires the people who have the qualities they are looking for. Once hired, Zappos employees are a part of an exclusive group, with a strong identity of being one of the chosen few to work for the best company in that space.

Aligning the identities of your employees with the values and goals of your company will go a long way towards bringing about changes that last. How can your company reinforce or cultivate its identity and those of its employees to maximize employee engagement?

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When greening operations, companies can be faced with a dilemma: What do I do with all of this extra stuff? These resources that can likely be used again by someone else?

If you are seeking that perfect company out there that is in need of the exact resources that you are about to throw away, meet your match: RecycleMatch.

The concept came from a pair of in-laws indulging in some “trash talk” over dinner—or a business model for companies to divert materials from the landfill and profit. The self-described “engineer at heart” Chad Farrell and puzzle-solving marketing guru Brooke Betts Farrell have created an online marketplace for transforming commercial waste into value—in other words, giving companies another revenue stream through their waste stream.

Sometimes referred to as the “eBay of Recycling,” the Houston-based company facilitates matches for such materials as building, concrete/ceramics, chemicals, electronics, food/organics, glass, metals, minerals, paper, plastics, textiles and wood. Companies that have commercial volumes of non-hazardous materials, those seeking to lower cost of raw materials or recycled raw material solution can find success through RecycleMatch. In particular, manufacturing companies can use the marketplace in multiple spots along the supply chain.

Like other online marketplaces, the process requires the basics: the description of the waste or materials, estimated quantities, location, photos, packaging / loadout information and timing.

Trash to Treasure Examples

Glass Windows Turned Chic Countertops: A Houston energy company was retrofitting their building and was left with 1,000 exterior glass windows that the local recycling company would not take. Then, a company that makes countertops and tile found use for the materials by processing to make one-of-a-kind products. Amount of resources saved: 180,000 lbs.

Vinyl Billboards Turned Eco-friendly Tote Bags: A company that marketed their services on billboards had no use for the vinyl when they came down. Another RecycleMatch user spun these billboards into handy-dandy reusable shopping bags.

Learn more about diverting your company’s materials, here.

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Tossed into Sustainability is a series of GreenNurture eco-articles on directors of sustainability. Sustainability is a new—but necessary—concept to many industries, and sometimes those who take on the opportunity of such a position are faced with many challenges. Sometimes, this is even their first introduction to sustainability.

And as Gartners 2009 sustainability survey predicts one-third of enterprises are starting to take an aggressive stance on sustainability, more and more companies—and employees—will be in this very position.

The Tossed into Sustainability series takes an in-depth look at the journeys of a few sustainability directors from around the country. What is sustainability? How did they get the necessary knowledge and information? What are some barriers that they have come across? How have they risen above them? What are their proudest moments so far? Advice for others in their shoes?

Neil Ridgely, sustainability coordinator for Carroll County Government in Maryland, is the most recent addition to the series. A self-described “special assignments person,” Ridgely is a certified horticulturalist and beekeeper that has held a wide range of roles throughout the years. Working in local government, he has come up against some major hurdles but has learned to work around them by being “creative.”

Nicole Peill-Moelter, director of environmental sustainability at Akamai, a web application acceleration and performance management company whose servers deliver about 20 percent of all Internet traffic. With a background in chemical and environmental engineering, one of the sustainability initiatives that Peill-Moelter has introduced to the technology company might be surprising to some: composting. She discusses the business drivers of this and other sustainability initiatives she has put in place.

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As we had mentioned a few weeks prior, Park Howell of Park&Co., an advertising firm focused on “sustainable storytelling,”  is chronicling his experiences deploying a GreenNurture campaign within his workplace. His most recent blog post detailed how the Wall Street Journal caught wind of GreenNurture, of which they said was one of the three best ways for a company to become eco-friendly, and the game-changing ideas for a more sustainable workplace that Park&Co. has entered in the application.

There was one idea—or as we like to call it, eco-action—in particular that has gotten the most attention…

One ream of paper.

Per person.

Per year.

No more.

Well, unless once the employee runs out, he or she petitions as to why they need more paper.

Will it work? We will have to keep tabs on Park’s blog for that one. But one thing is for sure: A small idea can make a big difference. This eco-action will, without a doubt, save some trees and Park&Co. money over the duration of the year. Another thing that it will do—and likely already has done—is create disruptive change within the workplace. People now think twice before they act…Before they print that last piece of paper out of a stream of pages that ends up with a few miscellaneous lines and a copyright symbol…that one run-off page that ends up in the trashcan next to the printer. People will start to look for alternatives. How do I stretch this ream of paper out to get the most use out of it and make it last? How ‘bout double-sided printing? Or Bob down the hall doesn’t ever print so maybe I will barter with him for a page or two.

As simple of an idea that it may be, it really has reinforced the idea that resources are not infinite.

So how about your company? Park&Co. has challenged others to take “One Ream Per Person Per Year” challenge. ..Will you accept?

How can you deploy a GreenNurture campaign in your workplace? Learn more, here.

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You can argue for incremental change if things are good enough. Until they get bad enough, you can’t talk about transformational change.”

–Rick Stansley, chairman of the board at the University of Toledo’s Innovation Enterprises, as quoted by USA Today

Adaption and change are essential to the survival of species. They are equally essential to the survival of companies, especially in environments that are rapidly evolving, such as this “Great Recession” we are currently experiencing.

Yet making transformational changes can be one of the most difficult things an organization can undertake. Many people resist change, for a variety of reasons. They don’t like leaving their comfort zone. They don’t feel the need for or are afraid of change. They don’t see a personal benefit to change. Or they actively disagree with the change.

How do businesses successfully implement change? How do they overcome the resistance that commonly accompanies change? How can they make the changes last over time? According to Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Random House Inc.), there are three steps to implementing change:

1. Provide a clear, specific picture of the change to all those who are involved or affected

2. Appeal to the emotions, rather than to the reason, of those who are needed to implement the change

3. Outline the steps or provide a “script” for employees to follow when implementing the change

Providing a clear picture of what the changes will look like gets everyone on the same page. If only a few people in upper management understand what the changes are about, it won’t make any sense to those who are asked to implement the change. Not knowing what the end result is supposed to look like will keep people confused, resistant and immobilized.

But even if the changes are spelled out, illustrated, supported with facts and figures and presented to everyone in the organization, you can still find your organization at a standstill. That’s because the most important element of initiating change is to obtain emotional buy-in. Without emotional support, all the logic in the world will fall on deaf ears.

The power of emotion cannot be underestimated – it is the difference between success and failure in implementing change. In one non-profit, the board and staff had been conducting their affairs in the same way for the past 30 years. Everything was still done manually, without the use of computers. It wasn’t until the organization felt the pain of losing its endowment fund and closing its doors that they moved into the digital age and began to operate more efficiently, despite numerous attempts by a couple of newcomers to convince them to do so much earlier. Finding the right emotional motivator can be very challenging. Some people are motivated by risk aversion (losing market share, losing one’s job), others by the potential of growth (potential for career advancement, more income), and yet others are motivated by doing good (reaching more people who need the organization’s products or services). People can be motivated by multiple, changing emotions, which adds further complexity to the issue. Finding the right motivators is critical, however, even if it means repeated attempts to do so.

Once you have buy-in, you are well on your way! Now, you need to provide goals and steps along the path. Of course, situations are fluid so the steps should not be overly detailed, giving your employees the option to improvise, if needed. Follow-up and feedback are essential, too, until the changes have taken root.

Adapting and changing will not only help your company survive, but indeed thrive, in an ever-evolving environment.

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What was once known as European Wind Day became Global Wind Day by the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) and GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council) in 2009.  Tomorrow, more than 30 countries will be taking part in the day to raise public awareness on wind energy.

In central Rome, there will be conferences and sporting events for over two weeks. In Poland, inflatable wind turbines eight metres high will be placed in front of government offices around the country. In Estonia, a ‘wind turbines in the future’ design contest will award the winner the chance to drive a Toyota Prius for one month. In Argentina, Sweden and the Netherlands there will be photo competitions. And in Brussels, a 29 metre turbine blade will be put up in the heart of the European quarter. (2010 GWEC press release)

Wind energy has, without a doubt, a presence in the United States. In 2008, wind turbines generated electricity in 31 different states in 2008—with Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oklahoma producing the most of this alternative energy source, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Texas is one of the states with activities planned for tomorrow.

Leaders in Wind Energy include:

-Norway: Currently building the world’s largest wind turbine. It will be 25 meters in diameter larger than the largest turbine in existence today. Under the right wind conditions, 25 of these new turbines could fulfill the electricity needs of the 250,000 residents of Bergen, Norway’s second largest city. 

-Brussels: Placed the blade of a wind turbine in the middle of the European Union to not only commemorate the June 15 Global Wind Day but the EU Green Week (June 1-4).

-Denmark: Receives more than 21 percent of energy from wind energy sources.

Wind Energy on the Horizon:

Airborne wind turbines seem to be what’s next for alternative energy. With prototypes currently taking a spin in the air, these turbines claim to be more reliable sources of energy than traditional turbines on the ground as they do not have to rely on fluctuating wind currents.  Learn more, here.

5 Easy, Breezy Wind Facts

-In 2007, wind energy saved 91 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the EU, equivalent to taking 46 million cars off the roads.

- Wind energy meets almost 4 percent of total EU electricity demand, providing power for the equivalent of 30 million average EU households (15 percent of EU households).

-A medium-sized wind turbine produces electricity equivalent to the consumption of 1,375 average EU households annually.

- Wind turbines can carry on generating electricity for 20-25 years.

-During the last ten years, 30 percent of all electricity generating capacity installed in the EU has been wind power. The technology is the second largest contributor to economic activity and employment in the area of power plant manufacturing.

Dispel 5 Popular Wind Myths

Any stats not attributed are from the European Wind Energy Association.

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I’ve been asking around what tools people use to to collaborate better, and I’ve been getting some great pointers.

There are many ways to pull a team together, and create an intra-networking experience. The explosion of sharing networks and apps are being primed for the mobile experience, anticipating a time when many of us will slip in and out of our roles as employees, Friends (yes, upper-case kind!) and corporate citizens.

These ’social mapping’ services may seem more like games in their early iterations, rewarding users for certain tasks. But just as how Twitter looked like a status update service in its early days, these mobile-based services will soon let us do more than vainly record our location.

GoWalla, a location mapping app for the Android, iPhone and Blackberry, lets us check-in’ to locations, as does FourSquare., awarding badges and mayor-ships etc.

A term I have come across in some of these networks is that they “are only acting as a passive conduit for online distribution and publication” of user content. In other words, the intent of the application is to tether people and content.

We may be transitioning to that time soon. But we are still toggling between active, in-your-face social networks such as Facebook, and the passive ones. Someday these could be rich social spaces, albeit passive and invisible. Also reward-based.

Like to see where all this is going? Check out these three services:

• GoWalla.com

• ZoomAtlas.com

• FourSquare

• Plazes.com

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It seems so simple, almost as if it should go without saying.  But so many of us forget to do it that it is the number one reason employees quit their jobs.  What is this simple thing?  Recognition.  Recognition for a job well done on big projects as well as for small, daily contributions.

Studies have shown that the overwhelming reason people leave their jobs is because of bad managers.  A 2010 Towers Watkins Global Workforce Study showed that 80% of companies in 2009 said that leadership was a top driver for engagement. But “confidence in leaders and managers—particularly their competence and support—is low, especially in terms of interpersonal or “relational” (versus operational) aspects of their roles. Employees appear hungry for an emotional connection to their management teams that they feel is conspicuously absent right now. This is especially disturbing given the central role that leadership continues to play in driving employee engagement.” And the biggest complaint about leadership is that managers ignore their employees.  Why is this such a widespread, destructive phenomenon?

Managers are often not trained to become managers – many are promoted to management positions because they did their prior job well.  Of course, the skills for doing a particular job don’t necessarily lend themselves to knowing how to be a good manager.  Management primarily entails planning, directing, supervising, monitoring a group of individuals to accomplish goals and directives, but very few new managers are given adequate training for these new responsibilities.

It’s been said that it takes five compliments to outweigh negative feelings from a single criticism. That’s a lot of positive feedback to counteract the negative!  And yet, being ignored completely can be even worse than  being criticized.  People who are ignored by their managers dislike their jobs, and feel that they are not doing anything important.  They feel invisible, their productivity drops, and they are merely at their desks to put in their time until they can find a better job.

Engaged employees, those who like their jobs and who stay with their employer longer, feel like valuable members of a team, that their contributions count.  They are significantly more productive.  Studies have shown that the energy level of engaged employees stays high throughout the workday, while the energy level of unhappy employees falls dramatically from 9 a.m. until they are ready to go home, according to Tom Rath and James K. Harter, authors of Well-being: The Five Essential Elements (Deckle Edge).

In the 2008 Blessing White Study “The State of Employee Engagement,” the correlation between engagement and retention was clear, with 85% of engaged employees indicating that they plan to stay with their employer through 2008. Further, the study states that “engaged employees stay for what they give (they like their work); disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security).”

 The difference between happy, productive and engaged employees and those looking to find another job usually boils down to managers who recognize their employees on a regular basis, versus those who do not.  Some managers use salaries and titles to motivate their employees, but these have proven to be less effective over time than praise and recognition.

Recognition must be genuine and specific.  It must be tied to a particular act or accomplishment.  General statements, such as “good job,” are usually meaningless and ineffective. Better to say, “I really appreciate your comments in the meeting today – you gave us something to think about.”  And while praise should be given on a regular, ongoing basis, it must be sincere.  Saying something just to do so will sound hollow.  If you can’t find something positive to say, either work harder at it, or perhaps you actually have a problem employee.

Recognition for small things goes a long way towards keeping employees engaged on a day to day basis.  But if you want to motivate your employees to go to an entirely new level, consider combining praise with rewards.  Rewards can range from inexpensive gift cards given on a sporadic basis to larger, more expensive prizes for accomplishing major goals. 

Praise, especially when given publicly, combined with valuable rewards, can excite employees to go beyond their normal duties, to think outside the box, and to take “ownership” of their work.  Now, that’s employee engagement!

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Some may see it as irony. Others see it as an opportunity to start anew. But one thing is for sure: The observance of World Oceans Day has marked importance today during the United States’ most devastating oil spill in the nation’s history.

The 2010 theme of the second annual United Nations’ environmental holiday? Our oceans: opportunities and challenges.

Our challenges?

Well this one is pretty obvious: the BP oil spill. An estimated 25,000 gallons of oil leaking daily into the Gulf of Mexico. More than 9 million gallons of oil floating in the water so far.

Our opportunities?

This is a worldwide day of observance for our waters so there are events around the globe.

Here in the states, ears are perked; people are ready to listen and learn about what we can do to make a difference with our waters. Today, awareness is being spread in different ways:

-In New York City, a Hudson River clean up began this morning at 9 a.m. for an all day affair. The group will use nets to pick up and skim debris along the Gansevoort Peninsula and shoreline. The Statue of Liberty will also be lit up in white, blue and purple, symbolizing the varying depths of the ocean water.

- In Los Angeles, an exclusive World Oceans Day party—hosted by GQ, Nautica and Oceana—will honor Oceana’s 2010 Ocean Heroes*, those who have made an impact on oceans on a local or international level. The event will conclude with a special musical performance by Jakob Dylan.

-Many local aquariums and zoos across the nation are celebrating World Oceans Day. See what San Diego is doing, here.

                *Go here to pledge to protect the oceans. For every pledge made, Oceana will receive a $1 donation to protect & restore the world’s oceans.

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Everyone has ideas, right? You hear them in the most unexpected places. In the gym, waiting in line for check-in at the gate, and at places like …Quirky.

Quirky?

It’s one of the latest in the batch of idea generating sites, where the wisdom of the crowds reigns. Runs riot, really. A wide open pasture, with the two ingredients ideas thrive on –rewards and recognition.  OK, make that three things. Add ‘Community’ too.

Quirky is a fast-paced idea hub, where people come up with sensible, practical solutions that may not be as quirky. It urges the community with this:

The horses are at the gate, the gun’s about to fire… ladies and gents, step right up and place your bets. We have a bunch of new product ideas for your perusing pleasure.

The “Foolproof Patio Composting Bin” had this detailed sketch. (Enlarge it by clicking on image.)

This stylish spatula set (above) is on sale, because it went from idea to market just like that –because enough people voted on it.

How it works is Quiky’s product development team takes an idea and lets the community vote on it. They ‘pre-sell’ the product and then manufacture it. Revenues are shared with the inventor/idea generator.

So what if companies could take this process and let it loose among employees? What would it take to create an idea funnel that taps the passions and ideas that arrive with us at work?

Managers who are receptive to feedback and product development suggestions tend to open the funnel at formal brainstorming sessions. These are not exactly the  moments when the most crazy (or should I say ‘quirky’) ideas hit us. Quirky.com is just one of the ways to get your employees’ creative juices flowing. A few others are beginning to try their hand at funneling.

• Check out what Best Buy is doing at BestBuyIdeaX.

And you thought that My Starbucks Idea was just a bunch of over-caffeinated people with light bulbs going off in their heads…

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“I don’t care if people care about the environment of not. I just want them to take action.”

Derrick Mains tends to make these kind of controversial statement. He was recently on a panel in ‘Walmart County’ (Bentonville, Arkansas) where he said that the environmental movement has been preaching to the choir for too long.

So I thought this would be a good point of departure for a podcast on who is our audience when it comes to getting companies to adopt sustainable practices.

Not too far into our conversation, we talked about the conditioned reflex, and how (as in Pavlov’s dog,) it’s not too much of a stretch to motivate the guy who drives a Humvee to adopt sustainable practices! The common thread here is the rewards mechanism –something that is embedded in the GreenNurture application. Enjoy the podcast!

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This Saturday, June 5 is The United Nations’ World Environment Day, a worldwide environmental holiday that was created almost 40 years ago. The date  is significant as it was the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment  in 1972. The following year was the inaugural World Environment Day.

Each year has a theme and a host city. Past themes have incorporated the environment with everything from the World Wide Web to poverty, low carbon economy, shelter, acid rain, and human settlements. This year’s theme is Many Species. One Planet. One Future. as it falls under the United Nation’s International Year of Biodiversity for 2010. The main host city is Kigali, Rwanda; they are being recognized for strides made in environmental protection. Celebrations in Rwanda begin today through Saturday. The opening event will be an environmental awards ceremony called The Energy Globe Awards.

Many of us in the United States are unable to make the trek across the world to participate in these events. So Pittsburgh, Pa. has been deemed the North American host city by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to join World Environment Day 2010. To celebrate this day, Pittsburgh has created and held more than 100 regional events and activities that touch on topics like Biodiversity/Ecosystems Management and the Green Economy that have stretched from April 22 (Earth Day) to this weekend’s event. They refer to it as “Bridging the Gap.” On Saturday, the public can enjoy kayak and canoeing, tour a Living Zero Home, an Arts Festival, have a free tour of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and watch fireworks. Many of the events are structured around water as Pittsburgh has chosen their own subset theme of the United Nations overarching theme of biodiversity; they chose “Water Matters!”

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Part III:  Today’s Idea Management and Employee Engagement Systems

Everyone is familiar with the image of the suggestion box as the front end of a trash can. Suggestion boxes are, by themselves, of little value. Reaping the benefit of “suggestions,” or, more generally, ideas, requires more than simply writing down a suggestion and putting it into a box. Indeed, the old fashioned wooden suggestion box has come to symbolize the failure of idea and suggestion systems in general. 

 Successful suggestion systems are much more comprehensive and share several common characteristics: 

• They are simple to participate in and all employees are actively encouraged to participate
• All ideas, not matter how trivial, are subjected to a structured process of evaluation that provides rapid feedback
• Ideas that are accepted are implemented as rapidly as possible
• Rewards–whether monetary, recognition or merit based–are made commensurate with the value or benefit of the idea 

Computers helped us in many ways move beyond the simple wooden suggestion box and slips of paper, serving as collection points with electronic forms and storage devices for ideas with databases. As the Internet took hold, organizations could rapidly and cheaply gather input from more and more people. 

Now, taking that process to a whole new level are the Web 2.0 tools, in particular social media tools. They have opened up the suggestion box to internal and/or external stakeholders, enabling robust idea management:  the inventing, refining, commenting on and rapid ranking of ideas in an open forum.

Companies can now make use of their organization’s collective intelligence, engage employees and, in Lincoln’s words, bring that collective intelligence “to bear on decisions as they are made,” in other words, in real time. 

Idea Management has become the replacement term for the suggestion box and associated suggestion systems. As a buzzword, Idea Management has been defined as the practice of gathering and evaluating ideas in a structured fashion, with a goal of selecting the best ideas with the greatest bottom-line potential for implementation.  

Indeed, all suggestion systems that provide benefits of any kind can more broadly be seen as “employee engagement” systems. Such systems foster the ongoing development of employee capabilities, create desire on the part of employees to use those abilities cooperatively for the benefit of the entire enterprise, and then provide the processes, tools and techniques for harnessing and mobilizing increased employee capability and desire. 

The wooden suggestion box was simply a primitive tool for gathering ideas. It was merely the tip of an iceberg. From the beginning, truly successful suggestion systems have relied on much more than just the wooden suggestion box:  They have been comprehensive employee engagement programs.

Read Part I and Part 2 of the Suggestion Box Series by Sally.

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Did you know that while you can find plenty of groups on LinkedIn or Facebook formed around industries or subject categories, may of these organizations have adopted closed communities?

Sometimes called ‘walled gardens’ these networks are created using free of paid platforms where smaller communities can share their ideas and –to use that overused word again -engage. Two examples of this trend:

ResearchGate. This social engagement hub for scientists built by scientists may not be as well known as other networks, but it’s quite a hangout. Population 400,000! While groups on Facebook plan boycotts of oil companies or befriend brands, these specialized networks discuss topics such as the Human adenovirus A-31 genomic sequence, or neural networks and artificial intelligence. Groups range from American Society of Plant Biologists to a one discussing Zebrafish husbandry.

Pluck is one of the popular platforms used by media, insurance and marketing companies. It offers more than the bare template, lending editorial support – for what it calls a “curated, professionally produced content library.” I find it interesting that Pluck is not standing around building fortifications around its clients’ private social network, but making it easy for them to provide pass-through integration with Facebook, for instance.

In spite of all this, there are still mixed signals in the marketplace. A few weeks back some UK companies approved of banning social networks in the workplace, but organizations such as the CIA have embraced collaborative spaces -such as it’s private network called A-Space, and information sharing hub Intellipedia.

If you’re still not sure of which direction to take, or what to look for in a walled — or semi-walled garden, contact us at GreenNurture. Or send me an email.

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CRD Analytics re-indexes their Global Sustainability Index, which reveals the top 50 major companies that are leading the way in sustainability, twice a year: Once in May and again in November.

After screening more than 3,000 publicly traded companies from all major exchanges that publicly disclose CSR reports last weekend, they announced the leaders.

Though it might seem the leading industry in sustainability was the Financials industry with 13 companies in the top 50, it was the Health Care industry that came out on top with 12 companies on the list, four of which in the top ten. Information Technology was trailing on their heels with 11 companies.  Materials and Energy companies were fairly represented on the GSI 50 with 5 and 4, respectively. And rounding out the list, with one company each, were the Consumer Discretionary, Industrials and Telecommunication Services Sectors.

As for the Energy industry: Hess, ExxonMobil, ENI and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras made  the list during a time when the industry is in the limelight for potential environmental hazards. To that point, one energy company was noticeably missing from the list: BP, who came in 18 on the November 2009 ranking.

See the full GSI 50, here.

Why is sustainability reporting important for businesses? And how does a sustainability index fit in? Find out more, here.

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It’s not pretty to those who even notice it.  Lined by a long chain link fence on one side and by walled-off tile-roofed houses on the other, the wash is by most accounts an unattractive, left-over piece of undeveloped desert scrub.  But to those of us who walk down the neighborhood drainage wash on a daily basis, it is our link to nature, to hidden beauty and to improved mental health.

Numerous studies have shown what many of us already know instinctively, if not subconsciously: being in nature is therapeutic.  I’ll admit that I can’t even start thinking about the day until I have been outside in the morning, either walking down the wash or hiking in the nearby mountains.  Being outside, whether I am actively looking for wildflowers, saying hello to the birds (I know where they all live now), or if I am not seeing anything at all for being consumed by my own thoughts, lifts my spirits and gives me clarity of thought. 

Children who are allowed recess outside show fewer discipline problems in the classroom.  Nursing home patients who garden are more sociable, have stronger focus and show higher levels of engagement.  But until now, no one knew how much green exercise it took to reap the rewards.

 Researchers at the University of Essex have confirmed in a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology that just five minutes a day of outdoor exercise contributes to mental health. 

 Improved mood and self esteem are greatest for the young and the mentally ill, but people of all ages and social groups benefit.

Just five minutes a day of outdoor exercise can improve our disposition, boost our self-esteem and focus more at work.  Urban parks and rural farms work equally well, but water seems to increase the benefits.

Businesses who want happier, more engaged employees can encourage their employees to get outside during lunch and breaks.  They can recommend nearby parks for employees to visit during lunch, or they can set up their own green areas.  Here are some suggestions for encouraging employees to get their five minutes of green exercise: 

• Set up paths through grassy areas around the grounds
• Plant flowers and shrubs along the walk way between office and parking lot
• Install a fountain

If changing the grounds is not possible, consider bringing some nature indoors:

• Use full spectrum light bulbs that mimic real daylight
• Bring live plants to the office and assign various employees to take care of them
• Consider a simple fishbowl with a single beta fish, or for the more ambitious, an aquarium with a variety of plants and fish

Reconnect with nature every day, even during work hours and have happier, more engaged employees.

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Created by Social and Green Tech Ecopreneur John Shegerian, Green is Good is a weekly radio broadcast that talks all things environment, social responsibility and business. It is America’s number one green radio show and can be found on Clear Channel radio and as an iTunes podcast.  Shegerian’s green resume is too long for words but some highlights include: CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s largest e-recycler;  Founder of 1-800-RECYCLING.com; and named as the Clean Tech Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst Young in 2008.

GreenNurture CEO Derrick Mains was featured on the Green is Good broadcast on Friday alongside Hewlett Packard’s Michelle Price.

The following are some notable quotes from Derrick’s segment (with hosts John Shegerian and Mike Brady).

 “Green goes hand-in-hand with [saving money].  If we become more efficient, we are becoming more green but we also are saving resources.”

“Rewards are important. The average Joe out there will actually say, ‘Hey, what’s in this for me?’”

Derrick on collective intelligence and collective actions:

“I can convince someone to go turn a light off, but if I can change the culture inside of the company so that when anyone leaves the room they turn the light off, that is a whole lot better than one single action.”

Why is engaging employees important?

Derrick pointed to a book he read recently titled Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter (Gallup Press) that revealed that companies with engaged employees grew earnings more than 2 ½ times faster than their competitors. What is Human Sigma? Read Derrick’s take on Human Sigma and sustainability, here.

Rounding out the interview was Derrick’s “pearls of wisdom” for entrepreneurs starting out (especially those in a new market like GreenNurture).  Learn the two things Derrick says are a must-have in a new company.

Mike Brady on the GreenNurture logo:

 “It’s a thumbprint that looks like a tree and it’s green. So that just speaks volumes; it’s is a great visual representation of what your company is.”

 The second half of the program was a focus on Hewlett-Packard.  How the electronics mogul addressing green?

Michelle Price, Hewlett-Packard’s Manager of Worldwide Environmental Strategic Marketing for Imaging and Printing Group (and author of the soon-to-be-released book The 42 Rules of Green Marketing) discusses.

Other companies that have been featured on Green is Good include:  Timberland, Molson Coors, Ford Motor company, Honest Tea, 1-800-GOT-JUNK and Seventh Generation.

Listen to the Green is Good broadcast, here.

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If you glance at the tweets, or search for workshops and seminars on employee engagement, you can’t help notice that the subject is largely being discussed by those in the Human Resource camp. It’s also very easy to blame HR for being very laid back in the Engagement game.

In book’s like this, Re-Engage, there is a lot of talk of of engagement drivers that include attentive leaders, great managers and teamwork. One of the book’s authors raises a great point in an NPR interview. He talks of  ’regrettable departures’ often driven by lack of feedback from managers. On the face of it, managers have a big part to play in engaging employees. But –and this is a huge but– what if employees should be the real drivers of the much discussed E-factor?

What could an employee do in becoming more engaged, whether there is an HR sponsored program or not? Here are three things anyone could take on:

Cross-train yourself. Easier said than done. We all like to keep to our corner, and try not to tread on each other’s toes. Asking to learn about someone else’s job is an indication that you are prepared to create ad-hoc  teams and work  for the greater good –and not just your paycheck.

Emotionally engage. If there are two gears in engagement strategy, we need to upshift from Professional engagement to Emotional engagement. Playing an active role is much more than an intellectual function.

Be a feedback junkie. Organizations have put so much value on performance reviews that it’s sometimes considered out of line to provide feedback when unasked for. It’s not uncommon to hear a co-worker say “why don’t you save that for your performance review?” Just don’t! Bottling up your feedback sends the wrong signals. Besides, unless you give feedback, others’ will be hesitant to share theirs with you.

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I’ve been running into many discussions about private social networks recently. Will employees be more engaged if they are interacting within a highly spiffed up social network that rivals, say Facebook and LinkedIn combined?

Before you answer that consider the question that comes on its heels: Does anybody have time for one more network? It’s not surprising that many people are experiencing social media fatigue.  And yet these are the means by which feedback, innovation, intelligence gathering and teamwork will take place within enterprises, in some instances with or without their blessing.

There’s a network that says this:

“Whatever you call it – engagement, motivation, satisfaction – this is what it boils down to. People work better when they feel recognised and rewarded and engaged employees become powerful advocates for your business.”

Sounds familiar? We talk a similar language here at GreenNurture. It’s from an employee benefits company in the UK, YouAtWork.

Then there is The Hive, another way for organizations to combine knowledge and incentives. It promotes what is called ‘BeeLines’ and ‘cross-pollination’ of social groups and ideas.

I’m not sure about how some of them intend to blend incentives and an e-commerce, but I like the idea that the public hangout spaces (ala Facebook)  and the private enclaves (white label hubs formerly known as intranets) are mow melding into conversation-rich spaces.

The other name that gets mentioned in many of these discussions is Yammer, with an enterprise micro-blogging tool that lets employees have the Twitter experience, and collaborate at the same time.

It’s as if organizations are now at that moment where they are not exactly satisfied by what the existing social networks can do for their internal communications, and are ready to plug into the new hubs and conversation spaces. And it’s not just to capture these conversation streams.

As the the recessionary clouds clear, organizations are ready to turn engagement into productivity.

Is yours? If so tell us how you are taking up the challenge.

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Start a conversation in support of green transportation in your workplace

 

Car or bike sharing, carpooling, using a more fuel efficient company car, alternative transportation like buses and light rail, biking, even walking to work – green transportation can provide benefits for both the employee and employer as well as the environment. While there are many options and actions you can take as an individual, more can be done if there is support from not only your co-workers but also your company as a whole. 

 May is National Bike Month and this Friday is National Bike-to-Work Day. Like most days of observance, you need not make it a one shot deal.

Bicycling promotes good health, reduces traffic, cuts down on fuel consumption and improves air quality all year round. So do other transportation alternatives.

 Most employers are open to the idea of supporting green transportation initiatives for employees so be willing to open a dialog with your manager.  If you are a manager, look into how many simple initiatives and programs can help your business.

 Whether employee or management, you can contact your local Department of Transportation to learn more about what programs may be available in your community, and if there are any incentives for workplace use. Programs such as Best Workplace for Commuters will have more information as well as Commuter Choice, which links employers with transportation providers. To support employee bicycling, contact your city or local bike club for resources and ideas. Also, consider that the League of American Bicyclists not only sponsors Bike Month, but Bicycle Friendly Business as well so aim to get your company on the list.

 Management can also consider the following green transportation strategies:

• Provide a subsidy to employees who walk, bicycle, carpool, or take public transportation to work. Many employers are already paying for parking so allow employees to choose to use this subsidy for green transportation instead.
• Buy high mileage vehicles such as hybrid gasoline-electric, for company use. Do the same with a few bicycles that can be used to run simple errands. Or consider using car sharing or bike sharing services.
• “Flexiplace” options – allow employees to telecommute to work. Employees may be more productive, save the company money, and be able to balance personal obligations with work demands more efficiently.

 We don’t need an oil crisis to remind us that alternative transportation efforts improve our environment. Grab your bike, get healthy while keeping the environment healthy, and start a conversation in support of green transportation in your workplace!

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Andrew Nisker has produced everything from gardening to ski racing programs in his 20-year career.  In 2003, the Canadian filmmaker decided to combine his talents for screenwriting and documentaries to address social issues close to his heart—or if you will—close to his home.

“Sustainability was something that was important to me. I wanted to use my skills to help the environment, and I see film as a very strong tool for persuading people and getting people’s attention to these issues.”

The first social issue he would take on? Energy usage. In fact, Andrew came up with the idea of a reality TV series in which families would compete against one another to see who could reduce their energy usage the most. Truly an idea before its time! (And before the reality TV craze would reach its height.)

But what began as “Urban Survivors” was thrown for a loop when the Toronto garbage strike hit. Andrew learned firsthand what days of going without trash removal meant: piles of stinky garbage next to his house and park. 

“I thought ‘Wow, you know that’s pretty powerful. Just by walking through all of this trash, you all of a sudden become aware of all of the pollution created. And by becoming aware, you create less [waste].’”

Andrew wanted to capture this feeling in a documentary film. So Urban Survivors quickly became Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home, and over a 3-month period, Andrew would film a family as they stored all of their trash in their garage. What Andrew hoped audiences would take away from the McDonald family’s “self-imposed garbage strike” would be to realize 1.) What they throw away at home affects the environment; and 2.) That small, simple changes at home can add up to larger impacts (or as we like to call it: micro-sustainability).  

But audiences weren’t the only ones walking away from the film with a new perspective; Andrew learned a thing or two through making Garbage! (no pun intended):

1. The massive problem of bottled water (And, not to mention, this was filmed during the early inklings of our water bottle obsession.)

2. That we pollute our water not only through trash but toxic trash. Or in other words, we are contaminating our water through the products used to clean our bodies and our homes. And chemicals found in these products not only pollute the outdoors but the inside of our homes as well. We are essentially compromising our indoor air quality to be “clean.”

In good filmmaker fashion, the toxic concept sparked Andrew’s latest film Chemerical – Redefining Clean for a New Generation, a documentary that once again follows a family in their journey, but this time, to do away with all cleaning and personal hygiene products that include harmful chemicals. Released in December 2009, the film offers solutions and alternatives to everyday routines that normally include the use of such ingredients as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

“Most products that you use in your home don’t have ingredient labels on them, and you kind of don’t know what you’re using.”

“There’s no point in using all these chemical/toxic-laden products. What our grandparents used to clean with is perfectly acceptable. It’s not really about what you clean with as much as how you clean. That’s the big difference between the way we are today as opposed to how we lived 100 years ago.”

Andrew offers viewings of his films to companies in a private online theatre in an attempt to foster awareness in a group setting with hopes to involve company shareholders and stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers and customers. This is a way that Andrew not only gets his points across but facilitates the company’s sustainability message as well.

When I asked Andrew about how bringing his message to the workplace will change business, he answered:

“If we can all make decisions at home in the way that we live, corporations are going to be forced to come up with better models of supplying us, consumers, with better or sustainable products.”

Andrew foresees his next project to be a documentary on food.

We first met Andrew at the Walmart-sponsored NWA Green Expo where he shared the panel stage with GreenNurture CEO Derrick Mains.

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GreenNurture is back from the SmartView Sustainable Roundtable event, which took place at Nasdaq in Times Square. Every event that we are a part of or attend gives us a new perspective on sustainability, and CRD Analytic’s roundtable was no exception. The event gathered the who’s who in the sustainability world: Peter Knight from the Al Gore Fund and Prof. Mervyn King of the GRI just to name a few.

Learn more about the speakers, here.

Though the spotlight shone on these sustainability giants, the environmental, social and governance standards (ESG)seemed to take centerstage at the event, with panelists acknowledging its presence—or possibly that it needed a bigger presence.  The ESG, or sometimes deemed socially responsible investing, goes back to the idea of the Triple Bottom Line: people, planet, profits.  

Panelists seemed to agree that “people and planet” have not been integrated into business models as they should or need to be, said Derrick Mains, CEO of GreenNurture.  Without these two areas being addressed, businesses have not been calculating the true cost of goods.

And what should be the government’s role in all of this?

Derrick pointed to his favorite quote to come out of the conference:

“Governments must act as referees, not players in carbon reduction, otherwise they skew markets.”- Daniel Allen, Director of Business Dev. for Ativo Capital Management LLC.

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GreenNurture CEO Derrick Mains is seen on Nasdaq building in Times Square May 14, 2010.

GreenNurture is on site at the inaugural CRD Analytic’s SmartView Sustainable Roundtable event today.

  Here is what is going on:

“ CRD Analytics has put together THE event on Sustainable Investing at the NASDAQ Market Site – Track us live #SVRT2010 “ -The Governance & Accountability Institute (@GAInstitute)

“Stacked panel of heavyweights at #svrt2010”- GreenNurture CEO Derrick Mains (@Enviralmentalst)

The Winner of the SmartView Eco Entrepreneur Challenge is announced*: Agavenol

“Agavanol, the winner of the Smartview Ecoprenuer challenge promotes Agave as a alternative to corn for ethanol also used 4 tequila.”-The Governance & Accountability Institute (@GAInstitute) 

“Agavenol makes ethanol from Agave. But will it push up tequila prices?”- David Schatsky, Principal at Green Research (@dschatsky) 

Trends at the SmartView Sustainable Investing event are seen through the following Tweets from those at the conference (Hashtag #SVRT2010):

Keynote speaker: Prof. Mervyn King,Chairman, GRI

“If you get buy in at all levels of a company, the most extraordinary things can be achieved.”-King

Tweet by @Nicoleskibola

Speaker: Peter Knight, President, Generation Investment Management (The Al Gore Fund)

“ ESG analysis is not just a measure of risk, it also can identify significant investment opportunities.”- Knight 

Tweets by @CRDAnalytics

Speaker: Paul Druckman is the Chairman of the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability Project and Executive Chairman, Trucost

“UK government will be using a connected/integrated reporting strategy in the next reporting season.”-Druckman 

“Asset owners talking the sustainability talk, but fund managers not walking the walk.”-Druckman

Tweets by @CRDAnalytics

Speaker: Sean Harrigan is the Vice-Chairman of the GRI Board of Directors – Market Overview

Last year 1350 companies reported using the #GRI. Mandated in Sweden, Denmark & Netherlands- Nicole Skibola, Co-founder/Director of Right Respect and Attorney at Nicole Skibola, Esq. (@Nicoleskibola)

GRI’s main goal is to make ESG reporting as important as financial reporting.-The Governance & Accountability Institute (@GAInstitute)

Tweets not attributed in this section were by @CRDAnalytics

Speaker: Daniel Allen, Director of Business Dev. for Ativo Capital Management LLC.

“Governments must act as referees, not players in carbon reduction, otherwise they skew markets.”-Allen

Tweet by @CRDAnalytics

In a recent press release, Michael Muyot talked about the meaning behind the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) being at the event:

“We believe that this is historic event; the fact that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is ringing the closing bell is a landmark sign that says sustainability has arrived at Wall Street.”

For more information from the Twittersphere: http://www.accountability-central.com/

We will have more updates from the event on Monday. Stay tuned for an exclusive look at this inaugural event.

*As a sponsor, GreenNurture did not have any impact on the judging of this event.

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Here’s a look at the three winners of the SmartView Eco Entrepreneur Challenge, part of a program that we sponsored. This is a high point of an event taking place today at the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square, New York.

Interestingly the judges’ three picks (from a 30-second YouTube video entry) come from three great colleges – ASU, Columbia and Yale.

These three teams will present to an audience of approximately 100 senior financial executives, sustainability officers and CEOs, members of the Global Reporting Initiative, pioneering developer of the world’s most widely used sustainability framework, and many executives from organizations and companies including Ceres, Trucost, Royal Bank of Canada, Generation Investment Management, Parametric Portfolio, Ativo Capital Management, Brennan Investment Management, and Akin Gump.

They three winners are:

NOM^3 intending to making healthy, fresh, and delicious meals accessible near the college campus, while promoting a sense of community within the student body.

RUNI Collections, a socially conscious eco-fashion line –based out of Yale University, New Haven.

Agavenol is a project promoting the production of the agave plant for ethanol feedstock. Two PhD students from Arizona State University are behind this venture.

The Sustainable Investing event today features a roundtable moderated by Kenneth Markowitz of the Akin Group, with some great keynote speakers and thought leaders.

• Michael Muyot, President & Founder of CRD Analytics – Opening Remarks
• Prof. Mervyn King, GRI – Keynote Address via video
• Sean Harrigan, Vice-Chairman of the GRI Board of Directors – Market Overview
• Paul Druckman, Chairman of the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability Project, and Executive Chairman, Trucost
• Mindy Lubber, President of CERES &Director, Investor Network on Climate Risk
• Thomas W. Van Dyck, Senior Vice President, The Royal Bank of Canada, SRI Wealth Management
• Peter Knight, President, Generation Investment Management (The Al Gore Fund)
• Paul Bouchey, Director of Research, Parametric Portfolio Associates
• Daniel Allen, Director, Business Development, Ativo Capital Management LLC
• William Brennan, President, Brennan Investment Management

Attendees and the three winners will also participate in the closing bell ceremony for the day. If you are interested, NASDAQ streams live from Times Square, via a webcam

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From October 2007 to January 2010, a mere 2.25 years, the face of Facebook changed radically.  It went from being a social media platform populated overwhelmingly (62%) by college students (18-24) to one dominated by the “working class” (those beyond college and out in the workplace).  In 2010, those aged 25-34 totaled 25% of Facebook’s user base and those aged 35-54 totaled 29%, for a grand total of 54% of Facebook’s user base.  And, if you include those over 55, the total is 64% of Facebook’s user base, a complete reversal of demographics.  In just 2 ¼ short years!    

 Here are the stats, direct from Facebook:

While Facebook grew a staggering 515%, from 20 million users to 103 million users, the numbers show a much faster acceleration of growth in the 35-54 demographic, as well as a huge change in the 55+ demographic last year. 

 There are many implications for this shift in Facebook’s user base.  However, one seems to stand out:  everybody is turning to social media. 

 Social media is no longer for the young.  Social media will soon be as ubiquitous as e-mail.

 In 2008, when Facebook, YouTube and MySpace were really beginning to build up a head of steam, many marketers were talking about a coming tsunami based on the age of social media users. The young, they pointed out, were becoming comfortable with the use of social media tools. The tsunami would occur slowly over the years as those young users grew older. Who could have anticipated that the tsunami would occur not over the course of many years, but literally within the span of a few short months? Virtually overnight everyone will be comfortable using social media tools to communicate and collaborate in ways no one has previously anticipated.

 What will this mean for the way companies communicate, not with the outside world, but within? 

It is very possible that the social media communication revolution will change communication patterns as much as or even more so than the Internet and e-mail.

 Businesses have a real opportunity here to  . . . start the conversation.

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Yesterday we met up with Park Howell to talk sustainability and made quite an impression according to Park Howell’s blog post today. It begins:

“The guy is built on hummus. He radiates enthusiasm. His perpetual energy is apparently generated from his drive for sustainability. Derrick’s imposing, but gracious, presence lit up the patio at Pita Jungle yesterday as we met for the first time over lunch.” (Read more, here.)

Park is president of Park&Co., an advertising firm based in Phoenix that are self-described “piano players, dog lovers, beer drinkers, insomniacs, triathletes, philanthropists, photographers, hikers, coaches, artists, parents, rockers, cyclists and vegetarians” that can tell a “mean story.”

 And if Park’s name sounds familiar, it might be because we mentioned him in our post last week on the BMA radio show where he was showcased alongside GreenNurture as an expert in green marketing.

Well it seems that Park&Co. has decided to take their sustainability pledges and initiatives (and “sustainable storytelling” as Park likes to call it) to the next level: They launched their GreenNurture campaign today.  It took Park the expected 20 minutes to set up his company’s profile and begin their campaign. (Luckily, his employees will never have to spend that amount of time in the system in one sitting.)

Their goals?

1. Reduce consumption of office supplies by 10%
2. Reduce our energy use by 10%
3. Reduce the use of our color copier (our greatest operational expense) by 10%

Read how GreenNurture helps Park&Co. reach their goals in Park’s blog, as he will be chronicling his experiences in the GreenNurture application for the next 30 days. I know we will be on the site daily!

How can you begin your GreenNurture campaign? Learn more here.

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Those who are familiar with organizational design will recall  the Star  model developed by Jay Galbraith.

Now a Canadian study by the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) and The Network for Business Sustainability has updated it with a sustainability framework. The report, titled, Embedding Sustainability in Corporate Culture connects employee engagement with CSR practices.

What’s practical about it is that it guides those who use the framework to adopt pragmatic steps in each of the 5 elements –Strategy, Structure, Process, Rewards and People — with sustainability measures.

We’ll leave you to digest the report in detail, but like to point to some ideas that mirror our thinking about empowerment of front-line employees, and the role of incentives. They talk of:

• Championing conversations –how sustainability champions can be nurtured, through one-on-one conversations.
• Working the Grass-Roots – employees tend to drive what they initiate.
• Recognition and Rewards --Incentives needn’t have monetary value. Recognition works too.

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Here are the winners of the first SmartView Eco Entrepreneur Challenge that GreenNurture is sponsoring.

They are Agavenol, NOM^3 and Runi Collection.

Each team will have the opportunity to  presenting their Eco idea to finance industry leaders at the roundtable event on May 14th at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York.

The event is being hosted by CRD Analytics and its partners, the NASDAQ OMX and the Governance & Accountability Institute. More details here.

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Hard to miss these two loaded terms today: Employee Engagement and Social Media. They used to belong to two separate worlds, HR and new media geeks. Today they are the two key ingredients that have been thrown into the blender and the mashup is being sipped through the long straw of corporate communications. Notice the many conferences addressing this blend.

• This one was recently held in London – Social Media and Stakeholder Engagement Conference . It addressed issues such as stakeholder engagement and how it relates to employees.

• Next week, there is a conference in Chicago – Employee Engagement, HR and Social Media 2010. It plans to address the new landscape of socially-enhanced employee communications, collaborative ‘ideation’ etc.

A recurring topic at events such as these is a debate that has been taking place since, well, blogs arrived on the scene –”Is internal communications is obsolete?” The people who agree tend to be those who are outside the sphere of HR, and advocate –as this early book, Naked Conversations did – that what’s internal is external. The firewall has come down, they say, so get used to it! Those against it tend to be people involved in enforcing rules, locking down content.

This is a contentious topic, but also an exciting one. The people most interested in finding their way through this are brand managers, those from government agencies, and yes, CSR managers. In once conference, a list of attendees includes a ‘Code of Conduct Manager,’ a CEO, the ‘Director at C-Change Sustainability,’ and a brand content manager.

As we know only too well here at GreenNurture, the rules of Engagement (deliberately spelled with a capital E) and the rules of social media are being worked out every day. Employees have a voice whether you assign them a Twitter account or not; it’s up to organizations to give them more access to the internal tools that amplify those voices so that they are in sync with their external communications.

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GreenNurture made an appearance on the Business Marketing Association radio show last night.  Hosted by Fred von Graf with an introduction from BMA Phoenix President Al Maag, the show focused on green marketing and had expert opinions from Park Howell  of Park & Co., an advertising agency with a focus on green; and Derrick Mains, GreenNurture’s CEO.

Derrick’s take on green marketing stemmed from his view of GreenNurture. The current issue with this type of marketing comes from the fact that companies are typically better at communicating and working on macro-sustainability issues, initiatives like solar panels and carbon offsets, than the smaller internal efforts that can add up to major impacts—and major savings. While making sustainability goals period is a good thing, most of these major macro goals take a significant amount of time to come to fruition and bear results. People tend to overlook the idea of: What can we do today to have results tomorrow? What about the small things within an organization? What about those smaller goals like employees within an organization coming together and turning off the lights as a group? The sustainability and savings from micro-sustainability  are just as important in green marketing as the major macro CSR initiatives.

Derrick went on to explain how to engage employees within an organization to make these collective efforts. (To hear more, click here to listen to the BMA broadcast.)

 The reason the word “nurture” is in GreenNurture is because engaging employees in CSR is something that you constantly have to work at. It takes time and is a slow, steady process.  

Park Howell talked about how the term “green marketing” has become too focused and too narrow of a market. He now turns to sustainability, or more specifically “sustainability storytelling,” to make his point. This includes talking about sustainability in new ways and making it “believable, approachable and doable.” Greenwashing rounded out Park’s conversation where he described what it was (falsifying your marketing to suggest that you’re green) and how to combat it (setting goals).

Al Maag touched on how the BMA, Phoenix Chapter, sets itself apart from other organizations. Reasons included “not wasting time or calories,” or not setting meetings outside of work hours and having unnecessary sit down meals. The BMA has meetings that are interactive and has additional outreach to members and the public through such mediums as the weekly BMA radio broadcast.

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“I don’t care about changing people. I care about changing actions.” –Derrick Mains.

As we mentioned last week, GreenNurture CEO Derrick Mains headed over to Bentonville, Arkansas (Walmart’s stomping grounds)  to present at the Northwest Arkansas Green Expo. Derrick sat on a panel Friday with such experts as Andrew Nisker, filmmaker and creator of the Garbage documentary; and Eric Jackson, Conservis, to answer the question: “The solution is to take action. What can we do?”

Derrick’s answer?  He pointed to engagement, namely employee engagement. But in good Derrick fashion, he took a very different approach to the question and to employee engagement as a whole.

Engagement can stem from two different kinds of reasoning: 1.) Moral turpitude and consciousness, or  2.) Self-serving, aka because people feel that it will be good for them. Most people focus on the first reasoning: How do we change people? How do we compel them to feel morally obligated to make a change? Well, maybe we don’t. Maybe, we simply change the actions that they take.

“I don’t care about changing people. I care about changing actions.”

So how do we change action without changing the moral fiber of a person? It could be anything from incentives to recognition of efforts. And though Derrick’s response was shocking to some at the conference (audience members responded with “really, you don’t care about what people think about the environment?”), his stance makes sense as it is the basis for GreenNurture: We incentivize people to take individual actions that contribute to the communal success of sustainability inside of an organization.

This revolutionary concept—looking at sustainability from the perspective of sanity rather than morality—is one that businesses especially should consider. Employees need to engage and act, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes good business sense.  It is the best option.

 “Really, you don’t care about what people think about the environment.”

“No, I don’t care as long as they do the right thing.”

4 other approaches that panelists took on the question include:

1. Sledgehammer- or let’s regulate people into compliance

2. Shame

3. Profitability

4. Hellfire and brimstone- An old religious adage that basically means “You’re all going to die [if you do or don’t do something].”

 Now, each of these approaches can work. It’s just the simple fact that they may work on different groups of people. Sledgehammer and hellfire and brimstone have been the more popular approaches in environmentalist movements in the past.  And the sledgehammer approach made quite an appearance last week at the NWA Green Expo as well.

GreenNurture’s stance is that no matter whether a person or company is compelled by regulations, shame, and profitability or because they are afraid of the eternal consequences, the only thing that matters is that they acted in such a way that will decrease their environmental impact.

And to wrap up the NWA Green Expo as a whole…

3 Trending Topics

1. How much time do we have? At this point, are we able to make a change?

                    Everyone agreed that we are late in the game but not too late.

2. The Europeans are far far far ahead of us with regard to sustainability.

                 The United States needs to be more proactive than reactive. We are very reactive to regulation. But what about becoming more proactive so we don’t need regulation?

3. What about the naysayers? How do you convince people to go green?

               There is a segment of the population who will do it because they are green. But there is a much larger percentage of the population that is in dormancy.  How do we awaken these people?  

And finally, check back for…

Two entertaining and innovative presenters that GreenNurture met at the conference were Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle—or Inc. Magazine’s Number One CEO on the Top 30 Under 30 in America—and Andrew Nisker, creator of Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home.  Watch for posts on both of these eco-savvy entrepreneurs. We will be getting the exclusive from Andrew next week.

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We are happy to announce that five finalists have been selected in the SmartView Eco Entrepreneur Challenge.  This challenge is part of a roundtable event on Sustainable Investing  in less than two weeks. GreenNurture is sponsoring this event hosted by CRD Analytics.

From the video submissions received, the five entries are:

• NOM 3 truck - the first student run food truck, by Columbia University’s Campus Association for Food Education. See entry here
• Runi Collection - a socially conscious eco-fashion line. See entry here
• Design to Give - a small interior architecture & design firm that focuses only on sustainable interiors.See entry here
• Green Home Living  - a business that focuses on combining installation of new tech with education of an individuals impact. See entry here
• Agavenol - a venture dedicated to the production of agave as a bioethanol feedstock. See entry here

Later this week (drum-roll please!) three winners will be announced.  Stay tuned.

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I came across a comment in an online forum last week, that the term ‘Employee Engagement’ was running out of steam. I’m not surprised. It’s the keyword du jour in HR. Somehow the term ‘fired up’ appeals to me more than ‘employee engagement’ – and it’s not only because it involves so many less syllables.

In a guest post at the Employee Factor, I recently commented on how managers don’t need ‘proof’ to show them why and how a more engaged employee is much more productive. (There is a great long-term tracking study by Gallup worth following for those who do.) But managers don’t often see that there’s a big difference between making sure someone is engaged, and having that person all fired up.

A good way to see what it takes to light that proverbial fire under an unmotivated work force is to see what actually douses the flames in the first place. I can think of two:

1. No feedback and poor feedback. In a hierarchical organization, where the employee is separated from management by several layers, feedback is slow. Today’s employees are getting used to constant and instant feedback from a variety of channels, so when management drags its feet to inform an employee that it approves (or absolutely loves!) the initiative taken, enthusiasm is dampened, subdued.
2. No tie-in to bigger goals. We’ve all worked in organizations where everyone is doing their own thing, banging out the widgets, and no one exactly knows how it all makes the machine run smoother. Unless someone comes along and defines how that widget-maker is critically serving the management goals, he will continue to do as he isrequired to –not as hs might be inspired to.

So how do you ‘fire’ your workers?

In the feedback department, meetings are not enough. Plenty happens between Mondays. Organizations that profess to be able to turn on a dime, must keep everyone up to speed on what those small calibrations are all about. Those who practice MBWA – management by walking around –ensure feedback happens in both directions. They give you feedback, and take back your ideas to those you don’t get to meet –even on those Monday meetings.

In the goal-setting department, there’s a simple way to make goals light that spark. Connect the dots between goals and roles. This brings up the tricky conversation of job descriptions. Today, most job descriptions need to be updated a few months after the new hire is in place. Instead of having jobs writ in stone, an employee who feels he/she can work outside the lines of the job description, will do so. But first you need to tell that person how the goals have changed, to ignite the passion.

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