Do you have a favorite quote, statistic, question or idea about sustainability?  Share it with us and we will post the best of them in our weekly email!  Contact GreenNurture’s Chief Satisfaction Officer, Sally Russell, at sally@greennurture.com.

In the U.S., four out of five grocery bags are plastic, with the average American family accumulating nearly 60 plastic bags for every four trips to the grocery store.  But is this by choice?  If Americans knew how damaging those plastic bags are to the environment, would they choose them?  Consider this (http://www.reuseit.com/learn-more/top-facts/plastic-bag-facts):

• 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide.   

• About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.

• A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade

• The U.S. alone goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year

• Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts, with every single square mile of ocean having about 46,000 pieces of floating plastic in it.  70% of which finds its way to the ocean floor, where it will likely never degrade

• Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.

• Only between .5% to 3% of all bags winds up recycled

So Choose Paper, Right?

Not so fast, pardner!  There is evidence that the ready alternative, paper bags, are also very damaging to the environment:

• Paper bag production produces 70% more air pollution and 50 times more water pollution than plastic bag production

• Waste by weight of paper bags is 400% higher than plastic and the amount of waste by volume is higher by more than 250%. With landfills running low on space, plastic is obviously preferable to plastic

• Cutting down forests to make paper bags is environmentally costly, as is transporting the bags to their ultimate destinations. Plastic bags are much thinner and lighter than paper bags, and take about 1/45 the truck space that paper bags take.   That means transporting paper bags consumes 45 times more fuel, and produces 45 times the congestion and smog of plastic bags.  (http://www.plasticbageconomics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=45)

What’s the Answer: Think Outside the Bag

The first plastic sandwich bag came on the market in 1957.  It took 20 more years before grocers began asking, “Paper or Plastic?”  In its relatively brief lifespan, plastic has made a widespread, indelible impact on the planet.

Because they are such an environmental problem and eyesore, countries such as Ireland, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia and Bangladesh have taxed the bags heavily, or outright banned them.  Several cities in the U.S. and the U.K. are doing the same.

Instead of paper or plastic, many people are now using reusable bags made from string, recycled plastic, baskets and boxes.

If you do choose plastic, please recycle them.  Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have recycling centers at many of their stores where you can drop off your used plastic bags.  Between April and December, 2010, Target collected more than 170 million shopping bags (equal to more than 1800 tons). Laid end-to-end, they would stretch from L.A. to NYC more than 17 times.

So, the next time you are asked, “Paper or Plastic?” will you be able to say “Neither, I brought my own”?

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“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” — Kenneth Boulding (Economist)

With world population projected to reach 9.2 billion by the year 2050, the challenge of managing the earth’s resources more efficiently becomes ever more critical every day.

Companies and organizations everywhere are rising to the challenge.  Pepsi just announced it has created a “plastic” bottle that looks identical to its current petroleum based plastic bottles.  The new bottles, however, are made entirely from plant based materials.

Pepsi plans to use leftovers from its food business, such as orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers as resources for manufacturing the bottles, thus helping Pepsi reduce its carbon footprint.  Pepsi will be testing the bottles in 2012 (see full article at http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LVJI5G0.htm).

What can your business innovate to help create a more sustainable future?

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“Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.”— Dave Barry

Does your organization merely market itself that it is green, or does it have sustainability as a core part of its mission?

Many companies and organizations advertise themselves as “green” by marketing a single act that makes them more environmentally responsible.  While the overall effect of a mass movement to single acts of sustainability is heading in the right direction, it is no longer enough for setting your organization apart from all the others claiming the same thing.  Consumers are becoming ever more aware of how sustainable organizations operate, and they are demanding more from them.

According Park Howell’s article, “Why “green” isn’t a sustainable brand differentiator,”  it’s not just about saying you are green, it’s about having sustainability as part of your organization’s mission.  And the mission has to be “approachable, doable and believable.”

One company with an “approachable, doable and believable” core mission of sustainability is Frito Lay’s SunChips brand.  Consider what they have achieved since 2007:

• Purchasing renewable energy credits to offset its energy needs
• Using solar power at its Modest plant
• Reducing the environmental impact of its packaging by introducing a fully biodegradable chip bag in 2010
• Supporting sustainability initiatives, such as helping to rebuild Greenburg, Kansas into the greenest town in America following a devastating tornado

SunChips encourages its customers to join them in making a difference by soliciting their ideas and by rewarding them with cash prizes for the winners.

How can your organization incorporate sustainability into its core mission?

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An Interview with Scott Cassel, Executive Director of PSI

There has been much to celebrate in the field of product stewardship in 2010, including the new Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act that will make it easier to properly dispose of pharmaceutical wastes, recognition of the need for improved management of electronics, and the 10^th birthday of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) (December 5^th).

We caught up with Scott Cassel, Executive Director of PSI, for an interview in hopes of inspiring industries to think about how product stewardship can help their sustainability efforts in 2011 and the years to come.

GN: In a nutshell, what is Product Stewardship?

SC: We say that Product Stewardship is a policy that ensures that all those involved in the lifecycle of a product share responsibility for reducing its health and environmental impacts, with producers bearing primary financial responsibility. While product stewardship can include actions taken by any individual manufacturer, importer, retailer, or any other actor in the product supply chain, those with the greatest ability to reduce a product’s impact (e.g., manufacturers and retailers) have the greatest degree of responsibility. Only manufacturers have the knowledge about the materials contained in their products, and thus have the power to reduce potential problems at their source.

Another important facet of product stewardship is that these systems shift the cost of end-of-life management of products from the public sector to the private sector.  By shifting the funding source, product stewardship not only creates the reliable funding base needed to sustain programs that reduce public risk but it often creates efficiencies in operations that lower overall system costs.

GN: If we lived in an ideal world, is the ultimate goal of product stewardship that all components of a product are completely recycled/reused at the end of the products useful life?

SC: Reuse and recyclability are both very important, but the real vision of product stewardship is to reduce environmental impacts (and risks to human health) throughout the entire product lifecycle. This could also mean that fewer materials are used in a product, or that the product might be replaced by a new technology (e.g., viewing streamed movies on-line versus mailing or buying DVDs).  Government policies can drive this type of industry innovation by creating incentives. When we consider ways to reduce our consumption of raw materials and the release of toxic substances to the environment, reuse and recycling are just two strategies. These goals can also be achieved by changing product design.  Manufacturers can choose to design products that last longer, are easy to repair, and are made of materials that are sustainably sourced and do not include harmful or persistent chemicals.  And, of course, consumers can decide that they can still live happy lives with less stuff. Consumer purchases drive product impacts, with the manufacture of the product being the largest impact in the product’s lifecycle.

GN: Traditionally in the United States, product stewardship initiatives have largely, but not always, been the result of legislation.  Have legislation and memorandums of understanding for product stewardship been household hazardous waste (HHW) related industries only? if not, do you feel it is important to state that it has generally been for HHW related industries?  Certainly product stewardship benefits all industry?

SC: Extended producer responsibility, or EPR, is a central tenet of product stewardship. Today, we have more than 60 EPR laws in 32 states that require product manufacturers to provide for the collection and recycling or safe disposal of their products at the end of their useful life. Most of these laws apply to products that contain mercury or other toxic substances, such as thermostats, batteries, fluorescent lamps, or auto switches, but there are also laws now on carpet, phone books, and paint (including latex paint). There has also been legislation introduced on packaging (in Vermont in 2010), and there is a growing national conversation about what the U.S. can learn from EPR laws for packaging from Europe and Canada. As we consider the full lifecycle impacts of products, we will see that non-hazardous materials might have impacts equal to hazardous products, if we consider, for example, that toxic materials might be used in the mining of materials used in the manufacture of non-hazardous products. We need to expand our horizons about what is involved in making products and delivering them to the consumer, in addition to the end-of-life management of that product.

EPR can be applied to a wide range of product categories, and is one of the tools for communities pursuing “zero waste” goals overall, not just the kinds of products typically collected through household hazardous waste. It’s also important to remember that EPR can apply to products used in the commercial or institutional settings – not just those used by households. Finally, while voluntary programs can jump start product stewardship efforts, our experience has shown that most companies are reluctant to invest resources in reducing environmental impacts from their products unless legislation levels the playing field so that the good actors don’t put themselves at a competitive disadvantage to laggard competitors. Legislation is also needed to reach high rates of program performance so that risks (e.g., mercury in the environment) are truly minimized and benefits (e.g., jobs from increased recycling) are fully realized.

GN: What is most important thing that you feel a producer can do to make Product Stewardship work?

SC: The most important action a producer can take is to earnestly engage with other stakeholders to develop solutions.  Product stewardship relies on negotiations between stakeholders about their roles and responsibilities for minimizing product impacts. Several major industries (e.g., paint and rechargeable batteries) have demonstrated that they can find ways to work collaboratively with other stakeholders. Many individual companies have successfully made the transition to more sustainable production methods or establishing take-back programs that are not only better for the environment, but can be better for business as well. The majority of companies are eager to reduce their products’ impacts on the environment if the playing field is level, but of course some major industries continue to drag their heels. The thermostat industry, for example, asked us to develop model legislation that would level the playing field so all thermostat manufacturers had to collect and recycle used thermostats. After engaging in a full stakeholder process, and after consensus was reached with a multi-stakeholder group, they pulled out and opposed the consensus solution. Negotiating in bad faith has created distrust among all the other stakeholders working in the process. Such behavior is to be avoided.

GN: What is the most important thing that you feel consumers can do to make Product Stewardship work?

SC: Consumers have a responsibility to educate themselves about product impacts and take advantage of take-back opportunities available to them. Consumers also have tremendous purchasing power that can influence companies by demanding better products.  With that said, manufacturers need to provide consumers with safer alternatives that are competitive in quality, availability, and price, and retailers should make these products available to their customers. While the market will respond to consumer demand, if the consumer doesn’t have a choice, or does not know what choice is better owing to a lack of information, relying on them to demand product changes is unrealistic. We still have a long way to go in this area by providing the consumer with easily understood information that distinguishes environmentally preferable products from the rest of the pack.

GN: Ideally, how would you like to see all the players involved in Product Stewardship work together (e.g., company, retailer, consumer, government)?

SC: There are a number of successful examples of this type of collaboration.  Our eight-year effort with the American Coatings Association, which represents the paint industry in the U.S., is a perfect example of how cooperation can yield a solution acceptable to all stakeholders.  After much negotiation in which consensus was reached on every major issue, the paint industry has agreed to take responsibility for managing all leftover latex and oil-based paint generated in the U.S.  That result took an incredible amount of stamina from all stakeholders. It is also important for an entire industry sector to participate, which means that the association must be active as well as several of the key manufacturers. They must see it in their interest to invest resources in working with other stakeholders. Unfortunately, for many companies, that has meant that they need legislation introduced or threatened for them to raise stakeholder engagement as a priority.

GN: What is biggest thing missing at this time to make Product Stewardship the norm?

SC: The public needs to accept that they should pay for the full lifecycle cost of a product, and that the most efficient way this can happen is for manufacturers to take responsibility for incorporating these costs into their business model. There is a perception among some that product stewardship is a tax. What is not factored into that thinking is that, by not properly managing a product all along the lifecycle, there are environmental and social costs that translate into financial loss, whether in the reduced purchase of fish that contain mercury or health costs to treat mercury poisoning. Each year, about five tons of mercury enters the environment as the result of the disposal of common household thermostats. Fewer than five percent of these are being collected right now.  This is the direct result of the thermostat industry not putting the necessary resources into collecting those thermostats. The public needs to demand that these companies take responsibility for their actions, but they also need to express a willingness to pay for that health and environmental protection. We cannot expect a company to pay for costs that cannot be passed onto the consumers of their products. Otherwise, that industry will continue to pollute the environment in very significant ways.

For more information visit the PSI website and blog.

Scott Cassel is the Executive Director of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), which pursues initiatives to ensure that all those involved in the lifecycle of a product share responsibility for reducing its health and environmental impacts.  Prior to founding the Institute in 2000, Scott served seven years as the Director of Waste Policy and Planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He is a founding Board Member and past-President of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association, whose mission is to reduce the toxicity of the municipal waste stream. He is also a founding Board Member of the Global Product Stewardship Council, which harmonizes product stewardship programs internationally. Scott has worked on product and waste management issues for the past 25 years, for a start-up solid waste management company, a non-profit statewide environmental group, and several other government agencies, including the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. He is author of a comprehensive book chapter on product stewardship in the 2008 Handbook on Household Hazardous Waste.  He was also a syndicated newspaper columnist in Massachusetts, including the Boston Business Journal. Scott has a master’s degree in environmental policy and dispute resolution from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an undergraduate degree in Geology and Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

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With grape-flavored Liquid Children’s Tylenol coming back on the shelves after a long absence, I was reminded of the thoughts I had when the voluntary recall of this popular children’s medication was announced back in April of this year.

While McNeil did a semi-adequate job of informing the public of the recall and had information on their Web site for the proper disposal of unwanted/unused/outdated medication, the fact that McNeil was not itself taking back the medicine at their expense for proper disposal left me with the same pit I get in my stomach when I see the “gotta-have-these-new” electronic gadgets flood the market every 6 months or so (especially during the holiday season). Something about the “planned obsolescence” of electronics followed by the ensuing flood of not-always-proper disposal of the “outdated” electronics angers and saddens me at the same time.

And, as strange as it may seem, the pharmaceuticals and the electronics have a tie that binds them in my mind – the need for improved product stewardship.  While both industries are working hard to remedy my perceived concerns with a new reality through product stewardship, there is much work to be done.

Product stewardship is not just for the pharmaceutical or electronics industries and is a term that might strike fear in the hearts of some companies and industries, but these days, it only makes good business sense.

Ensuring that each product that comes to market is environmentally safe and is accounted for throughout its entire lifecycle is what it is all about. At its best, the ultimate product stewardship involves thinking through every component of a product to help ensure it can be safely handled from cradle to cradle or cradle to grave. In this day and age, product stewardship is not just something to aspire to; our environment needs it and our future depends on it.

Let’s face it, in an industrial economy, producers and retailers are in it to make money, and consumers wanting to reduce consumption but also wanting to do good when they do make purchases simply can not research every component of every product much less every product they buy. On the road to a sustainable future, we all need to do good, even when no one is watching.

Traditionally in the United States, product stewardship initiatives have largely, but not always, been the result of legislation. It would be good to see more and more industries getting on board with product stewardship simply for the triple bottom line benefits.

For some businesses, the words product stewardship may make them fear unreasonable costs and burdens; however, companies that take greater responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products can lower overall costs through proper planning, design, and product management. Sometimes end products can even become new products after take back.

In Chapter 7 of the Handbook on Household Hazardous Waste, Scott Cassel, Executive Director of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), discusses five reasons manufacturers, retailers, and other industry stakeholders are motivated to become better product stewards. Cassel cites, competitive advantage, reduced business risk (including threat of legislation), an image of sustainability, corporate ownership control and company leadership.

If we all had a better connection with our environment and were in “harmony” with nature, as His Royal Highness Charles, the Prince of Wales emphasizes the need for in his new book, it seems like product stewardship would be the norm. In Harmony, he points out that it is possible to produce materials as strong as Kevlar (made from petroleum and sulfuric acid) with natural products like spider silk that do not require toxic chemicals or leave behind toxic by-products.

I see glimmers of hope, and much forward progress in 2010 alone with our first national drug take-back day, and increased electronics waste oversight to protect developing nations and all workers from harm, but there is much to be done. The costs are high for not participating in radically rethinking the way we do business.

It seems that even our health care costs could be lowered by having a healthy environment as the result of product stewardship and preventative care for our planet and ourselves. I for one do not wish to continue drinking the cocktail of chemical and pharmaceutical waste in our waters, nor do I wish to support environmental harm in developing countries.

As consumers, we must do our best to let our hard-earned dollars speak when we make purchasing decisions and do our best to properly reuse, recycle and dispose of products at the end of their life.

Producers, retailers and governments must do their best to manufacture responsibly and with the ultimate health of the environment (and the global citizenry) in mind and help keep the public educated and informed about product care and management.  Along the way, we thank organizations like PSI for helping to guide us all and shape a more sustainable future.

Start the conversation…™

What can your company do to better incorporate product stewardship into its products and services?

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You’ve probably heard how Sputnik, that low orbiting satellite lobbed into space by the Russians on the 4th of October 1957, effectively triggered the space race. But there’s one detail many don’t know –that it gave birth to one of the earliest crowd-sourced events, fueled by the Moonwatch program.

Derrick Mains, kicked off the SustainAZility movement, with the launch of a wiki last evening by drawing this analogy. “Fifty three years ago, they crowd-sourced the most critical, scientific aspects of date collection!.”

“Tonight with better technology -and as you can see that same passion–we’re gonna follow that same model, by actually launching our own crowd-sourced, data collection and economic development plan called SustainAZility.”

Brown Russell, President of GreenNurture, and Park Howell, CEO and founder of Park&Co also spoke at the event. Attendees then proceeded to log into the wiki and update content.

• Listen to the whole speech here

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• Access the SustainAZility Wiki here

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Even at the office, the winter holidays can be an exciting time of the year with parties and gift giving. But this joyous time can have a downside – its effect on the environment.

“Americans throw away 25 percent more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year,” according to the Use Less Stuff Report. This is the equivalent of 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week, the report added.

Officially starting the day after Thanksgiving, the winter holiday season provides one of the best times of the year to put your best “green” foot forward. By adopting a use-less-stuff attitude and thinking outside the box to express season’s greetings, we can all reduce our impact on the landfill.

Just because we are reducing waste does not mean that gift giving is out of the question. Some green gifts keep on giving. Ideas for both company clients and employees include the following:

• Use e-cards for your holiday cards. They send a purposeful message that you and your company are conscious of saving trees.
• Encourage a green home makeover by giving faucet aerators, low flow showerheads and CFL or LED light bulbs.
• Show continued support for environmentally-responsible travel with coins for the light rail, bus passes, and pedometers.
• Give native flowers and trees. They can be used to brighten spirits and keep the air clean in the office, or to help offset carbon emissions and assist our pollinators when planted outdoors. Get more information from your local extension agent.
• Create a fun, shared experience with tickets to ballgames, plays and movies, or locally-owned restaurant gift certificates.
• Show green practices extend within and beyond the reach of your company with reusable items such as coffee mugs, travel mugs and water bottles with the company logo and an eco message.
• Include practical gifts that anyone can use like a 100 percent recycled-content plastic, or cotton, cloth grocery bags.
• Contribute your time or support on behalf of your company to local restoration and preservation efforts. In addition to community organizations, there also are national programs in need of assistance such as Habitat for Humanity, UNICEF, The American Red Cross, The World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and so on.

Remember, if a gift needs to be wrapped, be sure to use materials that are recycled and recyclable, or reusable. Shredded documents make great filling for reusable baskets and packing material, and be sure to use recycled-content/reused boxes for items that need to be mailed.

To further get your office into a green festive spirit:

• Get creative – hold a recycled ornament competition to trim the tree and the office using office recyclables and company discards.
• Consider a live, native tree that can be planted on the company grounds or in the community after the holidays. If you use an artificial tree, be sure to keep track of it and reuse it year after year. If you use a cut tree, be sure to check with your local recycling program to have it properly recycled.
• Be sure to go local for your vendors and food for any holiday parties. Don’t forget to use reusable plates, glasses and cutlery or use 100% recycled paperware that will be composted afterwards. Donate any leftover food to your local shelter or food bank.
• Consider holding a raffle for a new bike or yearly commuter pass on local transportation with the proceeds going to a favorite charity.
• Volunteer in your community whether it be singing carols at a local hospital or nursing home, helping to serve food at a local shelter, or gathering and distributing food and green gifts for those in need.

Start the conversation…™

How will your company green its holiday season and New Year’s resolutions?

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There are plenty of studies and calls to action on Employee Engagement. But when it comes to Employee Engagement and Sustainability there’s a lot more work to be done.

Studies that attempt to correlate these two factors have found that most employees (86 percent, in one survey) have not been engaged by their employers. Yet, a very large number of corporate CEOs (93 percent!) recognize that “sustainability will be critical to the future success of their companies.”

The Brighter Planet study, released in February this year recognized that the shift toward sustainability is “a cultural shift, and it’s one that must happen at all levels within an organization to be truly effective.” It also noted that “organizations need to work on communicating sustainability issues and initiatives to staff.”

So we wanted to find out ourselves (see link to survey) because even “the definition of sustainability is still in question,” observed Derrick Mains.

“The media tells you it is environmental sustainability; Wall Street will tell you it is all about risk management and profitability; other organizations will tell you it is about social responsibility –how your company interacts with employees the world… it could even be about procurement and process efficiency.”

Listen to a short clip here of Derrick Mains explain the goals of the survey, and the connection between sustainability and employee engagement.

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We’re excited to launch the first in a series of Employee Engagement surveys, and invite you to be a part of it.

We like to find out about employee attitudes and motivations in companies’ sustainability efforts. Is it being driven by management, or by passionate employees? Results will be posted once a month to our site.

If you would share your thoughts in this short survey, you will be entered for a drawing of a $100 gift card to Amazon.com this month!

Take survey here:

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Employee engagement and brand ambassadors are often mentioned in the same sentence.

But we often see how those who work in Marketing, and those who have ‘Internal Communications’ on their business card don’t seem to breathe the same oxygen. Maybe they eat in the same cafeteria, use a common email server, and are a few degrees of separation from each other. But they appear to have very different marching orders.

But that will soon change.

Internal and External communicators –the former from an HR track, and the latter from marketing communications –now have the tools, and sometimes the permission, to jumped tracks, so to speak.

The best companies don’t put them in different parts of the building anymore. Jay Baer made a great point last week, referring to the problem of ‘information asymmetry’ that businesses face. Basically it means that people outside of the company seem to have more information than those inside. What this means, he says, is that “it really requires companies to have more than one set of antennae for the organization.” Companies today need to unleash host of ‘unofficial marketers’ to represent their brand.

The Org Chart, however, does not let this happen.

Robert Scoble, while he was at Microsoft, used to be part of a video team that profiled employees and products –more or less an internal communicator. Yet he was able to jump tracks, engage with customers, and become the unoffiial voice of Microsoft, despite NOT being in PR or marketing.

Our definition of branding is still stuck in the lock-down model, even though the line between internal and external communication has all but been erased. As Interbrand recommends, internal branding shouldn’t be bogged down in restrictive brand guidelines. A brand ambassador is not just someone who could promote the company via a press release. It is someone who could respond at 2 am in the morning, when a customer has a question –a question that cannot wait for the person with ‘marketing’ on her business card to respond later that day.

It may be time to reprint your business cards, and refresh the org chart. There may be brand ambassadors in your organization just waiting to be tapped!

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SustainAZility.

Get used to the word. It’s a lot more than making Phoenix or Arizona a more sustainable place.  It is about making Arizona a hospitable place for businesses that are profiting from the global shift toward Sustainability.

On this week’s radio show, Your Triple Bottom Line, Derrick Mains officially announced the launch of a Sustainazility grass-roots movement, and the launch of the wiki -at www.Sustainazility.com.

Here’s a segment of that show (just under 10 minutes) where Derrick outlines his plan and a call to action.

Download the podcast at this link. Or listen to it using the player below.

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This is part three of a three-part series on Transforming Your Waste Stream into a Recycling Stream.

America Recycles Day is today! The perfect day for your company to pledge to start or enhance a business recycling program.

Getting Started
Oftentimes, just knowing where to start with an office-recycling program is the biggest barrier; however, it is also the greatest opportunity. There are many ways to begin big five recycling efforts. Here is one simple sample plan:

1. Identify what materials are generated in sufficient quantities within your business to merit recycling with a waste assessment. This can be conducted in-house.

“A simple review of what kind of waste is being generated – a “waste assessment” – will help businesses identify the most prevalent discarded materials that would make the most sense to target in a recycling program,” Scott Mouw, Environmental Supervisor for the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, suggests. “But even if they are only a small part of the waste stream, materials like aluminum, plastic, glass and steel are easy to capture and find outlets for.”

As Mouw suggests, if your company is small, you may decide to focus on paper recycling collection with a service provider and collect and recycle other materials (e.g., aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles) through individual efforts such as employees taking turns bringing these smaller quantities of materials home and adding them to their residential recycling bins.

2. Set priorities and goals for a big five program.

3. Educate the office about recycling initiative. Explain expectations and responsibilities of the employees.

4. Evaluate progress and adjust the program to maintain successful results over time.

Since paper represents the largest slice of the municipal solid waste pie—especially at work—paper and cardboard are generally the best materials with which to begin recycling efforts. For the commercial sector, paper and aluminum recycling rates seem to support the relative ease of recycling these components of the big five.

According to the Paper Industry Association Council, “A record-high 63.4 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling in 2009.” The Aluminum Association reported 54.2 percent of used aluminum beverage cans were recycled. 2008 EPA Recycling Facts and Figures report recycling rates for HDPE (#2) plastics at 29.3 percent, glass containers at 28.0 percent and PET (#1) bottles and jars recovered for recycling at 27.2 percent.

According to Mouw, “Often the weight and volume of paper offers the best opportunity for substantial waste reduction and cost avoidance.” He adds, “Still, recycling markets and the environmental benefits of diverting the other [big five] materials are also substantial in their own right and should not be overlooked, especially if there is an ability to operate a very simple commingled recycling program where paper and the other materials can be combined in collection.”

The overall goal with starting or enhancing a big five recycling program should be to work toward reducing your waste stream and replacing it with a recycling stream.  To this end, you not only improve your triple bottom line accounting, but also the environment – efforts well worth the investment on the road to zero waste and sustainability.

Start the conversation…^™
Since 1960, EPA data has shown steady increases in recycling; however, overall recycling rates seemed to have leveled out just over the 30% mark in the past few years. What actions can your company use to start or improve recycling of the big five in your office and help increase national recycling rates?

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This is part two of a three-part series on Transforming Your Waste Stream into a Recycling Stream.

America Recycles Day is November 15^th — the perfect day for your company to pledge to start or enhance a business recycling program.

Implementing a plan for recycling the big five at work can be challenging. Four common barriers include:

Availability
While most communities with residential curbside recycling programs also offer commercial recycling programs, communities in more rural areas may only have access to drop-off programs where users must bring their materials to a facility for recycling.

However, when it comes to paper recycling, which is often the largest component of the waste stream in the workplace, the outlook is promising.  According to a 2007 American Forest and Paper Association Community Survey, there has been marked growth in curbside recycling for paper in both small and large communities since 2005. Access to curbside recycling certainly makes it easier to recycle materials from work; however, drop-off recycling programs can still be feasible if you are located in a small community or remote location with no recycling service providers available to pick up materials.

Collection
Finding space for not only interior and exterior collection bins, but also for such equipment as a baler to compact cardboard or cans, can be a challenge to some businesses. Further, initial investments for equipment may be required if not supported or supplied from community recycling programs and recycling vendors. For example, you may find that you generate enough cardboard and/or aluminum cans to warrant the investments into special interior collection bins and/or a compacting baler.

One solution to consider if you are tight for space or funding is to work with other businesses in your area.  For instance, if your business is a part of a strip mall or office complex, devising a cooperative plan may save not only on equipment space and investment costs, but also on waste removal and recycling costs as well. If large quantities of recyclables are generated by collective efforts, you may even increase your market share of profits.

Negotiations
When negotiating for waste and recycling services, be sure that you are not paying for waste hauling services and then tacking recycling services on to that cost. When you begin or enhance a recycling program, your waste generation should go down and in turn your waste hauling charges as well.  Scott Mouw, Environmental Supervisor for the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, explains, “depending on an individual business’s situation, there could be a marginal cost of recycling if the service provider needs to charge for collection (which is often the case).”

Mouw goes on, “Businesses must sharpen their pencil on the waste side to make sure they take advantage of waste service cost savings when they implement recycling. In general, finding a service provider is a big step in the process but businesses can often get help from local and state government recycling programs in helping find recycling service companies.”

Most communities have local- or state-government recycling coordinators (check the listings in the government pages of your phonebook under Recycling, Public Works, Environmental Protection or Solid Waste Management) who can assist with information about equipment and markets and information about community recycling service providers. If you do not have a recycling coordinator to help you, check with your current trash hauler to see if they offer recycling pickup. This may be the most economical option when you are already an established customer with them, but not always.  The question you want to ask is, ‘What type of package deal can I get to reduce waste hauling charges and include recycling pickup?’ Ideally, you want to keep your costs the same or reduce them by adding on recycling services.

Engaging Employees
When starting or improving a recycling program, involvement and education of all employees is key.

“It is important to involve all parties in the company that take part in the generation and management of waste – production workers, the business office, shipping/receiving staff, etc,” says Mouw, who works to expand recycling markets in North Carolina as well as the southeast.

“Time and time again, the most successful waste-reducing businesses are those who take a team approach to the problem and get ideas from everyone involved.”

Recyclers will be interested in quality and quantity of your materials. Keep them clean and free of contamination to receive the best share of market revenues if available to you and to avoid your recycling efforts ending up in your dumpster where they will waste resources and increase waste hauling charges.

Involvement of all employees from the start, and initial training and signage reminding everyone of your policies and procedures will go a long way in making your big five recycling programs successful. Use signs to clearly indicate recycling bin locations and instructions about what, where, how and why they should recycle. Consider mass e-mails to keep employees abreast of recycling goals met or ones the company is striving to achieve.

An online guide from The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University says, “Giving people an immediate incentive, if possible, also makes behavior change easier.”  Posting the department with the highest recycling rate each month can help foster team spirit, motivate friendly competition and increase recycling rates within your organization.

Monday in Part 3, starting a business recycling program.

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What is it?

A vision to position Arizona as the “Silicon Valley” of the emerging multi-trillion dollar sustainability industry.

According to a World Watch Institute 2008 study, annual revenue from sustainable products and services will double to $2.74 TRILLION by 2020 with 50% of that revenue going to energy and process efficiency.

This isn’t about “going green” – it’s more than that. It’s about resource and process efficiency, risk mitigation and long-term financial profitability.

According to a 2010 UN Global Compact study titled “A New Era of Sustainability,” global CEO thinking has gone through a dramatic shift in the past two years: a full 96% of global CEOs believe that sustainability should be fully integrated into the strategy and operations of their companies (and that survey was done before the BP disaster), and 91% say that their companies will be investing significantly in new technologies over the next 5 years.

Someone somewhere will profit from this rush toward greater sustainability.

Arizona is a land of pioneers, risk takers. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to settle and live in this area and many of us here have that same pioneering spirit. The native peoples who first settled in the desert birthed it, those born here inherited it, and those of us who immigrated here did so because we followed the call.

In recent times, Arizona was in the grip of a real estate gold rush; but the reality is, times have changed. The real estate market is bust, and the truth is, the boom we had is probably never coming back.

What are we going to replace it with? Yes, aerospace, the biosciences, and defense can help, BUT we have an opportunity – a TRILLION dollar a year opportunity – to create an environment where companies that develop technologies for greater sustainability can be created and thrive.

This challenge isn’t just about solar or bio-fuels.

They are part of the challenge, a big part. But why stop there. The trillion dollar challenge is about making Arizona the Silicon Valley of Sustainability, a center for the development of the full range of products and services that businesses worldwide will be buying to improve their sustainability..

The competition with other regions over aerospace, biosciences and defense is going to be fierce – and most of them have a big head start over Arizona, BUT there is currently no Silicon Valley of Sustainability. As a community, as a State, let’s be the first mover and own the space.

To get there we need three things.

Show up. First, we need to show up and step up to the plate. This movement needs innovators who raise the bar and challenge each other to step up our game.

Sell the sizzle. Next, we need to sell the vision. We have been selling tactics for too long when we should have been selling a trillion dollar vision.

Brew the right mix. Then, we need the Silicon Valley environment. Not its buildings, but its attitude, its vision and its focus. It takes the right mix which includes:

• Entrepreneurs and Geeks – this is not just tech geeks, its sustainable geeks as well. Those who work in the field, those who understand it and those who have a passion for it.
• Investors – investors invest in what they know and understand and the truth is we need to help them to understand sustainability; we need to sell the vision and provide education for investors to help them really analyze and understand the landscape, risks and trillion dollar upside that is reality.
• Educators – From Northern Arizona University, University of Arizona , Grand Canyon and Thunderbird to Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability, we have the education infrastructure and we are even home to the pioneers in online learning – University of Phoenix.
• Legislators – This isn’t about red or blue its about a “capitalist call” to create a friendly and favorable economic environment to nurture a trillion dollar a year center of revenue, jobs and tax base.
• Community – Everyone wants to live in a mecca. Silicon Valley is a destination for technology which benefits the community through security, jobs, pride and a legacy.

The right mix is what created Silicon Valley. But two of these really started the movement . . . investors and geeks.

Without those groups buying into the vision, the rest is irrelevant. Entrepreneurial Geeks need to get connected and buy into creating the vision, and then sell that vision to rich people.

Once those visions are aligned, we have something to sell to the legislators, the educators and the community.

But, first we need to show up and step up. We need a gathering of determined pioneers to collaborate and generate the sizzle of our vision to be a part of something bigger than all of us (heck at a trillion bucks, it’s bigger than an act of Congress).

So who’s with me? Who wants to be a Trillionaire?

Let me know, and email me here: derrick@greennurture.com

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Two days after from being named a Green Pioneer by the Phoenix Business Journal, Derrick Mains called on entrepreneurs and thought-leaders in Arizona to raise the bar if they want to turn the state into a Silicon Valley for Sustainability!

On his radio show, Your Triple Bottom Line, Derrick spent some time outlining the opportunity, and his call to action.

Sustainability will be a 2.7 trillion industry, with 50 percent of that in energy and process efficiency.

The keyword is efficiency.

Arizona is a land of pioneers and risk-takers, he noted. This pioneering spirit needs to be challenged, as we are sitting on a trillion dollar opportunity for ‘holistic sustainability.’

Listen to the podcast using the player below. Connect with Derrick via email.

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This is part one of a three-part series on Transforming Your Waste Stream into a Recycling Stream.

America Recycles Day is November 15^th — the perfect day for your company to pledge to start or enhance a business recycling program.

In today’s green economy the goal for the business waste stream should be zero waste. To get there, businesses are increasingly diving into their waste stream to really understand what it is comprised of and how they can properly, and successfully, reduce, reuse and recycle it.

“In 2008, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash,“ according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Waste from commercial and institutional locations, such as schools, hospitals, and businesses, amounted to 35 to 45 percent of total waste generation.” On the path toward zero waste, recycling still plays an important part of the “three R’s” equation.

For years recycling programs have focused on reducing residential waste. Now it is time for businesses to focus on their recycling efforts as well. If your business does not have a recycling program, it is time to start. If you have one, it is time to re-evaluate and enhance it. In either case, begin with the basic building-block materials of recycling…

Aluminum, glass, paper, plastic and steel are the crux of most recycling programs. Collectively, these materials are known as the “big five” in the recycling industry as they comprise more than half of the municipal (combined residential and commercial) solid waste stream. They also are easily collected and recycled through most established recycling programs in the United States.

Recycling saves energy, resources and landfill space as well as reduces the environmental impacts caused when creating new material from virgin resources. The big five commodities are prime candidates for helping businesses reduce waste and improve sustainability because aluminum, steel and glass can be recycled infinitely; paper, which is so prevalent in the workplace, can be recycled from its highest-quality form seven times before fibers are too short to recycle further; and virgin plastic is made from non-renewable petroleum resources.

“It is important for businesses to participate in sustainable solutions, and recycling is often the easiest and one of the most powerful ways to start,” says Scott Mouw, Environmental Supervisor for the North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. “By feeding valuable materials back into the economy, they help other companies grow and create jobs, helping expand our economy and feeding manufacturers who rely on recycled materials to make the products we use every day.”

Six Reasons Businesses Should Recycle the Big Five

The environmental impacts of a carefully formulated solid waste management plan can do more for the environment, and your business, than you might think. There are multiple beneficial and compelling reasons to recycle the big five—in general and at work.

1. Lower Cost for Waste Removal – Reducing your waste stream through recycling can lead to lower waste removal costs. Recycling services may still cost; however, rates can be negotiated to equal or better than waste removal costs alone.

“Many businesses that start comprehensive recycling programs also find that they can avoid waste collection and disposal costs that can only be expected to rise over time,” Mouw adds.

2. Income – When markets are good—especially for paper and old corrugated cardboard—recycling contracts can be negotiated with your recycling service provider to create income for your business as well.

3. Tax Credits – Twenty-five states offer tax credits for recycling market development. This means that if you work for a recycling industry or manufacturing business that uses recycled materials, you may qualify.

4. Recognition– Many communities and trade associations have recognition and awards programs for companies that recycle. Waste Wi$e, and the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Paper Recycling Awards are good places to start.

5. Corporate Social Responsibility: Recycling is a long-term sustainability investment with triple-bottom-line rewards. Aside from the environmental ones, benefits also include improved public image, reaching new markets and improved employee morale.

6. Creates Green Jobs – In today’s economic climate, this speaks volumes. The EPA Jobs Through Recycling program estimates that recycling creates almost five times as many jobs as landfilling. That is 103,000 jobs in the northeastern United States alone, according to the EPA. Jobs created through recycling include collection and hauling, brokering of recovered materials and processing as well as the manufacturing and distribution of the new recycled-content products.

Tomorrow in Part 2, a look at common challenges encountered with business recycling programs.

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Most people don’t have ‘e-waste’ on their radar. In fact most people can’t visualize what it is.

It sounds a bit like some industrial effluent problem that we keep hearing about, or something that happens ‘over there’ -in developing countries.  But e-waste is something we contribute to whether we know about it or not. It’s time local governments and business leaders addressed this knowledge gap.

For instance, the volume of e-waste climbed by 8.6% between 2005 and 2006 (as opposed 1.2 percent. for the volume of regular municipal waste).

But what does that look like? Where do the thousands of  keyboards, computer monitors, obsolete phones and laptop batteries end up? You may not see an used PlayStation controller floating down a river when you’re out Trout fishing…

Jeff Rassas had a great idea one day. He decided to incentivize people to solve the problem locally. His company, YouChange.com, is not just another do-good company. It’s a robust business model. Audio systems, old gaming consoles, PDAs, optical drives and hundreds of other home electronics and business equipment can be turned into cash.

The web site lets you do it in three simple steps: Find out how much your gadget is worth – instant evaluation online by entering a model number. Send it to youchange.com (they take care of shipping & handling), and collect cash and reward points.

Here’s a short segment where Derrick Mains and Jeff Rassas talk about how businesses could be part of the solution. A longer version of this podcast could be found here at Your Triple Bottom Line.

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Sustainability often strikes people as being a six-dollar word for a collection of little things they do. So-called ’sustainability practitioners’ are not always the ones who have written a paper on carbon footprints or ‘food miles.’

They are people you meet every day in the coffee shop, the church group, or the post office. Sometimes they are a bit weird –in a good way.

Two articles crossed my path that made me think about this. The first was an article by Gareth Kane who makes an interesting point ‘getting green out of the boardroom’ in his article in Management Issues. The second was by Park Howell, who applies the lens of ‘Rudolph Thinking’ to look inward for managing business tough times.

Park’s blog post, “The 15 characteristics of Rudolphs and how they can help steer your company thru the fog of the recession” addresses one of our favorite books, The Rudolph Factor by Cindy Laurin who was a guest on our radio  show.

You see Rudolphs are a bit ‘weird’ to most people just doing their thing. But in any business, in any generation, they are the ones who get it, who stick their snouts out, and are quickly labeled misfits. It reminds me of the line Apple used when it celebrated the ‘rebels’ and misfits’ who believed in the personal computer back in 1997.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.”

To bring sustainability into the workplace, we need to recruit –meaning motivate, or hire– more of these square pegs’ and Rudolphs. Because, as the Apple ad had it, “You can ..disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.”

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We had our lens trained on health care, when we spoke about Green Teams on the radio show last week.

Hospitals and healthcare systems are just that -systems. Applying triple bottom line thinking to a large system takes an enormous degree of organization. But it also takes something that’s hard to bolt-on -passion.

Our conversation revolved around the invisible thread of human motivation that runs through those three overlapping entities: employees, patients and the community.

How do they communicate with each other? Dr. Joan Plisko, Technical Director of Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (MD H2E) and Colleen Cusick of Johns Hopkins talked about the decentralized, yet coordinated team activity they lead. What came out, however, was the huge communication part of the equation.

Communication?

In the age of so many easy-to-implement tools from enterprise email to ad-hoc Facebook Groups?  Sometimes different parts of a company don’t know what each other is doing, and rather than see this as a problem, this is an opportunity for a Green Team, said Dr. Plisko. She used the example of eWaste in healthcare systems.

Here’s a snippet of our conversation about communications for Green Teams.

Download Interview. Or use the player below.

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When it comes to projects, the health care industry is no different from other industries.  There are projects in constant motion. The health care industry addresses issues of competition, time to market, new product introduction (includes new processes and procedures), and enhancements to technology, equipment or existing policies.  The discipline of project management can and should be applied.  Of course there is no guarantee for project success, no “silver bullet,” but a disciplined approach gives you more of a chance for project success than a random, haphazard, “seat-of-your-pants” approach.  And, with the “green wave” of environmental awareness, mandates and guidelines, as well as regulatory efforts, more and more organizations, including those in health care, are adopting and having to adopt, a greener focus.  Again, without some structure those approaches are hit-and-miss at best.  So as more and more heath care organizations are adopting the disciple of project management, it only makes sense to couple that discipline with an Environmental Management Plan (EMP).

So what is an EMP and how can it help you, as a project manager, your project team and your enterprise?

I am making an assumption here that your organization has an environmental policy, or at the least, contained within the mission statement, is some statement of environmental commitment.  If there is none, then the first job of anyone who manages the organizations projects is to suggest/implore/demand that policy.  For the reasons outlines above, the “green wave,” regulations etc.,  is no longer an option but a necessity to have a green commitment at the organization level.  Projects are where ideas become reality, and those who manage projects make those ideas real.  Because managing projects is the business end of business, those who manage projects, therefore, have the duty to require that commitment.  It is good for the business.

As mentioned before, the EMP is focused on the environmental and sustainability aspects of projects.  Like all good plans, the EMP has some inputs and the results of the EMP will be used as inputs to other plans.  Inputs to the EMP are the organizations environmental objectives, policies and the environmental risks.  The plan will contain considerations for the project’s scope, stakeholders, organizational policies, and risk register.  It will use tools like benchmarking and cost-benefit analysis to determine best practices, as well as using the cost of greenality for decision making.  Outputs of the EMP will drive other necessary project management plans like risk, quality, communication, human resources, cost, and procurement management plans.

As an example of how you might use the information from your EMP, I’ll use procurement.  If the intent of your organization is to use “green” suppliers, like Wal-Mart does, then the EMP will provide clear criteria for choosing an environmentally friendly company.  Remember, the EMP is a project-guiding document, not mandate.  The ultimate decision on whether or not to use one company over another, whether environmentally friendly or not, will still be an organizational decision.  The EMP will have those guidelines, but there are instances, where something is prohibitively costly, where the decision will more than likely not be made in favor of the environment.  This can be frustrating for you, especially if you are passionate about the environment, but you must realize that there are other factors at work.  However, this should not dissuade you from putting the best EMP together that you can.

The green wave is gaining strength, and so is competition within the health care industry.  An effective EMP is a way to differentiate one organization from another.  I’ll talk more about how to “green up” your health care projects in my next blog.

The concept of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP)© was first offered by Rich Maltzman and me  in our proposal to The Project Management Institute® for inclusion of environmental considerations for project management, in the future Fifth Edition of The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). ® The PMBOK Guide is the “bible” for project managers.  Its primary function is to provide those who manage projects with a framework for application of the project management disciple.  The EMP is specifically focused on the environmental and sustainability aspects of the organization’s projects.  It is also tied to project activities like scope, stakeholder considerations, organizational policies, risk registers.  In addition, the EMP will use measurement tools like benchmarking, cost-benefit analysis, and the cost of greenality to insure that the environmental and sustainability aspects of their projects are considered.  Greenality, a new word coined in Green Project Management, CRC Press 2010, as the “degree to which an organization considers green (environmental) aspects of their projects throughout the project life cycle.”  The cost of greenality therefore is divided into two categories, the cost of good greenality, audits, training, etc., and the cost of bad greenality, the cost of internal and external failures.  I’ll talk more about greenality and greenality measurements in a future blog.

For more information about EarthPM®, see http://earthpm.com.

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How many gallons of water did you use use this morning before you got to work? Many of us are pretty clueless about this. How about the consumer protections in bottled water?

Because today’s Blog Action Day, and the focus is on water, we wanted to point to some simple tips we are promoting, through our collaboration with the Water Use It Wisely campaign. Sure they may be ‘little drops of water’ but these micro actions, or ‘small modifications‘ as the White House blog put it, can make a difference. (We did an entire radio show on this last month if you are interested.)

In that Water Use It Wisely campaign, there are tips such as these two:

Tip # 32:

“Support ‘Tap Into Quality‘ and forgo those plastic water bottles to lower your carbon footprint.”

Tip # 7

Have a water audit done for your facility to find out the recommended water use for your operations, then make sure someone monitors your utility bills to gauge your monthly consumption.

Need a few more? Here’s a bigger list.

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In the news we hear so much about alternative energy, energy tax credits, ENERGY STAR products and more, but starting with little or no budget, the basics can go a long way in saving energy and reducing costs.

Go for “low hanging fruit.” Taking these simple, easy actions toward being more energy efficient can lower your office’s electrical bills and leave your company feeling good about its efforts.

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) System

Monitor thermostat settings.

Most utility companies recommend setting thermostats to 78 degrees or higher in summer and 68 degrees or lower in winter. Each degree below these recommendations in summer, or above in winter, represents an approximate 4 percent increase in the electric portion of your utility bill. Use fans to keep cooler in summer. They can make us feel about 6 degrees cooler and often use less energy than a 100-watt bulb. However, don’t forget fans cool people, not rooms. Turn them off when no one is in the room.

No one there? Turn thermostats up, down or off.

Set the thermostat up during the cooling season, down during the heating season or off when everyone has left work for the day. HVAC systems are either fully on or fully off. Therefore, the amount of energy needed to run the HVAC system to warm things up or cool things down in the morning is less than if the HVAC system were on for more than six hours at night, according to the University of Oregon.

Conduct routine maintenance on HVAC system in spring and fall.

Regular maintenance of cooling and heating equipment ensures equipment is running efficiently with clean condenser and/or blower coils and filters, proper refrigerant levels and no leaking ducts. According to Flex Your Power, California’s statewide energy efficiency campaign, maintenance saves up to 30 percent of fan and up to 10 percent of space-conditioning energy use.

Office with a window?

Assist the heating and cooling system in your office by using blinds to control the heat from sunlight entering the office through windows. Shut sun out in summer and let it in winter.

Lighting

Turn off the lights.

Energy expended for lighting in commercial buildings is second only to the energy used for heating and cooling equipment. Turn off the lights whenever you leave a room and when no one is around (even if you will be gone for just a minute or two). Also, make sure to turn off all lights in the office at the end of the day. According to educational information from the Eugene Water & Electric Board in Oregon, “turning off the lights reduces operating costs in two ways: It saves energy and reduces the number of lamp replacements.”

Only use necessary lights.

Turn off lighting that does not contribute to proper lighting for the individual workspaces.  For example, try using only half or none of overhead lighting when desk lights are in use. And don’t forget to turn off outdoor lights during daylight hours.

Use daylighting to your advantage.

If your office gets sufficient natural lighting through windows or skylights, leave lights off and strategically place desks and workstations to maximize this benefit. Turn lights on only in interior areas where they may be necessary.

Electronics

Use power management features.

Set computers and monitors to use their low power, or “sleep mode,” after a designated period of inactivity.

Turn it off.

Computers, copiers, printers, wireless routers and other non-essential electronic devices use energy even when they are idle or on stand-by. Even chargers. Unplug them when not in use and at the end of the day/work week. Consider using a power strip to make this task easier.

Have the low hanging fruit taken care of and want to do more?  Invest in a programmable thermostat, check/add weather stripping and insulation, and take the ENERGY STAR Challenge.

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On last week’s show, we had a great conversation around Green Teams, with our guest Dani Glaser.

Derrick talked of the shift in how teams operate. It was very much corporate driven, then, he said. But today the power-shift — the passion for change –is coming from within and across the organization.

Listen to a short clip.

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Hate long meetings? So do we!

If you walk into GreenNurture at 10 O’ clock in the morning you’ll find the crew assembled in the lobby for a session called ‘Ten at 10.’

Think of it as the Twitter effect on meetings. Not time to waste rambling on… Or maybe this is the ‘un-meeting.‘ As in un-conferences and the like. No pre-assigned agenda. No one gets to hog the podium.

In ten minutes, everyone needs to update the group as to what’s going on. Which is great. If you could say something valuable in 140 characters or fewer, this should be easy.

Try it! Then tell us what lessons you learned doing that.

Worth a read: The real cost of holding a meeting, at Fast Company.

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2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, and world leaders are poised to meet for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10) in Nagoya, Japan, October 18-29. 

At first glance, it may not be intuitive as to why your business should care. However, this United Nations declaration and the COP10 talks provide some of the most powerful opportunities for businesses to send the right messages to their clients and consumers that they are firmly committed to the protection of the variety of life on Earth – biodiversity. These are strong messages easily incorporated into your company’s business plan that will not only improve your bottom line, but also the future of our planet. This year. And beyond.

Insuring robust biodiversity is essentially insuring our “Web of Life.” As with most business practices, knock out a step or two and the whole process may not suffer significantly for anyone to notice, but take out a key step and the product or service is doomed and fails. And so it is with the seemingly magical stuff of life. The biological diversity of our planet is what helps sustain us. We rely on this diversity for not just food and wealth, but medicine, fuel and vital services such as oxygen, decomposition and more. In many regions of the world, we know that our systems (both plant and animal) are fragile and some are in peril.

E.O. Wilson, a well-known American biologist and researcher on the area of biodiversity, and other experts say we are facing some of the greatest mass extinctions of animals and plants since the age of dinosaurs, and no one knows which “keystone” species” might be the crucial ones. The mission of Wilson’s Biodiversity Foundation is “to preserve biological diversity in the living environment by inventing and implementing business and educational strategies in the service of conservation.”
 It reinforces that “commerce and conservation can and must be made compatible.” Threats to biodiversity include human over population, habitat destruction, overharvesting, invasive species and pollution. So the best approach in the 21^st century and beyond is to play it safe, go for a green bottom line, and protect as much of our native habitats and wild places to give as many species, including our own, a good chance at survival.

No matter what your industry, develop and promote long-term internal plans for your business that sustain biological diversity from your financials to your production in- and out-puts. As you become more aware and protective of the natural world, you further a movement that is increasingly critical for the health and well roundedness of our children and future leaders. In the long term, having this connection with the Earth and supporting biodiversity efforts will yield big returns for your business and our big blue planet. It’s easy, and it’s just outside your door…

Five Ways Your Business Can Help Promote Biodiversity In Your Community Right Now

 

1. Landscape for Pollinators

Pollinators (bees, butterflies, bats, etc.) play a critical role in our environment but most have been on the decline in recent years. Scientists still do not know the cause of the bee colony collapses they are seeing in record numbers since 2006. According to a 2007 Q&A with Leeanne Alonso, director of Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program, “In the U.S. alone, pollination by domesticated honeybees is worth almost $15 billion a year, and by native bees roughly $3 billion a year.” The loss of bees would not only affect business, but our day-to-day lives as well. Insects are responsible for pollinating one out of every three crops we eat. Foods including strawberries, tomatoes, almonds, and, of course, honey to name a few.

To help, conserve the habitat of native bees and pollinators, and learn what plants you can add to your commercial landscaping to aid pollinator survival with these pollinator-friendly planting guides from the Pollinator Partnership. Be sure to also follow these tips for pesticide use from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

2. Know Your Invasive Exotics and Help Eradicate Them

In some parts of the U.S., species like kudzu or the Nile monitor lizard may seem like something from a bad sci-fi movie or Carl Hiaasen novel; however, the damage they can cause to our economy and environment is real. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that one-in-seven non-native species introduced in the United States becomes an invasive exotic plant or animal, which creates more than $138 billion each year in damage and control costs.

Help fight these alien invaders before they cause economic, environmental or human harm by being informed and willing to help. Learn about the invasive exotic plants and animals in your area, and how to help control them by contacting your state and local authorities. Have your workplace participate in local events/efforts to control and eradicate invasive exotics so that natural habitat can be restored and protected.

3. Xeriscape with Natives

“What businesses do with their own landscapes impacts not only biodiversity in urban areas, but also the biodiversity of natural environments outside of the city,” says Mark Hostetler, an Urban Wildlife Ecologist with the University of Florida.  He adds, “Using native, indigenous, plants in landscaping helps provide habitat for wildlife and it decreases the need for fertilizers, pesticides, and water.  This reduces the amounts of pollutants in stormwater runoff, lessening impacts on nearby natural areas.”

Xeriscaping is a form of landscaping that conserves water and reduces the need for fertilizer. It includes the use of plants adapted to a particular region.  By using native plants in your xeriscaping, you can create beautiful planted areas that also provide useful habitat for native animals like birds, lizards and butterflies. Work with a local plant nursery or county extension service/Master Gardener to find a wide variety of native plants that work with the soils in your landscape and that provide habitat for native animal species in your area. Minimize turf grass because it is like concrete to biodiversity.

Using drought tolerant natives also improves your bottom line. Encouraging your employer/grounds keeper to use native plants in landscaping in and around your office building reduces fertilizer and watering costs. Go further and use a rain barrel for needed watering and compost organics on site to use in place of fertilizer to enrich soil.

4. Participate in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count

According to the 2007 Audubon WatchList website, “One quarter of U.S. birds need our help to keep them from slipping toward extinction.” Helping with the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, the longest-running wildlife census, keeps track of birds that are endangered or at risk of being endangered and helps guide actions for conservation.

Further help our feathered friends by working to conserve Important Bird Areas, and by putting up a birdfeeder and a birdhouse in a wild place outside your office.  Go further and become involved with a year-round bird monitoring and/or insect monitoring program.

5. Mix Green Business with Green Pleasure

Getting in that game of golf is a perfect way to reconnect with your clients and the environment and to support biodiversity. Take the Green Golfer™ Pledge, visit Green Certified golf courses and do your part to encourage your local courses to participate in the Audubon International Golf and Environment Initiative.

According to this Audubon initiative, “Surveys have shown that golfers report that playing quality is maintained or even improved as a result of steps taken to manage a course in harmony with the natural environment.”

Further, the U.S. Golf Association knows the game of golf can “green” up and be more sustainable. Golf course benefits for both the business and the environment include fewer resources used for watering, fertilizing, pesticides and mowing, as well as providing natural areas for native plants and animals.

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Are leaders who push people to do their bidding demonstrating leadership?

Earlier this week, on my radio show Your Triple Bottom Line, I spoke to Michael Stallard, author of a fascinating book, Fired Up Or Burned Out, and we had this discussion around how leaders create a culture of empowerment in the organization.

I have been using the word ‘culture’ flippantly sometimes, implying that it is always a good thing, talking of highly engaged companies as having a robust culture. But they could have a robust negative culture as well. So I asked Michael how does a company such as Facebook, with such a strong, identifiable culture sustain something that was created when it was a 3-person company? Michael had a great response. You could either listen to the whole show here.

Or you could listen to a short a clip of that exchange, using the player below.

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Over the weekend I was at DEMO, the Fall 2010 conference, held in Silicon Valley. Here are my favorite products -and if you watch till the end, you’ll see my pick of the ‘DEMO Dog’ as well!

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On last week’s radio show Derrick and I  took up what some may think is a terribly dry topic, and poked sharp objects at it with some social media questions.

There seems to be a insatiable appetite for measurement and tools that add more  transparency to how companies perform. Everyone wails about the lack of transparency, and the erosion of trust. There has been talk for ages about how CEO’s need to become “see-through CEO’s.” But what about see-through financial reporting? The topic that’s been around for awhile, including more recent moves by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has embraced social media. (It’s called Regulation FD.)

Our guest was Michael Muyot, who created a sustainability index for NASDAQ, and he naturally had a lot to say about how much more transparent financial reporting could be. But as we talked about the rush toward transparency –or the lack thereof — the conversation quickly turned to trust. And why not?

Trust and transparency are two sides of the same coin. He noted that (and I paraphrase what he said for brevity)

“From a political, business and investment level, the need of the hour is trust. The regular American worker has completely lost trust in everything….”

He spoke of KPI’s – Key Performance Indicators — and how social media can point to KPIs with laser-like focus. Listen to a short clip from that conversation, below.

Derrick asked him what might make innovation come back, and create the environment for, say, the next Google? Does Cap and Trade have anything to do with the reluctance of investors? Michael’s responses were enlightening! Use the player below to listen to the conversation.

And if you like to catch our next show, you could steam it live from your computer or phone here. Wednesday at 7PM (Pacific).

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