3 Business Strategies to Reduce Carbon Footprint

Leading companies around the globe have committed to reducing their carbon footprint as part of internal environmental policies.  An effective strategy needs to consider both direct emissions and indirect sources.

Today, Greenhouse Gas (GHG)  emissions are being consider across a company’s entire value chain and can be viewed from two distinct view points.  A company must actively work the emissions that are within their direct control.  These emissions come from the company’s internal operations.  Corporate strategies must also consider indirect emissions controlled by third parties.   These may include products and services that are acquired with a large footprint.

Strategy 1: Reduce Energy Consumption – the reduction of energy and fuel consumption is a key component of a sustainable business strategy to reduce emissions.  It is a long-term commitment to reduction at the source across a product’s entire life cycle.

•    Reduce energy consumption within your supply chain.
•    Reduce consumption within the company’s operations.
•    Design products for minimal direct energy consumption.
•    Consider the consumer and end-life of a product.

Strategy 2: Replace Fossil Fuels with Renewable Energy – Many companies are switching to ‘green’ energy sources to reduce there emissions.  There are a number of easy ways to switch to renewable energy.

•    Choose a service provider that offers renewable energy choices.
•    Install solar collectors to aid energy consumption.
•    Switch corporate fleet renewable hybrid or fuels.
•    Work within the supply chain to reduce fossil fuel usage.

Strategy 3: Offset Emissions – For businesses with less flexibility at the source, offsetting is a concept of funding an equivalent emission reduction elsewhere.  This allows any business the ability to support emission reduction.

•    Offset production equipment emissions by supporting renewable energy   usage by similar equipment in another area.
•    Buy emission offsets for corporate travel.
•    Fund renewable energy projects: energy efficiency, sequestration, or biomass.

With new legislation on the horizon, it has become critical for many companies to have a comprehensive carbon reduction strategy.  Businesses must begin to understand both their direct and indirect exposure.  Taiga Company offers professional consulting and small business resources to companies implementing business sustainability strategies to reduce emissions.

Products Made from Waste Available at Walmart Through April

TerraCycle collects waste which is normally non-recyclable, such as candy wrappers, chip bags, and juice pouches, and makes hundreds of eco-friendly products with them. This year, almost 60 of the company’s products will be sold in evert Walmart store across the US for the month of April, exposing millions of customers to these unique items, and perhaps sparking some conversations about the life cycle of products and packaging.

Eco-Kites: These cool Eco-Kites are made with candy wrappers from such popular items such as Skittles and M&Ms. Kites are fun no matter when you fly them, but flying a kite made from upcycled candy wrappers is a great way to green up your spring. According to TerraCycle, these kites are the world’s first Delta Kites made from food wrappers.

TerraCycle Kids Growing Kits for Vegetables, Flowers, or Herbs: The planting pots are upcycled Stonyfield Yogurt cups (Stonyfield and TerraCycle have a free collection program that pays $.03 for every used cup collected), and the planting mix is made from compost mixed with TerraCycle’s Worm Poop. These growing kits also include seeds embedded in the cardboard tray and growing instructions for the plants.

Notebooks, Journals, Folders, and Pencil Cases: Used candy wrappers make these unique school supplies into fashionable statements about re-use and recycling. Having these in your briefcase, backpack, or purse just might open up a dialog with your coworker or neighbor about the importance of using less new materials in everyday items.

Accessory Bags: Lunchboxes, shoulder bags, backpacks and more, all made from drink pouches, chip wrappers, or candy wrappers, and constructed with matching trim and handles. Show your green side with this line of bags while at the library, in the classroom, or perhaps even the boardroom.

Tote Bags: These tote bags, made from food wrappers turned inside out and then printed, are a stylish and eco-friendly accessory for carrying everything from groceries to school supplies.

TerraCycle collects a lot of these materials from schools – students can bring in their waste wrappers to be reused, and raise $.02 for each item collected for their own school. With this 40th Earth Day anniversary agreement with the nation’s biggest retailer, the millions of students who make up the TerraCycle Brigades, will now have the opportunity to see the full cycle of re-use as these products are displayed in Walmarts all over America.

”TerraCycle partners with major consumer goods manufacturers such as Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, Kashi, Kimberly-Clark and many more to run a massive network of individuals, schools and non-profits who get paid to help collect and upcycled non-recyclable packaging. From drink pouches to chip bags to candy wrappers to diaper packaging, TerraCycle and its partners pay two cents per unit of packaging a participant returns and the collected material is combined with other waste streams and upcycled into a wide range of consumer products. These collection fundraisers are called the ‘Brigades’ and have been running since 2007, when the first was launched with organic beverage manufacturer, Honest Tea. In only two years, over 60,000 locations and 7 million people have got involved and are helping to collect, instead of discard, their trash! Over 1.2 billion pieces of pre- and post-consumer packaging have been collected and over 650,000 dollars has been donated to schools and non-profits.”

Remember, these TerraCycle products are available at Walmart only through April 29th. Check out the TerraCycle website for more information about the company. To comment on this story, visit our blog.

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

From the Barrio to the Boardroom – Tomatoes, CSR, and Global Awareness

The importance of cultural global awareness in business today…

Because of the level of connectivity that we live with today, even the smallest decision that we make can ripple outward and have an unseen impact on people and the environment elsewhere in the world.  Chaos theory calls this the butterfly effect or the observation that small actions (or changes in initial conditions) can influence a chain of events leading to large scale changes in outcomes.

Organizations today, whether they are local or global, have somewhere in their value chain a connection to some other place in the world.  Regardless of what the business produces or provides in services – whether it be cell phones or fresh produce – it is likely that some element of the product came from a developing country.  Therefore decisions made by the leaders, managers and employees within the organization have impact and the impact may not always be readily visible or for that matter positive.

The mental image I hold in my mind to remind myself of the need to think of the connection between my decisions and their impact on the world is, oddly enough, a tomato.  Let me explain.  A little over three years ago I began a relationship with some people in Mexico through which I was invited to help out in a migrant worker camp.  The people living in the camp were hired to pick tomatoes in one of the nearby fields for a large multinational company.  Prior to this experience I had not spent a lot of time thinking about where the tomatoes in my food came from or of the intricate network that linked me to my friends in Mexico.  Now when I see a tomato I think of Yareli and her sisters and brothers who for a time lived in the migrant worker camp, and the impact of migrant work on her and her family.  On the positive side there is the income that comes for the family from the work in the fields.  However on the other side of that coin is the transitory nature of the work that causes families to move from camp to camp and decreases the odds that Yareli will have access to education or the opportunity to finish basic schooling.  As well there is the increased risk of abuse for this young girl who stays in the camp while her mother goes out to the fields and of course the access to drugs and alcohol that become a normalized part of camp life.

I find that I can easily become overwhelmed by the social and environmental issues in our world today.  However I do know that the cumulative effect of applying simple rules can change the design and outcomes of a system.  System theory tells us that when the people in a system consistently apply simple rules to their actions, that the patterns and outcome of the system can be changed – that is why so much emphasis in organizations lately has been placed on developing and articulating values.  So why is global awareness important in business today?  It is simply because decision making in organizations, regardless of the size or niche of the organizations can change the life of Yareli for better or for worse.  When the leader in an organization pauses to be curious about the broader impact of their decisions – for example what values do I look for in the company that we source our tomatoes from – the impact for individual, families, and communities can be significant?  Global awareness leads to curiosity – and curiosity can lead to improved education access for Yareli because someone thought to ask about the impact of migratory agriculture on the education of the migrant worker’s children.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Is the iPad Greener than the Book?

We’ve been hearing for some time now that using an e-reader like the Kindle or iPad saves paper, trees and water used for making books. It’s touted as a greener alternative to the newspapers and books we all grew up reading. But is it really? If we look at the whole system, from extraction of materials through manufacturing waste and energy to power consumption in use and ultimate disposal or reuse, is the iPad greener than the book? Let’s find out.

A recent article in the New York Times by Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris points out the environmental impacts of both books and iPads throughout their lifecycle. And EcoLibris has links to a bunch of articles looking at this question. I have a tablet pc I’m writing this blog on, and I often read the newspaper on it. But I still curl up with the Sunday NY Times and a cup of Fair Trade coffee and read only traditional books in bed. So I’m “bi-media” I guess. Here’s some data about the merits of each.

Materials
E-reader: Uses about 33 pounds of stuff to make a 1-2 pound reader, including rare and toxic metals and lots of sand and gravel. It also takes about 79 gallons of water to manufacture.
Book: Uses 2/3 pound of minerals- mainly for roads to transport books, and 2 gallons of water to make the paper.

Manufacturing
E-reader: Uses 100 kilowatt hours of fossil fuels and wastes 66 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Book: Two kilowatt hours to form and dry the sheets, and 2/3 pound of CO2 waste.

Transportation
E-Reader: Downloaded books use only the energy to run the computer and servers.
Book:Ordering a book online and shipping it 500 miles by air, creates about as much pollution and waste as making the book itself. Driving five miles to and from a bookstore creates about 10 times the pollution and resource depletion as making the book. Your bookstore would have to be 300 miles away to create the equivalent in toxic waste of making one e-reader — but you might do that and more if you drive to the mall every time you buy a new book.

Health Impacts
Environmental health impacts of making and transporting an e-reader are estimated to be 70 times greater than a single book. But if you store more than 70 books on the e-reader, you are ahead of the game.

Product in Use
E-Reader: Lit screen is more energy efficient than reading a book by light bulb for an hour or two.
Book: If you read by natural light, the advantage goes to the book.

Disposal or Reuse:
E-reader: If it winds up being “recycled” illegally, workers in poorer lands, including children, will be exposed to a range of toxic substances as their hands disassemble the units. With state-of-the-art e-waste recycling procedures, the risk is far less for workers. Keeping the unit in service as long as possible is the best path here.
Book: In a landfill, your book generates twice the global warming and potential impact on local watersheds as manufacturing it. Donate it to the library or pass it on to another reader. Books can last 100’s of years out of the landfill and still thrill new readers.

Bottom line? Well with soy inks, recycled paper, new electronic manufacturing standards and materials recapture it’s a moving target. But according to Goleman and Norris, the fossil fuel, water and mineral consumption of one e-reader equals 40 to 50 books. CO2 waste and global warming impact equals 100 books, and impacts on human health are in between those two. If you read a lot, an e-reader can have a lower impact over all.

But then again, are we asking the wrong questions? Why own the book or e-reader in the first place? They suggest that all things considered, the greenest thing to do is walk to your local library to read or borrow a copy of your next book.

To comment on this story, visit the original blog post.

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Employee Engagement: 5 Sustainable Lead-Up Strategies

Generally, the surest way toward environmental and business sustainability is to engage an entire workforce from the top down.  While executive support is a critical key component of most success stories, it is not the only direction from which leadership can come. 

Business sustainability leaders are often not the management or executives of the company. They are the employees with eco awareness in the organization who take action to make change.

At Wal-Mart, employees are empowered through the company’s personal sustainability project. In just one example, the company saved $1 million a year from a suggestion by an employee to turn out the lighting on the vending machines at night.

This act of employees working with the company leaders to define value and implement change is referred to as leading up. 

Whether you work in a corporate culture in which employee action is encourage or a more traditional culture with less communication, there are strategies to further facilitate eco awareness and lead-up in the organization.

1.    Engage management by incorporating sustainability targets as part of your personal performance metrics.

2.    Include sustainability concepts in your personal development plan.

3.    Take on difficult projects where there is opportunity to make significant sustainable change in the current operation of the company.

4.    Look for opportunities to link value and sustainability in all work activities and projects.

5.    Become the person in the organization that others look to for sustainability knowledge and innovative ideas.

When companies consider what other businesses have achieved through upward leadership, they can better appreciate their own opportunities for improved employee engagement.  In our professional consulting at Taiga Company, we work with clients to encourage employees to leverage their eco awareness for the benefit of the organization.

Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Plenary Session 4: Implementing Effective Online Strategies

Implementing Effective Online Strategies
Plenary Session 4 at CSR and Social Media 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010, 11:30 am
Toronto

Featuring:
Deb Berman, Managing Director, Justmeans

Justmeans is an online community with 100,000 users and millions of page views per year that attracts and engages advocates for better business. As Managing Director, Deb Berman helps corporate clients and non-profit organizations develop and implement their social media and communications strategies. Leveraging the Justmeans platform including straightforward online tools, companies are able to participate in wide-reaching, innovative stakeholder engagement strategies. Organizations can crowd-source feedback on their good work, run multi-channel campaigns and contests to further involve stakeholders, and then track the results of all of their online activity from one place.

You can follow her updates on justmeans.com at www.justmeans.com/profile/DebBerman.

In this session you will gain insight and hear advice on how to:
• use social media to uncover challenges and opportunities on social and environmental initiatives
• incorporate a social media strategy into traditional communication and engagement tactics
• calculate the return on investment of engaging in social media
• engage and educate key stakeholders groups on your CSR program including employees, NGOs, and media
• address issues of transparency and other key elements of effective online communication

For more information on this session, or to see a copy of the full agenda, please visit our web site, or contact Joel Elliott at elliott@conferenceboard.ca. Please quote priority code 3BL1 when registering.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Is Eco Fashion Your Passion?

Forward thinking designers around the world are merging fashion with eco awareness.  Hence the term,  “eco-fashion.”  It refers to stylized clothing that uses environmentally sensitive fabrics and responsible production techniques.  

 As a green living consultant introducing sustainability concepts to living a green/ sustainable lifestyle, it makes sense to look for different ways to integrate eco awareness into your life.  The most impactful areas of our lives are those that we do by habit.  We dress daily, so why not add eco awareness to our fashion? 

 With eco awareness on the rise, more and more sustainable options are becoming available.  Even traditional brands like Levi’s, American apparel, and Nike are offering eco friendly apparel.  While it’s always fun to purchase new clothes, it’s best to use what you’ve got and sprinkle in new eco fashion items as you need them. 

 

• First, use what is in your closet!  If you don’t wear it, donate it or recycle it in some way.
• When shopping, remember to keep sustainability concepts in mind.   Local shops are a great place to start.
• Some prefer natural fibers or organic clothing.
• Plan your purchases.  Is it possible to buy the desired item from fashion designer embracing business sustainability?   For instance, a line per se may be an eco friendly design. 
• Another option is to purchase an item that can be purchased from multiple stores, select to purchase it from a business that embeds sustainability programs in its core business:  Wal-Mart or JC Penny, for instance.
• Evaluate products on the full lifecycle.   That is, your own personal lifecycle.  Is this a trendy item or one that goes with only one outfit?  Opt for multi outfit items that will last through a couple of seasons.   How it will be discarded later?  Patagonia offers a take back program.
• Consider the care of the garment.  If it can be washed in cold water and hung dry, it’s a winner.  Dry cleaning required?  Not such a great option.
• When applicable, buy Fair Trade.
• Buy products from sustainable sources like bamboo.

 
Not sure where to find fashionable eco clothing?  Following are some resources suggested in our eco friendly training to get you on your way:
 

• Modern Hippy Mag
• Focus Organic
• The green girls

For those on the path of living a sustainable lifestyle, there’s power in leveraging purchases to support credible and sustainable businesses.  With business sustainability permeating the fashion world, there are more and more options available to look and feel great while wearing fashionable eco wear.

Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily