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How to Green Your Business posted on Monday, 04 August 2008

The specific steps of taking a company green will vary based on factors such as geographic location, industry type and the attitudes and demands of your employees, customers and community. Here are specific areas where your company can take action.

By Anna Clark, President of EarthPeople, with Paul Diamond, Vistage Web Editor

Reduce energy use and increase energy efficiency
Energy and resource efficiency lightens your environmental footprint while reducing your operating costs.CFO magazine reports that 75 percent of business leaders believe that energy costs are the least controllable cost in business. While energy prices may be fixed, the cost can be controlled by adopting efficiency measures. Small changes can lead to significant dollar savings. To save money on energy costs, green companies:

• Turn off lights and computers when the office is not in use
• Replace incandescent bulbs with high-efficiency bulbs
• Install sensor-activated lights and thermostats in break rooms, restrooms and conference rooms
• Lower the thermostat in winter, raise it in summer
• Replace older appliances, AC and heating units with high-efficiency products
• Maintain company vehicles with frequent oil changes and properly inflated tires
• Get an energy audit of your facilities to identify ways to improve energy efficiency
• Seek Energy Star or LEED-certified buildings when the time comes to find new space

Small businesses often recoup the costs of green facility upgrades within two to three years and then see annual utility savings after the breakeven point. One client of mine, a law firm occupying 200,000 square feet in a downtown office building, discovered it could save $87,000 per year in energy costs by installing lighting retrofits and motion sensors. With eight years remaining on their lease, and a payback period of only three years, the company will save more than $400,000 for the term of the lease.

For larger companies, savings can be more dramatic. For example, IBM saved $17.8 million worldwide in one year just by encouraging employees to turn out the lights when not using their workspace.

"Most power utilities offer grants to upgrade to energy-efficient lighting equipment," notes Vistage member Tim O'Neill, President/Owner of Engineered Compost Systems. "Lighting typically accounts for 30 percent of energy use in commercial buildings. Reducing power consumption for lighting provides a double benefit because this energy adds to the heat load that has to be cooled by the air-conditioning system."

Energy savings don't stop inside the building; parking lot and perimeter lighting adds a hefty amount to energy bills. Vistage member Kai Wenk-Wolff, President & CEO, SOL, Inc, says "Solar lights are a great option. They are more expensive than conventional lighting, but installation is cheaper. With solar lighting, there is no trenching to lay cables and no wiring. Most importantly, you save electricity and reduce carbon emissions."

Companies that take energy-saving measures can also earn recognition from EPA programs such as Climate Leaders and Energy Star Partners. Both programs offer secondary opportunities and programs for publicity, promotion and marketing by enabling a company to promote energy efficiency to its stakeholders and customers.

Want more information? See the Department of Energy’s report Energy saving Tips for Small Businesses.

Engage Your People
After taking measures to conserve energy in your operations and facilities, the next step is to engage employees. To get your employees to back a green initiative, take these steps:

• Ask an enthusiastic employee to convene a “green team” to brainstorm ideas.
• Empower your green team to evaluate and implement sustainability opportunities.
• Motivate your entire workforce to adopt the new practices.
• Enlist a sustainability consultant to equip staff with skills and information.

The idea is to build a consensus among your employees, as they are the ones to carry out the day-to-day initiatives of sustainability. Our firm, EarthPeople, offers customized employee motivation seminars as well as management workshops. A professional seminar by a sustainability consultant gives employees a framework to integrate sustainability into every aspect of the company and an understanding of why this path was choosen. Motivated employees begin as participants in recycling and conservation efforts and often go on to spearhead green marketing strategies and product development.

“Involve your employees in energy and resource-use discussions,” says Vistage member Allan Blanchard, whose company EMS Environmental has a green solutions group. “There is a tremendous amount of waste that your employees know about or is at their discretion, but issuing mandates will not discover it.”

Green Your Workplace
Business can reduce costs by assessing the waste stream of their operations. Evaluating what gets disposed of each day can help businesses pinpoint inefficiencies that cost money and waste valuable resources.

Here's how green companies reduce waste and operating costs and their environmental footprint:

• Switch from disposable paper and plastic plates, cups and utensils to ceramic mugs and dinnerware
• Distribute memos, reports and other documents in electronic rather than paper format
• Use cotton hand towels in break rooms and restrooms
• Provide recycling bins for paper, plastics and glass
• Buy recycled products when appropriate
• Hiring a professional to make space more worker-friendly with natural light and fresh air, which, studies show, improves worker productivity

Reducing what goes into garbage creates savings. Gardere Wynne Sewell, LLP, a large Texas law firm, determined that non-biodegradable Styrofoam cups, which cost them $20,000 per year, could be replaced with semi-permanent ceramic mugs and plastic drinking glasses at a net savings of $14,000 per year. The firm also found that reducing its paper usage by 10 percent would result in a savings of $10,000 per year. The changes created a culture of conservation in their workplace, which will likely lead to future savings. Automating your paper procedures can save your employees hundreds of hours handling paper files and save money on purchasing paper. And the practice preserves clean-air-producing forests and reduces landfill contributions. Learn more about paper recycling in this Vistage article.

These changes appear simple, but are not always easy to implement; they require the backing and commitment of your employees.

Measure your footprint
Companies can quantify their environmental performance both to gain recognition and to chart progress. The World Resources Institute has created a complete do-it-yourself manual for this purpose. The guide, called Hot Climate, Cool Commerce: A Service Sector Guide to Greenhouse Gas Management, is one of a number of credible tools your company can use to evaluate its environmental footprint.

Offset your carbon output
Companies that measure their footprint will be able to see how much CO2 they are emitting through their facilities, operations, employee commutes, business travel, IT systems, manufacturing and other areas. After taking all possible measures to increase energy efficiency, conserve resources and minimize the waste stream, businesses may choose to offset some or all of their remaining emissions.

Carbon offsetting aims to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by funding projects such as tree planting, renewable energy development and methane-capture facilities attached to farms. Six to 20 dollars can offset one ton of carbon that a business produces. A wide variety of offset methods are in use. Here are some Websites that offer carbon calculation and offset programs:

• Carbon Fund www.carbonfund.org
• Green Mountain www.emissionsolutions.biz
• Terra Pass www.terrapass.com
• Native Energy: www.NativeEnergy.com

When a company offsets all of the carbon it emits into the atmosphere, it becomes a “carbon-neutral” businesses.

Green Your Supply Chain
Wal-Mart and Home Depot have adopted green supply chain initiatives. Wal-Mart pressured its suppliers to reduce packaging, and last year launched a Living Better Index that tracks purchasing of specific green products. Wal-Mart’s research indicates that 11 percent of Americans classify themselves as extremely green today and 43 percent will in the next five years.

Home Depot has an “Eco Options” program, which enables customers to easily identify environmentally-friendly products.

Supply-chain consultants see this trend growing, as companies of all sizes begin to demand green manufacturing components, supplies and office products. Staples offers a private-label line of office products with enough recycled content to meet the standards of EPA programs.

What can you do to green your supply chain? Work with your existing suppliers to secure the best pricing on recycled products such as paper and packing materials. Communicate to your vendors and outsource partners that you are greening your supply chain and ask them about the options they offer.

Communicate your commitment
Communicating your sustainability commitment often leads to publicity and media exposure, enhancing your brand and reputation. The value of this exposure is the monetary equivalent of the cost of advertising in each newspaper, magazine, Web site, radio or television that carries the story. To effectively communicate your sustainability commitment to stakeholders, consider taking these steps:

• Draft a sustainability report
• Publish your sustainability report or mission statement on your company Web site
• Distribute reports to investors, clients, vendors and other stakeholders
• Submit your sustainability report or green announcements to the media
• Support green initiatives in your city or community

Drafting a sustainability report gives you a tool to communicate your achievements to stakeholders, investors, the media and ultimately, the public. According to a KPMG survey of corporate responsibility reporting, 64 percent of the Fortune 500 companies issued corporate social sustainability reports in 2005, and the trend is catching on among smaller companies. Sites like www.reportalert.com and www.globalreporting.com can guide you through the process.

If your company is considering this practice for the first time, a sustainability consultant can advise you on the communications strategy most suitable for your particular company.

Green steps for manufacturers
Manufacturers, companies involved in chain of custody, growers, miners and other resource-intense businesses require additional steps to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations. These steps vary widely, but usually begin with a “cradle to grave” lifecycle assessment. Such an assessment investigates and values the environmental impacts of all the steps that go into the creation of an end product or service. Consulting firms can help create methodical, rational environmental processes for the design, production and disposal of products.

Lessen employee carbon emissions
"Personal transportation is responsible for 30 to 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution," according to a report issued by Global Green USA, a national environmental organization, as well as "33 percent of toxic water pollution, and over 45 percent of toxic air emissions." Taking all of your employees off the road one day per week or encouraging them to commute together can make a difference in air quality.

Provide employees volunteer days
One benefit that green companies offer is volunteer days for employees to spend working for a nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping the environment. Some companies match volunteer hours with dollars to donate to the cause.

Do you have additional methods for running an environmentally-responsible business? Add them in the Reader Comments section below.

More Resources
LEED Certification: www.nrdc.org/buildinggreen/leed.asp
Energy Audit Worksheet: view.vistage.com/portal/library/article.html?id=2636
Commercial Case Studies: www.fypower.org
Locate Business Recycling Programs: www.earth911.org
Recycling Electronics: www.nrc-recycle.org/resources/electronics/index.htm
National Recycling Coalition: www.nrc-recycle.org/default.htm
Database of US State Incentives: www.dsireusa.org

Anna Clark is President of EarthPeople, a consulting firm that helps companies of all sizes save money and bolster their brand through the leading-edge principle of sustainability.

Posted by bizSanDiego: San Diego Business News