GREEN BUSINESS VIEWS

Michele Moran found a career that provided a more fulfilling way to invest her life as a Certified Green Consultant for the Green Business League.  This New York native has been a successful stock broker with impressive credentials, and has now transitioned her energies to become a Green business consultant.  This lends credence to the growing need for trained, professional guidance for businesses considering a Green and Sustainable program.

Michele Moran of M and M Green Solutions, Inc proudly speaks of her life choices and the positive aspects of a career that provides a much needed service to the community.  Her services include a Green business assessment that validates all Green practices currently in place and a carefully mapped program (Sustainability Report) that details the needed steps to achieve an authentic Green business certification.  Area Green businesses are then linked together to create a business network designed to encourage business among those firms committed to a Green Supply Chain.

The GBL Green Business Certification is quickly becoming the premier certification program for businesses across America because it is the only audited certification program.  Various Internet certifications suggest that an audit can be self-assessed, but this is entirely misleading and disingenuous.  Trained professionals provide a service that cannot be effectively accomplished by amateurs.  The benefit of cost savings and substantial return on investment comes from a professional Green business application.

The Green Business League is proud to have consultants like Michele Moron as a part of the largest field force of Green Consultants anywhere.  There are more than 300 Green Consultants nationwide, in Canada, in Mexico and various countries.  Businesses may request a free Green business assessment by applying at the Green Business league website.

Director of Dept of Environmentalism, Luis Bernal; R Michael Richmond fo GBL, Senator Roberto Arrango meet to discuss Green Business

A team from the Green Business League recently had the opportunity to visit Puerto Rico as an effort to develop working relationships to promote Green business certification for the businesses of this island commonwealth.  Puerto Rico is bustling economy anxious to improve life for its citizens and business processes for Puerto Rican businesses.   Business initiatives include a wide variety of government and privately sponsored programs, which seems to have a high priority in this island territory.

Puerto Rico presents unique environmental concerns because the geographic constraints, pro-business attitude, and the island’s natural resources are limited, unlike larger continental land masses.  There is less room or opportunity to absorb environmental mistakes, and resources are more easily stressed.  None seem more aware of the environmental concerns than the people, businesses, and leaders of this island economy.

Puerto Rico must produce electricity without the grid system to share the deficits and excesses like seen in the mainland states.   Water is a limited resource as well, and the prices paid by families and businesses for both electricity and water is much larger than the state-side versions.  Even the ability to get rid of trash creates difficult decisions that are both expensive and difficult.  Like other economies, Puerto Rican business leaders and politicians are seeking the right course in mapping out the future of this progressive community.

Certainly, business leaders and political leadership needs to engage this question in an aggressive fashion, but the environmental crisis is not just a leadership solution.  The environmental problems are pressing issues that started with the small practices of daily operations.  One piece of trash is multiplied millions and billions of times making the problem a massive concern of delayed appreciation.  The real challenge is getting broad participation in hundreds of Green Practices that are multiplied a million or billion times over.  Therefore, this is not just about passing laws, finding funding, or token efforts.

The Green Business League is the champion of Green Practices that allows for broad participation by businesses and families.  Unlike the LEED program that has a primary focus on Green buildings, the Green Business league emphasizes the operational, organizational, or the daily practices of businesses.  This means that “Going Green” is not a program only for building owners, but for every business, whether the business rents, leases, or owns the building.  Large or small, every business needs to participate in the greater environmental issue, and there seems no doubt that changing at the grassroots level is the very best way to create a broad impact on our world.

Rennie Rodriguez is the Green Business League director for Puerto Rico with tremendous experience in this wonderful part of the world.   Those interested in finding out more about the program in Puerto Rico can contact Rennie at rennie@greenonesource.com.  Rennie heads of team of Certified Green Consultants in Puerto Rico and has similar business efforts in the state of Florida.

Green Business League uses an audited system that rates all Green Practices according to a point system.  Unlike any other form of Green business certification, the Green Business League requires a live audit of all Green improvements.  Illegitimate Green business certifications offered over the Internet for a fee and a self-assessment are considered little more than a means of fooling the buying public and should be rejected.

The Green Business League is pleased to have held several important business meetings, worked with key political leaders, and addressed the news media about the process of integrating the GBL Green Point system in pilot projects in Puerto Rico.  I will be reporting more about the GBL progress in future posts.

There are times when I feel  that my efforts for environmentalism are out of step with those who have been the spokesperson for their area of environmental practices.   For some, we are going too fast and asking too much, and for others we are going too slow and asking too little.   Of course, those with a special penchant feel that I am not paying enough attention to their issues.   Essentially, it feels a little like a game called “King of the Mountain” that we all played as children.

Standing atop your mountain, you invite all comers.  “Try me out and see if you can do better,” is the taunting challenge.   Then comes the challengers, large and small.  It is part skill and part strength to hold your ground as king of the mountain.  With each victory, confidence and pride is raised, but then comes the eventual failed defense.   In this metaphor, the mountain was really not all that important in the real scheme of things.  It was simply my mountain for a short period of time.

As I watch the evolution of the environmental cause, things are more serious that in grade school; and the causes are not a game.  Nonetheless, the challenge to be the one whose opinion is heard and respected is the adult version of this adult generation.

In the cacophony of voices vying for public attention, I would try to defend a pragmatic form of environmentalism.  There are those who are more scholarly, and there are those more passion-driven.  I feel strongly that the environmental debate does us little good, unless it has the tactic feel of something that we can lay our hands on and put to work.

In the building process, there are the engineers and architects who draw the design, do the math, and unify the demand of many processes into a functional diagram.  These are the well-trained theoreticians which provide the planning and forethought for a  well-designed building.

Then there are the people with tools who turn the ideas into reality.  Which one is more important?  Both would argue that their part of the process is critical and most valuable.   But, we need not stop there.  What about the politicians and agencies who pass laws and enforce regulations to safeguard the public safety?   Perhaps, it is the realtor who put real people in an empty building.  In the end, the residents who live or work in the building must turn a building into something profitable or useful.  Which is most important?

The answer is that they all play their part and are invaluable at some point of the process.

I am a pragmatic person with enough intellect to appreciate the academic side of the process as well of the application side.   What matters to me is that we engage the challenge before us bringing all the expertise, skills, and talent that we can spare.

There is an obvious pending catastrophe looming on the horizon.  No matter what you believe about global warming or climate change, there are 7 billion people on the earth with 9 billion predicted by 2025.  In the 1950’s there were only about 4 billion people in the world.

For the first time, we are measuring the approximate reach of our resources, and it seems all too obvious that the world will eventually reach critical mass when needed resources are exhausted unless we alter the future by what we do today.

No, I am not a tree-hugger, a scientist, an engineer, a meteorologist, or a politician.  I see myself as a pragmatic environmentalist that honestly hopes that I can win over a lot of other people to my non-radicalized solution for our ailing world.   I hope for innovation and invention to buy us time and literally rescue our future.   There are grand scope challenges that require the skills of a scientist or engineer to evaluate and resolve.  I really hope that politicians know enough to avoid laws that do more harm than good as we fight our way out of this mess.  But, I believe that the biggest challenge of them all is enlisting the service of countless people in whatever level of life they function.

I honestly believe that the environmental problem is a universal problem that requires universal participation.  That participation should not be only for the well-endowed, but offering simple solutions that can be applied everywhere.  While scientist do things few of us can accomplish and corporations commit resources that few of us can afford; the magnitude of the environmental threat is greater than even these grand efforts.

The environmental message is the value of one good deed magnified 7 billion times over, making a massive change in our world.  No one should devalue the environmental efforts being made on a grand scale because they are impressive and represent great progress.   If the governments and agencies flood billions of dollars into the torn country of Haiti, does this annul the $10 gift of a blue collar worker?  When there are a million blue collar workers making a $10 gift, the combined value is $10 million.

The Green Business League has something for everyone.  Large or small, family or business, blue collar or white.   The plan is simple in application and profound in scope.   We call it Green Practices.  This is not about building Green buildings although Green buildings are worthy efforts.  Green practices represent activity, involvement, and change.  In fact, every Green practice has a point value that allows everyone to participate tracking the volume of each person’s efforts.

In the GBL Green Point system, the accumulation of these points has greater value some might think.  When a business achieves 100 points, the company will receive an earned designation as a Certified Green business.   This is that pragmatic approach that I advocate.  Real actions, honest recognition, and an earned certification that demonstrates participation on this global crisis.  But here’s the rub.  We do not have nearly enough participants, and the problem is no less real today than it was a few years ago.

There are a number of obvious actions that a Green business should consider, but the truth is that there are hundreds of great ideas that could be part of a sustainability plan for any business.  Rather than deal with the obvious ones like CFL bulbs and programmable thermostats, let’s take a look at things that also make a company more Green compliant.

One of the new ideas that I’d like to promote is that Going Green is not a static, one-time effort.  Green is progressive and an ongoing shift from what we used to do to a better way of doing nearly everything.  This is not just about Green buildings, but about how we live our lives and operate our businesses.  Therefore, we are talking about behavioral changes, and that may be the toughest part about developing a Green certified business.

1. Home Office or Remote Officing:  Whether your business is run out of the home or your company allows workers to work from home, this is certainly a positively Green and sustainable practice.  This is a concept that was once considered less-than-professional, but has made its way back as a great idea.  It cuts down on traffic, saves energy, and makes better use of manpower.
2. Paperless Systems:  If you remember the old days of larger office servers, routers, and tape backup drives; you may have a negative opinion of document storage and retrieval.  With SAAS (Software as a Service) providers, this process will greatly reduce paper costs, man hours, and speed up the company’s operation.  Saving paper, ink, time, and energy makes this idea very Green.
3. eFAX Solutions:  It’s time to get rid of all those fax machines that add cost, use up ink and paper, and eventually become ewaste.  Switch over to an efax solution that turns all your faxes into a pdf attachment that can be easily shared with others (paperlessly) and quickly moved to your document storage data.
4. Energy Star Equipment:  There are few ways to make an environmental decision as easy as looking for the Energy Star label for equipment purchases.  This is a kind of no-brainer for any business.  Energy Star is a government program to highlight energy efficiency that applies to nearly every kind of appliance and electrical product.
5. The Janitorial Service:  While it is normal to hire the cheapest janitorial service from several bids, why not require these companies to provide a Green certification with their bids.  Any service can claim to be Green because they have some Green products, but Green certification separates the men from the boys when it comes to a truly Green company.  Your company can still consider price, but require a Green certified janitorial service next time the contract comes up.  (www.GreenCleanInstitute.com)
6. Office Products:  Every office uses thousands of dollars of office products, and every office supply store is now offering more Green alternatives, such as biodegradable or recycled pens and paper.  Whether you order online or go to the local store, ask your people to choose the Green product whenever possible.
7. Install a Sustainability Officer:  It is not uncommon for employees to wear many hats.  New pending mandates are going to make the need to install a sustainability officer a normal part of business operation.  The training need not be a college graduate program.  Any enthusiastic and intelligent employee can be trained as a sustainability officer and provide the insight needed to move the company to a Green certification and address all future mandates.  (www.CertifiedSustainabilityOfficer.com)
8. A Budget Allowance:  Any serious business needs to put a budget allowance in for Going Green that is more than an extra marketing expense.  Going Green as a Green business need not be expensive, and when done right has a return on investment of roughly a 12-24 month cycle.

The Green Business League has developed an impressive assessment list of Green Practices that provide a choice of options that eventually add up to enough Green Points to merit an “earned Green business certification.  Always avoid the Internet Green certification logos that invite abuse by companies looking only to promote Green without living Green.

If your company does not have a Sustainability Officer yet, reach out to a Certified Green Consultant who is a trained professional offering a free Green business assessment.  (www.GreenBusinessLeague.com). The Green Business League is the only national and international Green business certification that offers a national standard of compliance and requires an audit prior to certification. It is the belief of GBL that a certification must be “earned, not Bought,” and that the only way to defeat Greenwashing is by audited certification.

It seems that every original has its imitations. A genius idea will always generate a variety of look-alikes. The concept of a Certified Green Consultant was made popular by the Green Business League who has trained nearly 300 consultants in the US, Canada, and several countries. The Green Business League had the insight to file for the for the federal trademark for this concept, and now is the only company with rights to this name. A Certified Green Consultant is best defined as a trained professional whose primary task is to assist others to install Green practices. A Certified Green Consultant is not someone, like a LEED AP, who plans and promotes Green buildings. The basic task is to show any family, business, or agency how to practice Green in the daily operation or activities common to all of us.

It doesn’t matter if you own the building or not. What is happening inside and around that building is a huge factor in the over all Green impact of the community. Going Green is about people and how people behave. The Green consultant endeavors to change the behavior which is probably a little more difficult than planning a few Green improvements for the building. Changing our behavior is not as easy to fix as replacing a thermostat.

There are literally hundreds of Green Practices that can be integrated into any business, and many of them are not nearly as expensive as remodeling projects. Energy reduction can be accomplished by buying Energy Star equipment, tearing out old lights, and replacing them with new, more efficient lights. However, there is a good percentage of energy savings that comes from workers who are taught to be more diligent about power use. Failure to turn of lights and equipment when they are not in use is the result of lazy and untrained people. Even a powerstrip for a workstation does no good if the worker doesn’t use it. Dozens of power paks common to all workers steal power every day and add to the monthly electric bill.

A trained Certified Green Consultant uses an extensive assessment program to discover Green practices already in place, and to suggest other Green practices that can be accomplished without radically changing the business process. Just to clarify our terms, we see the Certified Green Consultant as the professional working with many businesses and projects in the community. The Certified Sustainability Officer is more of an in-house professional doing many of the same things as the Green consultant, but within the confines of his or her company’s limits.

Of course, we must mention the “other” look-alike program that crop up routinely on the Internet. Most of these programs offer little more than some online training and the opportunity to subsequently sell their line of Green products to others within the consultant’s influence. Any audit or assessment is merely a ploy to collect enough information to suggest the products that the Eco Consultant, Earth Consultant, or Green Consultant might have to offer. Any reasonable person must discount these programs as little more than a modern version of the old multi-level programs.

A trained Certified Green Consultant is not a product-pusher. He or she offers the initial Green assessment to discover the level of Green compliance already in place. Every Green application is assigned Green Points according to the value of the product or service. The Certified Green Consultant discusses some proposed ideas that will add enough Green Points to achieve a Green business certification using a nationally-recognized standard.  The GBL Green Point system prevents the cheating temptation known as Greenwashing.   This is a very prevalent practice where companies pronounce themselves Green because they install a few token Green ideas.  See the Green Pig Syndrome for further explanation.

Certified Green Consultants may be a new idea today, but the day is approaching when they will be as crucial to business as an efficiency expert or accountant.  There is simply too much involved to hand off this duty to the same person or committee that plans the company picnic.  To determine the effectiveness of the Green consultant or the sustainability officer, we find that the creation of a comprehensive Sustainability Report is the proof of quality of service.  This is echoed in President Obama’s executive order #13514 that requires this of all agencies using sustainability officers.

The fundamentals are now becoming clear for any Green business certification.  There is a need for:

1. Green business certification is proven by a live audit is required to eliminate Greenwashing
2. A Green Consultant or Sustainability Office is needed by all businesses
3. The Green or Sustainability Officer should produce a quality Sustainability Report
4. A Green business is not a static concept but is evaluated at least annually
5. A national standard must apply to all businesses claiming to be Green certified

While Internet logos are popping up nearly every month, only one Green business certification fulfills the spirit of EO13514 and meets the qualification shown above.  The Green Business League now fields more than 300 Certified Green Consultants trained and capable of performing Green assessment and audits.  There national standard cannot be fooled by Greenwashing tactics, and seems likely to endure as the only credible Green business certification in America and in international applications.