GREEN BUSINESS VIEWS

Posts Tagged ‘sustainability’

It should be obvious that there is no stopping the Green juggernaut that has become the biggest news since the light bulb.  The fact that every business will Go Green is either your volunteer program today or your mandated compliance later on.  So, why not solve the problem while it is easiest to solve?  Green business programs are going to be a way of life businesses large or small.

According to the Presidential Executive Order #13514, there are a few items that will apply across the board.  Every Green business will have to have a (1) a sustainability Plan, (2) a sustainability officer, and (3) actually compliance that is well-documented.   The reduction of energy, water, and waste lead the topics that need to be included in the sustainability plan.  But, other concerns for carbon emissions and carbon offsetting will require more than a token effort.

The Sustainable Forum has been created to provide a nexus for every company to train a sustainability officer in-house.  Understanding the fundamentals is the starting point, but taking the project through to the actual creation of a sustainability plan is the genius of this training program.  The whole process is online, and uses video training, PowerPoint illustrations, and downloadable text to provide the perfect method for sustainability training.

The Green Business League has been the leader in Green business certification for nearly a decade, and offers the ability to do more than random efforts at Greening a business.  The sustainability Officer is trained to prepare a comprehensive sustainability plan that is tailored to the company he or she serves.  Better yet, the program places a strong emphasis on efficiencies and smart applications that will cut costs, improve operations, and maximize the resources of the company.

To learn more about the program, visit The Sustainable Forum (www.TheSustainableForum.com) and enroll your key person(s) into the online training.  In about 30 days, your in-house expert will be working closely with you to prepare a sustainability plan that actually improves your business, increases market appeal, and reduces cost.  This person is backed by the resources of the Green Business League to assure the most effective program for your company.

Monthly meetings with The Sustainable Forum are conducted online, which is a very Green Idea.  Every month provides a Triple Bottom Line process.  Profits are not a bad word, but ethical profits are even better.   In some cases, local chapter of The Sustainability Forum are offered.  The continual project of sustainability training allows your in-house officer to maintain a work schedule and serve a valued role in the company.

Sustainability Officer Training is available to those who are not presently tied to a business as a resume builder.  The course is very easy to follow although the material is definitely challenging.

As a final boost, a sustainability officer working with the Green Business League will be able to prepare a company for Green business certification.  This is not a flimsy online certification that is little more than Greenwashing, but one that is nationally respected and the product of an audited process.  Only the Green Business League offers a professional audited program, and the sustainability officer will prepare the company for a successful conclusion of the Green endeavors.

In high-powered corporate environments, the need of one or more college-trained sustainability officers may be the way to go; but for the vast majority, the concept of a CSO is still new.   Of course, the cost of hiring a sustainability officer or bringing in a consulting firm may be equally expensive.  The solution is to train one of your existing employees to handle what is certain to be a great deal of industry and governmental environmental-type demands.

The role of the Certified Sustainability Officer is the role as an in-house person who is trained and skilled to provide environmental guidance to the company as it refines its operational programming.  This should never be a person will a willing spirit, but not lacking in expertise.  The environmental questions are no longer a matter of good will and token gestures.   We are entering a period where greenwashing and token efforts are being rejected as inadequate responses to a giant environmental challenge faced by all of us.

The Sustainable Forum is launching monthly peer-review and training events across America and Canada.  The goal is to have a representative from every business in the community to provide an ongoing support system of best practices for sustainability plans.  Also, the community at-large will benefit from the collective efforts of The Sustainable Forum in the area.

There is no membership fee, although there may be shared costs for the meeting room requirements.  It doesn’t matter if the attendees are already acting as sustainability officers, have been thrown in to duty, or want to become a sustainability officer.  The goal of The Sustainable Forum is to raise up a standing army of well-schooled, and well-equipped professio0nals who have the resources to provide a superior sustainability plan for any business.

The primary duty of the sustainability officer is to create a comprehensive and well-designed sustainability plan.  There isn’t a great deal of quality training for this business-related task.  The Green Business League is the leader in Green business applications, and has been training Certified Sustainability Officer longer than anyone else.  Many have found the training needed at www.CertifiedSustainabilityOfficer.com, but now there is even a better solution.

The Sustainable Forum is launched hundreds of these monthly programs designed specifically for those serving (or wishing to serve) as the sustainability officer for a company.  This is not a networking event, but a peer-review, educational meeting designed to better equip those serving as CSO of their company, large or small.  Meetings are scheduled once a month, and missed meetings will be allowed to review the event by a nationally-presented archive version.  This is a great idea, and the right time!

Pervious concrete is an odd name for a very unique product, but the pragmatic value that this type of concrete should be used in more communities. We must consider this product under the broad topic of sustainable practices that is being neglected. Rain water is yet another nature resource that is being wasted and mishandled. Prior to any widespread community development, rain water fell from the sky and was mostly absorbed by the ground and run off was mitigated by the trees, shrubs, and grass. Floods often occur due to massive local downpours, but that was less likely to happen then than now.  We have literally change the topography of the land when homes, buildings, and streets have taken over.

When house and building development takes over, millions of square feet are now roofs and concrete have invaded the once verdant areas. In so doing, one of the natural factors to normal life has been interrupted. Comparing the natural resources to a developed community is betraying. No matter how well developed or how nicely landscaped, there is not less toleration for the natural elements such as rain water.

Roofs, driveways, sidewalks, and streets do not absorb water like the grass and trees did when the land was just a field. Rain water must be shunted, directed, and diverted to prevent persistent flooding. This is not very obvious until areas are not being flooded each year or so that never had the problem before. Retention ponds are the normal intermediate solution, and they are a smart idea.

Cities have an even worse problem since there are more roofs and concretes per square mile. There is also a limit on the amount of capacity available to drain away the water that falls locally and upstream. Once the developments are already in place, the options and cost of solving the flooding problems are outrageous. Perhaps that is why an innovative idea like pervious concrete is such a fantastic idea.

Pervious concrete is a new way to prepare concrete. The sand is the key missing ingredient, so you can expect that pervious concrete will have a rougher look than traditional concrete. This seems of little concern and may actually add to the look of a driveway.   The concrete is poured over a layer of course gravel.   The design allows the whole surface to absorb water, and the water then drains into the soil.

One of the other silent issues in developed communities can be the drain on the aquifer level. Wells drain the water and may drive down aquifer levels. These aquifers are replenished by the natural process of rain water passing through the soil along with underground supplies.  This is an increasingly important issue because potable water is becoming a stressed resource, and some suggest that fresh water may be the next environmental crisis.

Pervious concrete has other benefits as well.  Snow melts and drains into the concrete rather than pooling to freeze again into ice that can be dangerous and more difficult to remove.   Standing water will not happen which is something that nearly everyone will probably appreciate.  Even washing your can does not send water cascading into the storm sewer, but drains into the concrete.  The filtration of the water delivers a less polluted water quality than may be found in free-flowing water.  This is a kind of water recycling that makes good sense.

In arid areas, the gravel below the concrete can allow for drains to be diverted into cisterns.  When rain happens in the dry parts of the country, a little advanced thinking can provide water for gray water and irrigation purposes.  The capturing of rain water is certainly an environmentally smart idea, and the reuse to irrigation lawns, landscaping, and gardens is more than smart.  It offers a solution that can rescue yards and gardens in prolonged periods of drought-like conditions.

Of course, many homeowners and builders are still ignorant or leery of this new product.  Some wonder at its durability or strength.  Raveling refers the dislodging of aggregate during wear and tear.  The solution is the proper mixture of ingredients, pouring, and curing.  If done properly, the pervious concrete purports to be a durable product that merits public acceptance.  Regardless of the debate, pervious concrete seems to be an idea that deserves to be promoted in more building projects.  Green businesses should explore this concept on their next project.

Having read an article reported coming from a scientist that argues that live Christmas trees are “greener” than fake trees, I find myself less convinced than I would be years ago.  With so much contradictory information coming from the scientific community, I try to take all this kind of information with several grains of salt.  Merely attaching the word “scientist” to a statement no longer holds the value that it once did.  In the post-Copenhagen twilight, the news of the tweaked climate models, and the controversial emails of scientists withholding all the facts they had in hand; I am no longer readily convinced that anything said by a scientist is reputable.

Now, I may agree that a real Christmas tree is essentially carbon neutral in that it is not a rain forest issue and new trees will replace harvested trees.   I still wonder at the partial and one-sided information that these kinds of public statements convey.  The lifecycle analysis of a real tree must include all the care it took to grow these trees, transport these trees, and dispose of these trees.  It is not merely about the carbon footprint represented by growing and disposing of the tree.

By the way, did you realize that a common mold can be brought into a home by the much-loved live Christmas tree?  Twelve times during a two week period, researchers measured mold counts in a room containing a live Christmas tree, beginning when the tree was brought inside and decorated. The tree was located 10 feet from a heat vent, and the indoor temperature was maintained at between 65 and 68 degrees.

For the first three days, counts remained at 800 spores per cubic meter of air, then began escalating, rising to a maximum of 5,000 spores per cubic meter by day 14, when the tree was taken down.  Mold allergy affects up to 15% of the population, and people with sensitivity to certain molds commonly experience nasal, eye, and throat irritation; nasal stuffiness; and headache. Additionally, there is a well-documented link between asthma attacks and molds, and the added risk of invasive fungal disease among people with compromised immune systems.  Normal indoor air has a mold level of 500-700 spores per cubic meter, and anything higher indicates a source of mold growth inside the building.

So, let me add another consideration to the “Green” representation.  The best definition of “Green” is the health impact of the actions that we take.  When we are talking about the carbon footprint, the proper designation is “Sustainability.”  The term “Green” has been broadly re-interpreted as nearly anything environmental, but we much not forget that health is a fundamental human issue, and Green is best defined relative to health impact.  Further understanding of Green also considers “proximity” as part of the process.  In other words, the closer you are to the problem, the more responsible you are to do something about it.  This redefinition of Green always sparks an anxious debate, but we need to keep our terms clear.  Although “Green” and “Sustainable” are complimentary terms, they are not synonymous.  Both terms would be sub-categories of the broad concept of environmentalism.

If the sole criteria is carbon footprint, then the live Christmas tree would win the “Greenest” tree, even though I would suggest the “Most Sustainable Tree” would be the correct designation.  If we look at the often-neglected indoor air quality that might be impacted by bringing in a live tree, the fake tree would be the the Greenest tree.  If  a lifecycle analysis was applied, the metrics change and the live tree would likely be the winner.  If you are a treehugger, than the fake tree is something to re-consider.

What I am ultimately demonstrating is called the “Trade Off.”  There are no perfect solutions, just better ones.  In many cases, the trade offs are nearly totally one-sided.  Personal jets, like the ones used by so many politicians, high-level business people; and even Al Gore, have no real defense even if they buy carbon credits.  The sheer waste of these luxuries are indefensible.  While we debate the wisdom of our next car choice, the laundry detergent that we buy, or the proper choice of a Christmas tree; those who are so public about climate change travel in private jets, live in mansions, and ignore all the smaller issues that they encourage among the “common people.”

If there is a “Bah, Humbug” factor in this Christmas season, it is the Scrooge-like hauntings of wrongs being done to others, leaving the lesser people suffer while the elite utter mocking words of concern.  As we gather around our live or fake Christmas trees this year adorned with energy-saving LED lights, and dress more warmly so we can cut back on our power consumption, congress contemplates the cap and trade legislation that will place another onerous and austere tax on the American economy.  Carbon emissions have mutated from a true science to a political power grab that seems to steal away the true concerns of valid environmental efforts to radicalized political agendas that never worry about “cooking the books.”

I believe that we all want to do our part in the world that we share.  The efforts of pragmatic environmentalism should not be stolen away by those who wish to use this issue, pervert the science, and leave the special interest groups in control of the majority’s welfare.  Perhaps, that is why more and more abused common people identify with Sarah Palin and her “common man” approach to politics, while elitists miss no opportunity to scourge her publically.  The “Change” that we need is not an elitist demagoguery and rules that apply to all but the wealthy.  I believe the best Christmas gift we can ask for this year is that the people in positions of power to stop telling us what is good for us while they hold secret meetings and trade favors among themselves, but that they finally ask how they can help improve our lives and protect our freedoms.  The harm done this Christmas season will return in Christmas ghosts at election time for those who think they know better than the common folks what we need in life.

There are great ideas out there that deserve some attention.  Wind power, often called the problem child of alternative energy, is bound to recover from its troublesome reputation.  One great example is this outstanding example. This innovative idea puts a new slant on wind farm.  Instead of taking up valuable land or spoiling the coastline with offshore wind farms, these semi-pleasant wind turbines can produce power from wind and even traffic.  These turbines sit over the road and it is the turbulence of the vehicles passing below that drive the turbines around and it is this movement that generates the power.

The idea come from a student from Arizona State University, and each turbine would be capable of generating enough power to light up a medium sized apartment, even if the wind speed is only at a low 10 mph.  Tapping the brilliance of creative minds may bring other breakthrough concepts to the fore much more rapidly than government programs.  While the typical wind farms may be the best idea of the day, it seems destine to be the future equivalent of old, unused smokestacks from abandon manufacturing plants.