Transportation - saving energy. There are many ways to handle transportation, and you can get really creative with your companies plan. I will outline a few basics and you can create ways you can implement them in your instance. Best way to have employees get to work is walking. It uses no energy to produce anything other than I suppose the shoes on their feet. But in most areas walking is not an option. When I was in Greenville, SC this past January, I picked where I would live based on the ability to walk downtown, never leaving this beautiful hike/bike path that ends up in Cleveland Park. As you can imagine the real estate in the area is quite expensive, and I do wonder if any of those people walk to work, but it is an easy, gorgeous, 5 - 10 minute walk downtown.
Biking to work is an excellent choice. You can offer employees incentives to choose a bike to transport themselves to work. Some of the more ingenious things I have heard are giving company bikes (like a company car), offering primo parking (although when I commuted to Wyse in the 80s by bike I just took my bike to my cubical), giving the parking money to the cyclist, free lunch vouchers, and gift certificates for bike safety items such as lights, helmets,etc.
Taking a train is a great way to get to work. Some cities don't have subways so then a bus would be great. You can offer employees paid monthly passes or money towards passes, or have an employee of the month program that celebrates the public
transportation rider with cash prizes and incentives to participate. I am not a fan of bling because green bling is still bling. I think we need to move away from t-shirts, hats and bags as a "green" prize.
Carpooling is excellent and the employer can offer primo parking for carpoolers.
Last up would be single rider in a high mileage vehicle. Notice I don't single out hybrids. That is because hybrids in my opinion do not equal high mileage all the time. Sorry Lexus, your hybrid SUV does not fit the bill but the gas Corolla does. This would have to be any vehicle over 40 miles to the gallon to really celebrate the employee driving alone. That pretty much elminates many gas cars and many hybrids so not the best choice for employee transportation.
Now you can get creative. Maybe your employees could work at home a day or two a week. Maybe you could offer closing costs on a house within walking distance of your offices. Change the rules on where work happens. Maybe employees working on a project could meet in a central location that they can easily get to by bike or foot.
Here is a helpful site for figuring bike routes.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Greening Your Office 101
I get asked about greening offices quite a bit. I think everyone is looking for a quick answer, that they can then use as a marketing message. I thought I would post about first steps to greening your office and it is not as simple as recycling, although commendable, that is just one area of an office greening plan.
No matter what your size you need a team of employees passionate about the topic, but if you are larger you may want a full time person that manages the entire workplace. If you decide to set it up as a "volunteer" type committee, meaning the employees have other jobs they were hired to do, then you will want a team. More than three people, because if an employee leaves you do not want the entire program to go under or be delayed. Three people so there are at least two left to run the program until the third position is re-filled. The larger your company the larger the committee should be.
Once you have the committee in place or sustainable director hired, have them come up with a plan that they present to the powers that be. The plan will consist of stages. Immediate things to do, year long goals and long term aspirations. Each stage will have energy saved (which means money saved), consumption reduced (which means money saved), implementation (what it takes for total company participation) and measurement strategy (so you know how much money is saved and how it is being received). This is a lot of work so it is always best to have incentives for the people doing all the work (extra time off, bonus, recognition)
You need to look at all areas of the business - operations, technology, employee behavior and design (how is the building/office set up). This may seem like a ton of effort, but it is proven that looking at all of your companies functions not only "greens" the office, but increases functionality, encourages employee interaction and teamwork, fosters innovation and ultimately reduces environmental impact.
I am going to spend a couple blog postings on this topic because it is such a complex one. That way the postings can be segmented and easier read. Look for further postings soon.
No matter what your size you need a team of employees passionate about the topic, but if you are larger you may want a full time person that manages the entire workplace. If you decide to set it up as a "volunteer" type committee, meaning the employees have other jobs they were hired to do, then you will want a team. More than three people, because if an employee leaves you do not want the entire program to go under or be delayed. Three people so there are at least two left to run the program until the third position is re-filled. The larger your company the larger the committee should be.
Once you have the committee in place or sustainable director hired, have them come up with a plan that they present to the powers that be. The plan will consist of stages. Immediate things to do, year long goals and long term aspirations. Each stage will have energy saved (which means money saved), consumption reduced (which means money saved), implementation (what it takes for total company participation) and measurement strategy (so you know how much money is saved and how it is being received). This is a lot of work so it is always best to have incentives for the people doing all the work (extra time off, bonus, recognition)
You need to look at all areas of the business - operations, technology, employee behavior and design (how is the building/office set up). This may seem like a ton of effort, but it is proven that looking at all of your companies functions not only "greens" the office, but increases functionality, encourages employee interaction and teamwork, fosters innovation and ultimately reduces environmental impact.
I am going to spend a couple blog postings on this topic because it is such a complex one. That way the postings can be segmented and easier read. Look for further postings soon.
Friday, October 16, 2009
LOGO: Mayfly Capital
Recently, we developed a logo for a new company out of Boston called Mayfly Capital. The company focuses on acquiring printers that are implementing practices that are "green". When mayflies are found around water it means that the water is good quality. Mayfly Capital is representing good, solid companies and helping them for a short period of time - until the company is funded and off to success.
We are showing the text in black here but it is actually embossed. Mayfly Capital wanted to use an "old school" approach with embossing and 100% cotton paper. Crane Papers uses recycled rag in the making of their paper. Not a perfect choice since cotton uses so much pesticide in growing, but it is a way to keep scraps out of the waste stream. This was a good solution for Mayfly Capital to show their environmental commitment.
The logo was developed using just the delicate tail of the mayfly with a slight uphill slant to signify growth. The logo purposely takes on a zen-like feel as to signify comfort for the prospective clients. That their company will be looked after well.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Fresh the movie
The Rocky River Nature Center is showing movies related to food on Tuesdays. Last night I saw Fresh which is a wonderful exposé on the food industry. They interviewed my favorite farmer Joel Salatin and my favorite food writer Michael Pollan. The audience gasped as they showed little chicks being poured, very harshly, onto a barn floor. It was so sad to see how unhealthy these chickens became.
The movie talks about using nature's cycles to create food, instead of enormous monocrop farms, that have to fight nature in order to get inadequate food to grow. Nature doesn't have monocultures, nature does not like monocultures, it has defenses to fight against it. It seems like more, smaller farms, might increase the quality of our food system, especially if these farms were close to us.
We need to close the nutrient cycle, where animals feed the plants and then the animals eat the plants. The animals could be the farms workers by using the cattle, chickens, pigs to do what they naturally do. They become better food because they are healthier animals. Not that I eat animals but I do know some people do.
I hope that we move away from cheap food, in fact cheap everything (stuff) and move towards sustaining our lives by respecting nature. To find out where you can buy locally grown, organic food check out eatwild.com
The next movie is King Corn and it shows at 7pm on October 20. On October 27 you can see Fast Food Nation and remember these movies are free. You can see a free movie in a nice setting. It is right on Valley Parkway between Shepard and Cedar Point Road.
The movie talks about using nature's cycles to create food, instead of enormous monocrop farms, that have to fight nature in order to get inadequate food to grow. Nature doesn't have monocultures, nature does not like monocultures, it has defenses to fight against it. It seems like more, smaller farms, might increase the quality of our food system, especially if these farms were close to us.
We need to close the nutrient cycle, where animals feed the plants and then the animals eat the plants. The animals could be the farms workers by using the cattle, chickens, pigs to do what they naturally do. They become better food because they are healthier animals. Not that I eat animals but I do know some people do.
I hope that we move away from cheap food, in fact cheap everything (stuff) and move towards sustaining our lives by respecting nature. To find out where you can buy locally grown, organic food check out eatwild.com
The next movie is King Corn and it shows at 7pm on October 20. On October 27 you can see Fast Food Nation and remember these movies are free. You can see a free movie in a nice setting. It is right on Valley Parkway between Shepard and Cedar Point Road.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Green Corp Rankings
Last week, I saw a copy of Newsweek Magazine's Green Ranking issue on a clients desk. Intrigued, I opened and glanced at the list. I was shocked at some of the companies high on the list and infuriated at some that were not there at all. Today I read Joel Makowers review of the list and I felt a bit better. Thanks Joel! I suppose it is good to start healthy competition with these big companies, so they want to gain on their ranking. I do however think Newsweek should have at least mentioned some of the companies REALLY making a difference - Interface, Pantagonia, Seventh Generation, etc. I know they did not fall in their qualifications of being one of the 500 top traded companies, but a mention would have helped to understand where the top 500 should be. I get tired of people giving Walmart credit for being green, when for as large as they are, they should be doing MUCH better. Check out the list in this weeks Newsweek and then read Joel Makowers review.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Planting Trees
Planting trees is great but hardly the cure for driving and flying all over. In order to offset an average persons carbon, you would need a lot of land and many years. Looking 50 years ahead, and say you are emitting 22 tons of carbon dioxide per year, that is 1,100 tons of carbon dioxide you have released into the environment. You would need to plant 270 trees in order to remove the carbon. And that is if all the trees live 50 years. Most likely only 35% will live 50 years, so calculating that into the equation, you would need to plant 800 trees and you would need 11 acres.
Another factor to consider is that the carbon stored trees is only temporary. Someday, they'll die and most of the CO2 will be released back into the atmosphere. It's possible that a portion will remain trapped in the soil but most will be lost. By carbon offsetting your travel by planting trees you have just delayed them.
A better way is to emit less carbon dioxide than the average person. Car pool, use public transportation, walk or ride your bike, get creative with your vacations so you aren't flying. Yurich Creative no longer flies for meetings. We utilize conference calls and distribute notes via PDF. We find this method much more productive anyway. We are more organized and have everything we need at our finger tips. We can instantly send files and notes.
Another factor to consider is that the carbon stored trees is only temporary. Someday, they'll die and most of the CO2 will be released back into the atmosphere. It's possible that a portion will remain trapped in the soil but most will be lost. By carbon offsetting your travel by planting trees you have just delayed them.
A better way is to emit less carbon dioxide than the average person. Car pool, use public transportation, walk or ride your bike, get creative with your vacations so you aren't flying. Yurich Creative no longer flies for meetings. We utilize conference calls and distribute notes via PDF. We find this method much more productive anyway. We are more organized and have everything we need at our finger tips. We can instantly send files and notes.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
More Stats
10,400 - number of people who die in the U.S. each year from cancer related pesticide exposure.
14,000,000 - number of people in the U.S. who routinely drink water contaminated with carcinogenic herbicides.
90 - percentage of municipal water treatment facilities lacking equipment to remove these chemicals from the water.
2-3 pounds of pesticides used to grow the cotton for one pair of non-organic jeans.
A study by Emory University found pesticides in elementary-school children's urine. After four days of eating organic, only 1 child had traces of pesticides in their urine, out of 23 children.
14,000,000 - number of people in the U.S. who routinely drink water contaminated with carcinogenic herbicides.
90 - percentage of municipal water treatment facilities lacking equipment to remove these chemicals from the water.
2-3 pounds of pesticides used to grow the cotton for one pair of non-organic jeans.
A study by Emory University found pesticides in elementary-school children's urine. After four days of eating organic, only 1 child had traces of pesticides in their urine, out of 23 children.
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