Turning Transparent in a Green World

A cheap way to find out your business carbon footprint

The downside of this GO GREEN movement is the high cost of entry. Intuit is out to make it cheap and just another click on the keypad. 

Intuit is the software company behind Quickbooks and other small business products. Joel Makower wrote a great review on his blog. It's called GREEN SNAPSHOT and it's a FREE SERVICE that is part of their current programs. 

That's the aim of Green Snapshot, a just-launched free service of Intuit, the company that makes popular financial management software like Quickbooks and TurboTax. Snapshot is aimed at the same market as those products: millions of small and midsized companies, few of which have the time, temperament, or temerity to calculate their company's carbon footprint, let alone take action to reduce it.

Full article here.

GREEN SNAPSHOT is just that, a snapshot. It doesn't audit your books, but it does take "your book's" entries and turns them into useful information to help you streamline your business and lower your personal impact. Take the tour.

Once you know where you stand, you can share that information with your customers. It's not for big business and it isn't a full blown Life Cycle Assessment of your products or services or answer all the questions asked on Green Building Pages, but for FREE it does provide the snapshot that most of us need to kick us into do-better mode. 

Upcoming Product Bids for LACCD

This month the Los Angeles Community College District is looking for products in these categories. For more information go here.  http://www.greenbuildingpages.com/LACCD_Build_Green_Upcoming_Bids.html

FIREPROOF FILES
INDOOR WINDOW TREATMENTS
DISPLAY CASES 
GREEN CLEANING SUPPLIES
LIBRARY FURNITURE
METAL SHELVING / FILING SYSTEMS
OUTDOOR FURNITURE
CONCRETE FURNITURE
PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT
DSA APPROVED ARCHITECTURAL SHADE STRUCTURES
MODULAR MILLWORK
RESTROOM PARTITIONS, ACCESSORIES, LAVATORIES
LIGHT BULBS
FLAT FILES

Are We Recoverable?

Can we do it? Even if we change our products, our packaging, our delivery and our recycling... Can we recover out of this downward spiral that the environment is in? According to this research, the answer is yes!

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/05/28/yale_study_most_polluted_ecosystems_recoverable.html

Paul Hawken's Engaging Commencement/Commitment Speech

If you've been doing your best green imitation or market saturation for a while and haven't had great success, perhaps you need a shot of Paul Hawken. The following talk is not only inspiring in what he says, but also how he says it. I found myself drawn in by the logic, the poetry and the line-by-line comparison of what was and what could be.

If your job is to motivate masses of buyers to your product line, take a lesson from Paul on how to engage the mind.

"When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.

But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation – but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seat belts, lots of room in coach, and really good food – but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint...." more ...

Twittering for Sustainable Products

Is Twitter for the birds or is it a viable way to get your sustainable product into the public's searchable eye?

Before you judge it as a time waster, go to Twitter (you have to sign up) and then search #green and see what comes up. You'll also see #________________ in the sidebar. Many groups are beginning to use Twitter to see what others are doing and to group their ideas together. By putting a # sign in front of a predetermined word or phrase, 'tweets' can be collected into one group.

Confused, ok, search for "sustainable building products" and see how many are using that phrase. Now search for "green building products" and see what pops. Try other combo to get the idea.

The #_________ acts just like that key phrase you just used, except it ties all the tweets together using the the #_____ phrase instead of using the key words.

While going through this exercise, I also located #greenbuilding of which I have added to my list to follow.

Do you have a favorite #__________ that you like to follow? Let me know at Mary.Hunt@GreenBuildingPages.com

Sustainable Packaging - how green is yours?

A tip of the hat to Environmental Leader for this tidbit which predicts that sustainable packaging will grab 32% of the market by 2014. For the full article go here.

Paper and paper-based packaging are the largest sectors with more than 40% of the global packaging market. That's another reason why the LACCD is paying so much attention to companies who wrap their products in materials that can be recycled. The packaging coming into the district on building products and materials is separated, then sold back into the material supply chain.

 

Are you in the process of redesigning your packaging to be part of the 32%? Check out JoAnn Hines, the Packaging Diva. She has decades of experience and will help you carry your sustainable message through, as well as make your package as sustainable as your product. Give her a call or follow her on twitter along with the other 4000 who do.

Welcome ThermaSteel Panels

ThermaSteel Panels has joined the Green Building Pages ranks. It manufactures foundation, floor, wall, roof and ceiling components for residential, commercial and industrial applications as well as infill or curtain for high-rise construction. It's a pre-insulated light gauge steel framing, utilizing galvanized steel and EPA (both 100% recyclable).ThermaSteel carries and Energy Star Rating and UL, ASTM and others.

ThermaSteel came to Green Building Pages on the recommendation of the Los Angeles Community College District. As soon as the ThermaSteel team answered the triple bottom line questions on Green Building Pages, Green Building Pages sends their link back to Lilian the LACCD procurement specialist. Now Lilian has all the answers to anything she needs to know at her fingertips (as does everyone else at LACCD). 

But that's just a starting point...

Lilian heads up the interiors procurement operations and acts as the filter for all products coming into the LACCD, but she doesn't specify products and materials that will be used to build the buildings. That job goes to one of the 150 or so architectural and design firms contracted with the LACCD. 

Educating the architects to use Green Building Pages and also flag the firms on new products is Amber Olson. With this same link, she can share ThermaSteel's LEED Credit opportunties in energy performance, controllability of systems - thermal, thermal comfort - design, recycled content, innovation and design.

Thank you ThermaSteel for making the transferring of knowledge through LACCD so easy.

The New Bottom Line in Sales

Ahh the infamous bottom line question that strikes terror in any newbie sales person - you polished your shoes and your presentation yet before you can crack a smile or a proposal your prospect asks, "So what's the bottom line"?

 

Anyone in sales training will give you a dozen different ways to sidestep the money question and get back to the job of pre-selling your product. Since the market is turning green, however,  there is new way to answer...

 

Q: What's the bottom line?

A: That depends on how you want your triple bottom line to look.

 

The prospect will either "get" what you're offering right away or they'll stare at you with a dumbfounded expression, either way you should be ready to show them how your product is going to save them money, save the environment and be a good neighbor to those they do business with around the planet. It takes the "features and benefits" conversation to a whole new Life Cycle Assessment level.

 

If your product can compete wellin all three areas of the triple bottom line, economics, environment and social equity (and can prove it) you've hit the trifecta of new market sales. You will Win, Place and Show others what a sustainable product looks like in green economy.

 

If you're really savvy you'll have your sustainable future story together as well - how can you guarantee that this product is no fluke, that it will continue to improve and make their triple bottom line better in the process. You'll also have a promotion plan together to help them help you cross promote the product's use.  It's no longer a grab-your-commissions-and-run world.

 

If you're a sales and marketing manager can your sales force answer the triple bottom line questions as easily as they can answer product specifications and installation concerns?

 

Do you have a  Sustainable Sales Training program? Let us know.

 

SLM: The Marketing of Green May 31- June 4 Monterey, CA

Do you have green building products that span both the Business to Business and the Business to Consumer worlds? You may want to attend the Sustainable Life Mediaconference at the end of the month in Monterey, CA. Sustainable Life Media focuses on green brand management and everything you need to make those brands authentic and market changing.

The event contains mostly consumer goods, but what happens in consumerland spills over into B2B world. The one sector reinforces the other.

You'll hear about:

• Transformations
• Capturing the essence of sustainability
• Consumer product case studies
• Green brand messaging
• How to inspire employees and customers alike
• Collaboration programs
• Give Back Programs
• Low impact packaging
• Social Media shifting consumer thinking
• Eco Labeling 
• Green event planning
• Social footprints

Check out the whole line up here: http://sustainablelifemedia.com/events/sb09

Other key presentations:

LCA on a budget, Jeremy Faludi, Professor, Stanford Design School.

Top 10 Online Sustainable Brands Stories and the Tools That Got Them There

A Legal Look at Green Marketing Claims and the FTC's Green Guides

Transparency & Green Materials: Key Building Blocks for Tomorrow's Brand Leaders

Leonard Robinson, California Dept. of Toxic Substances - DTSC Goes "Wiki" With Green Chemistry "On September 29, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1879 and Senate Bill 509, two laws that authorize California state government to develop an alternatives analysis framework to stimulate the rapid acceleration of replacement of harmful chemicals and ingredients with safer alternatives in products sold in California. One of the most forward-looking initiatives in the world, Mr. Robinson will share his perspective on the implications of this initiative and the doors it might open for new product innovation for a greener future.

Check out the Who's Who list of attendees and go if only to meet the sustainable innovators inside a company who might want to bring your product into the mix.You never know who you might be sitting next to.

Be there or NOT be talked about.

 

Green Building Pages Top Ten Sustainable Products

Raising the bar, rewarding transparency and product manufacturers'  achievements in reducing the global environmental impacts of their products, and creating a more sustainable world.

Every Earth Day the Green Building Pages announces it's top ten products. This year's lineup ranges from one-man-shops to international manufacturing.

Congratulations to the winners. For a complete look at what makes them sustainable, follow the links provided.  

RainTube - for it's rain harvesting gutter system

EcoTimber - for handscraped flooring and also their Exotics and Classics line.

Forbo's Marmoleum - hard surfaced tile and sheet flooring

Robin Corell - Custom Furniture

Interface FLOR - modular carpet tiles

Panel Source International - for Purekor Platinum Composite Panels

Green Touchscreen - all-in-one touch screen kiosk software

American PERMALIGHT, Inc. - Photoluminescent EXIT signs & EXIT Path Markings

These product manufacturers have achieved exemplary performance against comprehensive Green Building Pages Benchmarking Sustainability evaluation criteria, in alignment with the ASTM-E2129 and the Sustainable Materials Rating Technology (SMaRT) building product consensus standard recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council.