Turning Transparent in a Green World

Obama, Accountability and the New Market

Did you hear Obama during his press conference today? If you are helping people save energy or create energy you are in a valued position for the next market. By extension if you are also lowering toxins in our earth, air, water and atmosphere or have products that never contained them (and your supply chain as well), you also are in good position. The same goes for water reclamation.

GREEN IS GOOD!

Obama is setting a new tone  of transparency and accountabilitystarting with his own department. How refreshing and how timely. If anyone knows how transparency and accountability works to motivate others, it's him. You can't acquire and keep millions of online supports unless they feel they can trust what's being presented. If you're interested in how the Obama social media machine worked, go here.

The green market is already following that path. First, most green products are young and part of a small business idea. Small business understands word-of-mouth marketing better than big business who can merge their way to success. Second, both big and small business knows they must put truth into their messaging or be accused of greenwash. Truth happens when all the PROS are on the same page as the CONS.

The good news, with Obama's statements Wall Street was given a clear direction as to where to put their investments. While other programs are in question about funding, the green market is on solid ground. Consequently, the financial markets will be looking at companies with a new filter of transparency and accountability. The more companies go public with their sustainable attributes, the faster we'll see this new market emerge.

How about it? Are you ready to go transparent? What's holding you back?

 

Supply Chain Transparency

If you have products serving consumers as well as business, read this from Coral Rose, former Sr. Buyer at Wal Mart. It's all about the Life Cycle Assessment...

http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/content/column/sourcing/sustainable_business_looks_upstream

Green Building Pages 2008 Benchmarking Sustainability Awards

 

The results are in and the winning products are below. FULL RESULTS HERE.

RainTube took the Best Overall Award.To achieve that you must be able to show sustainable actions in multiple areas. Doing so also put them at the top of the individual awards too (below). As GreenBiz noted today, doing well under many areas is a marketing MUST going forward.

"Identifying, planning and implementing changes in your environmental policies are not simple tasks. Yet, clear pressures from customers, shareholders and competition show that progress in this area is required."

Green Building Pagesis an aggregator of sustainable product attributes and a buying guide for those who need to know how the products can fulfill LEED credits. Those on the top of the lists are there because their sustainable design and efforts have put them there. 

Top Sustainable Product Award: Raintube

Production & Manufacturing: RainTube

Installation, Use & Maintenance:EverClean, RainTube, EcoTimber, Vitrastone, Allmet Roofing

End of Product Life: RainTube, Pacific Coast Lumber, Liberty Valley Doors

Social Sustainability Award: RainTube

Global Climate Award: RainTube, FLOR

Sustainable Innovation Award: FLOR, Celle,Mirra, My Studio Environments

RainTube takes the Sustainability Award at Green Building Pages

Congratulations to the RainTube team for taking the Green Building Pages top Sustainable Product Award. They accumulated 689 points out of 1000 possible across the Green Building Pages sustainable benchmarking system. We spoke to co-owner Steve Spratt to get an update on RainTube's sustainable progress. (Steve is on the right of CEO Bill Savage and Director of Administration, Paula Savage.)

For their full product disclosure, go here. RainTube provides LEED credit contributions for erosion and sedimentation control, water use reduction, recycled content and innovation & design.

ON THE GREEN BUSINESS FAST TRACK

RainTube went from "an idea" in 2007 to a company supporting 10 employees and 100 independent installers with international accounts with distributors in Canada, UK, Israel, Poland, and the Netherlands in 2009. Granted, they had a jump on sustainability, the entire company was designed to be green from the beginning. Instead of being bogged down with legacy issues, they took the greenest route by business model design. 

First, they looked at what was missing from the market and would be useful even if it wasn't green. (porous gutter filtering system) Second, they looked at how they could make it in the greenest way possible and still be a highly functional product. Lastly they looked at how they could establish themselves quickly as a trusted green product line.  Full history on our first post.

While the RainTube concept is anchored in solving the issue of keeping rain gutters clog free, it also solves a new problem coming along in the western states - how to harvest rainwater for later use.

GOING FROM SAYING IT TO PROVING IT

Being an unknown company with an unknown product, RainTube wanted to establish their green credibility quickly. 

"We looked around the web to see who provided the most detailed information and the Green Building Pages was the most comprehensive. Once we were listed, we could link customers and distributors to the page and they could read it for themselves".  

But they didn't stop there...

Steve and his co-owner Bill Savage knew that disclosing information on their own wasn't going to be enough, they would need to be certified. They  decided to go with C2C certification because they liked the certification's reuse philosophy and Raintube is made of 100% downcycled HDPE.

"C2C, conducts indepth testing of things. They require  a third party chemical analysis, and any heavy metals identified. It can't be over a certain level or it can't be certified as green."

But C2C certification wasn't enough for Steve...

While the company obtained a  C2C Gold level of certification on their product's composition, they still didn't have an ISO Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)which looks at how the product is manufactured and the entire supply chain inputs.  RainTube is in the middle of completing that process now.

 "The astute manufacturer, consumers and everyone else knows that green is more than fadish and they are trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff. They are looking for the third party certifier. The smartest ones [manufacturers] are gravitating that way. At first they did it because they were proud of what they are doing, but now it's more a matter of survival... The green aspects are definite edge plus our price points are right and we do hold patents on the products... Having certifications carries as much weight in the market as the patents."

WHAT'S WORKING NOW?

"Having an effective low cost product - that's the biggest one... Rain gutters didn't work well, leaves always keep them jammed up. To build up our distributor network we went after the first movers - those who hold green like a religion. One green architech will get the product in front of many homeowners... 

"The biggest problem is with the installation and roofing people only because that group knows nothing about Rain tube and sometimes they aren't interested in doing things a new way. "

"As for tradeshows, Greenbuild is exceptional because it gets up in front of the right people...   Now with investors and political people coming on board, Greenbuild adds huge credibility."

Our congratulations again to RainTube for not only creating a necessary and useful product, but for continually improving it's certifications and providing what the market wants - proof of sustainable performance. Once they have completed a life cycle assessment, they'll be able to increase their benchmarking points to the platinum level.  

Steve Spratt can be reached at info@raintube.com or by calling 866-724-6356.

Market Case Study: Liberty Valley Doors

Liberty Valley Doors recently received a Benchmarking Sustainability Award for "High End of Life" achievements from Green Building Pages. We spoke with Sustainability Manager and Marketing Director, Stephen Pastryk about the lessons they've learned in eco-marketing. (Stephen is on the left of his Dad, Mike Pastryk, the Founder of Liberty Valley Door.) For a profile their Transparent Sustainable Performance of their products go here.

GETTING STARTED
It's a classic story of going from chicken feed to feathering one's nest. Back in 1980, Mike Pastryk decided that he wanted to run his own wood working business, but all he could afford to lease was half of an old chicken barn in Petaluma. It was there he decided that his business would remain custom and not try to compete with stock door companies.

Since that decision, Liberty Valley Doors have been creating first impressions and interior experiences at wineries, churches, schools, restaurants, commercial buildings and of course, homes.

The company is long past its chicken-barn-based days, and hums along at its current location with 15-18 steady employees. 
 
EARLY RECYLING FOR SAFETY, PROFIT and SOCIAL EQUITY
As a door manufacturer they had plenty of leftover scrap wood which became a fire hazard. Rather than pay for it to be hauled away, Mike put containers of scrap out on the curb and let other budding craftsman help themselves.

"They often came back and show us what they made. Today  we set aside pallets of scrap wood for Rancho Cotati high schools' wood shop class... with all the budget cuts they still get wood every month or so. We also have a guy who stops by and picks up the sawdust to use on local farms..”

That early recycling started them thinking about what additional things they could do and soon they were analyzing everything that went into the trash.

"We were able to reduce our weekly waste by 85%; going from a 15 yard dumpster to one, 64 gallon trash can for the entire business.... we even show people what we accomplished on our website." 

A Win, Win, Win, Win Outcome
• Pay less in trash pickup
• Provide high school woodshop students with raw materials
• Provide organic material for farm animal bedding
• Have a story that inspires customers and other businesses to do the same.

MIDCOURSE CORRECTIONS
You have to admire any company that is self-funded. The money to lease the chicken barn came from the selling of Mike Pastryk's two motorcycles in 1980.  Boot strappers such as Mike are natural risk takers. When the chance to use the sun to run their business came up, he went for it and living in a sun abundant area made it and easy decision.

"We now create 100% of our energy from the sun over the course of a year as the summer sun produces more energy than we need making up for what is lacking in the winter...” 

What they didn't anticipate was the start up time and cost.
 
"...We wish we did more research on our solar contractor. The entire job took 1.5 years when it was suppose to be 4 months. That took our time away from building doors and put it into overhead management.

Like the recycling effort, however, going to solar energy gives them an additional green story to tell which has been incorporated into the website along with the energy recording visuals into their website.

ECO-INSTRUMENTAL PARTNERS
Who has helped them grow and promote sustainability?

"We've had contractors start working with us because we use FSC Certified and reclaimed wood... Hammond Fine Homes is one of them. Mahoney Architects is another. Two other alliances that have helped us get the word out have been The Green Home Center and Green By Design. 

PACKAGING SOLUTIONS
Packaging is one of those legacy issues that needs an overhaul.  Liberty Valley Door has come up with a unique solution.

"First we request that suppliers use less packaging and request that the lumber isn't wrapped in plastic. Local orders are shipped via our truck, but when we have to ship a large order out of state, ee use PODS instead of typical shipping services.  The POD offers protection as well as shipping.  It can be delivered right to the site and it will keep the rain out until it's unloaded and readied for pickup again. This way we can ship our PODS with others going across the country. That's how we shipped the doors to Noah’s Corp, a recreation center in Utah."
 
WHAT'S YOUR MARKET EDGE?
From a product point of view it's their reclaimed wood doors. While only 10-20% of their business today, their beauty and unique craftsmanship brings customers in the door, per se. 

"Using reclaimed wood greatly increases profits.  When we first started the product line in 2005 we used wood from demolition sites. The final doors were beautiful without one tree being cut. To date we've sold over 800 of them. Using FSC wood is a big draw as well. About 70% of our other custom doors are of FSC requested wood, but even if the wood is not requested FSC certified, we still build it that way. "
 
What about their communications, are they doing anything different to keep going during these down times?

"Mainly guerrilla marketing tactics, the story sells itself. The Discovery Channel – Planet Green came out for Renovation Nation and did a feature story on us. It was a 5-10 minute segment. We also write articles for blogs, use Google Ad Words and track where customers are coming from. If 15 new people contact us, whether they buy or not we've found that 12 out of the 15 came from Google.  We also attend Co-Op America's green business network and sustainability conference.... Once a month we talk to others at the green home center in San Francisco and share ideas and exhibit at West Coast Green and Live Green Live Well. " 
 
It's through conferences and tradeshow events that they have had the most luck. People they meet during the networking portion are telling others of their craftsmanship via word-of-mouth. 
 
WHAT'S HOT NOW
 
"Doors out of FSC Mahogany or Douglas Fir, they are about 70% of our volume and about 80% of that work is residential.”
 
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU WANT OTHERS TO KNOW?
 
"Our commitment to the environment... we run on Solar power. We did that only after analyzing all parts of the business, looking at the components and garbage... like analyzing the glue for formaldehyde content...  I tell people to look at everything and see what you can do to change. We’re also very proud to be recognized as Cotati’s Business of the Year for 2008.”

Stephen Pastryk and be reached at Stephenp@LibertyValleyDoors.com

Market Case Study: EcoTimber

Our thanks to Dan Harrington, Director of Product Development at EcoTimber. Dan oversees design, sourcing and factory relations which include environmental and technical specifications. For the past eight years he's worked with EcoTimber as it grew from 3 people to 25 and became an eco-force of it's own. Dan@EcoTimber.com

EcoTimber won the Benchmarketing Sustainability Award for Installation, Use & Maintenance. For a complete look at EcoTimber’s triple bottom line facts click here.

BUILT IN INTEGRITY

EcoTimber started off in 1992 when Jason Grant, Aaron Maizlish and Eugene Dickey came together to sell and promote "good wood." They visited and vetted each forest for diversity and social equity long before FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] became the adopted label by many environmental groups. Today EcoTimber promotes FSC certified wood, but still continues to vet the process with their own on-site visits.

GETTING STARTED

The fledging founders began with a sustainable idea - harness the marketplace to support sustainable forestry. They used their own capital and that of friends to launch the concept and then in 1995 they received over a million dollars which included monies from the MacArthur Foundation. It was the first and only investment into a for-profit business that the foundation has ever made.

During these early days, no one really knew the benefits of sustainable wood. EcoTimber owners got the word out by spending lots of time talking to architects, architectural communities and to large influential corporations. They had good success and landed accounts at Nike, Banana Republic, Whole Foods, Patagonia and Disney, but it eventually spread EcoTimber too thin.

MIDCOURSE CORRECTIONS

Serving multiple products lines and markets became too difficult. In 2001, they  sold off all the inventory, keeping only the flooring and selling it with the brand to Hayward Lumber. Fast forward six years - two new investors  bought the EcoTimber flooring from Hayward and have been taking it forward ever since.  Lesson learned? Focus, focus, focus on one thing - flooring.

ECO-INSTRUMENTAL PARTNERS

Dan reports that they work with many architectural firms, and  that Gensler has been very active in specifying the FSC wood.  "Gensler goes the extra step to make sure contractors follow through and buy what is specified. Not many firms do that," Dan admitted," but Gensler does a good job of hammering it home."

PACKAGING SOLUTIONS

"We've gone to recycled cardboard and limited plastic," says Dan. "We want to improve and use even less plastic, but right now we have to protect the product from moisture and that's the only thing that will work. We're looking for plastic that will biodegrade eventually. We try to keep the cardboard at a minimum and use a simple sticker at the end of the wood vs. coating a big box with ink. The customer often doesn't see the packaging anyway. They order it online or from a dealer and by the time it arrives at their home or worksite, decorative packaging isn't needed."

CONSUMER/SOCIAL EQUITY

"We did some focus groups and found that 'saving the rain forest' came in second to health issues," says Dan, "Consumers want to know that their products are formaldehyde free and won't endanger their children. Even so, we don't slack off our original mission. We still vet the sites ourselves and don't work with factories which don't pay attention to social issues or workers rights. Customers appreciate our authenticity and level of first hand knowledge.” Dan added, “While the forest is our mission, we did change our tag line to reflect our customer’s needs and our policy regarding the use of toxic chemicals that might off-gas in the home. It went from “Quality Woods from Environmentally Sound Sources"  to  "Healthy Forests. Healthy Homes."

WHAT'S YOUR MARKET EDGE?

"I think it’s our integrity and knowledge. Customers trust the information we give them and they like having products that are in stock and ready to ship," says Dan.  

WHAT'S HOT RIGHT NOW?

Hand scraped flooring and strand woven bamboo," he said.  And yes, he assures me, it is scraped by hand by fair-wage workers in the US.  The bamboo is shredded and then resin infused (with no urea formaldehyde) to create a "tropical hardwood at a bamboo price." EcoTimber is working with a bamboo supplier that will have its FSC certification this spring.

WHAT IS ONE THING CONSUMERS NEED TO KNOW?

"I wish people did their research on standards, there is a proliferation of them out there and many are muddying the water. We've done some on the homework on our website, but ultimately the end buyer has to demand it," Dan stressed. "FSC is the best of the many forestry labels that are popping up, but it isn't perfect. Companies who buy small amounts of FSC wood can use the label in their advertising... showing the label does not mean that all the wood they carry is FSC certified. The only way a customer can have that guarantee is to ask for FSC wood and then look on the invoice and make sure the line item identifies the wood as FSC certified. We hope that as more people understand what FSC stands for the more they'll understand why so many environmental groups back it." 

Dan Harrington is a 36 year old dad of two kids, ages 2 1/2 and 4 months. Some day he'll tell them stories of how he worked to save the rain forests through sustainable tourism and then eco-commerce.

 

Transparency You Can See

Which came first, green or transparency? And does this trend have legs?

If you're talking with a product manufacturer, going green lead to turning transparent as we went from green to sustainable to prove it.

If you're talking with the financial markets, turning transparent is an outcome of shoddy bookkeeping and closed door policies. They were forced into it.

Meanwhile the two are on an intersection course. 

While Wall Street is getting fresh scrubbed, the business of becoming sustainable is chugging along and someday soon, clean books won't be enough. GREEN and GR$$N will both be based on provable policies and that's when we'll see worldwide market transformation of transparency happen.

The consumer market gets it. Check out today's articlefrom Timberline. Author, Beth Holzman, completely understands the impact of today's consumer on the greater business market - less is more, durable is better, and start showing your process to the public.

Why should you care if you sell building products?

First, because consumers of food and clothing are also purchasers of shelters. Watch their trend and stay in front of it.

Second, because the consumer market is LOUD. What they expect washes back over everything that product stands for and that includes the buildings that house the processes.

Third, the proof that this trend is well on its way, lies in increasing green intelligence showing up on blogs and forums. Check out the information on Umbria, a Division of J.D. Power and Associates or Nielsen-online, both scan all web activity for trends and this one isn't going away.

As a trend watcher ou have two choices: Make the decision to scramble around while everyone else is scrambling and figure out how to be transparent. Or, wait a couple years for the trend to step up and then play catch up to your competition. Either way, eventually you'll have to open up your practices if you want to stay in a market that requires full disclosure that you can prove.

International Builder's Show or Greenbuild, who won?

According to the stats, the International Builder's Show in Vegas last week brought in 60,000 attendees. Not too shabby. Greenbuild in Boston was a much smaller venue and brought in about 20,000. By the numbers, IBS won. By the attitude, Greenbuild won.

At Greenbuild you could feel the excitement and the promise of what a green future would look like. At IBS, even though it was in Vegas with perfect weather, the tone was lack-luster at best. I walked the IBS floors on Thursday in search of companies heading into a sustainable future. Maybe it was the showrooms I picked, but I didn't see much in the way of REAL green efforts.

That said, Henkel had a new line of no VOC adhesives. I have a friend who is so sensitive to VOCs that she has to let any new products out gas on her front porch before bringing them into her home. Back about ten years ago, I sold tankloads of adhesives. The are nasty and very hard to go green and still maintain a profit while keeping production lines humming. Kudos to Henkel for introducing this new line.

Later, I chatted with a several insulation companies - Biobased.net, Icynene.com and NevadaFoam.com. They were in competition, per se with the new cement walls with foam forms and with wood walls with foam cores. All of them help to keep your home toasty or cool, and all of them had way too many ways to tell you how they did it. Unless reasearch analysis is your thing, comparing products via their handouts is an insane use of time.

A surprise highlight came from a chat with the Soybean Board. I had no idea so many products came from this renewable and chewable plant. We'll be revisiting that sector in the upcoming blogs.

I don't know if I would go back to the IBS show again. It was fun, but there wasn't enough of the sustainable future there to make it worth the drive across the desert. I'll leave the gamblers in Vegas. As for me, I'm betting on the sure thing - green homes and offices and conferences like Greenbuild that inspire me to do better.

LACCD needs these building products...

While the rest of the economy continues to struggle, life is good in LA - if you have building products that is. The LA Times reported that the LA Community College District awarded $400 million in contracts out of the $5.7 billion it has to work with.

If you sell building products into educational facilities, you're probably wondering what they need and how can you get your foot in the door. Here's the next advertised group. If you don't have your products listed on Green Building Pages. Do so now. Go here for more background. Good Luck!

Child Development Center Furniture & Equipment Recycle Bins / Parking Lot Sweepers/Green Golf Carts ZEV Utility Carts Pool Supplies Appliances (ADA Compliant + Lab) Library/Lounge Seating, Tables, Misc. Storage Library Shelving/Back Office Shelving (pcm) Recycle - Waste Paper Containers IT Smart Walls, Boards - classroom 40 yard roll off and storage bins Boom Lifts, Scissor Lifts, Forklifts