Eco Friendly Consulting

More than 500,000 American employees now work at a Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB), thanks to visionary leadership in the private and public sector. Just recently, the League of American Bicyclist announced 67 new Bike Friendly Businesses, who joined the ranks of the 412 local businesses, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies that are transforming the American workplace.

“These leaders are at the forefront of a movement to make American businesses more competitive, sustainable and attractive to the best and brightest employees,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “An investment in bicycling enhances employee health, increases sustainability and improves the bottom line.”

What are easy ways to become a bike friendly office?  Some business owners might argue that small business resources can be limited towards building a sustainable business; however, our sustainability consulting encourages employers to promote employee bicycling commuting as a great way to attract and retain those eco minded employees.  The post, Top 10 Benefits of Bicycle Commuting Programs for Businesses, explores bike commuting benefits to employers while the post, 10 Reasons to Bike Commute to Work, gives employees ideas and inspiration to ride to work. But what can a business do to promote and maintain a winning bike commuting culture?  Our business sustainability consulting advocates taking the following eco actions to keep bike commuting fun and safe for employees.

Education

• Offer regular safety classes.
• Provide lunch and learn opportunities for current topics and discussion.
• Share information on how to share the road.
• Participate in bike maintenance classes.

Encouragement

• Offer incentives to ride.
• Host a CEO led ride.
• Guarantee a ride home service.
• Create a company bike club.
• Celebrate bike to work day or month or create your own company mile markers and celebrate them.

Foundation

• Make bike parking safe and secure.
• Provide lockers, showers, and changing areas.
• Utilize car sharing programs like ZipCar for off site meetings.
• Provide a repair station with tools, lubrication, and tubes.

Review

• Get to know your employee's commuting habits: what's working/ what isn't and suggestions for improvement.
• Set goals: number of commuting miles/ week/ per employee.
• Appoint a bike coordinator: the go to person for everything bike commuting related.

Wondering how many Bike Friendly Businesses are in your city or state? Check out this helpful map to find out.  Zoom in on your community — and show your bike-friendliness by patronizing your local Bike Friendly Business!  Better yet, get your business on the map: Learn more about the Bicycle Friendly Business program.

April showers bring May flowers and…National Bike Month!  May is recognized as National Bike Month and as sustainability consultants, we couldn't be happier!  Bike commuting, or green cycling as we call it at Taiga Company, is part of a sustainable lifestyle, alternative transportation, helps the environment, and also raises eco awareness.   It seems that most people think of bikes as recreation but in our sustainability consulting with business and individuals, we encourage employers and workers to consider cycling as alternative transportation as well as part of a sustainable business strategy.  Cycling to work is an easy way to integrate sustainability concepts into the workplace.  

Kicking off National Bike Month we will be posting educational resources on bikes, cycling, and gear as well as sharing mountain bike race photos from our Taiga Cycling team exploring the great outdoors in Colorado.  

Here’s how you can participate in National Bike Month. 

Begin by marking your calendar:

• Bike-to-Work Week 2012 from May 14-18
• Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 18.
• Do you want to know how many people ride bikes in America , who's riding, and how many miles of bike lanes there are? The Census Bureau collects American Community Survey (ACS) data from a sample of the population in the United States and gives us this insight. Find out who's riding bikes  in the largest 244 cities in the U.S.

Resources and worthwhile reading: For Business/ employees:

• Bike Commuting Trends are UP: Here's Why
• 10 Reasons to Bike Commute to Work
• Easy Ways to Become a Bike Friendly Office
• Top 10 Benefits of Bicycle Commuting Programs for Businesses

For Commuters:

• The Bike Commuter's Guide to Stay Fresh and Clean at Work
• Get Paid to Bike to Work
• Green Resources for Bike to Work Week
• Live Green! Ride a bike!

Want to get more involved?  Get Up & Ride- Take the National Bike Challenge!  Launched  by a powerful alliance between Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong and Endomondo, the National Bike Challenge aims to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health.  The Challenge is simple: Sign up as an individual or as a team, log your miles, share your stories and encourage others to join you. Riders will compete for prizes and awards on the local and national level, including a Grand Prize trip through California wine country from Trek Travel.  

What are you waiting for?  Pump up your tires, lube your chain, and put your pedal power to good use!  Ride ON! 

With the shift in consumer preferences over the past few years, companies have been aggressive to respond to the growing ‘green’ value opportunity.  However, lifecycle questions remain on company responsibilities once the products are in the hands of the consumer.   Does a sustainable business need to market and sell to a responsible consumer to be sustainable?  Do customers respond to a product or should products arise from the needs of the customer?  Our sustainability consulting explores.

As a professional consultant and an advocate for sustainable change in business, I express to clients, peers, and friends that everything we buy is an expression of consumer preference.  This purchase choice tells the business world that we approve of the product and service they are providing.  On the flip-side, businesses also have a responsibility to position their products and services in a way to attract the right consumers.

“Companies struggle to create products that consistently satisfy customer needs. Focus insight generation on the ultimate benefits that customers derive from a product or service. This helps guide technology project selection towards the highest-value opportunities.”  -CEB Views

The good news for business is there seems to be a general trend towards increasing eco awareness and a decreasing resistance for more sustainable products.  In fact, a 2009 consumer survey  indicated that 34 percent of American consumers are more likely to buy environmentally responsible products today, and another 44 percent indicate their environmental shopping habits have not changed as a result of the economy.  For this reason, we ask: How can a company effectively engage the shifting dynamics of the market and the ever changing expectations of the consumer.

“Progressive companies focus on understanding customer needs at the earliest stages. They continuously integrate knowledge outside the gate review process to execute faster without wasting resources.” –Procurement Strategy Council

Our sustainability consulting is mindful of the voice of the consumer as a key business sustainability influencer.  In fact, we view the expanding eco awareness of the global consumer to be a driving change in business.  For the companies sensitive to this change, there is a tremendous opportunity in managing the many voices of business sustainability.  Visit us at Taiga Company to learn more about this concept and how social media engagement strategies for key business sustainability stakeholders can transform your organization.

Super powers are cool.  They  invoke the imagination of superhuman qualities capable of tacking any challenge and succeeding. In many ways, the call for sustainability invokes the better qualities of us as humans.  If we were to have sustainability superpowers, what would they be?  How would we use them? How could we invoke sustainability superpowers to not only change the world at large, but also our personal worlds?

Most of us recognize that change can be unsettling.  It can be scary, and too often it is just easier to slip back into a traditional and comfortable way of doing things.  However, implementing effective sustainable change does not have to be a laboring process.  How so?  All too often, we turn our attention to the barriers and roadblocks to the incorporating sustainability concepts into our businesses and personal lives.  There is a tendency to take too broad of a view of the concept of sustainability and become overwhelmed by its magnitude and our ability to make change.  Instead, we need to focus on the benefits we are individually trying to achieve from a specific change.  What are the baby steps we can take that make change easier? 

To help you do just that, following are ways to go green each day of the week.  As a sustainability consultant, I suggest starting off with ideas in each area that are of most interest to you and build from there.  Each week can be a new platform to launch new eco actions.  Have fun with it and know that every eco action you take adds up and makes a difference.

Paperless Mondays:  Within our business sustainability consulting, we explain that when it comes to paper, producing paper from virgin fiber is both energy and water intensive.  It releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.  By choosing to use less paper and paper with recycled content you are making the choice to save wood, water and energy, and cut pollution and solid waste.   The costs savings add up and the environmental impact goes down.   Need ideas?  Check out 19 Tips to go Paperless at Home.

Turn Tuesdays Green at Work:  Keep in mind, every job is a green job: it's all in how you do it.  One approach is to increase your participation in the sustainability programs offered within your organization.  This offers a broader perspective of potential green projects and areas of improvement.  Another approach is to green your physical environment.  If you work at home, check out Green your Home Office 101 for ideas or 10 Ways to Green Your Cubicle.  Both offer ideas to embrace sustainability concepts in your work environment.  

Water Wednesdays:  Clean, fresh water is no longer just an issue for developing countries.  It has become more and more a global issue.   Water is linked to every facet of life on our planet and directly interacts with a myriad of other sustainability concepts.  Learn water wise habits to Reduce your Water Footprint.

Adventurous Thursdays:  Explore different modes of transportation .  The benefits of alternative transportation include conserving energy, preserving resources, reduced commuter traffic, cost savings (gas and parking), and reduced carbon emissions.  Fun ideas include: carpool, bus, train, cycling or telecommuting/ coworking options for work environments.  

 Friday Fun: Slay Energy Vampires with energy efficiency practices: The U.S. Department of Energy tells us that not only do appliances continue to draw electricity while the products are turned off, but in the average home nearly 75% of all electricity used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched off.  Explore energy efficiency eco actions to use less energy.  

Saturday Waste Management/ Recycling:  When you avoid making garbage in the first place, you eliminate the disposing of waste or recycling it later.  It's the first component of the sustainability concept of the three R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Clues to how to reduce waste can be found by visiting what's in your garbage.  

Sparkle Sunday with Green Cleaning:  Conventional cleaning supplies contain ingredients that are toxic or hazardous. By replacing them with eco-friendly products, you're providing improved indoor air quality, as well as reducing the 5 billion pounds of chemicals consumed by cleaning industry each year.  Get started using non toxic products and breathe easier. 

Do you fall prey to routine habits out of convenience or do you take extra steps to embrace sustainability concepts in your daily life?   It seems in recent years being busy has become the rule rather than the exception.  With busy comes conveniences and sometimes conveniences means having to compromise on values.  Fortunately, that's no longer the case.  With growing eco awareness sprouting more and more environmentally friendly options, those living a busy and sustainable lifestyle can take their green on the go.  

At its essence, personal sustainability is about addressing the environmental concerns of carbon, water, and energy on a smaller scale: your life.  Committing to sustainability in your personal life is holding yourself accountable for the very commitments and eco actions we are asking our leaders to make.    Additionally, it's about leveraging your financial dollar to support credible and sustainable businesses.  Vote with your financial dollar; as a shareholder, uphold reporting, transparency, compensation related to business sustainability.

Looking to make your green life more convenient?  Enjoy some of the iPhone apps shared in our eco friendly consulting practice.

• Carbon Tracker: This GPS-enabled carbon footprint application allows users to calculate their carbon footprint from daily commuting, business trips or vacations. Users can also create goals for maximum emissions in a month, then monitors progress. Great for expanding eco awareness in your daily life.
• iRecycle, makes it easy to find recycling locations anywhere in the U.S. Find places to drop-off your old cell phone or other items, get directions and find out what else they accept.
• GoodGuide:  Use this app to find out what’s in 75,000 common household products.  Reviewers praise the level of detail in the GoodGuide database as well as its ease of use.
• Green Gas Saver: This app tracks your driving habits and warns you through gauges and sounds if you accelerate too quickly or take a turn too hard. The app saves your score from each trip to help you improve over time. It’s a good way to become a better driver overall, in addition to saving on fuel costs. 
• Greenpeace Tissue Guide: Research brands of consumer paper products to find the greenest tissues, paper towels, and toilet paper.
• GreenGenie:  If you need ideas for how to be more green, try this app as it suggests more than 100 eco action to tackle.  It also includes a glossary on green terms and educational sustainability sources.  
• Green Outlet  tries to predict your electric bill and carbon footprint based on what appliances you use.
• Farmers Market Finder:  This app is similar to the Locavore app, which helps you find local farmers markets. However, this app does a little extra legwork and not only tells you where farmers markets are, but also tells you where you can find CSAs, pick-your-own gardens/orchards, and open markets. It also provides up-to-date information on weather cancellations and parking information.  
• EcoCharge: Wonderful app designed to help you stop doing overcharging your mobile device by alerting you when your phone’s battery is completely charged. 
• Green Square: Foursquare for Greenies You've heard of Foursquare, now there is Green Square!  If you recall, Foursquare is a combination of micro-blogging (like Twitter), and GPS geocaching (finding places) and by using your smartphone, you 'check in' with the Foursquare website, publish your physical location, and write a quick review about the restaurant or pub or coffee shop you are visiting.  Well Foursquare just got a little greener with Green Square.   For those living a sustainable lifestyle, it's natural to want to spread the good word of local green businesses, non profits, and green events.  By checking in at sustainable businesses offering green products and services, you are putting those businesses on the map, introducing those businesses to friends, as well as supporting for these businesses with your financial dollar. 
• Have an iPad? Check out 13 Awesome Green-Themed Apps For Your New iPad

“The creation of a thousand forest in one acorn.”  Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Climb a tree - it gets you closer to heaven. ~Author Unknown 

"He who plants a tree, Plants a hope. ~Lucy Larcom  

Inspired yet?  We are! At Taiga Company, it's hard to contain enthusiasm in celebrating Arbor Day.  Why? Inspired by the taiga, that's where our sustainability consulting practice got our name!  

Taiga, pronounced, tahy-guh is a biome that stretches across a large portion of Canada, Europe, and Asia.  The taiga is truly vast in extent; in fact, it makes up 27 percent of the world's total forest and occupies 11 percent of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere.  What is most impressive is the taiga's immense oxygen production literally changes the atmosphere and refreshes the plant.  It is this inspiration that I founded and named Taiga Company.  The continuous renewal that the taiga offers our planet has shaped our company vision to drive similar change in the business world.  

Celebrating Arbor Day offers an opportunity to share our appreciation for what our trees do for us.  Trees are the earth’s oldest living organisms. They improve air and water quality; reduce heating and cooling costs; provide a cool and beautiful place to live, work and play; are a renewable source of fuel, shelter, food and other products and provide benefits that directly affect the economic, environmental and social health of people and the communities where they live.   "Trees outstrip most people in the extent and depth of their work for the public good."  Sara Ebenreck, American Forests  

Celebrated on the last Friday in April, Arbor Day was founded by J. Sterling Morton in 1872 and is a United States national celebration that encourages the planting and care of trees.  Founded with the same sustainable mindset many of us share today, J. Sterling Morton saw a greater value in planting a tree than from its removal in the farm lands of Nebraska.  Arbor Day is a nationally-celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care and there are several ways to get involved and take eco actions.  

• Plant a tree! Learn which trees are best in your area and techniques to plant
• Make a donation to the American Forest
• Spread eco awareness by sending a customized e-card to your friends and family for your local Arbor Day
• Discover what kind of tree you are! Take the fun quick, "Take Your Hortiscope Quiz" from Timberland to find out. 
• Download the Celebrate Arbor Day Guidebook 
• Save a tree and go paperless for the entire day or weekend. 
• Share with a friend what inspires you most about green living. 

Not only as sustainability consultants but also as avid nature enthusiasts, we are always inspired by sustainability concepts, personal action, and business direction that support the world’s forest.  So on this very special day of the year, we are overjoyed as our love of trees is celebrated across the United States in the observance of Arbor Day.

Want to go green but just don't know where to start?  Well, great news!  You don't have to be a fantastic to live green and you can get started today.  Going green isn't an all or nothing approach -just a simple transition into making better choices that help our planet as well as our pocket books!  In fact, if you think about your life now, there are probably many eco actions that you are already taking. 

In our sustainability consulting, we like to offer fun challenges to our clients to see how many green things they can do in a day.  Wondering what simple actions you can do today to go green?  Enjoy the following list of eco ations designed to bring eco awareness to your daily living and help support living a sustainable lifestyle.  How many eco actions can you do today?  This weekend? 

1. Go for a hike in the woods.
2. Discover how much land area it takes to support your lifestyle with Global Footprint Network
3. Have a picnic.
4. Take the kids to the park.
5. Visit a museum -There are lots of free museums and many others take a donation.
6. Work on an arts and craft project.
7. Go paperless for the entire day.
8. Watch this video on recycling and see how these recycling tips make a big difference in saving our environment while creating green jobs in the process. 
9. Check out fun online games that challenge your eco-socio-political skills.
10. Look around your home and office and unplug seldom used appliances.
11. Learn ways to recycle your junk.
12. Eat an organic meal or purchase some fruits and veggies from a local farmer's market and compost your vegetable scraps.
13. Do some bird watching.
14. Go for a bike ride.
15. Roller blade, Run, Ski, exercise outdoors. 
16. Visit the zoo.
17. Go camping - enjoy the US National Parks system.
18. Apply the 3 R’s to your closet: reduce by removing clothes you no longer wear, reuse and recycle by donating to a local clothing donation.
19. Visit a street fair.
20. Bake organic goodies.
21. Make a birdhouse.
22. Stroll through a public garden. 
23. Work on your own garden. 
24. Take advantage of local cultural events.
25. Clean out your house and have a garage sale.
26. Discover what can be recycled and what cannot!  Can you recycle paint? Hair? Crayons?  Find out here.  Better yet, discover recycling centers near your home by visiting Earth911.
27. Discover the rewarding sensation of volunteering in your community.  Not sure where to start?  VisitVolunteerMatch and enter your zip code and area of interest to find a perfect volunteer match.
28. Discover cycling as part of a sustainable lifestyle and as a rewarding personal adventure. 
29. Take the The 7 Day Green Power Pledge
30. Subscribe to the Taiga Company newsletter or blog.
31. Pick up litter you see as you are walking on the sidewalk.
32. Turn the lights off after someone else has forgotten as they left the room.
33. Collect scrap office paper and bring it to the recycling center.
34. Treat a friend to organic fare at a local sustainable restaurant.
35. Share your favorite green blog with friends….hint…Taiga blog.
36. Volunteer to clean up the break room and use eco friendly cleaning supplies.
37. Feed the birds from a park bench or feeder.
38. Adopt a pet from your local animal shelter.
39. Donate a bag of organic coffee and share with your office.
40. Make a contribution to your favorite charity.
41. Notice and compliment the sustainable efforts other are doing.
42. As Bill Keane said, “A hug is like a boomerang - you get it back right away". Share the green love with a friend- inspire them to eco action. 
43. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for sustainability related news and information.
44. Enjoy getting outside - reconnect with nature and re-discover the joy and appreciation that nature calls forth from each of us.  That inspiration is the fuel that propels us towards living sustainably in our lives and our communities.
45. Reduce your personal emissions.  Not sure how? Read: 5 Easy Online Tools to Reduce Personal Emissions 

Have any fun eco tips to add to the list?  

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.  ~H.G. Wells

Why do you ride a bike?  For fun? Fitness? Transportation?

As expressed in our eco friendly consulting, cycling is a zero emissions form of transportation, is considered a great stress release, enjoyable exercise, and is a component of a sustainable lifestyle.  

We also view it as a means to connect with nature as a source of inspiration for eco action.  Exploring the great outdoors offers a chance to move at life’s natural pace, where time disappears, no one is bored, and exploration turns into amazing adventure.   More so, the richness on the outdoors is stimulating and helps to connect eco actions taken at home to the natural resources those actions are aimed to protect and preserve. 

Join us this week in our nature appreciation adventure in Fruita, Colorado.  We'll be posting pictures and videos onTwitter, Facebook, and YouTube sharing the great outdoors from the view of our two wheeled friends.  Enjoy! 

When people ride bikes, good things happen.  Why?  Because bike riding is a win-win for both businesses and individuals looking to reduce costs, embrace eco awareness, and adhere to business and personal sustainability programs.   But wait! There's yet another reason to use your pedal power for good!  Eco inspiration!  

According to Richard Ryan, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, paying attention to the natural world not only makes you feel better, it makes you behave better.  As an avid cyclist and sustainability consultant, it's interesting to note that while the salubrious effects of nature are well documented, from increasing happiness and physical health to lowering stress, this study shows that the benefits extend to a person's values and actions.  Exposure to natural as opposed to man-made environments leads people to value community and close relationships. 

Hence the reason, we at Taiga Company,use cycling as a means to promote sustainability - we call it green cycling.  When people ride bikes, good, green things happen.   People are outside, appreciating nature, enjoying physical activity, and also promoting eco awareness.

Join us this week in our nature appreciation adventure in Fruita, Colorado.  We'll be posting pictures and videos on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube sharing the great outdoors from the view of our two wheeled friends.  In the meantime, enjoy our green cycling resources and stay tuned!  Beautiful, great sites are in store! 

• Action Outdoor Bike Magazine 
• Green Cycling whitepaper 
• Best Ever Bike Commuting Guide
• Promoting Safety, Fun, Fitness, and the Environment
• Green Cycling Resources 

What can the World’s Most Ethical (WME) companies teach us about business success? Well, on average, companies that go beyond simple ‘ethical’ claims out-perform their peers. In fact, this past year’s WME honorees generated 30% greater returns than the S&P 500, demonstrating a strong correlation between responsible actions and business success.  the 2012 business year is well underway.  How is your business embracing sustainability? 

With the changing landscape of business and greater evidence now pointing to sustainability as critical component to future business success, companies that are ready to get started today can make some quick progress.  Our sustainability consulting encourages clients to go beyond a simple vision and focus on business and culture change. Over arching sustainability concepts discussed in our eco friendly consulting include: 

• Review current performance as an opportunity for sustainable improvements.
• Define a corporate sustainability vision.
• Encourage stakeholder discussion in business change.
• Get employees engaged in the business sustainability direction of the organization.
• Create motivation and enthusiasm to promote innovative thinking and business sustainability implementations rolling.

By raising organizational eco awareness, encouraging employee participation, and taking specific actions to promote business sustainability, your organization can have a positive impact on the environment and facilitate the sustainable lifestyle choices of your employees.

 To contextualize these concepts, we offer a few ideas from leading companies with whom our sustainability consulting is currently working:

• Office Energy Consumption – Evaluate the average energy use per square foot of office space and implementing best practices to reduce: energy consumption studies, efficiency practices, equipment modifications, etc.
• Employee Commuting – Offer employees incentives to ride public transportation or participate in car/van pooling.
• Sustainable Design – Consider materials selection, energy consumption, manufacturing, product use and operation, and final disposition, early in the product development process.
• Water Conservation – Manage water entering the company and look for opportunities to reuse water.
• Management Systems  – Raise eco awareness and company commitment through established sustainability policies, standards, metrics, and self audits.
• Environmental Philanthropy – Beyond just corporate volunteering efforts, provide access to technology, engineering support, information and research that benefits the local community and the environment.
• Packaging – Focus on using as little packaging material as needed and making packaging as recyclable as possible.
• Recycling and Waste Reduction - Anywhere there is a trash can, there should be a recycling bin.
• Resource Conservation – Consider material and energy consumption across the entire value chain…reduce, reuse, recycle.
• Go Digital – Reduce paper use and get contracts and documents signed more quickly by using electronic signatures.
• Sustainable Partnering – A key aspect of business sustainability is making sure that you manage your supply chain and partner with companies with similar values.
• Sustainable Education and Development - There is always more you can do to make your business more sustainable.  Encourage education and innovation within the organization.

Companies becoming more environmentally, socially and economically responsible are driving innovations in sourcing, products, and services.  While some argue that sustainability is a passing trend, profitable businesses are not. Sustainable business strategies are designed to bring eco awareness and sustainability concepts to employees, customers, and suppliers which brings value to the organization and also broaden and expand sustainability concepts into the communities and lives of the individuals.  Which sustainable business strategies will your business kick off in 2Q 2012? 

Super powers are cool.  They  invoke the imagination of superhuman qualities capable of tacking any challenge and succeeding. In many ways, the call for sustainability invokes the better qualities of us as humans.  If we were to have sustainability superpowers, what would they be?  How would we use them? 

Within our sustainability consulting practice, we think the path of sustainability is sparked by being curious.  Asking ourselves questions as, "What if…" and "How could I?" in relation to doing things a little different in our lives.  Different in a way that invokes sustainability superpowers of waste reduction, raising eco awareness, and living with the natural environment in mind.  

Promoting a sustainable lifestyle can take all forms and shapes.  What is important is that each person finds the unique value in sustainability and its application in their life. We encourage you to be eco curious! Read the post below and discover for yourself the sustainability superpowers you possess!  

Waste reduction  

• Tips to Living a Zero Waste Lifestyle  
• I Recycle. You Recycle. We all Recycle. 

Green Home Transformation  

• Decorate the Eco Friendly Way
• Eco Friendly Painting: A Breath of Fresh Air 
• Top 10 Plants to Reduce Stress, Cut Toxins, and Live Green
• Splish Splash: 20 Ways to Green your Bathroom
• Transform your Home Office to a Green Office
• Clean Green

Green Mindset

• Green living: How to Shop Green
• Tips to Eco-Style Your Life this Summer
• 25 Fun Tips to Go Green Today  
• Tips to Driving Green 
• Eco Math Galore! 233 Ways to Live Green
• Live Green- Conveniently

Green Inspiration

• A Personal Sustainability Reading List
• 15 Random Acts of Green Kindness

Do you fall prey to routine habits out of convenience or do you take extra steps to embrace sustainability concepts in your daily life?   It seems in recent years being busy has become the rule rather than the exception.  With busy comes conveniences and sometimes conveniences means having to compromise on values.  Fortunately, that's no longer the case.  With growing eco awareness sprouting more and more environmentally friendly options, those living a busy and sustainable lifestyle can take easy eco action. Take for instance, junk mail.  How often do we complain about receiving it yet don't take action to stop it?  

Are you getting tons of junk mail that you wish would stop coming? If so, Than Paper Karma is the app for you!  The idea is simple: Paper Karma is a mobile phone app that allows you via the comfort of your home and the convenience of your mobile phone to stop unwanted junk mail from reaching your mail box. As the mail arrives, you take a picture of junk mail that you dont want to receive and upload it to the app. They do the work on their end to remove your address from the sender.  Green magic - no more junk mail!   The Paper Karma app is free and available via your phone or online via iTunes. The app is also compatible with Android mobile phones.

Other paperless ideas mentioned in our eco friendly training include:

• Switch to online bill pay for your bill payments.  Most banks offer an online payment and it's easy to use.  
• For the magazines and junk mail that you have already received, you can put it in the recycle bin or use it for creative expressions. In our personal consulting, part of creating a sustainability plan is identifying what would look like to that individual.  So, by cutting out pictures, words, images and descriptions that have meaning and capture what a sustainable lifestyle looks to you in a collage is one way to use those old papers up in a creative and environmentally friendly way and also use it as inspiration for your sustainable lifestyle.
• Additional ideas on going paperless at home and at the office, can be found by downloading our free whitepaper here.

A primary aspect of a sustainable lifestyle is the recognition that every action is part of a larger whole and even the smallest change can make a difference. Taking eco action even on the simplest things like junk mail contributes to everyone’s efforts towards the greater environmental good. 

Nearly every business is on Facebook and Twitter, but other social media platforms are often overlooked as a means to communicate business sustainability initiatives, reporting, and successes.  

Exploring the benefits of using YouTube for sustainability related content, the post, CSR on YouTube – Why Web Video Needs to Be Part of Your Social Strategy, shares, "there are many ways that sustainability enthusiasts use online video, and if you’re not on YouTube already, you’re missing a big part of the conversation. Industry professionals highlight corporate sustainability programs.  Consumers upload product reviews and search for eco-friendly how-tos and DIYs.  And while there is one hour of video uploaded to YouTube every second, there’s still much less competition for strategic keywords. On Google, for example, the term “Sustainability Consultant” returns 1.86 million web pages, but only 9,000 video hits. Similarly, “Corporate Social Responsibility” returns 130 million web pages, but only 230 thousand videos. The bottom line is, online video is the easiest way to be competitive in search." 

Additionally, ever since its launch, Google+ has received a tremendous amount of attention in the social media world. While there is confusion as to its place among Facebook and Twitter, it is a new, unique platform in its own right. Regardless of what you think of Google+, it's best not to be ignored; the integration with Google search alone makes it an important channel to consider in your social media engagement for sustainability and CSR.  

Finally, if you haven't heard of Foursquare, then you might want to familiarize yourself with it and GreenSquare.  Both are like a combination of micro-blogging (like Twitter), and GPS geocaching (finding places) and you can use the programs to highlight eco awareness to your friends, colleagues, and community.   Basically, by using your smartphone, you 'check in' with the Foursquare website, publish your physical location, and write a quick review about the restaurant or pub or coffee shop you are visiting. Foursquare and Greensquare can be components of a social media marketing strategy assisting to spread the good word of local green businesses, non profits, and green events.  By checking in at sustainable businesses offering green products and services, you are putting those businesses on the map (including your own), introducing those businesses to other like minded sustainability professionals, as well as supporting for these businesses with your financial dollar.

If this blog entry whetted your appetite for more information about how sustainability professionals can use social media to grow their business, you may be interested in our 8-week, self-guided, online course called Social Media for Sustainability Professionals. It includes an entire section devoted to blogging, websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and more!  

What if our planet came with care instructions?  If it did, would we be better citizens?  From a professional consultant's point of view, we do have care instructions for our planet .  The care instructions are commonly known in the sustainability field as: Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainability and green.  Each addressing directly and indirectly sustainability concepts we can include in our thought processes and business approaches to preserve the earth's resources.  

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility is defined on a corporate level.  It can be narrow in scope compared to the term sustainability as it can imply a "stand alone" program.  It may includes:  diversity programs, wellness programs, sustainable procurement/ green supply chain, telecommuting, remote commuting, investment recovery, community and stakeholder engagement.

Sustainability  is a macro concept that applies more broadly to entire systems and infrastructures. The term can be somewhat elusive  as it spans a multitude of topics.  Business sustainability  and personal sustainability applies to both corporate and at a personal level.  In a business context, sustainability is embedded within an organizations core operations and a corporate sustainability plan is clear, measured, and reported on including all of the above elements of CSR but also, water, carbon, energy, waste management,  and sustainability concepts of reduce/ reuse/ recycle,  fair trade and commitment to renewables.  Sustainability reporting is evident, transparent and may extend beyond the corporation to include tracking of suppliers emissions, waste, energy, etc. Sustainability concepts, in the form of strategies, tools, ideas and models, are tangible mechanisms used to achieve sustainability for both businesses and individuals.   

        • Energy Efficiency

        • Waste Management

        • Eco labeling

        • Buy Local

        • Fair Trade

        • Carbon Offsetting  

Green, on the other hand, is a micro concept.   We deal with green in our everyday lives with things like clothing, food, transportation, and a long list of "how to go green today" suggestions. Green is a pretty easy concept to understand in part because it’s relative and tangible.   It is measured on a scale from dirty to clean or eco friendly vs. traditional product.   Also, tangible eco actions are oftentimes associated with being green, as in recycling.  

As we've experienced in our sustainability consulting practice, sometimes, these terms are difficult to "get."  No worries!   Enjoy watching the video Sustainability Explained through Animation to help pull it all together. 

What is green living?  Is it living off the grid? Living in a green house? Working at a green job?  What exactly does it mean to be green?

A good portion of our sustainability consulting is really about helping executives and employees discover what sustainability means to them.  In many ways, it is about transformation and discovery.  Basically a process by discovering hidden treasures in daily habits that unite conscious habits and routines with eco awareness and eco actions to take.   Most of us recognize that change can be unsettling.  It can be scary, and too often it is just easier to slip back into a traditional and comfortable way of doing things.  However, implementing effective sustainable change does not have to be a laboring process.  How can we make sustainability work for us in 2012?

Create a plan - Personal sustainability programs are about making and sustaining a change in your life that you can be inspired and passionate about.  Although a sustainability plan originates as a comprehensive one, your actions are the expression of that plan in daily life. Eco actions can be anything from riding a bike to work or using eco-friendly office supplies to eating organic healthy meals or recycling.  It can also be about achieving a personal goal, sustaining it, and building from that platform.  Ultimately, it's about making choices that feel good to you and generate an expectation of more and better to come in your life and the environment.  

The basic premise of a personal sustainability program is to reduce your carbon footprint; lighten the load on the planet as well as be good to yourself, others, and your community.  

Do the green thing via subcategory or importance.  Categorizing gives awareness to the habit change as it relates to the sustainability concept.  For instance, energy consumption and turning off a light as you leave a room, or replacing bulbs, or using an energy strip. Another perspective is to prioritize the habit as it relates to environmental impact.  If your carbon footprint is large due to travel, then explore ways to reduce your travel. Suggestions made in our eco friendly consulting include: telework, virtual conferences, and green travel options.   

Schedule time.  If the habit requires a new way of doing things, then schedule time to learn the new habit, integrate it into your routine, and make adjustments as you learn.  Bike commuting would be an excellent example of embracing a new habit, reducing your carbon footprint, yet, requiring time to learn and develop a new routine. 

Reward and Review.  The process of linking sustainable living with new opportunities for development creates a personal incentive that further promotes the process.  Sustainable actions are reinforced daily by positive feedback from realizing your personal goals.  

Each of us has a role to play.  What is it that you specifically care about?  Is it the natural beauty in your neighborhood?  The campsite you visit each year?   Spotting wildlife?  Maybe it's that first breath of fresh air as you step outside to go to work each day.  Connect with that, and take eco action to support that.  Explore the habits and areas of your life that you can take eco action to support the environment that you love.  Your actions are a green beacon of light to others calling them forth to find the value, the eco actions for them to support the environment that they love. Inspiring eco awareness in others makes sustainability work for us all.  

For many, this year has marked a desire to expand personal growth in eco awareness and a desire for personal improvement.   Now, as the year closes and we find ourselves uniting with friends and family for the holiday season, it's a time to share and reflect with our loved ones.  Many will share personal stories of how eco awareness has shaped their lives. Hopefully, some of those stories will be inspiring to others. 

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