Personal Sustainability Program

Whenever you want to improve in a specific area or program, just the process of increasing awareness will yield improvements.  The same applies to living a sustainable lifestyle.  Most of us recognize that change can be tricky:  habits and convenience make it far easier to slip back into the comfortable way of doing things.  However, implementing effective sustainable change does not have to be a laboring process.  The key is conscious awareness.
 
Awareness is the tool used to help discover the personal patterns of behavior that offer low hanging fruit for a sustainable lifestyle.  For instance, are you aware of your habits related to energy?  Consider how and when you consume the most energy in your day?  How could you be more efficient? What inspiring eco actions could you take? 
 
Conscious awareness is key to sparking the eco awareness in a personal sustainability program.  As noted in our eco friendly training, following are aids to assist in raising awareness:
 
•    Consciously notice what is most inspiring to you about living green and take eco action in those areas.
•    Notice your current patterns and invoke curiosity as to which eco actions would be a sustainable substitute.
•    Applaud your efforts: small changes add up.  In fact, daily habits have the most impact.
•    Observe how new changes become the new habit/ norm.
•    Momentum brings visibility to previously inaccessible ideas and behaviors.
•    Gain speed: There is ease in taking more eco action.
•    Inspire by living the example.
 
Each day we are presented with opportunities to expand our eco awareness and make informed choices.  The trick to capitalizing on those opportunities is being aware.  Conscious awareness offers us the opportunity to make changes that are inspiring and manageable relative our current life and the process of incorporating sustainability becomes much easier.  Being aware of sustainability concepts when shopping, or at work and play, contributes to living a more sustainable lifestyle.

Is it living off the grid? Living in a green house? Working at a green job?  What exactly does it mean to be green?
 
At its essence, a sustainable lifestyle, or living green, refers to a lifestyle and set of choices that minimizes a person's environmental impact.  While living green embraces sustainability concepts of efficiency, organics, waste management, and so forth, the mindset is more important than the eco actions.  Why?  Because life is dynamic.    As expressed in our eco friendly training, applying sustainability concepts one way today may not be the sustainable solution of tomorrow.  Your life circumstances change so it's in your approach to life that matters.
 
Being green is a continuous improvement process that challenges us to expand our own personal eco awareness and experiment with new ideas and sustainability concepts in our lives as they unfold.   The essence of a sustainability mindset reflects one of wholeness and appreciation for natural resources, communities, and the gifts our planet gives to us.   A personal sustainability plan is a journey: you never get it done. 
 
Green homes, eco gadgets, living off the grid, and all of the many "demonstrations" of a sustainable lifestyle are the results of a mindset framed with eco awareness.   From the perspective of a green living consultant, what is considered to be green is continuing to evolve.  Our personal consulting practice encourages all to keep up with evolution by embracing a sustainability mindset.  

With the second blizzard in less than a week covering most of the East Coast in snow, many living a sustainable lifestyle may be wondering how to spend their time. 
 
Personal sustainability can touch every area of your life and usually encourages others to become involved.  Consider incorporating the sustainability concepts that bring you joy into your winter shut-in.  Not only will it create fun activities for everyone, but what better way to raise the eco awareness in your household than to engage your children and family in the process?
 

1. Determine your carbon footprint and create an action plan to reduce it.
2. Go paperless  for the entire day.
3. Practice energy efficiency: unplug seldom used appliances and use as much natural light as possible.
4. Clean around the house with natural, biodegradable, phosphorous free cleaning solutions.
5. Attack your closet!  Apply the 3 R’s : reduce by removing clothes you no longer wear, reuse and recycle by donating to a local clothing donation.
6. Do crafts with reusable household items
7. Sustainability is a kid-friendly concept so teach them about recycling by using disposable materials to create something beautiful and new.
8. Create projects around the house to make nature part of your daily living: bird houses, bird feeders, lady bug houses.
9. Tune Into Green TV: “Animal Planet” or "Discovery Planet" and allow the family to soak up the eco awareness.
10. Share with neighbors what inspires you most about green living. Together, look and see what value there is for them and create some eco actions to do together.

 
Have fun! Stay warm! Live green!

Imagine someone doing something nice for you right now.  A sincere compliment or holding the elevator for you.  It's a good feeling, isn't it?  Kindness has the ability to change us, and our emotions, immediately. 
 
The pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle goes beyond just ‘greening’ your life.  Personal sustainability is a mindset change that shifts the personal value drivers in daily activities.  As a professional and sustainability consultant, I see how kindness, generosity and willingness are intrinsically linked to a sustainable lifestyle or green living.  While we are here on this planet, at this precise time in history, many of us want to make a difference in the way we treat our environment.  Many of us want to make a significant contribution to the role business takes in shaping our economy, society, and environment.
 

• Kindness in living green is not only being kind to our planet, but kind to each other.  Compassion for where each of us is in relation to the green path.

 

• Generosity in green living is not only sharing eco awareness and eco resources, but also going above and beyond to inspire, promote, and encourage others on the green path.

 

• Willingness in green living is demonstrating your values through eco action and generating results. 

 
Throughout our lifetime, there comes a time when we as individuals sit down and lay out a path for personal development.  We day dream about all the things that we want in our life and the things we want to achieve.  Living values of kindness, generosity, and willingness paves the way for a brighter future for us all. 

Lost in a sea of green?  Love the idea of living a sustainable lifestyle but don't have a clue as to where to start?   It’s no secret that going green is all the rage these days.  In fact, being eco-friendly is more popular and well accepted now than ever before in history. The thing is, eco awareness is gaining momentum, but not everybody knows exactly how to take the concept of going green and break it down into their day to day habits. 
 
While there are numerous benefits to green living, some mistakenly think it requires more effort and costs more.  Not so!  Our eco friendly training classes offer fun ways to kick start a personal sustainability plan.  The first step is creating eco awareness.
 
Take the Tuesday Ten Challenge.  Following are 10 free eco actions you take between the time you read this post and the time you go to sleep tonight that will help orient your thinking to one that includes sustainability concepts of energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste management, and community participation. 
 
Ready? Set?  Go!
 

1. Recycle: This is the easiest to start.  Separate paper, plastics, aluminum, and so forth into separate bins. 
2. Lights on only in rooms of use.
3. Use Less Water for Dishes: Scrape your dishes clean to reduce rinsing. Run the dishwasher only when it’s full.
4. Unplug unused items.  Remember, just because an item is unplugged does not mean it isn't drawing energy.
5. Clean up with non toxic cleaners.  Don't want to buy any? Try vinegar and baking soda.
6. Reuse old clothes by donating them to charity.  The best ones right now would be those charities assisting Haiti earthquake victims.
7. Wash Hands Efficiently: Turn off the water while you soap your hands, and rinse briefly.
8. Brush Teeth Wisely: Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and save 4 gallons a minute. That’s 200 gallons a week for a family of four.
9. Make a contribution to your favorite charity.
10. Take the paperless challenge and go the remainder of the day without using paper.

Sometimes, corporate sustainability is like playing telephone.  Witnessed from a high level, a company's corporate sustainability plan may embrace all the right frameworks, include the buzz words, and authentically and credibly, embrace sustainability initiatives.  However, witnessed from the employee level, all that jargon and vision may be lost. 
 
It seems there is a disconnect between a corporate sustainability plan and how that vision filters down and is exercised in the day to day processes of an individual worker's life.  Granted, there are leading organizations that have successfully tied process to sustainability initiatives; currently, they are the exception, not the norm.
 
So, how do engage employees in corporate responsibility?
 

• Corporate volunteering:  Engaging employees in corporately supported volunteering is an essential piece of all credible CSR programs that translates CSR values to action.

• Green teams are formal or informal groups of people in a company organized around environmental issues and tasked with ways to promote sustainable business practices. Green teams are excellent in spearheading eco efficiency programs: paper reduction, recycling programs, promote energy conservation, and more, making a huge difference within a department.  Great for team building too.

• Create individual employee sustainability programs. The basic premise of a personal sustainability program is to reduce the carbon footprint, lighten the load on the planet as well as reap the benefits of living a more sustainable lifestyle.    Eco actions taken in a personal sustainability plan can be anything from riding a bike to work or eating organic healthy meals or recycling.

• Educate: Offer ongoing workshops, training, lunch and learns, and educational activities to educate workers on the environmental issues (energy, water, waste, and others) and the associated actions causing the problems.  Identify new behavior and eco actions that individually workers can take to create new patterns of behavior and choices that support environmental solutions and are aligned with the company's overarching sustainability plan.   We've learned in our eco friendly training classes, the first part is educating; the harder part is changing the behavior. Ongoing education helps create lasting change.

 
Tying corporate sustainability initiatives to day to day processes makes CSR more personable to an employee and helps employees to identify their role in corporate responsibility.

There used to be a time when it seemed only big business could change the world.  It appeared that the voice of one was crowded out by the power, might and noise of larger organizations and governments.  Fortunately, the world of the internet and specifically, social media has created pathways for a single voice to be heard globally.  Powerful stuff. 
 
As a sustainability consultant, I often declare: Small eco actions add up!  The responsible eco action each of us takes MAKES a difference.  Social media, namely Twitter, has been a prime example of this.  With aspirations of accelerating eco awareness, eco resources, the how's and why's of sustainable living and sustainable business practices, I created a twitter account and started tweeting. 
 
My single voice was welcomed by many.  The twitterverse of green, sustainability, CSR is rich in knowledge and resource sharing.   By publishing information, promoting others, asking questions and gathering feedback, I joined a collective conversation generated on ways to improve environmental, social, and conscious business issues.  United by others sharing similar interest, a single voice is expanded through the very principles that sustainability embraces: community, inclusiveness, transparency, and authentic communication. 
 
Within our sustainability consulting practice, we share personal sustainability can be uniquely expressed.  Personal sustainability action or the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle goes beyond simply ‘greening’ your life.  It is a mindset change that shifts the personal value drivers in daily activities.   Our professional consulting practice encourages individuals just getting started or those well on their way to continuously expand personal eco awareness to discover  what sustainability means to them.
 
Some want to make a difference. Change the world. Have an impact.  Create large scale changes.  Your single voice can be heard and amplified by others. 
 
Twitter is a wonderful online community and what I value most is the generosity of information shared, the community, and the inspiration of others. Individually, and collectively, we are making a difference.   Join us!  

As the year quickly comes to a close, many are reflecting upon the year's passing and planning for 2010.  While living a sustainable lifestyle or "green living" has become more of the norm, those living with eco awareness are questioning how well they took eco action in 2009 and how they can add more sustainability concepts in their life in 2010.
 
An interesting observation noted in our personal sustainability programs is that a sustainable lifestyle often means different things to different people.  Of more interest is that perspective on living green changes and evolve as you live it.   For instance, what may be considered "just crazy out there" living green at the onset of the year may later in the year be one’s new norm.
 
Review the components that comprise a sustainable lifestyle.  Acknowledge yourself for the areas in which you had success and begin exploring the areas that you would like to bring eco awareness to in 2010.
 
Green living areas for thought:

• Organics: visit your local farmer's market for organic fruits and veggies and use organic personal care and clothing from natural fibers.
• Recycling: recycle everything! Paper, materials, home items, and more!
• Energy efficiency: purchase energy efficient appliances.  Buy and use renewable or wind energy and monitor your use of energy.
• Water: get to know what is in your water and use it efficiently.
• Indoor air quality: use chemical free cleaners, live plants, sustainable fabrics and paint in your home. Your indoor air quality will improve and you'll support sustainable businesses producing green products.
• Green your home
• Reduce your use of paper and eliminate junk mail
• Innovate and inspire your employer and coworkers and green your work
• Explore socially responsible investing
• Bring eco awareness to your workouts
• Green your travel
• Buy local
• Buy recycled
• Buy in bulk
• Buy environmental and socially responsible products/ services
• Purchase items with less packaging

Remember, every eco action adds up.  Your eco actions matter.  Together, we can all make positive change in 2010.  

From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another.
The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other. ~ Emily Matthews

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 Christmas holiday, 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.  Some of those stories will be inspiring to others.  Yet, some may turn away, not realizing the gifts of eco awareness.
 
Without a guide book to navigate the way, it's easy to miss the gifts of living a sustainable lifestyle.  Our sustainability consulting receives a variety of requests for personal sustainability assistance.  These inquiries range from initial sustainability concept identification, hang-ups in personal implementation, to difficulty maintaining action.  In general, we find that our clients simply want to incorporate sustainability concepts into their daily living.  Why?  Because, living with eco awareness can help you to:
     

• Save Money
• Live Healthy: eating organic foods and using eco friendly cleaning products and other natural home products is going to have a positive effect on your well being and the well being of your family.
• Improved quality of life and work life balance.
• Act responsibly: By acting responsibly today, you can help ensure resiliency and health of the earth for future generations.
• Inspire others by living a sustainable lifestyle.
• Feel good about yourself and your eco achievements.
• Reconnect with everything local.
• Gain a competitive edge - build your career with eco awareness.
• Become an educated and conscious consumer.

 
As we share stories of personal growth in eco awareness this holiday, I encourage you to explore holiday eco actions that you can do this holiday season but also going into the future.   It is inspiring, uplifting, encouraging to others when others see you living a sustainable lifestyle - and see that you are enjoying it!  Giving that gift to all this holiday season brings us all together. 

While our world leaders conclude in Copenhagen this week, discussions on climate change, carbon reduction, water, and other pressing world concerns will continue.   With so much focus on the outcome of Copenhagen, it may appear that personal sustainability is unimportant and small in comparison.  It's easy to ask the questions:  “Why should I care about Global Warming?” and, “My lifestyle really isn't adding to the problem...is it?”
 
Within our business world today, consumers, investors and the like are asking for accountability in the restructuring of businesses, financial systems, government, and our leaders. Perhaps we also need to ask: Are we as individuals holding ourselves accountable? 
 
A primary aspect of pursuing a sustainable lifestyle is the recognition that every action is part of a larger whole and even the smallest change can make a difference.   Each of us has a role to play. 
 
The easiest way to promote a sustainable lifestyle is by living your values. Demonstrating values is a means of sharing with friends, neighbors, and in the community.  Ultimately, it's a genuine expression of the value you find in the sustainability concepts that you embrace in your life.   Consider how these eco friendly actions not only hold yourself accountable for eco actions but may also inspire those around you:
 
•    Commit to taking eco action.
•    Practice random acts of green kindness.
•    Bring eco awareness to your holiday celebrations.
•    Leverage your financial vote to support eco friendly products and sustainable businesses.
•    Reduce waste.
•    Eco Your home: improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency.
•    Engage and share your ideas with friends and family as well as work, school, and in the community.
•    Learn how green living pays off.
 
Personalizing Copenhagen 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 we are asking our leaders to make.       

With Copenhagen dominating the blogs, environmental articles and even the mainstream media with discussions of global warming, climate change, and other environmental issues, we can’t help but wonder if we may be losing touch, at least for this brief period, with our personal relationship with sustainability. 

With so much focus and energy on the outcome of this external conversation, personal sustainability action may seem unimportant and small in comparison.  While we too eagerly await global agreement, we understand that personal inspiration and action has always been and will continue to be a key driving force of change.

Personal sustainability action or the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle goes beyond simply ‘greening’ your life.  It is a mindset change that shifts the personal value drivers in daily activities.   Our professional consulting practice encourages individuals just getting started or those well on their way to continuously expand personal eco awareness to discover  what sustainability means to them.

One of the first questions we ask prospective clients is: “What will drive personal sustainability in your life?”   As you might imagine, this answer varies but gives great insight into the unique associations individuals create with sustainability concepts.

Our personal sustainability consulting describes personal sustainability as a process that challenges an individual to constantly expand personal eco awareness.  We encourage each and every person on the planet to make a personal case for sustainability.  By linking personal development with sustainability, you create a personal incentives and daily feedback that further accelerates the process.  We find personal sustainability:

•    Fulfills personal interests

•    Promotes personal growth

•    Reduces daily expenses and helps to save money 

•    Promotes healthier living

•    Promotes and drives sustainable action in the external world

At Taiga Company, believe that incorporating sustainability concepts into daily living to be in direct alignment with personal development and the goals broader sustainable direction.  Rather than focusing on the outcome, our personal consulting is works with individuals living and promoting its eventual defined path.

Have you heard someone say they are going green because it's the "right” thing to do?  When you ask them what exactly the “right” thing is, they mention because "it's good for the environment".  As a green living consultant, I'm all for being good to the environment; however, what I've noticed in our sustainability consulting is that "being good for the environment" doesn’t translate well into tangible, practical pieces of information that people can use in their daily lives.  The statement, "it's good for the environment" is just too big, too conceptual, it means different things to different people and it lacks personalization. 
 
So, what does being good to the environment really mean? Within our personal sustainability programs, we break it down to a personal level.  In doing so, it's easier to connect the dots between an eco action and the associated environmental benefit.  The result?  Clear knowledge of how and why that action is good for the environment versus a blank, overarching statement.
 
Let's take the holidays as an example.  How can we be good to the environment during the holidays? Following are holiday eco actions associated with the environmental drivers.       
 
 
Eco actions of party planning:
There are great free online party invitation services that conscious party planners can use like the popular Socializr. It lets users customize their invite with music or video. Socializr also has options to send invites to social networking profiles, directly to cell phones, and through email. Pingg is an event management site that offers similar services.  If you prefer a more traditional approach consider using party invitations made from recycled paper.
 
Why it's good for the environment: While using computers and the internet for party planning does utilize energy, it is a more sustainable option compared to the traditional practice of purchasing virgin paper invitations, mailing them, and recipients throwing them out.  The traditional practice is more energy, carbon, and resource intensive than the act of sending invitations electronically.  Both Socializr and Pingg are great ways to integrate the sustainability concept of paperless into your holiday party planning.
 
Eco action in party decorations:

• Rent or borrow decorative items instead of buying new ones.   If you purchase new decorative items, focus purchases made from recycled materials such as paper, plastic, rubber and glass. 
• Purchase reusable decorations that can be used year after year.
• Decorate with plants.  Plants improve air quality as well as offer lively decoration.    Do you prefer flowers?    Check out organic flowers.  
• Consider opting for soy candles and LED lights to brighten and cheer a room.  LED lights use 80-90% less energy than traditional lights and are more energy efficient than CFLs.  
• Offer party favors and decorations made by local artisans, fair trade companies and/ or from recycled materials.

Why it's good for the environment:  Integrating sustainability concepts of organic, local, fair trade, and energy efficiency can help   in a multiple of ways.  Organic reduces the toxic load by keeping chemicals out of the air, water, soil, and our bodies.  Fair trade provides consumers with options to purchase ethically sound and higher integrity products that benefit communities as well as the environment.  And, energy efficiency reduces the demand for raw materials, reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, and helps to save money.
   
Eco Actions in menu planning:

• When throwing a green holiday party the menu should be eco-friendly as well. The main objective when setting the menu is to avoid being wasteful.
• When entertaining your guests, use glassware. If that's not an option, extend eco awareness into your party by using compostable plates and utensils.
• Set up convenient recycling bins for glass and paper.
• Serve seasonal foods and offer organic and locally grown food.
• Holiday toast with organic beer and wines.

Why it's good for the environment:
Serving organic food and spirits support sustainable farming practices.  The benefits of serving what you need, reduces waste. The importance of using reusable serving wear can't be underestimated.   Waste is not just created when consumers throw items away. Waste  is generated throughout the life cycle of a product, from extraction of raw materials, to transportation to processing and manufacturing facilities, to manufacture and use. Reusing items or making them with less material decrease waste dramatically. Ultimately, less material will need to be recycled or sent to landfills or waste-combustion facilities.    
 
By hosting your holiday party with eco awareness, not only do you reduce your impact on the planet, but you extend that generosity by gifting your guest with ideas to living green.  Demonstrating your values and articulating specifically the benefits of your eco actions helps others to make the link between eco actions and how it is benefiting the environment.

As our world leaders gather in Copenhagen this week to discuss climate change and reduced carbon emissions, the general conversation has primarily been focused on the commitments and eco actions of our world leaders.
 
No doubt, leadership is required, but as a sustainability consultant, I find myself reflecting upon an earlier post, "Be the Change: Promoting a Sustainable Lifestyle".  Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world."  To me, this means not only asking our world leaders to commit to eco action but also to each of us to personally commit to eco awareness in our daily lives.  
 
Promoting sustainable living and "being the change" can take all forms and shapes.  In our sustainability consulting, we addresses eco awareness and the integration of sustainability concepts into daily living by asking clients to consider the questions, "Is there an eco friendly alternative to this purchase?" Or, "Is there a more environmentally friendly manner in which I can do x (whatever it is that you are doing)?"
 
The internet as well as our very own sustainability blog is filled with countless ideas, how to information and suggestions on how to take action.  Ultimately, behind every action is: Choice.  We each have a choice.  Each of us has our role to play.  Do we consistently approach the areas of our life with environmental consciousness?  We ask for accountability in the restructuring of our businesses, financial systems, our leaders, but are we holding ourselves accountable? 
 
Personal sustainability can be uniquely expressed.  What may work for me, may not work for you.  However, just as it's our leaders’ responsibilities to work through the issues and the details around these complex issues, so is it our own personal responsibility to make the conscious choice and commitment to take action and be accountable for it. 
 
When others see you living a sustainable lifestyle and they observe you as thriving, happy, and living your values, it inspires them to make similar efforts for themselves.  As professional consultant in the world of sustainability, I share with you a favorite quote with hopes that for the duration of the Copenhagen summit, you find the value in eco awareness for yourself.
 
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

The past year has seen a significant shift in eco awareness and the debate on climate change.  In the world of business and finance, climate change has developed from a sidebar topic to a mainstream conversation.  Accompanying climate change discussions are questions as to how to increase eco awareness in business.  Fortunately, people are waking up to the idea that business sustainability is creating a bright spot of opportunity for businesses.
 
In building eco awareness into your business, we promote building of a comprehensive business sustainability program.  While that may be the preferred path, there are other steps you can take as well.
 
"Green Teams", a formal or informal group of people in a company who are passionate about environmental issues, are gathering in offices across America to brainstorm solutions and promote ways in which their company's practices can become more environmentally sustainable.  As explained in our sustainability consulting, a green team can reduce paper use, increase recycling, promote energy conservation, and more, making a huge difference within a department or building.
 
Link eco awareness programs to existing company offerings, as in wellness programs.   Wellness programs have been uses as instruments to address weight reduction, reduced stress levels, improved physical fitness, health, and well being.  They may include fitness, recreation, social activities and programs to enhance intellectual and spiritual development.  Providing employees with wellness programs not only provides them a way to improve their health, but it also demonstrates corporate social responsibility.
 
Create individual employee sustainability programs: The basic premise of a personal sustainability program is to reduce your carbon footprint, lighten the load on the planet as well as reap the benefits of living a more sustainable lifestyle.    Eco actions taken in a personal sustainability plan can be anything from riding a bike to work or eating organic healthy meals or recycling.  It can also be about achieving a personal goal, sustaining it, and building from that platform.
 
Educate: Offer ongoing workshops, training, lunch and learns, and educational activities to educate workers on the environmental issues (energy, water, waste, and others) and the associated actions causing the problems.  Identify new behavior and eco actions that individually workers can take to create new patterns of behavior and choices that support environmental solutions and are aligned with the company's overarching sustainability plan.   We've learned in our eco friendly training classes, the first part is educating; the harder part is changing the behavior. Ongoing education helps create lasting change.
 
Create a sustainable work environment: The benefits of a sustainable work environment include a healthier more sustainable workforce; a more productive workforce; attracts quality employees and reduces turnover. It also reduces lost work time related to health issues.
 
These efforts enable proactive businesses leaders to capture the benefits of sustainable business: reduce business costs, improve business reputation, and attract and maintain top job candidates.  

Are you familiar with Gary Larson's The Far Side comic titled, "When imprinting studies go awry?"   It's a personal favorite as it illustrates a mother duck followed by her baby ducks and then, the scientist following all of them.  As a reminder, you may recall from your science days that imprinting is the behavior of a young animal learning the characteristics of its parent. 
 
As it is, today’s companies face greater pressure than ever before from shareholders, customers, and employees to become more sustainable.  But how do you engage workers within your business to personally integrate sustainability into their everyday actions and decisions?  Perhaps it starts with business as the mother duck and not the scientist. 
 
Frequently, business leaders want their employees to exhibit behavior or take initiative only to be disappointed in a negative result.  However, as we share in our business sustainability consulting, if you want to engage people in your company to be personally involved in taking eco actions and becoming more sustainable in their personal lives, then it seems only natural that the organization itself would lead those sustainability efforts by demonstrating value for the sustainability concepts they are asking their employees to embrace.  On the corporate level, this takes the form as a formal sustainability plan or business sustainable strategies.  Perhaps integrating alternative commuting programs , waste and recycling programs, or as Wal-Mart has done personal sustainability programs. 
 
To extend sustainability concepts beyond the workplace and into employees living more sustainable lifestyle, we offer the following suggestions in our professional consulting with businesses:
 
Educate: Offer ongoing workshops, training, lunch and learns, and educational activities to educate workers on the environmental issues (energy, water, waste, and others) and the associated actions causing the problems.  Identify new behavior and eco actions that individually workers can take to create new patterns of behavior and choices that support environmental solutions and are aligned with the company's overarching sustainability plan.   We've learned in our eco friendly training classes, the first part is educating; the harder part is changing the behavior. Ongoing education helps create lasting change.
 
Create individual employee sustainability programs: The basic premise of a personal sustainability program is to reduce your carbon footprint, lighten the load on the planet as well as reap the benefits of living a more sustainable lifestyle.    Eco actions taken in a personal sustainability plan can be anything from riding a bike to work or eating organic healthy meals or recycling.  It can also be about achieving a personal goal, sustaining it, and building from that platform.  Tying a program to incentive structures is one way of demonstrating its importance in the organization.  Another option is to extend individual sustainability plans to groups or departments within the business and align goals/ metrics with the overarching sustainability plan of the company. 
 
Engaging workers within your business to personally integrate sustainability into their everyday actions and decisions starts with the organization and its leaders.  Leading the way and imprinting upon those the characteristics of eco awareness in daily life.  

In a previous post, A Personal Plan for Climate Change, we wrote that a personal sustainability plan  is about making and sustaining a change in your life that you can be inspired and passionate about.  While passion is a great driver, we have learned that not everyone has the enthusiasm for a sustainable lifestyle plan.  But, that does not discount the other personal drivers that can help create a lifestyle of environmental choices.

The truth of the matter is that one does not have to live a sustainable lifestyle to make a significant difference.  By aligning personal incentives to just a few sustainability concepts, a person could reduce their carbon footprint significantly and almost immediately.  

If you thought about it, making a small change in any one of the following areas would not be that difficult, could make an immediate impact, and could add personal and financial value. 

•    Vehicle Fuel Consumption: Probably the most significant area of personal impact and sphere of influence.  Potential actions include fuel efficiency and personal reduction (commuting, ride share, alternative transportation).

•    Electricity Consumption: By switching to wind or renewable sources, the average family could save the equivalent to thousands of miles driven in a car.  Potential actions include source control (wind, renewable, offsets), home efficiency (energy star appliances), and personal energy management.

•    Water Consumption: Clear fresh water is rapidly becoming an endangered resource in even the most developed countries.  Potential actions include water management (personal use and outdoor watering) and waste water management (controlling what goes down the drain and into the storm drains).  

•    Waste Disposal: A large portion of what goes into the average garbage can is recyclable.  By separating your plastics, glass, and paper, the weekly volume sent to the landfill could be cut by more than half.  Potential actions include inquiring about recycling programs with traditional collectors and locating recycling centers in your area.

At Taiga Company, we encourage our clients to find creative ways to express eco awareness in their daily life.  By making high impact changes that do not significantly alter one’s day-to-day world, the process of incorporating sustainability becomes much easier.  Our eco friendly consulting is here to help define and address the sustainability concepts that are right for you.

According to the EPA, household waste jumps an astounding 25 percent between Thanksgiving and the New Year.  For those living a sustainable lifestyle, the trick to a successful holiday season is knowing how to enjoy the holidays while also minimizing waste.
 
As a green living consultant, I'm often asked, “What does reducing waste mean?"  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. 
 
To help you enjoy the holidays and trim your waste, following are eco actions we suggest in our personal sustainability programs:

Reduce Food Waste:
Pre plan your meals, buy in bulk, and prepare what you need.
Compost and turn your old food into healthy soil.

Reduce with eco decorations:
Recycle your Christmas tree! Contact your local recycling office to find out how to recycle your Christmas tree.
Reduce the number of lights on your tree as well as those decorating your home. Try to avoid leaving lights on all day. Use them only at night for maximum effect.  
Consider replacing standard holiday lights with strings of LED lights. The benefits of LED lights include energy efficiency, safety, sturdiness and a long life span.

Reduce when you shop and shop with the environment in mind:
Purchase products that are returnable, reusable or refillable.  Use reusable and refillable containers in your home instead of disposable items.
Purchase products with the least amount of packaging.
Get the most out of what you buy by comparing warranties and cost to repair or replace the item.
Look for products designed with the environment in mind: Organic clothing, sustainable furnishings, and solar powered products are just a few examples.

Reduce with eco gift giving:
Reduce paper consumption: Skip the wrapping paper.  Creative ideas for great wrapping paper alternatives include gift bags, boxes or fabric, or if you just can't give up the wrap, upcycle old paper products such as newspapers, magazines and even maps as "wrapping paper."
Use last year’s holiday cards as gift tags.
Buy recyclable batteries. Get a simple recharger for under $20 and save money as well as our landfills.
Give organic home-baked goodies in reusable holiday tins.
 
By thinking of ways to reduce waste when you shop, work and play this holiday season, it raises the level of eco awareness in your day and contributes to living a sustainable lifestyle.   There are fun and creative ways to reduce waste and also be good to the Earth at the same time.  Happy Holidays!

Holiday parties are just around the corner and who doesn't want to sparkle and light up the room?  This holiday season, clients from our personal sustainability programs are opting to sparkle organically via organic makeup. 
 
Personal care product preferences are often very heavily brand-driven.   As a personal consultant to individuals seeking a more sustainable lifestyle, I encourage clients to evaluate alternatives to traditional brands.  Building a personal sustainability plan includes choosing products that are good for the environment as well as your personal health. 
 
Why opt for organic makeup?  According to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), many conventional products continue to have alarmingly high levels of carcinogens and recommend avoiding products containing the following ingredients:
 
•    Cocoamidopropyl Betaine
•    Oelfin Sulfonate
•    Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate
•    Potassium Cocoyl Glutamate
•    Parabens
•    Phenoxyethenol
 
Our eco friendly training directs questions pertaining to safe ingredients in skin care to Skin Deep.  Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group. 
 
If you are curious as to the hottest organic makeup trends this holiday season, we're encouraging our clients in our eco friendly consulting to check out SaffronRouge. 

Saffron Rouge is the source for organic skincare and aromatherapy.  One sustainability concept is to purchase locally. If purchasing organic skincare locally isn't available to you, this is the place to go!  They offer everything from face and hair care, cosmetics, for women, men, and babies.   An added bonus, InStyle magazine recognized SaffronRouge as their choice for organic beauty online.  Bring on the sparkle!

Imagine if schools were leaders in environmental sustainability, giving students the tools to be innovators, and giving them a healthy environment in which to learn and play. Green schools empower kids to make a difference, and teach them environmental and health values that will stay with them for life. 
 
Inspired by one of our readers requesting information on ways to bring eco awareness to schools, following are ideas for teachers to lead by example and provide learning opportunities for children to go green at school: 

Sustainability Concepts:
Educate students on the principals of living a sustainable lifestyle: local , organic, and why it's important to live green.
 
Recycling
There are several ways to recycle both at home with your children and in the classroom with your students. Conservation or reducing the amount of paper used is an important part of recycling. One important way to help conserve is to use both sides of paper when you are taking notes, writing papers and so forth. Another idea is to have a scrap paper box in which you can place a paper that has a clean side to write on. Then, instead of throwing away papers that cannot be used again, recycle!
 
Trash Free Lunches
Teach your students to pack a trash free lunch to reduce the amount of trash thrown away in the cafeteria. Bringing lunch in a lunch box or reusable bag instead of paper is a good start. Instead of a napkin, students can pack a washcloth to wipe their face and hands with. Fresh fruits and homemade foods such as sandwiches are excellent and healthier alternatives to the prepackaged foods and snacks. Waste Free Lunches explains more about how to prepare a trash free lunch.
 
Energy Efficiency
Encourage your students to turn off the lights whenever the leave a room to help save energy. Also encourage your students to turn off those electronics when they are not in use to prevent wasting energy.
 
Resources for eco action and eco awareness at school:

• Eco Label Fundraising:  Offers environmentally responsible fundraising directed at raising environmental awareness and helping schools and non-profits raise funds.
• Green Schools Initiative: is a project of social and environmental entrepreneurs working to leverage the schools sector to transform the school environment – and the markets that supply schools – to improve health and sustainability.
• Green School Buildings: is a resource rich site offering the benefits of green schools, explore state and federal initiatives supporting sustainability plans in schools, and ways to take eco action and get involved. 

 
Personal sustainability can touch every area of your life and usually encourages others to become involved.   What better way to raise the eco awareness than by engaging your children in the process.

Without a guide book to navigate the way, the growth in public eco awareness has been largely through personal experience and situational application.  While general concepts can be used to describe the broad topic of “sustainability”, our personal consulting realizes that each individual has a unique and personal story in the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle. 

Our sustainability consulting receives a variety of requests for personal sustainability assistance.  These inquiries range from initial sustainability concept identification, hang-ups in personal implementation, to difficulty maintaining action.  In general, we find that our clients simply want to incorporate sustainability concepts into their daily living. 

For many, this desire is sparked by a personal growth in eco awareness and a desire for personal improvement.  In our client discussions, we identified personal motivational drivers for the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle.  Finding this unique sustainability value is an important first step in building a personal sustainability plan.  Clients often tell us that the pursuit:

•    Fulfills personal interests.
•    Promotes personal growth.
•    Reduces daily expenses and helps to save money.
•    Promotes healthier living.

By making changes that are inspiring and manageable relative to your current life, the process of incorporating sustainability becomes much easier. Taiga Company offers personal consulting that can help you build a personal sustainability plan that is right for you.