Recently COSE hosted an education seminar, titled, "How to Market your Business to the Growting Population of Consumers Leading Healthy and Environmentally Conscious Lifestyles and the following are some tips from Maggie Busser, Balanced Living Magazine: (may be more than you were looking for, but here is an excellent start)
1. Reduce Energy Use with an Energy Audit-where can you save? What can you change/install?
- Office Equipment: look for Energy Star label
- Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs): use 66 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, each CFL you buy will save you about $45 over the long life of the bulb. (CFLs last more than 13 times as long as incandescent bulbs.)
- Power down computers and office equipment each evening
- Offset your emissions: offset the carbon dioxide emissions associated with your office’s energy use or business travel by joining a “green tags” program. Green tags are energy credits, created by renewable energy facilities, that represent the environmental benefits of green power generation.
- Travel Green: offset emissions, green hotels, hybrid car rental
- Daily Travel: ride bikes and public transportation (and make it possible for your employees to do so)
2. Eliminate Waste
- Recycle/ Buy recycled products
- Refillable ink cartridges for printers
- Use two sides of paper/ Use less paper
- Reuse
- extra shipping supplies can be taken to shipping centers
- donate furniture and office equipment
- Audit your waste: WasteWise, a no-fee voluntary program run by the EPA, helps you audit your office’s output of municipal solid waste, producing a report on waste elimination strategies specific to your own office environment. Once you’ve generated your report, WasteWise helps you track your office’s success at reducing your refuse.
- Do not use disposable dishes, cups and utensils
3. Other
- Fair Trade/Organic coffee
- Natural cleaning products
Holly Harlan, President & Founder, Entrepreneurs for Sustainability: “Why should a business implement sustainability principles? To reduce costs, discover new revenue streams, motivate employees and create a healthier environment both inside and outside your facility’s walls.”
PEOPLE
1. Employee Wellness:
• Our country spends 95% of our health care dollars, one trillion dollars a year, on diagnosing and treating many diseases. However, half of all deaths in the United States can be prevented.
• People with many health risks (e.g., obesity, cigarette smoking, and high blood pressure) tend to be less productive than those who are in better health.
• Not being physically active costs an employer $1900 annually. Employers must pay for a decrease in productivity as well as higher costs for health insurance disability and being absent from work.
• Wellness Programs
- reduce group health plan costs
- improve employee morale
- hang on to good employees
• REMEMBER: Do not equate fitness with thinness – get everyone on the track of eating better and getting active
- Wellness Committee
- Gather input from employees
- What wellness topics and activities interest you?
- What types of activities would you like to put into place?
- What days and times would you like to see activities scheduled?
- Would healthy competition within your departments be an incentive for you?
- What is preventing you from starting a physical activity and healthy nutrition program currently?
- Team up with local gyms/yoga studios, fitness/yoga instructors
- Organize running or other exercise groups/ Lunch-time walking
- Offer incentives and challenges:
- Buy $5 pedometers and encourage/challenge 10,000 steps /day
- Classes, workshops: health educators, nutritionists, MBSC speakers’ bureau
- Encourage attendance at wellness events, lectures (provide passes)
- individual counseling
- Health Days: cholesterol and heart checks, blood drive
- Offer healthy food alternatives for lunches, snacks and meetings (think Mustard Seed and Wild Oats instead of pizza or subway)
- Distribute Balanced Living Magazine to employees and customers
2. Community Programs
- Donate
- % of profits
- Referral program – donate to charity
- Sponsorship of community, wellness and/or environmental programs
- employee volunteer programs
- Support other small/local/sustainable/organic/wellness-oriented businesses
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Real Money
FEATURE ARTICLE - JUL/AUG 2004
Greening Your Office
You can save energy, resources, and money by taking steps to make your workplace more environmentally friendly.
When Elysa Hammond joined the staff of Clif Bar in the summer of 2000, she assumed the title of “corporate ecologist” and took on the task of improving the energy bar company’s environmental impacts.
She started by helping Clif Bar become the first certified organic energy bar, then went on to redesign to the bars’ packaging to save 90,000 pounds of shrink wrap every year. But Hammond wasn’t finished. She turned her attention next to the environmental impacts that are less obvious to customers—the internal workings of its offices.
“Any time an office creates waste, it is not using resources as efficiently as possible,” says Hammond, noting that environmental responsibility also saves money. “It makes good business sense to reduce waste.”
Hammond says the first major office change at Clif Bar was to the paper supply, with a switch to 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and the installation of deskside recycling bins. Subsequent green upgrades included purchasing wind energy credits to offset the office’s energy use, recycling or composting more than 80 percent of their waste, and creating a committee to keep environmental issues an office priority. Offices both large and small can save money, improve morale, appeal to green consumers, and make connections with other green businesses—all by minimizing their impact on the Earth. So, whether you work out of your own office at home or in a more traditional office environment, here are some steps to green your workplace:
Reduce Energy Use
A 2001 report by the US Department of Energy found that “computers, office equipment, and other appliances” are driving America’s increased demand for ever more energy consumption both at home and at work.
With commercial energy use increasing two percent per year, according to the report, you can do your part to reverse the trend.
1. Buy green: When you purchase office equipment, look for items bearing the “Energy Star” label. Energy Star is a voluntary program run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that labels equipment using less energy than standard models. Furthermore, many Energy Star products have other eco-friendly features, such as printers that print on both sides of the page and fax machines that can scan and send double-sided print-outs. According to the EPA, a home office outfitted exclusively with Energy Star equipment (computer, monitor, printer, and fax) can save enough electricity to light the entire home for more than four years.
2. Change your lighting: Purchase compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), which use 66 percent less energy than
standard incandescent bulbs. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, each CFL you buy will save you about $45 over the long life of the bulb. (CFLs last more than 13 times as long as incandescent bulbs.)
3. Power down: Turn off your computer and other office equipment when you leave your office. Set equipment to go to “sleep” mode when not in use. An easy way to turn off all your equipment at once is to plug it all into one surge protector with an on/off switch. According to the Energy Star program, activating sleep settings on just one computer can prevent about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
4. Offset your emissions: You can offset the carbon dioxide emissions associated with your office’s energy use or business travel by joining a “green tags” program. Green tags are energy credits, created by renewable energy facilities, that represent the environmental benefits of green power generation.
At Co-op America’s offices, where Real Money is published, we offset 100 percent of our global warming emissions through a green tag program with NativeEnergy, which is helping to build a 10MW wind farm on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. (Visit www.nativeenergy.com/coop or call 800/924-6826.)
5. Green your business travel: Minimize your business travel by taking advantage of telecommuting tools. When you must travel, offset your travel emissions. You can purchase green tags to cover airline travel through NativeEnergy, or purchase carbon offsets designed specifically for travelers through the Better World Club’s “Travel Cool” program or the Trees for the Future “Trees for Travel” program.
The Better World Club, an eco-friendly roadside assistance and insurance organization for motorists, also offers discounts to club members on hybrid car rentals through EV Rental, the nation’s only green car rental company. When looking for lodging, you can find an eco-friendly hotel through the Green Hotel Association.
6. Green your office's daily travel: If you work in a traditional office environment, see if you can make your office bike-friendly by arranging for bicycle storage and an on-site shower. Encourage employees to leave their cars at home by offering public transportation stipends.
Eliminate Waste
Many state-level recycling initiatives state that the average office employee generates a half-pound of paper waste every day. But every half-pound of paper that an office recycles saves the equivalent of one pound of greenhouse gas emissions, plus the equivalent weight in trees. Remember to keep your own daily consumption of paper out of the landfill, and read on for more ways to eliminate waste.
1. Buy recycled: Paper made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content is often the same price as all-virgin paper. Plus, you can buy in bulk to save money. Co-op America buys a year’s supply of 100 percent post-consumer recycled copy paper. What’s more, you can find products like envelopes, calendars, planners, and stationery also made from recycled paper.
Remanufactured ink and laser toner for printers and fax machines save you money while you save the Earth. Remember to close the waste loop by turning in your old toner cartridges for recycling. Large office supply stores like Staples and OfficeMax now accept toner cartridges for recycling, or you can mail them to the national recyclers listed in the resource box.
Green office supply stores like those listed in the resource section at the end of this article offer many other innovative recycled office products. For example, Green Earth Office Supply sells recycled plastic desk organizers and binders made from recycled vinyl and cardboard.
2. Reduce your paper consumption: You can cut down on paper use by making some simple changes of habit. Set your printer to print on both sides of the paper, and modify the format of standard documents (wider margins, smaller font size) to fit more text on a single page. Edit documents on screen to avoid printing draft copies, and circulate memos and reports via e-mail when you can. Convert old single-side pages into scratch pads, and reuse envelopes.
3. Use a responsible printer: There are many responsible printers that will produce your printed materials in accordance with your values. Choose a union printer that uses recycled paper and vegetable-based inks.
4. Reuse what you can: Use incoming shipping boxes for your outgoing mail, donate excess supplies to local nonprofits and schools, and even donate your computers and office furniture when you update.
5. Audit your waste: WasteWise, a no-fee voluntary program run by the EPA, helps you audit your office’s output of municipal solid waste, producing a report on waste elimination strategies specific to your own office environment. Once you’ve generated your report, WasteWise helps you track your office’s success at reducing your refuse.
Take Your Good Habits to Work
Finally, if you work in an office with others, consider bringing some of your at-home green living choices to work. Use a copy of Co-op America’s National Green Pages™ as a buying guide. Introduce your office to Fair Trade Certified™ coffee, and suggest eliminating disposable dishes, napkins, and silverware from the breakroom. Post a ride-share board, as well as friendly reminders for everyone not to waste energy or resources, with signs like “Remember to turn off lights.” Work on getting faucet aerators and low-flow toilets in restrooms.
“We should look at nature as the ultimate example of good management,” sums up green office expert Hammond. “In nature, nothing is wasted, and all material and energy loops are closed. That should also be our goal at work.”
—Andrew Korfhage
Resources
Green Business Travel
• Better World Club—866/238-1137, www.betterworldclub.com
• Trees for the Future—800/643-0001, www.treesftf.org/
• Green Hotel Association—713/789-8889, www.greenhotels.com
Green Office Supplies
• Dolphin Blue—800/932-7715, www.dolphinblue.com
• Green Earth Office Supply—800/327-8449, www.greenearthofficesupply.com
• Living Tree Paper Company—800/309-2974, www.livingtreepaper.com
• New Leaf Paper—888/989-5323, www.newleafpaper.com
• Treecycle Recycled Paper—406/549-4572, www.treecycle.com/
Green Printers
• Community Printers, Inc.—831/426-4682, www.comprinters.com
• EcoPrint—301/585-7077, www.ecoprint.com
• Green Dot—212/645-2300, www.greendotprint.com
• Greg Barber Company—201/727-0400, www.gregbarberco.com
• Inkworks Press—510/845-7111, www.inkworkspress.com
• Munro Graphics—978/682-0699, www.munrographics.com
• Recycled Paper Printing—800/886-9901, www.recycledpaper.com
• Red Sun Press—617/524-6822, www.redsunpress.com
Toner Recycling Programs
• American Toner—888/900-1228, www.american-toner.com
• National Toner Recycling and Supply—800/676-0749, www.nationaltoner.com
Voluntary Green Office Programs
• Energy Star Program, www.energystar.gov
• NativeEnergy—800/924-6826, www.nativeenergy.com
• WasteWise Program www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/reduce/wstewise
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©2005 Co-op America. All rights reserved.
Meditate on This: Marketing Your Business to the Growing Population of Consumers Leading Healthy and Environmentally Conscious Lifestyles
RESOURCES
Conscious Media: (www.lohas.com) Consistently track and disseminate information about the LOHAS market.
o LOHAS e-newsletter: weekly, sign up online
o LOHAS Journal: yearly; in print; subscribe online
o LOHAS Business Directory: add your business online
o LOHAS Conference: yearly event
Co-op America: (www.coopamerica.org) A national nonprofit consumer organization, promoting environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic justice through the economic power of consumers, investors and businesses. Offer many informative articles, online resources and books, as well as a business directory.
Cultural Creatives: (www.culturalcreatives.org) Paul Ray’s website focuses on his work with Cultural Creatives and is a good place to learn a little more about these 50 million people. The site grows from the work of Ray’s book, Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (Three Rivers Press, 2001, ISBN 0609808451), and has a discussion board and a schedule of Ray’s speaking events.
Entrepreneurs for Sustainability: (www.E4S.org) Local nonprofit organization. Great educational and networking opportunities. Offers a number of educational programs.
Hartman Group: (www.hartman-group.com) A full-service consulting and market research firm specializing in the health and wellness marketplace; each year they conduct studies on consumer behavior in the wellness market, in addition to putting together customized studies upon request. Reports are available for purchase through the Hartman Group website; most cost between $750-$2,000.
Mind Body Spirit Connected: (www.MBSConline.org) Local nonprofit organization. Great educational and networking opportunities. Has a volunteer speakers’ bureau.
Natural Marketing Institute: (www.nmisolutions.com) A strategic consulting, market research, and business development company specializing in the health and wellness marketplace. Responsible for conducting many surveys on the LOHAS market and providing analysis.
Wellness Program Management Yearbook, Third Edition: I have not reviewed a copy of this book. It costs around $175, but from what I have found online, it appears to be a thorough resource.
Nicole Stika
COSE
