Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Aug 12, 2010
Lenovo, a computer company based in Hong Kong, has just gained recognition for their green business efforts by being chosen as one of 30 companies to be a member of a new Hong Kong and China corporate Sustainability Index. Energy efficiency, recycling, and carbon emissions have long been on the mind of Lenovo as they have continued to incorporate sustainable business practices into their global company. Such recognition makes environmentally aware consumers more likely to turn to companies such as Lenovo (or Dell or Hitachi) for their green technology needs.
Not all sustainable companies will be sought out for this kind of recognition and publicity. Many companies need to be proactive in sharing their green business practices in order to increase customer interest.
Purchasing green power that is Green-e certified is one way to get recognition for corporate sustainability. The US EPA’s Green Power Partnership is another organization that offers support and publicity to companies that wish to shrink their carbon footprint while boosting business. Green companies that are at the forefront of environmentally friendly business practices might even win Green Power Leadership Awards.
Businesses seeking a market share with green consumers should also consider launching promotional programs for Earth Day or Earth Month each April, detailing their eco-business practices on their websites, and coming up with innovative green products such as PepsiCo’s compostable SunChips bags. Continue to improve your business’s environmental policies while coming up with new ideas for getting publicity and gaining customer interest.
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Mon, Aug 09, 2010
Renewable Energy or Green Power is the solution to some major challenges like climate change, dependency on foreign oil and sustainable economic development thatface us today. Consumers have become sophisticated enough to realize this and they have started to support only those businesses that have sustainability built into their core values. Getting your organization green powered is thus not only the right thing to do but it makes sense from a business standpoint. Businesses are also realizing this as can be seen from the dramatic increase over the last few years in renewable energy purchases made specifically by commercial parties.
Due to deregulation of the electricity markets in select states, it is now possible for organizations in such states to run on green power while they cut down on energy costs. Our new whitepaper gives the reader some background on green power, its benefits to business and how an organization in deregulated electricity markets can go green while realizing energy savings at the same time.
Click here to download the whitepaper and learn how organizations can go green while realizing energy savings.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jul 29, 2010
Demand for sustainable products and services worldwide continues to expand. Green businesses are thinking in new ways about how to protect the planet and satisfy their customers at the same time. UPS began a carbon neutral shipping program last fall to serve customers who wish to pay a little extra to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from shipping their packages. UPS was the first package delivery service to offer this kind of green shipping option.
This popular program has now expanded to UPS locations across the United States, online, and around the world. For only 75 cents, a customer can ship a package carbon free from the United States to any international location. Domestically, the optional surcharge is as low as five cents for customers to ship their packages without pollution or guilt. In 2010, customer purchases of offsets will go twice as far, since UPS will match their investments.
UPS currently purchases carbon offets from the Garcia River Forest Climate Action Project. This organization is overseen by The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund to ensure its validity as a provider of reliable carbon offsets. It is important for businesses and consumers to purchase offsets or renewable energy credits that are certified or verified. UPS also plans to support other offset projects worldwide.
Offering a simple and inexpensive way for customers to feel better about the sustainability of their purchases is an excellent idea for any business to increase business and improve customer satisfaction.
Photo via Justinls
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
In today’s economy, many of us are looking for ways to save money or get a better deal, both at home and in our businesses. Unfortunately, the cheapest choices are not always the best options for our planet. Doing business cheaply can neglect steep environmental costs. Fortunately, this is also a time when consumers are looking for both sustainability and value. Customers are more satisfied with green businesses. For many people, it is worth spending a little extra money to help protect the planet.
For this reason, it is important for sustainable businesses to manage their operations with the planet in mind each step of the way. This means more than just reducing, reusing, and recycling. Companies also need to consider where their physical resources are coming from. Wal-Mart operations are a good example of the need to consider the sources of both products and raw materials. Wal-Mart’s big sustainability push has made Wal-Mart consider the sources of their low-cost products to hold up under the scrutiny of environmentally conscious consumers. Wal-Mart now insists on high standards in labor and environmental practices in the factories they do business with. Chemical dumping and using rainforest wood are not acceptable, for example.
Another question green companies should ask themselves is where their services are coming from. Sustainable businesses should look for services such as green real estate companies, green printing presses, green catering, green IT, and green banking / investing firms whenever possible. Green utilities are even more important. Traditional electricity sources may be relatively cheap, but they have a much higher environmental cost. Purchasing green energy is a choice to purchase a premium product that is better for the environment and helps expand a green customer base.
Some even choose to take the search for green utilities even further by producing their own green power. The University of New Hampshire, for example, is now largely powered by a system that utilizes waste methane from a nearby landfill. This technology is now well enough established that many businesses and organizations could easily tap into this energy source considered to be renewable by the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership, provided they are located near a landfill.
With a little creative thinking, businesses and organizations can extend the sustainability of their operations to encompass both products and services from their source.
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Wed, Jun 30, 2010
This is a guest post by Kyle Mentz. Kyle is a content writer for Alluminare where you can find a large assortment of lighting fixtures to decorate your home.
A famous deity once said, “Let there be light”, and there was, and it was good. And frankly, it’s still good. The sun remains the most eco-friendly way to light your home, whether you choose to install windows and skylights throughout in order to illuminate your space, or if you decide to harness the sun’s energy for clean power to run an entire household. It doesn’t get any greener than using the one and only completely efficient, emission-free, natural form of lighting. However, there are some drawbacks. You may not have the funds to knock out walls or outfit your home with solar panels. Beyond that, a reliance on natural lighting could be difficult for people who live in cooler climates and don’t want to eat dinner in the dark in January. Luckily, there are a number of environmentally friendly lighting products on the market to give your home the luminescence you need to get you through the dark times.
The electric light bulb has been more or less the same since the birth of electricity, which is to say, incandescent. The problem with these bulbs is that they depend on a filament that heats up to produce a glow. Unfortunately, the process requires a lot of energy to begin and sustain. Enter the energy-efficient revolution. For a short period of time, it looked like halogen lights were going to be the wave of the future, using 20% less electricity, but certain drawbacks (fixture replacement, rampant heat production) quickly made them obsolete. Today, newer bulbs like compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) are literally changing the way we see lighting. CFLs have become very popular in recent years due to the fact that they not only work in standard fixtures and produce a ton of light, but also use 60% less energy and last ten times as long as incandescent bulbs. Many also promise to repay their cost (several times over) throughout the life of the product.
LEDs (you may have heard of them…they’ve been telling digital time for awhile) are an even more recent development in home lighting. Some claim to use up to 90% less energy (than incandescents) and last as much as 60 times longer. That’s pretty amazing! Naysayers grumble that LED bulbs are too dim to illuminate a house, but new products continue to come out (in up to 100-watt varieties) in steadfast refute of this argument. The only real drawback with current LEDs is that you will probably have to get new fixtures to use them.
Or, you can always go back to the sun. If solar panels are a bit out of your price range, or you don’t dig the look, you may want to consider a sunlight-transport-device. They bring actual sunlight into your home by gathering the sun’s rays outside your structure, transferring them through fiber optic cables, and sending them to lamps throughout your home. Pretty ingenious, right? Well, during the day, anyway. They only transfer natural light, so when the sky goes dark, so does your luminary. But they are an interesting alternative to cutting a hole in your roof. There are also solar lights, and although they are generally considered outdoor lighting (often used to illuminate driveways, garden paths, etc.), there are portable models that can be charged during the day and then used in place of lamps for soft mood lighting in the evening. Floating models make them a safer bet than, say, floating candles (open flame may be eco-friendly, but it’s always a fire hazard).
Probably your best bet to illuminate your home in an eco-friendly manner is through a combination of some (or all) of the options listed above. Try to use natural light as much as you can (since it certainly carries the smallest price tag at a cost of free), install solar panels if you can afford the initial expenditure (over time, they can actually bring you an income if you have enough sunlight throughout the year to build up a surplus to sell back to the power company), and switch to energy-efficient lighting to cover any additional need. Could you use one last eco-friendly lighting tip? Here’s one your parents told you a million times: turn off the light when you leave a room. You’ll be surprised how much energy you’ll save through a simple flip of the switch.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jun 24, 2010
I picked up a copy of a free Home Depot publication called “The Green Guide” when I wandered into Home Depot last week in search of low-VOC paint and recycled cardboard moving boxes for my upcoming move.
Inside the guide, Home Depot recommends ten ways to reduce energy and water consumption at home. These green home improvement ideas, which range from the most simple to more advanced, will also save consumers some money with a few easy purchases from the Home Depot or from other home improvement suppliers that carry green building supplies.
These same ideas can also be easily applied in the process of creating a sustainable business with eco-friendly office space.
1. Replace standard incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent. Home Depot sells packs of Energy Star certified CFL bulbs for cheaper than many other retailers. Using fluorescent bulbs is an easy step towards reducing your carbon footprint.
2. Change the filters in your heating and cooling system regularly to help it run more efficiently. Look at the filter packages to see the recommended life of the filters you buy. Some are one month filters, others are three month filters. Home Depot also sells air filters which can be rinsed out and reused to reduce waste.
3. Install a programmable thermostat which you can program to keep the air cooler at times when you are home but raise the temperature when there is nobody in the house or office to enjoy the air conditioning.
4. Toilets use more water than almost anything else in the home. Purchase high efficiency toilets, which use less water.
5. Make sure that your attic is insulated and the cracks around your doors and windows are sealed so that you are not pumping that expensive heating or air conditioning to the outside.
6. When you need new appliances, look for Energy Star appliances, which use less energy than conventional models.
7. Use a Kill-A-Watt device to detect energy that is being used by appliances that are plugged in but are not in use.
8. Insulate old water heaters to prevent heat loss.
9. If it is time to replace your water heater, be sure to choose a new Energy Star model.
10. Install your own green power sources. Look for tax credits for solar panels and wind generators. The U.S. government is also offering tax credits for extra efficient windows and doors.
Photo via Cthoyes