For all those days when you believe your green values aren’t aligned with your workplace but you can’t - or don’t want to - make the eco-entrepreneur step, here are some immediate action steps to try out at the office this Monday.
Remember: while many green teams start from humble beginnings, they can grow exponentially - pent up passion for green amongst employees can be powerful driving force.
Ever wondered how much energy and thought it took to produce that shiny brochure your marketing staff handed to you this week? And no, it’s not just the brand and visual design genius we’re talking about.
It was a serious two hour talk on climate change realities. And, what did we eat for lunch: steak. A large chunk of medium rare cow meat in tepid gravy. Sauce and solemn speech aside, I found the plat du jour ironic. Here we were, serious business people (some even part of the “sustainability task force”), earnest as heck about doing our part to learn about the adapt prong of the two-pronged “mitigate and adapt” prong to tackle climate change.
Thininking about switching to recycled for your printing? This article will help to convince the waverers to adopt recycled paper!
Xerox develops new technology to print on chemically-coated paper using only light. The Text fades in 16 hours and the paper can be reused 30 to 100 times.
Ah, Christmas. ‘Tis the perfect season to be merry, bright and…green. But it’s not always easy telling your rosy-cheeked in-laws or your office colleagues, their hands brimming with beautiful, glossy (yet unsustainable) paper-wrapped gifts, on why you opted to give them local wine wrapped in a burlap sack (â€oh, but it’s chic and reusableâ€).
A blog conversation: a tree-loving letter to a blogger
Get this: over 100 million trees are harvested annually to create junk mail and well, the 70 hours a year it is estimated we waste in dealing with junk mail is just not worth it.
Sustainability forward designers have seen what works and what doesn’t when it comes to businesses affirming their environmental commitments to clients. From business cards to 200 page magazines, more and more customers are flipping over to the back of your paper products to look for things like 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Sometimes, they look for wind-powered web sites.
Victoria’s Secret’s executives never expected this story to skyrocket from the underground level of blogs and hack basements to full page ad coverage of the likes of the New York Times. And, we didn’t even get to the part of Victoria’s Secret garnering a legal (and reputation) bill longer than Gisele Bundchen’s legs but there you have it: a case study that blogs have power and consumers are watching your every (un)green move.
Big businesses aren’t the only ones who are seeing than many benefits of going green these days. Smaller companies and the ever-present indie start-ups are getting in on the act too. Being an advocate for the “little guyâ€, I’m honored to feature a woman with vision and beauty who sees sustainability as the best biz option, Tara Hogan.
