Operating a Green Business: Your Office

One of my favorite theories is the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule. As Wikipedia states:

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Apply this to the number of businesses in the US, and what you have is the perfect storm to get business owners, CEO's and even non-profits to feel the power they have for change. So, if 80% of businesses in the US are "small businesses", that must mean that 20% are "big businesses". That was pretty easy, right? So the small businesses have about 20% of the purchasing power of businesses overall. Here comes the magic: the 20% purchasing power of small business can create 80% of the effects that business has on the green movement.

If you are a small business owner, you can make the biggest difference in how environmentally friendly we are, as citizens of the US. Now, you might say I did quite a bit of number wrangling, but doesn't it make you feel good?

As a disclaimer, and I'm sure some of you have guessed by now, the above is my theory! I think I've heard it somewhere before, but I'm not sure if it was in the media, talking to my friends, etc. Take it to heart all you want, that's the power of the Pareto Principle, but don't source me on your term paper.

So, how can you apply your 80% to green operations? I quoted an article a few days ago that stated:

Turns out that most of the trickery happens when business 2 consumer deals are involved. B2B is an entirely different story, not least because of reputational risks involved.

You have the power and the resources to make a difference...what do you do now? I always suggest to make a list of the everything you can possibly do, starting with the easiest and start on the first thing. Continue with each one until it is a habit and start on the next.

From a perspective of working in an office, I'm sure there are many things! What are the environmentally destructive habits that go into working? (listed in order of easiest to accomplish, of course!)

Look at your supplies: The paper and pens are one thing, if you haven't already gotten rid of them! Becoming paperless, or close to it, is one of the easiest things to do. A little bit harder is the printers and copiers. You know how the copier room smells? That can't be good for you or your environment. Buy appliances that have an energystar rating. You can get a copier that hooks into your network that you can print to, thus saving money buying extra equipment and less energy to power less machines...pretty swell.

Here's an inspiring quote from the EPA Office equipment page:

If every home office product purchased in the U.S. this year were ENERGY STAR qualified, Americans would save $200 million in annual energy costs while preventing almost 3 billion pounds of greenhouse gases – equivalent to the emissions of 250,000 cars.

And that's just home office! Next!

The office kitchen: I'm going to say this, but I hope no one is doing it: Styrofoam! Please stop if you are buying Styrofoam. Get some cheap plates or better yet, buy some handcrafted pottery plates from a local artisan. If you insist on buying disposable, and this might even be better than washing dishes, buy EarthShell plates and bowls. You can do anything with these products. You can even microwave soup in them! Just don't forget about it over the weekend because it will bio-degrade in your microwave. Don't ask me how I know... You can pick up a pack of 360 online for $25, that's not bad at all!

What else is in a kitchen? Food! Buying local food should be everybody's goal. It cuts down on food transportation costs and supports local farmers. Buy a CSA for your office. A company I do work for does this in the Pittsburgh area: Pathways to SmartCare and if you are local to somewhere else, go to localharvest.org to find one where you live. Buying local produce during the winter is a little harder, but I know in Pittsburgh there is a sprout farm that sells all year long. I can't find their web site, but here is an article: "From a tiny sprout, a farming dynasty."

Computer Equipment: This is easy and just involves changing your habits. One big thing is just turning your computer off every night. I found a great site from the Penn State University that explains how exactly you should manage your computer's power options. A few interesting ones include:

Doesn't it use more energy to start my computer than it does to leave it running?
NO - The start-up energy consumption is high, but occurs for only a few seconds. A few minutes of normal operation uses the same amount.

I already use my screen saver, doesn't that save energy?
NO - Screen savers cause your computer to use more energy than they do at idle.

The second one is funny to me! It says a lot about the logic that people use. Here is an important comparison of newer and older computer set ups, also found on the Penn State page:

We tested a 3.6 ghz P4 computer running Windows XP with a 17" LCD flat screen monitor and found that the system used the following:
Computer On and at Idle, Monitor On - 145 watts
Computer On, Screen Saver Active - 150 watts
Computer On, Monitor is Sleep Mode - 105 watts
Computer On, Monitor Off - 105 watts

We performed a similar test on a 1.0 ghz P3 computer running Windows XP with a 19" CRT monitor and found the following results:
Computer On and at Idle, Monitor On - 250 watts
Computer On, Screen Saver Active - 255 watts
Computer On, Monitor is Sleep Mode - 110 watts
Computer On, Monitor Off - 110 watts

And my favorite fact of the month: "Buy Laptop computers whenever possible; they use ¼ of the electricity of desktop versions."

Unconventional/Flexible Work Schedules: If you want your employees to love you let them pick which time they come to work. Although I think it is important to be available in the office between 11am and 5pm, you actually get more work done when you work after hours and you aren't managing phone calls, random emails, etc. If half the commuters came to work either an hour before or an hour later traffic wouldn't be as bad, your employees would be driving for less time and they wouldn't be as frustrated!

Another great idea is to make a four hour work week or allow your employees to work from home all or part of the time. This would lead to less driving time at better times of the day, and of course less driving all together. Having an unconventional work schedule might be scary at first, but take it slow and keep communication with your employees very open as both of you adjust to the change. Everyone will be happy in the end if it is done right.

Driving to Work:Carpooling is probably the hardest one to implement and if your company does it, tell me how! First, I would say this is impossible unless two or more of your employees live within 10 minutes of each other. However, even if you just carpooled with your spouse that would cut back on costs and energy usage associated with driving.

Megan Lally, a loyal reader, sent in a suggestion to provide incentives to your employees for carpooling. Some right off the top of my head are gas cards, gift certificates to mechanics, health care premium discounts, cash is always nice, or a free lunch! Thanks, Megan, for your helpful suggestions.

Other ways to cut down on transportation are, of course, public transportation, riding your bike, walking, etc. In Pittsburgh I have heard of a few people who kayak to work! If you want to ride your bike to work, some cities have bike lanes and even better are bike trails on the Rails to Trails path. This was a program started in 1986 to turn unused railroad tracks into recreational paths. Great program in my opinion! Find a local path near you: www.traillink.com/home.aspx

Green Products: Do we have to buy green to be green?

I talked yesterday about companies that 'greenwash'. We all know there are products out there that say they are green, but how can we really trust that?

The top five product categories that come to my mind when I think green are: Household cleaners, furniture, cars and energy, garden chemicals, and home building products.

Let me pre-empt this article by stating that just because you have a green product, or a web site that talks about them doesn't mean you need Flash animation. Green is already cool, you don't have to sell it to people finding your site because they are all searching for something green. If anything, you should make your web site accessible to all people searching for green and not exclude people with slow internet speeds...I'm done waiting.

So, what makes a product green? There are many definitions. According to the Building Green web site, "an independent publishing company", green means:

1. Products Made with Salvaged, Recycled, or Agricultural Waste Content


2. Products That Conserve Natural Resources-This includes products made from 'certified wood'


3. Products That Avoid Toxic or Other Emissions


4. Products That Save Energy or Water


5. Products That Contribute to a Safe, Healthy Built Environment

Each has their subtopics, and I suggest you read the article to get more specifics. However, one thing noticeable is they are intentionally broad. Also, one thing they left out is how will the product eventually be disposed of? Nothing lasts forever! One day, all of this stuff may end up in a landfill.

Next on the list is green cleaning products. Whether this surprises you or not, an article I read about the European Union adopting green standards legislation stated:

Turns out that most of the trickery happens when business 2 consumer deals are involved. B2B is an entirely different story, not least because of reputational risks involved.

So you really have to watch your back on products specifically targeted to consumers. This probably includes cleaners, detergents, organic and natural foods, etc. I once saw a bag of anthracite coal being sold at a home improvement store for burning in a wood stove. Everything I've ever been taught is that coal is dirty. This could be because I'm from Pittsburgh! But the packaging on the coal said it burned with 99% efficiency, and left little ash. I don't know if I can believe that. This is why there needs to be standards.

You can download the European Union Environmental Commission's 'Buying Green Handbook' to get a sense of what other countries are doing. It's a mixture of starting a green company and buying green, but you can get a general idea of what green means.


According to the EcoMall web site, their definition of green is:

[Laurence Tasaday] states, First we consider the product's life cycle – its manufacture, use, and disposal – to determine its total impact on the environment. Then we weigh its benefit to humans against its environmental costs. Third, we ask whether any less harmful alternatives are available. And finally we ask the most important question, Is it worth it? That is, does the value of the product outweigh its environmental costs?

So let's look at 'GreenWorks', a green cleaning product put out by Clorox. This information was found on their web site: www.cloroxgreenworks.com

Their definition of natural is: " having ingredients primarily sourced from plant and mineral based materials and having a petrochemical content of less than 1 percent." Here is a list of the ingredients:

Green Works Natural Dilutable Cleaner (99.20 percent natural): Filtered water, coconut-based cleaning agents (alkyl polyglucoside, lauramine oxide, sodium lauryl sulfate), corn-based ethanol, natural alkalinity builders for enhanced performance (potassium citrate, potassium carbonate), fragrance with essential lemon oil, colorant

The Pros:

• It comes concentrated. a.k.a. less packaging


• It uses coconut cleaning agents– This sounds good, but where did the coconuts come from, who is growing them, and are they able to feed their children when they go home at night?


• It's recognized by the EPA for 'safer chemistry. They are working on a sustainability scorecard. I can't wait to see that.


• The container is recyclable...where recycling centers exist.

The Cons:

• What are 'natural alkalinity builders'? Heroin is natural, for pete's sake.


• They added color to sell it better. I don't care what color it is!


• They don't disinfect, but I’m not always a fan of killing everything. Unless it's raw meat juice!

So, now what are you going to do with this information? Are you sold? Although I did buy it, I'm not completely sold. Though, I'm not completely sold on organic cleaners like Seventh Generation either.

know, maybe a good wash down with vinegar and water would do the trick. Perhaps being green isn't about buying green! Perhaps we should ask ourselves, would my Grandma use this?

What value does 'green' have in business?

Sooner or later, your clients will be able to figure out whether your product is green or not, and I would like to make that time sooner than later. Why? Am I such a sour puss that I want to ruin the day of the person who is ripping you off?

When a new buzz word comes out that is attracting billions of dollars in the US market, businesses jump on that bandwagon. The same thing happened with the food industry. Take Special K, for example. Special K is touted as a diet or health food. Take a look at the ingredients, however, and take special note of the High Fructose Corn syrup. This is hardly diet food or healthy! Besides being a cheap food ingredient specially formulated for mass production, High Fructose Corn Syrup prevents you from losing weight! What the? I can hardly stand it.

Within the 'green' industry there are many products that say they are green, but if you were to compare the product to a truly green product, you would laugh…or cry. The buzz word for this is 'greenwashing'. Take this for example, taken from the greenbiz.com web site:

Procter & Gamble’s Tide Pure Essentials Detergents, with their earth-tone packaging and "naturally inspired scents," turn Tide into a green wanna-be. Consumers believe they’re doing the right thing for their families and the environment by choosing Pure Essentials. But according to P&G’s Material Safety Data Sheets, Tide Pure Essentials products are identical to conventional Tide!

I’m sure we’re all stupid enough at times to just grab what’s green and get out of the store, and eventually the faith in the companies who use these marketing tactics will be lost. Until that day comes, what should we do? Educate yourself on the finer points of being green.

So what makes a product 'Green'? In my previous post, I wrote that being green is "being proactive about your effect on the environment in your personal and professional life." So this definition really fits towards you and what you are doing in your personal life.

We all know we are going to have 'Certified Green' stamps coming out in the next five years. So how will the people who write those standards come up with that?

Right now, there are several ways to be green in business. Everything is on a sliding scale. You have to determine how far you are willing to go to get green products.

There are products, operations, and wholly fanatical methods to tout yourself as being green.

Products that are green are made from ‘renewable resources’, which is a whole other episode! Read what ‘renewable resources’ actually went in to that product and make sure you know what it is. The company might say this couch was made from redwoods in the California Redwoods Park, and you may think Oh, okay! But really, the redwoods are a protected tree.

Operations protocols can also be green. For instance, a nuclear plant may hold its over-heated water in a cooling tank before releasing it into the surrounding wet lands. Or, a company might buy carbon emission offsets because they don’t have enough capital or the ability to buy local renewable energy. Or a business might say they are green because they are using fluorescent light bulbs! You need to pick and choose what fits your standard of green.

The fanatical methods, that I’m not exactly opposed to, are the creative types that use green methods throughout every facet of life. They only eat at the local-food eatery, they ‘drive’ a bike, they refuse to use air conditioning in the office, etc. Do whatever you need to do, just don't look down on me when I don't compost all of my table scraps.

Tomorrow I will delve into the specifics of green products.

Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Internet Browsing Experience

1. Upgrade Your Browser!

Internet browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc. are notorious for not completely supporting the web standards put forth by the World Wide Web Consortium, the internet standards association.
As time goes on the companies that make these internet browsers realize the importance of adhering to the standards and launch a new version of their browser. Here are some links to the most common browser update sites.
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Safari
Opera
Camino

2. Clear Your Cookies

What are cookies??? Cookies are just a little bit of code that is stored on your computer by almost all web sites. Cookies are not necessarily bad. However, they will start slowing your computer down when you are online. A lot of companies use them to see how people view their site. In this way they actually are helpful to the owner to make sure their site is navigable and why people may be having problems viewing their site.

Other times, sites put cookies on your computer so they can display targeted advertising. Ever notice when you visit a site you'll start seeing ads for that site on the major web sites? For instance, I once visited the web site for Chevy trucks. I then left that site and went to yahoo.com. Ads for cars were all over the place!

Go to the About Cookies web site for information on how to clear your cookies on your particular browser.

3. Learn Your Options

If you can't read the text on a site for any number of reasons do you know how to change that? Do you know how to turn off your annoying toolbars? Do you know how to bookmark a page or view the history?

Here's a good one: If you are on a PC, press F11...interesting, huh? To turn it off, press F11 again.

To zoom in or out on a web page: on Firefox, go to 'View'>'Zoom'>'In' or 'Out'. You can also press 'ctrl'+'+' on a PC while viewing Firefox.
For Internet Explorer, go to 'View'>'Text Size'>Choose your preference.

Changing Toolbar preference: For several reasons, I usually just erase them off of my computer! First, they tend to slow down your computer because they are all gathering information about you while you browse through the internet. Secondly, they take up a lot of room. You can take them off your PC by going to your desktop and going to 'Start'>'Control Panel'>'Add or Remove Programs'>(scroll to the toolbar you want to erase).

If you just want to turn it off for the time being, on Firefox, go to 'View'>'Toolbars'>(check off what toolbars you want). In Internet Explorer, go to 'View'>'Toolbars'>(check off what toolbars you want). If you accidentally get rid of the 'menu bar', just right click and it will give you the option to turn it back on.

Bookmark a page: I may be preaching to the choir here, but this is one of the best options in internet browsers. You really want to read a web page, but you can't right now...and you know you won't remember it. In Firefox, go to your menu bar, press 'Bookmark'>'Bookmark this page'. In the new version of Firefox, you can just press the star in the address bar and you don't have to worry about it. To find it later, go to 'Bookmark'>'Recently Bookmarked pages'.
In Internet Explorer, go to 'Favorites'>'Add to favorites'.

View or Erase History: Internet Explorer makes it hard to view the history these days. Apparently they all got in trouble with their wives and they want to make sure you really want to see the history from now on. Supporting my theory is the fact that you can easily erase your history by merely going to 'Tools'>'Erase browser History'.

To actually view the history in Internet Explorer you have to go to 'View'>'Explorer Bar'>'History', or just press 'ctrl'+'shift'+'H' all at the same time.

Firefox isn't afraid of their History. They put it right on the menu bar.

4. Update Your Operating System

Supposedly, there are many security risks and holes in browsers that I don't quite understand, but I trust the companies who make operating systems and browsers to be telling the truth when they admit fault with their browsers. Along with upgrading your browser to get the latest security, upgrade your operating system so it has the latest standards to back up your browser.

If you have an older operating system, like pre-Windows XP, I would suggest updating your operating system as often as possible. Eventually, Microsoft will no longer provide updates and you will be out of luck. If you have Windows XP, you may have heard Microsoft stopped selling it. That does not mean they will stop updating the software. As a lover of XP, I dread the day I have to switch to Vista or whatever else they put out next.

You can find your operating system updates by going to their web site.

5. Update Your Plugins

Plugins are 'server-side' programs that start up automatically within a web site when you visit a site that utilizes them. Included are Flash, Shockwave, Java, etc.

By keeping them updated, you won't have to continually be stopped at a site that requires the latest version. Go to the Plug-ins 101 web site to learn more and get links to latest versions.

What the heck is a server-side program??? Let's contrast that with a browser side program, like HTML. When you load up a web page that is all html, the site's host is delivering the content to your browser. When you are interacting with a server-side program, you tell the browser what to do, then it tells the server what to do, then it delivers the server-side content. It's comparable to any site where you login and get tailored information, like Yahoo mail or hotmail.

Plug ins are server-side languages that use your computer as the server. So the web site tells the browser that it wants to use Flash, then it looks for Flash on your computer. That's why Flash and Java takes so long to load!


In Summary
Your internet experience is only as good as your browser settings!

Busy Busy Busy

I have been busy working on some new sites that I would like to share with those keeping up with my blog. This summer flew by and now I know why! 4 new sites and re-designs! I also created a blog template for one of my most recent clients. Designing is fun!

Pathways to SmartCare: I have been working with this wellness company for over five years. They were the first web site client I had, so of course, they needed a redesign after all of the knowledge I've gained in that time.
The site features better reliability in the terms of navigation features, an integrated blog and more contact forms so people don't have to constantly be going to the contact page to email them. This also allows for customized email subject lines when the email comes in, leading to more efficient productivity when replying to site contacts.

Hagan Accounting Group: This is a brand new site for the owner of Hagan Accounting Group. As you can see, we have the same last name! The owner of Hagan Accounting is Bob Hagan, my father. I tried to make this site look like The Wall Street Journal, his favorite newspaper.

Dorit Brauer: Dorit is a meditation teacher, reflexologist, and does consultations for labyrinths. This was an exciting web site to make because Dorit is very creative and energetic and we worked well together.
Dorit went on a cross-country labyrinth road trip in 2007 and is writing a book about it. I integrated a photo-album into her site so people can view the pictures from the road trip. She also has a fully integrated blog that she updates monthly with her Meditative Thoughts newsletter.

WellnessToYou.us: I am currently working with Nathalie Kuffer of wellnesstoyou.us to help streamline the design of her site. The home page currently features the redesign that allows more user-focus to the important areas of her site.
I integrated a graphical interface into the home page that brings the user's eye through the "Z" pattern that most people view web sites with. Nathalie is very fun to work with and the site is receiving more traffic now that is more navigable.

Megan Lally's Blog: Megan is an up and coming writer who needed to show her portfolio online. This was a quick and easy blog template that I integrated into her blogger account. These projects are so easy to implement and I really enjoyed working with her.

Sweetland of Quilts: The Sweetland of Quilts web site was one of the first I ever made. After learning a few tricks, I decided to go back through the web site and streamline the usability and navigation for easier browsing.

That's it for now! Look back in a few weeks for more. I'm going to be busy, busy, busy again! Hopefully the winter will go just as fast...