Undoubtedly, when you’re wading through old lunch remains and dirty tissues, you’re going to sit and take notice more so than if you just get a memo about the need to go green.

So what are you doing to inspire your employees? Sometimes, a memo just doesn’t cut it. Here are some suggestions:

• Have prizes for departments that meet green goals. For example, maybe the employees who make the biggest effort to go green are the people chosen to go to conferences or to telecommute once a week.
• Keep a recycling chart (or energy usage chart or whatever) posted that tracks individual progress. Trust me, people don’t like to see their name on a board as a loser!
• Have very real consequences for not following green policies. At Burt’s Bees, if you are caught not recycling three times, you face disciplinary action.

Show, don’t tell. That’s what the dumpster diving achieved. You don’t necessarily have to go to those lengths, but the more hands-on you get, the better!

What are you doing to help your employees remember to go green?

Post from: EveryJoe

Inspiring your Employees to Go Green

But what about the products you sell? Do you have an inherent green “seller’s responsibility”?

There are hundreds – maybe even thousands – of products on the market that are unsafe for consumers. For example, in the beauty industry, many brands are still using phthalates in their products. Phthalates have been linked to asthma, reproductive conditions, and developmental problems in children. Eek.

So, what if you own a drug store? Is it your responsibility to make sure that none of the products on your shelf contain phthalates. Expand that to any kind of retail industry. How much weight is on your shoulders to stock green products?

You don’t necessarily have a responsibility to research the products you sell beyond ensuring that they were not recalled. That sad, consider promoting green choices with your consumers. You can do this in the following ways:

• Create a section of your store specifically for products that are the safest or greenest in your industry.
• Remove products that are potentially unsafe or at least ensure that consumers have access to literature on the dangers of certain materials.
• Talk about green choices on your website.
• Replace dangerous products whenever possible.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to consumers about their choices, and train your employees to do the same.

Do you believe that it is your responsibility to remove potentially dangerous products from your store? Or, does the responsibility lie solely with the consumer?

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Do You have Green "Seller’s Responsibility"?

• Shut down computers before you leave.
• Give employees Friday off!
• Turn down the heat while no one is in the office.
• Send out Christmas wishes via email, not snail mail.
• Get organic goodies for office parties.

What did you do/are you doing to green you holiday celebrations this year?

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Green Christmas Wishes!

In early November, MillerCoors received a number of Energy Saver awards from the U.S. Department of Energy. (Read more at Environmental Leader.) Why do awards just have to go to companies though?

Have you consider awards – or even rewards – for your employees?

It is one thing to ask your employees to print fewer emails and shut down their computers every night, but it is another thing to offer incentives for doing so. This isn’t grade school, so a chart with star stickers isn’t exactly appropriate, but what about a green employee of the month? Or annual green bonuses? Or..well you tell me!

Do you offer incentive to your employees for going green?

Post from: EveryJoe

Green Awards/Rewards for your Employees

To help meet this goal, the Aluminum Association is increasing public education, expanding the recycling infrastructure, and focusing on new legislation that will mandate recycling in areas where it is currently voluntary or legislation that will focus on recyclable deposits. Studies should that states with deposits have a 74% or higher recycling rate, while other states have just a 38% recycling rate.

You can read more about these goals at GreenBiz.com.

Setting Green Goals for your Business

What can you learn from the Aluminum Association? Even if your business doesn’t have products it can recycle, aluminum or otherwise, the take away message here is that you need to set green goals for your small business.

Here are some tips to help you create (and keep) your green goals:

• Make this a company effort. Brainstorm with all of your employees to determine areas in which you can go green.
• Write down your goals and post them. You should have some kind of visual reminder of the ways in which you hope to go green.
• Track your progress. Your goals, for example, might be to cut electricity usage by 15% by January 2010. Give your employees an update on your progress throughout 2009.
• Be vocal about your green goals. When you tell your customers about your goals, you’ll be promoting your products or services, and you’ll also be more motivated to reach those goals
• Offer incentives for employees helping your reach your goals. Make it worth their while to go green with you.

What are your company’s green goals and how are you reaching toward them? Leave a comment to inspire us all!

Post from: EveryJoe

What the Aluminum Industry can Teach Your Business

Pros to Bill Sharing

• Promotion of responsible action (ie, shutting down computers, using company recycling bins, etc)
• Sense of unity among employees to reach a common goal
• Trust in the company

Cons to Bill Sharing

• Distracts employees from other work
• Raises concerns about confidentiality
• Identity theft

The last to “cons” especially worry me. If you’re going to share your bills, make sure your employees sign a confidentiality agreement, and furthermore, before you pass out copies for them to review, hide any information (like account numbers) that could pose identity theft problems in the future. Yes, people can steal a business identity, and yes, employees or former employees may very well use this information against you.

Sharing bills can definitely help your business move forwards in a green way, but please do so with caution. In some cases, this isn’t the best choice for your business.

Do you share your company bills with employees? Leave a comment below!

Post from: EveryJoe

Should you Share Bills with Employees?

In a world where many soccer moms still drive vans and SUVs, their children are talking about hybrids and smaller cars. It is now the five-year-old who turns off the light after a parent who has left the room or advocates shutting off the water while brushing your teeth. Kids are learning a lot about the environmental problems we’re facing…and that’s a good thing!

How can children help your business?

As a business owner, you can definitely take advantage of this willingness to support the environment that we’re seeing from children. If you have a son/daughter/grandchild/neighbor/etc. interested in saving the earth, bring them to work with you as an eco-intern!

Now, take your child to work day doesn’t officially happen until April (read more here), but an annual outing to participate in the working world can happen any time of the year. If you work in a business that isn’t particularly child-friendly, getting involved him or her involved in a “go green” way is a great idea.

In addition to helping you complete tasks like decorating office recycle bins, ask your eco-intern to help you spot environmental no-nos in your office. I bet he or she will notice that the conference room light is on all of the time, even when no one is using the conference room or that employees print documents that they don’t really need. Small day-to-day stuff that you’d never notice will set off alarms with an environmentally-friendly child.

If your business is already doing a lot to go green, consider inviting a local grade-school class to your office (or place/facility, if it is safe, depending on your industry) to talk about how you’re going green. Promoting your green products to children – even if they aren’t child-friendly products in and of themselves – is a great way to start a word-of-mouth campaign.

I know that the “pint-size eco-police” can be a pain sometimes, especially when they don’t have their facts 100% straight, but you have to give them credit for trying. If you know a child who loves to drive you crazy with efforts to make you go green, harness that power and bring him/her to work. Your business can only benefit.

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Eco-Interns: Can Environmentally-Conscious Kids Help Your Business Grow?

Newsom’s challenge to the 1500 largest businesses in the city asks companies to invest in solar energy for their business processes. Those who accept the challenge will become part of the Mayor’s Solar Founder’ Circle,and members will receive free solar assessments and energy efficiency audits from the state.

There’s potential in this city for businesses to install solar panels on rooftops, generating about thirty times the power than is currently generated. That’s enough electricity to power 42,000 homes in the area.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities initiative and San Francisco Energy Watch Program are helping to fund this challenge with a $200,000 grant. You can read more about this project and the companies participating at Environmental Leader.

Post from: EveryJoe

SF Businesses get Green Challenge

When you make a purchase using this card, it is grouped into one of 24 categories. You can then log onto a special cardholder website to see the carbon emissions per products/services bought. Your purchases are then offset with investments in forestry, renewables, energy efficiency, and carbon capture projects.

You can read more about this green credit card option from Business Green.

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New Credit Card for Green Business

That said, Wal-Mart is taking steps in the right direction. Earlier this year, they announced that they were committing to only buying legal, greener wood products, and this past week, they also announced a plan to cut back on plastic bag usage. Wal-Mart hopes to reduce plastic bag waste by 1/3 by 2013.

That means they’re going to cut out 9 billion plastic bags each year – and that’s more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste. They’ll be cutting down on bags by 25% in the United States and 50% in other countries, according to their press release. They’ll also be selling reusable bags for just 50 cents, making that option highly affordable for all shoppers.

So Wal-Mart isn’t all bad. I guess.

Post from: EveryJoe

Wal-Mart’s New Plastic Bag Policy