People always ask me to show them a great example of a green business and now I think I have found the perfect green business model. I was in total shock when I watched the following video because it really encompasses everything that a true green business is.
Two University students gave up lucrative careers in finance to start a business based on sustainability. They grow gourmet mushrooms from used coffee grounds – how amazing is that? The company’s name is BTTR Ventures and they operate out of Fresno, California. The company’s name is pronounced ‘better’ and it stands for ‘back to the roots’. Its founders, Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, parlayed their love of business and the environment into a thriving green business that already has grocery giant Whole Foods as a client.
Invovative to cut costs. Make trucks more effeciaent. It, districution, fleet, LED are the norm now, thoook for innovation.
By focuses on getting ‘greener’ can speed up economic recovery. Taking a new path with big chunks of their opperations.Zero landfill waste, SUBERU in AMERICA.
Goal being sustainability. Person mention Walmart, series of innovations. new trucks to trainig drivers to be more efficient behind the wheel.. Make sustainabilty a part of normal work day. HOW?
1) set aside TIME,,,ask your employees ‘how can we be more efficenta? How can we get greener? Brainstorm. By becoming greener you might become more profitable. Less waste, more green, less financial watse.
2) Set aside money. Put money into research and developemnt – money that goes strictly to green projects.
3) awards and incentives. the ways we normanlly get people to do things.
By making it the everday normal part of business, then you wont have to wait for something, it is there, it is working, and it is getting bigger and better. Invest in yourself and in your comapny in these ways and you will surely become a green and more profitable business.
Andrew Winston is interviewed by Harvard Business Publishing on green recovery. He offers some amazing tips to green your business, and by doing so, becoming more efficient and profitable- being innovative to cut costs. By focusing on getting ‘greener’ we can actually speed up economic recovery. A company can become more efficient by taking a new path with big chunks of their operations. How does a business become greener? One way is to make their trucks more efficient. Also using Information technology and changing their distribution, fleet, and making LED lighting products the norm.
Look for innovation in any and all ways. In the end the goal is sustainability. A specific example mentioned is how Walmart made two innovations. They updated their trucks as well as training their drivers to be more efficient behind the wheel. Companies must make sustainability a part of the normal work day.
Mr. Winston says invest in yourself and in your company in these ways and you will surely become a green and more profitable business.
1. Set aside time: Ask your employees ‘how can we be more efficient? How can we get greener? Brainstorm. By becoming greener you might become more profitable. Less waste+More green=Less financial waste.
2. Set aside money: Put money into research and development, money that goes strictly to green projects.
3. Awards and incentives: The ways companies normally get people to do things.
One of our goals at Green Business is to showcase wonderful people and the impact they are having in the field of green business, and to offer inspiration and perhaps advice to those who are seeking to get into a similar vocation. Maybe you want to help the environment, but you also have the desire to start a business – well, Maggie Peters, the amazing person in the following video, has merged both areas seamlessly.
As you can see from the video, its star isn’t wearing a business power suit, but she does have her MBA. She has remained true to her vision and discovered the key to personal, ethical and financial success – a balance that many environmentalists find difficult to find. The key here is the fact that she did not sacrifice money for ethics or ethics for money. Some people foolishly believe that you cannot have both, ethics and money. Maggie is proof that you can have both – take her lead. We salute Maggie!!
Studying at the Monterey Institute, she believes that she was provided with the tools, knowledge and the skills to achieve the things she so desperately wants companies to strive towards. If you want to study green business in school, this video is a great showcase of what you can do if you decide to get a ‘green’ MBA. Maggie mentions the green jobs that might be if interest to her, they include being a Sustainability Coordinator or a Corporate Sustainability Officer in a corporation that focuses not just on their financial bottom line, or their social and environmental impact within their own community, but one that really focuses further and stretches their minds beyond what they can see to future generations and development projects in other countries.
As solar energy gains popularity in providing electricity to businesses, it also is becoming more popular with home owners, as shown in the following video. Solar panel installers has emerged as a new and important job within the green technology movement. Instead of a traditional type of construction job, these construction workers install solar panels on roofs of houses in neighborhoods throughout America. The skill sets are basic, with preference given to those with an electrical background, but this is a niche construction job. As changes happen with the way energy is produced, the off-shoot is the construction side. There is demand here.
Faisal El-Azzouzi is Solar Construction Manager for GRID Alternatives, which is a non-profit organization that provides renewable energy services to lower income families. And just because they are non-profit, it does not mean that all of their workers are volunteers, they also offer jobs to qualified individuals. Their job board is located here. When job hunting, don’t forget to check out large companies like Home Depot, or Canadian Tire in Canada, as these large scale companies look for people to help install solar panels.
One of our goals here at Green Business is to offer ideas to our readers to help them start their own green business. Another excellent example of a green business is a green janitorial service, maybe even cleaning LEED certified buildings. These green business owners and workers use environmentally friendly cleaners in their business. Harmful chemicals and other cleaning agents can negatively impact the environment, but using cleaning agents that leave little or no negative effect on the environment steers these businesses to the green side.
You might not even realize that the detergents and other chemicals used as cleaning agents could be hurting you, your pets or the environment. This is just another example of how smart entrepreneurs are changing industry by taking an existing business and putting a spin on it. As mentioned earlier, a key to starting your green janitorial service could be to focus on getting contracts in LEED certified buildings or commercial properties where having an environmentally friendly philosophy is of great importance.
The US Environmental Protection Agency also realizes the importance of environmentally friendly cleaning products. They have actually dedicated a portion of their website to this cause.
The US Department of the Interior specifies what they believe to be characteristics that all environmentally friendly cleaning products must share. These characteristics include:
1.Minimal skin, eye, and respiratory irritation.
2.Biodegradability.
3.Avoidance of undesirable or unnecessary dyes and fragrances.
4.Recyclable containers and minimization of non recyclable waste.
It is difficult to start any type of business, so if you want to start a green business you better find out what your motives are. If you decide to begin the search, start by looking at the pioneer of green business, Mr. Ray Anderson. He will tell you his answers and motivations for starting an environmentally friendly carpet business many years ago, before running a green business was the thing to do.The reasons why the pioneer of green business started his company are truly inspiring. Two of Mr.Anderson’s philosophies? Take nothing, do no harm and only take from the earth what can be given back to the earth.
I have mentioned Mr.Anderson in previous posts, but I wanted to write about him again because his message is an important one, and vital to anyone who wants to start a green business. The environment and the business community can work harmoniously and thrive as one unit, working together for a greater good. Sappy? Yes. Truthful? Absolutely. So take a look at Ray and be as inspired as I am of a man who was ahead of his time, becoming a pioneer in green business. His dedication and vision are as inspiring as his words in this video.
In the following video, Mr.Anderson speaks about the logic of sustainability. After watching the video you may ask yourself, how could you not start a green business?
Data centers are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about green business, but that is changing with the increasing presence of data centers located in Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm offers an almost perfect data center location because it has near zero environmental impact. The use of outside air-cooling year round is a key factor in Stockholm being perfectly suited for a data center of any size. With cooling systems being a key component to maintaining data centers, no air conditioning is needed to keep the massive computers from over-heating. Stockholm represents a cost efficient and very green alternative to other areas around the world.
Dean Nelson, Senior Director of Sun Global Lab & Data Center Design Service, explains the importance of choosing the right location for a data center. A key reason being the environmental impact aspect, specifically how clean and efficient the power is. A cost aspect is also of crucial importance, specifically the cost of the power itself. Sweden is located in a climate where outside air is cold enough to be used to cool the data center, Mr. Nelson points out that because of this, costs go down substantially.
Mr. Torbjorn Bengtsson, Business Development Manager for Stockholm Business Region Development, recognized early on that Stockholm could be the perfect place to have data centers. They let the world know how Stockholm could be a major player in data center location so he contacted potential clients.
Martijn Loderus, who works for Sun Microsystems, has two key criteria in choosing a location for his data centers.
1. The availability of natural resources to power and cool the data center.
2. The people in the location to build and maintain the data center.
Two interesting side notes – two German submarine engines provide backup power for the data center in the video, and the data center is located below ground in a former bunker.
It never seizes to amaze me the amazing ideas people come up with in terms of creating unique green businesses. I recently came across a green business that is an original. The green business I am referring to sells eco-friendly products to throw sustainable parties for large and small groups. How smart is that?
The name of the company is Sustainable Party and they help you create environmentally friendly and socially responsible events of all sizes. Sustainable party sells compostable cups and other environmentally friendly products that anyone would need to throw a ‘green’ party. Part of Sustainable Party’s charm is they educate potential customers by offering information and tips on how to throw a socially responsible party. Their website offers a Best Practices Guide, free of charge, which is a 35 page PDF to anyone interested throwing eco-friendly event.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a program called Energy Star to help reduce energy use. The Energy Star website is a vast online resource that offers a wealth of information to help everyone create a more environmentally friendly workplace. The site also offers tips and tricks to help your business become more energy efficient. Their spokesperson, Danny Seo, takes you on a video tour of an Energy Star program building. He shows you how to make small changes in your business or workplace to make it more green and leave a smaller negative impact on the environment.
One arm of the United States Environmental Protection Agency is dedicated to businesses and non-profits. Through this resource one can easily find information about complying with environmental laws and regulations as well as discovering a plethora of grants and fellowships ear-marked for those people dedicated to green business and technological innovation.
The City of Santa Monica is doing everything it can to help its citizens go green with the Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment’s website. Some of the areas the website covers are: buying green, education, energy, green building and hazardous materials. A superb idea and amazing resource from a city offering indispensable and helpful information. There are no more excuses for the average home and business owner not to make a transition to become cleaner and greener.
An extension of this amazing website is the part that is dedicated to green business programs offered by the City of Santa Monica. The four parts offered in this section are :
If you have a business in the Santa Monica area and are thinking about applying for a green business certificate the F.A.Q portion of the site will answer many question that you may have.
