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18 January 2012Sustainability Committee

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: iStockphoto.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does Your Business have an Effective Sustainability Committee that Reports to the Executive?", used towards earning your 3rd Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Sustainability is a business opportunity. The Sustainability Committee is a group of workplace people composed of management, employees, and even key supply chain providers who review and develop proposals to assist the business address environmental and social issues. Review includes stepping out of the office to observe actual work practices in the factory and field settings.

What Can I Do?

Nominate your interest in joining an existing committee, offer suggestions to an established committee, or rally support to suggest a committee be created if one does not exist in your organization. For any business to become sustainable, the journey must start with the people who define the business to get involved to find the facts, provide everyone else with unbiased information and access to further reading, and then decide how to work together.

How Do I Start?

1. Find out if your city government or industry group has a program to help you setup a committee.
2. Request permission from your employer to support the creation, nomination, or improvement of a committee.
3. Once a committee has elected a leader and members, a benchmark review should be conducted to determine areas for improvement.
4. Define your business values regarding: energy efficiency, water, waste, supply chain materials, biodiversity, design, and performance.
5. Join an industry focus group specializing in sustainability. Whoisgreen recommends the Rocky Mountain Institute's NSC membership as a leading source of information and networking opportunities.
6. Report findings to management and request permission to share the information with all staff.
7. Ask staff for their ideas and to identify how the business can improve its environmental and social impacts.

18 January 2012Formal Procurement Process

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: iStockphoto.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does Your Business have a Formal Procurement Process which incorporates Sustainable Purchasing?", used towards earning your 3rd Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Products & services for a World Going-Green. A formal procurement system provides written instructions and procedures that ensure the process is the same for every purchase, thus providing a benchmark for quality, safety, and customer service. Procurement can be recognized with a commitment from senior management, and include certification by an external certifying body such as ISO-10845-1:2010 (Sustainable Procurement in the Construction Industry). Other ISO-Certification systems such as ISO-9001:2008 also offer procedures on quality procurement methodology.

What Can I Do?

Review your purchasing process and determine if it is chaotic and in need of being simplified. It is often much easier to write an instruction and accompanying procedure for everyone to follow, rather than trying to remember huge amounts of purchasing processes and options. Then decide if you need your procurement process to be recognised with external certification.

How Do I Start?

1. Download ISO-9001: 2008 (Quality Management System) and read the purchasing sections.
2. Prepare a Procurement Strategy and Policy that includes a reference to Sustainability.
3. Document your purchasing system, including instructions and procedures.
4. Provide procurement consideration to products and services which have a preference towards energy & resource efficiency, and produce less waste such as packaging.
5. Train & audit your supply chain, including how the environment and community are effected.
6. Support small, local producers (fair trade).
7. Measure your carbon footprint.
8. Ask your supply chain providers to answer a simple sustainability questionnaire.

18 January 2012Carbon Emissions

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: iStockphoto.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does Your Business have a Program to Measure or Reduce Carbon Emissions?", used towards earning your 3rd Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

This little organic molecule (Carbon Dioxide) has created the biggest debate ever imaged! The stability of our climate is affected by two types of Carbon Dioxide sources: the Natural Carbon Cycle which is believed to vary in concentration over millions of years, and the Man-Made Industrial Carbon Cycle which scientists believe is significantly adding extra carbon and unbalancing the natural system, causing climate volatility. Every time we burn fossil fuels such as gas, coal or oil, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. As well as carbon dioxide, there are other gases (such as methane) which shall also cause our climate to become more extreme. Collectively, these gases are known as 'greenhouse gases' and in chemical terms, most of them are hydrocarbons. Scientists refer to greenhouse gases as Carbon Dioxide Equivalents, which is then simplified for use by the media and the public, as just 'Carbon'.

What Can I Do?

Take interest in the Carbon issue and try to reduce the amount of Man-Made Carbon your business is contributing into the atmosphere. Whether you believe in Climate Change is caused by our industrial activity or not, most people would agree that the associated chemicals and mechanical degradation of the environment is happening before our eyes to the detriment of human health, biodiversity, rivers, oceans, soils, food, and air.

How Do I Start?

1. Buy local products and services.
2. Reduce your waste.
3. Measure your consumption (electricity, gas, oil).
4. Purchase smaller engine sized cars for your business fleet.
5. Prioritize freight by train, road, and air.
6. Set HVAC comfort settings to 70oF-74oF(21-23oC). Check out the Nest thermostat.
7. Embrace energy efficiency within your work environment.
8. Share your experience with your professional associations and networks.

18 January 2012Get A Business Friend (BF)

Posted by David Burns

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Video Credit: iStockphoto.

This blog provides information to help you answer, "How Do I Get a Business Friend Recommendation?", used to earn your 2nd Whoisgreen Star.

Who Can Be a Green BF?

Get Recommended. Invite a business Friend to write a Recommendation about you and your efforts to Go-Green. Anyone that knows your business may write your recommendation. The information written in the recommendation shall be made available for all web browsers that visit your Whoisgreen profile page once you approve their recommendation.

How Can A BF Help Me?

The recommendation that a Business Friend posts on your Whoisgreen profile can help browsers decide if they like your claims and credentials. A BF Recommendation is a great way to provide potential customers with confidence that your service offering has integrity.

How Do I Get My BF Recommendation?

After obtaining your first 'Green Recognition Star', the next step is to seek your second one by asking a business friend to recommend your business. A recommendation button is displayed under the Safe & Sustainable Seal. A notification link will then appear to inform you that you have received a recommendation. Accepting the notification then publishes the comments to be viewed in public on your profile page. The second 'Green Recognition Star' is then displayed on your Whoisgreen profile to position your business higher in search results.

18 January 2012Environmental Policy

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: iStockphoto.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does your Business have an Environmental Policy?", used towards earning your 1st Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Show your colors. An Environmental Policy is a written commitment from Senior Management that the environment is important and requires protection. Management's commitment may be effected as an 'in-house' company policy or through 'third-party' certification such as ISO-14001 (Environmental Management System).

What Should I Do?

Raise the idea with your colleagues and decide if there are opportunities to save money and conserve resources by drafting up an environmental policy for your organisation.

How Do I Start?

1. Look at similar businesses who have published their Environmental Policy on their website or other public spaces.
2. Arrange to meet with your manager to gauge whether your company would be willing to develop or advance an existing Environmental Policy.

17 January 2012Recycling

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: David Burns.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does your Business Recycle?", used towards earning your 1st Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Convert your waste. Recycling including Resource Recovery is the most common method used to initiate sustainable action. Recycling collects waste such as paper, glass bottles, aluminum cans, and food scraps for reuse. Higher levels of recycling can extract valuable materials locked inside waste streams through dematerialisation once made safe for resale back into the economy.

What Can I Recycle?

Always separate and washout plastic bottles, glass bottles and steel cans. These can be recycled along with paper, organics, and other consumable things that fill our offices and homes that typically end up in landfill. Once separated, recycling facilities are able to further sort recyclable collection streams for their next life-cycle.

How Do I Start?

1. Follow the Five R’s: Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle, Recover Resources.

Reduce: buy only what you need. Many large organizations take this concept to the next level by implementing a ‘Just in Time” supply chain system to avoid time wastage and expensive warehousing costs (administrative waste).

Repair: Simple repairs by business or supplier should be the first consideration to reduce the amount of natural resources taken to make new products under a warranty claim.

Reuse: Think how you can reuse your possessions after they have finished their primary purpose. For example, continually refill a plastic drink bottle with clean & free tap water, reusing it multiple times.

Recycle: the last option when a product cannot be reused any longer. Recycled materials are typically transformed into items of less complexity and uses. However, there are examples where old car parts from junk yards have been crafted into valuable art forms (upcycled).

Recovery of Resources: mining valuable resources from waste streams is beginning to emerge as a viable proposition. To help organizations that are unlocking valuable resources from waste, you can preference your purchases towards products that contain safe materials and which are suitable for recycling. Always look at product labels which provide a detailed instruction on recycling options and if the supplier has a program to take back the product or material once it can no longer be safely reused.

17 January 2012Customer Warranty or Repeat Service

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: iStockphoto.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does your Business Offer a Warranty or a Repeat Service to Soothe a dissatisfied customer?", used towards earning your 1st Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Look after your customers. A warranty is a promise from a business fix a product or service that fails to meet the sales claims made to a customer prior to purchase. A warranty also demonstrates a commitment to quality, service, and durability. There are several types of warranties: general warranty, limited warranty, product warranty, service warranty, implied, lifetime, second-hand product, and unconditional warranty.

What Can I Offer?

Good businesses provide warranty's that are offered in the following order: Repair, Replace, or Return with a Refund. For example, we all accept that our mobile phones should be repaired rather than replaced with another phone and the old one going to landfill. A service provider such as a Dry Cleaner can also offer a warranty to repeat the service where a stain has not been removed, dependent upon the customer identifying the marked area at the time of the service request. Alternatively, the Dry Cleaner may have insurance to have the garment replaced if a customers dress has been severely damaged during the dry cleaning process, or lost upon the return delivery to the customer.

How Do I Start?

1. Good products and services should offer a warranty, decide what your willing to offer and stay true to your warranty terms.
2. Display warranty terms at point of sale and on all transaction records.
3. Balance the warranty terms with the claims made in your sales promotion.
4. Keep a record of the types of warranty claims being made, and be ready to amend your sales promotions if your claims are regularly questioned by customer complaints.

17 January 2012Green Product & Fair-Trade Claims

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: Fair Trade Organization, Forest Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does your Business Look at Green Product Claims or Fair-Trade Claims?", used towards earning your 1st Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Support Green & Fair-Trade. Third party environmental & fair-trade labels provide consumers with confidence about products and service claims, and have been established to standardize the approach to protect environmental resources and workplace conditions in developing countries.

Examples of Labels to Look For

What Can I Do?

Look for products and services that display environmental & fair-trade labels.

How Do I Start?

1. Read the product labels and specifications as part of your business procurement process.
2. Explain to staff the reasons for supporting products & services bearing environmental and fair-trade labels.
3. Ask staff to provide feedback on the effectiveness placing a preference towards environmental & fair-trade labelled products, so your business understands the merits of your continued support.
4. Provide supplier feedback.

17 January 2012Green Supply Chain

Posted by David Burns

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Photo Credit: iStockphoto.

This educational-blog provides information to help you answer, "Does your Business Consider Green products or Services as part of your Procurement Process?", used towards earning your 1st Whoisgreen Star.

What is It?

Go-Green to make more Green. Most businesses manage purchasing via a procurement process based on price, quality, quantity, location, and customer service. Procurement should be fair, transparent, and competitive. Procurement of Green Products & Services infers an additional awareness & recognition of products and services integrating recycling, durability, embodied energy/ water, and the social implications of manufacturing burdens on local communities.

What Can I Do?

Setup up an informal procurement system to purchase supply chain materials. Call for a minimum of three quotes including a question on basic recycling to be answered. Alternatively, create a preferred supplier process requiring a sustainability questionnaire. Ask a for a Business Friend’s recommendation to suggest green suppliers.

How Do I Start?

1. Obtain permission to form a group of two to three people within your organization.
2. Prepare a sustainability questionnaire to gather supplier information on current and planned green initiatives.
3. Determine if products you supply can be recycled, and to what extent.
4. Request that your senior management provide annual feedback to determine the effectiveness and engagement with other business departments.

29 August 2011New York Startup WhoIsGreen.com Invites Businesses To List Now

Posted by WIG PR

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~ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ~

August 29, 2011

New York Startup Whoisgreen.com Invites Businesses To List Now

Photo Credit: Whoisgreen. David Burns CEO Whoisgreen (left), Lauren Aichinger Whoisgreen (right) photographed with Amory Lovins.

NEW YORK: New York startup WhoIsGreen.com has today launched a unique online directory that will help consumers find sustainable businesses and green products.

WhoIsGreen.com is inviting businesses that uphold the values of sustainability, from accountants and architects to plumbers and farmers, to list their profiles free at the website and gain a vanity URL for their business.

WhoIsGreen.com, which is part of the KAYWEB Angels portfolio of startups, integrates features found on social networks, providing an interactive platform for businesses to reach environmentally conscious consumers.

“Everybody wants to live greener lives, but it’s often difficult to find green solutions online,” the Chief Executive of WhoIsGreen.com, David Burns says.

“Fan pages on general social networks are not the solution to this serious global problem and search engines do not take into account a business’s sustainability credentials when displaying results,” Burns says.

“WhoIsGreen.com solves these problems.”

A WhoIsGreen.com profile contains a business’s contact information, an overview of their services, an explanation of why they consider themselves green, Facebook and Twitter widgets, and a Bulletin Board, where businesses can list messages, articles, discounts, photos and videos.

“It was critical to us that WhoIsGreen.com was social and interactive, allowing bulletin board entries to be broadcast to a user’s Twitter and Facebook page, helping to spread the sustainability message,” Burns says.

Listing on WhoIsG reen .com beta 1 is free and now available. The founders are inviting businesses and individuals to login register their profiles now, in time for the launch of the whoisgreen.com search engine interface in coming weeks.

For further information please contact:
Lauren Aichinger - Business Development Director
lauren@whoisgreen .com ~ 917.359.7867

About Whoisgreen.com
Whoisgreen.com is an online directory of businesses that uphold the values of sustainability. Founded by renowned sustainability expert David Burns, WhoIsGreen.com provides consumers with an easy way to find sustainable businesses and green products. WhoIsGreen.com is a portfolio business of New York angel developer KAYWEB Angels see: www .kaywebangles.com.

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