The Dallas Green Zine

Are you a small or medium-sized business owner interested in understanding your company’s key environmental impacts and developing a sustainability action plan to “green” your operations?  An SSC Green Office Audit will review the current state of your business and suggest ways to become more eco-conscious (and even save money in the process!).  We’ll also help develop awareness programs to encourage staff and customers to get excited about environmental sustainability.

No matter what your timeframe or budget, SSC can help your office “go green”.  Check out the following options:

1.  The SSC Green Office Audit - we’ll identify your key environmental impacts, assess challenges and opportunities, and create a six month action plan to kick-start your sustainability strategy. This option is best for small or medium-sized companies that have decided to make an environmental commitment, but aren’t quite sure where to go from there.  The entire project takes about 10-14 weeks, but can be completed in as little as 6-8 weeks for particularly ambitious companies.  It includes: (1) A two-day onsite visit (2) an employee survey (3) an ecological footprint analysis (4) a carbon footprint analysis (5) a sustainability action plan.  BONUS:  Get a $500 discount if you mention The Dallas Green Zine and make your deposit by September 30th.

2.  The SSC “Mini” Green Office Audit - designed for organizations with less than 25 employees, this service is a pared down version of the standard Green Office Audit above.  If you want to take a strategic look at your operations, but don’t have the time or budget for a full audit, this might be the best option for you.

3.  Workshops and Online Training - we can put together a specialized presentation for your company on a variety of topics.  (Popular options include “10 Ways To Save The Earth From Your Office Cubicle” and “Reducing Your Carbon Impact at Work”.)  This is a popular choice for companies that haven’t made a formal environmental commitment, but want to see what sustainability is all about.

4.  Carbon Footprint Analysis - using an ecological footpring calculator developed by TheGreenOffice.com, we can assess your office’s carbon footprint.  This is a great first step in convincing management that your company does have an impact (and that there are easy ways to become more eco-friendly). 

5.  Attend an SSC Event - we have a number of interesting online “webinars” coming up this fall.  Many companies will pay for these sessions — so be sure to ask your employer about reimbursement options!  Check out our event calendar to learn more.

For more information, please contact your local SSC Associate, Karen Seeh at karen@jihiconsulting.com
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About SSC
Strategic Sustainability Consulting (SSC) provides small and medium size organizations with the tools and expertise needed to understand and manage their social and environmental impacts. Using a combination of traditional strategic planning techniques and cutting-edge sustainable development knowledge, we offer clients a highly customized approach to bridge the gap between organizational values and operational performance. Through sustainability assessments, green office auditing, supply chain management, stakeholder consultations, sustainability disclosure and social marketing, we help organizations embrace their larger societal responsibilities and be the good corporate citizens to which they aspire. As they gain brand differentiation, increased license to operate, reduced energy costs and improved employee loyalty, our clients find that “doing good” is not just the right thing to do—it also makes good business sense.

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Karen Seeh is Principal of jihi Consulting, a Mid-Cities-based sole proprietorship providing business and non-profit development services to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ventures and social enterprises. Prior to her move into independent consulting, Karen worked for 10 years in the public, private, and non-profit sectors both in Washington DC and internationally - starting as an early promoter of the triple-bottom-line and then moving into CSR as well as exploring “hybrid” business models. She has an MBA in International Business and Sustainable Enterprise from UNC-Chapel Hill and a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies from IU-Bloomington.

When I first moved into my house about 10 years ago, the insulation appeared to be fairly consistent across the attic. However, several months ago, when I climbed up there to put in some cable, and I cast a bright spotlight across the space, I could see a few bald patches in places. 

Having heard many times that before you do anything with your doors and windows, you should insulate your attic first, I decided to add blow-in insulation. Many new homes get just ‘the builder’s bare minimum’ insulation and the insulation in older homes tends to break down over time. Consequently, you might want to take a look around your attic when the weather gets cooler. 
 
I went to my local big box DIY store and bought 30 bags of the blower insulation, which is recycled newspaper that is treated to be flame resistant. These bags were around $7/each (as of April 2007).

At either Lowes or Home Depot, when you buy at least 20 of these, you can rent the blower machine for free. Although the instructions for my attic indicated 30 bags, I ended up using only 22 bags.
 
Using the Blower Machine
 
Using the blower machine is really a 2-person job. One person is in the attic shooting the insulation around and the other is loading the bales into the machine.
 
When you set up the machine, try to put it outside or in the garage and then run the blower hose through the house into the attic because it gets very dusty. Unfortunately, for me, I could not put the machine outside, and so I used a large plastic sheet to ‘wall off’ the blower to a corner of the room. (You will still end up with a thin film of dust around the machine though.) 

When you’re up in the attic blowing the insulation around, make sure that you wear a mask! The material isn’t nasty like fiberglass but it gets very dusty.
 
As you’re adding the insulation, make sure that you’re not covering any vents. And given that heat is more of an insulating concern than cold in our region, you may want to add extra insulation to the south facing parts of the house or to areas that do not have tree cover.
 
Results

After I took these measures in April, my electric bill was significantly lower. Granted, the summer was a little milder and I have 2 gas appliances (furnace and hot water heater). However, my Green Mountain electric bill for June was $105 and the July bill was $128. This is for 2250 feet of space in an older one-story house (1600 sq ft house + 250 sq ft sunroom + 400 sq ft of garage). Also, although this was lower than last year, there are other contributing factors that help keep the electric bill down:

• use of CF bulbs
• thermostat set at 78F in Summer
• more efficient laundry practices
• replacing filters regularly
• keeping coils clean behind refrigerator
• it’s a one-story house
• there are lots of trees

Finally, in addition to saving money on electricity, you can also get a tax break on the money that you spend for insulation.

If you’ve been thinking about greening your operations, you’ve probably heard something about environmental management systems (EMS).  But, unless you’re an operations manager, you might not know much about them.  The EMS came about around 15 years ago when the Geneva-based International Standards Organization (ISO) published its 14000 series of standards.  ISO is an international body which creates standards for all sorts of things — for example, 35mm film! 
 
The EMS forms the basis of the ISO 14000 standards, outlining a process for identifying and managing an enterprise’s environmental aspects centered around four core steps: plan, do, check, act.  An “aspect” is a specific term used in the context of an EMS.  An “aspect” creates an impact — simple, huh?  Many companies whose suppliers require it or who believe it will give them an edge in the international marketplace choose to become formally certified to the ISO 14001 standard.  However, for many other companies (and schools, cities, etc.) an EMS can still be a valuable system for managing and reducing the impacts of its environmental aspects.
 
Looking at things systematically can help to prevent merely transferring pollution from one media (air, water, soil) to another and to reduce accidents and fines as well as uncover process improvements.  However, making an environmental improvement in one area might adversely affect quality or health & safety.  For this reason, especially for those in a manufacturing setting, it is more advisable to pursue what’s called an integrated management system (IMS) — which incorporates environmental, quality, and health & safety considerations. 
 
It is also important to make sure that your environmental aspects aren’t merely set around your environmental regulatory requirements.  It’s far more inspiring for employees when they feel that they are being challenged to find more environmentally-friendly ways of doing things instead of being squashed under yet another layer of reporting requirements.  The human element in any sustainability plan is just as important as, if not moreso than, the technical aspects.  Moreover, like anything in life, you will get out of your management system what you put into it:  if you quickly slap a system together instead of taking the time to get organizational buy-in and to ensure that your systems coincides with other systems, procedures, etc. in place in your organization –  you will likely see little or no benefit.
 
Want to learn more?  Here are some resources to get you started:
 
The U.S. EPA has a free “integrated” (it includes health & safety) EMS implementation guide complete with worksheets to walk you through the entire process.  A comprehensive if not a bit dizzying array of EMS resources can also be found on CleanerProduction.com. 

Dr. Robert Pojasek is one of the world’s experts on IMS’s, and lucky for you, he offers a reasonably-priced online course on the subject each Spring via the Harvard Extension School entitled Strategies for Environmental Management (ENVR E-105).
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Karen Seeh is Principal of jihi Consulting, a Mid-Cities-based sole proprietorship providing business and non-profit development services to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ventures and social enterprises. Prior to her move into independent consulting, Karen worked for 10 years in the public, private, and non-profit sectors both in Washington DC and internationally - starting as an early promoter of the triple-bottom-line and then moving into CSR as well as exploring “hybrid” business models. She has an MBA in International Business and Sustainable Enterprise from UNC-Chapel Hill and a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies from IU-Bloomington.  She can be reached at karen@jihiconsulting.com

Fall is just around the corner, and you know what that means: the season of conferences and seminars is once again upon us.  Maybe you’ve been making efforts to green your office or to green your operations, but what about greening your meetings or larger events?  No doubt about it — these venues result in an almost immeasurable positive economic contribution, but this comes at a high environmental cost. Adopting green meeting practices is a great and relatively easy way to demonstrate your sustainability commitment to both your employees as well as to your customers and stakeholders. At the one extreme, you might be able to “green” these venues by simply by hosting them virtually.  However, this is impractical for some venues — such as trade shows where seeing the technology is a critical part of the sale or a final face-to-face meeting to win a large contract.  Luckily, conscientious meeting planners have some resources at their disposal (no pun intended):
 
The online resource guide provided by BlueGreen Meetings, a multi-stakeholder initiative created by Oceans Blue Foundation over 10 years ago, is a great place to start for both meeting hosts and planners.   It provides broad guidance as well as a few specific tips for every step of the event planning process — from accommodation selection to communications and marketing — and can be adapted for large or small meetings.  Meeting Professionals International has also recently begun to create a resource center on its website.
 
For detailed checklists, you may want to refer to the U.S. EPA’s It’s Easy Being Green publication or to Environment Canada’s Greening Manual. While both of these publications are ten years old, many of the basic principles still apply.
 
To go the extra step, you may also want to consider giving attendees the option of offsetting their travel-generated CO2 emissions and/or to offset the remaining CO2 emissions of your event.  Carbonfund and TerraPass are just two CO2-offset service providers that you may want to consult.
 
As with so many things, waste and pollution can be prevented with some conscientious planning that doesn’t necessarily require more effort but will initially require you to change your current way of doing things.  Remember that sustainability is a journey, not a destination.  There will always be more that you can do, but the most important thing is to take the first step.
 
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Karen Seeh is Principal of jihi Consulting, a mid-cities-based sole proprietorship providing business and non-profit development services to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ventures and social enterprises. Prior to her move into independent consulting, Karen worked for 10 years in the public, private, and non-profit sectors both in Washington DC and internationally - starting as an early promoter of the triple-bottom-line and then moving into CSR as well as exploring “hybrid” business models. She has an MBA in International Business and Sustainable Enterprise from UNC-Chapel Hill and a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies from IU-Bloomington.  She can be reached at karen@jihiconsulting.com

[Editor note: Just caught this film at the Dallas Video Festival last weekend.] 

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba became the first country faced with the peak oil crisis. Suddenly a supply of 13 million tons of oil a year dropped to 1 million. The change was seen almost immediately - within weeks. There were power outages, no air conditioning, and no elevators running. People tried to get to work with whatever transportation was available only to discover that there was no  electricity at their jobs. The Cuban government had to import 2 million bicycles for transportation. Even construction was severely limited because cement production requires high levels of fuel.

However, the biggest and most immediate problem became food scarcity. There was no fuel to transfer food and no electricity to refrigerate it, and the massive use of oil-based fossil fuel for pesticides and farm machinery had disappeared. Within the first few years of this crisis, these constraints, coupled with the continued U.S. blockade on food, resulted in an average weight loss of 20 lbs for most Cubans.

With hunger spreading, people were left with no other choice and resorted to growing food wherever they could, and this led to widespread urban gardening.  Famine was prevented by converting every open space in the city into gardening. Because they could no longer get access to oil-based pesticides, farmers had to resort to growing food organically. This was not easy. After years of large commercial farming with pesticides, the land didn’t respond right away to organic measures. It would take 3-5 years to make the land fertile and productive again with organic methods. Today 86% of Cuba’s agricultural production is organic.

Farmers also began the practice of crop-mixing to reduce pests, and scientists began making and exporting bio-pesticides. Changes also resulted in smaller farms and more privately-owned cooperatives. Decision making became localized with fewer state regulations. Even schools became more decentralized.

Private farmers began having the highest levels of production. A sense of ownership led to greater productivity as more people began moving to rural areas to start private farms. Also, sugar mills began being converted into power plants.

Despite the many problems that Cuba continues to face, the Cubans have managed to find a way to use less energy. Today, the average Cuban uses 1/8 the energy of the average American. They also eat more vegetables, bicycle everywhere, and place a greater value on science and health care. (Although Cuba represents only 2% of the population of Latin America, it has 11 percent of all the scientists.)

Whether you view peak oil as real and inevitable, or as just a `market creation,’ I think that you will still find this film interesting and insightful-and perhaps, inspiring.  

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
USA, 2006
53 Minutes, color
Directors: Faith Morgan

For more information about this film, visit The Power of Community.

You can also view a 28-minute interview with Megan Quinn who worked on the filming, by clicking here.

If you’re looking to move to a new neighborhood or you’re wondering how you neighborhood compares to others in terms of being ‘walk friendly,’ then check out this tool at Walk Score at http://www.walkscore.com/.

According to Walk Score, walking matters because it promotes:

• better health
• a reduction in greehouse gas
• more transportation options
• increased social capital
• and stronger local businesses

To use Walk Score, go to http://www.walkscore.com/ and enter your street address.

It will show the score along with a map and the mileage required to walk to specific grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, fitness centers, and more.

Scores are rated as:

90 - 100 = Walkers’ Paradise
70 - 90 = Very Walkable
50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations
25 - 50 = Not Walkable
0 - 25 = Driving Only

Walk Score admits that there are some walkability factors that have not been included in their algorithm (e.g., weather, bodies of water, safety, or pedestrian-friendly design (grid vs. suburban loopy streets with cul-de-sacs).