Building Businesses For a Better World Part I:
Going A Deeper Shade of Green

By Michael S. Brown

Every year the United States alone produces…
230 million tons of nonhazardous waste (4.6 lbs per person per day)
Over 40 million tons of regulated hazardous wastes
205 million tons of carbon and other toxic emissions

In fact, right now, the United States is considered the largest contributor to global warming, producing 25 percent of greenhouse gas worldwide. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, we need to decrease U.S. greenhouse gas pollution at least 80 percent by 2050 to prevent the worst consequences of global warming.

While organic suppliers, farmers and processors have long been leaders in forging a better path toward environmental sustainability—reducing the use of harmful chemicals and improving resource management—many other important efforts have become part of the global consciousness including everything from waste reduction to energy and water conservation.

All these different aspects of sustainability have begun to merge into expectations from customers, activists and government regulators, who are holding businesses to higher standards. While today, most of these stakeholders assume that a certified organic supplier is doing good, tomorrow the expectation is that they will have to show that they are doing good across the sustainability spectrum.

Product Life Cycles: Looking at Every Step Within The Big Environmental Picture
Organic processors already use more sustainably grown ingredients, however, there are many other environmental elements to address when creating, marketing and distributing a product.

Is your manufacturing facility and office building conserving as much energy as possible? What about the carbon footprint of your transportation? And, what happens to the product (including the packaging) at the end of its usefulness?

Over the last 15 years, a growing number of companies have started to look at the environmental impact of their products through what is called life cycle assessment (LCA). This requires analyzing at your product from “cradle to grave”—following the raw materials through their manufacture, transport, sale, use and the disposal of the final end product. Some life cycle concepts even take it cradle to cradle, forcing you to think of what your waste can be used as in the next life (see Dialogue). Looking at everything you create or purchase from a life cycle perspective can help you identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste, improve quality, save money and provide products that are more environmentally sound. Knowing more about their product life cycle has led companies to make better choices in raw materials, create designs that facilitate recovery and recycling of materials and construct lighter weight products that reduce shipping energy.

Understanding the impact of your product’s entire life cycle is the first step to knowing what you need to change in order to ensure that the whole of your product is truly in line with the eco-conscious ideals that drove you to create an organic product in the first place. Start by breaking down every step. Some of the biggest ones that organic companies may need to take a closer look at include packaging, transportation, energy and water use, waste and your office and manufacturing facilities.

Companies can start to get a scope of this on their own through research or get a full professional LCA to help break down the details. No matter how you do it—the most important thing is to take control of your whole product process and make it more eco-responsible. Although it can be expensive and time consuming, an official full-scale LCA will give a quantitative picture of a wide range of environmental measures including energy, water and resource inputs along with emissions associated with air and water pollutants and solid and hazardous waste. It is important for all companies to start with the most detailed information available about product inputs and manufacturing processes, however, most LCA software providers have created databases with detailed life cycle data about inputs and emissions that can be used to approximate impacts. Some of these LCA database providers have collected data for organic versions of products such as cotton and hemp textiles.

The Value Chain: Your Partners in Environmental Responsibility
The increasing awareness of life cycle issues has led to demands for accountability throughout the supply chain. Increasingly, product manufacturers and retailers are turning to their suppliers and asking for a variety of data (quantitative and qualitative) on the materials and products they purchase and the factories in which things are made. Brands are looking at those suppliers who can cooperate in efforts to establish quantitative LCAs as long-term partners in maximizing environmental performance. This approach requires that everyone in the value chain give consideration to what others contribute and demand. Everyone in the chain must understand the package of market values that are embodied in a product and how they contribute to the product as a whole.

The organic industry is familiar with this—most organic suppliers understand that each and every part of the organic supply chain has to take responsibility for promoting demand for products that are defined not only by price, quality and delivery, but by the way in which the product is made. What is different today is that the organic industry has to be cognizant of other sustainability issues that go beyond the chemicals and practices that define organic on the farm and in processing. Green practices are becoming expectations of the organic customer.

Going Beyond Organic—Taking Your Business to a Deeper Shade of Green
As an organic company, you are already greener than most, but after looking at product life cycles and the way your business runs, there are probably steps that can help take your commitment to the environment to the next level.

Create a Sustainability Policy/Vision Statement
As any motivational speaker will tell you, the success rate of achieving a goal increases when you write it down. Aveda, one of the largest purchasers of organic personal care ingredients, included sustainability goals in their mission when they first started their company—but it is never too late.

“Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty, but around the world.”
—Horst Rechalbacher, Founder

These are not just feel-good words that sit on a shelf. Walk through Aveda’s corporate offices, manufacturing plant, distribution center and 120-plus stores and you will find the mission painted on the walls, hung on posters, repeated in conversations and used every day. People ask themselves if a product, strategy or an ingredient is “mission-aligned.” It’s a challenge to everyone in the company to live up to the ideals and a driver for constant improvement.

Whatever policy or statement you develop, it has to fit your organization. Once you have it, you need to make it an integral part of your culture. Company leadership has to support it, talk about it and celebrate efforts that translate the words into action on your products and company performance.

You may also want to consider developing a sustainability policy that more comprehensively defines what you stand for and sets the bar for your performance. This can always be compacted. Interface, a commercial carpet company, boils their more comprehensive statement down to “Mission Zero: Our promise to eliminate any negative impact our company may have on the environment by the year 2020.” This has led them to focus on seven “fronts”: eliminate waste, benign emissions, renewable energy, close the loop, resource-efficient transportation, sensitize stakeholders and redesign commerce.

Assign Responsibility
In some organizations, the CEO has taken on the role of chief sustainability officer to make it clear to the organization that pursuing sustainability is a priority value. Even in those organizations, however, the day-to-day responsibility for making progress on sustainability goals has to rest on someone who can make immediate decisions and provide help with implementation. It can be a person dedicated to sustainability or it can be a part of another job with sufficient visibility and authority in the organization to be recognized as a leader on the issue. Responsibility for sustainability does not mean that this person makes change happen; that requires the cooperation of many within an organization. What the designated person is responsible for is being a resource, a cheerleader, a visionary, a spokesperson on the issue, the “go to” person on what defines sustainable actions for the company.

Define Metrics and Goals
In many organizations, the cliché “what gets measured, gets done” is really true. The fact is in most businesses, the things that are valued are things that can be measured—units sold, costs, income, net profits—and those are the things around which performance incentives are built.

Just about every organization that has moved down the path of sustainability has done so by setting goals and measuring progress along the way. Doing so makes it clear to the entire organization what achievements are expected. Setting clear, achievable goals for sustainability and identifying appropriate metrics (e.g., energy and water use, waste generation and recycling, air, water and carbon emissions) will make it clear to all within the organization what “counts.”

Making Utilities Pay
Responsible utility use is a huge factor in greening your company. Many companies start with an energy audit to establish a “carbon footprint,” or the amount of emissions related to your company or a product. These companies can also help you figure out ways to reduce your energy impact. This differs from an LCA in that a carbon footprint mainly looks at energy usage, not the holistic environmental impact. Also LCAs are usually product focused.

Besides doing a full footprint analysis, there are many other ways to gauge your use of resources. Create a spreadsheet to track your gas, electric and water bills. Also, many utility providers will conduct free audits for customers. Because technologies for energy and water efficiency improve over time, it is worthwhile to audit your operations every few years. Some of the items to consider include:

• Do we use more water than needed? Do we run sprinklers on timers that keep running even when it is raining? There are irrigation controllers that can sense the need for water based on soil moisture. Look at installing flow restrictors and incorporating a water reuse system. For more info, go to www.irrigation.org.

• Do we waste energy? Do we keep lights and computers on when no one is around? Is our lighting efficient? If you have T12 fluorescents with magnetic ballasts, switch them to T8 high-efficiency (and low mercury) fluorescents with electronic ballasts. Incandescent bulbs can usually be replaced with compact fluorescents (low mercury). Ware-houses that have older metal halide fixtures can be upgraded to T5 fluorescent high bay fixtures that give more light, are dimmable and use way less energy. Use lighting controls to automatically shut off and/or dim lights when spaces are unoccupied or sunlight is sufficient. For task lighting, use LED or compact fluorescent desk lamps.

• Are our equipment and processes up to current efficiency standards? Any refrigerator that is at least 7 years old should be replaced as the efficiency of new refrigerators is much higher than older ones. Variable frequency drives can replace older motors and save significant amounts of electricity. HVAC systems should be tuned regularly and evaluated periodically to determine if newer equipment is a worthwhile investment. Consider installing meters to identify energy or water usage on some equipment.

The cumulative benefits of some simple (and not so simple) energy efficiency actions add up quickly. Stonyfield Farm reduced facility energy use by 46 million kWh and the associated CO2 emissions per pound of product by one third between 1995 and 2005. This resulted in a savings of over $1.7 million and prevented over 14,000 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

Running on Renewable Energy
Using renewable energy, also known as “green” power (e.g., wind, solar photovoltaics and solar thermal, geothermal, biomass, some types of hydroelectric), is an opportunity for every company to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases. Go to the U.S. Department of Energy’s website (www.eere.energy.gov) to find out if your utility provider offers this option or if there is a green power retailer in your area.

With green power, documentation and audits are critical to making sure it’s actually created, delivered to the grid and not double counted. Purchasing through a utility company, rather than a third party retailer, is arguably the most solid because it directly funds the additional cost for a utility to invest in green power for its service territory.

Instead of buying green power, some companies are creating their own by putting solar photovoltaics on their roofs or over parking lots, using on-site methane sources to run electricity generating turbines or converting wastes to electricity. Even with non-ideal sun positioning, San Francisco Bay-Based Cowgirl Creamery was able to use solar to cut their electric bill by 55 percent and prevent the emission of over 70,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Many companies are actually able to completely eliminate their electric bill using solar power.

The cost effectiveness of on-site generation of renewable energy depends on the availability of wastes, solar access and other factors such as subsidies and tax incentives. For those that can’t afford a system of their own, e5 Clean Energy, a company out Agoura Hills, California, will design, install and maintain their own solar system on your buildings at no upfront costs; you just pay monthly solar use fee (priced at a rate much lower than than conventional energy). Check with local renewable energy companies about other opportunities that may be available to you. Visit www.solarcompanies.com or www.windustry.com for more resources.

Greening Your Building
The green building industry has matured to such an extent that it is possible to incorporate a wide range of green features in new construction as well as existing building rehabs with minimal cost impacts. A true green building is oriented to maximize solar gain in winter and minimize it in summer. It provides fresh air without heat loss in cold weather or heat gain when it is hot, and is designed to allow natural light to enter throughout occupied spaces without creating glare. This will minimize the size and need for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting all while providing an environment that enhances well-being and productivity. In fact, a study published in the Engineering Economist found that building a new efficient building increased productivity by 25 percent while also reducing energy use by 30 percent per square foot.

There are a lot of resources available that can provide you with ideas and sources for green building. Start with the U.S. Green Building Council, the sponsor of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which provides the most widely recognized green building guidelines. While a building can be LEED certified, you can also use the guidelines to create an equivalent green building. You don’t get quite the same bragging rights, but you do get all the environmental, social and economic benefits.

Another resource is Environmental Building News, a monthly newsletter that is authoritative, unbiased and chock full of information. The publisher, BuildingGreen, LLC, also puts out Green Building Products, a listing of materials, products and sources that is useful in any building related project.

Patagonia, which uses 100 percent organic cotton in their sportswear line, has seen a variety of benefits from green building. Its Reno Service Center, originally built in 1996 and expanded ten years later, incorporates a myriad of green features including:

• Pervious paving, detention ponds, and oil separators to manage stormwater on the site and avoid contamination of the river that runs next to the facility.

• Light colored paving, trees placed to shade buildings, and a white “cool” roof to reflect sunlight and lower cooling demand and costs.

• Landscaping that doesn’t require supplemental irrigation (xeriscaping) to minimize potable water use.

• Bathroom and shower plumbing that results in 40 percent less water use than baseline calculations.

• Strategically placed skylights with solar tracking reflectors, lighting controls that automatically dim or increase interior lighting depending on the need, radiant heating, night flush cooling to replace air conditioning and insulation in roof and walls to reduce energy use.

• Building materials included recycled content and 20 percent of all building materials were manufactured within 500 miles to reduce transportation energy. Nearly all wood products were Forest Stewardship Council certified, and low or no-VOC coatings, adhesives and other related products were used. Also, during reconstruction of the Reno Service Center, over 75 percent of the construction waste was recycled or salvaged.

Rethinking Waste
Having a recycling program is a must for any green business, and many of you probably have one already. Composting is yet another way to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill. When you combine this with biodegradable office kitchen/cafeteria items, this reduces waste even more. Nature’s Path donates all unusable spills from their manufacturing line to local farmers for compost, they also have composting at their employee café which is used to fertilize their grain demonstration gardens. Patagonia was able to reduce their waste to less than 1 percent of the estimated waste generated in a typical warehouse by creating a comprehensive LEED specified recycling program and taking other steps such as selling all their shipping plastic to a plastic wood manufacturer and donating old computers to a local company that refurbishes them for families in need. Patagonia also collects used garments via the company’s Common Threads Recycling Program. For more ideas on reducing waste, visit Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange, www.p2rx.org.

While recycling, reuse, remanufacturing and refurbishing are all good things to do—they don’t address why waste occurs. Process flow analysis is a method for describing all the activities and inputs and then analyzing each piece of the process to determine where waste exists, what creates waste, and how you might change the process to eliminate the waste.

Ensuring Eco-Friendly Packaging
One of the biggest ways to reduce waste is through your packaging system. There are so many more eco-friendly options these days, it would take an entire article to get into the details. In fact, Organic Processing actually covered this specifically in “Breaking Down Sustainable Packaging Options” in the March/April 2008 issue.

LCA and the soon-to-be-updated MERGE both offer ways to analyze packaging options. The new owner of MERGE, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, also has great advice on their website, www.sustainablepackaging.org.

When Aveda was researching packaging options, they used a variety of resources including the pre-updated MERGE, along with a “Materials Use Toolkit,” which features a plastic hierarchy that ranks the material by its environmental impact. Today, Aveda uses a minimum of 80 percent (and up to 95 percent) post-consumer recycled materials (PCR) in their packaging, reducing their need for virgin plastic by 300 tons annually. Their bottles are all recyclable, with the exception of the cap, which they are launching a collection project for this year.

Supporting Other Green Efforts
Through your marketing. Use of PCR materials and other eco-friendly products for marketing efforts at trade shows and such can make a huge difference. By simply choosing to print their Spring Catalog on PCR paper without chlorine, Earth shoes preserved 494 trees, saved 209,499 gallons of waste water and conserved 347,350,000 BTUs of energy. Also make sure that you chose a marketing partner that specializes in sustainable companies so that they understand your vision and can help you come up with creative green marketing strategies.

Through your purchases. From supplies to services, businesses have more green alternatives to choose from today than ever. Research everything that your company spends money on and see if there is a more eco-friendly option. In their National Green Pages, Co-op America lists thousands of companies that provide green products and services. Try to purchase:

• Office supplies made from PCR materials (paper, pens, binders, etc).

• Equipment that is Energy Star rated (printers, monitors and computers).

• Products that avoid or minimize hazardous materials in the product and during manufacture (powder coated rather than spray painted products, etc).

• Products that are certified through an eco-label such as Green Seal (for multiple items including paper, cleaners and paints), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for wood products or Cradle to Cradle for office seating and otherproduct categories. Many other eco-labels exist; not all are equally rigorous, but they are useful for identifying products with environmental attributes.

• Services, such as web hosting, that incorporate renewable energies such as solar and wind power. Many green office cleaning services are available, too.

• Company vehicles that reduce emissions or dependence on fossil fuels such as hybrids or biodiesel. Look for trucking companies that incorporate biofuel.

Through non-profits. Join up with an organization that is taking action environmental intitatives. One Percent For The Planet is a group of hundreds of companies that donate 1 percent of their sales to a network of over 1400 environmental organizations worldwide. Co-op America, a consumer and green business awareness and activism group, is another great way to learn more about green initiatives and support eco-awareness. Green 2 Gold, a non-profit that helps develop green buiness ideas and eco-friendly solutions, is also a great resource.

Through employees. Encourage your employees to take part in eco-friendly practices by creating car pooling and bike to work programs. Some companies also offer paid time off or reward systems for employees to volunteer with environmental organizations.

You Can Do It
Sustainability is a process, not an end. All it takes to get started is you saying that it’s time to start. Yes, it takes some time. And yes, it does take some resources. But the benefits to your company, employees, the communities in which you operate and your customers are tangible and valuable. All you have to do is take a first step.

Michael S. Brown is a principal of Brown and Wilmanns Environmental, LLC (www.bw-environmental.com), an environmental consulting firm that has worked with many companies from Aveda and Stonyfield Farm to FedEx and Ben & Jerry’s. You can reach him at mike@bw-environmental.com.