• The implications of California’s new mandatory recycling law, when it goes into effect, and what it means for your business
• How to be in compliance and benefit from the savings opportunities of increased diversion
• The 7 steps of a successful waste reduction program
• Tips from a case study showing how a leading Bay Area company turned waste reduction into reduced waste bills

Our panelists included:
• Tracey Harper, Integrated Waste Management Specialist and Contributor to AB32 Mandatory Commercial Recycling Measure, CalRecycle
• Tauni Swenson, Waste Diversion Program Manager, iReuse
• Tim Schmidt, (former) Facilities Coordinator, Autodesk

To view this presentation, click here.

Green is the New Black
The post-recessionary case for sustainable business.

By Janine Kubert

 “…[T]he goal of sustainability is to increase long-term shareholder and social value, while decreasing industry’s use of materials and reducing negative impacts on the environment.”

                                                                                                                                    (Source: EPA)

I was in a meeting with a property management client recently, giving the lead engineer a report on the environmental and financial cost savings we had helped them achieve at each of their facilities.  We were reviewing a report with charts showing energy and water usage and costs, waste diversion rates, and greenhouse gases produced and avoided. Here he stopped me. “Greenhouse gases aren’t as important these days,” he said. “Given what happened at Copenhagen and the questions around the science, a lot of people I know think that tracking greenhouse gases is no longer the main point. Maybe you can push those charts to the bottom.”

For someone who has been an advocate of helping businesses reduce their environmental impact, I felt that I had just lost a key leverage point.  For years there was an increasing tendency among the sustainability crowd to use the threat of impending climate change legislation as a primary incentive for businesses to take action on environmental initiatives. Had the primary incentives for corporate environmental stewardship shifted in just the past year?

The answer is a resounding “yes”.  Although some companies that position themselves as environmental leaders still see sustainability as an opportunity to innovate and differentiate, more companies are issuing sustainability reports and making green claims but not using environmental stewardship as the main filter of which initiatives to pursue. On the tail-end of a recession, now more than ever, the main driver for them when implementing green initiatives is one of cost savings.

Fortunately, sustainability and cost savings often go hand-in-hand. Recent surveys on green building and corporate spending both confirm that for most CEOs and facility managers alike, saving money on energy and other operating expenses is the number one reason why they pursue any so-called “green” initiative.

So, although the triple bottom line is still important, many businesses care more about the reduced financial impacts of any project. They see reduced environmental and social impacts as added benefits.

This has shifted the case for sustainable business. Yes — companies are more motivated to take on projects that help them reduce waste, become more efficient, and save money, rather than those that are just touted as “green”.  But whether you call it operational efficiency or saving the planet, sustainability can produce bottom line savings and help companies get out of the red and into the black.  In fact, this should be the new slogan for the sustainability community if we hope to get businesses to take action: green is the new black.

Sustainability reports should also be reframed as a metrics-driven transparency tool that can help businesses turn green into the new black. By tracking and reporting sustainability metrics, companies increase their cost savings and add credibility to their claims of reduced environmental and social impacts.

Many sustainability reports published today suggest that companies either don’t track or don’t reveal enough in the way of metrics. In a KPMG survey about sustainability reports, readers said corporate sustainability reporters are most likely to omit failures, leading to questions about the credibility of these sustainability reports. Readers generally have a low opinion of internal company and national reporting guidelines. Readers also want to see companies provide direct and useful information about what their sustainability impacts are and what they are doing about these impacts in concrete terms. They suggest that reporters need to provide evidence of how their key sustainability impacts are addressed in operations.

But what about the growing field of carbon accounting? Although many sustainability reports include some sort of carbon footprint, those don’t usually include metrics on water, waste, or procurement because those categories are not required under many reporting schemes. Instead, the data provided by carbon accounting ledgers often only covers onsite fuel, corporate fleets, business travel, energy purchased from utilities, and employee commutes.

Whether or not a company chooses to publish a sustainability report, everyone needs to track all of these metrics to ensure cost savings and reduced environmental impact. Without comprehensive internal reporting on metrics, companies do not have a clear picture of how they are performing over time. They lack the information they need to evaluate and improve their practices. Metrics-driven sustainability is smart business.  And, if a company chooses to publicize their sustainability efforts, their metrics will help to increase transparency for stakeholders and dispel any suspicions of green-washing.

All of this leads to enhanced brand equity, increased customer loyalty and revenues, and operational cost savings, proving again that green is the new black.

About iReuse:

iReuse is a sustainability consulting and software company founded in 2005 that serves organizations interested in reducing their operational costs and environmental impact. iReuse software and services provide organizations with a clear sustainability roadmap to achieve measured results.

iReuse Sustainability Consulting helps organizations implement programs such as waste diversion, energy efficiency, water conservation, green procurement, greenhouse gas measurement and reporting, green business certification, LEED certification, and more. Many top organizations like Kaiser Permanente, Delta Dental, Adobe, Wells Fargo, Autodesk, and PG&E have benefited from iReuse’s expertise in program development and implementation.

The iReuse Tracking and Reporting Tool is an easy to use web based application that provides organizations with the transparency they need to cut waste out of their operations. By helping organizations reduce and track their energy, water, and materials usage and increasing their waste diversion rate, the Tool delivers an immediate positive environmental and financial impact.   The Tool also provides attractive reports on their progress so organizations can communicate their improvements to executives, employees, and the public.

Contact:

For more information about iReuse, please contact Janine Kubert at Janine@ireuse.com or call 415-332-9977 x245.

Written by:

Janine Kubert, Director of Operations, iReuse

Join us on June 22nd to learn about the implications of California’s AB32 Mandatory Commercial Recycling Measure, including when it goes into effect and what it means for your business. Learn about compliance issues, savings opportunities from increased diversion, and the 7 steps of a successful waste reduction program.

Register now.

You will have an opportunity to see firsthand, the processes and tools they use to bring the concepts of ‘transparency and immediacy’ to their consulting assignments. You will learn about innovative and proprietary software tools designed to measure a client’s savings and over-all success. You will hear from ENERGY STAR and LEED experts who will demonstrate how to recognize the relationship between a building occupant’s behaviors, sustainable improvements and enhanced building value by measuring Net Present Value (NPV) and rates of return (IRR) for clients. And finally, you will see how all of these measures contribute to a comprehensive sustainability program benefiting building owners, managers, tenants and any corporation interested in operating a more sustainable business while enhancing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) brand.

Where: Environmental Building Strategies, 1014 Howard Street, San Francisco
When: 5:30-7:30PM
Cost: $10 members, $15 non-members; $5 more at the door

Register

Learn how to strategically implement cost-effective initiatives in your building or facility in order to generate sustainable profits for your business. Our expert panel will explore the current economic, environmental, social and legal drivers for implementing such strategies, share real-world case studies and promote best practices. You are invited to come hear from the experts, get inspired by their stories and get motivated to initiate sustainable solutions in your business.

Panelists:
Julia Wilhelm, Studley
Ken Kurtzig, iReuse
Carlos Santamaria, Glenborough Properties

Moderator:
Yolanda Manzone, Hanson Bridgett

Thursday, May 6, 2010
5:30pm – 8:00pm

Hanson Bridgett
425 Market Street, 26th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105

REGISTER

A fundamental part of iReuse’s commitment to the environment includes our role as an Endorser of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) innovative WasteWise program, the country’s first national voluntary solid waste reduction program.

As a WasteWise Endorser, iReuse encourages organizations to reduce municipal solid waste through waste prevention, recycling, and buying or manufacturing recycled products. iReuse has helped companies save hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchasing costs and waste disposal fees by reducing, reusing, and recycling solid waste materials.

The WasteWise program has a broad and varied membership that reflects the makeup of corporate America.  More than 1,100 organizations have joined WasteWise since 1994, demonstrating their leadership in finding cost-effective ways to reduce waste.  Partners include many of the country’s leading manufacturers, retailers, and service firms, spanning more than 50 different industry sectors. The program also services federal, state and local governments, tribes, and other non-corporate institutions.

Becoming a WasteWise Endorser is another example of name of iReuse’s continued commitment to helping businesses reduce their financial costs and environmental impact. Read more about our Waste Diversion Consulting Service or our Tracking and Reporting Tool to learn how we can help your company get started!

Read the full article: Software Tools Ease Environmental Data Tracking

Alternative energy is great, but unless a commercial property has maximized the efficiency of the building, using alternative energy from solar panels is just masking the inherent inefficiency of the energy usage.

Let’s look at a slightly exaggerated example to prove a point.  There is a 250,000 square foot office building which is 60 years old with 20-year-old lighting, 20-year-old heating and cooling systems, and a huge data center stacked to the roof with servers because the IT team believes that “he who dies with the most toys wins.”  For some, this is unfortunately not much of a stretch.  Now say that all the lights, heating/cooling, and all the IT equipment in the entire building are left on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including Passover and Christmas.

At this point, you have two choices.  You can either encourage the employees in the building to turn everything off on weekends and holidays, which will reduce the energy usage by about 30% right off the bat and not cost you a dime, or you can choose to put $1,500,000 worth of solar panels on your roof so that at least a percentage of the exorbitant energy being used by the building including weekends and holidays is coming from the sun and not some coal burning power plant (note: many locations don’t even get sun on Christmas, so the solar panels would just be roof decorations.) This seems to be a fairly obvious choice, and I may be exaggerating for illustrative purposes, but what remains true in most situations is that the use of alternative energy should only be used once the internal system is as efficient as possible.

Before we get into what you should or shouldn’t do, let’s explore why you would want to install solar in the first place.  Most companies install solar for one or all of the following reasons: they want to make their employees and customers happy by showing that they are committed to sustainability; they want to save as much money as possible on their energy bills; or, they want to make the most significant environmental improvements that they possibly can.  Let’s simplify this even further and say that companies want to save money while doing the right thing.

Saving Green by going Green
If a company’s goal is to reduce their operating expenses and energy related expenses, installing solar panels has a fairly unattractive return on investment when compared to retrofits such as high-efficiency lighting upgrades or the installation of occupancy sensors.  Solar panels require a substantial capital outlay with a payback period of around 7 to 10 years whereas upgrading your lighting or installing occupancy sensors can have as little as a 1-3 year payback period.  Just looking at the financial implications, wouldn’t it make sense to implement every project that has a zero to seven year payback period prior to implementing projects with a 7- to 10-year payback period?

Going Green to be Green

Harnessing energy from the sun is absolutely amazing.  There is really only one thing in my mind that is more amazing: not needing the energy in the first place.  In evaluating the environmental benefits of solar panels, we must include consideration of the full lifecycle environmental cost of producing, distributing, using, and disposing of solar panels, as well as all the myriad of energy efficiency alternatives.  Unfortunately, these trade-offs can only be estimates since current technology does not allow us to have 100% transparency into the full environmental impact of any decision we make.

Employee & Customer Satisfaction

Let’s face it: as soon as employees or customers see solar panels on the roof, there is an immediate assumption that the company is “green.”  A company could have the most inefficient operations in the world, but as soon as it places a few solar panels on the roof, people think they must be doing it right.  Five years ago, if you asked a company what they did to be green, they would all tout the fact that they recycled their bottles and cans.  Now many people know that being the world’s best recycler is just a small piece of being a truly sustainable organization. I think that solar will take the same path.  As energy efficiency becomes more popular and people become more engaged in totally transparent operational efficiency measures, employees and customers will be more interested in the Energy Star rating and total kilowatt hours reduced by the company each month, rather than just seeing some solar panels on the roof.

In the end, solar is one answer, but it should not be the first answer. Like dropping a supercharged engine into a rundown car that barely operates, a premature solar installation will be a high-cost, high-visibility solution to the wrong problem. Once you can’t reasonably shave any more kWh off of your energy bill, then alternative energy is a great solution to get you closer to energy neutral.

Excerpt
“So many companies we work with have had efficiency saving goals, but no plan for achieving those goals. They recycle, use paper instead of plastic, but have no idea if they’re using more resources and energy than the competition…”

Wineries Go Green - And Can Prove It