Therapist Works to Green his Practice

Tim Desmond, a therapist in private practice in Oakland, CA, has signed up for our Greener Businesses program. He is moving toward a 100% phone counseling practice, which he estimates could save thousands of miles of driving each year for him and his clients. He recently posted about his experiences moving from in-person to phone counseling on our main blog. You can read more about him as well as case examples of his work on his website www.coherencecounseling.com

Donlen Corporation and Sierra Club Launch "Cool Fleets"

Back in June, the Christian Science Monitor ran an article on the greening of car fleets. Partly to develop green cred, and partly to save money on gas, companies ranging from Abbot Pharmaceuticals (which has a big fleet for its salespeople) to Enterprise and Hertz are adding thousands of hybrids and flex fuel cars to their fleets. While they've had to literally beg for hybrids because of relatively limited production, automakers like Toyota are stepping it up to meet the demand of these big buyers.

That's good news for both the environment and the future of green car manufacturing: because they're buying in bulk, fleet owners and managers can give car makers an extra push towards developing and producing vehicles with higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions. Last week, Illinois-based fleet management company Donlen Corporation released, in partnership with the Sierra Club, its Cool Fleets web tool, which is designed to give fleet managers an extra push towards choosing more climate-friendly vehicles. Noting that fleet professionals need information about environmental impact in context, Donlen CEO Gary Rappeport claims that the Cool Fleets tool organizes this information in a manner that makes the benefits of greener cars obvious:

Fleet managers cannot make effective decisions in a vacuum. Simply looking at isolated carbon data will not provide the complete picture. With this calculator, carbon-conscious decision makers can now reach a conclusion that is well-received by an organization's environmental and finance teams, just as our existing clients also use this resource. ...

...the tool allows vehicle fleet managers to accurately determine and compare global warming and air pollution emissions, as well as fuel and maintenance costs for all types of vehicles. For example, the tool calculates that a hybrid vehicle can cost 22% less to operate, and emits 46% less global warming pollution over a three-year period, than the average mid-size sedan. In addition, the tool provides a financial analysis of carbon output and how it affects the organization's bottom line.

Fleet managers can compare actual vehicles on a wide range of features, including fuel costs based on the actual price of gas in the user's region. Just playing with the tool, I could easily see that while an '08 Toyota Prius has a higher sticker price than a Chevy Malibu LS (both "large compacts"), the fleet owner would make up that difference in fuel savings... and also emit half of the greehouse gases. A no-brainer... right?

Those of us who are passionate about environmental protection tend to argue in those terms, as they're meaningful to us. But business people, however green they may be, need the business case, and the Cool Fleets tool looks like it does a nice job of offering just that. Fleet managers can have their green cred without breaking the bank... what better example of a "win-win?"

Categories: cars, fleets, tool, fuelefficiency, emissions, climatechange, globalwarming, sierraclub, donlencorporation

Herb'n Maid: Green Cleaning Comes to the Lou'

A couple of weeks ago, I got email from Richelle White, the co-owner of Herb'n Maid, a new green cleaning service in town. While I'm now officially inundated with press inquiries, I thought Richelle and partner Larbi Belkouch's story was intriguing, and wanted to give some attention to their fledging company.

According to the press materials Richelle sent me, she's yet another one of those people who grew weary of working in the traditional corporate world because the values of her employer didn't match her own. She set out to build the kind of company that she'd like to work for, and discovered, upon looking for less toxic cleaning products for her own use, that nothing like a green cleaning service existed in St. Louis. Boyfriend Larbi was a research scientist and the former owner of a janitorial service. The two of them put their heads together, and Herb'n Maid was born.

One part of the launch that I found particularly interesting was the development of their own products for use in clients' homes and buildings. Larbi makes the cleaners himself in small batches with a range of earth-friendly "natural ingredients and essential oils like tea tree oil, spearmint, tangerine, ginger, eucalyptus and — White's favorite — lemon verbena."

So far, the reviews are strong: the company has published numerous testimonials on its website, and Sauce magazine, a local publication devoted to the maxim "Dine, Drink and Live Well!" featured the company in it's Daily Sauce newsletter. Richelle tells me they've been "wonderfully overwhelmed with inquiries."

It's good to see yet another green business not only launching in St. Louis, but also succeeding. People are concerned about the toxins in typical cleaning products, and the EPA notes they have good reason: "In the last several years, a growing body of scientific evidence has indicated that the air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities." We're not in the market for a cleaning service right now, but should that change, I know who we'll be calling...

Categories: green, cleaning, business, service, herb'nmaid, nontoxic, stlouis

Detroit -Area Startup Sees Gold in Printer Cartridge Recycling

While printer ink cartridges (at least for a home printer) seem like a small thing, Kirk Goodell tells The Detroit News that over 500 million of these items are produced every year, but less than 20% of them are recycled or remanufactured. That number may go up a bit as Goodell's two-year-old company IQ Cartridge will be have a retail presence established in over 100 Meijer stores around the Midwest by mid-October.

Founded by company president Kristin Kavanaugh and Goodell, the vice president, IQ Cartridges offer something incredibly important to raising levels of recycling: convenience. Currently located in 57 Meijer stores, customers can drop off and pick up ink cartridges, generally with a one-day turnaround. The company also has contracts with a number of businesses in the area, including Eastern Michigan University Computer Center, Ludwig Seeley Commercial Real Estate, and and AllTire, and offers free deliveries (in a subcompact car) to businesses on orders over $50.

While printer cartridges are small things, the revenue projections for the company aren't: with the growing contract with Meijer, the company expects to see almost $1 million in sales this year... not bad for its second year! The company's website badly needs some design help, but there's great information there, including a list of ten misconceptions about remanufactured ink jet cartridges.

While I'm realizing as I read over this that it sounds a bit like a press release, I'm impressed because it looks to me (at least from this one article) that IQ Cartridge has hit upon a couple of truths about green business: first, people will make greener choices if it's easy for them to do so; second, providing that opportunity to potential customers can be profitable.

Like many greenies, I want more people to take bigger steps towards lowering their environmental footprint. I want to see them give, and perhaps even sacrifice to make the world a better place. But, I also realize that a lot of people don't have that level of motivation: they'd like to do the right thing, but aren't willing to make extra efforts. It's easy to berate; it's probably more productive to point out the opportunities this creates for creative entrepreneurs willing to meet the needs of these "lazy environmentalists." If the number of ink cartridges (or glass and plastic botles, etc., etc.) getting recycled increases. that's still a step forward.

Image credit: Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit News

Categories: recycling, inkcartridges, business, iqcartridge, meijer, detroit, michigan

Massachusetts Ski Resort Harnesses the Wind to Make Snow

Thought I'd step outside of the Midwest tonight for a look at a great story from the Northeast. I've noted before that the ski industry around the world is taking a hard hit from climate change. This, coupled with the green bent of many skiers and snowboarders, has led numerous ski resorts around the country to begin purchasing renewable energy. The Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock, Massachusetts, has upped the ante, though: they've purchased their own wind turbine, at the hefty price of $3.9 million.

This is a lot of money to buy green cred, but, ultimately, the decision to make such a large investment came down to the bottom line: electricity prices rose by 50% in the 2005-06 ski season, but 7% less skiers came to Jiminy Peak last winter because of warm weather. To help offset the cost of the turbine, the resort will sell part of the electricity generated to local residents. According to the Boston Globe,

By using half of the energy to help power the resort and the other half to power local residences and businesses, Jiminy Peak hopes to receive $138,000 in renewable energy credits and $161,000 for the energy sold to outside consumers in each of the next 10 years. At the resort, windmill-generated energy will replace a third of that produced by oil, coal, or natural gas, powering ski lifts and snow-making machines

It gets even better. The resort's website notes that it its need for electricity peaks at the same time that area winds are the most reliable: in the winter. According to Jiminy Peak's renewable energy page on it's website:

• Snowmaking is a critical user of our electricity and at Jiminy Peak our wind resources is the greatest during the winter months, the same time of year that we make snow.
• Most importantly we need to protect Jiminy Peak’s financial health and do everything in our power to preserve jobs and the economic stimulation that our resort creates for the local community and Berkshire County. Wind power will provide Jiminy with significant annual stabilization of cost on electricity and will allow Jiminy Peak to project a portion of their electricity costs for 25 years into the future. Due to the significant wind resource here at Jiminy, the wind power is the most economical energy stabilization measure for the resort.

A business case for installing renewable technology? You bet. And when one figures in a $582,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and the $300,000 the resort will make annually from the sale of electricity and renewable energy credits over the next ten years, the cost drops to just over $300,00, plus interest on the loan. There are also the reduced electricity bills. While this level of investment isn't feasible for every business, in this case it seems like a no-brainer.

It's easy to focus on the high costs of renewable technology, but, as this example shows, the benefits of clean energy aren't just environmental: they also create economic opportunity. Jiminy Park can not only breathe a little easier about its energy costs... it may also attract a few more skiers next season who respect that "green cred" the resort has purchased.

Image credit: Joel Glickman and Jiminy Park Mountain Resort

Categories: skiresort, windpower, renewableenergy, jiminypeak, hancock, massachusetts

Anheuser-Busch Looking to "Close the Loop" in Beer Production, Transportation

As you might imagine, we hear lots about biofuels here. So, I almost quit reading this story in the Business section of today's Post-Dispatch after the first few paragraphs, which discusses the local brewing giant's experiments with growing crops for biofuels on its Fort Collins, Colorado, agricultural site. I stuck with it, though, and found out that there's some interesting thinking going on at A-B in terms of powering both its breweries and trucking fleets. According to Jeremiah McWilliam's article,

The brewer's plan is to create what [John Stier, the company's director of environmental affairs] calls a "closed loop." The idea is that spent water from its breweries in Florida and Colorado would irrigate crops. A-B then would harvest and send the crops to a renewable fuel company, which would convert the material into fuel sources to power the brewer's trucks, heavy equipment and possibly breweries in Florida and Colorado.

Some of the experiments have humble beginnings. The company has planted switchgrass on two acres in Jacksonville, Fla., so University of Florida researchers can determine which native grasses yield the most "cellulosic ethanol," alcohol derived carbohydrates in cell walls of wood chips or grasses.

Alternatively, a mulching process could convert the plants to gases to fire the boilers in the company's Jacksonville brewery, Stier said.

A-B is already doing some interesting things in terms of using "waste nutrients from the brewing process to create methane that helps power nine breweries in the U.S. and two overseas." Some may quibble about the focus on cellulosic ethanol (which McWilliams notes is not a commercially viable technology yet), or even the use of the term "closed loop." There are certainly legitimate arguments to be made there; I'm still impressed that the company is involved in this kind of thinking and planning. They're also setting fairly aggressive goals: an increase of its use of biofuels from the current 8% to 15% by 2010.

Interestingly enough, the company could become a major player in the development of cellulosic ethanol because of economic realities: they use corn as an ingredient in some of their beers. Not only would increasing their use of corn-based ethanol raise suspicion among those who aren't convinced of the environmental benefit of the fuel (and you can count me among them), but A-B would be contributing to the rising price of a commodity they need to buy.

I'm still not a Bud or Busch drinker -- I prefer a Schlafly when I do have that occasional beer -- but I think A-B's efforts to lower its consumption of fossil fuels are worth watching...

Categories: anheuser-busch, beer, biofuels, cellulosicethanol, biodiesel, stlouis

How Many Trees Went into Your Beauty Products?

Huh? Jeff really must be working too hard... right? Well, I probably am, but the question is legitimate, according to Southern forest sustainability organization the Dogwood Alliance. While many of us greenies are focused on the environmental impact of roses, chocolate and even adult products on Valentine's Day, Dogwood raised questions about the amount of packaging used for health and beauty products. According to their blog,

Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Revlon are three of the biggest health and beauty companies using excessive packaging originating from Southern forests—forests with more types of plants and animals to love than almost anywhere in the world. Excessive packaging of beauty products is just plain ugly, and destructive too.

Dogwood Alliance called on Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and Revlon to reduce the amount of paper in packaging, increase post-consumer recycled fiber used in packaging, and ensure that their paper products are not coming from endangered forests.

The message is simple - forests shouldn’t be chopped down, chipped up, made into packaging and tossed in the landfill. There are simple solutions that can transform the packaging industry.

Of course, it's not just activists asking for less packaging on products; retail giant Wal-Mart focused on packaging for some of its earliest sustainability initiatives. This seems like a hard one to argue against -- do you think any company would try a variation on the standard line and say consumers demand more packaging?

If you're interested in joining the Dogwood Alliance's campaign, they've created an action page where you can express your thoughts to the beauty products makers listed above. Give 'em hell... in a Valentine's Day kind of way, of course...;-)

Categories: activism, beauty, products, packaging, paper, waste, forests, dogwoodalliance