Zero Waste: The Next Industrial Revolution

Here's a weighty report, a working document towards a Zero Waste plan for New York City.

The Grassroots Recycling Network provides a good chunk of information on Zero Waste practices, and businesses that have adopted them. As does the Zero Waste Alliance.

I've said this before: the SBA says, "small businesses employ about half of the private sector work force, (and) produce about half of private sector output".

So to achieve Zero Waste, we have to engage half of the workforce. We're not going for 50% waste!

I'm looking for a Zero Waste guide for small businesses -- and particularly small service businesses...but thus far I haven't found one. I'll keep digging around.

If I can't find a one, I'll write it myself!

One Plastic Bag

Since the New Year, I've stepped up my commitment to avoid taking plastic bags from grocery stores, etc. I've been using a couple of tote bags.

I've only had to take one small plastic bag so far; a saleswoman at Macy's insisted that I couldn't just put my (small) purchase in my purse. I figured she was trying to adhere to a store policy, and didn't press her.

Now, I've been using quite a store of plastic trash can liners I've got at at home. I need to research to find alternatives...

The owner of the "Korean" deli across the street from my house thanks me when I don't take a bag; small business owners know the cost of the "free" bags they give to us.

Here are some case studies relevant to small businesses from a group in Australia, No Plastic Bags.

(And I've been quite successful with my commuter cup campaign. Starbucks gives a 10 cent credit when I use a commuter cup; so large businesses know about the costs of disposables, too.)

Brilliant

I was about to close down business for the day, and went over to Technorati to see who else was posting using the tag "conscious business".

I found my way to an amazing interview with Reem Rahim, the artist behind the company Numi Tea...I have enjoyed their teas in the past, but will be inspired, I think, to select another one the next time I'm in the health food store.

Check it out...this touches on just about every theme I've been writing about here. (And also check out blogger Britt Bravo's Have Fun Do Good.)

Including the fact that starting and running a business is a creative act, an art. (Rahim is actually a fine artist.)

Begin With The End In Mind

I'm boycotting links to the NY Times (a bit) because they fail to understand that information wants to be free...sometimes the link stays out there for some undetermined period of time, sometimes they ask you to pay to see the article.

That said, a few weeks ago, there was a slightly snarky article about greenwashing, and the new buttons marketers are pushing to get us to buy stuff: the "green" button. (If you wanna pay to read it, click here.)

I'm not accusing anyone of greenwashing. (The last time I did this, I hurt someone's feelings.) But vegan chef Alex Jamieson (of Super Size Me fame) has posted a list showing ownership for natural and organic companies.

I know someone who worked for a while in a boutique investment bank specializing in buying and selling "natural and organic" businesses.

But you've got to think about the nature of a small business. These guys aren't eeeeeeevil!

Maybe you start your business on your dining room table, on your laptop. You don't get paid until the business makes a profit. You usually work a lot more hours than you do when working for The Man. You don't get paid when you're sick or on vacation.

Maybe the business grows. You start to get paid, maybe even have "benefits". (Although chances are, unless you're an extraordinary manager, you'll probably still have some concerns about your shop when you're on vacation or out sick.)

If you're really fortunate, the business grows and grows for the next 20-30 years. Then, it is time to retire. What do you do then?

Business people speak of "exit strategies". What will you do when you no longer want to work in your business every day?

Close the doors and walk away? (Sometimes this makes sense.)

One real and very possible goal is to sell the business.

If you look at the timeline, you might guess that natural and organic businesses are being sold now because the idealistic entrepreneurs who started the businesses in the 1970s are just ready to ride off into the sunset of retirement.

Who said, "Begin with the end in mind"? (Stephen Covey?)

Spend time early on in your business on the important work of envisioning your possible exit strategies.

Carbon Offsets

I'm a carbon offset skeptic. Back in the fall, I attempted to read a recent industry publication about how these things are calculated, and was utterly stymied. (And I have a masters degree in finance, so I'm good with the math, reading opaque documents like prospectuses, etc.)

I decided at that time to forget the carbon offsets, for now. (I also noted my own personal inclination to "outsource" difficult tasks. It would be easy to maintain some of my not-so-green habits and just pay someone else to handle it.)

One of my regular green read is Joel Makower's Two Steps Forward; check out his recent post on this topic.

Sick Days

Ok, after about 10 years of shockingly amazing health, I've had the flu twice since the fall.

I've had a day job is in Corporate America for the past 18 months; many of my co-workers have kids, who seem to be like petri dishes when it comes to colds and flu. And despite our bountiful benefits plan (including sick days and vacation pay...something I hadn't had for 10 or 11 years) people come to work sick! And then we all infect one another.

Why do people who get paid when they are sick come to work? I have no answer on this one.

But what about people who aren't paid when they are sick?

In denial about the possibility that I could be sick for more than two days (I'm also bulletproof), I went back to work a day too soon. I have to be honest -- I wasn't anywhere near even 80% of my ordinary productivity.

Even if you want to forget your karma, what does this mean for your business?

Sustainability Means Not Wasting People

Download the podcast -- or listen online -- to last week's Speaking of Faith, to hear Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx, tell us (and Al Gore) that sustainability means valuing people and their efforts.

You can have bamboo floors, organic cotton upholstery, and clean your windows with vinegar. But if you don't pay your employees a living wage...how sustainable -- or conscious -- is your business?

Loving the NYPL Even More!

Here's a great set of resources for current and would-be small business owners on the NYPL website.

Coolest thing is sample business plans. Want to open a rock climbing and espresso store? An art glass studio? With just your library card bar code, you can view sample business plans remotely.

If you don't see a business plan that matches your business, look for comparables. A small service business -- like a yoga studio -- might want to view the business plan for a counselling center. (Similar needs in both businesses: space, people and some minimal equipment. The "Teen Nightclub" business plan is also quite instructive for a small service business.)

What I don't know is whether any of these business plans ever became real companies.

Something like 50% of all small businesses close within 5 years, so just because I didn't find Rockhound Climbing and Coffee in Wyoming doesn't mean it wasn't real. Or maybe they chose a different name?

You can download MP3s of lectures given at the library, view FAQs, ask a librarian a question via their e-form...and more.

I don't have time to fully peruse the site today. Check it out.

What Do You Want to Create?

Interesting conversation in the media about the proposed increase of the Federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour.

In business school, we were taught that the minimum wage was irrelevant, because the market would set appropriate floors and ceilings on wages. (Ok, I went to Wharton.)

I guess one form of irrelevance would be, it wouldn't matter if I were earning $10,400 a year or $14,500 a year. Either way, I wouldn't be able to pay my rent.

A group called Wider Opportunities for Women has published a good deal of information about "self sufficiency" vs. poverty, through their Family Economic Self Sufficiency Project.

This information has been used widely; the New York City Council cited this study in its Resolution 797-2005, requesting that the Federal Government set poverty levels to reflect the cost of living in New York City.

The 2005 NYC Council resolution notes that median rent at the time was $700 a month, or $8,400 a year. This figure is in pre-tax dollars.

The 2004 study gives more detail. FESS's definition of self sufficiency boils down to, how much money does someone need to make to live without any kind of private or public assistance?

So the FESS self sufficiency calculation for a single Brooklyn resident includes: rent, $705; food, $193; transportation, $63; health care, $128; miscellaneous, $103; taxes, $325.

Not much cushion. And do even large firms offer health insurance for $128 a month?

The moral of my story is, if you're starting or running a business, know the local cost of living. Integrate a living wage for all employees into your business plan.

Otherwise, why put that business out into the world at all?

Human Rights at Home

Those who aspire to the community of conscious business people consider the origins of the materials we use. Not just whether we are saving a tree, but also the working conditions of the people who created the goods we're using.

This isn't a perfectly straightforward equation.

In 1995, I travelled to China with a delegation of business school students and professors. Shenzen, a special economic zone, felt like the wild west. We saw workmen in cheap sneakers high up on bamboo scaffolds, no helmets or other visible safety equipment, building the office buildings of corporations that now manufacture much of the infrastructure of our daily lives. (Coffee makers, TVs, telephones...)

We saw plants that had dormitories on site.

This wouldn't be accepted today in the US. Yet these working conditions were arguably preferable to some who had travelled from poverty of the Chinese countryside.

So unless we've had experience as policy wonks, international aid workers, or even ex-pats of any stripe, the product-by-product decision is a tough call.

We count on institutions bigger than ourselves to create standards for how people should be treated.

One such organization is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights.

All business owners who aspire to a sustainable small business should read the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights.
Then, apply these standards to your own business. For example, what kind of access to health care do your employees have? How about retirement planning?

My experience is that many small businesses here in the US "can't afford" these sorts of benefits programs.

Yet smart business owners know that attracting and retaining the best employees affects the bottom line. If you're in a business where employee relationships with customers matter (and who isn't?) your business is at risk every time an employee leaves. And there is a cost, in real dollars, to train the new employee.

Check out Principal Financial's guide for small and medium sized businesses: Innovation at Work: A Guide to Best Practices in Employee Benefits. What Your Company Can Learn From The Principal 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security.

People are the most valuable, most important, of our sustainable resources.

Computer Recycling in Practice

The Lower East Side Ecology Center sponsored an electronics drop-off yesterday in Union Square. I didn't hear about it until yesterday, when our local NPR station was quite aggressive in its announcements.



The point was: out with the old -- if you got some electronica as a holiday gift, why not get rid of your old stuff?



I took an old cordless phone; mainly I wanted to check out what they were doing. The NYC Department of Sanitation has a spring cleaning drop-off, I believe in the same location, in April. More on that later in the spring.

I mean, the actual calendar season -- it smells like spring here in NYC, although the temperature has gone down into the high 40s (F).

Choose Your Computer Gently

Recently, I read about a computer and electronics drop-off program run by a town in Westchester County. I wish I had saved the article: it was a one day thing, we've got them from time to time in NYC, as well. As thousands of computers came out of closets, basements, and garages across the community, a city official offered his perception: it was as though people unconsciously stockpiled the old computers because they "knew" that discarding them would harm the environment.

There's all kinds of stuff in computers. Cadmium, lead, all kinds of plastics...stuff that shouldn't be leaching into our water table.

Choosing an environmentally sensitive computer has become a bit easier. EPEAT rates computers based on 23 environmental criteria (and another 28 optional performance criteria), and their website offers a database search function that lets you evaluate the environmental friendliness of your computer.

It is not the most user-friendly of sites -- my perception is that it is meant for corporate procurement officers who have their own IT engineers to translate the tech-nese. But the search function is completely straightforward.

EPEAT was developed (with EPA funding) by a group led by the Zero Waste Alliance, a non-profit consortium of businesses, universities and government groups devoted to creating zero-waste strategies.

I first learned about EPEAT in a NY Times article about recycling computers. (I'm considering boycotting links to the Times, since even if you're willing to sign in, the article may or may not be there after a week or so...)

Vacation's Over: Time to Get Back to Work

Right before Christmas, I wrote about the change to the EPA Toxic Release Inventory rule. (Here's the original post.)

"What is TRI" on the EPA website tells us that Section 313 of The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986:

"requires EPA and the States to annually collect data on releases and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities, and make the data available to the public in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). In 1990 Congress passed the Pollution Prevention Act which required that additional data on waste management and source reduction activities be reported under TRI. The goal of TRI is to empower citizens, through information, to hold companies and local governments accountable in terms of how toxic chemicals are managed."

I wrote to the EPA to ask them for more information on this topic. The opaque 57 page explanation didn't do it for me.

Still haven't heard back from the EPA. But they have replaced the 57 page document (which I can no longer find online) with a 19 page explanation from the Federal Record.

Channeling my conspiracy theorist altar-ego, I might question the timing of this announcement. Noise on this has been pretty darn limited.

Environmental Sites
Grist
National Environmental Trust

Blogs
Autoblog Green

Press
The Christian Science Monitor
The Flint Journal (that's Flint, Michigan, folks, home of GM)

I'll dig around a bit more on this one.

January 6, Lower Manhattan, Dawn, 60º F

I went out for my coffee this morning (in a commuter cup, another resolution). Sweater, t-shirt, parka...oops.

Flipflops and bermuda shorts would have been more appropriate.

The Green-e website offers a search function, so that you can find renewable energy for your business or home.

New Year's Resolutions

I usually take an extremely early PATH train out of the World Trade Center to my office in New Jersey. It is usually cold, and always dark.

I love winter to death, and have spent several New Year's up in Northern Minnesota (where I think that the term "cabin fever" may have been coined). But I hate being cold.

Since it is January 5th, I left for the office this morning dressed like the Michelin man. It was quite jarring to sit down on the steamy hot train and see one of my fellow riders travelling sans coat. She was merely wearing a sweater over her office clothing.

Not an Icelandic wool sweater, but a springweight cotton cableknit sweater. If I would have squinted, I might have mistaken her for one of my classmates at my all-girls high school.

I was in awe of her ability to fearlessly touch reality. It was 57 degrees Fahrenheit, and we hadn't hit dawn yet. There was no need to wear a winter coat.

I like to start thinking about my resolutions after the New Year, and then ruminate on them until, say, the Tibetan New Year. (If I miss that one, I can always start over again at Rosh Hashanah.)

This year, though, I have made a start. In late December, I logged onto to Con Ed to switch to green power. When I first looked at this earlier tin the year, I was daunted: the choices weren't transparent, pricing was pretty difficult to figure. I could only know that it would cost more.

After I ran off shrieking and unable to choose, I asked a friend who is involved with the NRDC which choice her family had made: she chose Con Ed Solutions.

While online in December, I looked at my usage history.

Most of you probably know that many appliances suck energy regardless of whether they are on. Anything with a constant LED display (TV, VCR, microwave); your computer and printer; phone chargers; anything that is warm to the touch when plugged in.

In June, I put a lot of these appliances on power strips and made a point of shutting off the power when I was out of the house and last thing at night. I also switched some frequently used lights to compact fluorescent bulbs.

November is the month it gets dark, and cold. Historically, it is one of my highest energy use months.

I used 23% less electricity in 2006 than I did in 2005. I thought, I may have saved enough to pay for any difficult to determine cost increase for switching to green energy. (Now, Conscious Business is "virtual"...business rates are far higher than residential rates, even for small businesses. So I don't know what the metrics are when businesses choose green power.)

Smugly I thought to myself, look at what I've done by doing so little.

Today, I received my December bill. It is 34% lower than my 2005 bill.

I immediately went out and purchased a nicer bottle of organic wine than I'd usually buy for casual sipping. After all, I've saved a bit more than $50 in the last 2 months, just by my own ingenuity and protestant frugality.

Um, wrong. I think the mercury hit 65 degrees today in NYC.

Get on the bus.