(Hint: They are everywhere.)

Arguably as recently as 20 years ago, the so-called “green consumer” fit into a certain demographic that many companies considered a narrow one and not necessarily an economically viable “target” for advertising and marketing dollars. If, however, you are still thinking that today’s “green consumer” is a narrow segment of the population, you are operating in the past, and more importantly, missing out on a very important, very broad market for your products and services. For example, in a recent study commissioned by retailer Plow and Hearth (a subsidiary of 1-800-Flowers.Com Inc.), it was reported that 55% of women and 45%of men intended to purchase green products during the holiday season. (“Holiday Shoppers Plan to Spend More on Green Gifts.” Portland Business Journal. November 24, 2008). Likewise, in a recent report released by Green Seal, an independent nonprofit product certification organization, and EnviroMedia Social Marketing, four out of five people reported that they are still buying “green” today, notwithstanding the current tough economic times. (“Green Purchasing Up, Despite Economy.” Livescience.Com. February 7, 2009.)

In fact, it turns out that some very good, very reputable, and very profitable companies have evolved their business plans to target, or at least to include, today’s green consumer, with the knowledge that today’s green consumer is young and not-so-young , male and female, stay-at-home parent and career professional.

Method: Bringing Green to the Mainstream & Earning Green

Take Method for example. Method was started in 1999 by two young entrepeneurs, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry. Essentially Ryan and Lowry sought to market household cleaning products that not only appeal to today’s green consumer’s green conscience, but also to his/her aethetics, convenience, and pocketbook. The Method philosophy is that by creating a product that is stylish, consumers will be attracted to the product, and by creating a product that works, consumers will stick with the product once they try it. By creating a product that is effective and looks good (but is environmentally sound in its composition, effect, and packaging), Method seeks to reach a broader audience than other household cleaning product companies.

As a panelist at a 2007 New Yorker Magazine Conference Program entitled: “Solutions 2012: Stories from the Near Future”, Adam Lowry described how his company is all about “bringing green to mainstream.” In fact, Lowry left his work as a climate scientist in the public sector because he felt that his work was only “preaching to the converted” and he was dealing primarily in an area that separated – rather than integrated – ecology and economics. Lowry was certain that it was possible to work in the business sector and still align ecology and economics, and the success of Method has proven his point. In fact, in 2002, Method obtained a distribution deal with Target Corporation, a move that has really led the way for Method to reach mainstream green consumers.

However, unlike the “converted” that Lowry previously targeted in his work as a climate scientist, Lowry acknowledges that today’s mainstream green consumer is not likely to be willing to make sacrifices in order to purchase a green product. Thus, in order to effectively target and include today’s green consumer, Method focuses on “total quality” of which green is certainly a component, as is efficacy and design. Method focuses on creating household cleaning products that work without harsh toxic chemicals, but instead are made with naturally derived, biodegradable ingredients. Their products apparently work by absorbing dirt rather than chemically degrading it. Method also maintains a green corporate philosophy, pledging to reduce “carbon emissions by planting forests and by buying electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind energy”. The packaging is natural too; for example they make recyclable bottles from 100% recycled plastic. [Source: www.methodhome.com]

Method consumers have responded positively to the company and its products, and Method has a name for its most passionate consumers: People Against Dirty. The company provides a forum on their website for People Against Dirty and tries to encourage them to disseminate the corporate message by arming them with company information and samples. It is a grassroots movement of sorts and at the 2007 New Yorker conference, Adam Lowry was quick to credit the success of the company in part upon this movement, noting that it is often more effective than a 30-second commercial.

TerraCycle: Eco-Conscious and Profit-Driven

Another company targeting the mainstream green consumer is a company called TerraCycle. Also the brainchild of young entrepeneurs, TerraCycle was founded in 2001 by two Princeton University students, Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer, who created TerraCycle Plant Food, an all-natural, all-organic, liquid plant food made from worm waste and packaged in reused soda bottles. TerraCycle Plant Food is now sold in Home Depot, reaching a broad audience of consumers, including today’s green consumer.

TerraCycle, like Method , evolved from the founders’ notion that a company could be financially successful while still being ecologically and socially responsible. Like Method, TerraCycle has its own corporate conscience and even grassroots movements, including recycling programs established with various schools that collect bottles for TerraCycle’s packaging, in return for school donations. TerraCycle also has instituted several “Sponsored Waste” programs, whereby corporations pay TerraCycle to collect their waste products (such as candy wrappers, juice and yogurt containers) and “upcycle” them, that is, create a new usable product. Examples are pouches, shower curtains and totebags that TerraCycle sells on its website and in stores such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Method and TerraCycle: Sustainable, Innovative & Successful

As described above, Method and TerraCycle share several main attributes in common, attributes that any small business would be wise to emulate, as these practices have not only made the companies better companies, they have arguably helped them to broaden their customer base and increase sales.

• They both market products that are environmentally friendly.

• They both package the products in recycled and otherwise environmentally friendly packaging.

• Both maintain a corporate conscience as evidenced by their corporate participation in environmental and social programs.

• Lastly, both companies have fostered grassroots movements that both complement their corporate conscience and help to advance their marketing aims.

But the similarities do not end there. Both companies recognize that today’s green consumer will not always make sacrifices to buy green. This means that the price point, aesthetics, and most importantly – quality – cannot be ignored in creating and marketing your “green product.” Put simply, while companies like TerraCycle and Method were founded on the belief that ecology and economics need not be segregated to market to the green consumer; these companies have prospered due to the realization that product quality and the environment need not be segregated – indeed cannot be segregated – to effectively market to today’s green consumer, who is – did I mention? – everywhere.

By Amy K. Impellizzeri

Beer. It does the planet good.

Nearly two decades ago, beverage visionary and Beer School author Steve Hindy made a decision that would help change the way New Yorkers drank beer.
“You want me to do what?” asked Brooklyn Brewery’s first head brewer.

“I want you to brew the best-tasting beer you can, whatever the cost,” replied Hindy, the company’s president and co-founder.

For the brewer, it was an unusual request, one he had never heard before. He came from a tradition of beer-making that had been dominated by large-scale producers — macrobreweries like Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors — whose light-tasting, marketing-heavy beers accounted for 19 of every 20 beers sold in the US during the ’80s.

But over the next twenty years, rogue “craft brewers” — Hindy and his upstart Brooklyn Brewery among them — would gain ground by using macrobrewery production as a foil. They insisted the title craft beer be used to differentiate breweries that were small (producing less than 2 million barrels annually), independent and dedicated to using 100 percent taste-centric ingredients.

Today, because of that insistence on quality over quantity, they are the fastest growing segment of the beverage industry. While macrobrewery growth stagnates, craft breweries enjoyed an unparalleled 58 percent increase in sales between 2003 and 2007.

Having achieved a sustainable level of success, they’re taking an opportunity to once again change the way their customers think about beer. No longer bemuddled by finding their niche in the market, Hindy and a few upstart brewers are refocusing their energy on, well, energy itself.

A handful of craft pioneers are reinvesting their profits in green power, and, in doing so, expanding what it means for everyday imbibers to drink responsibly. They’re powering their operations with wind-, solar-, and bio-energy, and finding new ways to recycle and reuse their waste, all despite the fact that it is getting more expensive to do so. Shortages of grains and hops, coupled with increasingly hostile competition from larger conglomerates has put a pinch on their efforts.

On principle, though, they forge on.

“Alternative energies are costly,” Hindy says, “but we think it’s the right thing to do.”

This year, Brooklyn Brewery will produce 80,000 barrels of beer — and they’ll do so having run entirely on 100 percent sustainable wind-power. The energy alternative adds a 10 percent premium to a monthly bill that already hovers around $20,000; but it prevents more than 300,000 pounds of pollution from entering the earth’s atmosphere each year.

When the system was implemented several years ago, Hindy received unexpected praise: some sent letters, others simply bought more beer.

“I guess people feel better about their beer knowing it’s powered by the wind,” he says.

In the face of corporate lip-service announcements, Brooklyn Brewery’s quiet efforts led the way in showing New Yorkers that reducing their carbon footprint wasn’t about walking on USDA-certified organic eggshells. It was about everyday choices, even the ones made in the beer aisles of the local supermarket.

Months earlier, in a distant Williamsburg office, Hindy set the tone for such decisions. After biking to work from his home in Park Slope, he sat down at his desk, considering operational improvements that might be made without reducing the quality of his beer. Some time in the afternoon, he received a call from a local energy advocate informing him of a temporary strain on the grid. After Hindy hung up, he walked to the front of his office and switched off the lights and went on working near his window.

He would go on to review improvements in his distribution network, making concerted effort to distribute within a reasonable radius. Growing regionally is more practical, he says, now that it costs more than $3 to truck each case of beer across the country.

Down the road, Hindy’s staff anticipates working with partner-breweries to spread the Brooklyn taste: crafting, bottling, and distributing Brooklyn-inspired beers on someone else’s home turf.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more breweries collaborating, sharing their processes in the future,” he says.

At home, too, Brooklyn Brewery continues to evolve their brewing process. They are in the midst of searching for a new facility, and the opportunity to start afresh has fueled a host of eco-friendly, energy-efficient ideas. Harnessing solar energy, utilizing natural heat transfer, and capturing chemical reactions are a few of the promising initiatives that would bring the brewery closer to running on its own homegrown power.

“Breweries lend themselves to a lot of eco-friendly processes,” Hindy says. As soon as the battle for a new space is won, they’re ready to tap in.

Photovoltaic solar panels, for one, have the potential to alleviate the largest energy expenditure in a brewery. Constant temperature modulation — roasting grain solutions, boiling and sanitizing the sugary byproducts, then reducing the scalding liquid down to cold, fermentable temperatures in the mid-50s — is akin to Brooklyn Brewery constantly heating and cooling the water held in 150 swimming pools.

According to the New York Public Services Commission, however, solar panels could supply half of that power (one-third of the brewery’s total usage) with an initial price tag of under $500,000. Recouping that cost through energy savings and government rebates would take Brooklyn Brewery less than 20 years, half the solar panel’s lifetime.

Furthermore, if they chose to couple the solar installation with a heat-transfer system, the brewery could make even more efficient use of energy. Pipes running alongside the hot panels could deliver water naturally heated to 140 degrees, well on its way to the requisite boil.

Processes happening within the brewery — many of them chemical — also hold potential to subsidize breweries’ energy needs. Scientists in Australia and Colorado have discovered that the same bacteria used to ferment beer can be used to help fuel the brewery. The process is simple: What we consider waste, the bacteria consider food. By placing them in an oxygen-free microbial cell with the brewery’s waste water instead of in tanks of beer, the bacteria consume undesirable elements in the water, and, in the process, leave behind both chemical energy and partially-treated water. Foster’s Brewery in Australia produces enough energy with this method to power a house for one year.

* * * *

Still, significant hurdles stand between Hindy and his brew-topia. Rising real estate costs in Brooklyn have made the battle for a new brewery nearly impossible, shelving green innovation for the time being.

To make matters worse, precipitate rises in the price of grains and hops (the bittering agent in beer) have increased brewers’ costs an extra dollar for every six pack produced, compared to just 3 years ago. It may not sound like much, but with macrobreweries like Anheuser-Busch and Belgian-owned InBev consolidating to hold more sway in the grains and international markets, craft breweries know something has to give.

Reducing quality has never been an option for Brooklyn Brewery. The use of adjuncts, additive grains like corn and rice favored by larger breweries, would dilute their taste and violate the goal of brewing the best beer regardless of cost.

“You can’t compromise those kinds of principles without sacrificing your business,” Hindy says. As for their green initiatives, he believes “they may be costly in the short run, but in the long run they will be worthwhile.”

Warily, Hindy announced this past February that Brooklyn Brewery would be increasing the price of their products by six percent, across the board.

Since the price increase, Brooklyn Brewery’s sales have held steady, growing by double-digit percentages in each of the past six months. As of December 2008, no progress has been made in acquiring a new facility.

By Ashwin Sodhi

Ashwin Sodhi is a freelance writer and new media journalist living in New York City. He specializes in the creation and syndication of interactive content, and has been featured on several prominent blogs and online magazines. Ashwin can be contacted at ashwinsodhi@yahoo.com.

Recycling – whose business is it? Government, industry, households, schools all can play crucial role in keeping our communities clean through recycling. Recycling is a good example of successful green practice. Recovering and reusing materials result in substantial environmental benefits. If managed well, the benefits of recycling can outweigh its cost.

The following are some examples of how businesses in America have successfully recycled and reused waste. At the same time many have created an additional stream of revenue through recycling.

• The aerospace company, The Boeing Co., made $60 million last year through recycling. This included selling scrap metal and hawking used drill bits, safety glasses, wood containers and other excess goods at its six surplus stores in three states.
• How much money could you possibly save by reducing paper waste? Aid Association for Lutherans saves $30,000 per year. How? By simply reducing the use of paper in cafeteria with reusable & washable ceramic plates & coffee cups, composting yard waste and sending cafeteria grease & cooking oils to rendering firms.
• A change in lifestyle at a manufacturing firm, Placon Corporation, saved $120,000 per year. This came at a cost of $124,500 spent on innovative product design that uses less materials and absolute minimum amount of plastic, wider assortment of rolls of plastic, 30%-100% recycling plastic usage in its products, etc.
• Cooper Wiring Devices, an electric manufacturing company, generates $5000 per year in revenue by selling pallets to a recycling company. It also generated additional savings by using mulch made from breaking & chipping pallets. Also, it avoids disposal costs of approximately $12,250 per year on corrugated cardboard. It achieves this saving by flattening and consolidating approximately 50 tons of corrugated cardboard for recycling every year.
• Beer brewer & distributor, Brooklyn Brewery, saves more than $25,000 per year by recycling corrugated cardboard and stretch film plastic.
• By selling rubber foam to a recycler for $0.02 per pound, Premier Brands of America – a foot & shoe-care products manufacturer – in New York, saves $1200 in disposal costs and earns more than $4000 in revenue every year.
• Schumacher Electric Corporation saves $$ on corrugated material purchase and waste. It manufactures corrugated packaging from the incoming cartons and saves $60,000 per year. In this process it also reduces production of up to 70% of the baled corrugated for recycling.
• Ferodo America, a brake blocks manufacturer, reuses – rejects, dust and flyaways – and reaps financial benefits. By investing $475,000 in a recycling system, Ferodo is able to reuse materials like rejected brakes, dust & flyaways. This recycling saves Ferodo $950,000 per year on raw materials and eliminates 1,150 tons of waste.
• American Electric Power Company made a new stream of income by selling ash required for the production of cement. In 1992, it generated $755,000 from ash sales and avoided $1,910,000 in landfill costs. About 95% of fly ash produced at its Rockport plant was used for paving highways, runway expansion and other construction projects.
• A paperless office – does it make sense? Not literally no paper but with minimal paper use Millipore Corporation expects to reduce costs of purchasing office paper through the use of paperless technologies. Electronic version of its quarterly financial reports alone could save $25,000 per year eliminating 60,000 printed copies. Some of its programs for reducing use of paper include email for communication, electronic document control system, online catalog, and double-sided copying.

It can be deduced from the above stories that recycling is a highly effective strategy for reducing waste. Existed technologies can be used to maximize economic, environmental and societal benefits of recycling.

Useful Links

• State Recycling Tax Incentives
• Office paper reduction quick tips
• Waste Prevention tips
• Here are some ways to cut down on the amount of wooden pallets and crates entering the waste stream: Wooden Pallets and Crates
• Economic Benefits of Recycling
• Recycling calculator
• Waste Calculator

Most of us recycle at home in one form or another but recycling in the office is another story. Many small businesses are not set up to recycle. It takes time and effort to arrange a recycling program but there are numerous benefits. Recycling helps companies save money by reducing garbage service pick-up, reduce’s the organizations carbon foot-print, and helps improve employee morale. These days it feels good to do the right thing for the environment and the staff will most likely be excited about participating in this worthwhile effort.

Here are some tips for launching a recycling program in your office.

Step 1: Enlist Buy-In from Management.

The first step is to assign a ‘recycling coordinator’ who is committed and interested in spearheading the recycling program in your office. The recycling coordinator needs to enlist management’s support before pursuing the program. Management’s buy-in is key to the success of the program. Once management signs off on the program, the coordinator should enlist volunteers to form a ‘Green Team.’ Send out a memo to the company announcing the program. Explain the benefits of recycling: saves the company money by decreasing garbage service pick-up, helps reduce the company’s carbon foot-print, and helps improve employee morale. Inspire employees to participate by assigning awards for those who embrace the new program, such as for those employees who initiate the process. Get creative about ways you can make it fun for the staff!

Step 2: Determine what items to recycle.

Take a walk through the facility and look at what recyclable materials are being thrown in the garbage. The most common items are paper, cardboard, plastic, cans and bottles. Keep in mind that packing material, toners, electronics and office equipment are potentially recyclable. Initially target your recycling program to include the largest volumes of waste being thrown in the garbage. If you work in an office, typically your largest amount of garbage will be from paper so start there. Once your recycling program is up and running, begin recycling other waste in your office such as cans and bottles. Continue to build on your successes as you progress.

Step 3: Hire a recycling company to pick-up materials.

Once you have decided which materials to recycle, ask your garbage company if they will pick-up and recycle these items. There are also independent recycling companies you can hire. Visit www.recyclestuff.org for a listing of recycling companies or call the Recycle Hotline at 1-800-533-8414.

Step 4: Determine where to place recycling bins.

Recycling bins should be located next to where the materials are generated, such as next to copiers and printers, and in work stations and near break rooms.

Recycling bins should be properly labeled and should be placed next to all waste baskets in your facility.

Step 5: Create a plan for collecting recyclables for pick-up.

Decide how waste will be moved out of the facility for pick-up by the garbage or recycling company. Communicate your plan with your cleaning staff as their support is integral to the success of your program. Explain to your cleaning crew that the implementation of a recycling program will most likely reduce the amount of garbage generated in your facility and thus will lighten their workload.

Here are some ideas used by other companies for collecting the recyclables in your facility. Discuss these with your cleaning staff and decide which works best for your facility and which adheres to any service contracts.

1) Employees are responsible to empty their individual recycling bins into a centralized bin (one centralized bin for every 10-15 employees). The cleaning service is then responsible for only collecting the recyclables from the centralized recycling bin in addition to emptying the regular garbage.

2) The cleaning staff empties both the recycling bin and the garbage can from each workstation according to their typical cleaning schedule.

3) Employees are responsible to empty both their individual recycling bins and their waste baskets into larger centralized bins. The cleaning staff is only responsible to empty these larger bins.

4) The cleaning staff collects recycling from each workstation and employees empty their regular waste bins into centralized bins. The cleaning staff only empties these larger bins.

Step 6: Educate Staff.

Share your new program with everyone at your company. Train them in each step of the process. Set-up a recycling training session and have every employee physically walk through the recycling process. Implement the recycling training into your new hire orientation program. Include your cleaning crew in the program. Create enthusiasm for the program by distributing awards for those who contribute the most and for those who initiate new ideas. Consistently send emails to the staff about the program and acknowledge employees who make great efforts. Continually ask for their ideas to improve the program.

Step 7: Follow-up and Measure Results.

Announce positive results about the program through emails and company newsletters. Continually monitor the progress of the program. Staying on track of the program will help you make necessary adjustments for improvement and maintain buy-in from management and staff. Measure your program’s success by asking for volume reports or tonnage from your recycling companies or garbage service. Quantify the results by announcing the amount of resources saved, pollution prevented or money saved for the company. Important stat: for every ton of paper your company recycles, 17 trees are saved! Think about announcing the number of trees your company has saved over time – such as every 6 months or on an annual basis as a way to measure and acknowledge success.

Step 8: Encourage the creation of other Waste Reduction Programs.

Once the recycling program is running smoothly, encourage the staff to reduce waste in other ways. Ask the Green Team to implement a waste reduction program. There are a myriad of ways to save energy and reduce waste beyond recycling. Re-using materials, purchasing green office supplies, installing motion sensors, connecting your electronics to a power strip, printing documents on both sides, are just a few ideas. Much the same way you launched a recycling program, do the same with a waste reduction program by making it fun and creative and participatory for the staff. Remember to continually update your staff on the programs’ successes and create innovative ways to reward your staff and encourage continual enthusiasm. Once you have a few green programs under way, maybe you will want to create a Green Olympics where staff competes against each other in terms of who can conserve the most energy and save the most money for the company! Have fun and good luck!

We are trying to get the conversation started. So, please help! Be one of the first 100 to leave a post in our forum, and you’ll earn our deep appreciation. And hopefully you’ll get some useful feedback as well. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to lower waste disposal costs

The best way to cut waste disposal costs is to reduce the waste generated. A cost-efficient way is to reuse products in their present form. Materials that can’t be eliminated or reused can be recycled to reduce disposal costs. By diverting waste from garbage bins into recycling bins, businesses can reduce their garbage bin size and the frequency of collection. This could reduce garbage collection costs and associated fees on garbage. See this example how recycling saves money. So reduce, reuse and recycle products to lower your waste disposal costs.

A few ideas follow.

Step 1: Reduce, reuse, and recycle writing or printing paper.
A) Print on both sides of the paper.
B) Update your mailing list as regularly as possible.
C) Reuse manila envelopes.
C) Always use the second side of paper, either by printing on both sides or using the blank side as scrap paper. Use scrap paper to take notes instead of using notebooks, company pads, or message pads. Use scrap paper instead of stickies.
D) Instead of making individual copies, circulate memos, periodicals, and reports.
E) Review your document on the screen instead of printing a draft. If you must print a draft, use the blank back side of used paper.
F) Save documents on computer disk instead of making print copies.
G) Reduce all junk mail by 75% by registering for Mail Preferences Service on Direct Marketing Association website.
H) Avoid color printing. Color printing generally uses more ink, so print in black and white when you can.
I) When typing documents, especially drafts, use a smaller font and decrease the spacing between lines, or reformat to keep your document to as few pages as possible, especially when typing drafts.

Step 2: Reduce, reuse, and recycle Packaging and Shipping.
A) Use durable boxes instead of cardboard boxes for shipping to branch offices, stores and warehouses.
B) Reuse foam peanuts and cardboard boxes.
C) Return cardboard boxes and foam peanuts to distributors for reuse.
D) Reuse wooden pallets.
E) Order merchandise in bulk.
F) Request supplier to ship in returnable containers.

Step 3: Reduce, reuse, and recycle equipment.
A) Invest in waste reducing equipment such as copiers that print on both sides of the paper, dishwashing machine and durable dinnerware.
B) Recharge fax and printer cartridges.
C) Use rechargeable batteries.

Step 4: Reduce, reuse, and recycle landscaping waste.
A) Compost grass clippings and leaves.
B) Use compost as manure for your landscape.

Step 5: Reduce, reuse, and recycle personal waste.
A) Use cloth towels, tablecloths and napkins instead of paper products.
B) Use durable dishes, cups and glasses instead of disposable products.
C) Bringing lunch to work in reusable containers is likely the greenest (and healthiest) way to eat at work. But if you do order delivery, join coworkers in placing a large order (more efficient than many separate ones).
D) Use cloth roll towels in restrooms for wiping hands.