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Thanks to Darren Rowse and his Photography Blog for the idea!

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BusinessWeek had an excellent article on the benefits and challenges of greening a building. The article provides some payback data for some of the better upgrades – lighting, variable-speed drives, and upgraded windows. It also introduces one of the biggest challenges that building owners face in going green, particularly in multi-tenant buildings – there is not an alignment between who pays, and who benefits. A great article.

With a late-spring weekend approaching, I felt it was a good time to let go of some frustration so that I could head off to my weekend without the baggage. I have been thinking of some of the things that really bother me about company practices around sustainability, and thought I’d throw out a list of a few of my favorite ‘unacceptables.’  I am focusing this list on tactics. I could do a larger list on issues of strategy but I’ll save that for another day. Enjoy the weekend! Read the full story

On the way to get pizza with my younger son, my wife noticed a squirrel running around the street. (See picture below.) The squirrel stayed near the car and at first we thought he was carrying a potato chip bag. Then we noticed the bag was covering his head. Baghead as my son called him, stayed near the tire and wouldn’t move. Poor Baghead. Read the full story

Padosa.com is pleased to be participating as Sponsors in PSEG Greenfest from April 3-5 in Somerset, NJ.

PSEG Greenfest is New Jersey’s premier event for green initiatives featuring state and national leaders who will share ideas about how businesses and residents can take steps to reduce their environmental impact. Friday’s presentations will have a business focus while Saturday and Sunday are geared toward consumers, both adults and children. Read the full story

I met a small manufacturer recently who expressed concern for rising electricity rates. He had been budgeting 3% increases in electricity in keeping with his history, and the past few years had shown increases of 15-20%. He wanted to know how to start a program to save electricity. He felt overwhelmed by the amount of information on the topic and was struggling to figure out what related to him. Read the full story

Ever walk by a strange closet in your office building, and hear a humming sound? Thought maybe there is a monster in the closet? Most likely the closet contained a transformer.

Transformers are the beasts that make sure that the electricity that gets to the outlet is of proper strength. Assume that lots of power comes into a building from the street, and transformers ‘transform’ the electricity into usable quantities. Read the full story

The first step companies tend to take when ‘going green’ is assure they are in compliance with government regulations. Not much teeth in most regulations though. This will change, and today’s WSJ reports on those beginnings. If carbon dioxide does get designated as a ‘danger to public health’ this would be a sure sign that companies should plan on tighter regulation.

I would advise businesses to pay attention. You have time to act, but no better time to prepare. At a minimum, pay attention to the law and begin to think about the implications for your business.

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of environmentalists speaking in the language of business if they wanted to affect business performance. Today’s WSJ has an excellent article in support of this. The article reviews the success of a program at a Subaru manufacturer that embraced green manufacturing 20 years ago. The finding – that the project has provided terrific business results measured primarily through a waste reduction program. Read the full story