Being "Green": What does it mean?

Sustainability is a hot buzz word in business these days. Even municipalities like Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, and Muskegon are jumping on the bandwagon to be good environmental stewards. Why? Here are just a few benefits of being green:

  • Lower costs
  • Higher profits
  • Pleased shareholders and customers
  • Improved employee health and morale
  • Favorable public relations
  • Recognition as an environmental leader

Sure, being green makes good business sense, but it's also the right thing to do. There's growing demand from consumers, employees, business partners and the community as a whole for companies to be accountable and responsible for their impact on the environment.

 

Green Companies in West Michigan

Our clients, Light Corp. and Nichols are just two of many area companies that are building their business around the concept of sustainability. Here's what they have to say about being green:

"There's a great debate taking place throughout the world today regarding global warming. Whether you agree or disagree with the pundits, the bottom line is that we are impacting the planet," says Larry Leete, Light Corp.'s director of Sales & Marketing.

"From a business perspective, the bottom line comes to exactly that - the bottom line," Leete continues. "If products exist that allow for a better environment - both from an organizational perspective as well as the ecosystem and these products allow for lower energy bills translating to more money going to company's bottom line - isn't that worth pursuing? It's simple, green equals green."

Marcie Palmer, Nichols' marketing coordinator, says her company has realized measurable savings from being green.

"In our main distribution center we recycle between 400-600 lbs of plastic and eight yards of corrugated packaging per week. Although this is our first year with this type of recycling program our early figures estimate that we will save approximately $6000 per year by recycling these materials and our efforts will protect the environment."

Palmer also notes Nichols offers a green cleaning program to train its customers.

 

Extra, Extra: A Better Bulb

Wal-Mart has leverage with its suppliers to persuade them to be more environmental responsible. The box store giant recently announced its fluorescent bulb suppliers agreed to greatly reduce the amount of mercury in CFL energy-saving bulbs.

Wal-Mart notes the CFL bulbs can save up to $30 in electric costs during their useful life, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 450 pounds.

One downside to all this: the CFL bulbs will still contain some mercury, unlike the popular but less-efficient incandescent bulbs. Environmentalists are concerned the bulbs, sold in mass through the chain store, will end up in landfills broken with the mercury leaching into the soil and food supply chain.

The solution? The EPA and bulb manufacturers recommend recycling used CFLs by dropping off used bulbs at commercial recyclers, municipal waste collection sites and participating retailers, such as the Swedish home furnishings company IKEA that accepts CFL bulbs.

 

Good Green Reads

There's no shortage of books on sustainability and environmental stewardship for business. Here are a few top picks:

  • Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston (2006)
  • Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2002)
  • The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- and How You Can Too, Savitz/Weber (2006)
  • Greed to Green: The Transformation of an Industry and a Life, David Gottfried (2004)