Green Business

EPA's Center for Corporate Climate Leadership serves as a resource center for all organizations looking to expand their work in the area of greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement and management. The Center was launched in 2012 to establish norms of climate leadership by encouraging organizations with emerging climate objectives to identify and achieve cost-effective GHG emission reductions, while helping more advanced organizations drive innovations in reducing their greenhouse gas impacts in their supply chains and beyond.

This guide from the Library of Congress provides resources on business sustainability in general and in select industries, and offers useful information for businesses striving to implement green practices and for consumers considering a switch to an earth-friendly lifestyle.

The Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps businesses integrate green practices through education and engagement, causing a business to find profitability in sustainability.

Pollution prevention (P2) information for sustainability professionals. Geared particularly toward those new to the P2 field.

Formerly GreenBiz, Trellis is the leading source for news, opinion, best practices, and other resources on the greening of mainstream business.

Green America's Green Business Network claims to be the first, largest, and most diverse network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses in the country.

The Green Sports Alliance believes the sports sector, with its global appeal and influential reach, has the power to drive significant environmental change.

As the largest membership organization in the United States devoted solely to Pollution Prevention (P2), NPPR acts as a window on the P2 community. The mission of the Roundtable is to provide a national forum for promoting the development, implementation, and evaluation of efforts to avoid, eliminate, or reduce pollution at the source (i.e. source reduction instead of traditional end-of pipe methods).

The Zero Waste Alliance promotes the use of zero waste strategies. Their web site includes information on the case for zero waste, an outline of their approach, and links to publications and resources.

It's not always easy to sell a supply-chain makeover, but these tips can help. Start with measuring your company's footprint.

While businesses are beginning to move toward practices and policies to reduce their impact on climate, nature, and society, companies often struggle to calculate the financial impact of sustainability initiatives, and can therefore find it difficult to create a robust business case for action. This guide helps to address this challenge by providing both a “top-down” strategic lens for leadership to open discussion on sustainability, and a more detailed “bottom-up” view of the potential financial and intangible underpinning of different sustainability initiatives. It provides a framework to support organizations through the journey of creating a decision-useful business case for sustainability.

The aim of this report is to articulate succinctly the business case for being a responsible business - a headline synthesis of the arguments being used and most frequently stated business benefits.

Consumers say they want to buy ecologically friendly products and reduce their impact on the environment. But when they get to the cash register, their Earth-minded sentiments die on the vine. Although individual quirks underlie some of this hypocrisy, businesses can do a lot more to help would-be green consumers turn their talk into walk.

Once thought to be opposing goals, sustainability and financial success now go hand-in-hand for many businesses. Some, however, may be skeptical of the claim that a business can do well by doing good. How can you make the business case for sustainable practices to skeptical decision-makers in your organization? Here are key terms to use to frame your discussion, several ways sustainable business practices can pay off financially, and tools to leverage when pitching sustainability to stakeholders.

This paper outlines not only how to 'win over' objectors, but also how to effectively present and implement sustainability initiatives through an understanding of psychological mindsets and principles of organizational change.

"Finding the business case" is the holy grail of corporate sustainability professionals. For over a decade they've set out to demonstrate the commercial benefits of social and environmental initiatives. So why is it so hard to find?

The big blue buildings of Ikea have sprouted solar panels and wind turbines; inside, shelves are stocked with LED lighting and recycled cotton. Why? Because as Steve Howard puts it: “Sustainability has gone from a nice-to-do to a must-do.” Howard, the chief sustainability officer at the furniture megastore, talks about his quest to sell eco-friendly materials and practices — both internally and to worldwide customers — and lays a challenge for other global giants.

This paper presents a business case model that focuses on environmental action areas known to sustainability experts and their link with important indicators widely used by financial officers and investors. The authors present a model in which sustainability initiatives are assessed in an economic manner and pursued on the basis of a clear link to financial performance. The model positions sustained financial performance and market value as the ultimate test, with cost benefit analysis at the heart of its approach.

Gaining buy-in early and often is the most critical aspect of a sustainability leader’s core responsibilities because — no matter the level of support at the senior level — it takes cross-functional commitment to deliver real, scalable change. And those cross-functional colleagues also have to deliver on their day job, too, which will always take priority.

When employees feel they have a stake in your company’s success, they are more likely to stay long-term, which can save your organization from losing up to two times their salary from turnover. To support your strategic initiatives, focus on strong leadership, transparent processes, and clear communication about the benefits of new approaches.

Full citation: Carson, Patrick; Moulden, Julia (1993). "Cleaning Up Your Own Act: The Office." Total Quality Environmental Management 2(4), 453-457.

The Climate Leadership Awards is a national awards program that recognizes and incentivizes exemplary corporate, organizational, and individual leadership in response to climate change. Leaders recognized represent a wide array of industries, including construction, finance, manufacturing, defense, transportation, retail, energy and technology, as well as local government, higher education, and individuals who are tackling climate challenges. Recipients have demonstrated leadership in managing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in internal operations and throughout the supply chain, as well as integrating climate resilience into their operating strategies.

To help companies make progress towards their commitments, here are five actionable steps to guide your company on how to engage and upskill employees on sustainability.

This report focuses on energy behavior programs in the workplace, which aim to reduce building energy use through change in employees’ attitudes and behaviors.

A good beginner’s guide to making offices more environmentally friendly, although the resource list is specific to Oregon. Links, addresses, and phone numbers may be out of date due to the age of the publication.

Explores and outlines the 10 best practices for bringing all your employees on board with your company's sustainability projects.

This guide walks the user through the following four key steps, including the use of tools designed to assist the low emitter. These tools and guidance are intended for companies calculating emissions from US-based operations. All low emitter tools are available at the Center for Corporate Climate Leadership website.

A business strategy can inform how you make decisions, allocate resources, and direct actions to achieve organizational goals. According to Bridges Building Consultancy (pdf), nearly half of organizations fail to achieve 50 percent of their strategic objectives, making strategy implementation vital to long-term business success. Yet, successfully executing strategic initiatives requires employee buy-in. Here’s why it’s important and how to get it.

You’re probably thinking there’s not much you can do to help, short of swearing off computers and jobs altogether — right? Wrong. With a few simple steps, every paycheck jockey on earth can help promote a healthier environment, inside the office and out. If the boss complains, point out (gently) that greening the workplace is a proven way to boost morale, productivity, and profits. Just call it the ultimate investment, with future returns that include, well, having a future.

As we all know, what consumers say they will do and what they actually do are often contradictory. Consumers may have the best intentions, but how do we actually motivate them to act on these intentions? This is what OgilvyEarth set out to uncover in their latest research. The findings enable marketers to understand the "Green Gap," the discrepancy between stated intention and behavior when it comes to living sustainably, offer solutions on how to close the Green Gap and reveal the opportunities

Pollution prevention (P2) planning is a process to examine current operations and develop a plan to eliminate or reduce pollution at the source. Reducing pollution can make a company more efficient. Pollution is often the result of process inefficiency, and can be thought of as raw material that is not becoming a marketable product. A P2 Plan is similar to any other business plan. Management and staff need to have a clear understanding of why the plan is being
implemented, what will be done, and who will do it. Such plans can target a specific pollutant, an entire production process, or the whole facility

Going green, green business, and sustainable business are topics on everyone’s mind. But what does all this mean exactly? A Primer on Sustainable Business answers that question and provides an introduction to the basics you need to know.

Sustainability isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for business. EPA’s Smart Steps to Sustainability digital guide, developed by the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), provides information for busy, small business owners about Federal environmental initiatives, resources and programs to help you “go green”, and tools for creating your own business sustainability plan.

Use this three part approach to move your company's sustainability strategy forward.

As the ecological movement shifts from conceptualization to implementation of programs for sustainability, the matter of appropriate tactics and strategy comes into play with increasing frequency. This strategic and tactical review becomes all the more crucial in the twenty-first century context of global warming and peaking of world oil reserves. This essay argues that the currently fashionable and appealing tactic of “picking the low-hanging fruit” in order to achieve quick paybacks and build coalitions of support for sustainable policies is fundamentally flawed and, on its own, counterproductive. Grounded in the imagery of a pathway or avenue to sustainability, this policy nostrum eventually leads to a series of walls or barriers that make the goal of that journey unrealizable. In advancing the alternative strategy of sustainable city regions, this essay lays out the case for adopting the commitments, tactics, and strategems flowing from the idea that sustainability is a balance-seeking process requiring the establishment of the minimum level of activity that would make each succeeding step easier, not more difficult. This paper also addresses the continuing arguments supporting the low-hanging fruit dictum and the political realities that make it seem compelling.

There are enough products, technologies, processes and organizations in place to make it possible, in a sense, to have a zero waste office (which for our purposes means no waste and zero greenhouse gas emissions). Zero waste in the purest sense just isn't possible yet, but by utilizing what is available, an office can get pretty close.