Speaking of catching the wave, our team will be at the annual ACCE Conference in Los Angeles the week of August 2nd. If you’re in town, please stop by – we’d love to meet you.

The Institute for Sustainable Development / Green Plus

www.gogreenplus.org

“It’s a challenge for businesses to maintain their financial goals while incorporating ‘green’ initiatives,” said Chamber President and CEO Robert Goltz. “With this program, we can provide our members the opportunity to achieve both objectives in a way that makes sense for them.”

Green Plus was developed by the North Carolina Research Triangle based Institute for Sustainable Development - a combined effort of universities and chambers of commerce to provide smaller employers with affordable tools to improve their triple bottom line sustainability.

The Warren County Chamber of Commerce program is sponsored by Centenary College, Mallinckrodt Baker and GBW Insurance.

Cleveland, October 14, 2009-

Green Plus™ is a three-part program to help smaller enterprises improve their performance through becoming more sustainable. In the first stage, employers take an online assessment which evaluates their management, environmental, employee and community engagement practices. In the second stage, participants become part of an online network and can receive advice from other business owners and university-based content experts on how to improve their sustainability performance. Employers with exceptional scores across the Green Plus™ assessment’s People, Planet and Performance sections may be Certified Green Plus™, recognizing their specific efforts and providing exposure to their current and potential customers and business partners in communities throughout the U.S. and Canada.

“COSE’s endorsement and support of the Green Plus™ process, is focused on helping small businesses take the first steps to greater profitability through sustainability,” said Steve Millard, President and Executive Director of COSE.

Green Plus™ has been adopted as the official small and medium sized enterprise sustainability program of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). The program is available at a substantial discount through participating chambers of commerce throughout the U.S. and Canada in the 1,300 chamber ACCE network. The program costs $550, but will be available to COSE members with five or more employees for $350 and to COSE companies with four or fewer employees for $75.

“There are many great home-grown sustainability efforts already going on in our region,” said Millard. “Green Plus™ gives our members the opportunity to both learn new practices and share their own knowledge across North America – while also opening up new business opportunities,” he added.

For more than ten years, COSE has been a provider of electricity and natural gas savings options to small and mid-sized businesses, helping them to save money and becoming a stronger partner for small business energy management efforts.

Additionally, COSE has been designated by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio as the small business energy efficiency administrator for the First Energy Service territories.  In this role, COSE is working to find efficient and effective ways to improve and lower the energy demand of small businesses, resulting in additional profitability for small firms.

Green Plus™ was developed by the North Carolina Research Triangle based Institute for Sustainable Development — a combined effort of universities and chambers of commerce to provide smaller employers with affordable tools to improve their triple bottom line sustainability. The Green Plus™ model was developed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business in 2007. UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University developed online sustainability tools for small business that were tested in Ohio and North Carolina throughout 2008. COSE was the Institute for Sustainable Development’s partner in beta testing the Green Plus™ program with Ohio businesses.

“Smaller enterprises employ most North Americans and are the key engine of new job creation,” said Chris Carmody, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development. “Large employers have benefited greatly from their sustainability efforts. Green Plus™ was created to give small employers the same opportunities to save and make money while going green and being sustainable,” Carmody continued. “COSE’s ongoing advocacy and innovative programs for smaller employers makes it the ideal Green Plus™ partner,” Carmody concluded.

Green Plus™ is not a product-specific certification program, but a broad small business sustainability certification. Employers currently participating comprise professional firms, restaurants, hotels, landscapers, printers, designers, small manufacturers and others. Green Plus™ is also designed to help non-profit organizations that want to improve their sustainability.

COSE member, The Taylor Companies was recently recognized as the first Ohio Certified Green Plus™ business on September 28, 2009 for its exceptional practices business, environmental and community practices. More on Taylor Chair’s certification can be found at www.gogreenplus.org. Other COSE members are beginning to participate in this program from the legal, landscaping and non-profit sectors.

For more information on Green Plus™, please see www.gogreenplus.org.

About COSE

COSE is one of Ohio’s largest small business support organizations, striving to help small businesses grow and maintain their independence. Comprised of more than 17,000 member companies, COSE has a long history of fighting for the rights of all small business owners through group purchasing programs for health care, workers’ compensation, or energy; advocating for specific changes in legislation or regulation to benefit small business;and, providing a forum and resource for small businesses to connect with and learn from each other. (www.cose.org)

The day long program was set up by the two organizations to showcase positive leadership in sustainability by chambers of commerce around the country. Participating chambers included the

• Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
• Bridgeport (CT) Regional Business Council
• Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Waco (TX) Chamber
• Greater Columbia (SC) Chamber of Commerce
• Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

The day long session, titled “Enterprise at Home for Progress at Large“, illustrated examples of innovative sustainability leadership in economic development, public policy, planning, and small business assistance by local and regional chambers (please see the Partners for Livable Communities  summary of innovative sustainability program by chambers around the United States).

Some chambers, including Bridgeport, Columbia, Indianapolis and Waco, set a strong example in their own communities to encourage better environmental stewardship. Waco, for example, is believe to be the first chamber of commerce to build a LEED certified building (Gold).

Others discussed how they utilized their brand as a sustainability – conscious community to attract new companies to their regions. The Chattagnooga Area Chamber presented a very compelling case study of how its sustainability efforts brought Volkswagon and related suppliers to its community.

Finally, others developed scalable programs to help chambers broadly calculate and reduce their carbon footprint – such as the Greater Kansas City Chamber’s Climate Prosperity Project.

Adam Klein, Vice President of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber (CHC) of Commerce, appeared with Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) director Chris Carmody to discuss CHC’s incubation of the ISD and the development of the Green Plus program – a small business assistance, education and certification program designed to scale across North America. The Green Plus program was titled, “Democratizing Sustainability: Bringing Main Street into a Sustainable Economy.”

Green Plus is the official small and medium sized enterprise sustainability program of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives. The ACCE has 1,300 North American Chamber of Commerce members representing 1.2 million businesses. The ACCE also manages the Ford Foundation Fellowship for Regional Sustainable Development that trains chamber of commerce executives and economic development officials in integrating sustainability into regional development strategy.

The Taylor Companies, founded in 1816 and believed to be the oldest furniture manufacturer in the United States, became the first Ohio company to be Certified Green Plus™ by the Institute for Sustainable Development. The firm was recently featured in Business Week article “When Going Green Isn’t About Marketing“ for its efforts to approach zero waste in its manufacturing operations.

“Taylor Companies demonstrates that the concepts of sustainability and long-term competitiveness are becoming one and the same,”said Chris Carmody, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development. “Taylor Companies provides a great example for any small business of how efficient management coupled with sustainable environmental and community practices improve both a company’s bottom line and the world around it,” Carmody concluded.

Green Plus™ is a small business sustainability education and certification program developed by the North Carolina Research Triangle based Institute for Sustainable Development. Green Plus™ has been adopted as the official small and medium sized enterprise sustainability program of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). The program is available at a substantial discount through participating chambers of commerce throughout the U.S. and Canada in the 1,300 chamber ACCE network. Beginning October 1, Green Plus will be available to Ohio companies at a discount through the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE).

“One of the fundamental values of Green Plus is its ability to both help assess sustainability efforts and connect small business owners to the education and resources they need to take the next step in sustainability,” said Steve Millard, President and Executive Director of COSE. “Jeff is a tremendous example of someone who understands the value of sustainability to both the community and his own bottom line – what he has accomplished at Taylor is really impressive.”

Taylor CEO Jeff Baldasari said, “We believe that Green Plus™ adds value to our Company in three areas. First it has opened our eyes to new sustainable practices that we had not previously considered. Second, it has motivated our company to achieve additional sustainable practices that we are not currently employing.  Finally, Green Plus™ lends an objective standard to the field of sustainability and by doing so, credible practices are recognized and green washing is not accepted,” Baldasari concluded.

In 2005, the Taylor Companies invested $6 million in revitalizing a 50 acre industrial brown field that had been abandoned since 1987. The firm consolidated its operations in a new, efficient building that saves it $80,000 in annual energy costs. Taylor has reduced its collective consumption of natural gas, electricity and water by 58.8% since consolidating its operations.

In its operations, the Taylor Companies has reduced its waste by 90% through recycling, upcycling and composting.  For example, Taylor captures 76,000 pounds of sawdust a year for farmers. Its annual net waste hauling costs are less than $1,000. Taylor Companies aggressively documents both its cost reductions and environmental impact as continually looks for efficiencies that will both save money and have a positive environmental and community impact. The company

• streamlined its inbound shipping of some raw materials to reduce costs by $6,000 annually
• upcycles 2 tons of leather scraps to purse manufacturers, saving $5,000 in annual hauling costs
• saves $4,000 in hauling costs per year by donating 76,000 pounds of saw dust to area farms
• redirects a large portion of wood scrap back into production: unusable wood scrap is used for thermo energy and upcycled into consumer products saving $6,000 in annual hauling costs

Taylor scored very high on the People section of the Green Plus Certification as well. Internally, the company provides good wages, health, disability, pension, 401k benefits and 2 – 5 weeks vacation for its employees for its workforce and engages them actively in the success of the company and in sustainability efforts.  Externally, the company is an active charitable contributor to its local school system.

“At Taylor, we have learned that sustainable practices are a business opportunity,” said Jeff Baldasari. “By embracing and implementing them, we have made a measurable difference for our community, the quality of life and working conditions for our employees and the operating performance of our company through significant cost savings,” Baldasari concluded.

Watch a video on The Taylor Companies’ experience with Green Plus™.  More information on Green Plus can be found at www.gogreenplus.org.