This roundtable is free to attend but space is limited.

When: June 22, 8:30-10am

Where: Chapel Hill Tire Car Care Center, 502 West Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC

Reserve your spot now!

To facilitate quality discussion we’re limiting the number attendees, so reserve your spot quickly: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3606319599

Green Plus is hosting a series of educational and networking events designed to bring Green Plus businesses together to learn from and get to know each other.  Is there a topic you’d like to discuss?  Would you like to host a Green Plus event?  Contact Kirsten Hausman at khausman@gogreenplus.org or 919.627.1091.

Employee Training and Engagement at High Plains Community Health Center

High Plains Community Health Center, located in Lamar, Colorado, addresses the health needs of the town’s 14,000 residents with just two physicians, but a slew of well-trained and highly-engaged medical assistants (MAs).  

Thanks to funding provided by the Hitachi Foundation, MAs were cross-trained to rotate through multiple positions at the Health Center, taking on various roles such as health coach, patient representative, and community health worker, as well as performing administrative tasks as needed.    

Additionally, the support from Hitachi helped the Health Center simplify its in-care organization system, leading patients through the health care process as quickly and efficiently as possible.  With three MAs assigned to each physician, the Health Center was able to treat nearly four patients per hour, doubling its initial goal of patient care.  

As a result, this initiative not only increased productivity of the High Plains staff, but also produced significant cost savings for the Health Center and made it easier for patients to receive affordable, reliable health care.   The Hitachi Foundation recognizes the importance  of employee training and engagement in the work place, especially in cases like High Plains where a small number of staff handle a high volume of customers.  High Plains serves as a model example  for businesses, demonstrating how providing training opportunities for staff benefits workforce productivity, morale, and development.  

You can read more about High Plains’ training efforts here, or check out the Health Center’s website. 

The Institute for Sustainable Development / Green Plus

www.gogreenplus.org

• Green supply requirements
• Green business certifications
• Environmental innovations that can save businesses money while reducing their impact on the environment

The Environmental Help Desk for Business is a partnership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Business Civic Leadership Center and the Institute for Sustainable Development’s Green Plus program. The Environmental Help Desk is modeled after the BCLC’s Disaster Help Desk for business, which helps communities achieve economic recovery following disasters. 

The Help Desk is staffed by Green Plus professionals, and supported by talented graduate assistants from Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

You can follow the Environmental Help Desk for Business on Twitter @EnviroHelpDesk

Each year, the Institute for Sustainable Development recognizes outstanding small and medium-sized employers from around the U.S. for their leadership in sustainable enterprise — combining cutting edge business, environmental, employee and community practices.  Check out the video from our 2011 Green Plus Awards here.

Nominate your favorite triple-bottom line employer here by January 31, 2012. 

Categories include 

• Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise of the Year (any size)
• Green Plus Medium-Sized Employer
• Green Plus Sustainable Small Business of the Year
• Green Plus Sole Proprietor / Home Based Business of the Year
• Green Plus Non – Profit
• For – Benefit Corporation / Social Enterprise of the Year 

Nomination Guidelines
The Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Awards are not only about ‘green’ (environmental) programs — they are an effort to recognize and encourage a balanced approach to community engagement, environmental stewardship, and good business management generally. We seek to promote traditional organizations engaging in extraordinary practices while raising awareness around the importance of sustainability in their communities. 

Award nominees can expect be notified by the Institute selection committee between February 29th and March 15th.

Rules
-Any smaller enterprise (an organization of under 500 employees) in the United States or Canada may be nominated for a Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Award. 
-There is no fee to be nominated.
-There is no required membership in any organization to be nominated. 
-Winners of juried Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Awards may not win a juried award two years in a row. 
-Nominees may not be related to or have an existing business relationship with staff or board members of the Institute for Sustainable Development. 

About the Institute
The Institute for Sustainable Development is a non-profit organization that helps smaller enterprises and their communities to become more sustainable, foster a new generation of sustainability leaders, and to promote dialogues about the theory and practice of sustainability across cultures. Green Plus, the Institute’s flagship program, exists to educate, network, and reward small enterprises in their triple bottom line efforts. Through Green Plus, the Institute strives to help smaller enterprises learn from one another as well as from experts and specifically seeks to celebrate enterprises that are trailblazers — innovating sustainable practices that one might not associate with a given business sector.  

Visit this link to learn about past Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Award winners.

Help us make businesses and communities better by supporting our work.

Click here to support our work.

• Ad Spice Promotional Marketing (Durham, NC)
• AlphaGraphics Cary (Cary, NC)
• Counter Culture Coffee (Durham, NC)
• High Associates (Lancaster, PA)
• North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce (North Myrtle Beach, SC)
• Tremont Electric (Cleveland, OH)
• William H Bunch CPA (Chapel Hill, NC)

“Green Plus™ is about making smart business decisions with an eye toward supporting your community, employees, and local environment,” said Chris Carmody, Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development.

Created by the NC Research Triangle-based Institute for Sustainable Development, Green Plus is business improvement program that provides a roadmap on triple bottom line sustainability issues for smaller enterprises across the United States. Businesses in North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as the first chamber of commerce in South Carolina all underwent the rigorous Green Plus Certification process and attained the highest level of recognition within the Green Plus program. To date, 50 smaller enterprises out of a field of 250 participants have achieved full Certified Green Plus status.

New Green Plus Certified Organizations

Ad Spice

Ad Spice Promotional Marketing is based in Durham, NC and provides a full range of promotional products as well as screen printing and embroidery. Locally-minded and committed to sustainability, Suzanne Robinson started Ad Spice with these values in mind. Making their processes transparent to their customers, Ad Spice helps educate their clients about responsible options that they might not be aware of, like giving clients a quick tour of their organic cotton garden. Seeing the difference between how organic and traditional cotton are grown are one way their customers can choose from the best products to increase the value of their marketing efforts. Sourcing locally and using water-based inks are other ways Ad Spice shows its commitment to minimizing its impact and supporting the local community.

“Ad Spice Promotional Marketing is joining forces with other purpose-driven companies to demonstrate how businesses can positively impact our communities and our environment,” said Suzanne Robinson. “In an industry where most of our competitors are trying to sell more, more, more – we steer our clients in the direction of buying less and buying better,” said Robinson. “At the end of the day, our clients find that this approach brings their brand real value,” concluded Robinson.

Robinson said, “Our numbers this year speak for themselves: 1st Q 2010 to 2011 our sales for organic and sustainable product purchases are up over 900% because we’re teaching our clients about the value of these products and how to use them.” “Our Green Plus and B Corporation certifications let our clients know that we tell the truth and practice what we preach. In a world of green-washing, our highly credible certifications tell our clients they can trust us,” Robinson concluded.

For more information go to www.adspicepromo.com.

AlphaGraphics Cary

AlphaGraphics Cary is a locally owned and operated printing and marketing services company in Cary, NC. Recognized as one of the leading locations worldwide, AlphaGraphics Cary also received local recognition their efforts to help fight hunger in Wake County. As a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified printer, AlphaGraphics Cary is able to meet their customers where they are and provides them with the sustainable services they require.

“The Green Plus program focused our ad hoc efforts into a strategic, cohesive plan,” said John White, Manager of AlphaGraphics Cary. “The resources, the practical support and potential networking opportunities will yield a tremendous return on our initial investment and efforts,” White continued. “In our role as a service provider to other area business, not only does the Green Plus Certification process compliment our current financial planning and sustainability initiatives, but it also provides a framework to help our customers with these same challenges,” said White.

For more information go to www.cary398.alphagraphics.com.

Counter Culture Coffee

Counter Culture Coffee is a Durham, NC institution. Counter Culture’s dedication to creating a sustainable, fair trade coffee supply chain is readily apparent to anyone involved with the company. By creating and maintaining personal relationships with coffee farmers across the world, Counter Culture is able to multiply its impact and make sustainable livelihoods possible in places where opportunities can be hard to come by.

Counter Culture also created their own Sustainability Scorecard and sustainability goals (in the CUPS initiative – Coffee as an Unrelenting Pursuit of Sustainability), which allows it to holds itself to a higher standard and, in the spirit of transparency, invites their customers and clients to follow along on their journey of achieving carbon neutrality by 2015.

“A core value of our business, the drive toward real environmental, social, and fiscal sustainability, informs every decision we make,” said Brett Smith, President of Counter Culture Coffee. “We’re excited about the network, feedback channels, and other opportunities to improve the sustainability of our business afforded by our Green Plus certification,” Smith concluded.

For more information go to www.counterculturecoffee.com.

High Associates

High Associates, headquartered in Lancaster, PA, is a developer, broker, and manager of commercial, industrial, and multi-family residential properties. Striving to be a responsible steward of the environment and a leader in the community, High Associate’s team of LEED-accredited and Green Space program-certified professionals are setting a new standard for responsible environmental management and were recognized by PPL Electric Utilities on the Energy-Smart Business Honor Roll for significantly reducing energy usage in its facilities.

“High Associates has always maintained a high level of sensitivity to the environments in which we operate and been guided by a smart-growth-driven approach to real estate development,” said Mark Fitzgerald, president and chief operating officer of High Associates. “Going through the Green Plus Certification process was invaluable as it helped us to expand our triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability that includes fostering a positive work environment, being responsible environmental stewards, and bettering our community for the generations to follow,” Fitzgerald said.

For more information go to www.highassociates.com.

North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce

The North Myrtle Beach Chamber is a leader around sustainability in the South Carolina business community. The first South Carolina chamber to offer the Green Plus program to its members, the North Myrtle Beach Chamber is also the first chamber in South Carolina to achieve Green Plus Certification itself. The chamber will be moving to a new location in the fall and in the process of updating the new location based on recommendations from a recent energy audit.

Leading the charge in renewable energy, particularly wind energy, the chamber spearheaded the creation of the North Strand Coastal Wind Team, not only to lead the community towards energy independence but with the long term goal of establishing North Myrtle Beach as an example to other cities. Other members of the team include the city government, the Savannah River National Laboratory, Coastal Carolina University’s Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Authority, and the South Carolina Energy Office.

“In January 2010, when we announced that our Chamber was the first business association in SC to offer the Green Plus certification program to our members, I stated that the focus of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce was on a sustainable economy for our city and region,” said Marc Jordan, President and CEO of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce. Jordan continued, “At that time, we saw Green Plus as a visionary and valuable tool to assist our members in creating a sustainability plan for their business.” “Nothing has changed to lesson our commitment to this vision today, and by becoming Green Plus certified, we are holding ourselves up to our members as an example of how valuable this tool is in remaining focused on sustainable development,”Jordan concluded.

For more information go to www.northmyrtlebeachchamber.com.

Tremont Electric

Tremont Electric, a rapidly growing company in Cleveland, OH, is changing the way we generate renewable energy through an innovative technology called nPower™. Named “One of America’s Most Promising Start-ups” by Bloomberg Business week in 2009, Tremont Electric has since received numerous accolades for ingenuity as well as its leadership in sustainability.

“Sustainable business practices are becoming a new benchmark for early stage companies,” said Aaron LeMieux, foundation and CEO of Tremont Electric. “Attaining Green Plus Certification clearly demonstrates that Tremont Electric Inc. has mastered and committed itself to continuous improvement of sustainable business practices,” LeMieux continued. “We are very proud to have attained Green Plus Certification this early in our life cycle,” LeMieux concluded.

For more information go to www.npowerpeg.com.

William H Bunch, CPA

William H Bunch, CPA is the second CPA firm to be Green Plus Certified. A small but growing CPA firm in Chapel Hill, NC, William H Bunch is a great example of a business working to make their local community stronger and helps educate other businesses about what is achievable with regards to triple bottom line sustainability. A renovation in 2006 brought more in natural light, allowing employees to keep lights off unless needed and a new employee wellness plan has been implemented in the last 6 months allowing employees to access a National database of wellness programs, among other benefits.

For more information go to www.williamhbunchcpa.com.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standards-setting body. ISO is the world’s largest publisher of International Standards, producing standards for all industry sectors. The organization began in 1926 and utilizes 2700 technical committees, subcommittees and working groups to develop its international standards.

ISO offers both specific industry standards (covering the spectrum from agriculture to shipbuilding) as well as broad management and leadership standards applicable to all industries and sectors. Organizations seeking to formalize environmental planning and practices often pursue the ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification.

To summarize the major differences between Green Plus and ISO 14001, here are the key points:

• ISO 14001 concentrates exclusively on environmental topics such as air, water and land.  Green Plus covers environmental as well as economic and community practices.
• ISO 14001 certification focuses on management systems while Green Plus certification requires the implementation of certain management practices.
• ISO 14001 is applicable to organizations of any size, whereas Green Plus was designed specifically for smaller enterprises (500 employees or fewer).
• ISO 14001 is an ongoing process intended to encourage continuous environmental improvement. In other words, the process, such as goal setting and measurement, drives the impact.  Green Plus, by contrast, introduces core concepts and principles of triple bottom line sustainability.  In Green Plus, the practices employed, such as waste audits and energy efficient upgrades, drive impact.

Green Plus and ISO are both structured processes for improving sustainability performance.  ISO 14001 entails a five phase process including: 1) Environmental Policy, 2) Planning, 3) Implementation and Operation, 4) Checking and Corrective Action and 5) Management Review. The Green Plus process is more prescriptive and can be summarized as: 1) Assess Current Practices (against the Green Plus standard), 2) Get Feedback, 3) Develop Sustainability Plan, 4) Implement Sustainability Plan and 5) Communicate Efforts.

Who should pursue ISO 14001 certification?  ISO 14001 is helpful for developing ongoing systems of measurement related to the environment and is particularly useful for organizations with measurable and significant environmental impacts, such as global manufacturers.  Examples of well-known companies that have achieved ISO 14001 certification include Ford Motor Company, Sony, Xerox and Lockheed Martin.  Some have estimated the costs of becoming ISO 14001 certified to range from the low tens to about $100K per site when factoring in labor and software costs, however, the idea is that over time, efficiencies gained will make up the costs.

Who should pursue Green Plus Certification?  Green Plus is appropriate for enterprises with 500 or fewer employees seeking a comprehensive view of sustainability that includes the environment as well as people and the community.  It is appropriate for both sustainability newcomers and sophisticates. Past organizations becoming Green Plus Certified have come from services firms, hospitality, construction, automotive, small manufacturing, and the nonprofit sector.  A full list of organizations both certified and moving toward certification can be found in the online directory.  The cost of Green Plus is intentionally kept low (under $1,000) in order to help remove barriers to sustainability for smaller firms.

Overall, Green Plus can be an onramp to ISO 14001 certification for organizations desiring more in-depth environmental management systems.  And ISO 14001 can be an onramp for Green Plus for organizations wanting to gain a broader view of sustainability beyond environmental practices.  As with LEED and GRI, sustainability tools complement one another, ensuring organizations see all sides of the sustainability prism and are positioned to succeed and thrive for the long term.

Photo by fordapa, Available Under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.

(May 2, 2011) GreenDrinks is a social affair hosted by the Triangle USGBC and the Emerging Professionals. Come out and enjoy a cold beverage as you network with members of the sustainability community.

This month’s GreenDrinks will be at Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, and will feature a short educational presentation on green business certification by GreenPlus.

Green Plus is a green and sustainable education, networking, and certification program that is designed for small and medium sized businesses and non-profits. It is the only national business improvement program geared specifically toward helping smaller employers understand and benefit from triple bottom line practices. Green Plus partners with the American Chamber of Commerce Executives and Duke, Elon, UNC, and NC State, to assist over 250 smaller employers in 12 states in becoming more sustainable.

Click here to see a quick video on Green Plus, and here for a video on the 2011 Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Awards.

Fullsteam is a Durham, North Carolina production brewery and tavern that uses seasonal farmed products, heirloom grains and Southern botanicals.

The Institute For Sustainable Development / Green Plus

www.gogreenplus.org

We are often asked about all of the different sustainability certifications and how Green Plus fits in the overall landscape.  This is the first post in a series of posts about different certifications.  LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a green building certification program administered by the US Green Building Council, assigns point values to specific sustainable practices employed in building design and operations.  LEED continues to gain consumer recognition and is widely respected for transforming knowledge and adoption of sustainable building practices.

One of the businesses Green Plus worked with considered LEED certification for her business, but found the price point prohibitive, though they adhered to LEED’s green building principles throughout their renovations and found the standard a useful source of guidance and information.  The good news is, there are a variety of ways to demonstrate one’s commitment to sustainability, and each process can prepare your organization for the next if you choose to continue with new certifications.

If you’ve ever wondered how Green Plus and LEED compare, here’s a quick primer.  First, the major differences:

• LEED is a certification for buildings, while Green Plus is a certification for smaller enterprise management practices.  These practices include activities that affect management, employees, facilities, and your community.
• LEED is green, while Green Plus includes social and economic practices as well (hence Green… Plus).
• As a certification primarily driven by architects, designers and engineers, LEED is highly technical, requiring intensive calculations and documentation, while Green Plus is more akin to a university, focused on the adoption of new practices and requiring less technical, quantitative documentation (we heartily endorse the value of measurement, but know that for many smaller enterprises, measurement can be difficult to do initially, but becomes more feasible over time).  Green Plus involves verification of select documents as well as possible on site verification as well.
• The investment to register for LEED is roughly $500 to $1,000 and the cost to document practices appropriately for LEED can run from $6,000 to $75,000.  The investment for Green Plus registration is less than $500, an investment amount intended to be within reach for smaller employers.  The investment required to qualify for Green Plus certification is largely one of devoted staff time to tackle the planning and implementation of practices.

Where LEED and Green Plus overlap, however, is in their environmental principles.  In this way, earning Green Plus certification can help one progress toward LEED certification, and vice versa.  LEED offers different certifications for different types of buildings and building projects, including New Construction, Existing Buildings: Operations & Management (EBOM), Commercial Interiors, Core & Shell, Schools, Retail, Healthcare, Homes and Neighborhood Development.  The LEED EBOM certification is most similar to Green Plus since it’s focused on ongoing operations.

Now that we’re clear on overall differences and versions of LEED, here are the common principles shared between LEED EBOM and Green Plus:

Sustainable Sites:

• Identifying possible sources of pollution
• Conducting waste audits
• Creating an alternative transportation policy
• Using plants that are adapted to the area and thus require less watering
• Employing riparian buffers to assist in filtering water runoff

Water Efficiency:

• Implementing water saving measures
• Setting goals for water use reduction

Energy and Atmosphere:

• Conducting an energy audit
• Using renewable energy or purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs)

Materials and Resources:

• Adopting an environmental purchasing strategy
• Avoiding the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in renovations
• Purchasing Fair Trade products
• Adopting a local purchasing strategy
• Conducting a solid waste audit
• Recycling

Indoor Environmental Quality:

• Having exposure to daylight

Innovations and Operations:

• Making the business case for sustainability upgrades

Who should pursue LEED certification?  LEED is optimal for designers, architects, and building managers who want to differentiate their properties as green or want to adhere to green building practices and make it official.  LEED is also ideal for sustainably-minded organizations who want to demonstrate their organizational commitment to sustainability – externally and internally – by occupying a LEED certified facility.

Who should pursue Green Plus certification?  Green Plus is optimal for smaller enterprises – businesses and nonprofits with 500 or fewer employees – seeking to adopt modern sustainable practices to make their organizations stronger and receive third party validation for their efforts from a university-backed program.  Organizations interested in continuous improvement, cost savings, branding themselves as sustainable, reinforcing a cultural commitment to sustainability, appealing to new market segments, and differentiating themselves in a competitive marketplace are all well-suited for Green Plus.

As LEED continues to take root, the practices listed above are becoming an expected norm.  If you’d like to learn more about the modern practices organizations are adopting to be more sustainable, reduce costs, increase brand loyalty and attract or retain talented employees, email khausman@gogreenplus.org to receive a copy of the Green Plus question set.  To review the entire LEED EBOM standard, click here.  If there’s a specific certification you’d like to see discussed in a comparison post, please let us know.

Photo by gwarcita, Available Under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.

If you’re unable to view the video below, please click here.

Congratulations to our winners: The Taylor Companies, Lube Stop, Laser Plus, Communication Matters, and The Scrap Exchange!