The Institute for Sustainable Development has announced its finalists for the 2011 Green Plus North American Sustainable Enterprise Awards. The Green Plus Awards recognize organizations not only for their environmental efforts, but for their success in balancing strong business, community and environmental practices. Paying attention to business performance and community involvement as well as to minimizing environmental impact is often referred to as triple bottom line sustainability.

The winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony, presented by GlaxoSmithKline, on Friday, February 25 at North Carolina Research Triangle Park Foundation headquarters.

Click here to purchase a ticket to the Green Plus North American Sustainable Enterprise Awards.

In addition to competing in its category, each organization is eligible to win the Green Plus People’s Choice Award.

Click here to vote for one organization to receive the Green Plus People’s Choice Award.

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2011 North American Sustainable Enterprise Awards Finalists

Research Triangle Park Foundation Sustainable Enterprise of the Year

• Counter Culture Coffee
• Irregardless Cafe and Catering
• The Taylor Companies
• TS Designs
• Wenger Feeds

Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise of the Year (50 Or More Employees)

• iContact
• High Construction
• Hughes Pittman & Gupton LLC
• Lube Stop
• The Umstead Hotel & Spa

Wells Fargo/Wachovia Small Business of the Year (3 to 50 employees)

• EcoLogic Solutions
• Environmental Solutions Group
• Laser Plus
• Pantek
• Pharamaceutical Calibration Services (PCI)
• Wingswept
• Yes! Solar Solutions

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Green Plus Sole Proprietor / Home Based Business of the Year

• Abigail Seymour Photography
• Conestoga dpi
• Communication Matters
• jke Marketing & Communications
• Yurich Creative

The Redwoods Group Non-Profit or Social Enterprise of the Year

• Builders of Hope
• Bull City Forward
• Cosmic Bobbins
• Entrepreneurs for Sustainability
• Urban Tree Connection
• The Scrap Exchange

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Purchase Your Ticket to the Awards

The awards ceremony will be on Friday, February 25 from 7:30-9:30am at Research Triangle Park Headquarters in the North Carolina Triangle Region.

About the Institute for Sustainable Development and Green Plus
The Institute for Sustainable Development partners nationwide with the American Chamber of Commerce Executives to bring Green Plus, its business improvement program, to smaller enterprises in the U.S. and Canada. The non-profit was founded in the North Carolina Research Triangle in 2007 by a unique partnership of academic, business and philanthropic leaders. Early partners included Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Greater Durham Chambers of Commerce, and the Fenwick Foundation.

Institute founders recognized that while many large companies were integrating sustainability into their operations, saving money and improving their reputations, most Americans were employed by businesses with 50 or fewer people, and these smaller employers had neither the time nor the financial resources to pursue sustainability. In the fall of 2007, the Institute engaged the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at UNC’s Kenan Flagler School of Business to develop a business plan to address this problem. This plan led to the development of Green Plus, a program to educate, network and recognize smaller employers in their efforts to achieve triple bottom line sustainability.

The Institute for Sustainable Development

www.gogreenplus.org

(From the Wall Street Journal) When Stephanie Poole signed up for a mentor through her business school, she thought the person would be someone she could simply turn to for occasional advice. Instead, she was handed a semester-long project requiring her to assess the social impact of a nearby company.

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise, a part of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, organized the mentor program and linked Ms. Poole with Kevin Trapani, president of the Redwoods Group, a Morrisville, N.C., insurance provider that works with YMCAs, Jewish community centers and resident camps throughout the country.

Ms. Poole, 25 years old, spent last spring producing a 21-page social audit for Mr. Trapani and the Redwoods Group. Like a traditional financial audit, it focused on what the company is doing in the areas of the environment, ethics and its overall social impact.

It’s an effort a growing number of companies are undertaking, as they look to track the outcomes of social responsibility efforts and prove their value.

For her part, Ms. Poole assessed volunteerism, charitable giving, transparency of company leaders and community engagement. She also implemented a system for Redwoods’ 90 employees to compare their progress against a widely accepted set of metrics for social impact.” Click here to see the Redwoods Group’s 2008 Social Audit.

www.gogreenplus.org

The Redwoods Group, headquartered in Morrisville, NC, is a privately held, socially responsible commercial specialty insurance company. The business and social mission of The Redwoods Group – whose motto is to Serve Others – is to protect and improve the quality of life in the communities it serves.  The Redwoods Group has built into their foundation strong social and environmental standards for their operations, which has allowed them to create positive social change.

Here are some examples of actions taken by The Redwoods Group to make environmental and social change:

• Employees spend 40 hours of their work time each year in service to the community, building houses for the working poor, tutoring children in homeless shelters, serving meals at soup kitchens or shaving their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research
• The Redwoods Group matches most employee gifts to charity with an unlimited match for United Way contributions

• Redwoods commits to contributing a minimum of 10 percent of pre-tax income to charity every year, without exception

• In 2006-2007, the firm contributed over 50 percent of its pre-tax profits (about $500,000 each year) to nonprofit organizations throughout the world
• Redwoods educates and engages employees on the human condition to develop committed citizens of the world
• The Redwoods Group offers employee incentives for using alternative modes of transportation and will pay employees $30 a month toward the cost of public transportation
• The company has begun sending customers contracts on CDs. Redwoods has almost completely replaced its paper records with electronic records through an e-filing system that will be the primary method used going forward. For the first time, the firm distributed their annual report electronically via a PDF – they did not print hard copies. As a result, they saved 142,500 sheets of paper and reduced their carbon footprint by 28,500 pounds

• The Redwoods Group and their building’s property management firm work with Green Plus-certified Bland Landscaping for grounds management

• Redwoods joined Carbonrally which is an online competition to reduce carbon emissions, and has already reduced 37.15 tons of carbon

Here is what MJ Pearle, Public Relations and Community Outreach Manager, from The Redwoods Group had to say about their experience with Green Plus:

What inspired you to join Green Plus?

Our CEO has long embraced sustainability, so when we heard about the launch of Green Plus we wanted to support it financially and become one of the first Green Plus companies here. The Redwoods Group Foundation provided a grant to help launch Green Plus and recently agreed to give Green Plus a business loan to help move this effort to Chambers of Commerce across the nation.

What were some easy changes you were able to make to improve your sustainability?

Because we rent office space and don’t own our building we felt we couldn’t control many of the energy issues included on the Green Plus application.  So we met with reps of our property management firm and discovered that they

implemented green efforts of which we weren’t aware.  These included carefully examining utility bills, collecting rain water to re-use to water plants and hiring a landscaping company that is Green Plus certified.

Do you plan to make additional modifications to become even more sustainable, even though you are already certified?

Yes. We committed to develop written goals to reduce energy consumption and draft an environmental policy, among other efforts. We offer free coffee to employees and we currently are testing a new coffee machine that is “green.” We rent office space and the Green Plus effort was one

of several factors that led us to commit to move to a new “green” office building that currently is being built in downtown Durham by Greenfire Development. Greenfire is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, which oversees the LEED Green

Building Rating system, which is the green standard in building.

Would you recommend this program to other businesses?

Yes!

Candidates for the “Top Small Workplaces” award go through an exhaustive selection and verification process beginning in late January of each year.  A panel of judges with extensive experience with and understanding of small business evaluates finalists.  Finally, Winning Workplaces and The Wall Street Journal publishes the annual list of winners at the end of the summer.

You can view the 2008 list here, which includes the Morrisville, NC-based and Green Plus Mover Redwoods Group.

The Institute for Sustainable Development and our Sustainability Fellows – Amanda Campbell, Dale Hammer, Elizabeth Liedel, Brooks Rainey Pearson and Teddy Salgado -  are privileged to learn from Winning Workplaces’s insights into the workplace characteristics of high-performance organizations for its own Green Plus program.  The People and Performance (and Planet!) aspects of the triple-bottom-line are very closely aligned, as illustrated by the Top Small Workplaces winners.  The fellows are currently working on the next iteration of our diagnostic tool as part of our continuous improvement efforts, and we are excited to incorporate Winning Workplaces’s acumen into our own efforts.

Keep an eye out for this year’s list of winners, which will be announced in a Wall Street Journal Report on Small Business on September 28, 2009.

Visit the Winning Workplaces website for more information on their framework, as well as to learn more about the research and low-cost services they provide to small businesses and non-profits. 

The Redwoods Group, based in Morrisville, NC, is the nation’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance services to YMCAs and Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) and also offers these services to nonprofit resident camps.

Redwoods has developed extensive expertise in support of child-serving, faith-based organizations and is known for striving to create a culture of safety at YMCAs, JCCs and camps to prevent accidents, injuries and drownings.

Redwoods is a privately held, socially conscious company whose business and social mission is to protect and improve the quality of life in the communities it serves. Its motto is Serve Others. President & CEO Kevin Trapani declares, “We strongly believe that business can and should be a powerful force for positive social change.” He also says community service and charitable giving are essential priorities of a socially responsible business.  That’s why Redwoods matches virtually all employee gifts to charities and asks employees to perform 40 hours of community service each year on company time.

Redwoods was one of 33 companies honored nationwide as 2009 Best Places to Work in Insurance by Business Insurance magazine and the Best Companies Group. Redwoods became Green-Plus certified in 2009 and also earned B Corporation status. The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce gave Redwoods its 2009 Smith Seal of North Carolina Sustainable Business award.  The Triangle Business Journal named Redwoods its 2009 Green For-Profit Business of the Year.  Redwoods won United Way of North Carolina’s 2009 Spirit of North Carolina Award for its overall commitment to United Way and the community.  Redwoods also earned United Way of the Greater Triangle’s top 2009 award – Best Overall (Campaign) Performance.  The Wall Street Journal and the nonprofit organization Winning Workplaces named The Redwoods Group one of 15 winners of the 2008 Top Small Workplaces. Redwoods, the first North Carolina company to win this prestigious award, competed against 800 businesses across the nation.

ISD Summer Fellows, from left to right: Brooks Rainey Pearson, Dale Hammer, Amanda Campbell, Elizabeth Liedel, and Teddy Salgado

The Institute for Sustainable Development named its six 2009 Summer Sustainability Fellows: Amanda Campbell, Dale Hammer, Elizabeth Liedel, Brooks Rainey Pearson, Teddy Salgado, and Napoleon Wallace. The Fellows, currently graduate and undergraduate students at Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, bring a wealth of experience from their work background and their studies in business, environmental studies, law, planning and public policy.

“The Institute’s Sustainability Fellows program is central to our mission,” said Chris Carmody, Director of the Sustainable Business Initiative. “This interdiscplinary team will help small employers with practical sustainability expertise, and we hope their field experiences here will provide a new experience for them as well,” Carmody concluded.

Along with Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill and the Chapel Hill – Carrboro and Greater Durham Chambers of Commerce, the Institute Summer Sustainability Fellows program is supported by several companies and philanthropic foundations: GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, The Fenwick Foundation and the Redwoods Group.

Amanda Campbell

Amanda is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning with a specialization in land/use and environmental planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before coming to UNC, she was a Park Naturalist at Gulf Branch Nature Center, for Arlington County, Virginia. Accomplishments included leading programs for adults on water conservation, integrated pest management, Energy Audits 101, and backyard wildlife habitats. She also pursuaded the county’s Energy Manager to fund an energy audit for nature center, which led to renovations, and a more comfortable, energy-efficient building. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and minors in Environmental Studies and Music from James Madison University, VA.

Dale Hammer

Dale was born and raised in northwestern New Jersey and has considered himself a Tar Heel his entire life.   He spent his freshman year at Providence College in Rhode Island and is currently a rising senior at UNC Chapel Hill majoring in environmental studies and political science.  Dale considers himself an environmentalist and serves as service chair of Phi Sigma Pi national honor fraternity where he organizes stream clean-ups and other community service activities.  After graduation, he plans to continue his education at UNC School of Law and pursue a career in environmental law.   Dale looks forward to the opportunity to intern at Green Plus where he hopes to gain valuable experience in the field.

Elizabeth Liedel

Elizabeth Liedel is a joint degree candidate at Duke University, pursuing an MBA at the Fuqua School of Business and a Master of Environmental Management at the Nicholas School for the Environment. She is on the Executive Committee of the Duke Microfinance Leadership Initiative and is active in Fuqua’s Net Impact chapter, the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, and the Association of Women in Business. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG), a Boston-based non-profit that incubates small businesses which manufacture green technologies to improve access to clean water, sanitation and renewable energy for the global poor. Prior to returning to school, Elizabeth worked in major gifts fundraising for Combined Jewish Philanthropies. She has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Smith College, where she has also served on the Board of Trustees.

Brooks Rainey Pearson

Brooks Rainey Pearson is a dual degree student at UNC working toward a law degree as well as a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning.  Brooks graduated from UNC in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and spent six years in the Outer Banks where she owned and operated three yoga and Pilates studios before returning to Chapel Hill for school in 2006.  Since her return, Brooks has pursued her interest in land use and environmental law.  She was the vice president of the Environmental Law Project, was published in the Environmental Law Symposium Journal, and completed an independent study on the tax law of conservation easements.  Brooks hopes to build a career helping organizations and municipalities grow sustainably.

Teddy Salgado

Teddy Salgado is a master’s student at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business pursuing his MBA with concentrations in Social Entrepreneurship and Decision Sciences.  His professional interests include business strategy and development, particularly with environmentally and socially sustainable organizations. Teddy recently traveled to Nicaragua to work with a solar energy company, Tecnosol, on expansion plans. He also worked with a Durham-based community development venture fund, Talent Capital, on a business development project.  Prior to business school Teddy was the Business Analyst in Children’s Hospital Boston’s department of cardiology where he managed operations for several research studies and served as a finance committee member for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Pediatric Heart Network. Teddy graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania where he completed a B.A. in mathematics with a music minor.

Napoleon Wallace

Napoleon Wallace is a master’s student at UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Napoleon has an extensive background in finance, working as a high-yield credit analyst for Wachovia Capital Markets for four years and as the commercial banking credit analyst for M&F Bancorp for two years. He has a strong interest in the intersection between entrepreneurship and sustainability, and has been engaged with HIP Investor, SJF Advisory Services, CSE Consulting and the Center for Competitive Economies during his first year of business school. Napoleon is currently one of Kenan-Flagler’s 2009 Carolina Entrepreneurial Fellows.