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Green Business Practices For Dummies provides readers with the information they need to reduce the environmental impact of the business with out reducing their bottom line. The practical and expert advice and tips presented in this title benefits business owners at all levels, from large corporations to small, family-run stores.
Lisa Swallow, CPA, CMA, MS Director of the Accounting Technology Program at the University of Montana College of Technology Educator, Author, Accountant Learn to: • Evaluate the sustainability of your existing operations • Maximize your triple bottom line • Green your marketing mix • Increase profits and stakeholder goodwill Green Business Practices Making Everything Easier! ™ Open the book and find: • Explanations about why sustainability is a profitable business model • Common frameworks that guide most sustainability efforts • Ways to create an eco-conscious work environment • Guidance on working with regulatory pressures and policymakers • Ways to link community support with your corporate message • Success stories of green businesses, small and large • Checklists, frameworks, and action items to transform your organization Lisa Swallow, CPA, CMA, MS teaches a host of sustainable business and accounting classes a the University of Montana College of Technology. She serves as a board member on the Sustainable Business Council and Sustainable Campus Committee. Swallow has also written chapters on green marketing and business for a leading Principles of Business textbook. $21.99 US / $25.99 CN / £14.99 UK ISBN 978-0-470-39339-0 Business/Environmental Economics Go to dummies.com ® for more! The only resource with specific, hands-on guidance for greening your business Want to take advantage of profit-enhancing opportunities while minimizing negative environmental and social impact? This practical guide shows you how to implement green business practices and gain competitive advantage through reduced costs, product and process innovation, increased productivity, and more. You’ll cultivate an eco-minded workforce and manage environmental opportunities and threats at every level of your organization. • Develop your sustainability plan — establish your goals, choose key performance indicators, and share your plan with stakeholders • Embark on your green journey — get started by altering daily office practices, re-evaluating products and processes, and adapting your physical facilities • Get internal and external stakeholders involved — stimulate buy-in from employees, develop community relationships, and collaborate with nonprofits • Assess and measure your progress — identify greening standards to meet, accumulate data, and design and distribute a sustainability report to inform stakeholders of your progress • Learn by example — discover how numerous green corporate visionaries met their sustainable business goals • Reap the benefits of going green — improve employee morale, increase stakeholder engagement, stand out in the marketplace, and reduce your eco-footprint Green Business Practices Swallow spine=71” 01_344743-ffirs.qxp 12/18/08 10:48 PM Page iii by Lisa Swallow, CPA, CMA, MS Green Business Practices FOR DUMmIES ‰ Green Business Practices For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. 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This book is printed on recycled paper. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Lisa Swallow is a professor, CPA, CMA, community volunteer, and writer based in Missoula, Montana. She takes an active role in many aspects of her local green business community, including consulting with local businesses and serving as a board member on the Sustainable Business Council and Sustainable Campus Committee. Lisa is also a past board member and presi- dent of homeWORD, a nonpro t that develops affordable green housing and advocates for best-practice policies in housing. She co-writes a column on the green global economy, which appears the rst of each month in the “In Business” section of her local newspaper, The Missoulian. She has also written chapters on sustainable marketing and sus- tainable business for a leading Principles of Business textbook. Lisa is at the forefront of promoting sustainability literacy curriculum at the University of Montana and teaches two classes adopted into UM’s inter- disciplinary Climate Change Studies minor. She is the Program Director for Accounting Technology at UM College of Technology and integrates sustain- able business concepts into all the courses she teaches. She has long been an advocate that the economy, the environment, and social justice can all be well-served by smart, strategic business thinking that focuses on long-term solutions rather than solely on short-term prof- its. In 2005, she discovered the exemplary Bainbridge Graduate Institute on Bainbridge Island, Washington — one of the rst institutions of higher educa- tion in the U.S. to offer course work with an emphasis in sustainable develop- ment. Lisa received a graduate certi cate in Sustainable Business from BGI in 2006. She also has a Master of Science in Accountancy from California State University, Chico. Dedication To my best friend and lifetime partner, Dann Swallow, for his unwavering sup- port and belief in my ability to complete this project, and to my teenagers, Dylan and Dante, for all the times I had to say, “I’m writing — catch me later!” Also, to my Texas family members for their unequivocal enthusiasm for this project, even when mine had dwindled. Author’s Acknowledgments “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats Writing a book about something I feel so passionate about has been extremely rewarding — the incessant educator in me has found an outlet that many folks only get to image. I’m blessed to work with hundreds of students every year. Their eager minds, desire to be a part of the solution to the challenges facing our world, and insightful and provocative questions drive me to be the best that I can be in order to inspire their generation toward creative and sustainable thinking. This book would have been unthinkable ve short years ago. My deepest gratitude goes out to Gifford and Libba Pinchot for their vision of a business school (Bainbridge Graduate Institute) that embraces environmental and social responsibility and to Jill Bamburg for inspiring me from the rst day I landed there. I’d also like to thank Eric Ziegler, a fellow student at BGI, who got my foot in the door for my rst writing gig on sustainability. The research on sustainable business is exploding, and I can’t begin to thank all the professionals and scholars whose work I relied on to guide, solidify, and inspire my work. I’m in awe of many of the creative entrepreneurs and managers who are positioning their companies to ourish in the face of sig- ni cant global challenges. Without your success stories, there would be no case for a sustainable business model. On a personal level, I want to thank my dear friend, Niki Robinson, for help- ing me redirect my career and research when I was oundering. Her insight helped me to think holistically about how to bring together my passion for the environment and social justice with my long-term profession as an accountant and businesswoman. Lastly, this book would never have gotten off my computer and into print if it weren’t for the ceaseless prodding, cajoling, and counseling of Kristin DeMint, my project editor. I’d also like to give a big shout out to Mike Baker at Wiley for being so receptive to my ideas for the book, as well as to Jen Tebbe for her editorial comments, corrections, and ideas. This book was a collaborative effort, to say the least, and would never have come together without true partnering. Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registra- tion form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Kristin DeMint Acquisitions Editor: Mike Baker Copy Editor: Jennifer Tebbe Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen Technical Editor: Timothy Koponen, PhD Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker Editorial Assistant: Jennette ElNaggar Art Coordinator: Alicia B. South Cover Photo: © Botanica Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Katherine Key Layout and Graphics: Samantha K. Allen, Stacie Brooks, Reuben W. Davis, Sarah Philippart, Christin Swinford, Christine Williams Proofreader: Linda Seifert Indexer: Sherry Massey Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: Sustainability: The Visionary Way to Grow a Business 7 Chapter 1: What’s in It for My Company; What’s in It for My World? 9 Chapter 2: How Nature’s Laws Are Dictating Change 25 Chapter 3: Preparing to Create Your Sustainability Plan 35 Chapter 4: Creating Your Sustainability Plan 51 Chapter 5: Paying Attention to Public Policy and the Regulatory Realm 81 Part II: Pushing Up Your Green Sleeves: Implementation 97 Chapter 6: Small Steps, Big Change: Of ce Practices 99 Chapter 7: Lean Green Product Development Machine 131 Chapter 8: Looking Closely at the Brick and Mortar: Facilities 153 Chapter 9: Greening Your Accounting Practices 179 Part III: Involving Stakeholders in Your Sustainability Efforts 193 Chapter 10: Marketing to a Greener World 195 Chapter 11: Revitalizing Your Local Economy 221 Chapter 12: Partnering with a Nonpro t 241 Chapter 13: Greening Your Workforce and Your Human Resource Policies 259 Part IV: Measuring and Reporting Results 281 Chapter 14: Governing Bodies: Getting to Know the Standards and Certi cations 283 Chapter 15: Measuring Results and Tweaking Your Plan 303 Chapter 16: Creating Sustainability Reports That Wow Stakeholders 313 Part V: The Part of Tens 333 Chapter 17: More than Ten Green Business Visionaries and Their Success Stories 335 Chapter 18: Countering Ten Myths about Going Green 343 Index 349 [...]... employees through ecoefforts ✓ Strengthening your sustainable marketing endeavors ✓ Greening your daily office practices I wrote this book primarily for all the small and mid-sized business owners and managers I know and work with who want to embrace green business practices but don’t know where to start or what that really even means Green Business Practices For Dummies contains tons of information about... to Business 174 Picking renovation projects 175 Planning the site for your new building 176 Chapter 9: Greening Your Accounting Practices 179 Understanding What Green Finances Entail 179 Why Green Your Accounting Practices? 181 How to Green Your Accounting Practices: The Basics 182 Choosing Green Financial Institutions 184 Focusing on practices... Used in This Book If you peruse Green Business Practices For Dummies, you’ll see little pictures, or icons, in the margins These icons spotlight the following helpful info and key ideas: 5 6 Green Business Practices For Dummies This icon indicates the presence of time-, money-, and energy-saving advice and ideas The details highlighted by this icon are worth keeping in mind for future use Don’t skip over... good business strategy, even though you may not be able to define it How This Book Is Organized Green Business Practices For Dummies is organized into five parts and designed so that you can easily read any part by itself and feel fully informed on that topic without any other background Take a gander at the following overview and then dive on in depending on your individual interests 3 4 Green Business. .. Dummies is not only going to convince you that greening your business is important but it’s also going to show you exactly how to do that This book provides examples, tangible action items, checklists, ideas, and frameworks that you can use to develop your own unique 2 Green Business Practices For Dummies spin on greening your organization in a way that makes sense for you, your employees, and your operating... greener lens Sound like a tall order while trying to generate profits to stay alive another day? There’s no single guiding model as to what a green business should look like But there are great stories of companies that have embraced sustainable development and flourished in ways they’d never imagined (think GE, Patagonia, Dow Chemical, IKEA, Volvo, and Herman Miller) Green Business Practices For Dummies. .. Opting for utility over ownership 123 Considering the source of your supplies 124 Shelling out for sustainable and nontoxic office items 125 Cutting the Carbon Impact of Company Travel 127 Conferencing electronically instead of in person 128 Investing in sustainable company cars 129 Instituting green corporate travel policies 130 xi xii Green Business Practices For Dummies. .. Sustainability Efforts 193 Chapter 10: Marketing to a Greener World 195 Greening Your Marketing Model: The Basics 196 Color-Coding Your Customers by Their Shade of Green 197 Conducting green marketing research 197 Pine Greens: The uber-informed consumer 198 Jungle Greens: The trendy, ecofriendly consumer 199 Moss Greens: The environmentally apathetic consumer ... 238 xiii xiv Green Business Practices For Dummies Chapter 12: Partnering with a Nonprofit 241 The Form and Function of a Successful Collaboration 242 How you help the nonprofit 243 How the nonprofit helps you 244 Identifying Good Opportunities for Partnership 246 Assessing the Candidates and Narrowing Your Options 247 Prescreening before moving ahead... Green Business Practices For Dummies Part I: Sustainability: The Visionary Way to Grow a Business Chapter 1 introduces you to the business case for sustainability and addresses why sustainability is not only a good business model but also one that’ll prevail in years to come It also explains how your company can get onboard Chapter 2 gives you an overview of the most challenging issues facing businesses . eco-footprint Green Business Practices Swallow spine=71” 01_344743-ffirs.qxp 12/18/08 10:48 PM Page iii by Lisa Swallow, CPA, CMA, MS Green Business Practices FOR DUMmIES ‰ Green. really even means. Green Business Practices For Dummies contains tons of information about ways you can make your unique business greener — and gain a