Green Business Versus Green Buildings

No doubt, everyone now knows that we are dealing with issues larger than pollution and conservation. The popularity of the concept of sustainability has become a common phrase in countless articles though there is still some confusion on the subject. There are health issues related to indoor air quality that are not quite sustainable concerns, but fall into the Green for life arena. The issues of pollution are also well-known and almost pushed aside with ancillary concerns for the rainforest, whale population, polar bear habitat, and receding ice cap. Nonetheless, the need for a Green building has emerged as the hot issue of the business community and various government bodies. This, I fear, is a good idea that have been ramped a little too high.Building construction or renovation is meritorious and certainly a part of the big answer for environmental issues of our day. It seems that our constant quest for better, brighter, and more powerful products has neglected to ask other questions about health and safety to the living beings that inhabit this world, including the oft-decried human species. Though man has been a problem at times, he has also been the cure for problems that require more than nature alone supplies. More to the topic at hand, do Green buildings faithfully address the environmental issues that we face in the most appropriate way? To answer the question, let's push the illustration into a hyperbole. Could a non-Green, anti-Green, or agnosti-Green business operate in what would be an Green constructed facility? Sure it could though I am sure that the architects of the Green facility would place restrictions on the leaseholders. Therefore, we have the challenge of behavior versus environment. Could a tenant spread pesticides about after carelessly allowing food to be left out? Could the purchase of equipment after leasing a facility disrupt the better practices of the building owner? Could a company be negligent to the extreme about the use of paper and packaging material? Might this offish company fail to recycle, waste resources, and careless buy from non-Green vendors?Green practices are the proverbial "other side of the coin" that I am sure are expected to live up to a higher standard. But, therein lies the problem. After all have been done to create a Green building, how much do the tenants really know about the Green practices that should be associated with Green operation? We have seen low-income housing go into areas that was intended to give the people of that community a better life, but without stereotyping anyone, were there families who did not take care of those homes? If the facilities were not cleaned, maintained, and protected from abuse; they would eventually fall into disrepair despite the better intentions of the people who constructed those homes.I wish to press the point that we are not educating the tenants and associates who will move into the newly-constructed Green buildings. Though well-intended and positively oriented toward environmental issues, the depth of environmental understanding of the average worker in the resident business will negate a sizable portion of the good that should be done. I advocate a Green Management training program for every business, large or small, offered by a certified Green Consultant able to address the myriad of issues contained within the larger scope of environmental concerns. Do workers even know what VOCs are, where they come from, and what they should know about the dozens upon dozens of sources for VOCs? Is HEPA a semi-understood word that is often heard in proximity to vacuum cleaners? What are the numerous ways to reduce water use other than refusing to wash their hands after going to the bathroom? Has the sales force of the company been brought into the "Big Picture" of tools that improve performance and reduce travel? There are so many of these important gem ideas that could and should be shared, but they must come from a far better source than an brochure picked up at the latest seminar.Green businesses may rent, lease , or own their facilities. The operation or practices of the business can literally work within some otherwise non-Green buildings. If pressed into action with routine improvement, nearly any business can cut energy and water use without noticeable interference with normal operation. Why not require the janitorial service to be Green certified and use only Green cleaning products? Should decisions like buying of furntiure, painting of walls, and replacement of carpet allow for input from a certified Green Consultant even though your building is not LEED certified? Again, the answer is an unqualified, "Yes."Building a new or renovating an existing building to a Green certification standard can cost hundreds of thousands of dollar above the costs of a typical building program. There is no effort to criticize that level of commitment to the cause. What I routinely see, however, belies the obvious good intentions of Green buildings, and draws my attention to the day-to-day operation and working practices of businesses who do not think or realize the impact of countless actions taken each day by millions of businesses. There is a desperate and universal need for Green educators, trained as professional and certified Green Consultants, to go to work in every city and burg. Businesses, who previously required sensitivity training among their workers now need to educate their workers on something that hurts us all.Our country abounds with businesses that are small, medium and large. We should not build buildings that are genius in concept but will be inhabited with people who are merely environmentally entertained. Green Awareness training and Green Management processes are as critical to the overall success as are solar panels and sunlight vents. If this is our chance to make a difference in world that we all share, it cannot be left to the engineers, architects, and builders alone. It is a shared burden by those who will daily live out the visions now made into the buildings of a Greener world.

Green Business Certification

When your company is thinking about Going Green, it may be good to think forward about how a decision to seek a Green certification will affect your business. The kind of "Easy Green" now promoted to this Green-driven market brings short-term gain with long term worries. No decision to create an environmentally-friendly business format should compromise the integrity of the company's future. This is a decision worthy of better thought.Take, for example, the near certainty that some investigative reporter is sure to look into the growing number of website certifications that require only a few hundred dollars of payment and a self-assessment form. The lack of any integrity factors for these kinds of certifications seem to invite abuses. In other words, a less-than-honest firm can earn the same certification as a environmentally-committed company. This glaring invitation for abuse will certainly come back to haunt companies who took the easy route to a world stressing problem. Only a fool could think that these easy-to-cheat systems will become a bastion of integrity.It has been properly said:"If we cannot measure something, we cannot verify it." The obvious purpose of a Green certification logo is to provide the public with some assurance that the logo means something more than that the applicant paid a fee and filled in a form. These programs promote a fundamental deception because the certification has been designed to convey public confidence in something that has not been verified or even reviewed by an independent professional.Just ask yourself how you would feel after deciding to do business with another firm that boasts of its Green merit to win your business,and you subsequently discover that any firm with a few hundred dollars could buy the same designation. Would you feel deceived and cheated? This will be the ugly fate of more than a few companies that take the "Easy Green" route of short-circuiting the system rather than making a realistic commitment.The whole concept of greenwashing has been artificially kept alive because of a business belief that marketing is the bending of perceptions to boost marketshare and profits. Advertising has always provided the latitude to turn negatives into positives, words into realities, and minimums into maximums. So, what happens when the allowances of marketing run into the demands of integrity? In the case of environmentalism, the mongoloid child is called greenwashing.If the only way to verify Green compliance is by measuring or testing, then the obvious antidote to greenwashing is an audit by a professional who uses an industry standard of compliance, The Green Business League made a commitment years ago to train certifiers (auditors) and provide a standard for a Green business that requires more than good intentions or a token effort. More than 250 Certified Green Consultants provide guidance and audits for businesses willing to prove their Green value.This standard has been recently affirmed in an executive order by President Obama requiring a sustainability officer who is required to project a variety of Green and sustainable practices for their agency or company. This federal requirement shows that the path forward is not one of self-acclamation, but of proven compliance.Let us return to the original question. What would be the investigative reporters criticism to find that your company (out of many other Easy Green companies) installed a series of Green practices that had been audited by an independent professional and found to merit a national certification? You would probably feel pretty good about being the one that stood out as the authentically Green business.Audits prove that you keep honest books. Audits prevent cheating by manufacturers. Audits of inventory stop thievery. No one really wants an audit unless they know that the audit will prove the quality of the work done. Those who desire to cheat the system resist audits. One of the failures of Copenhagen was China's willingness to sign on to all the mandates of the Climate Control Summit as long as China did not have to submit to an audit of the results. What message does that revelation convey to you in clear message. China has no intention to live up to the mandates, although they will put on a show that they are concerned about the environment. This is a classic example of Green washing.Companies everywhere should make the commitment to reject Greenwashing by insisting on Green certification earned by Green practices certified by an independent audit. Accepting any Green claim at face value is as foolish as inviting the unscrupulous of the world to pay you in Monopoly money. Why not play golf with someone who feels that adjusting his score is a good way to impress his friends. If it is not measured, it cannot be verified; and if there is no audit of Green practices there can be no certification of a Green business... unless you bought it off the Internet!