GREEN ACTION

Best green business and environmentally sustainable  business initiatives and practices

The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them. —Paul Hawken, Environmental Activist

The Color of Green                                                (The following listings are some of the many Green Action initiatives of the global corporate community)

Sony: Environmental Pioneer

Sony, the electronics giant, announced in August 2007, it is championing recycling of all of its US products free of charge. “This represents a challenge to the rest of the industry,” claims Sony’s VP of Environment, safety, & Health, Mark Small. Indeed it does and so far Dell and a few other US companies have jumped on board. Sony’s actions clearly show their acceptance of personal responsibility over the disposal of their own mass produced electronics.

Nike: Eco-friendly Shoes

Nike created the standard for basketball shoes over two decades ago. Now they have again outdone themselves with a state-of-the-art “green” sneaker. Production of the new “Nike Considered” basketball shoe according to Nike uses environmentally friendly materials and non-toxic chemicals. Nike is also attempting to reduce waste in packaging and reuse the waste from its factory floors.

Shopping Green

The first US shopping center for environmentally responsible and socially conscious business is set to open in Chicago in 2008. The Chicago Green Exchange's Green Mall will offer consumers over 270,000 square feet of retail space. From their own website: “Imagine a place where more than one hundred of the country’s leading green businesses share ideas, services and customers under one giant green roof.  Envision a rich array of products, services and showrooms all available in an iconic, state-of-the-art green building overlooking Chicago’s most traveled thoroughfare…Green Exchange is committed to shifting the green marketplace from niche to mainstream, making green living easy and accessible for the public, and giving green businesses and innovators the national stage they need to grow exponentially.” This sounds like the start of something BIG!

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Environmentally Friendly 

The following is a sampling of corporate recycling practices listed on the EPA website. (Reprinted from the US Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov)

Ebay: Rethink Initiative provides information, tools and solutions that make it easy to find new users for idle computers and electronics, and responsibly recycle unwanted products.”

Intel: Students Recycling Used Technology (StRUT) provides technology-based education for K-16 students through the process of refurbishing donated equipment for schools.

Best Buy: Drop off old cell phones, rechargeable batteries, and ink-jet cartridges at the free recycling kiosks located just inside the door of every US Best Buy store.

Hewlett-Packard: Product Recycling (including hardware, LaserJet supplies, and Inkjet supplies). Free recycling on all inkjet products and laser printer cartridges and HP postage-paid shipping materials.

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Conservation International

Conservation International (CI) is a non-profit conservation activist group that partners with large and small corporations to reduce their emissions and carbon footprint. CI enlists the cooperation of the global business community in efforts to preserve the natural environment. The organization states its mission as: “We believe that the Earth's natural heritage must be maintained if future generations are to thrive spiritually, culturally, and economically. Our mission is to conserve the Earth's living heritage – our global biodiversity – and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.”

The list of corporate sponsors is extensive and includes responsible corporate citizens like Sony, Starbucks, Walt Disney, Gap, as well as environmentally suspicious global corporations like Exxon Mobil, United Airlines, and Chiquita. The organization has been accused of corporate collusion by progressive journalists and some activists, however CI’s modus operandi is to try to enlist as much corporate sponsorship as possible in the fight against global warming.

Conservational International and socially responsible corporate citizen, coffee giant Starbucks, have formed an extraordinary partnership. Starbucks, far ahead of the curve on socially responsible profiting, has worked with CI for over a decade on environmental issues. In addition to investing in and supporting local coffee growers, Starbucks with the help of CI, is planting trees to offset carbon emissions in coffee growing communities in Chiapas, Mexico. CI claims that 20% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global climate change “come from the burning and clearing of forests.” Starbucks’ new Pike Place Roast coffee according to CI’s website is an “example of the company’s responsible approach to buying coffee.” Starbucks reverses its carbon footprint by protecting forests and planting trees in regions vulnerable to climate change. Pike Place Roast supports coffee farmers who grow coffee beans under the natural tropical rain forest canopy rather than contributing to carbon emissions by cutting down forests. Starbucks and Conservation International should be applauded for these valuable efforts. Now if Starbucks could only recycle its cups...

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