Dr. Keely Killpack, CEO - The Killpack Group www.killpackgroup.com
What does it mean to be green?
Being green is the latest trend and everywhere you turn ‘experts’ are telling you how to be green. What does it all mean? It means there are A LOT of ways to be a better global citizen and steward of the Earth. As a green strategy consultant, I have spent countless hours researching, learning and analyzing the seemingly infinite green possibilities. The following information discusses the big picture, and most of the main components of being green.
First, we can conceptualize being green into two halves:
GREEN PERSON – Being green ourselves in our personal lives
GREEN BUSINESS – Being a green business in the marketplace
In both halves, there are four main categories which can be green:
1) Structure - Where we live or work
2) Operations – How we live or work
3) Products/Services – What we produce or sell
4) Outreach – Giving back to our community or improving society
For the GREEN PERSON, there are countless ways to be green in the four categories. Here are some examples:
1) Structure – Get solar paneling, tankless water heater, insulated windows, reduce heating & air conditioning costs, capturing rainwater run-off, drought resistant and native landscaping, etc
2) Operations – this includes eco-safe cleaning products, energy star appliances, water conserving dishwashing & laundry practices, fluorescent light-bulbs, keeping lights off in rooms that are not in use, shutting off computers at night and so on.
3) Products/Services – This means teaching our children to be stewards of the environment and learning environmentally friendly behaviors from us. It also means buying products & services for our household (like dry-cleaning, housekeepers, painting, etc) that are earthly friendly and safe for our health
4) Outreach – This includes where you donate money or items, if you do community service for the environment (beach clean-up for example), how you give back to the improvement of the planet.
For the GREEN BUSINESS, there are also countless ways to be green in each of the four categories. Here are some examples:
1) Structure – Move into a LEED approved building (meets green building standards) or retro-fit current commercial space with green features (eco-roof, solar panels, rainwater capture, etc)
2) Operations – This includes every aspect of your business operations. Turning machinery off at night, fluorescent blubs, recycling paper/ reducing paper waste, streamlining manufacturing or business processes to be more efficient, electronic document management, employee re-training, green supporting vendors, etc
3) Products/Services – This requires changing the business dramatically to produce green products (like Chevron doing geo-thermal and biofuels, or a paint company making fume free, eco-safe paint instead of the carcinogenic, cheaper kind) or to provide green services (Killpack Group’s green strategy consulting business, or Terrapass selling carbon offsets to people and business)
4) Outreach – Supporting environmental causes with corporate matching contributions, volunteerism focusing on green causes and behaviors, involving your company in green political initiatives. Being an active part of the solution, not continuing to ignore the problem
These are the general tenets ofthe green paradigm. Please contact me for more information
Author Summary:
Dr. Keely Killpack is an Organizational Psychologist. She specializes in Green Strategy and Change Management consulting for businesses interested in adopting green practices or transforming company culture / employee behavior. Her client experiences range from global giants to small family-owned businesses. If your workplace needs some green, check out her website at www.killpackgroup.com.
Recent Comments