T-shirt for your thoughts. . .

A reader recently approached The Green Workplace for some recruiting ideas.  We thought it would be a great opportunity to open a discussion that would benefit all of our readers.  The benefits don't stop there, however, we will give away 100% organic t-shirts for the best ideas you post to the discussion!

Question:  Our company has really strong environmental policies and is actively recruiting for a number of positions.  We really want to reach candidates who think Green.  Our company gives free bicycles to employees, recycles, uses organic materials in production, and the roof of our factory is covered in solar panels.  So far, these programs haven't really become the selling point for applicants that we anticipated.  Do you have any advice?

Answer:  Your current employee base is always going to be your most potent recruiting tool. Think of things they may choose to discuss about your company while at happy hour, at Thanksgiving dinner or while they are chatting with another parent while watching a Little League game. Are your green policies going to be among the headlines?  
Here are some other ideas that are likely to prompt personal testimony:

• Implement flexible schedules, like 4 day work weeks or part time work from home
  
• Inspire some teams to start desk sharing or working anywhere
  
• Consideration of video conference as an alternative to business trips
  
• Reduce quantity of office equipment by increase the ratio of employees to printers or removing select computer monitors
  

Readers:  Please let us know what you think!  Submit your ideas by posting your responses and send me an email with your mailing address, t-shirt selection and size if you wish to claim your 100% organic t-shirt.

LOHAS and Greenwashing

I learned a new term today: LOHAS. Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability. It speaks to the rapidly growing consumer market for sustainable products and services.


Unfortunately, the article that gave me LOHAS also gave me bad news on the greenwashing front. Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) did a study on LOHAS market trends and found four main themes:

1. From Purchaser to Participant
2. Sustainable Style
3. Shades of Green for Everyone
4. Greenwashing Washout.

The fourth topic is what struck me the most: essentially, many companies are doing the right thing and trying to provide environmentally-responsible products and services. Sadly, many other companies are more opportunistic and are providing products that are fooling consumers. Consumers are, however, becoming more discerning, which is encouraging!

Here are some sources to check out if you have some time:

• Are You Experiencing "Greenwashing Washout"? (Source article from GreenSage E-Zine)
• NMI Report (available for a mere $4,000 - no I did not buy it either, just giving you the opportunity to if you are interested)
• LOHAS Online

Image source: www.groovygreen.com

Getting on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Do you ever wonder how companies get labeled as "sustainable" by Wall Street? Well, I did, so I took a look at the The Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Interestingly, it's evaluation criteria includes more than sustainability factors, it also has economic and social considerations in their assessment criteria. Things like corporate governance, risk and crisis management, corporate citizenship, human capital development and talent attraction and retention, among others.

The survey they give companies trying to get on their index has some good questions. Here are the ones related to the environment:

Has your company adopted a corporate environmental policy?

Please indicate whether your corporate environmental policy applies to 1) company's own operations, 2) environmental impacts of products & services, 3) suppliers & service providers, 4) other key business partners.

Please indicate how your environmental management system is verified/ audited/ certified (i.e. ISO 14001, JIS Q 14001, EMAS certification by third party).

Please indicate the percentage of total revenues verified/audited/certified according to these systems.

Please indicate your reduction targets and explain the trend and the performance against the target (for total direct GHG emissions, total energy consumption, total water use, total waste generation).

That's it. That's all of their questions. But you know, as simple as they are, could your company answer them? There's a lot of measurement and accountability embedded in these. If you're thinking of taking on some of the enviornmental issues in your company, these questions are not a bad place to start.

Green Buildings Pay

I was recently introduced to a CoStar report that got me very excited. http://www.costar.com/partners/costar-green-study.pdf It compares LEED certified and Energy Star buildings against those that are not across the US real estate market. The results of the study are astounding... they show that green buildings achieve higher rents, higher occupancy, have lower operating costs and achieve higer prices per square foot. Now what developer or building owner in their right might would choose anything but a green building!

That said, it turns out that one of my esteemed colleagues used this study in a recent presentation to pension real estate leaders and they were not so happy with the methodology used. They felt the analysis was not consistent in grouping unlike buildings together and the conclusions should not be drawn across all regions.

They did provide her with a bunch of additional articles that had similar findings. Here's a excerpt from a UBS study, How Will Green Construction Affect REITs?, they liked.

According to a survey done by McGraw-Hill, there is a 2% higher initial cost to go green, but over the long run, the benefits will outweigh the initial higher construction costs. These benefits include:

Operating costs: Average expected decrease of operating costs between 8% and 9% across the industry.

Building values: Average increase in values expected around 7.5%.

Return on investment (ROI): Average ROI expected to improve 6.6%.

Occupancy ratio: Occupancy rate expected to increase by 3.5%.

Rent ratio: On average, rents expected to increase by 3%.

Please comment and share other good studies you've found.

Climate Counts is Cool

I heard about this tool from a fellow tree-hugger: Climate Counts is a nonprofit organization that ranks companies based on their environmental track record. It’s a very cool site – I’ve been playing around on it this morning and found out that some of my favorite companies are doing really well and others could use some improvement.

For more information, check out their press release:

Climate Counting More with Consumer Companies
84% of Companies Show Improvement in 2nd Climate Counts Company Scorecard
Transparency is Critical to Consumers
(May 7th, 2008) Climate Counts' second annual Company Scorecard shows scored companies making climate improvements across most industry sectors. 84 percent of the scored companies —among them some of the world's largest -- made improvements in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and to make information about those actions actions easily accessible to consumers. The Scorecard, first released in June 2007, scores 56 major corporations in well-known consumer sectors – from apparel to electronics to fast food – on their commitment to reversing climate change.

"Business is being pushed by consumers to do their part to solve the climate crisis," said Gary Hirshberg, chair of Climate Counts and CEO of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm. "The Scorecard allows consumers to make good climate decisions in their everyday purchases,and it's having an impact."

Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss had the largest score improvement among those scores, each jumping over 20 points. Improvement was broad however, with the average company score improving 22 percent over last year. Nike passed last year's high scorer, Canon, to as the top scored company.
"Company transparency is critical to allowing consumers to make good decisions," said Wood Turner, Project Director. "The time for companies to just say 'trust us, we're good on climate' has passed, consumers want to see the proof behind the green claims. They want to know it's not just marketing talk, but real substantive action."

It wasn't all good climate news. Five companies scored one or zero points: Jones Apparel Group; and four companies from the Food Services sector, Burger King, Darden Restaurants (which owns popular restaurants Red Lobster and Olive Garden), Yum! Brands (parent to Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) and Wendy's. The Food Services sector has the lowest average (11.5 out of 100) of any of the eight sectors measured with smallest overall improvement. There were a total of ten companies – down from 18 last year – scoring in the lowest tier of companies, or under 12 points overall.

"We're excited by the level of interest in the Scorecard by both consumers and business," said Turner. "In order to expand our reach and applicability, we'll be expanding the number of companies we monitor later this year."

The companies were scored on a scale from one to 100, based on 22 criteria that fall within four benchmarks: whether they measure their carbon footprint; what efforts they have made to reduce their own climate impact; whether they support or oppose global-warming legislation; and what they disclose to the public about their work to address climate change. Consumers can review all the company scores and download a pocket-sized shopping guide at http://www.climatecounts.org/. Consumers will also be able to look up companies' rankings by texting "cc company name" (for example, "cc Nike") to 30644 from their cell phones so they can make climate-friendly consumer decisions while they shop. An expansion of Climate Counts' mobile phone activism program is planned for later this summer.

The Pros and Cons of Transit

We all talk about how great transit is and how we should all abandon our cars to take mass transit. But many of us do not. Why? Sometimes it’s because transit is not available. Sometimes it’s because it is inconvenient. A lot of times it’s because of the poor customer service/overall experience.

The last time I took Metrorail, the train was late, dirty, and packed full of people. One very large lady (I use the term loosely) shoved me and screamed that I needed to move further in (I was already touching the person in front of me), while someone else sneezed in my face. I then had to wait 15 minutes to change trains (they’re supposed to come every 6 minutes). I could have driven to my destination much faster, for about the same cost, and without the headache and future cold.

I just read a great article on thestar.com, “The Genuinely Better Way” that talks about San Francisco MUNI’s new Connected Bus and how it hopes to provide better customer service. This bus is a pilot program that MUNI and Cisco have developed that provides passengers with wireless internet, information on other vehicles in the system, and green stats on the bus’s environmental impact.

I certainly hope all public transit agencies start to think more aggressively about customer service/customer experience!

Other articles on the Connected Bus:

• Cisco
• SFMTA
• SFGate
• TreeHugger
• Transbayblog

Too Busy for Blogs?

As you can see just from our blogroll, there are tons of great green blogs out there, ranging from green design to green living to just green-green. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, there are resources out there to help you cut through the information and see what others find the most interesting. I’m always pleased when I see a Green Workplace post on any of these!

• Architectural Record Selects: Green Blogs
• Architectural Record Selects: Practice Blogs
• GreenSource Selects: Blogs
• Sustain Newsladder
• Digg/Environment
• Hugg 2.0
• Best Green Blogs – list of blogs with description...you can also sign up for an RSS feed here!

Check out more bookmarking resources below.

Go Barefoot Day at HOK

In preparation for Earth Day, HOK challenged all of their 2500 employees to "go barefoot" by taking a tangible step toward reducing their carbon footprint by altering their transportation, travel and work habits on April 22.

They invite others to join them, and have created a PDF with a number of suggestions for getting to work and what you can do when you get there, showing the impact of each, with links to more information.

"We hope "Go Barefoot Day" builds momentum beyond the walls of HOK and inspires our clients and communities to walk alongside us" says Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus.
They have a link at the bottom of the PDF to a spreadsheet that shows all of the assumptions and sources for their data, which will prove to be a very useful resource. ::HOK Go Barefoot

The Snowball Effect

I’ve always been an avid recycler, but three years ago my boss recommended that I take the USGBC's LEED exam. Studying for the test took some time, but I learned some great things that I’ve been able to apply in my daily life in addition to what’s required to commission HVAC systems.

The one thing that stood out to me was how much my newfound knowledge has “snowballed”:

• Writing articles for my Homeowners Association Newsletter – sharing simple ideas in a large forum can make a big difference – I’ve seen lots of small measures taken in the community, and some large ones too.
• Joining the community Architectural Control Committee – and making recommendations as to how to make the community’s guidelines more environmentally-friendly. I’m now receiving calls about composting, solar panels, energy efficient window replacements and more.
• Turning my husband into a recycling, reuse, and conservation Nazi – sometimes a little bit more than I can handle, but it’s all for the cause, right?
• Thanks to his newfound environmentalism, my husband has been making major steps with his company, including starting a recycling program and harassing the boss for transit incentives (see my post on Greenwashing Hits Home for more info). His latest endeavor is a Six Sigma project – green initiatives, starting just with his project, but hopefully spreading company-wide. Quick update on the transit: still hasn't talked the boss into paying for transit instead of (or even in addition to) parking - maybe the Six Sigma will help.

It’s amazing how just a little bit of sharing and education can make a big difference. I encourage everyone to share the small ideas (the big ones too) and let us know your success stories!

The UK - to have an eco-town makeover?

Today the UK government has revealed 15 locations which have been shortlisted as the first new towns in England in since the 1960s. 10 sites will be selected from this list to be built as new "eco-towns" by 2020 and will contribute to the government's plans to build 3 million new homes by the same year.

The eco-towns initiative has been designed to tackle the dual challenges of climate change and the need for more UK families to own their own home. However, they have come under fire on both these areas.

The UK government's sustainability agenda for eco-towns

Eco-towns are planned to be low-energy, carbon-neutral and built from recycled materials. Each development will be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal.

The argument against the sustainability agenda

The opposition has accused the government of "eco-spin rather than a genuine attempt to address the environmental nature of UK housing".

The UK government's house-building agenda for eco-towns

The UK is currently experiencing a housing shortage, especially in the affordable housing market. The largest eco-town will provide between 15,000 and 20,000 new homes and 30% to 40% of each eco-town will be allocated as affordable housing.

The argument against the house-building agenda

The opposition argue that because three-quarters of the housing we'll be living in by 2050 is already built, that unless you do something about the existing stock, putting up a few eco-towns amounts to a tiny fraction of the total housing we will require. There are also several shortlisted new towns that will require building on green field sites.

The opposition have also stressed the need to ensure inhabitants of new eco-towns do not have to commute in order to work. As if this happened, the sites would not be sustainable at all and would in fact give rise to extra carbon emissions in transportation. There are concerns among environmental campaigners that most of the proposed eco-towns will increase car pollution because they will not be big or diverse enough to sustain viable public transport.

For more information go to the UK Communities and Local Government Department website.

Map source: BBC News

Earth Hour: U.S. cities to dim lamps, illuminate climate-change

Today the Christian Science Monitor had an article on WWF's upcoming campaign called "Earth Hour." Twenty-five cities around the world will participate and go dark between 8-9pm on March 29th, 2008 (http://www13.earthhourus.org/).

For example, the city of Chicago will experience a "lights-out" from everything as high as the Sears Tower to the multiple McDonald's located on its streets. But it doesn't stop there - the initiative includes cities such as Bangkok, Thailand; Dublin, Ireland; and Tel Aviv.

Naysayers point out that impacts from such events are too minimal to make a difference; promoters refute that the idea is to get people talking.

I agree with the promotors. Recently, I've seen more and more articles similar to this idea popping up - how do we get people to think and talk seriously about their personal energy use?

Behavioral economist at the University of Chicago and the authors of "Nudge" (featured in the NY Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/science/25tier.html) are analyzing how people think about climate change - their idea is to help people understand how their energy use compares to the social norm and provide more guidance to the average user on their daily impact. For example, bring in more home devices such as energy counts on thermostats that allows homeowners to compare themselves to everyone else on the block. Is your home the highest or lowest energy user?

Campaigns and finding such as these will help us find a way to make climate change something that EVERYONE readily thinks about and understands.

The quote I loved most about "earth hour" from the Christian Science Monitor: "It's like the Boston Tea Party... dumping tea in Boston wasn't going to bring down the British Empire, but it created a spark that started the Revolution."

Green Drinks

If you didn't raise a pint of green beer for St Patrick's Day, or you're already impatiently counting down the days till next year, you might be surprised to learn your next green drink could be sooner than you think.

Every month, in cities around the world, thousands are meeting up for Green Drinks. Admittedly the drinks aren't usually green, but the conversations are. Green Drinks is a social happy hour taking place in an ever increasing number of cities around the world (currently 355 according to their website) bringing together people who care about being green.

I must admit that I haven't been to a Green Drinks recently due to another socially responsible architectural pursuit, however I was always pleased by the dynamic turnout at the happy hours I have attended. While that city's Green Drinks was sponsored by the local AIA chapter (a good way to save some green too), I was pleased to meet a diverse crowd of students, professionals and regular citizens. Some people were simply curious, and others found it enjoyable to finally meet other people who "get it". I met a homeowner looking for ways to improve her home, and an engineer who was looking for ways to convince his boss that going green was smart business. Sometimes it was just people who wondered why so many of us were crowded into the balcony and having such a good time in an otherwise empty bar.

Thankfully my previous scheduling conflict has changed, so when Green Drinks is in my city next month I should be able to attend. I hope I see you there.

Dirty Bus U

The Washington (DC) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, a.k.a. Metro, is donating the last four of its "dirty air" buses to the nonprofit Biodiesel University. These buses generate some of Metro's dirtiest emissions.

The buses will be turned into mobile teaching labs that will run on biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel U, affiliated with the University of Maryland, will take the teaching labs to schools, colleges and events across the region.

Now I think this is a great idea for a couple of reasons - we have a lot of dirty vehicles (not just in DC, all over the world) and we can just chuck them into landfills when we're ready to upgrade to a cleaner bus (or car). It makes sense to convert them and keep on using them. This got me thinking that Metro probably spent a lot of money on newer, cleaner emitting buses and wouldn't it makes sense to convert the buses to biodiesel...and keep on running them for Metro? I don't know a lot about conversion services out there, but I would love to hear about them. I think this could apply well to fleet vehicles too.

And the other reason I like this idea: it really got me thinking. There a lot of website that tell you how to shrink your carbon footprint as an individual, and they often advise activities like buying Energy Star appliances or hybrid cars. Well, we can't all go out and buy new cars or appliances as this would a) create a lot of waste and b) create a huge demand on resources. BUT! What if we could come up with the technology to convert these to more efficient models without having to trade them in altogether? Is anyone working on this???

It is like LEED-EB for cars and appliances! Use what you have and make it more efficient.

On the Road: Gulf Coast Green

There are many great green building conferences out there but I want to call out one that I will make a point to attend this year: Gulf Coast Green (April 3-6, Houston). First of all, I love that this is a regional approach with targeted strategies for a specific climate. We don't all live on the same latitude and we aren't all dealing with the same challenges. One size does not fit all.

I used to live in Houston and I can tell you - there are real challenges for green building when you're cooling year-round and natural venitlation is never an option for commercial office buildings due to mold and other moisture issues. While many so-called green buildings occur in a vacuum without ever addressing site issues holistically, stormwater management is key in the Gulf Coast region. And despite an abundance of precipitation during hurricane season, recent challenges in Atlanta prove that water conservation is still also high on the list of priorities.

The reasons I will attend this conference? First of all, I am looking forward to keynotes Jared Diamond, Ken Yeang and Ira Magaziner. The rest of the line-up is stellar too.

In my past experience (2006) the speakers were all first-rate and I learned a lot for my money - unlike GreenBuild 2007, which was oversold and overpriced considering I wasn't able to attend any of my first-pick sessions.

Second of all, they walk the talk. The consumer expo is the first ever in the U.S. to require only green certified products (certified by 3rd parties such as Green guard, Green Seal, Energy Star etc. and services (e.g. minimum no. of LEED-APs for design service firms). Visit the “Green Guidelines” page for more information.

And exhibitors are not allowed to give out throw-aways. Offers such as rebates are encouraged, but no goody bags, not notepads, pens, pencils, no junk. All of the food is organic and lcoal wherever possible, all conference waste will be recycled, offsets are being purchased for 100% of the conference, banners are printed on organic cotton, etc.

And finally, if the 2006 conference is any predictor, my fellow attendees will be a great mix of sustainably focused professionals from development, design, construction, public sector, and a broad spectrum of clients. I expect once again to find the level of dialogue with my colleagues is as useful and enlightening as the conference itself. www.gulfcoastgreen.org/

No, it's not a concert, but Wal-Mart is finding Green Groupies

Wal-Mart is an interesting study in making business green. Since 2005, and, really, prior to that, Wal-Mart has stepped up its efforts to have a more positive impact on the world – environmentally, socially, through product lines and capital (go to Fortune.com for more information on how Wal-Mart got started on its green initiatives) .

While Wal-Mart’s leadership has jumped on board and is helping to lead the effort, the megachain has recognized that its efforts will be in vain if it does not move from the ground up and empower its employees to think about sustainability on an individual basis.

Thus, in 2007, Wal-Mart introduced a new initiative it calls the Personal Sustainability Practices (PSPs). The purpose of the voluntary program is to assist its associates with incorporating sustainable principles into their daily lives to improve their overall wellness, as well as the health of the environment. Associates develop their own lifestyle changes – everything ranging from eating organic food to exercising to organizing recycling efforts – that specifically works in their routine and will keep them motivated.

The only guides for developing a PSP are that it must: sustain the planet, make one happy, affect the community, become regular and continuous in daily life, and include visible action that can be shared with and seen by others.

Within months after roll-out, 50% of Wal-Mart associates has signed up for the project, much more than expected, with the hopes that all employees would become involved within two years. According to Act Now, the organization who helped construct the campaign, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club employees have:

- Lost more than 60 tons of weight;
- Walked/biked/swam more than 380,000 miles
- Created over 16,000 “Idea Groups” to support one another around Personal Sustainability
- Quit or reduced smoking, with more than 10,000 Associates to date making a healthier change!
- Recycled more than 5 million pounds of aluminum, plastic, and paper

Some employees want to carve out more time from their busy schedules for family and friends, while others are advocating for healthier meal options in their stores (i.e. - Subway v. McDonald's).

Said one associate to the NY Times, “This is not about becoming a tree-hugger... It’s about making one little change."

Perhaps Wal-Mart's PSP is one drop in a large bucket of corporations encouraging lifestyle changes, but Wal-Mart has the capability to be one heckuva large drop.

Time to loosen your tie?

Lord Adair Turner, dubbed the UK's new 'climate czar' and chair of the Climate Change Committee believes that forcing men to wear suits and women to wear smart skirts raises demand for air-conditioning. He said “We have to stop over-air-conditioning offices. In summer we should only air-condition offices to the kind of temperature where it is comfortable if you are wearing light sleeveless summer clothes”.

Lord Turner thinks that 'office dress' also discourages people from using sustainable forms of transport such as walking and cycling. He believes a closed collar unduly raises people’s temperature. “I do think in the summer we should stop wearing ties. I like them in winter because they keep you warm but if you see me in summer from now on I will be tieless”.

Civil servants are likely to be among the first office workers to be liberated from their formal clothing, with Turner hinting “There is a case for the civil service setting an example on this. I don’t think I would go as far as shorts myself yet but it is an interesting challenge and we are going to be thinking about it”.

Turner’s proposal for office workers is one element of a strategy aimed at making big cuts in the 670m tons of CO2 generated by Britain each year. About a third come from power generation, a third from surface transport and the rest from heating.

He wants to see emissions cut by at least 60% and possibly as much as 90% by 2050. Under such a vision, renewable and nuclear energy would provide all Britain’s needs for electricity but would also be used to generate fuels such as hydrogen that could be used for cars. As well as changing the office dress code other radical suggestions for achieving the aims for reduction in emissions include locating wind turbines on the central reservations of motorways.

For more information click here.

Burt's Bees backs offsets: Company is subsidizing renewable energy certificates that its workers buy

Mar 2, 2008
The News & Observer
By John Murawski

Some companies blow hot air about saving the environment. Burt's Bees is paying its employees to embrace wind energy.

The Morrisville producer of eco-friendly creams and cleansers is encouraging its workers to support a green lifestyle by becoming "carbon neutral." Toward that end, Burt's Bees is among the first companies in the nation to subsidize its employees' purchases of renewable energy certificates, also known as carbon offsets.

The employee subsidy is akin to a company offering matching contributions to a charity that an employee chooses. In this case, the money supports for-profit wind energy producers in the U.S.

Once an exotic commodity designed to help industry meet emissions goals, renewable energy certificates are entering the mainstream.

A San Francisco seller of carbon offsets, 3Degrees, for more than a year has been promoting corporate programs to let businesses defray their employees' carbon offset costs. The Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL announced in spring 2007 that it would reimburse workers who support wind energy.

Burt's Bees plans to pay half of each employee's cost of achieving carbon neutrality in the worker's household. The company will contribute as much as $100 to offset one year of household carbon emissions. About 30 Burt's Bees workers are participating and receiving a company match to support wind energy projects nationwide, said John Replogle, Burt's Bees' CEO.

Julie Col-n, a brand design manager at Burt's Bees who lives in Raleigh, spent $60 in December to offset her household carbon footprint for one year. She received $30 from Burt's Bees. It's her first purchase of a renewable energy certificate.

"When the company's going to reimburse you for half the cost, it's an incentive," she said. "I'll do anything that I can to help the environment."

Burt's Bees, whose facilities rely on electricity from Progress Energy and Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK PRA) (NYSE:DUK) , has said it hopes to eventually use only renewable energy, or "get off the grid." Until technology improves and more renewable energy sources are available, the company, for now, has committed about $25,000 a year to subsidize wind energy production and offset its annual energy usage.

"It's a cultural thing here," Replogle said. "Our business model is quite simply to impact the triple bottom line: people, planet, profits."

The beginning of the end for free carrier bags?

I know charging for carrier bags has been happening for a long time in other countries (i think it's pretty standard in Australia for instance) but it is only now that Marks & Spencer, probably the biggest name on the UK high street and high-end food retailing, announced that it is going to roll-out a 5 pence charge for food carrier bags in all of its UK stores.

All profits generated from the charge will go to environmental charity Groundwork and be used to create or improve ‘greener living spaces’ such as parks, play areas and gardens in neighbourhoods around the UK. It is expected that around 40 neighbourhoods will benefit in the next twelve months.

Let's hope that good old M&S are leading the way for other high street retailers and supermarkets alike!

One positive step is that London Councils are currently pushing a Bill through Parliament that if legislated will ban outright the use of all throw-away bags in the capital. This follows a city-wide consultation with Londoners, in which 90 per cent of respondents called for action to be taken on plastic and other throw-away bags. It's often the way in the UK that a trend first occurs in London and then radiates out to the rest of the country; so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that London sets a trend this time!

I'd love to hear how charging for carrier bags is progressing in the US and other parts of the world... let me know!

Click here for M&S's press release.

Fit Club

"The first rule of fit club is that you DO NOT talk about fit club." Oh wait, that's fight club....

Fit club, well, we can talk about that. Our firm, like many architecture firms, has lots of vendors come in and do presentations about their products and services. Usually these are accompanied by lots of food, sometimes wine or beer for an afternoon presentation. One vendor had a great idea: in addition to marketing their sustainable products and developing relationships with designers, they would also help designers treat their bodies sustainably.

ALKS, a commercial flooring vendor, hosts a monthly fit club at Washington, DC's Sports Club LA. In addition to free use of the VERY nice gym, designers can enroll in a corporate spin class, participate in one of the club's standard classes (yoga, dance, etc), and enjoy the pool, sauna, basketball court, etc. Following fit club, designers are welcomed to a healthy happy hour where ALKS educates us on their product over smoothies.

I love the concept of promoting health and wish more learning events could be like fit club.

Caffeine Fix!

I’m not a huge coffee drinker, but every once in a while I get in the mood for a “fancy coffee”…which usually results in a run to Starbucks, Dean & Deluca, or the coffee shop in the mall. Sometimes I remember to bring an old cup sleeve/coffee cozy. Sometimes I don’t. And since I’m not a regular coffee drinker, I don’t have a reusable travel mug.

Our office has a coffee machine and reusable mugs (yay on the cups), but I hesitate to use it. Why? Well, the coffee (even the cappuccino and hot cocoa options) is pretty bad. And it uses little individual metal/plastic packets for each cup. In the case of cappuccino, it takes two packets per cup. While these may be recyclable, they are not something we can throw in our standard mixed plastic/glass/metal recycling pick up…which means they go in the trash.

In an office of 140 people, this results in a lot of waste. Or trips to the “fancy coffee” store in the case of the coffee snobs – which also results in a lot of waste because many people don’t remember their reusable mugs.

What are the solutions? Well, a better coffee option at work might help. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Get a barista machine and provide higher-end coffee
• Add a staffed barista kiosk available in the office part time
• Provide travel mugs and encourage employees to use them
• Provide exclusively organic free-trade coffee – locally grown if possible
• Brew large pots in a standard drip coffee maker and compost the grounds
• Use sugar and cream dispensers rather than individual packets

Would these be more sustainable options? Possibly, depending upon implementation. It’s definitely worth thinking about.