Beware Greenwashing Promoting your business's green activities is a great way to show your customers and employees that you care about the environment. And choosing green vendors is equally important. Either way, be careful of greenwashing - misleading environmental marketing claims. Visit www.greenwashingindex.com for more information.

Green Purchasing The Land Use and Environmental Services Agency of Mecklenburg County has its entire Environmental Policy Action Plan and Environmental Purchasing Guide posted on www.charmeck.org. If you're just getting started in your own green effort, these materials may be very helpful.

What the Charlotte Chamber is Doing Reducing paper use by 15 percent by eliminating Ventures Monthly, printing both sides of paper, providing electronic agendas and financials at meetings, and not enclosing return envelopes in communications. Reimbursing employees for CATS transit passes. Encouraging employees to turn off their lights when away from their desks for 15 minutes or more and to turn off meeting room, bathroom and break room lights when they are unoccupied. Supplying washable mugs, plates and flatware in break rooms and meeting rooms. Providing recycling bins in commons areas, meeting rooms and at desks. Uploading all employee manuals and standardized forms to the Chamber's Intranet for easy employee access. Enhancing the annual Total Revenue Campaign Web site to provide all training manuals, lists, contracts, reports and forms online. Providing filtered water dispensers in each break room to reduce use of bottled water. Requiring recycled products from caterers and vendors.  Encouraging employees to carpool to Chamber events. Providing a green tip of the week in "This Week," the Chamber's weekly employee e-newsletter. Acknowledging employees who display good, green behavior with the Kermit Award. Discouraging bad habits with an Oscar the Grouch trophy that employees can pass along when they catch someone else not being green. Creating a green issue of Ventures Charlotte to show what we're doing and to encourage members to adopt their own green practices!

Green Awards The Charlotte Business Journal, in conjunction with the Charlotte Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, is recognizing those who are going green by hosting Charlotte's first-ever Green Awards. The lunchtime event, to be held at the Convention Center on April 16, will recognize Charlotte-area individuals, businesses, government leaders and entities, and non-profit organizations that made efforts to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their businesses and community work in 2007. A total of 20 awards will be given.

Green Commute For more information on how to "green" your commute, visit the CATS and Clean Air Works! Web sites: www.ridetransit.org and www.cleanairworks.org.

Office Equipment Recycling Check out Goodwill's RECONNECT program at www.reconnectpartnership.com for information on recycling computer-related equipment.

Ninety-six billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the U.S. One five-day conference for 2,500 attendees will use 90,000 cans or bottles. Our country uses enough paper annually to build a 10-foot high wall that is 6,815 miles long or two and a half times the distance from New York to Los Angeles.

Taking statistics like these and Al Gore's warning of "planetary emergency" to heart, Queen City companies are getting greener, discovering along the way what's good for the environment also makes good business sense.

Corporate giants, retailers, entrepreneurs and elected officials alike are bringing the classic waste management mantra - reduce, reuse and recycle - to life while adding an important new "R" to the equation ... Results.

 

REDUCE

 From food and water, to energy, paper and gas, waste is everywhere, and so are opportunities to conserve and reduce.

The Charlotte Green Team was formed in July 2007 to reduce event waste, particularly at the 850,000-square-foot Charlotte Convention Center, the first convention facility in North Carolina to go green. Led by Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA) CEO Tim Newman and Tribble Creative Group President Mary Tribble, with participation from all major venues, agencies and corporations around the city, this lean, green pollution-fighting team has made significant strides in a short time.

One major Green Team coup was the across-the-board waste reduction effort at the 2007 N.C. Conference for Women, presented by Wachovia, at the Charlotte Convention Center. In addition to placing recycling stations all around the expo, organizers discouraged handouts (posting speaker presentations online), encouraged carpooling and room sharing, printed double-sided postcards (instead of a brochure) and provided non-bottled refreshments in cups that decompose in less than 50 days. Carpeting, often a conference's biggest waste producer and sometimes made of petroleum-based materials, was eliminated from the general session hall and the majority of the expo area.

"Our conference is fully committed to becoming zero waste, which includes all our products, food and other materials being recycled, re-used or composted," said the Green Team's Tribble who also co-founded the N.C. Women's Conference. She added, "In the two years we've hosted this event, we're confident that our waste has been reduced by 50 percent."

Wasting Water

During a recent renovation, the Charlotte Hilton Center City, with a Green Committee of its own, installed water saving aerators, restricting water flow to 1.5 gallons per minute in faucets and 2.5 gallons per minute in showers, according to Director of Sales and Marketing Greg Greenawalt, who even has green in his name.

Bruton Smith's much talked about Drag Way in Concord will have some water-saving green touches inside and out. Lead architect for the project, Wes Jones, principal at Charlotte-based ai Design Group, Inc., says the new 30,000-seat venue will sport waterless urinals and a siphon rain leader system that collects rain water from gutters for possible reuse. Just like the name implies, these urinals, that don't use water at all, conserve thousands of gallons of water per fixture per year and significantly reduce sewage and maintenance costs.

Even elected officials are getting in on the green action. N.C. Governor Mike Easley advocated a 26-second shower, his personal best, during a speech he gave here in January. "I turn the shower on, get wet, turn it off, suds up, turn it back on and rinse," he explained.

Perils of Paper

According to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, if a convention center recycled 124,000 pounds of paper, they would save more than 1,000 trees, 434,000 gallons of water and 682 barrels of oil.

Most big companies are encouraging paperless billing to reduce paper clutter and save time. Nearly 8 million Bank of America customers have signed up to receive monthly statements electronically. AT&T is offering fabulous prizes as an incentive to enroll in its E-bill program. Those who do are entered in a sweepstakes for a trip for two to Switzerland, $5,000 in spending money and $10,000 toward a new Swiss timepiece.

From 2000 to 2006, Bank of America, with more than 197,000 associates worldwide, reduced paper usage per associate by 40 percent. How? Most Bank of America printers default to two-sided printing, and recycling bins are standard issue with one at every desk. Annually, the bank recycles nearly 50,000 tons of paper, effectively recycling more paper than it uses for internal operations.

Giving Up Gas

Bank of America reimburses associates $3,000 for purchasing a new hybrid vehicle. "Since we launched the program and within the three cities where it was piloted, hybrid vehicle purchases by our associates have more than quadrupled," said Anne Finucane, Bank of America chief marketing officer and head of the company's environmental council, in a press release.

Two hybrid buses shuttled spectators between Uptown Charlotte and Quail Hollow Club during the Wachovia Championship last year. Following the tournament, Wachovia donated the buses to the City of Charlotte to join the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) fleet. They're also on loan to other cities around the country interested in incorporating hybrid buses into their fleets.

With light rail now up and running, many are ditching their gas-guzzling cars and expensive Uptown parking garages for a greener, traffic-free commute. In late November, Wachovia Environmental Affairs Manager Pat Mumford sent a memo to all Charlotte-area Wachovia employees about transportation options to reduce environmental impact, calling LYNX "a great complement to the other public transportation options already available in Charlotte, including bus and trolley service." For those where public transportation is not a viable option, Mumford offered carpooling, vanpooling, biking or walking as other green commute options. In addition to discounted CATS bus and rail passes up to 30 percent, Wachovia benefits include a Transportation Spending Account where a portion of pre-tax pay can be set aside for certain costs related to getting to and from work.

Duke Energy currently provides a full transit subsidy covering CATS bus, rail and vanpool costs for all full and part-time employees who work in the Charlotte area. At the end of 2007, Charlotte-area participation in the program included 360 employees, using 283 monthly bus passes and 418 10-ride passes compared to the approximate 100 employees who were purchasing 15 monthly bus passes and 300 10-ride bus passes before the CATS transit subsidy was offered in August 2006. Community Affairs Manager Elizabeth Bennett, who lives close to a light rail stop, is one of many Duke employees taking advantage of the perk. "I enjoy the flexibility our subsidy program provides and, on average, save at least $80 a month on gas and parking by taking the light rail or bus into the office as much as possible."

Energy Efficiency

Food Lion's ongoing energy-efficient behavior has earned the Salibury-based supermarket chain six consecutive Energy Star Awards. Since 2000, through new lighting, refrigeration, and heating and cooling technologies, Food Lion has reduced energy consumption by more than 2.43 trillion BTUs. The incorporation of new technologies and ongoing energy management projects have netted energy reductions equal to powering 457 virtual Food Lion stores.

 

REUSE

The original garage sale business model - one man's trash is another man's treasure - can be applied to everyday environmental efforts with some thoughtful planning. So many items, from clothing and appliances to heavy duty construction materials and home décor finishes, can receive a landfill pardon with a little help.

Student "Trash"

At the end of each school year, students skip town leaving anything behind that won't fit in the car. Since its inception in 2000, UNC Charlotte's "Move Out for Charity" has diverted more than 100,000 pounds of usable goods from the landfill to charitable organizations. From books and food to clothing and household appliances, in 2007, "Move Out" collected 16,000 pounds of reusable items for the Salvation Army. "Our long term goal is to change student attitudes about what ‘garbage' really is and what can still be used," says Devin Hatley, environmental educator for UNC Charlotte's Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling. According to Hatley and his team, some of the more baffling reusable items left behind include tires, couches, mini-fridges and brand new clothes with tags still on them.

Heavy Lifting

As UNC Charlotte continues to grow, so do the number of construction and renovation projects on campus. Having thousands of pounds of concrete, brick, wood or other used construction material at any given time is not unusual. Rather than sending it to the local municipal landfill, the university tries to reuse it for new projects, or place it in a special construction and demolition landfill. "It's important to try and reuse construction materials on other projects if possible or find a market where they can be recycled into another product," says David Jones, UNC Charlotte sustainability manager, a newly created position at the university. In 2007, UNC Charlotte collected, reused or composted 1.5 million pounds of construction material or yard waste. One of the university's latest projects is to remove 472 tons of river-washed stones from the roof of the Smith Building and use them as part of the foundation for the upcoming Student Union Center project. A new roofing system is planned for Smith and will not require the use of stones.

Different Uses for Decor

Usable home-related items such as windows, doors, sinks and lighting can all have another life instead of heading to the landfill thanks to The Habitat Charlotte ReStore. A fundraising division of Habitat for Humanity Charlotte since 1996, all donated construction and home related items, from both individuals and businesses, are sold to the public. Profits from the two Charlotte locations, Wilkinson and Wendover, are estimated to fund the building of 10 to 12 Habitat homes each year.

 

RECYCLE

99 Bottles of Beer from the Bars

As of January 1, all bars and restaurants in North Carolina with an ABC permit are mandated by state law to recycle glass bottles and aluminum cans. Those who don't comply face fines and could lose their ABC licenses. While a hassle and added expense to these small business owners, most agree it's the right thing to do. Kevin Devin, native Irishman and co-owner of Connolly's on Fifth, estimates the neighborhood Irish pub generates thousands of recyclable cans and bottles per week.

Shout

Charlotte Shout, a month-long celebration of art, culture, and community, incorporating more than 200 performances and events in more than 40 venues throughout the Charlotte region, was a great green success in 2007. According to Center City Partners, which managed the event, 26 percent of the total waste collected was recycled. Two events alone, Blues Brews and BBQ and Culinary Arts Experience, donated 2,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Food Bank and residual paper products to the Urban Ministry.

Sign of the Times

Our own mayor who might be governor, Pat McCrory, was green before it was cool. He's been recycling campaign yard signs since his first election more than 12 years ago. His logo is even a green star. "Recycling is a bit of a religion," says McCrory. "Those of us who practice it don't understand those who don't."

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

While the thoughts of deteriorating glaciers and landfills busting at the seams are enough to scare most into recycling submission, others need a little help and, in some cases, not-so-subtle reminders about the consequences of waste.

Do your part by policing your company for environmental policy enforcement and new ways to conserve. Remember, even small changes can produce immediate results. For example, double-sided printing cuts paper use in half. Banning bottled water usage in meetings and the office sends that many less to the landfill.

And of course ...

Please consider the environment before copying or printing this story. Instead, e-mail the link to this story.

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Charlotte-based freelance writer Colleen Brannan has green eyes. She is an avid recycler and the president of BRANSTORM PR & Marketing Inc. Reach her at 704.378.0123 or colleen@branstorm.com.