Do you sometimes get confused about all the terminology?
ESD is ecologically sustainable development – which is something we all want.
EMS is an:
• Environmental
• Management
• System
It is a tool we use to achieve ESD and also to achieve more efficiency and more profits in our individual businesses. If we are managing our environmental risks in a way that also increases our profits, that will make our business sustainable in more ways than one.

My concern about whole of industry environmental approaches is that they only work if every member is involved. If you give people an industry “EMS”, Code of Practice, or ESD Policy document, it will be put on a shelf and have little impact on the way the business operates. An industry checklist certainly won’t change behaviour.

Once a group within an industry has built their own EMS based on the risks they have identified in their own business, they can share this with others to help them get started but each business will have different risks and every business needs to put in the time and effort with their own workforce to if it is to be owned and used.

A document that sits on a shelf does not change behaviour. Unfortunately this is something that is not understood by many of the bureaucrats and scientists pushing for ESD.

The EMS must come first and must be individual for every business.

Enviro Action provides online proven and award winning training that helps small to medium businesses build their own effective management systems. They definitely include the management and the system that sustains the environmental management.

Enviro Action’s next EMS Group Course starts on November 6th
Sign up before Oct 19th and save A$100 or UD$85
Click here or HERE for USA and type “OCTSPECIAL”
in the coupon field to claim your discount

Technorati Tags: EMS, ESD, Codes of Practice, EMS Group Course, ecologically sustainable development, environmental management system, ISO 14001

When businesses build efficiency and reduce waste they increase profits!
The other thing they do, if they look at their waste systematically and at their other environmental risks, is that they also improve their environmental management.

Building environmental management systems that are based on a thorough preliminary audit do increase profit - it is a fact. It is also overlaps with Kaizen or Lean Thinking which aims to reduce waste/

Some green groups see increasing profits as bad but the reality is that unless a business is profitable it cannot afford to take any new initiatives and won’t be able to make the changes needed to reduce their environmental impacts. (more…)

Green Business and environmentally friendly business – so called are sprouting up all over the place. Ted Mininni wrote an interesting article called Marketing a Green Business” that I read today. I loved his description of companies scrambling to find ways to help the environment and also to position their businesses to connect with like minded companies. My concern is with some of the latter.

I had an abusive message from someone recently complaining that I needed to do “real environmental things” and the way to “save the world” was to put his additive into petrol (gas) for cars and I should be pushing this on my website instead of what I was doing.

I was also sent a sample of recycled paper that was impregnated with seeds of native trees so you could put the letter in water and watch the trees grow after you had read it. This might be a great gimmick for children’s birthday cards but I thought was actually off the mark.

These are just two examples that came quickly to mind about green business and I think that both miss the point.

If increasing numbers of people and businesses sat down and systematically thought through all their activities, then worked out which ones cause most environmental damage and how they can minimise their impacts, we would make steady and legitimate improvements to the environment. Picking on just one issue out of context is not the way to make real and sustainable improvements.

In the article “New Companies Sprout Up to Help Marketers Reach Green Businesses”, Kyle Cahill counsels companies to perform a comprehensive internal audit of their environmental efforts before they launch any green marketing programs.

The Enviro Action approach starts by helping you build a comprehensive foundation starting with an internal audit of your environmental practices. We provide the tools to allow you to do that audit in-house and do it effectively. The Green Jumpstart Kit provides a free resource to help get started on this process.

Technorati Tags: Marketing a green business, green business, environmentally friendly business, Kyle Cahill, Enviro Action, Green Jumpstart Kit, Ted Mininni, ISO 14001

I have just released a book about environmental management systems. I wrote the book as to be tool to increase awareness of the very real benefits to business of implementing environmental management systems. The target market is both the general public who are interested in and concerned about the impact we are all having on our environment and especially small business people and those who know and encourage them to help them realise that being green does not have to be as difficult as they feared and even saves them money and has real benefits for their business.
In his forward, Paul Howlett, of Wright Strategies gave the following description. “It is Easy Being Green” is an easy and pleasurable read – ideal for that short flight between airports or a quick break on the weekend. Jean presents compelling examples of people implementing environment management systems, using readily understood language and provides us with down-to-earth anecdotal stories of real people in real small to medium businesses who are trying to improve their business relationship with their environment.”
The book was launched on May the 15th by the Mayor of Toowoomba at the Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in Agriculture Forum. The Mayor, Di Thorley, is a truly inspirational lady who has been waging a local war to get her local population to agree to the use of recycled water – desperately needed in their current severe drought.
http://www.blogtoowoomba.com/entry.php?w=toowoombawatervote&e_id=241
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1598458.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1835830.htm
http://www.ems.asn.au

The book is available from www.itiseasytobegreen.com

Technorati Tags: It’s easy being green, being green, environmental management systems, ISO 14001, Paul Howlett, Wright Strategies, It is easy being green

A national survey of office workers has found 61 per cent of Sydney workers rate the environment as a critical issue, compared to 43 per cent of Melbourne workers.
The survey, by Double A paper and Galaxy Research, aimed to determine Australian office workers’ attitudes toward the environment and whether they think their employers should be doing more to manage their office’s environmental impact.
A third of all Melbourne workers said their employer does enough for the environment, compared to 20 per cent of Sydney workers.
Seventy five per cent of Sydney professionals said their employer should do more for the environment, while only 60 per cent of respondents living south of the border agree with this statement.
However, 90 per cent of all respondents believe they could be doing more to help the environment when they are at work.

Technorati Tags: office workers reveals environmental awareness, ISO 14001, environmental awareness

We all want to help our children and grandchildren to inherit a great place to live. I think that is a given for all of us. ………I recognise that only profitable businesses can afford to make changes to protect the environment.

My challenge is to provide effective and affordable tools to help small to medium businesses become more efficient, save money and help the environment at the same time. This is what I provide and support through Enviro Action and I am continually updating and improving these tools based on feedback I get from working with my wonderful clients.

A recent survey of Australian companies by PricewaterhouseCoopers, shows that environmental performance is not a critical concern to many businesses who say that they would like to improve their environmental performance but that it is not a necessity……… I have to disagree here!

66 per cent of public companies are active in improving their performance, while only 51 per cent of private companies were actively pursuing improvement. …….. And small businesses are even slower taking this up.

Key factors highlighted by the survey were:
• Business owners were confused by future environmental issues and how they should respond to them.
• One in four companies believes that public concern about the environment would have no impact on their business.
• Half the businesses surveyed believe that growing public concern about the environment would create opportunities for those companies expecting to make money out of the environment and these would be more likely to invest in improving environmental performance.

My own market research has indicated that city based businesses are less likely to be aware of environmental problems, changes and implications than primary producers.

The fishing and aquaculture industries in particular are very aware of environmental concerns and of their need to deliver responsible environmental outcomes because their access to the fishing grounds and farm sites is under threat from increased regulation and heavy competition from the recreational sector.

So we have two problems for small to medium business –
• how to do this simply - the Easy to be Green system helps here
• how to communicate that is really is easy to small to medium businesses

- because it does matter to them, to all of us and especially to our children and grandchildren!

However …………..
Small businesses can boost profits by cutting back on energy and water use – and feel good about doing so. But a survey by VECCI (Victorian {Australia} Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry) shows that more than a third of businesses do not plan on cutting back and half are unaware of their water and energy use over the last six months. A survey of 90 businesses shows they rank themselves poorly when asked to compare performances to that of households.
Top tips to save electricity include replacing standard light globes with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs and installing technology to ensure lights are turned off when not needed. Turn off TVs, DVD and VCRs at the switch – not by remote control. Switch off all computers, printers and other equipment at the end of the day.

Technorati Tags: ISO 14001