Green Business Awareness

The concept of international standards may not be an issue for most businesses, but if there is a desire to provide a review and certification that can cross national boundaries, ISO 14000 is the latest of the ISO installments.  We bring this to your attention, not to convince anyone, but to create a better understanding of certification processes.

While ISO 14000 or 14001 are environmentally concerned certifications, they also fall into the category of Quality Assurance where businesses must review, validate, and often improve their systems so that there is a kind of transparency and openness for other firms to observe.

ISO 14000 is a series of international standards on environmental management. This program was developed by the International Organization for Standardization.  ISO defines a voluntary environmental management system. When used in conjunction with the appropriate goals and management commitment, the developed standards help improve corporate performance.

ISO 14001, the cornerstone of ISO 14000, specifies a framework of control for an Environmental Management System (EMS) against which an organization can be certified by a third party.  This standard monitors the environmental management system’s continual improvement towards goals such as resource efficiency, waste reduction, and effective management of environmental risks. To qualify, a business must streamline and improve its environmental programs, such as its green buildings, green fleets, and renewable energy programs.

According to Green Consumer Guide, there are five main elements of ISO 14000:

An environmental policy. This should commit businesses to legislative/regulatory compliance, continual improvement, the prevention of pollution and appropriate objectives and targets.

Planning. This covers a review of environmental aspects: legal and other requirements; objectives and targets; and the setting up of a management program to achieve them.

Implementation and operation. This includes management structure, training, communications, documentation, operational control and emergency preparedness. It means providing resources for staff, defining who does what, identifying training needs, communicating effectively and exerting effective control over the activities relevant to your significant environmental impacts.

Checking and corrective actions. These are monitoring and corrective actions, records and audits. This means using accurate measurement methods, regularly checking the progress towards objectives, taking action to rectify any non-conformance with environmental policy or legal requirements, recording the operation of your EMS, and conducting audits to identify problems and to prove conformity with the business requirements.

Management Review. This is necessary to close the loop. That is, to ensure that the system continues to be suitable, adequate and effective through changes made in light of experience.

It is important to mention that the ISO 14000 standards DO NOT alone specify environmental performance goals.  These must be set by the company itself, taking into account its effect on the environment and how stakeholders perceive it.  This is where such programs as found in the Green Business League come into play.  Quality assurance is not the same as installation of Green Practices that should already be in place as the review of the processes are made.

ISO 14000 motivates businesses to truly commit to environmental management and to track their progress.  Many companies have reported a better bottom-line after pursuing this certification, by streamlining processes and reducing unnecessary waste.  Employees at green businesses are also more motivated, and reports show most consumers would rather do business with an eco-friendly organization than one that doesn’t show any commitment to the environment.

It is strongly suggested that IS 140o0 is the final step, not the first, in Greening your company.  It allows your company to offer a transparent review of the processes used and commitments to the end project.  Starting a Greening process involves a transition to environmental projects that will take months to complete.  The mistake many companies make is that the Greening effort is viewed as a goal attained rather than a progression toward better practices.  Working with a Certified Green Consultant will allow a business to step-stone its way into a better environmental position.  ISO is part of the final review that may be needed for international trading.

It is one thing to put various pieces of the Green puzzle together, but how do you know when it achieves a level of accomplishment?  Not all good ideas are Green, and there are often neglected areas regardless of good intentions.   The truth is that the Greening process can be complex and difficult.   In many cases, environmental improvement takes on a kind of hit and miss development as well-intentioned people do their best to address complicated mega-issues.  This could be no truer than the numerous and varied challenges found at a college campus.

Brevard Community College is the first college in Florida to achieve Green certification as a reputably Green campus.  The Green Business League has certified the first Green campus in Florida as Brevard Community College scored an impressive 311 points to earn a platinum level certification.  This comes as a result of numerous improvements in the campus operation and a commitment that went well beyond a token effort.

Certified Green Consultant, Bob Jones, has worked with the college to install and validate the Green practices of Brevard Community College.  The fact is that these changes did not happen overnight.  They are put in place through planning and commitment to the environmental cause.  The fact that Brevard Community college has scored so high on this evaluation is a testimony to a diligent effort and a willingness to change where necessary.

We are presently in a period where Green is ill-defined, poorly-implemented, and by self-appointment.  Under this criteria, anyone installing a few CFL bulbs can claim to be as environmentally committed as another firm that has make extensive efforts to become a leader in the cause.  Eventually, the market will be filled with self-proclaimed Green organizations making all claims valueless.  Certification means that there is a standard of comparison, a third party review, and a criteria for certification.  Without diminishing any environmental effort, those claiming to be authentically Green should be certified by a reputable independent agency, like the Green Business League.

Brevard Community College aptly deserves the designation as Florida’s first Green campus although it is sure that other campuses are striving to achieve similar environmental goals.  The Greening of the campus does not stop at this notable accomplishment, however.  With the assistance of Green consultant, Bob Jones, we are sure that there is more that will be done from this environmentally-committed institution.

Mr Jones encourages other businesses in the area to step up to an authentically Green standard as well.  A Green Business League certification prevents claims of Greenwashing because there is an honest assessment and audit of the Green merits of any business or organization.

Odd as it may seem after more than a decade of environmental frenzy, angst, and crisis-mongering; there are those who still treat the problem with only token concern for what is happening.  Even if you are not on the global warming bandwagon, you cannot miss the global implications that are already looking each of us square in the eye.   The global population was about 4 billion in the 1950’s, it moved to 6.8 billion by the end of 2008, and is predicted to go to 9 million in 2025.  That singular fact is not subject to debate and has very real life implications for all of us.

Combine this with the concurrent realization that are now calculating “What’s left” of the resources available to this constantly increasing and resource hungry mega-world, and there are obvious facts that require that we “Get It” now rather than later.  Going Green may at times be trendy.  It may also be a smart marketing decision to show that your company is aware of global issues.   Regardless of the way you get there, it is well past the time that everyone should have a very meaningful Green epiphany, rather than a meager Green twinge of angst.

It is also obvious that most people are still waiting for “Someone else” to solve this crisis.   That reality is that governments do not solve problems efficiently or without laboring them with misdirection, over-regulation, and impossible costs.   We see environmental groups rising up, but they should not be seen as environmental mercenaries doing the job that each of us refuse to do.  Of course, corporations should be making the course corrections that will help us turn the corner on all these issue.  The truth is after more than a decade, we are still waiting on someone else to do what will take the collective efforts of each person, business, and government to accomplish.

We suffer from the fantasy that all this will soon pass like the winter of despair, and better days will arrive of their own accord.   It is only when the vast majority have this personal epiphany that we might turn the corner of all of this, so let me help you out by explaining the real kind of event that will solve this problem if we don’t step up to the plate on this issue.

First of all, we could be fortunate enough to enjoy a true pandemic like the recent scare of the Swine Flu virus, and million of people could die in every country.  In days of old, the population control was effectively accomplished by the Black Plague, cholera, smallpox, or typhus.  Frankly, millions upon millions of people have died from these diseases which gravely reduced world populations.

We could also benefit from a really devastating wars where the lack of vital goods will spark wars and kill off millions, if not billions.  There are already private wars and factions fighting over scare water, food, jewels, and power.  It shouldn’t take too much to destabilize a few more countries.   You will find belligerent countries like Korea, China, Iran and Russia like governments in turmoil and civil war because they can move in and take whatever they want in these situation.  War, if you didn’t know it, can be a very profitable and empowering game for those high enough in the process to take advantage of what they would never get by spreading spreading peace and democracy.

Of course there are the reward for an particularly oppressive series of dictators with a Hitler-like penchant for genocide.   The particularly cruel and purposely violent few like Castro of Cuba, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Kim Jong-Il of North Korea and Liberian President Charles Taylor are just some of the recent examples of how close we are to allowing these radicals to siezing power anywhere.

If you are a sci-fi buff, there is always the heroing possibility that a comet will strike the earth, a new volcanic era will will out millions and darken the skies for a decade, a rouge country will invent a prolific bacteria that will kill everyone, or that the ice-caps will melt leaving us to survive in floating villages.

Isn’t is infinitely better to respond to the challenges of our hour with our better response rather than a token effort?  This issue will not pass of its own accord.  Innovation will relieve but not dismiss that fact that we must adjust, correct, and do better at every level of our life.  When you think about this global issue demands universal participation.  Everyone needs a hard-hitting and fact-based Green epiphany that set each person, business, and organization on a curative path.   I am pleased to see an army of Certified Green Consultants in place to help homes and businesses take on this challenge in an honest and effective manner.   As part of the Green Business League, any business can earn its Green Business Certification by adopting and installing Green Practices.   Seeing the choices presentled above, Going Green is the right path to a solution that can change to world for the better.

So far, getting a Green business certification comes through a few limited options.  Green Seal certifies cleaning products and other commercial products.  LEED certifies buildings, newly built or renovated.  Then there are the website knock offs that sell their logo for several hundred dollars and a weak promise to be Green.  What happens if your business was not based on a product or don’t own the building?  The certification choices are poor indeed.

The Green Business League has set out to create a new benchmark in the industry.  First of all, this is a certification that requires that the certification award must be ”Earned, not Bought.”  Secondly, this is the fastest growing and most prominent business certification in the market.  The Green Business League offers more than a trademark.  It boasts the largest field force of Certified Green Consultant, a standardize criteria for certification, and local Green networking chapters across the country for networking of Green Businesses.

The environmental crisis requires that every family and every business participate.  A criteria of participation and standard of certification allows everyone to get involved and demonstrate that they have made valuable strides against environmental issues that seems incredibly immense when viewed individually.  With thousands of Certified Green Consultants, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses helped by these trained professionals, the impact is multiplied many times over.  This will make a big dent in a stubborn issue, and the continued success of so many people could help turn the tide of world environmental threat.

The certification process is not complex.  It is a guided process, that requires a company to earn 100 points by actually adopting Green Practices into the business operation.  Green Practices are actual changes in the business operation that have universal application that are not necessarily tied to owning a building or selling a product.  Therefore, this is a method of certification that has broad appeal and great rewards for everyone.

My advice is don’t be fooled by Green certifications that are website driven alone.  These come up in a night and disappear just as easily.  Those that were committed to the cause go beyond the superficial to create real momentum in the community.  They have real people doing real work as well as a national presence.  The Green Business League stands out as the bona fide choice for certification that is destine to set the standard for Green Business Certification.  To find a Certified Green Consultant in your area, visit Green Consultant Directory and make a real commitment to a Green Business Certification that offers so much more than a logo and a website.