Showing posts with label promises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label promises. Show all posts

Ten Green New Year's Resolutions for Businesses

Powerful forces are aligning to drive sustainability in 2012. Companies are leading by eliminating waste and diminishing greenhouse gas emissions due to the realization that the pursuit of environmental benefits yields material results.

More companies than ever are creating economic value from enhanced social and environmental outcomes. A recent study by Green Research titled Annual Sustainability Executive Survey, 2012, found that corporate sustainability spending will significantly increase over the next year. Almost 33 percent of the companies surveyed are adding staff to their sustainability departments, and 50 percent will increase spending on company-wide sustainability initiatives. A total of 25 percent of the companies surveyed said they are planning to increase the budgets of their sustainability departments.

Sustainability is fast becoming a core component of business best practices. Here is a list of sustainability resolutions to help you become a leader in the sustainable businesses revolution that is taking hold in 2012.

1. Inform yourself about the value of sustainability

2. Create a team within your organization dedicated to sustainability

3. Incorporate sustainability into your long term strategy

4. Adopt sustainable business practices

5. Craft measurable goals

6. Disseminate information on the veracity of climate change

7. Get others within your supply chain involved in sustainability

8. Petition all levels of government about the need for climate and energy legislation

9. Educate consumers about your sustainability efforts

10. Convince consumers that buying a sustainable brand provides them more value than the cheaper alternative.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Sustainable New Year's Resolutions for Consumers

The new year is a time when many people will adopt resolutions. This year more people than ever are adopting sustainable resolutions that help to reduce their footprints. Becoming more sustainable consumers does not mean a lower standard of living, just a higher level of intentionality about encouraging more sustainable products, systems and services.

According to recent marketing research, only about 20% of European consumers make choices about their shopping habits based on the sustainability of a product. In North America that number is even lower, so we have all long way to go before consumers are truly sustainable. But increasing levels of consumer activism give us reason to believe that we are on the cusp of a major change in consumer attitudes.

Here are some basic green resolutions for consumers worth adopting in 2012:

Buy products with the smallest environmental footprint

Buy second hand

Buy e-books rather than print

Recycle

Turn off the lights

Switch to LEDs

Do not buy bottled water

Turn down the heat

Use public transit or ride a bike

Stop eating red meat

Reduce waste

Harvest rainwater for landscaping

Plant a garden

Compost

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.