Why Businesses Should LEED the Green Movement

                                    

As some of you might already know LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED is a rating system for buildings somewhat comparable to Energy Star for appliances. Buildings earn points for things like saving energy and having access to mass transit systems. The more points a building has, the more sustainable the building is. To become LEED certified a third-party inspector verifies that the building was built using strategies aimed at increasing performance, reducing waste, and improving quality of life. Buildings built to LEED standards typically involve higher initial costs. These are due to the increased costs of constructing an environmentally friendly building plan and purchasing environmentally friendly building supplies and appliances. However, these initial costs will be offset over the course of time by the savings derived from reduced energy consumption. It has been found that LEED certified buildings were on average 25%-30% more energy efficient. These long term savings are not the only reasons for businesses to LEED the green movement. Research has found that employees working in LEED certified buildings have noticeably increased productivity due to the better ventilation, temperature control, lighting control, and reduced indoor air pollution. Additionally, businesses using LEED certified buildings are able to add this to their green resume to attract more business from the environmentally concerned crowd. People across the world are beginning to see the benefits of LEED certification and are starting to convert older buildings to meet certification criteria. Just last week the Empire State Building in New York City became LEED certified.

LEED Certification Website: http://www.everblue.edu/what-is-leed                                

Empire State Building article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/15/idUS14887746020110915

The Fourth Consumer Question

How businesses market to consumers will change in the coming years. In the past when I and consumers around the world would go to the store we would primarily focus on three things: how much is the good going to cost, how much of the good do we get, and how long is the good going to last? However, as more and more people become environmentally conscious consumers are beginning to ask, how sustainable is this product and the company that sells it? Sustainability of a company and the products it produces is a difficult thing to boil down into a single number, but this needs to and hopefully will happen in the near future. This label has the potential to be a key factor in making businesses in every field more sustainable. With this label in place on all goods consumers who are environmentally aware will easily be able to determine which products to purchase. Businesses such as Proctor and Gamble will obtain an increased market share due to their high level of environmentally friendly activities. If the competition wants to regain their previous market share they will have to begin conducting their business operations in a more sustainable manner. Hypothetically this label lead to a back and forth struggle between businesses with each business always trying to become more sustainable then their competitors. Hopefully this practice will eventually propel a majority of businesses to have a zero carbon footprint in the coming years. 

Link to article about sustainable marketing:

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/09/13/one-green-score-rule-them-all-next-phase-green-marketing

Google's Carbon Footprint

 For the first time in company history Google has unveiled its carbon footprint to the public. Google’s carbon footprint clocks in at 1.5 m tonnes of carbon annually. This is slightly more than the entire country of Laos produces in a year. However, this number is not as drastic as it initially may seem. In 2007 Google set out to go carbon neutral and is holding true to that promise. Their first goal is to be as efficient as possible in their operation practices. Google has worked tirelessly to engineer new and better ways to provide their services. Google says that when companies use their cloud services, e.g., using Gmail instead of having independent servers for their own business email, there is significantly less of a carbon footprint. Their second goal is to run as many operations as possible off of renewable energy. Google purchases renewable energy from across the country to power their operations. Google offsets its remaining carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets. One example of a carbon offset is converting methane collected from landfills into CO2. While this may sound counter intuitive it is actually productive for overall Green House Gas emissions. Methane contains 20% to 25% more harmful then CO2, so while it is this process does not totally negate Green House Gas emissions it significantly reduces them. Overall I believe that Google is setting a great example for how to successfully operate a green business.

Link to Google Carbon Offsets Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znw7t9aqrf4&feature=player_embedded

Lauren Buckley Lecture

On Friday September 2 I attended a lecture by Lauren Buckley at the University of Tennessee. Lauren Buckley obtained her PH.D. at Stanford University and is currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her current research focuses on how the biology of an organism determines an organism’s response to environmental change. She thinks of herself as an ecological forecaster and combines theory, field and lab work, and Eco informatics to help predict how climate change will affect organisms. Buckley’s research focuses specifically on butterflies and fence lizards. Her research process begins by looking at environmental conditions around each animal. She then looks at the individual energetics of each animal. Finally she studies population dynamics. This process can be displayed in this sample mechanistic range model. First, look at the areas environmental temperature. Then, examine the operative environmental temperature for the organism. Next, examine the organisms activity time. Finally, translate these findings into the fecundity of the organism. She then inputs her data from the mechanistic model into a correlative model to form a more accurate hybrid model. Next she combines this hybrid model with species specific information to form an even more accurate model. Her research from the hybrid models has led her to conclude that biological traits do matter when determining how organisms will react to climate change and that each species has an individualized pattern of response to climate change. Her research has allowed her to find that the fence lizard will start migrating north due to climate change.  Also, her research has found that with increased climate change butterflies will have increased flight time which will allow more eggs to be laid, however in extreme temperatures eggs are not as fertile.