ISD Review

The North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau became the first business association to offer the Green Plus™ sustainability education and certification program in South Carolina to its members.

“The focus of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber is on a sustainable economy for our city and region.  We see Green Plus™ as a visioning and valuable tool to assist our members in creating sustainability plans for their businesses,” stated Marc Jordan, President/CEO of the Chamber.

The program is available at a substantial discount through participating chambers of commerce throughout the U.S. and Canada in the 1,300 chamber ACCE network. The ACCE and the Institute for Sustainable Development conduct the annual Green Plus North American Sustainable Enterprise Awards which gives participating small businesses the opportunity to gain tremendous exposure for their efforts toward triple bottom line sustainability.

“There are many great home-grown sustainability efforts already going on in our region,” said Jordan. “Green Plus™ gives our members the opportunity to both learn new practices and share their own knowledge across North America – while also opening up new business opportunities,” he added.

“On a personal level, I applaud your vision and leadership for involving the Chamber and local businesses in making North Myrtle Beach more sustainable,” stated Daniel Abel, Ph.D., Director, CCU Sustainability Initiative.

Green Plus™ was developed by the North Carolina Research Triangle based Institute for Sustainable Development - a combined effort of universities and chambers of commerce to provide smaller employers with affordable tools to improve their triple bottom line sustainability. The Green Plus™ model was developed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business in 2007. UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University developed online sustainability tools for small business that were tested in Ohio and North Carolina throughout 2008.

“Smaller enterprises employ most North Americans and are the key engine of new job creation,” said Chris Carmody, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development. “Large employers have benefited greatly from their sustainability efforts. Green Plus™ was created to give small employers the same opportunities to save and make money while going green and being sustainable,” Carmody continued. “The North Myrtle Beach Chamber’s emphasis on sustainable economic growth makes it an ideal Green Plus™ partner,” Carmody concluded.

To help promote the Green Plus™ program the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce has recruited “ECO” the Starfish.  ECO is asking members to “Go Green” by signing up for this valuable program.  As of January 26th, the following businesses have signed up as Charter Members of the Green Plus™ Program: A&I Fire Water & Restoration, Avista Resort, Damon’s Grill, Elliott Realty, HTC and Ocean Drive Beach & Golf Resort.

The North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau has been serving the local community for the past 10 years.  The mission of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce is to be recognized as the premier business organization serving the North Myrtle Beach area and its business members by providing quality products, programs, and services while influencing issues that enhance the economic prosperity of our community.  In August 2009, the Accrediting Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce designated the North Myrtle Beach Chamber as an Accredited chamber with 4-Stars.

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The PTA Thrift Shop was established in 1952 to supply funds for art education in the Chapel Hill school district. Recently, Green Plus spoke with executive director Barbara Jean-Black asking her about her experiences with sustainability and what it’s like being a Green Plus certified business.

What inspired you to join Green Plus?

A few things:

1. Oftentimes non-profits are constrained by funding and other resources to address all components of the triple bottom line.  We are typically focused on doing more with less and are mission driven.  As a non-profit, I wanted our organization to serve as an example for other non-profits, that being mission driven does not have to exclude your organization from addressing all components of the triple bottom line and that the 3P’s (People, Profit, Planet) work synergistically and make your organization more successful and attractive to funding sources.
2. I chair the Foundation for a Sustainable Community and felt it was important to support this program in an actionable and intentional way.
3. I’ve always been a huge proponent of the triple bottom line, even before I knew what to call it.  The Green Plus Program just made sense from an ethical and moral standpoint for me.
4. For the longest time “sustainability” has been preached to the choir.  Green Plus moves it from the “choir” to the “congregation,” which at times thought this notion to be too “left.”  It is wonderful to see a vehicle which has capacity to bring “sustainability” mainstream and to the masses.

What are some things that the PTA Thrift shop does to better their environment and the lives of their employees?

• Distribute our profits to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools.
• Donating clothing to the annual Project Homeless Connect
• Donating clothing to the clients of Interfaith Council via a voucher system (more than 40,000 items per year)
• Donating food and personal items to IFC which have been donated to us by the community, but cannot be offered for sale by us.
• Limit landfall contribution by finding ways to create revenue out of unsellable items.
• Sell scrap metal to a recycle. We also have an unsellable clothing, shoe, and book program whereby we sell those items to a third party to be culled and resold.
• Switch to a more environmentally friendly pest control company.
• When we don’t use donated items, we purchase recycled products whenever possible.
• Family friendly employee policy.
• Pay 85% of our full-time employees’ health insurance premiums. Pay for full-time employees’ long term disability benefits, as well as a life insurance policy for them.
• Vacation/sick leave and seven paid holidays.
• Encourage executive staff to volunteer their time in the community, and allow time to do so.
• Installed more efficient HVAC system at Village Plaza location.
• Due to the age of our Carrboro location we have programmable thermostats, fluorescent lighting.
• Future plans include expanding their Carrboro location and creating a space that incorporates water and energy conservation plans.
• Dream of a LEED certified Thrift Shop!

The Thrift Shop has also been very proactive to changes in consumer protection laws – for example, due the recent addition to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, effective February 10, 2009, the PTA Thrift Shop, Inc. will no longer be accepting or selling toys or children’s’ products. How does new regulation affect your business?

Sometimes following the law is unpopular.  We had a few negative reactions in the press and from some of our customers.  Some of our customers didn’t understand why we were doing it and other resell organizations were not.  They were disturbed by the fact that there would be an increase in landfill activity, as well as by the fact that a segment of our community would now be forced to shop beyond their means for those items at higher priced, often big box stores.  All good points, but the bottom line for us was, as a community organization, supporting our local school population, we were duty bound to protect the assets of our organization from potential liability and to follow not only the letter of the law, but also the spirit of it.  Almost nine months later, if you didn’t know we had toys prior to the legislation, you wouldn’t miss them.  We’ve tried to educate our customers and community, by posting a link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

How have your customers responded to these changes and your overall push towards being a more sustainable business?

Unfortunately for us, we have not done a very good job to this point in “tooting our own horn” about our efforts to being a more sustainable business.  This is something we are in the process of changing.  We have a parent volunteer with a marketing and PR background who is going to help us frame this message and tell our story better.

Have you experienced any drawbacks to being more sustainable?

Not really.

Do you have any other projects or things you plan to commit to in the future?

As I mentioned earlier, the prospect of expanding our Carrboro location is very exciting and will allow us to become more sustainable by incorporating all of the conservation components which are currently out of our reach.  This commitment is our biggest and I think will position this organization to remain relevant for years to come.

What are your plans now that you’ve been Green Plus Certified?

To continue to work on the things we are currently doing and enhance them.  To always look for new and innovative ways to do what we do better.

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The Redwoods Group, headquartered in Morrisville, NC, is a privately held, socially responsible commercial specialty insurance company. The business and social mission of The Redwoods Group – whose motto is to Serve Others® – is to protect and improve the quality of life in the communities it serves.  The Redwoods Group has built into their foundation strong social and environmental standards for their operations, which has allowed them to create positive social change.

Here are some examples of actions taken by The Redwoods Group to make environmental and social change:

• Employees spend 40 hours of their work time each year in service to the community, building houses for the working poor, tutoring children in homeless shelters, serving meals at soup kitchens or shaving their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research
• The Redwoods Group matches most employee gifts to charity with an unlimited match for United Way contributions

• Redwoods commits to contributing a minimum of 10 percent of pre-tax income to charity every year, without exception

• In 2006-2007, the firm contributed over 50 percent of its pre-tax profits (about $500,000 each year) to nonprofit organizations throughout the world
• Redwoods educates and engages employees on the human condition to develop committed citizens of the world
• The Redwoods Group offers employee incentives for using alternative modes of transportation and will pay employees $30 a month toward the cost of public transportation
• The company has begun sending customers contracts on CDs. Redwoods has almost completely replaced its paper records with electronic records through an e-filing system that will be the primary method used going forward. For the first time, the firm distributed their annual report electronically via a PDF – they did not print hard copies. As a result, they saved 142,500 sheets of paper and reduced their carbon footprint by 28,500 pounds

• The Redwoods Group and their building’s property management firm work with Green Plus-certified Bland Landscaping for grounds management

• Redwoods joined Carbonrally which is an online competition to reduce carbon emissions, and has already reduced 37.15 tons of carbon

Here is what MJ Pearle, Public Relations and Community Outreach Manager, from The Redwoods Group had to say about their experience with Green Plus:

What inspired you to join Green Plus?

Our CEO has long embraced sustainability, so when we heard about the launch of Green Plus we wanted to support it financially and become one of the first Green Plus companies here. The Redwoods Group Foundation provided a grant to help launch Green Plus and recently agreed to give Green Plus a business loan to help move this effort to Chambers of Commerce across the nation.

What were some easy changes you were able to make to improve your sustainability?

Because we rent office space and don’t own our building we felt we couldn’t control many of the energy issues included on the Green Plus application.  So we met with reps of our property management firm and discovered that they

implemented green efforts of which we weren’t aware.  These included carefully examining utility bills, collecting rain water to re-use to water plants and hiring a landscaping company that is Green Plus certified.

Do you plan to make additional modifications to become even more sustainable, even though you are already certified?

Yes. We committed to develop written goals to reduce energy consumption and draft an environmental policy, among other efforts. We offer free coffee to employees and we currently are testing a new coffee machine that is “green.” We rent office space and the Green Plus effort was one

of several factors that led us to commit to move to a new “green” office building that currently is being built in downtown Durham by Greenfire Development. Greenfire is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, which oversees the LEED Green

Building Rating system, which is the green standard in building.

Would you recommend this program to other businesses?

Yes!

ISD Review

Triangle Business Journal wants to recognize Triangle area organizations who are going green.

Going green and sustainable can be a valuable way to attract new customers or clients, increase your organization’s visibility and prove your commitment to your community.

The next step is gaining recognition for your efforts.  More and more consumers and businesses are looking to work with sustainable companies and here is a good opportunity to be recognized.

“Triangle Business Journal‘s Green Awards will honor those in the Triangle who make efforts to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their businesses and their communities. By doing so, they show others how to strengthen the environmental health of our region.

Triangle Business Journal will recognize individuals, businesses, government leaders and entities, and nonprofit organizations in Triangle Business Journal’s special focus section on Oct. 23.

Work or projects completed from June 2008 to June 2009 will be considered.

The two major categories are General Awards and Green Building Awards.  To be considered, companies must have operations in at least one of 13 counties that comprise the Triangle region: Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake, and Warren.”

The deadline for nominations is August 26, 2009.  For more information or to nominate your business, click here.