How to Present Complex Data to Consumers

It is often difficult for shoppers to select food that is healthy for them and the planet. Mark Bittman from the New York Times proposed a new food label to provide information to make it simpler. It makes for a good case study on how to present complex data.

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How To Use Sampling to Eliminate a Manual Census

Sampling can be used at work to quickly, inexpensively and accurately capture insights about employee activities. As an example, how to use sampling to track employee commute modes is laid out step-by-step.

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3 Obvious Ways To Flip the Switch & Save Millions

Cutting energy use across the enterprise can be so simple, and so cost-effective that it's astounding there is still any of this low-hanging fruit waiting to be plucked. Here are 8 case studies

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Green To Gold: The Next Chaper

For those looking for ways to go green while providing business benefits, you will find the new book Green to Gold: Business Playbook practical and useful.

Learn more about the book's organization and one of the case studies it references. Hint: A case study authored by me.

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Starbucks Saves Millions with LED Lighting

When Starbucks converted the lighting in more than 7,000 of its stores from inefficient incandescents and halogens to LEDs, developed in partnership with GE, the company ended up saving millions per year in energy costs.

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Starbucks Leads LEED Retail

When the coffee giant, Starbucks, announced its goal to get all of its new stores LEED-certified starting this year, it was the culmination of an effort to address its biggest environmental impacts.

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Bright News About LED Lighting

More about LED lighting that includes

• a humorous video highlighting improved office productivity  
• an introduction of a cool personal lighting device. 

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Spotlight on LED Benefits

The U.S. Department of Energy states, “No other lighting technology offers as much potential to save energy and enhance the quality of our building environments.” To learn more, read my article published by Greener World Media that highlights case studies from Unilever, UCSF Medical Center, Pittsburgh International Airport and Starbucks.

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Green Grows Green: Harvesting the Hidden Returns of Sustainability

Join me on Thursday evening's in April at Stanford University for the course that I am teaching on realizing the business benefits of going green -- Green Grows Green. Read more >>

Parking Lot Funds Genentech Bus

Are you finding it challenging to initiate sustainability projects focused on reducing carbon emissions? Although the reduction in carbon emissions benefits society, there are only so many goodwill projects most corporations are willing to fund. Yet Daniel McCoy, Transportation Director at Genentech persevered and found a way to provide hard benefits that corporations crave. Read more >>

Virtually Carbon Free Commuting

What’s the largest component of your employee’s footprint? At SUN Microsystems, commuting contributes more than 90%. SUN’s approach to a greener commute is telework enabled by its Open Work product. Read more >>

Cisco is an EPA Climate Leader

John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, signed up for EPA Climate Leaders in late 2007 where he committed Cisco to a substantial 25% reduction in GhG over a five year period. Mr. Chambers is well known for his spontaneous deal-making and providing big goals to his employees.

Part 1: Facilities >>
Part 2: Computing >>
Part 3: Transportation: Business Travel >>

Hidden Costs of Thirsty Landscaping

Gilead, a leader in pharmaceuticals, is best known for its ground-breaking use of biotechnology. This week, Gilead is supporting an older kind of biology. At its Palo Alto, California location, Gilead removed its water thirsty lawn and replaced it with drought tolerant California natives that will attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

The surprising fact is that California water processes are the largest user of energy within the state. The opportunities for conservation of water and energy are enormous. Commercial and public landscaping consume one third of California's water. Conserving is a double win where both energy and water resources are saved. Read more

Google Visit Part 2: Facilities

Building many of its facilities recently, Google took advantage of the greenest techniques and products currently available. Other companies may still benefit from the approaches Google used since many green building improvements provide a high return-on-investment (ROI).  Read more >>

Change The Light Bulbs

In California, 22% of office building energy is used for lighting. Most businesses use halogen lighting, which wastes 97% of its energy toward creating heat while a paltry 3% is used to create light. In summer this heat by-product also adds to the building’s cooling load. Changing to more efficient lighting will provide a 3 to 5 times improvement compared to halogen.

Read full article including plan and resources

Use Paper Wisely

Every year, business uses the equivalent of 2 Trillion sheets of paper. The results of the information age is to fuel an unrelenting demand for paper. Paper usage tripled in the last 30 years and is expected to continue to grow 10% annually.

Pulp and paper production is the second largest user of energy and water of U.S. manufacturing and third largest contributor to pollution. Read full article with plans and resources.