Your focus on "return on investment (ROI)" is a survival strategy that comes naturally to you. Effectiveness matters.
You want clean air to breathe, you want good food for your health, and you want a home and business that can withstand the battering of bad economic blows and even tornadoes and windstorms.
The practical solution is answering the question, "What are my most effective ways to buy greener?"
- Where do I spend most of my budget?
- What options would save money and our natural resources at the same time?
- How can we reduce waste? Or divert waste products into new uses?
- How can we change purchasing policies to optimize operations?
Green and sustainable solutions solve multiple problems or needs at the same time, with the same solution. It's a "social supply chain", as one economic developer recently told me.
For instance ... organic food provides healthful food, reduces toxins in the soil, reduces pollution of the local water table and streams, and fosters a local economy for small businesses and farmers who want to provide their families and neighbors with fresh foods. Organic habitat fosters local wildlife such as earthworms and butterflies and pollinators. Organic processing of those organic materials reduces the use of pollutants in industrial processes, and localization reduces pollutants from long distance transportation.
Results ... and all these sectors provide greener, healthier jobs that people feel good about supporting with their daytime hours and talents...and budgets.
High Performance Solutions ... Those are some of the multiple solutions from one green strategy. Green solutions are part of the web of life and the complex systems that maintains our earth as a livable, self-replenishing planet.
Those kinds of multi-purpose solutions are found in green, high-performance and sustainable businesses and organizations.
You want to buy high performance products and services that are a good investment in your effectiveness. You want to buy socially responsible solutions that strengthen your family, your business and your community.
We hear you...and we feel the same frustration that it's hard to find those kinds of solutions in our global, free enterprise system in which dangers lurk around nearly every corner.
But a new economy is rising, and it is being built on shared concern for our future. It is the green economy. The frugal economy. The transparent economy. And this new economy includes a more responsible role for our purchasing practices -- both at home and at work. We truly do vote with our dollars, as well as with our smarts.
Finding Better Solutions for Your Diverse Needs
Most green directories are strictly for consumers OR businesses.
This directory of "solutions for green" makes it possible for you to learn about solutions in a very wide variety of categories and applications.
You live a complicated life! Today you might need a consumer solution. Tomorrow you might need a business solutions on the job. And next week you might be serving on a community task force and need to find solutions for your city or county or school system.
We cover applications for Consumers, Commercial, Industrial, Business and Government.
Matching the Supplier to Your Need
Many suppliers serve a variety of customers -- but some specialize in only one or two sectors. You need to know the scope of the supplier's solution to shorten your search for a good match. We provide that scope.
We also know that certifications are growing in importance as governmental compliance programs require you to meet new regulations. And trade practices require specific levels of quality and compatibility. We provide easy ways to identify company and product certifications.
Green Sourcing as a New Economy Job Skill
Bringing a great contact list with you to a new job can help you get the job.
- Do you know who the green and sustainable suppliers are in your field?
- Do you know which certifications will get you into the short list for an RFP?
- Do you know how to tell your suppliers you need to green your product...and their parts also need to be green, toxic-free, sourced locally...or other criteria required in your industry?
Your familiarity with a green directory that provides in-depth information about product lines, company processes and product certifications is definitely a high-performance job qualification!
Find Quality, Frugality and Smart Solutions
Saving money isn't about "buying cheap" any more. Saving money is about the lifetime cost of the product. A cheap lamp that guzzles electricity for it's short lifespan really isn't smart. You know that, and the marketplace is responding to consumers' new intelligence about lifespan costs.
Asking smart questions drives sustainable profitability, for example:
- Where are we wasting resources?
- Where are the new market niches arising?
- What new solutions are available to improve performance?
- What compliance regulations will we need to meet?
- Who meets our complex criteria?
New technologies and systems are being developed to help you gauge the lifetime savings you get from buying a quality solution upfront. Government agencies such as the US and state Departments of Energy, Conservation, Agriculture, Transportation, Environment...and Health, Housing, Economic Development...and more -- are researching solutions to our shared problems.
What are those problems that we need to help solve?
You will rank our society's problems in the order they are impacting your life and the lives of your extended family and friends...and your community. But they are all part of our challenge today.
- Environmental degradation from pollutants
- Weather pattern changes from climate change
- Dense urban populations
- Urban sprawl into wilderness areas
- High levels of pollutants in your bodies
- High levels of family disintegration and dispersal
- High dropout rates and educational failure at the same time we face unprecedented science and technology challenges and global competition.
- High stress levels and its impact on health
- Economic turbulence that is bring about a "new economy" and high levels of change.
And I'm sure you can think of a few more challenges facing you personally and on the job. Right?
The solution to many of these problems is smarter choices. Smarter questions. Smarter purchasing. Smarter business decisions. Smarter family management.
Green is a shorthand term that points us to a combination of solutions in a specific product or service. Green encompasses energy efficiency, low or no-toxicity, water conservation, health protection, lower long term costs with quality and longevity, and local community sourcing to stabilize local communities. That's a lot to pack into one product or service. But vast improvements ARE possible. And the level of positive solutions in products is growing each year.
These are just some of the reasons for you to consider green solutions. You have more, we're sure.
Green is something you can get excited about. Something you can be an important part of. And something from which you will directly benefit!
