The Highlight Reel 2: Takeaways From GoGreen ‘09

The whole GoGreen Conference was so amazing, it’s been hard to pick our favorite moments, but we’ve put together a few more for you. See below for highlights from the incredible Writing Your Sustainability Plan session (with KEEN’s James Curleigh, Stoel Rives’ Mark Morford and Clark Brockman from SERA Architects), the Electric Vehicles session and pictures from the day!

Writing Your Sustainability Plan

James Curleigh, Mark Morford and Clark Brockman really put on a show for the attendees of this session. Coming from very different industries (retail, the law and architecture), they shared their models for success with a sustainability plan. A common thread between the three is that they each took risks with bold programs.

SERA discontinued paying for employee parking. Instead they offered 2 extra days off a year for all employees and a free monthly bus pass to those who were willing to change their commuting habits. Stoel Rives simply removed all trash cans from their employee spaces in order to encourage recycling. KEEN stumbled into refurbishing used materials such as rice bags and scrap aluminum for its products.

The sticking impression is that a sustainability plan is going to be different for everyone—it’s important to remember that a thoughtful review of your companies goals, strategies and tactics should be undertaken to get the ball rolling and reviewed as times and your business change.

SERA Architects had a great mantra for forming their operations model: Can the earth replace what we take? Are the choices we make fair and equitable? Can what we make be absorbed back into Earth? Are our actions respecting the earth and all living things?

Electric Vehicles Session

Oregon has a pretty awesome opportunity to be a worldwide leader in battery technology and electric vehicles in the coming year. This is due to the windfall score of millions of dollars for several Oregon companies to develop new battery technology + being selected as one of five Nissan test markets for a new line of electric vehicles and 2500 charging stations.

We were honored to have four great minds on electric vehicles as speakers at GoGreen 2009. David Patterson (Mitsubishi America), Mark Brady (Business Oregon), Charlie Allcock (PGE) and Jeff Cogen (Multnomah County) lead an insightful discussion on where we are, where we need to be (from a resources use/impact versus planet health point-of-view) and how to get there.

Some key points from our incredibly knowledgeable speakers:

• We have met the average customer’s needs. The early adopter is already there. Now we have to convince the masses and make it easy for them to drive electric vehicles.
• We have the vehicles. We need to build battery technology that will allow drivers to go farther and charge faster. We also need the infrastructure that will facilitate mass use of this technology—i.e. charging stations, battery repair shops, etc.
• The only way electronic vehicles will be successful, is if we make a dollar. It has to be a sustainable BUSINESS.
• Big Opportunity lies in hardware and infrastructure for electric vehicles. Oregon can take advantage of switch to battery from fossil fuel.

GoGreen Photo Album

We had a great time with everyone and hope you learned a lot, got seriously inspired and took the knowledge you gained out into our community! Click here to see our Photo Gallery.

The Highlight Reel: James Curleigh at GoGreen ‘09

We were thrilled to see a video from the “Writing Your Sustainability Plan” session up on KEEN’s blog the other day. KEEN CEO James Curleigh joined Clark Brockman of Sera Architects and Mark Morford of Stoel Rives to discuss the crucial elements to include when integrating sustainability into your overall business model. We’ve got select video footage coming from the 2009 Go Green Conference in Portland, but here is your sneak peek courtesy of KEEN. Thanks guys!

The Highlight Reel: GoGreen ‘09

Wow! Was GoGreen ‘09 an incredible day or what? We’re so lucky to have such an engaging, passionate business community in Portland—and one that is keen on being green as well. The GoGreen Team would like to extend a great big “THANK YOU” to all of our speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and our attendees! Each and every one of you played a crucial role is creating a success-filled day of learning at The Gerding last week. We are so inspired by all of you!

Some new, exciting things happened at GoGreen ‘09 and we’d like to share a few of our favorite moments and takeaways from the day over the next week. If you weren’t able to make it, we’re confident that these nuggets of green goodness will inspire you to look into the vast local network of resources available to businesses who want to become more sustainable.

Eco-Visionary Session

This year we gathered four of the most influential and inspiring women working the front lines of corporate responsibility and sustainability. Darcy Winslow (DSW Collective), Sheri Flies (Costco), Sarah Severn (Nike) and Joyce LaValle (Interface, Inc.) showed us the bigger picture—that sustainability includes social responsibility. They all gave great insights to the philosophic argument for a sustainable global economy and a few extra goodies, including a book list!

• Sheri Flies’ crucial statement on the right to access: “We need major shifts beyond our niche. Green needs mainstream. Everyone should have access to green products.”
• Darcy Winslow reminded us that there isn’t one lever we can pull to affect massive change—it’s about building systemic change with individual actions and welcoming the challenges that come with such an extensive undertaking.
  
• Joyce LaValle noted that eliminating waste in your production cycle is an important, cost-effective and efficient place to start, but that collaboration and partnerships with others are the key to integrating sustainability into your on-going business development.
• Sarah Severn challenged us to look at sustainability as a component of being socially responsible and to, “stay true to [our] highest intention,” by avoiding easy outs + political games.
  

Books That Will Change Your Worldview

All four of our eco-visionaries agreed that access to the right information can change the course of history. They strongly recommended the following:

• The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability
  by Paul Hawken
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
  by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
• Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Society, and Organizations
  by Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers

The Twitter Brigade

Not only did we explore the power of social media via a special panel with local experts on the subject, but we also put social media’s reach to work. A group of 60 Twitter users spread the green gospel throughout the day and inspired our tens of thousands of collective followers to start living and working more sustainably!

Here is a sampling of the incredibly effective way our attendees shared their experience with others.

If you aren’t already following us on Twitter and Facebook, we’d love to have you join us! We’ll be continuing to spread news, insights and information on local, regional and global sustainability topics and events—AND we’re gearing up for GoGreen Seattle in April 2010!

Takeaways

The GoGreen Conference is only as good as what our attendees get out of it. So what were your takeaways? We’d love to know! Send us a link to your blog or post your thoughts in the comments. We’ll be following up with more highlights over the next week, but in the meantime, check out what one of our attendees and one of our speakers had to say about their experiences at GoGreen ‘09!

Melanie Adamson

Darcy Winslow/DSW Collective

The Green Line Series: Making The Investment With Dan Weldon (Umpqua Bank)

Making your business a sustainable enterprise can be a daunting and seemingly impossible financial task. The bottom line often gets in the way of “the green line” despite our best intentions. Lucky for us, we’ve got a banking wiz here to help us crunch numbers, weigh the options and find financing for green investments. Umpqua Bank’s Dan Weldon, eco-banking manager, breaks it down for us—from federal and state incentives, to Umpqua’s Green Street lending program and where to get started saving green.

GG: Going Green can be seemingly expensive. Tell us about the benefits/incentives of spending more upfront for eco-friendly systems, construction, etc., what unique incentives Umpqua provides and why you encourage businesses to consider this option.
DW: With all investment, there are multiple approaches to cost and benefit: Short term vs. long term, prospective vs. actual, opportunity vs. risk.

It is true that often times “going green” can be more expensive than continuing with the current process and approach. Leading edge technology solutions often cost more than long established products. When comparing these two scenarios, what we should see is that the more forward leaning, higher efficiency improvements have an incremental benefit to the existing systems and equipment. The various state and federal incentives seek to bring efficiency investment more in line with simple maintenance. Often times, owners are looking for a very short simple repayment of the added investment ranging from 2-3 years.

A longer term perspective would recognize that the investment in energy efficiency acts as an annuity in future years as the owners continue to receive the improved cash flow from increased energy efficiency. Depending on the life of the equipment purchased, that annuity stream may extend far beyond the owner’s typical investment horizon.

Investment also acts as a hedge to rising energy costs. As energy costs continue to increase as a result of population growth fueled demand, early investment into efficiency translates into greater gains in cash flow.

Finally, early investment also serves as a hedge against governmental regulations which may seek to encourage energy efficiency and discourage excessive energy consumption. The current discussion of a Carbon Tax or establishment of a Cap and Trade system for Carbon emissions can result in either cost or income for company, based upon their decision to invest early in efficiency or to wait.

Umpqua Bank seeks to support and encourage energy efficiency investment through offering beneficial loan structures and pricing.

GG: What are the most effective places to start replacing outdated, inefficient systems with eco-friendly ones? Are the cost-savings as significant as the energy savings?
DW: Solar Oregon has a great model for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects; Reduce energy use, and then invest in renewable energy. The first and best place to focus is energy / resource conservation. Efficiency almost always outperforms expansion. At the point where we have become as efficient as we can be, we then look to invest in growth. Cost and energy savings go hand in hand. From a best practices perspective, companies who look closely at their operations first, identifying areas to reduce overhead or waste, are able to then optimize their investment in growth knowing that the investment will yield optimal returns.

So where do we look first? From a very practical standpoint, when sustainability is viewed as a value statement within an organization, it is truly amazing what saving can be had through the enthusiasm and behavioral changes of company associates. The energy provided by a few key associates can yield significant returns for little to no capital investment. Look to your people first.

Next, look for low hanging fruit … lighting fixtures have become much more efficient over recent years. Outdoor lighting, common area and grounds lighting, as well as task lighting all represent opportunities to significantly decrease the energy we use. Simple items such as motion detectors, day-lighting initiatives, and helping employees change habitual behaviors can all translate into savings.

GG: What kind of programs do you have in place to help offset those upfront costs and provide for customers wishing to take a sustainable route for running their home/business?
DW: Umpqua Bank’s GreenStreet loan program removes the fee barrier to energy efficiency investment. Our GreenStreet loans have no upfront fees, no 3rd party fees, and no pre-payment penalty.

Our larger commercial banking targeted eco-loans all have lower interest rates than our standard programs, reduced loans fees, and recognize the timing of the various incentive payments and tax credits available. We seek to structure the loan terms to work in concert with the various sources of cash flow available to service the loan request.

GG: What kind of partnerships does Umpqua Bank have in place to help customers with financing for sustainable initiatives/programs?
DW: Umpqua Bank has been very proactive in reaching out to organizations like the BEST business center, City government, Energy Trust, energy efficiency trade contractors; private and non-profit organizations and we continue to expand our networks within all of our Umpqua Bank communities.
Our collaboration with Energy Trust of Oregon was one of the first in the nation to offer both small business owners and consumers low cost financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

GG: You recently wrote a blog post about the incredible opportunity Greensburg, Kansas discovered to rebuild sustainably, when faced with a tragic natural disaster. What lessons can business-owners take from that experience?
DW: Business owners can look at the current economic climate as an opportunity to re-build their companies in the most efficient ways possible. This economy has prompted many organizations to lay off workers, reduce expenses, and streamline processes. We all have the opportunity to take what we have learned and are learning each and every day, and to apply those best practices to our businesses as they grow. The days of irrational exuberance are gone. Waste is now viewed as waste. We need to be smart in our investments, diligent with our management of scarce resources, and open to looking at new and better ways to serve our customers.

GG: Why is it so important to make these investments now?
DW: There is an African proverb, also attributed to Lao Tsu, which says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the second best time is now.”
In addition, incentives are subject to change at any time. By acting now, businesses and consumers can garner Local, State and Federal incentives which significantly reduce the cost to act now. Technology will advance and costs may come down over time. There is no guarantee that the economics will improve, but it is guaranteed that there is a cost for waiting.

GG: Anything else you’d like to tell our readers about?
DW: Oregon leads the nation in its support of sustainability initiatives. As exemplified by the Clean Energy Works program through the City of Portland, Portland Development Commission and Energy Trust, we have shown that we are willing to step out in new ways to help Oregonians reduce their energy use. The Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit, Renewable Energy Tax Credit ( for consumers ), Energy Trust incentives, and the various programs available to both financially encourage energy conservation, and to educate consumers and business owners on how to identify areas of improvement are all valuable resources for everyone to consider.

I believe the next step in this process will be to better understand the potential in collaborations between private enterprise and public institutions. We need to continue to focus on fostering vital and robust communication among the various stakeholders and resources within our communities.

Dan Weldon is the vice-president/eco-banking manager at Umpqua Bank. He’s also a speaker the GoGreen ‘09 Conference, October 7th, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. To hear more from Weldon and our other 40+ eco-visionary speakers on embedding your business with a sustainable commitment , register today at www.gogreenpdx.com/registration. Tickets are $175 per person or $150 per person for groups of two or more.

For more information about Umpqua Bank, please visit: http://www.greenstreetloan.com/

To get the latest Go Green ‘09 news, green news and innovative ideas join us on Facebook (Go Green Conference) + Twitter (@gogreenpdx)!

The Green Line Series: Creating Partnerships With Colin Sears (Portland Development Commission)

It’s takes two ba-bay-ee-ee. Well actually, according to Colin Sears from the Portland Development Commission (PDC), it takes three or seven or twelve. In our interview, Colin shared with the Green Line Series the importance of partnerships in building successful sustainable ventures and how the PDC can help facilitate your next sustainable project–whether it’s creating a low-emission technology for one of your manufacturing processes or bringing to life an event space for sustainable ventures.

GG: How is the Portland Development Commission driving change for Portland businesses on the sustainability front?
CS: We’re doing primarily doing two things. We mostly focused on five key industry sectors: Wind and Solar energy, Green Development, Energy Efficiency, Electric Energy and Battery Storage. And at the same time, we’re focused on providing technical assistance for companies who want to become more sustainable through their practices, and we do that through the Zero Waste Alliance. It’s called the Green Gain Program. We offer a matching grant to companies looking to green their practices—and they don’t necessarily have to be within those five sectors.

GG: Tell us more about the Green Gain Program.
CS: The Green Gain Program offers technical assistance up to $15,000 for companies that want green their businesses. For example, Rejuvenation wanted to reduce the use of chemicals in some of their manufacturing processes. They went through that program and developed a zero emissions system for some of those manufacturing processes. That’s one way to do the program—it can be anything, but it’s usually more complex things.

The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has the Best Business Center, which helps businesses plan things like composting and recycling and other low hanging fruit. Then we have more complex problems like zero waste programs, where they need technical assistance like scientists, etc. We’re not the experts at PDC, but we can connect them with people who are.

GG: Are there any other programs or initiatives that PDC uses to help businesses become more sustainable?
CS: We’re doing our cluster work, with the five clusters I mentioned, but we’re also doing some work with advanced manufacturing companies such as the active wear industry. With the active wear industry there is a project that focuses heavily on sustainable materials in a way that brings industries together. With our sustainable industry clusters I mentioned, we’ve been convening some of the clusters.

One that’s convened itself is the PDX Lounge Partners and they’ve formed themselves into a new association called A VOIS For Oregon. We’ve worked with them as a partner since the convened and we’re contributing to what they call a VOIS Box over at the West Bank Project. We contributed to a grant to help them turn that into a convening and event space that sustainable businesses can use.

We’ve also been working with the electric vehicle cluster and some of the technologies that have been coming in externally and are moving here. We’ve been helping them set up strategic initiatives and go after federal funding to help that cluster build and grow.

GG: Are those funds a part of the Recovery Act Funding?
CS: Yes, we’re going after some of that funding as well as working on some grants coming out of the Department of Energy that would be industry-wide rather than for specific businesses. The really big thing though, is that we have business finance programs that we offer companies to primarily fund things like improvements. Those are available within our Urban Renewal Areas. We also have some citywide capital available for businesses provided they meet certain criteria. We do emphasize our five main sustainable industry clusters, but other industries aren’t precluded from applying.

GG: We’ve been hearing that partnerships are crucial in this environment. What are your thoughts on that?
CS: Everything we do is based on partnerships, with the private sector primarily, but also with the University system. Oregon BEST has become an important partner as well, along with others. Like I said, everything we do involves partners—we’re all driving this bus together. We can’t operate in a vacuum; we have to work together to get things done. But the fact that we are in a place where there is so much going on and where there are lots of folks to collaborate with is great.

GG: Does working in partnership help drive success in realizing sustainable projects and initiatives?
CS: I think it does. I think a good example of that is the Oregon Sustainability Center, which is in the feasibility stages. That’s a project where a large number of parties are involved—the Oregon University System, the Governor’s Office, the Mayor’s Office, City Hall—this is a multi-bureau, multi-agency, non-profit, private sector, public agency project. It’s a pretty amazing project. If we pull that off, it’s going to be the only large-scale Living Building in existence in the world that we know of.

Colin Sears is a speaker the GoGreen ‘09 Conference, October 7th, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. To hear more from Sears and our other 40+ eco-visionary speakers on embedding your business with a sustainable commitment , register today at www.gogreenpdx.com/registration. Tickets are $175 per person or $150 per person for groups of two or more.

For more information about Portland Development Commission, please visit: http://www.pdc.us/

To get the latest Go Green ‘09 news, green news and innovative ideas join us on Facebook (Go Green Conference) + Twitter (@gogreenpdx)!

GoGreen Conference Top 10

TOP 10 REASONS to ATTEND GoGreen ‘09

• Spend the day with over 600 Portland business owners who care about the environment and sustainability as much as you do! Network and get to know your peers—form relationships that can help your companies grow

• Learn from 40+ Sustainable Business Leaders that will rock your green world. Our line-up includes Keen’s James Curleigh, Nissan’s Mark Perry, gDiapers’ Jason Graham-Nye, Celilo Group Media’s Nik Blosser and many more!

• Choose from 10 different sessions addressing the most important aspects and challenges of taking your company down a sustainable path. From writing sustainability plans to using social media to your advantage and how to secure grants and funding for green projects – walk away with actionable next steps to green your business

• Lunch + Learn with Sustainable Industry Leaders via roundtable discussions while you feast on organic fare from Artemis Foods. Have in-depth conversations with experts in the Top 10 Sustainable Growth Sectors featuring: Wave, wind and solar energy, smart grid, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, water, agriculture and food.

• Steve Clark/Publisher of the Portland Tribune will announce the 2009 Green Giant Awards at GoGreen ‘09, given to local business owners and citizens who have gone above and beyond the norm in sustainability practices over the past year

• Mayor Sam Adams will receive the Blue Sky Visionary Award since he is credited with leading the Portland Street Car system to 100 percent clean-energy use through the Pacific Power Blue Sky Program . This avoids 480 tons of CO2 emissions annually, saves 1,025,400 driven miles, and equates to the planting of 94,280 trees!

• NEW! The 2009 Eco-Visionaries panel session will knock your organic, sustainably produced socks off! We’ve got the best in the biz including: Darcy Winslow (21-Year Nike veteran + world-renowned sustainability consultant), Sheri Flies (COSTCO), Joyce LaValle (Interface, Inc.) and Sarah Severn (sustainability guru at Nike)

• Learn how to tell your sustainability story authentically—and avoid dreaded “Green Washing”—from improvisational artists Gary Hirsch (On Your Feet) and Scott Davis (From the Rooftops)

• Join the GoGreen Conference Tweet Team for coffee at the Gerding Cafe and connect with your fellow sustainability-focused Twitter users before the conference starts!

• We will be graphically recording GoGreen ‘09 in addition to posting video of the sessions post-conference on the GoGreen HUB to help keep these valuable ideas and success stories fresh in your mind

GoGreen ‘08 sold out! Make sure to reserve your spot today.
GoGreen ‘09 – cultivating sustainable business
One Day Conference
Wednesday, October 7th
GERDING THEATER @ THE ARMORY/Portland, Oregon
8:30am-4:30pm

For Tickets + Registration

http://www.gogreenpdx.com/registration

The Green Line Series: Serving Up Sustainable Social Media With Kettle Food’s Michelle Peterman Hunt

Kettle Brand Foods produces all-natural and tasty potato chips–but they’ve also built an impressive array of sustainable components into their business model. Now they’re delving into social media to share the details of their story on the consumer’s turf. Vice-President of Marketing, Michelle Peterman Hunt shares her take on social media and how to use it to engage consumers where the conversation is already taking place. She reminds us that social media is not a silver or a green bullet, but that it can boost traditional communication in ways we’ve never seen before.

GG: Can you give us a brief overview of how a company can use social media to engage and grow a tribe?
MPH: Social media is one component of how to grow a tribe. The primary vehicle we use at Kettle Brand Potato Chips are the chips themselves. It’s the wonderful flavors that people experience through our chips that ultimately grow the biggest tribe. Beyond that, social media is an area where we’re just starting to dip our toes in the water. We know our tribe is already out there on Facebook and on Twitter, because we’ve been watching and listening to them for a while. We know that it’s really important to have a two-way conversation with them and to be where the conversation is already happening.

Mainly, in the last couple of years, we’ve relied mostly on traditional marketing tactics: The chips in the bag, the bag design, traditional PR. That’s a conversation generated from us to the consumer. The transition for us is to be where that conversation is already taking place. That requires a build up of tools to be able to do that in a good way. I always challenge my team to do whatever we do in the marketplace very, very well.

GG: How can social media be used to spread the word about green programs and initiatives?
MPH: At Kettle Foods, we do a lot of little things that aren’t necessarily worth writing a press release about. For example, we have a wetlands at our Salem, OR facility where we’re always watching the return of the birds every year. It’s not something we would write a press release about or on the back of the bag, but social media gives us a forum to say that. Now, we’ve also mentioned the birds at the wetlands on our website, but that requires the consumer to find us. Being engaged in social media allows us to join the conversation where it’s taking place and bring our story there.

GG: Do you think social media has the capability to boost the bottom line?
MPH: The bottom line isn’t driving our commitment to social media. It’s about relationships with our customers. The degree to which we can increase engagement with our brand, ultimately can have an impact if people buy more chips because of it. But that’s not the calculation we go through to drive initiatives with social media. If you’re talking about the “green line”—from an environmental standpoint—then I think that if the work that Kettle Foods does inspires people to minimize their impact, then that’s a bonus.

GG: Can you tell us about a few of the green initiatives you have going on at Kettle Foods?
MPH: The way I frame our sustainability commitment is less about initiatives and more about the way we run our business. Specifically, a potato plant we built in Wisconsin in 2006 was the first Gold LEED certified food-manufacturing facility in the nation. That’s more than just an initiative. That’s sustainability baked right into the product—literally.

Similarly, the way we power our potato chip plants is increasingly sustainable. We have solar panels built onto the roof in Salem. When it was built, it was the largest solar array in the Pacific Northwest. We have wind turbines on one of our facilities. We offset all of our electrical purchases with wind credits. We recycle all of our waste chip oil to bio-diesel. It’s built right into the business and these are practices we would do regardless of whether we talk about it. We have a very high threshold for what we will choose to announce and that’s press-worthy. Sustainability is built into this work and we certainly don’t want to be accused of green washing. That’s the last thing we want to see happen, because this is a commitment to the way we run our business—it’s not initiative lead.

GG: Other than treating “green” as business as usual, how do you rise above green washing by others in the industry?
MPH: Authenticity is what you should focus on. Authenticity is paramount to our brand and it should be to any brand. It’s at the root of everything that we do. Authenticity, if you do it right, comes through in any marketing program that you do, social media or otherwise. What that means—speaking back to the standard that we hold for ourselves—is that we want to talk about things from the standpoint of investing in the marketplace first, as opposed to overloading our fan base with every single thing that we do.

Social media is a form where you can introduce some of the smaller things that you’re doing. Such as, “Kettle Foods just learned how to improve our waste water impact by 5 percent!” There might be people out there who want to know that. It’s not something we would tell national press about, because that would smack of green washing. But for the dedicated fan base who are interested in hearing about that, social media is a fantastic forum to discuss things along these lines.

GG: Does that provide an amount of leverage against the competition?
MPH: Kettle isn’t about “going green”—it’s about doing business in a sustainable way. From my standpoint, corporate sustainability needs to be part of core business principles, not just a marketing initiative. We go up against the competition by making fantastic, tasty and all-natural potato chips. That’s how we compete in the marketplace. We wouldn’t bring our sustainability story as a tactic to compete, necessarily. We would also never go out and say, we’re doing something better than someone else. We cut our own path. We do this work because it’s the way we run our business. If people want to make comparisons, that’s for them to do, but that’s not the way we run our program.

GG: How would you advise a business to engage consumers in social media?
MPH: Well, we’re still learning. We hope that in the future we’ll be able to share some of the things that we’ve been able to do and use it as a platform for people to think about a new way of communicating—not only their core business composition, but also communicating their environmental impact. I should also note here that Kettle Brand isn’t necessarily an advocacy brand. Sustainability is a part of our overall philosophy and core principles, in addition to great taste and being all-natural. Again, it’s not initiative lead. In engaging people through social media, it’s been our experience—and it’s a limited experience—that this has been a transition between traditional marketing and this new space, and we’re trying to do it really well. I would say the success that we’ve had is connected to the product that we make.

Specifically, we had a social media campaign on Facebook when we launched a product in 2008 called Death Valley Chipotle. Just to give you a little background, Death Valley Chipotle was selected as the brand to launch for Kettle Foods in 2008 as a result of our People’s Choice Campaign. The People’s Choice Campaign is a traditional online campaign. People had to come to our website and select a flavor from a list of five that we were thinking about and Kettle Foods went on to make the winner.

With the Death Valley Chipotle launch last year, we also had a Facebook application where people there could download a thermometer. We had a contest through Facebook, where once the temperature in Death Valley National Park reached 120 degrees, people could enter a sweepstakes to win chips for an entire year. What that required was going to that Facebook application everyday to see if the temperature had reached 120 degrees. We had approximately 15,000 people download that application. That event was also a fundraiser for the Death Valley National Park’s Death Valley ROCKS program, and we raised $5,000 for them in two weeks.

Death Valley Chipotle then went on to be released in the more traditional manner—with a press release, etc. What social media added was a buzz factor. The benefit of that is having a conversation directly with your consumer base. We didn’t need to wait or go through the traditional media channels—where you have to appeal to an editor and a writer and they have to decide to write about it. Going to the consumer directly has an advantage in that it’s very efficient from a time standpoint and a cost standpoint. The challenge in that is to come up with something creative enough to capture the mind share that’s available. There’s a lot of competition for eyeballs and for time. Your program has to be something that is really compelling.

Michelle Peterman Hunt is a speaker the GoGreen ‘09 Conference, October 7th, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. To hear more from Peterman Hunt and our other 40+ eco-visionary speakers on embedding your business with a sustainable commitment , register today at www.gogreenpdx.com/registration. Tickets are $175 per person or $150 per person for groups of two or more.

For more information about Kettle Brand Foods, please visit: http://www.kettlefoods.com/

To get the latest Go Green ‘09 news, green news and innovative ideas join us on Facebook (Go Green Conference) + Twitter (@gogreenpdx)!

The Green Line Series: Anne Weaver, Elephants Delicatessen

Anne Weaver has been a Portland business owner for 30 years. In that time, she’s pushed the home-grown Elephants Delicatessen to soaring heights as an exemplary sustainable business. With four locations, Elephants is dishing their hand-made green menu to a grateful crowd of eco-minded citizens and picking up some sustainable bling along the way. In this episode of The Green Line Series, Weaver details the advantages and challenges of being a small business with a deep commitment to sustainability, points out the importance of engaging your employees and community, and reminds us that the little things add up to big results.

GG: You’re a small business owner. In what ways does working on a smaller scale help you achieve sustainability faster than a big corporation?
AW: One great thing about being a small business like Elephants Delicatessen is that there aren’t too many layers between the people who make our fresh foods every day and those who run the company. In a large corporation it could take quite an effort for one employee to be heard, but here at Elephants everyone from the top down is interacting with all of our employees daily. This is especially important for our managers because they very quickly can let upper management know when someone has a suggestion or a great idea. Sometimes something as simple as a tiny tweak in our kitchen can equal huge returns in terms of sustainability.

We also have a Green Team that is made up of employees from all levels and departments. These team members become ambassadors of our company’s message and help spread the word throughout the company. Because we’re small, our staff pretty well knows each other by name. That is really important for us. We’re not a business where everyone sits at a computer and reads company emails. We’re working together, face to face, every day, and that means we don’t have too much of a delay from suggestion to implementation.

GG: On the flip side, what are some road blocks to being sustainable that you’ve run into as a small business? How have you overcome them?
AW: Elephants Delicatessen is in a unique position in that we are not too small, but we’re not the big dogs either. If you’re a paper supplier and Starbucks wants a certain type of compostable cup, the suppliers can’t wait to make it happen. A business of our size can ask, but at the end of the day, the bigger account may get more attention. Instead, what we have chosen to do is work to forge strong relationships with vendors. We outline our own sustainability goals and ask them to partner with us in meeting them.

GG: How does making your food from scratch provide an advantage to Elephants in terms of keeping things green?
AW: The closer you are to your food, the more control you have over its impact on the environment. One example is reduced packaging on the front end because we buy individual ingredients such as flour, sugar and butter. Then, we use those bulk ingredients to make our own breads, cakes, cookies and pastries. Since the finished products are made fresh daily, we use minimal – if any – packaging to transport foods to our retail stores. These simple steps save a lot of unwanted waste.

GG: What are some of the most important, most impactful components of your business that help you be more sustainable (recycling, power conservation, etc.)
AW: In the food business, composting is huge. It sounds like such a small thing, everyone’s doing it in their backyard, right? Well, when you produce the volume of food that we do, every day, it adds up to a lot of waste. We have compost bins throughout our kitchens, and we train staff about what food waste can go into those bins.

Energy conservation is another huge opportunity for us. Through PGE’s Clean and Green program, the electricity used to power our entire operation is generated from wind farms in Oregon and Washington. We also purchase high efficiency food service equipment through Energy Trust of Oregon, and energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs from Pacific Lighting.

GG: How viable is purchasing wind power for small businesses? Is it affordable?
AW: As we mentioned, we participate in PGE’s Clean and Green program. That means 100 percent of our power is generated from a renewable source – wind farms in Oregon and Washington. One challenge small businesses can face is determining how to make the switch to wind power when you are one tenant in a large building. We fought that fight, and we’re proud we did. We think it helps raise awareness for everyone involved.

Wind power was more expensive when we first signed up, but we assumed power rates would rise in general. We were right, and we are proud to have been among the first local businesses to pursue wind power.

GG: Has being an award-winning sustainable business helped your bottom line?
AW: We think so. We think our customers appreciate our efforts. It certainly means that we have to put some energy into rethinking things at times, but ultimately, being sustainable isn’t a cause we’re into – it’s simply our business standard.

GG: Going green is sometimes an overwhelming concept. Do you have to go big to go green?
AW: It certainly can be overwhelming. We have a Green Team committee that meets weekly to discuss our sustainability efforts. We can spend weeks debating the merits of one type of green packaging versus another. Ultimately, starting with a few small things can really get a team moving, though. Start with the closet full of cleaners. Do a little research and find more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Then, train your staff to use them appropriately. Before you know it, everyone in your company starts to think in the green mindset. Then, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect your employees to start coming forward with their own suggestions. We have absolutely taken advantage of how easily we are able to make changes because of our smaller size.

GG: Do all the little things—things that businesses can add in stages—add up to dramatic changes?
AW: Absolutely. We did not start out doing all of this at once, and I’m pretty sure we’ll always have more to do. We bought an efficient machine to clean our Central Kitchen floors. It uses significantly less water and cleaning solution than traditional mopping. That may sound like a small thing, but when you think about how we clean that 10,000-square-foot kitchen 365 days a year, that adds up to a lot of savings.

GG: How did you get started making these choices?
AW: Since opening 30 years ago, Elephants Delicatessen has aimed to be a green company. Our business took off the same time as the major green movement in our area. It was a perfect match, just making sense that our business follows the regional green motto. We have made it a point to include thinking green into our decisions as business has grown. When we need a new appliance, we choose Energy Star. When we need new packaging, we research recyclable or compostable materials. As delivery business grew, we sought out alternative fuels and ways to reduce vehicle emissions on the road. Our next step is to deliver by bike. It seems there is always a way to improve.

GG: How do you recommend other small business owners get started down a path to sustainability?
AW: Start taking action immediately. Small, simple steps will lead to bigger ones. Open the closet and check out the chemicals used in your business. Put out recycle tubs. Take away the paper cups near the water cooler and coffee pot and ask employees to use their own, reusable cups and mugs.

Companies must invest in bringing their employees on board. Think of it as a group effort. Training and spreading the word through the company has a trickle-down effect. Eventually everyone from your vendors to your clients will see your efforts.

GG: Why is it so important for America’s small business owners to get on the sustainable side of the green line? What is their impact on the greater whole?
AW: Being green is the new business standard. Small businesses have the advantage of being close to their customers, and customers are more and more savvy about what it means to be a green business. We have to make sure our community knows we care about sustainability, and once customers are able to see a business’ efforts, we believe they’ll respond with return business. Small businesses making sustainable efforts puts pressure on larger businesses to take action. It proves that it doesn’t have to take deep pockets, just a genuine effort.

Anne Weaver is a speaker the GoGreen ‘09 Conference, October 7th, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. To hear more from Weaver and our other 40+ eco-visionary speakers on embedding your business with a sustainable commitment , register today at www.gogreenpdx.com/registration to get our early bird rate of $150 per person or $125 for groups of two or more (rates good through September 1, 2009.

For more information about Anne Weaver and Elephants Delicatessen, please visit: http://www.elephantsdeli.com

To get the latest Go Green ‘09 news, green news and innovative ideas join us on Facebook (Go Green Conference) + Twitter (@gogreenpdx)!

The Green Line Series: Pat Reiten + Powering Future Generations At Prices We Can All Afford

Being the head of one of the largest power providers in the Western United States is no easy task. On one hand, you’ve got to keep access to power affordable for industry and the general population. On the other, sustainable sources for our electricity are urgently needed both from a resource scarcity standpoint and from an environmental one.

Enter in Pat Reiten—with one eye fixed firmly on the bottom line and the other on the green line, Reiten is steering Pacific Power to a sustainable future that everyone can afford—Mother Earth included. By investing in various existing sustainable technologies, such as wind, solar and geothermal, and also in new innovations, such as industrial scale, super-efficient battery cell technology, we’re well on our way to a sustainably powered eco-community.

In this issue of The Green Line Series, Reiten speaks with the Go Green Team about the transition to sustainable energy resources, where we’re headed and why voluntary public commitment to sustainability is crucial to achieving benchmarks for environmental well being.

GG: Power usage accounts for a huge amount of energy used in the United States; we’re wondering what Pacific Power is doing to transition from the limited resources of fossil fuels and into greener, renewable energy sources?

PR: Good question and the answer is: quite a lot. It’s important to understand from the get-go that PacifiCorp and Pacific Power are a part of Mid-American Holdings Company, which grew out of a pioneering geothermal power company (California Energy), so we’ve been in this space for a long time and still lead most of the utility world in terms of ownership of geothermal capacity—and are continuing to look there. But our most significant recent movement and leadership come from wind.

At the time Scottish Power sold PacifiCorp, and Mid-American Holdings Company purchased it, the company owned about 32.5 MW of wind capacity, including part of the Foot Creek Wind Project in East Wyoming. Today, we’ve added over 800 MW of renewable generation and most of that is wind and will end up in 2009 adding over 1300 MW on both a built and a purchased basis. That’s a huge investment in a short amount of time. It’s over $2 billion invested in just wind.

We’re also making investments in transition in order to create additional capacity to serve our customers with wind as well as facilitate additional wind development in the West. That transmission investment aims to add, over the next seven or eight years, 2000 line miles and cost $6.1 billion.

But the most objective measure, about how far we’ve come as a company, was reflected in last year’s American Wind Energy Association statistics that cited MidAmerican Holdings Company as the number one utility wind owner in the country. And we have some other things happening too. We continue to partner with the Energy Trust of Oregon, which administers Oregon’s Public Purpose Fund (three percent of large utilities gross revenues go into this fund), in order to spend that fund in a way that benefits our customers through energy efficiency and renewable investments. We are fully compliant with the State’s renewable portfolio requirements and will continue to do so, and will definitely be operating with 25 percent of our output coming from renewable energy sources by the year 2025.

GG: Are you mainly counting on wind to fulfill that goal? Or are the other new encouraging technologies coming onto the market?

PR: We’re pursuing all sort of different resources. For instance, we’re the largest purchaser of biomass output in the State of Oregon. We have geothermal resources in our portfolio in addition to wind. I heard a great phrase the other day: “It’s not about silver bullets, it’s about silver buck shots.” You’ve got to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket.

So while the largest commercial opportunity for us right now to purchase renewable energy lie in wind, we have to back that up. For when the wind doesn’t blow, we’ve compensated by adding two new combustion gas plants. We can also pair wind with utility scale storage batteries, which would be a big leap forward in terms of finding a clean, non-emitting way to use intermittent resources like wind or solar.

GG: Let’s talk about consumer engagement and programs in place to push consumers and the market towards more renewable energy sources.

PR: We’re really proud of our Blue Sky program. That program allows customers to optionally pay a bit more on their bills in order to support renewable energy development. Then we use those additional revenues to purchase additional credits or certificates from small scale renewable energy development programs and match it with the consumption of each particular customer. We’re providing a direct incentive to those energy project developers to keep growing and we’re encouraging consumers who want to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s a great match. Also, as part of that program, we have a habitat option, which allows customers to also create funding for habitat restoration, working in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy.

GG: Are these programs popular? Are they working?

PR: Absolutely. Something special is happening here. Our program was the Utility Green Marketing Program of the year in 2007, as recognized by the federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Department of Energy. We’re currently third in the country in the amount of energy put out and the number of customers participating. The EPA has a designation called “Green Community Partners” and they designated 24 cities around the country as those Green Community Partners. Twelve of those, so half, are in the PacifiCorp service territory and eight more are in the Pacific Power territory. There is clearly a real desire on behalf of our customers to voluntarily contribute to renewable energy programs and that ranges from your average single-family home customer to really big companies, such as the Portland Trail Blazers.

GG: Do you work with consumers and business to develop plans to decrease energy consumption?

PR: Absolutely. We encourage customers to engage in energy efficiency. We certainly want to provide good options for customers on that front, because not only do they reduce emissions when they employ those tactics, but they also save money. We encourage customers to look at the Pacific Power Website (www.pacificpower.net) and the Energy Trust of Oregon Website (www.energytrust.org) for options, suggestions and guidance on incentives.

That goes for businesses as well. For example, we were on the North Oregon Coast recently working with food processors and the Energy Trust of Oregon, working on ways to reduce energy use for storage. We’ve also put on numerous seminars this year, looking at more efficient motors and variable drives to air compression systems. There are just so many opportunities to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions, and of course, save money.

Building upon some industrial and commercial seminars we did earlier in the year, we’re also partnering with Energy Trust to produce 14 energy efficiency seminars this October and November, from Astoria to Klamath Falls to Pendleton to Enterprise. Right here in Portland we’re working with Mayor Adams and other politicians to develop a pilot program for on-bill financing for energy efficiency that will target 500 households in the city of Portland. We’re trying to blanket the entire state and it’s all about saving energy and saving money.

Pat Reiten is a speaker the GoGreen ‘09 Conference, October 7th, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. To hear more from Pat Reiten and our other 40+ eco-visionary speakers about how to turn your business a deep shade of green, register today at www.gogreenpdx.com/registration to get our early bird rate of $150 per person or $125 for groups of two or more (rates good through September 1, 2009.

For more information about Pat Reiten, Pacific Power and the Blue Sky Program, please visit: http://www.pacificpower.net

To get the latest Go Green ‘09 news, green news and innovative ideas join us on Facebook (Go Green Conference) + Twitter (@gogreenpdx)!

The Green Line Series: Jason Graham-Nye Saves The Planet, One gDiaper At A Time

Did you know that a typical disposable diaper takes over 500 years to decompose? And an average baby goes through around 5000 of them in a lifetime?

Yikes! Multiply that by the number of babies in the U.S. alone and the picture starts to look pretty grim–and more than a little stinky.

Thank goodness eco-entrepreneur + daddy extraordinaire, Jason Graham-Nye (Co-Founder and CEO of gDiapers) is working hard to send a breath of fresh air through the diaper industry. And Mums + Dads (and babies too!) are thankful for gDiapers’ stylish and sustainable alternative to normal nappies. In the The Green Line Series, Jason offers his advice for creating a successful green start-up, how to develop a truly sustainable brand and how to leverage social media + brand evangelists as aces up your sleeve against the big guns.

Jason is a speaker at Go Green ‘09, an all-day sustainability conference in Portland, Oregon. Join us October 7th, 8:00am-4:30pm, at the Gerding Theater to learn how to take your business to new sustainable heights from our panel of 40+ world-renowned, eco-visionary speakers.

Go Green ‘08 sold out, so get your tickets quickly! To register, visit: http://www.gogreenpdx.com/registration.

To get the latest Go Green ‘09 news, green news and innovative ideas join us on Facebook (Go Green Conference) + Twitter (@gogreenpdx)!