Hoffman York and HY-brid would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday. We believe the most precious gift we can give one another is a brighter future. And we can all do that, simply by living and working a little greener. Here are 10 simple ways we can all be more environmentally friendly, during the holidays, and all year round.

1. Decorate with ENERGY STAR^® qualified LED light strings. They use up to 90% percent less energy than standard mini-lights and up to 99% less than the larger C-7 holiday lights.

2. Make your own wrapping paper. Most mainstream wrapping paper isn’t recyclable. If each home wrapped just three gifts with an old map, the newspaper or children’s artwork, we’d save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

3. Gifting electronics this season? Donate or recycle old electronics responsibly. They contain mercury and other toxins we shouldn’t put into landfills. Some sites will even pay you to recycle old electronics. For example, www.gazelle.com.

4. Replace the five most used light bulbs in your home with ENERGY STAR^® qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs and save about $150 in energy costs.

5. Use a programmable thermostat. It automatically turns down the heat when you’re asleep or away, saving up to $100 a year in heating and cooling costs.

6. Computer shopping? Choose a laptop over a desktop computer—it uses up to 90% less energy.

7. Take the stairs, not the elevator. This exercise is good for you—and it saves energy.

8. Drink tap water. You’ll save the materials and energy resources it takes to bottle and transport water. Plus, you’ll keep another plastic bottle from ending up in a landfill.

9. Fight “phantom load.” Electronics like computers, DVD players, stereos and TVs draw power, even when turned off.  Plug them into a power strip and switch it off when they aren’t in use. This combats phantom load and cuts annual energy costs.

10. Fix just one leaky faucet. You’ll save one gallon of water each day, and nearly 350 gallons of water each year.

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We knew Hoffman York drank a lot of coffee. In fact, we estimated that our Milwaukee office, alone, drank an estimated 180 pots per month. That’s what made recycling our coffee grounds such a logical move.

What we didn’t realize was how much ground coffee it takes to make 180 pots per month. Our coffee grounds receptacle filled up—fast. Faster than we could recycle the grounds. We’d talked about establishing a relationship with an organization to which we could donate our grounds–so people outside of our agency could benefit from our recycling efforts. We didn’t realize that establishing a partnership would be such an immediate need.

To the Internet!

I quickly found a thriving, eco-friendly community, right here in Milwaukee, including an entire network of community gardens. I got in touch with the folks at Milwaukee Urban Gardens who were quick to respond with a list of garden leaders who might be interested in our coffee grounds. That’s how I connected with Off the Grid Milwaukee, a self-described “family of friends” working together to make the change they want to see in the world. It sounds like they’re interested in an ongoing donation; and we’re in the process of working out the logistics.

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Another year. Another fine Irish Fest! We had beautiful weather, talented dancers and musicians and lots of great activities for kids–including Greenwish Village.

Coordinated by Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, Greenwish Village teaches kids about caring for our environment through a series of interactive booths and games. Manned by volunteers from Milwaukee organizations such as Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, Wehr Nature Center, The Department of Natural Resources and Milwaukee Recycles, kids got to learn about the emerald ash borer, recycling, energy efficiency and more. To encourage them to visit every booth, kids were given a bag with a bingo card on its side. They received a bingo marker for each booth they visited–with each valid bingo redeemable for a prize. What a great way to motivate kids to learn about the environment.

Greenwish Bingo Bag

I decided the only way to be able to responsibly report on Greenwish was to experience it for myself. Andrea, a volunteer from UPS, set me up with a bingo card, and off I went.

Light bulb panel.

When it became apparent that I was competing with kids for the activities, I decided to take a step back and let the little ones do the learning. Though the activities were intended for a younger crowd, I actually learned a lot…about composting, the ash borer, recycling. Just imagine how much the kids learned.

Learning about recycling.

Greenwish Village is an educational outreach effort that, I’m sure, will have long-lasting effects for the kids. It could also do the same for your company. If your organization believes in eco-awareness, sponsoring something like Greenwish or encouraging your employees is a great way to show your support, help non-profits like Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful get the word out and build a positive reputation for your company in the process.

According to Emily Brown, Education Program Manager for Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, Greenwish Village has been an important part of Milwaukee Irish Fest for several years now. And from the interest I saw at Irish Fest 2009, Greenwish is bound to be around for many more.

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Milwaukee Irish Fest is Thursday, August 13 through Sunday, August 16. While you’re wearin’ the green, Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful will be sharin’ the green at the Greenwish Village. Located on the south end of the grounds, Greenwish Village serves up fun games, arts and crafts—all with a green twist—environmentally speaking. Greenwish Village will be open from noon on Friday through 1 p.m. on Sunday.

What a fun way to learn about the goin’ o’ the green! I know I’ll be there, getting both my Irish and my eco on. Check back for pics and details on the Greenwish Village at Irish Fest ’09.

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It’s official. Everyone’s “gone green”. Even Journey. Yes, that’s right. The band. My niece just turned ten. On her birthday list was a copy of Journey Greatest Hits. Let’s just say you almost didn’t get to read this blog, because I just about died laughing as I purchased the CD. Why? There was a sticker on the CD case that read something like, “FIRST, THEY WENT PLATINUM. NOW, THEY’VE GONE GREEN.” I. Kid. You. Not. 

Like many consumers, I don’t want to stop believin’. But really? Really? Who do you believe anymore? 

Okay. I suppose if Journey and Sony are going to put out a physical CD, it’s admirable that they’re being environmentally conscious by using recycled paper packaging. And that because the paper package is lighter, it may slightly reduce the impacts of shipping. But I’m an idealist. I’d love for the music industry to be able to phase out CDs altogether—moving solely to mp3. The truth is, my Dad and many others like him just aren’t comfortable with the virtual format. Or, it simply isn’t accessible due to lack of web access. I get it. 

But the sticker. What is the point of this sticker? Extra resources went into the production of this sticker, which was then affixed to a “green package”. Will it motivate a consumer to choose their Greatest Hits over, say, a plastic-jewel-cased The Essential Journey? I can’t see that happening. If Journey was making other green efforts and wanted to get the word out by directing people to their website for details, the sticker would make more sense to me. That’s when I thought, “Maybe there’s more to this.” So I visited their website (and a billion other sites), thinking they might mention the packaging, and possibly efforts to minimize carbon footprint while on tour. I found nothing. So how green has Journey really gone? If it’s any further than the CD package, no one’s talking about it.

If this package is their only green effort, then the sticker oversells it. In fact, if the sticker hadn’t been on the CD, this post may have been written much differently. I’d be praising Journey for making an effort to influence other artists by taking a green step. But no. They plugged extra resources into the making of a sticker, when simply including a recycle symbol on the back of the case would have sufficed. It would’ve shown a quiet confidence. It would’ve told people, in a subtle way, that this CD is simply as green as a CD can be. That’s it. Why do we have to whack people over the heads with this? 

Lesson: There’s a delicate balance in the realm of green messaging. It’s easy to oversell it. Or to choose the wrong moment to talk about it. Or to turn it into a gimmick. Sometimes, simply putting an eco-friendly package out there says enough. In this case, I certainly would’ve welcomed a green, stickerless Journey Greatest Hits with open arms. And we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion. 

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Hoffman York’s Milwaukee office drinks a lot of coffee—an estimated 180 pots per month. Apparently, we’re not morning people. But we are conscientious people—and that’s a lot of coffee grounds to be throwing out every month. Especially since those coffee grounds would make excellent fertilizer for our gardens. So HY-brid sprung into action, establishing a Coffee Grounds Recycling Program.  

HY-brid Coffee Grounds Recycling Bin

Instead of throwing our used grounds into the trash, we place them in coffee grounds recycling bins. (To create our bins, we recycled five-gallon containers from a school cafeteria.) Our Coffee Grounds Recycling Program encourages employees to take grounds home for fertilizing their gardens and catalyzing their composts. They can either take the whole bucket home, or bring in their own reusable container.

The program has been entirely self-sustaining. Grounds are deposited as people empty the filter basket to make a new pot of coffee. Bins are emptied as employees gradually take grounds home for fertilizer.

The best part? It’s had a surprising ROI. We invested very little time and money into making the bins. Yet, our Coffee Grounds Recycling Program is having a powerful impact on our environment and employees. It’s keeping grounds out of landfills and energizing our plants. It’s spreading an interest in green. And it’s actually improved employee morale by creating an interesting sense of team.

Here are a few of the sites we visited, in the process of doing research on coffee grounds recycling.

http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/02/24/climate-for-action/

http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/soilfert/npk.htm

http://www.slate.com/id/2178595/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080707171641.htm

http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/co2_not_the_only_greenhouse_gas

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/282805/soluble_salt_damage_the_secret_killer.html?cat=32

The coffee grounds recycling bin in action! (When we're not making coffee, we usually keep the lid on.)

Establishing a Coffee Grounds Recycling Program is just one of the many no-cost/low-cost efforts a business can make to be more environmentally friendly and get its employees excited about green. And if you drink coffee like we at Hoffman York seem to, establishing a Coffee Grounds Recycling Program could be a great way to put all that caffeine to work. (Aside from the increased productivity, of course.)

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I’ve been writing about energy efficiency and renewable energy for years now. It’s something I truly believe in and it makes me feel good to write about it. Why? Because I feel like, in some small way, I’m doing my part to help save the world. I’m telling people how to be more energy efficient and I’m propelling products that will help them do that. By using less energy, they’ll create less pollution, which will collectively contribute to the health of our planet. How often can an advertising copywriter really say, “I’m saving the world?!” Exactly.

But just because I believe in green, doesn’t mean I’m made of it. Like most people, when it comes to personal energy efficiency and eco-awareness, I do what I can. I turn off lights at home, and to the frustration of some co-workers, around the office. I use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). I have a low-flow showerhead. I use a SmartStrip for my entertainment center electronics to reduce phantom load and have ENERGY STAR^® qualified appliances. I have a programmable thermostat. There’s more, but you get the point. Add it all up and I’m probably more energy efficient than the average bear, but there’s always room for improvement. No pun intended.

Something that’s been on my to-do list for quite a while is a home energy audit. Well, many, many home improvement projects later (the home is quite the fixer-upper) I finally made it happen on Earth Day ’09.

I have a 60-year-old Cape Cod. So when it came to my home’s efficiency challenges, I wanted to know—and I didn’t want to know.

I found my consultant through Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative. Tom from 5 Star Energy walked around the inside and outside of my house to get the lay of the land, and then began to set up for the test. If you’re not familiar with a home energy audit, here’s what happens:

Testing the combustion safety.

Combustion safety test – Using a continuous sampling instrument, the consultant measures CO parts per million (ppm) in the flue gases of your furnace and water heater. This makes sure your water heater and furnace are drafting properly. It they’re not, you could have dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in your home. While testing the combustion safety, your consultant will also measure the efficiency of your heating equipment.

Blower door testing equipment.

Building Air Tightness – The consultant sets up a blower door. This tool lowers the air pressure inside your home. Because the air pressure outside is now higher, air is drawn into your home through all unsealed openings. Sometimes, the consultant will use a smoke pencil to show you the leaks, but often you can actually FEEL the air rushing in or see cobwebs moving. The blower door equipment will measure your air leakage in cubic feet per minute (cfm). A home’s air leakage number should be about equal to its square footage.

Ventilation – Using a balometer, the consultant measures the volumetric flow of your kitchen and bath fans in cubic feet per minute (cfm). This ensures that they’re powerful enough to remove moisture from your home and for your room sizes.

Infrared camera showing insulation in my home's sidewalls.

Insulation – The consultant will examine the box sills in your basement and your walls and attic to determine the presence and level of existing insulation. To determine the presence and level of insulation in exterior walls, the consultant may use either an infrared camera or drill holes and use a wall probe. If necessary, you’ll receive recommendations for increasing insulation levels.

My consultant's initial notes. This is NOT the report.

After the inspection and all tests are complete, you’ll receive a detailed report of your home’s performance. The report will pinpoint exactly where your home is inefficient, and explain exactly how to fix the issues. It will also include a list of recommended contractors. These contractors have gone through training on Home Performance with ENERGY STAR^® and know the program standards; so you know the work will be done correctly.

Now that I have my home’s efficiency report, I actually feel empowered. I know my home inside and out and I have a surprisingly short list of projects to tackle. If I decide to involve contractors, I know EXACTLY what to ask for, so I won’t get talked into anything I don’t need. Plus, I’ll know they’re reputable, because my consultant has recommended them.

I can’t think of a better way to spend an Earth Day.

Energy audits can be conducted on homes and businesses. Obviously, the opportunity for savings is even greater in the commercial arena. Visit these pages within energystar.gov to find more information on having your home or business energy audited.

Oh, before you click away, I suppose you might be curious as to how my home did on the energy efficiency test. Well…

The good news is that I actually have insulation in ALL of my sidewalls; my heating equipment is drafting properly with a very safe CO ppm that’s remarkably low for the age of the equipment and state of my chimney; my windows are surprisingly tight, for being older; my attic is fairly well insulated, with just a couple of areas that need attention; and my water heater is operating at .59 energy factor—.64 is the recommendation.

The (not so) bad news is that my home’s air leakage is three times what it should be. It should match my square footage (1,200 s.f.), but it’s at 2,983. This is easily fixed—and I can do a lot of it myself.  Also, my furnace is operating at less than 80% Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE). It’s should be 90+ AFUE. No surprise. It’s 13 years old. Like anyone, I’ll replace it when I need to. 

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Clearly, I’ve been living in a cave…or working too many late nights. Has anyone seen the NBC/Universal (NBCU) “Green Is Universal” campaign? Apparently these efforts started in fall of 2007, with an entire “Green Week” dedicated to green-themed programming—with NBC’s full complement of channels in participation. Apparently, Sami and Lucas onDays of Our Lives even had a green-themed wedding. Where have I been?! 

Embarrassingly, I must admit that I first tuned in during the week of Earth Day ’09. Or, perhaps they increased their efforts to the point where it finally reached me (not a big Days fan). In any case, like little spring flowers, “Green Is Universal” ads started popping up all over…on the web, during NBC/Universal programming. Program sponsors tagged their spots with a “Green Is Universal” message. Even the Miss USA contestants got involved, sharing green testimonials. 

I thought, “Well, that’s interesting. NBC/Universal doesn’t have to do this—dedicate part of their programming (and their incredible reach) to raising green awareness. I haven’t seen any other network families doing this. That’s cool.” So, like any curious human, I Googled “Green Is Universal”…right after I checked the local weather…

That’s when I saw this ad on weather.com. 

The Weather Channel was recently purchased by NBCU. The pairing of Hummer and “Green Is Universal” was an unfortunate oversight. Soon, it was being mocked on Facebook. It was a feeding frenzy for green bloggers. I was ready to write the “Green Is Universal” campaign off as another case of greenwashing. 

And then I Googled it.   

It turns out that NBCU isn’t simply talking about green; they’re actually starting to walk it. With an organization this large, I imagine it will be fairly slow going. But hopefully baby steps will lead to bigger ones. Employees volunteered to hold several Earth Week projects in ten different cities. They’ve already made changes internally—using more recycled paper and replacing part of their fleet of cars with hybrids. The NBC Universal Foundation has even partnered with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) to fund a “Green Your School” contest, offering the winning high school a $5,000 prize. 

All very cool ideas—but who knows about it? I didn’t. And I work in advertising. I specialize in green. It took me a couple hours of digging around online to learn most of this—and it was simply to satisfy my curiosity about the “Green Is Universal” TV tags. I’ll bet the average viewer clicked right past that. And even worse than dismissing it…they may have assumed it was greenwashing. Flashy tags on the ends of commercials during the week of Earth Day—and nothing more. 

Lesson: Talking about the honest, green efforts your organization is making internally and making that information readily available will strengthen your external green communications efforts and will give you green street cred. Personally, I was more inspired by what I learned about their internal efforts than by the The More You Know Jimmy Fallon PSA—and I Iike Jimmy Fallon.

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According to Merriam-Webster Online, a hybrid can be a variety of things, including “a person whose background is a blend of two diverse cultures or traditions,” or “something (…a vehicle…) that has two different types of components performing essentially the same function.”

“hybrid.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 24 February 2009
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hybrid>

Based on that definition, what is HY-brid? 

It’s Hoffman York’s (HY) more than 75 years of traditional advertising experience blended with its growing, in-house expertise in green marketing and messaging. 

What does this mean for our clients? 

HY offers an extensive range of services, from public relations to media placement to research, in addition to a team of people—HY-brid—who understand the delicate and evolving nature of green messaging. 

What does this mean for Hoffman York? 

It’s a really exciting time. For years, we’ve been helping clients promote their environmental efforts. However, what we recently realized is that green isn’t a standard knowledge set at many other agencies. 

Ah-ha moment: Our green expertise is a unique strength. 

Now known as HY-brid, this green expertise is the foundation for a new category of services being offered to clients. Since we began communicating this expertise, the level of interest has been eye opening. Suddenly, our knowledge of green is a competitive advantage. 

Basically, we’ve done for our agency what we’re promising to help prospective clients do: Recognize the ways your organization is already green. Learn how to be greener. Communicate your honest, green efforts/strengths to internal and external audiences. Turn your environmental awareness into a competitive advantage. 

I guess you could say Hoffman York (HY) was the first, full-fledged HY-brid client.

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