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All Posts for ‘Tim Wirtz’ Category

21APR2010

Green is the New Baby Blue

Posted by Tim Wirtz

The following post was written by HY-brid team member and soon-to-be-mom, Rebecca Ehlers. Rebecca and her husband just completed a remodel of a room in their home, and as you will read, they took the health of the little one very seriously. Enjoy, and thanks Rebecca!

These days, you don’t have to look very hard for information about the benefits of being green at work and at home. While I have always known saving energy means saving money and increasing comfort and safety, this has never been more important to me than now – when I am preparing to be a first time mother.

Like many parents-to-be, my husband and I have a long list of things to do in preparation for our baby’s arrival. Near the top of the list is creating a nursery. For us, designing the nursery means more than just picking out paint colors; comfort and safety are just as important as the aesthetics. Truth be told, thinking green helped us address all of these factors.

Our game plan involved taking a spare bedroom and doing a complete renovation to turn it into the nursery of our dreams. This included replacing the baseboards, window and door trim, entry door, closet doors and all outlet covers. We also decided to paint the entire room, purchase new window treatments and furnish the room. The extent of our remodel involved a lot of work and a lot of decisions. Here is how we decided to work energy efficiency and sustainability into our redesign.

Comfort
Living in Wisconsin means dealing with a big swing in seasonal temperatures. While we don’t mind putting on an extra layer during the cold winter months, the last thing we want is to have a drafty room where our child sleeps. Since windows are often a source of air leaks, we took steps to eliminate these leaks. First, we removed the trim from around the windows, and before we put up new trim, we filled all the gaps around the window with foam insulation. Next, we purchased and installed shades that look nice and are also backed with insulating thermal acrylic foam for an added layer of protection.

Since outlets are another place where air often leaks in and out of homes, we looked for a way to make all of the outlets as air tight as possible. At our local home improvement store, we found insulating foam gaskets that fit behind the outlet faceplate. There are insulating gaskets to fit faceplates for light switches and for outlets. It only took about half an hour to address all of the outlets in the room.

Safety
I mentioned earlier that creating a beautiful nursery means more than just picking out paint colors, but let’s face it, that’s a pretty important part if it. We paged through magazines and played with paint swatches to find the right color, but we also spent time determining what type of paint to use.

Paint contains a number of different chemicals, which are released into the air during the painting process. In addition, off gassing, the release of chemicals into the air through evaporation, can occur months, even years after the paint has dried. This off gassing is due to the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paint. To cut down on the amount of off gassing that will occur in the nursery, we opted to use a paint that is considered low VOC. While even low VOC paints can have that familiar paint odor, we did notice fewer odors during the panting process and no odor after the paint dried compared to paints we have used in other rooms of the house.

Another area we identified as an opportunity for added safety was lighting. We already use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) throughout most of our home because of the well-known fact they use about 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and consequently reduce energy bills. What many people don’t realize is that CFLs produce about 70% less heat than standard bulbs. For us this is significant because they aren’t as hot to the touch and are less of a fire hazard. You just never know when a lamp will get knocked over or a curious toddler will touch a bulb.

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
Another part of being green is reusing and recycling. With this in mind, and a budget to stick to, we decided to reuse old furniture for the nursery. We took an old dresser that was gathering dust in the basement and a hand-me-down glider rocker, and we painted them both to match the rest of our décor. The process took less than a day and saved us hundreds of dollars. In addition, we cut down on resources needed to build new furniture, and we kept old, bulky furniture out of the local landfill.

With a little elbow grease (okay, a lot of elbow grease) my husband and I have created a gorgeous nursery, ready for the newest addition to the family. And with a little extra work, we were able to ensure the room will be comfortable and safe for our baby. The added bonus – we made choices that benefit the environment and will save money on future utility bills. It really is a win-win situation.

03MAR2010

Paul von Paumgartten Joins HY-brid

Posted by Tim Wirtz

We’re really excited to share the news that Paul von Paumgartten has joined HY-brid! He brings more than 25 years of energy efficiency, green buildings and green communications experience to the team. We couldn’t be happier that he’s here to share that knowledge with us so we can make your ‘green’ messages even more meaningful to your stakeholders.

Paul’s background includes being an original board member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). He is active in Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, and is a board member of the Wisconsin Green Building Alliance. His expertise, paired with HY-brid’s understanding of green communications makes us an attractive partner for communicating your sustainability efforts to stakeholders.

Speaking of your green messages– our EcoMapsm process helps communicate your green efforts to internal and external audiences and turn your environmental responsibility into a competitive advantage. In addition, HY-brid can help your organization identify the ways in which it is already green and provide you with the kind of vision and leadership to help your organization become greener. Paul’s addition to HY-brid allows us to not only help you communicate your efforts but also to uncover the energy and money savings opportunities in your organization.

For more information on the EcoMap process, the questions to ask before you take your message to market or, if you simply want to learn more about HY-brid, send us a message, we’d like to hear from you.

11FEB2010

State of Green Biz Recap

Posted by Tim Wirtz

A couple of us from the HY-brid team attended the Tuesday February 9th GreenBiz.com State of Green Business Forum in Chicago. Though the weather was busy dumping more than a foot of snow on the area, it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the nearly 400 people in attendance.

The Forum included some great presentations, panel discussions and opportunities to meet some of the leading experts in sustainability from companies like IBM, Johnson Controls, UPS, EBay, and the list goes on. The obvious topic of interest for HY-brid was the session titled Green Marketing in the Age of Transparency, a panel presentation that was certainly was worth its weight. We heard from the panelists (in short) that consumers are interested in green products, they are willing to pay more and they take comfort in knowing they are buying from a company who is looking out for their health and the health of the environment.

So what exactly does that mean for you? HY-brid has always counseled clients that ‘going green,’ or engaging in sustainability efforts is good business. No matter if it is about the bottom line (a huge driver by the way,) or if it’s good for the environment or both, green is ultimately a great business decision. Think about it—who from your stakeholder set would disagree with a better bottom line? A better process? A better product? I think you get the picture.

The part of the equation that seems to be missing in all of this is how the green efforts get communicated to those same stakeholders. How an organization is telling its sustainability story (or even if it is telling its story) should be addressed as part of the overall communications strategy. HY-brid addresses this in our EcoMap process, something we create with our clients to help them deliver the right sustainability messages to each stakeholder audience in their own ‘speak,’ i.e. what makes sense to them. This approach allows an organization to ensure the internal and external audiences are getting the right messages about the products and services reseach shows they are most interested in.

For more information on the EcoMap process, the questions to ask before you take your message to market or, if you simply want to learn more about HY-brid, send us a message, we would like to hear from you.

19JAN2010

Rob Watson-Sustainable Business is Vital

Posted by Tim Wirtz

Happy 2010 from all of us at HY-brid and Hoffman York. At the end of last year I started what I hope will become a longstanding series of interviews with ‘green’ thought leaders. My first conversation was with Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and we talked about his company’s approach to sustainability. What a great story!

My latest conversation is with Rob Watson. Described as “one of the best environmental minds in America,” Watson discusses his thoughts on sustainability in business, environmental responsibility and how having ‘fathered’ the one rating system that is internationally recognized is truly humbling. He also dives deep into why an organization needs to communicate its sustainability efforts. He tells me communication of these efforts is ‘vitally important’ and that telling the story is fundamental in generating impact across all industries.

As the “Father of LEED” and one of the leading experts in the international high performance green building movement, he has a two-decade track record of delivering cutting-edge green projects and programs worldwide. His new company, EcoTech International brings an unparalleled combination of green building expertise, innovation and key “cleantech” technology solutions to China, India and the United States. So, it goes without say, that business leaders should give a listen to what he has to say.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with Rob. As one of the world’s most influential environmental leaders, he offers a unique perspective on sustainability. Turns out he has the same outlook as HY-brid. I hope you enjoy listening to my conversation with him as much I did having it. Whether it’s your first steps, or if you have already begun down the path, I hope this Podcast inspires you to look more in-depth at what you are doing to address your sustainability efforts. As always, HY-brid would like to help you communicate those efforts. So give us call or send us an email, it’s why we’re here.

Subscribe to our Podcast via RSS or download the interview (m4a file) or listen below.

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

18DEC2009

‘Focus’ing on Your Home’s Energy Use

Posted by Tim Wirtz

I don’t typically write about our client work, but a new web tool we have created is in my opinion, pretty darn cool. As you’ve seen on HY-brid’s home page, we have a client, Focus on Energy, that Hoffman York has helped market for more than 8 years. As Wisconsin’s statewide energy efficiency and renewable energy resource, Focus works to educate residents and businesses about the benefits of using less energy and being smarter when they’re using it.

A really exciting new tool we’ve just launched with Focus is a website for the new Live Efficiently with Focus home assessment tool. It‘s meant to help homeowners interested in energy efficiency, but don’t know where to start. It’s also designed for those who’ve made a few changes, but aren’t sure what to do next. In our time working with Focus, both of our organizations have come to realize many Wisconsinites (and this of course extends to homeowners everywhere) think their home is energy efficient, but aren’t exactly sure how efficiently they’re living. This tool might help them determine where small or large improvements can be made.

Choosing the style of home you have

Live Efficiently with Focus takes you through a series of questions about your home, the products in it, your energy supply and how you are using energy within your home. All the while the tool is keeping tabs on your answers. The result is an assessment of your home and your energy lifestyle. Pretty cool stuff.

After questions are answered, there are results and reporting features that help to get the user started. Tips and solutions are offered along the way. A user can even choose to create an account and or email their report to a consultant if they want to take the next step.

Thank you and results page

Your answers in a tally

In the end, this is a residential tool but remember the bigger story here is that becoming more energy efficient is a lifestyle change. HY-brid helps businesses communicate their sustainability efforts but no matter how many hours are put in at the office, we all go home and use our TV’s, appliances and other household energy users. My hope is you take a walk through the site (for those not in Wisconsin, when you get to the county and city section, enter Milwaukee for both) and learn a bit about yourself and how you are consuming energy within your home. What you learn may surprise you. Take what you learn back to the office. Who knows, it may just spark some more efficiency practices in your building.

If you want to find out how you can assess your sustainability practices, or, if you simply want to learn more about Hoffman York and HY-brid, send us a message, we would like to hear from you.

11NOV2009

Ray Anderson on Sustainability

Posted by Tim Wirtz

In my last post, I wrote about sustainability and how it is being weaved into the moral fiber of business today. I also touched on the fact that companies may be addressing sustainability now if, for no other reason than to say they have a stance on the environment.

People close enough to the environmental movement within business know that’s not a very strong reason on its own. So for those who want to know more about the benefits of addressing sustainability, I thought I would ask someone who has been pioneering this area to explain it for us. Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and author of the new book, “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist” shared his thoughts with me recently and now you too can learn from Ray why a business should invest in sustainability—NOW.

Our conversation touches on everything from the path to sustainability for Interface, Inc., to what inspired Ray’s taking of the company down a sustainability path. Finally, Ray talks about the benefits of sustainability, the fact any business can and should do it and the importance of communicating sustainability efforts to internal and external audiences.

It enjoyed the opportunity to talk with one of the world’s most influential environmental business leaders and get his perspective on sustainability. Turns out he has the same outlook as HY-brid. I hope you enjoy listening to my conversation with Ray as much I did having it. Whether it’s your first steps, or if you have already begun down the path, I hope this Podcast inspires you to look more in-depth at what you are doing to address your sustainability efforts. As always, HY-brid would like to help you communicate those efforts. So give us call or send us an email, it’s why we’re here.

For more information on Ray, I encourage you to go to www.rayanderson.com.

Subscribe to our Podcast via RSS or download the interview (m4a file for iTunes users) or download the interview (mp3 file for non-iTunes users)or listen below.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

11OCT2009

Eco-labeling Phenomena

Posted by Marlaina Quintana

HY-brid recently spoke at an eco-labeling summit that was part of the 2009 Biopolymers Symposium in Chicago. (We were invited through the blog!). The purpose of the summit was to address the confusion around the eco-label phenomena and how companies can navigate through the many labels available to them.

Recent reports suggest there are as many as 400 eco-labels globally. Couple that with the fact they are available across multiple products and process categories, and it becomes clear, this navigational exercise was no small task for a 30-minute presentation to say the least.

As environmental marketers, we approached the presentation by outlining four key questions an organization needs to answer before securing an eco-label(s). Keep in mind these questions should be asked and answered no matter what industry you are in.

  1. Do you know what a sustainability platform is and if so do you have one? If you answered no to one or both of these questions, you need to take a step back and determine your organizations sustainability messages before securing eco-label(s).
  2. What types of eco-labels or certifications are your stakeholders/customers demanding of you? Ask or survey those in your industry to ensure that the label or labels you want to secure are relevant and merchandisable to your various audiences.
  3. Do you need an eco-label to convey your sustainability message? Remember that an eco-label is not enough. Simply slapping one (or many) on your product doesn’t necessarily make it meaningful to your customers. You have to communicate the message behind the label to make it relevant. To that end, do you need a label to do this, or can you accomplish your goals without one. Remember also that if you need to work too hard to make a business case for a label, then it is most likely not worth the time of the financial investment.
  4. If you have secured a label or labels, can you sustain the one(s) you choose? This question addresses whether or not you can financially sustain as well as maintain the standards associated with the label on an ongoing basis.

At the Summit, HY-brid presented with some of the foremost leaders in their respective eco-label categories including UL Environment, Green Seal, GreenGuard, and Scientific Certification Systems. There was certainly a consensus among the group that the need for harmonization with the various labels needs to happen. What also became very clear is that there is still no real direction as to how that harmonization will, if ever, occur.

Have an eco-label and don’t know how to properly communicate it, or are you interested in securing one and marketing it? Send us a message we would like to hear from you.

16SEP2009

Sustainability and the moral fiber of business

Posted by Tim Wirtz

There is a fine line between doing what you say you will do and just saying what you will do. A perfect example is the push today for sustainable business practices. Companies are looking for a clear path to sustainability if, for no other reason than to say they have a stance on the environment. Though not a good reason on its own for a company to invest the time and money in sustainability practices, it is at least a start. More on that in a bit.

Before I talk about what is going on today, let’s step back fifteen or twenty years, when a business addressed its impact on the environment very differently, if at all. In very general terms, there was little pressure from the government to conduct sustainable business practices. Supply chain pressure was non-existent and for the most part, environmental practices were being led by only the largest of corporations. And even then, it wasn’t as much about the betterment of the environment as it was about the bottom line.

Fast forward to today, where government is playing an increasing role globally and supply chains and stakeholders are asking for updates on how a company is addressing sustainability. Though bottom line still plays a very integral role in sustainability, it’s not just the bottom line anymore. Today, having a stance on the environment is a good start but it is just that—a start. The next step is implementing those environmental promises into everyday practice. A business that builds itself with sustainability in mind every step of the way is a truly sustainable company.

Which leads me all the way back to my original statement about how doing what you say and saying what you do differ greatly. In the 80’s and 90’s a lot of companies were saying what they would do but doing very little of what they said. That sentiment is changing in today’s business practices. I would like to think it has as much (or more) to do with sustainability being embedded in the moral fiber of business owners, stakeholders and shareholders, than with outside groups forcing its hand. However we got to where we are today, the business world has changed greatly and it’s exciting to be a part of it all.

In my next blog I will address why companies are looking for a clear path to sustainability.  For now, if you want to find out how you can assess your sustainability practices, or if you simply want to learn more about HY-brid, send us a message, we would like to hear from you.

25AUG2009

Should you market your sustainability efforts?

Posted by Tim Wirtz

It’s not always about how you market your business. It’s just as important to look at why you should be marketing it. And the issue of marketing your sustainability platform is a great example. Every organization is facing new energy challenges as the world shifts toward a more eco-conscious means of doing business, and the questions about your stance on the environment are being heard from all stakeholder levels. The increased political and societal pressure to curb carbon emissions and produce a meaningful message is inevitable. At this point, it would be detrimental for a company not to have a message created for how it plans to address the environment.

But how is the stance a business takes on the environment marketable? Should it be marketable? That depends on how it is approached. Never has there been more pressure for companies of all sizes to address sustainability. But doing so can’t happen without first understanding the “green” aspects of the business. A shotgun approach could lead to unnecessary expenditures and ultimately a “greenwashing” tag.

In previous posts and in those to follow, we have and will address how a business must look at what it has done to reduce its environmental impact. There are a number of ways organizations can collect that data- an energy audit is just one example. Once that information has been gathered, HY-brid works to help understand what makes sense from a communications standpoint for each of the stakeholders. The EcoMap (as we call it) process builds a message map for businesses to tie their environmental message into the overall corporate mission.

Once this map has been assembled, the sustainability message can be written. It is also at this point a company can determine exactly how much it wants to market what it has done. From the mapping process, a company can also learn how far it has to go to get to a sustainability message it wants to disseminate.

For more information on the EcoMap process, the questions to ask before you take your message to market or, if you simply want to learn more about HY-brid, send us a message, we would like to hear from you

18AUG2009

Stakeholders and your sustainability efforts.

Posted by Tim Wirtz

Cap and trade, energy efficiency, LEED buildings and renewable energy for business. All terms your audiences or customers are hearing and becoming very familiar with. With all the buzz around “green,” how you address your position on the environment is increasingly important. Your sustainability platform must project your environmental message across all audiences, internal and external. One segment taking increasing notice of green is the stakeholder- a somewhat loose term that envelops those from among others, the dealer/retailer audience to the supply chain, to those who own stock in a company.

A key reason for putting your sustainability platform in front of stakeholders is to keep them informed of how the company is addressing the rising number of environmental issues facing businesses of all types. With such a wide audience range, what makes sense from a sustainability perspective to one must also be pertinent to each of the others. That’s not to say that what you are saying to each gets communicated the same. What I do mean is that your platform remains the same but the terms and messages need to be communicated in a way that the audience sees the “what’s in it for me” has been met.

For instance, you may have three green certifications that make your product or service more sellable. To the dealer/retailer the certifications make sense in helping how they package that product and where in their store it is positioned. It also gives them an opportunity to promote their business as eco-friendly. That’s what’s in it for them.

To a stockholder, the fact you have three green certifications means something very different. An immediate question might be– are those labels going to help the price of the stock rise? The answer is maybe, but at the end of the day, what matters to this audience is a more global approach to your sustainability platform. The fact you have one may be enough to make them want to invest in you. If stock prices rise, that investor does better. That’s what’s in it for them.

Clearly there are many within your stakeholder audiences that are looking to work with and purchase stock in organizations with a solid environmental platform. This is another subset of your audience set and it too needs a message that makes sense. We will address this in a follow up post.

All of these examples are addressed in what HY-brid calls an EcoMapsm. If you’ve been following me you know I have blogged about it before. It’s our way of helping clients understand how to put their environmental platform together—what audiences they have, what messages make sense to each of those audiences and how the platform ladders up to the overall corporate mission.

Have stakeholders asking what you are doing to address the environment? Have an environmental message and just don’t know how to put all the pieces together? The EcoMap is one way HY-brid can help. Questions on what your next steps are in navigating this issue? Let us know, it’s why we’re here.

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