by Joel Makower

Inside Newsweek’s new green corporate rankings 3

Alma Matters

Colleges and universities are learning what it takes to go green 4

Posted 3 years, 2 months ago The dawn of the new school year has brought with it a corps of fresh-faced ideas and initiatives aimed at making colleges and universities cleaner and greener. And, like any freshman class, they are all beaming with potential: Most will succeed, a handful will excel, and a few will end up disappointing their parents.

Campuses are going green -- and not just with ivy.

Photo: iStockphoto

The greening of academe is nothing new, but it seems to have taken root in a big way. Today, it's not just about doing a… Read More

Foot the Bill

Getting a toehold on your company’s climate footprint 1

Posted 3 years, 3 months ago "What's your company's climate footprint?" It's a hot question these days -- one being asked increasingly of companies by customers, investors, activists, regulators, and others.

OK, it may not be exactly that question, but it's probably in some form, like, "What's your company doing to reduce its climate impacts?" Or, "How do you call yourself environmentally responsible when you take so damn many plane trips?"

Photo: iStockphoto

Whatever the question, providing an answer will require understanding what, exactly, your company does to contribute greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And therein lies a… Read More

Supply and Da Man

Companies that green their supply chains can find savings galore 0

Posted 3 years, 4 months ago How many light bulbs does it take to change a supply chain? In the case of Baxter Healthcare Corp., just three.

When Jenni Cawein, manager of corporate environmental health and safety engineering at the Illinois-based $9.8 billion health-care giant, arrived six years ago, she saw that the company was losing ground on waste. "I asked my boss, 'Who's working with purchasing?' It turned out it was nobody," she says. Cawein set out to build a case for integrating environmental criteria into the company's procurement process.

Show them the money.

Photo: iStockphoto.

… Read More

Think Inside the Box

How a business can pick the best packaging 1

Posted 3 years, 5 months ago You've created the World's Greenest Product, and you're shipping it off to your first big customer. You've made it from the most environmentally sensitive materials, using only renewable energy. It's the pinnacle of eco-friendly everything.

Special delivery.

Photo: iStockphoto.

So what are you going to pack it in, cardboard or plastic? And how are you going to keep it safe: Styrofoam, newspaper, popcorn, peanuts, Crackerjacks?

Last month, this column reviewed the impacts of shipping by plane, train, and automobile (and ship, of course). This time we dig a little deeper,… Read More

Ship It, Ship It Good

How companies are driving down the impacts of shipping 1

Posted 3 years, 6 months ago We all know that planes, trains, and automobiles use gobs of fuel and spew mega-gobs of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere -- and that makes freight transport a particularly dirty business.

Your new iPod is in there somewhere.

Photo: iStockphoto.

The environmental impacts of shipping goods hither and yon are significant but relatively obscure, the true costs hidden amid complex shipping tariffs and product price tags. Businesses that rely on products being moved from one place to another have been able to do little to change the performance… Read More

Flush With Success

How companies are tapping the benefits of saving water 0

Posted 3 years, 7 months ago Name this critical and declining natural resource: It is pumped through pipelines and delivered by trucks. It is essential to our daily lives and to every business process and function. Its uneven distribution around the globe leads to vast chasms in countries' development and economies. Wars have been fought over it.

Water saved is a dollar earned.

Photo: iStockphoto.

If you've read the headline, you already know that the resource in question is not oil, but water. For companies, it's a liquid asset that's long been undervalued and overconsumed. The world's… Read More

Heal Thyself

Hospitals and doctors’ offices look to cure their environmental ills 3

Posted 3 years, 8 months ago The irony is almost too obvious to state: tens of thousands of hospitals, doctors' offices, medical laboratories, and assorted other health-care providers spew toxic substances into the environment, or dispose of trash containing a noxious mix of contaminated or infectious waste. Some of it will make its way into the air, water, and soil. All of it potentially endangers the health of people and other living things.

Mask not what you can do for your country.

Photo: iStockphoto.

Talk about a health-care crisis.

For years, the health-care sector -- which employs… Read More

Greening the Cube

Eco-friendly furniture meets the cubicle culture 3

Posted 3 years, 8 months ago The email query came not from you, dear reader, but from a staffer at the Mothership: "Grist is moving offices this spring, and we're looking into environmentally friendly office furniture," it read. "I've been tasked with researching some companies, and it was suggested you might be able to identify good places to look into. Any thoughts?"

Any thoughts, indeed.

A Grist staffer hard at work.

Photo: iStockphoto.

Buying eco-friendly desks, chairs, cabinets, space dividers, and other furniture is getting easier. With government agencies, universities, and corporations specifying greener products, furniture makers… Read More

Between the Sheets

Taking the wrinkles out of paper recycling 8

Posted 3 years, 9 months ago Recycling paper at your company? How's it going?

If you answered "yes" to the first question and "not so good" to the second, you're in fine company. After years of trying, an astonishing number of outfits both large and small are having trouble accomplishing this seemingly simple task. At least, that's my conclusion after talking with companies -- and hearing from Grist readers.

Same sheet, different day.

Photo: iStockphoto.

Why is paper recycling such a challenge? The answers have to do with the natural reluctance of people to change habits, with… Read More