Xmas pressie ideas, converting carnivores and other news stories and fun stuff

Ed and his new car

A selection of fun stuff and interesting new stories from the last few weeks. Merry Christmas everyone!

•  Just spotted that Oxfam’s ethical collection has a 50% off sale in case anyone is looking for last minute pressies… http://bit.ly/t5IGmE. Also love Oxfam Unwrapped http://bit.ly/rGV0e7 & Save the Children’s Wishlist http://bit.ly/sSPfYg for planet & people friendly pressies. And, in a shamless plug, Climb the Green Ladder makes an EXCELLENT gift of course ;o)
•  Hooray! Sales of ‘ethical’ goods & services – from produce to transport & funerals – rose by 9% says Co-op http://bit.ly/uBNaVs
•  Excited that an eco-conceirge service I bought for my brother-in-law’s b-day led to him saving tonnes of cash & carbon! Can’t believe this car-loving carnivore now says: ‘I am now a salad munching ecocrusader in my Audi A1′ – You rock Ed – keep it up! http://bit.ly/u2qnFa
•  Giving employees targets + letting them set own schedule makes them happier but no info in the article on how it affects productivity which would have been helpful… http://bit.ly/uViQn6
•  Durban round up by Reuters:http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/11/us-climate-deal-idUSTRE7BA07F20111211
•  Heartening bbc article on why some wealthy individuals are choosing philanthropy over splashing their cashhttp://bbc.in/ue5wdG
•  Met Office warns of UK climate risks http://gu.com/p/33pgf/tf
•  Foreign investors might not be able to enter India’s retail sector after all to relief of small business owners http://thetim.es/vqRuU5 - heartening follow up to an article I blogged about last time.
• http://www.peoplefund.it = an awesome idea! A website from the RiverCottage bods where people with green projects can raise awareness and funds.

I’ll be back with another round up in 2 weeks time. Have a happy and healthy December until then!

Amy

 

News round-up – US shopping mania, India supermarket sweep and CSR reporting study

Some noteworthy news stories that caught my eye in the last week:

• The importance of good CSR reporting highlighted by Greenpeace study which shows most firms publishing major errors: http://bit.ly/ufystk
• India looks set to allow Western supermarkets to enter market to dismay of local shopkeepers http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/24/india-allow-foreign-supermarkets-stores?INTCMP=SRCH
• Jaw-dropping queques as American’s go crazy for late opening shopping – utter madness http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/nov/25/black-friday-bargain-hunters?CMP=twt_gu#/?picture=382363142&index=0
• Food waste down by 19% – hooray! But Brits still throwing about 1 in 5 bags of food away – that’s £680 worth every year http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/were-throwing-out-less-food–but-still-too-much-6262749.html
• Organic veg boxes = awesome value! Riverford veg boxes beat supermarket prices by up to 32% http://www.franchiseek.com/NewsDetail.asp?NewsID=1051

 

Bag a bargain!

Climb The Green Ladder

I’ve just noticed that our book, Climb the Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More Sustainable, is 65% off in Amazon’s summer sale - buy it for a bargain £5.94!

That’s way cheaper than I can buy it direct from my publisher – madness!

 

Find out the the secrets to successful sustainability strategies at the SHE Show

SHE Show 7 June 2011

Visit the SHE Show to hear Amy outline the key tools you can use to set your organisation on to a more successful and sustainable path while getting ahead in your career too. Find out more here.

 

Top tips on getting ahead and greening your company on Good Planet Radio

Want some top tips on how to green your company and get ahead in your career, and hear the story behind Climb the Green Ladder?

Then check out this interview with Shari and I on Good Planet Radio, which was broadcast on Thurs 15 April.

Listen now: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/planetgood/2010/04/15/climbing-the-green-ladder

Podcast summary: After conducting research with over 80 sustainability specialists Amy Fetzer and Shari Aaron have gathered the common 6 principles that all successful sustainability strategies use. These strategies are available in great detail in their new book: “Climb The Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More Sustainable”. Tune to hear about a preview of the strategies as well as Amy and Shari’s experiences and advice on how to make your company more sustainable.

 

The secrets to successful sustainability initiatives

By Amy Fetzer

If you’re feeling frustrated after Copenhagen and ‘Climategate’, take heart. Your actions can help tackle climate change while making your company – and career – stronger and more successful.

We know this because as part of the research for Climb the Green Ladder: Make Your Company and Career More Sustainable, Shari and I spoke to over 80 sustainability specialists – from organizations including Hewlett Packard, Royal Mail and the London School of Economics – who successfully changed their organizations from within.

Our research revealed that all sustainability strategies are underpinned by the same six maxims or principles which can help guarantee success – whatever your level or industry. These principles are described in much greater detail in the book, but we’ve given you a sneak preview below.

1) Get the mindset: Believe in your own power, and you can make a difference.

At the Phelps’ Group, Kristen Thomas’ idea to swap disposable dishes for reusable ones started a green tidal wave that ultimately led to her company becoming the largest private solar power installation in their area.

2) Make the business case: A business case which demonstrates how your sustainability initiative can add business value will show colleagues you’re no hemp-wearing hippie but a business savvy, strategic thinker who understands the new marketplace dynamics.

Martin Blake showed Royal Mail that tackling inefficiencies in their buildings could save £20 million a year while wiping up to 100,000 tonnes off their carbon footprint.

3) Get colleagues on your side: From using peer pressure to change behaviour to giving people the freedom to develop their own solutions, engagement is vital.

Dr Paul Toyne from Bovis Lend Lease formed sustainability action groups across the company, asking directors to recommend people to ensure top level buy in. This meant new initiatives were embraced as solutions came from within.

4) Have 2-way conversations. It’s crucial to communicate your messages effectively and that means making it real and relevant. Coral Rose persuaded fabric buyers at Walmart to use organic cotton by giving them a packet of kitty litter which was the equivalent weight of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to grow cotton for a single conventional t-shirt. The result? Wal Mart is now the largest user of organic cotton in the world.

5) Work together: From working with others in your company to competitors, customers, suppliers, NGOs and government, collaboration can reap great rewards.

For example, in Scotland, Boots has teamed up with another company to share deliveries. The initiative has save 6,000 delivery miles a week and 150,000 litres of fuel per annum – reducing costs and the company’s carbon footprint

6) Make it part of the culture. . From making an action plan to making targets personal and part of everyone’s job, the most successful organisations are those who have made sustainability an everyday part of business thinking.

Randy Boeller, from HP US, has seen how an integrated approach reaps real business rewards. Take packaging for example. The carbon footprint of getting a product to the consumer can be four times as much as processing the raw materials for that packaging. This means that a lighter, but more environmentally-intensive material could be the better choice overall, demonstrating why you have to look at sustainability at every level to make the most intelligent decisions.

 

New York book launch was a great success!

NYC launch event, 21 January

I am delighted to report that the NYC launch event, 21 of January, was very exciting and a tremendous success!

This event focused on how sustainability provides a leadership advantage for women. The conversation was led by senior level women who have made tremendous strides in spearheading effective sustainability programs. Speakers included (as pictured left to right), Eleni Reed, Director, Sustainability Strategies, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., and me, Shari Aaron, Co-Author Climb the Green Ladder, Natalia Oberti Noguera, Executive Director of NY Women Social Entrepreneurs, Tensie Whelan, President, Rainforest Alliance and Maria Figueroa Kupcu, Director, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Practice, Brunswick Group.

According to Holly Perlowitz, a senior banking professional based in the New York area, “Gathering with Shari Aaron and other women focused on sustainability was inspiring and reminded me that grassroots efforts matter and committing oneself to carrying the message can start in our homes and our places of business – but it just has to start!”

A special thanks to Double Knot for hosting such a lively event!

Amy also enjoyed speaking at the These Young Minds conference on the 26th of January and got some great feedback from the organizers. Alim Abubakre, Founder, These Young Minds, offered these complimentary words: “Amy Fetzer, is an inspiring, remarkable and unparalleled speaker. Having a personality like Amy speak at an event is what any audience needs to be fulfilled.”

Amy also was welcomed into Commerical’s offices in the UK last week to do a workshop on sustainability. Simon Graham compliments included: “Amy’s work is inspirational. We had the privilege of her presenting one of our Green Ambassador seminars and she is as great a speaker as she is an author. The audience went away with a new vision and energised to do more to Climb the Green Ladder.”

We have such a great week talking about the book and getting people’s feedback. Many thanks to those who participated in our events and we look forward to seeing more of you at other events soon!

Shari

 

New York launch and helping Gloucestershire launch their 10:10 campaign

I’m super excited that Shari’s US launch for Climb the Green Ladder is happening in New York tonight. I’m so sad I won’t be able to be there, but flying over from London for the launch didn’t seem very sustainable. I can’t wait until there is a sustainable way to cross the ocean between us! (Check out, ‘Can aviation go green?’ for an interesting article on this topic).

Here in the UK, I’ve been busy helping Gloucestershire launch their 10:10 campaign.

This kicked off at the University of Gloucestershire yesterday morning.

Forum for the Future’s Jonathon Porritt, 10:10’s Eugenie Harvey, Gloucestershire Green Guru (and Climb the Green Ladder case study) Sarah Daly and I all gave talks. The crowd included the local mayor and other business leaders, and our talks explained why they should and could take on the challenge to reduce their emissions and impacts by 10% in 2010. To find out more, check out this an article on the event here.

Jonathon Porritt

The feedback from the event so far as been hugely positive so I’m reallylooking forward to getting updates as people start toreduce their impacts.

Next, I spent a really enjoyable afternoon hosting workshops on ways to win with sustainability for local businesses in the area, going first to Ecclesiastical Insurance Group and next on to Commercial.

Sarah Daly

Both companies have made great strides in making their operations more sustainable, but it was lovely to be told that they thought the Climb the Green Ladder toolkit would help them take things to the next level.

That’s all for now folks! And keep getting in touch to let us know how you’re getting on in making your workplace more sustainable!

Amy

 

LSE Lectures have a great spring line up

LSE Sustainability in Practice lecture series continues

We were thrilled with the success of the Climb the Green Ladder lectures at the LSE in November and December. We felt very privileged to be the first two lectures in the LSE’s new Sustainability in Practice series.

This series continues this term, and the LSE Environment Team have organised a fantastic programme with speakers ranging from Jonathon Porritt to Ray Anderson and Andrew Simms.

Below is a list of the lectures.

Amy is going to many of them, so do drop her a line if you’d like to meet up to say hello afterwards.

All lectures are free and open to all, and start at 6.30pm.

14 January: ‘Positive Deviance: the only strategy left for sustainability leadership’ by Sara Parkin, Forum for the Future, at Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.

21 January: ‘Time for a New Policy Paradigm: resources, technology and human well-being’ by Professor Sir David King, University of Oxford, at Sheik Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building.

28 January: ‘New Economics’ by Andrew Simms, New Economics Forum, at Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.

2 February: ‘Delivering a Low Carbon London’ by Isabel Dedring, Environment Advisor to the Mayor of London, at Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.

4 February: ‘Climate Crunch: making the economics fit the science’ by Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the Future, at Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.

9 February: ‘Sustainable Housing: how can we save 80 percent of our energy use in existing homes?’ by Professor Anne Power, LSE Housing & Communities, at New Theatre, East Building.

18 February: !CANCELLED! ‘The Radical Industrialist’ by Ray Anderson, Interface, at New Theatre, East Building.

25 February: ‘Prosperity without Growth’ by Professor Tim Jackson, University of Surrey, at Sheik Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building.

4 March: ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ by Tony Juniper, Cambridge University Programme for Sustainable Leadership, at New Theatre, East Building.

11 March: ‘Sustainable Business Innovation’ by John Elkington, SustainAbility and Volan, at Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.

For full lecture information click here: LSE Sustainability in Practice Events, or send an email to event@lse.ac.uk. N.B: The lecture by Ray Anderson on 18 February has been cancelled.

 

Great sales, and a second LSE lecture

It’s been another exciting week for Climb the Green Ladder!

In good company in Waterstones' window

First, we were thrilled when our publisher, Wiley, told us that, despite being published for just two weeks, initial sales have been so good that they have ordered a second print run!

I was also excited to spot Climb the Green Ladder taking pride of place alongside SuperFreakonomics and Too Big to Fail in a central London Waterstones’ window display. We want to say a huge thank you to all of you who have bought the book, and please, keep your feedback coming in!

One company nearly cleaned out Wiley’s warehouse when they ordered a copy of the book for every single member of staff for Christmas. Other organisations have told us they are giving the book as a corporate gift, or that they’re interested in giving it out during green campaigns in the New Year. Do get in touch if these are ideas you’d be interested in too.

Amy Fetzer

We’ve also had hundreds of individuals sales from everyone from students and consultants to MDs, and the book has had orders from as far afield as Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong! The feedback coming in is that people are really enjoying the book and finding it helpful and inspirational – click on the links to read (or add!) reviews on Amazon or our website and keep telling us your thoughts.

We’ve also launched a new events section of our website so you can keep track of when we’re speaking near you.

Plus, we’ve updated our services page to explain a little bit more about us and what we do – when we’re not writing books that is!

Victoria Hands

The week has also ended on a high with the second Climb the Green Ladder LSE lecture.

After I introduced the Climb the Green Ladder and the six principles of successful sustainability initiatives, Dr Victoria Hands took to the stage.

Victoria, the Sustainability and Environment Manager from LSE, was one of the first people I interviewed during the research for Climb the Green Ladder. Her achievements in helping to get London universities recycling are a real example of how one person can make a difference and it was clear she left the audience inspired.

Dr Martin Blake, Royal Mail

Martin Blake is another incredible individual who shared his experiences with us during the research for Climb the Green Ladder. His achievements at helping Royal Mail become more sustainable – for example by showing them that making their buildings energy efficient could save £20 million a year – are hugely impressive. The audience appeared fascinated by his accounts of presenting the business case for sustainability and facilitating real change at Royal Mail.

It was really great to take questions, and then to meet and chat with members audience afterwards. Again, the main feedback from the event was that people really appreciated and were inspired by an approach which gave them tangible tips and examples of how they could put sustainability into practice in their working environment.

I’ll be putting some video footage of the lecture up soon – so watch this space!

Thanks again to those of you who attended, and keep your thoughts, feedback and successes coming in. We love hearing from you.

With best wishes,
Amy