5 Things Business can do for the Environment

5 Things Business Can Do For The Environment
Copyright 2007 - Jennifer Britton, All Rights Reserved

To keep the momentum alive on environmental issues, today’s post includes 5 things businesses can do for the environment:

1. Evaluate your recycling practices within the office: What does your office recycle? Ink Toner Cartridges? Paper? Bottles? Cans? What else can you do to enhance your recycling processes in your office?

2. Review your air travel usage. Are face to face meetings always necessary? Could technology be leveraged to reduce your staff travel schedule? Some ideas to consider are leverage teleconferencing, as well as webinars. Could face to face retreat work be replaced by virtual retreats?

3. Replace incandescent light bulbs with more energy efficient low wattage florescent bulbs. This week the Government of Canada has announced that within the next five years consumers will no longer be able to purchase the regular Thomas Edison style lightbulbs. Wherever possible turn off lights in rooms that are not being used -- for example, conference rooms.

4. Look to reduce product packaging: Despite the efforts by many companies to move to less bulky product packaging, many products still remain over packaged. How can your company reduce product packaging or make the packaging itself a non-disposible item?

5. Provide workers with incentives to car pool, bike or use public transit. Here in Toronto, the average commuter travels over 1.5 hours a day – imagine that time spent commuting multiplied over a business year. How can your business support your staff in taking healthier, and less stressful ways to work?

Which of these ideas could your business consider implementing? What other ideas do you have for business to do their part for the environment. I'd love to hear your thoughts - please feel free to comment below.

With best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized ~ Group Coaching Essentials
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960

Jennifer Britton is the founder of Potentials Realized, a Canadian based performance improvement company, offering coaching, training and consulting services. A former global manager with international organizations and the UN, Jennifer worked on environmental and capacity building programs. She has a Masters in Environmental Studies and has worked on biodiversity, climate change, and sea turtle research programs throughout the Caribbean.

What's Your Ecological Footprint?

In celebration of Earth Day yesterday, and what I usually make a "green" week, I wanted to share with you an interesting link out of Australia which looks at an individual's Ecological Footprint. Imagine that each one of us, or our business, leaves it's own stamp on the planet through our use of electricity, water, and other natural resources. This is called your ecological footprint.

How big do you think your ecological footprint is? How big is your business ecological footprint?

Take this fun online assessment here to figure out how big is your ecological footprint:
www.powerhousemuseum.com/education/ecologic/bigfoot/mid/

What is one thing you can do this week, as a professional or a business to reduce your ecological footprint? It may be as simple as changing a lightbulb to the lower wattage florescent type, or taking the stairs instead of an elevator, or walking to the store instead of driving. It may also be as big as looking at your company's travel policy and seeing how in-person air trips can be replaced through virtual meetings.

As someone who completed their Masters in Envrionmental Studies, I have to say it is encouraging to see more of a focus in the media on the environment these days. Does it reflect your concerns and action? Your business' concerns and action?

I'd love to hear your thoughts -- feel free to comment below.

Have a green week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, CPCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

Go Put Your Strengths To Work

Back in October of last year, I wrote a post on Leveraging Your Strengths. Late last year Marcus Buckingham published his newest book -- Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance.

For those of you who subscribe to an approach where strengths are are leveraged in the workplace and business, rather than weaknesses being put under the microscope, this is a must read. It's a great book for anyone in management and the field of learning and development. I used the Now, Discover Your Strengths process several years ago when I was starting my business and found the book and related assessment invaluable.

If you haven't checked out his earlier books, Now, Discover Your Strengths (2001) and First, Break All the Rules (2000), you may want to check these out as well.

I've put Go Put Your Strengths to Work and Now, Discover Your Strengths in my Amazon Associate bookstore (http://astore.amazon.com/yourbalancedlife-20) -- here's the link to these books and some other great business and management reads.

Enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, CPCC, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

Recharging Your Batteries

Recharging Your Batteries

Many of us are starting to wind down for the Easter long weekend -- where most offices will be closed for the next three or four days. Are you going to take advantage of this time to recharge your batteries? Ask yourself, where is your energy level right now?

In speaking with a number of associates and clients over the last few days, I realize that many of us, myself included, have been running on full-tilt since the start of the new year. Energy stocks are lower than usual. What will you be doing this weekend to recharge?

Long weekends are a wonderful time to reconnect with family and those things most important to us. It's also a great time to get things done around the house -- things that may have been hanging over our head, sapping our energy. It's also a great time to reflect back on your accomplishments, and spend time setting out some goals for the next few months. What do you want to have accomplished by summer?

If you aren't going to be recharging this weekend, I hope that you will consider joining me on Saturday May 5th for the Your Balanced Life! Virtual Retreat. From 10 - 4 pm (EST) that day, we will be spending the day retreating virtually from our own homes, reconnecting with those things most important in our lives. We "meet" hourly by phone, connecting for about 20 minutes to undertake a group exercise, and then spend the remaining part of the hour retreating individually at our own locations offline, doing some individual inner work.

I hold these virtual retreats every quarter and participants have joined me from around the world. I'd love to have you join me on May 5th, whether you are recharging this weekend or not. Early bird special pricing is in effect for a few more weeks.

Have a wonderful, restful long weekend!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, CPCC
Potentials Realized
Toll Free: 1-866-217-1960
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com

Are you an intrapreneur?

Are you an intrapreneur?

The term intrapreneur is becoming more mainstream these days as many larger companies are looking to leverage the skills and strengths Intrapreneurs have to offer. Rubbermaid, 3M, and HP are all known for fostering an intrapreneurial climate.

The term Intrapreneur was first coined in the late 1970s, by husband and wife team, Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot, while undertaking studies at the School for Entrepreneurs in Tarrytown, New York. Originally coined Intra-corporate entrepreneur, the term Intrapreneur evolved throughout the 1980s, being added to the American Heritage Dictonary of the English Language (3rd Ed) in 1992.

An intrapreneur can be defined as:
"in-tra-pre-neur (In¹tre-pre-nur) n. A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation [intra(corporate) + (ENTRE)PRENEUR.] -inftrapre-nouri-al adj. -intra-pre-neuri-al-ism n. -in'trapre-neuri-al-ly adv. (American Hertigage Dictonary of The English Lanugage, 3rd Edition).

Intrpreneurs exhibit certain characteristics in the work place namely:
* Risk taking
* Innovation

Many writers liken intrapreneurs to the corporate world, as entrepreneurs to the small business sector.

These ideas have led to offshoots of intrapreneurs in a range of sectors - ecopreneurs who work for environmental sustainability through the introduction of green technology, intrapreneurs in the governmental sector and many others.

If you'd like more infromation on intrapreneuring, please visit Pinchot and Company and their site dedicated to Intrapreneuring.

What would it be like if your company adopted more of an intrapreneurial spirit? What would be possible?

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Email: jennifer[at]potentialsrealized[dot]com