Marty Grunder: The meaning of green

Marty Grunder

It’s pretty hard to go anywhere where you don’t hear companies touting themselves as “green.”

You see it at fast food restaurants, clothing stores, grocery stores, and you even see it at many of the professional sports games and arenas. We are reminded by our energy providers how important it is to save resources and we feel good driving our hybrid vehicles. There can be no denying that taking steps to avoid filling our landfills with things that can be reused and saving resources is a great thing. We’ve made much progress in this area in the last 10 years, but there still is a long way to go. As a whole, the U.S. is behind other nations in the area of recycling. Too many resources still aren’t reused. So, what does the smart green industry company do? I think you do 3 things:

1. Make “being green” part of your company’s culture.
I would argue that the green industry is the longest standing and most responsible group of companies. Oh sure, there are some real losers that use leftover chemicals and pour things down drains. But the term green industry is owned by us; we’ve been using it for years. It’s NOT new to us. So, use it, promote this fact and make “being green” part of your everyday life.

Honestly, I don’t see this as optional or difficult. I see it as the way a smart company with integrity does business. A while back, one of my friends at work asked our team to please stop placing plastic trash bags inside other plastic trash bags. I was proud to hear him fighting for something we all could agree on – saving the environment from more trash that never decomposes. How does your company handle its waste? Are your people recognized for saving resources? You show what’s important to you by communicating constantly about those items. So, get the message out to your team and your clients. Don’t let up.

2. Set a good example yourself.
I came across a landscaper a few years ago that touted everything they were doing as being “what’s best for the environment.” They had hybrid cars, embraced many recycling programs and overall did a great job in this area. They were even looking to place solar panels on the roof of their building. However, the owner’s wife secretly drove a Hummer – the full-sized one.

I really don’t care what you drive, so please don’t be upset with me. But if everything at the company speaks to one philosophy and what is done at home speaks to something else, then your efforts won’t be believable. So, you have to show by your actions that a “green initiative” is important to you. Your actions MUST support your beliefs. You need to be the most “green” person in your company.

3. Don’t get too carried away.
To me, being green is the right thing to do. Generally, people and companies that do the “right things” will find that the “right things” happen to them. It might sound funny for someone who just wrote most of a column on being green to say this, but there are a lot of things that just don’t make sense.

For example, I’d love to have an all electric fleet, but the only truck out there that I’ve come across that might work is one that Frito-Lay bought as a test for their fleet. They are more than $120,000 each and don’t have the power to handle the loads we work with at Grunder Landscaping.  It’s just not feasible or practical. Have some common sense towards this and you’ll be just fine.

Being green is the right thing to do for our world. So, set a good example. Take as many steps as you can to save resources. And remember – “being green” is what a quality-focused, winning company does. 
 

Marty Grunder is a speaker, consultant and author; he owns Grunder Landscaping Co. See www.martygrunder.com; mail
marty@gie.net.