leadership dot #2172: do as I say

The Griffith Observatory was filled with a multitude of exhibits that really impressed on the viewers the grandeur of the universe and our small place in it. What the Observatory did not have, however, was recycling bins. Worse than that, their cafeteria served sandwiches in bulky plastic containers, sold water in bottles and offered no capability to recycle any of it.

I come from a long line of extreme recyclers and we were all dismayed at the incongruity of their brand. We were surrounded by messages about the importance of the Earth, yet their actions were contradicting that. I thought about all the money they spent to install elaborate displays in the Observatory but failed to invest a small sum more to put into practice what they are preaching. At the very least, they could have sold water in paper containers and made a point with the novelty of them.

Never doubt that people notice the small things and take to heart more of what you do than what you say.

leadership dot #2159: used

I recently spent some time at garage sales (or tag sales as my East Coast friends like to call them). Dozens and dozens of homes had hundreds of items for sale and people were buying like crazy.

I spent a couple of bucks on some odds and ends but also bought a teak desk for $30. I was not looking for a desk, but the owner was moving and anxious to sell so I couldn’t pass up his let’s-get-rid-of-this price. (Later, the wood expert guessed it was worth several hundred dollars and she suggested that I got the bargain of the day!)

I was struck by the number of transactions that occurred and continue to be amazed at the robust market for “used.” Garage sales, Goodwill, resale shops, Craigslist, eBay, the vending machine in the mall that buys used phones, flea markets and consignment stores all contribute to the reuse of unwanted merchandise. Stores such as Books A Million now buy back used audio or paper books, and Amazon has an extensive Seller Marketplace to serve as a forum for buying/selling just about everything.

Buying something that has “had a previous owner” is good for the environment, your budget and maybe even allows you to find something that you are unable to buy otherwise (like a teak desk!). Challenge yourself to make “used” as your default option for purchasing whenever you can.

leadership dot #2137: final straw

Happy Earth Day!

Much of this year’s Earth Day focus is sure to be around plastics, especially efforts to eliminate use of the disposable plastic straw. I know that I find this challenging myself; while I always use the glass straws at home, they are inconvenient to take along for fast food and convenience store drinks.

Final Straw has solved the problem with a collapsible, reusable strawthat is about the size of a car key. It comes in a handy plastic case that fits on your keychain so it is always with you. Final Straw is working on a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to fund a November 2018 release.

Celebrate Earth Day today by pledging to leave the plastic straws alone or by making a contribution to the Final Strawidea. Either will help keep some of the 500 million straws tossed away every day from adding to our landfills and pollution.

leadership dot #2108: earth hour

How can you be part of a global environmental movement tonight between 8:30-9:30pm? By participating in Earth Hour, a grassroots movement of the World Wildlife Foundation. Each year, one hour is chosen where it is encouraged to “go dark” to stimulate conversations and actions about long-term environmental issues. Tonight’s the night!

People in over 180 countries will participate by switching off their lights for one hour (local time). The Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building and other landmarks will be dark. Earth Hour encourages you to turn off your lights as well: dine by candlelight, go stargazing, head to bed early, or sit around the fireplace.

There is always a tension between thinking BIG about long-term goals and thinking small in order to achieve those goals. Earth Hour is an attempt to straddle that line as it encourages small grassroots steps for a short period in an effort to create short-term awareness that leads to actions far beyond the Earth Hour.

You can participate directly in this environmental movement, and you can replicate the idea for other purposes. A specific action outside the norm can go a long way toward creating awareness. Being in the dark may shed the light that is necessary for change to occur.

leadership dot #2095: happy ending

Intellectually we know that if we recycle items that they are repurposed into other goods, but the process by which this happens is elusive. Several stores have added displays to make a more direct connection between recycling and its end game.

Madewell clothing promotes recycling of jeans – which are then turned into housing insulation. Their “donate your jeans program” has prominent displays in the front windows and throughout the store, making a connection between products that most people would not normally associate together.

The Eataly supermarket shows how their carts come from recycled bottles hopefully helping customers see that recycling actually does have its benefits (in addition to giving the franchise recognition for its environmental consciousness!)

Many organizations are doing good things in the area of sustainability. Follow the lead of these two businesses and connect the dots between efforts on the front end and their implications. We all like to see a happy ending to the story.

leadership dot #2080: outside

If I asked you whether you could recycle instrument strings, contact lenses, Solo cups, pasta packets, energy bar wrappers, cigarette waste, Flonase dispensers, Brita filters or GoGo Squeeze packets my guess is that you would say no. But you can!

Thanks to programs coordinated by TerraCycle, these items and many more are able to stay out of the landfills. TerraCycle is “an innovative recycling company that has become a global leader in hard-to-recycle waste.” They have multiple opportunities for consumers to recycle branded products without cost to them, just by signing up.

Take two lessons from this company:

First, just because your municipality doesn’t recycle something doesn’t mean that it isn’t recyclable. If you frequently use products in one of TerraCycle’s programs, it would be of great benefit to participate in their recycling plan.

Secondly, think of the implications for your organization. There are boutiques and specialists in many industries, but I suspect few have chosen hard-to-recycle consumer products as their niche. How can you think differently about an area in which to focus your efforts? You need not compete with the “big guys” and go head-to-head in common markets.

Think outside the landfill at home and for your organization!

leadership dot #2062: dormant

Over 60% of the worldwide population of antelopes died over the course of a few weeks, and scientists have just recently discovered the cause. In May 2015 over 200,000 antelope died suddenly – and it was not the first time for widespread deaths of this species.

Researchers have learned that it was due to blood poisoning -- triggered by bacteria that had been present in all the antelopes without consequences – until above average humidity and temperatures occurred during calving season and triggered the fatal reaction.

This has me thinking how there can be disastrous consequences that we can’t even foresee. We make assumptions based on the way things are now but have no idea how another factor may totally change the scenario. Scientists knew there were a limited number of antelopes. They knew this bacteria already lived in all of them. But who knew the warm weather would activate it and kill them all?

I think we make assumptions like that in organizations, too. Our business model is working but then 9/11 occurs. Our organization has a donor plan but then the tax law changes. Our organization is thriving – in Houston, Puerto Rico, California, et al – until Mother Nature strikes.

The antelope example illustrates that organizations need to plan – and plan for various scenarios – as well as monitor trends and conditions that could cause the driving assumptions to change.

Don’t count on the future arriving in a linear fashion.

Thanks, Meg.

leadership dot #2016: don't suck

I consider myself to be environmentally conscious, but one aspect of my impact I did not consider is my use of plastic straws. I just routinely snapped on the drink lid, peeled off the paper and inserted the straw – in almost every drink I had outside my home. Just like other Americans do, contributing to the 500 million straws destined for a life in the landfill every day.

Why?

It is one thing to do it on large drinks to go, but do you really need a straw in a glass beverage at Applebees? Or one in a paper cup that you don’t plan on taking with you? No.

I never use straws at home (except for the one that is permanently inserted in my Tervis cup), and the thought of having a dispenser or putting a straw in a glass at the dinner table seems absurd. Yet we do it routinely whenever we have a drink at restaurants, fast food, snack bars, etc.

I never paid attention to any of this until I read the great article in the Washington Post that caused me to start consciously using straws instead of mindlessly using them.
You, too, can suck a lot less if you heed their admonition to go straw-less or at least use far fewer of the environmental nightmares than you are using now. Be mindful instead of mindless for a week and see what a difference you can make.

leadership dot #1913: untagged

A rough estimate suggests that over 40 million people attend a convention or conference in the United States each year.

Of course, conferences are great for economics and vendors – not to mention tourism and travel industries. But they are a nightmare for the environment.
I think of all the lanyards and plastic nametags that have made their way into landfills as a direct result of meetings. It seems that every conference gives a new badge to each participant.

Couldn’t there be an effective way for the nametags to be returned at the end of the event? We have check IN for everything; how about establishing a standard practice to also check OUT? Aldi supermarkets offer a quarter to return the cart from the parking lot; perhaps conventions could offer a monetary reward or hold a deposit? Conventions could have people stationed at the last event to collect the badges – or exchange them for a departing gift. People could be encouraged to wear their ID badges or permanent nametags instead of continually receiving new conference ones. Attendees bring their own computers, notebooks or pens to the meeting – add lanyards to the list.

I know that event planners and marketers like to think that the conference-specific branded lanyard will be a treasured souvenir. It won’t. What it will be is another item in the landfill. May the next nametag you make say Mother Nature.

leadership dot #1855: contamination

I believe that many people are environmentally conscious and would do more to recycle if they understood exactly what to do. The lack of consistency in what is recyclable and what isn't causes much confusion and leads to people not recycling what could be repurposed as well as recycling what should not be thrown in the bin. 

It is easy when the product is labeled with a symbol -- although even then each community accepts different things and what they do and do not accept frequently changes. But so many products are not labeled at all. When I lived in St. Louis, the city's mantra was "if you can rip it, we can recycle it," but here, wrapping paper and frozen food boxes and foil-lined envelopes are no-nos.

At a recent conference, they got explicit with their signage to help people out and gave actual examples of where lunch items were to go. Then the next week I was at a school and even their "compostable" lunch containers were directed to go straight into the trash.


What lessons can you adopt from this for your organization? Having some uniform consistency is always helpful, but if not, being clear about the distinctions matters. Having a recycle bin is not enough if people inadvertently contaminate it or bypass it. Specificity counts in matters where there is confusion. And the effort to be clear and to keep things out of the landfill is worth it in the end!

leadership dot #1835: squished

I am all for environmental sustainability, but when it comes to plastic water bottles, I think some of them have taken it too far. Bottles continue to be made with ever-lighter weight plastic – which sounds like a good thing – until it isn’t.

Light weight bottles are still stacked on heavy pallets -- and can't handle the weight. The tops of the bottles cave in, making them almost unusable. At some point, there are diminishing returns and I think some companies have reached that point.

Think about the products and services that you offer and be clear about your ultimate goal. Efficiency at the cost of effectiveness is all wet.

leadership dot #1815: extras

A great coupon enticed me to drive through and try Popeye’s chicken. I ordered the snack pack: two pieces of chicken and a biscuit.

What I received was two pieces of chicken and a biscuit – AND grape jelly, strawberry jelly, two packets of ketchup, honey, butter, two packets of hot sauce, a fork and two napkins.

I am sure it is good practice to have all these condiments available, but it seems like a big waste to distribute them in every bag. Couldn’t they have first asked if I wanted any of them (just the napkins, please)?

From a cost perspective as well as an environmental one, sometimes more is too much. Bend over backwards to offer your customers what they want, and even prompt them to see if there is something they may not have considered. But to give without want is just wasteful.

leadership dot #1787: microfibers

For my organizational behavior class, I am always on the lookout for examples of real life systems that illustrate the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated things. I recently found an example that relates the growing popularity of leisure clothes to an increase in marine debris and pollution.

"Yoga pants, fleece jackets, sweat-wicking athletic wear and other garments made from synthetic materials shed microscopic plastic fibers -- called microfibers -- when laundered. Wastewater systems flush the microfibers into natural waterways, eventually reaching the sea," reports University of Florida researcher Maia McGuire.

There are many efforts underway to address this complex system, including work with washing machine manufacturers to enhance filters and impressive work by clothing manufacturer Patagonia to provide outreach to consumers and additional research to minimize the impact.

You don't always make the connection between what you wear and what sea animals eat, but the link is there. Think about how you can play a responsible role in the ecosystem.

Source:  Cozy clothes may be a key source of sea pollution by Jennifer Kay for the Associated Press, March 19, 2017 in the Telegraph Herald.

leadership dot #1740: pack of wolves

For my organizational behavior class, I am always on the lookout for examples of systems thinking. The more tangible I can make the concept of interconnectedness for my students, the sooner they understand that culture is entwined with every other aspect of the organization. It then makes it much more productive for us to discuss the role leadership plays in creating the desired climate.

The latest example I have used is from nature, specifically how the release of 14 wolves in Yellowstone National Park resulted in myriad of changes in the area. Components of the ecosystem were impacted in ways that were unplanned and unexpected, highlighting once again how everything on the planet ultimately relies on others for survival.

Watch this four-minute video to learn about "one of the most exciting scientific findings of the last half-century." If a pack of wolves can have this much impact, just think what a group of humans can do for an organization, community or beyond. How can you band together and howl?

leadership dot #1633: excessive

The "Manager, Shipping Department" for Leadership Dots, LLC received a 700 page catalog in the mail. This was a full-color glossy publication that could not have been cheap to print or deliver. And it went straight from my mailbox into the recycle bin.

Leadership Dots doesn't need an industrial pallet truck or wooden crates that can ship up to 7,000 pounds. Nor do I need a spill containment drum shed or rolling scaffolding. In fact, I don't even need (or have) a shipping department, let alone a manager.

Wouldn't it have been more efficient (and environmentally friendly) to send a postcard to the names on the new business list and direct people to a website? Or offer a $25 discount if you requested a catalog? Or do something besides send an unsolicited 700 page publication?

Just because you can afford to send something like this, doesn't mean you should.  When you consider the ROI of your marketing efforts, factor in the environmental costs as well. Your initial outreach to unsolicited potential customers does not need to be so landfill laden.

-- beth triplett
@leadershipdots
beth@leadershipdots.com

leadership dot #1611: pretending

I purchased a beverage and I lamented that it was served in a standard plastic cup. "Another item in the landfill," I thought to myself.

Later, I purchased another beverage, this time at a new coffeehouse. I was delighted to see that they used "GreenStripe Eco Products" for their drinks. I inwardly applauded their commitment to provide environmentally friendly products.

When I came home and went to recycle the cups, I learned that appearances could be deceiving. The first cup was a "5" and did recycle in our area, but the "Eco Product" cup was a "7" -- meaning that not only is not recyclable in most areas, but it is of mixed origin. In other words, it's not friendly at all.

It's easy to give a product or brand a name that has appeal, but much harder to deliver a brand promise that has integrity. And pretending to be environmentally friendly is worse than not trying.

Take a look at the alignment between what your organization appears to value, and what it really does. Which cup are you?

-- beth triplett
@leadershipdots
beth@leadershipdots.com

leadership dot #1599: trash

You wouldn't normally think that a trip to a landfill could make for an educational and fascinating experience, but last week it did. The Metropolitan Area Solid Waste organization held an open house, and I, as the environmental nerd that I am, attended.

I was attracted to the event because of their slogan: "When we throw things away, where is away?" Where is away, I wondered, but soon found out.

"Away" is an 800 acre park that has been collecting, compacting and burying trash since 1976. And while there is no recycling done on site, they also run a host of services to keep things out of the landfill. Bicycles are repaired and sent to a rescue mission. Lawn mowers and snow blowers are used by area schools in small engine classes. Yard waste and food scraps are composted and turned into storm management materials.

Even with these efforts, each day 370 tons of trash comes to the landfill from the two counties that it serves! The trash goes into a 300 acre pit, lined with 11 different layers to protect the surrounding groundwater and make the greatest use of the space. Even with this attention to the environment, the landfill produces methane gas and leachate water that must be treated and discharged, as the waste produces additional waste of its own.

The tour took us via trolley out to the landfill itself, and it was a great visual reminder of the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling products. When we throw things away, it gives us the false notion that they disappear, when in reality we need to store the trash for decades.

What can you do to keep even a few items out of the landfill: Buy fewer items. Take unwanted goods to a resale shop. Buy large sizes instead of many individual-serving sizes. Eat less fast food. Use a Nalgene bottle instead of buying bottled water. Repair appliances instead of replacing them. Invest in quality to extend the life of your goods. Use both sides of the paper before recycling it. The list of actions is as vast as the landfill is. 

If everyone took action to keep one thing out of the landfill every day, think of the amazing difference it could make. Make today the day you start to do your part.

-- beth triplett
@leadershipdots

leadership dot #1592: plastic

A new law in France will require that beginning in 2020, all disposable dishes be made of biologically sourced materials and have the ability to be composted. No more of the traditional plastic cups, silverware or containers as we know them.

As you can imagine, the measure is extremely controversial and manufacturers are already suing to repeal the law. 

What I found interesting was that not only that the Environment Minister himself initially opposed the law, but his rationale. Minister Segolene Royal stated that it was an "anti-social" measure because families struggling financially make regular use of disposable tableware*. Huh?

It would seem that those interested in either the environment or economics would tend to use reusable silverware and eat at home instead of on-the-go much more often. It called to mind this message: "It's pretty amazing that our society has reached a point where the effort necessary to extract oil from the ground, ship it to a refinery, turn it into plastic, shape it appropriately, truck it to a store, buy it and bring it home -- is considered to be less effort than what it takes to just wash the spoon when you're done with it."

The plastic spoon and the debates in France are examples that we often only consider what is in front of us and not the longer term implications of either where it came from or what ramifications it causes. It may be easier to use a plastic spoon and toss it, but when it happens millions of times a day it has an impact. We may want to ban plastic spoons, but when the economics of the supply chain are factored in, we may come to a different conclusion.

Instead of throwing out the next piece of plastic dinnerware that you use, bring it home and put it on your desk. Use it as a reminder that we need to look at the whole system and play our part in making it better.

-- beth triplett
@leadershipdots

Source: France bids adieu to plastic dishes in controversial ban by Samuel Petrequin for the Associated Press in the Telegraph Herald, September 18, 2016, p 16A.

leadership dot #1549: turning green

Earlier this summer, I attended a festival that was so negligent in its (lack of) recycling efforts that I went before the city council to express my dismay. How delightful it was then to attend not one, but two, events in total contrast to the environmental disregard.

I went to a Minnesota Twins game at Target Field and was astounded to find that "the Twins are working hard to be completely green." The ballpark recycles just about everything -- including organics -- and makes it easy to do so. In fact, I had to search out a trash can because they are hidden off to the side, whereas the organics/recycle containers are prevalent. The Twins even recycle the paper towels from the restrooms!

My second environmentally friendly event was the Church of the Resurrection Festival, where the volunteer "Green Team" did all they could to make the event produce zero waste. There was a compost/recycling station on the "midway." The dinner used biodegradable utensils and plates and composted the food scraps. Tickets from the games were recycled. There was not much that wouldn't fit in one of the many bins in their station, and they staffed it with Green Team members to encourage participation.

I applaud the forethought it required to fully support the environmental actions, and the commitment to make it work on-site. Let's hope some of my hometown festival planners attended these events and turned green with envy at how far others progressed in preserving the planet, and that your organization uses them as models for how large scale events can limit waste.

-- beth triplett

leadershipdots@blogspot.com

@leadershipdots

leadershipdots@gmail.com

#1534 bucketful

When people think of fund raising, they often have large amounts in mind or think of elaborate campaigns to generate revenue. A Boston food bank takes a much more low-key (ha ha) approach to acquiring a few more dollars towards food.

At the University of Massachusetts, people are encouraged to toss unwanted keys into a bucket and then the metal is recycled for cash and donated to the food bank. This sign reads: "This bucket of keys weighs 18 pounds of approximately 900 keys, and based on today's market at $1.50 per pound, this bucket of keys generates approximately $27.00 that would go back to your local pantry in need."

That amount may not seem like much, but it not did it take much effort to raise it either. A little here and a little there all adds up.

Think about the bucket of keys the next time you are looking to raise some petty cash. All of your asks don't have to be direct requests for money. The key to successful fund raising could lie within a bucket. (Just think of ALS!)

-- beth triplett

leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots

leadershipdots@gmail.com

Thanks Meg for sharing!