After a presentation last Tuesday to executives from American Standard, the historic plumbing company agreed to donate more than $60,000 after the  Rahway Water Champions demonstrated that the school could save  an estimated $6,500 or more a year by upgrading to the newest water-saving toilets, faucets and urinals.

Post-installation water usage reports will be monitored by the students and reported by  American Standard Brands, as well as The New Jersey Water Savers Program, a partnership between the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program, the NJDEP and the EPA.

Read more from the NJ Star-Ledger.

Read the American Standard press release.

American Standard is a client of Green Earth PR consultant O’Reilly/DePalma.

• We feel hotter when we go outside, actually changing our expectations for what hot weather feels like.
• Our attire for the workplace is dependent on the endless cool stream of air.
• Our cars have to be similarly cool.

In America, we never want anyone to see us sweat.  Read more on the impact:   Air conditioning and its impact on American life and culture – latimes.com.

The industry trade publication “interviewed communications leaders at a variety of companies to find out why CSR is more important now than ever and how they are conveying their socially conscious mindset to their clients and to the community at large.” GEPR responses addressed our values as well as tools and tactics including social media. Please join the conversation and add your comments at
http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/8700/1017/Socially_conscious_Companies_share_CSR_best_practi.

H2Option Dual Flush Toilet

The key to conservation for most people is not making it feel like conservation.

Another key is, as always, saving money.  People will generally conserve when it saves money and doesn’t feel like a sacrifice.

Problem is:  if the low-cost solution really doesn’t work and product performance suffers, so does conservation.

One of our clients makes dual flush toilets, which are really good: you literally press 1 for 1 and press 2 to flush, well, number 2.  These toilets can can reduce water usage by up to 67 percent.   Unfortunately, there are now so-called dual flush retrofit kits that promise to turn your existing potty into a dual flush model.

One big problem:  changing the amount of water going into a toilet bowl doesn’t change how the water behaves in the bowl in terms of how it powers out waste and water (or worse, doesn’t).

At that point, users are not going to be terribly enthused about additional conservation measures.   Which ultimately hurts good new technology like dual flush toilets, some of which have received top independent ratings for their ability to flush solids cleanly and completely.

While serious subjects require serious attention, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and more recently @BPGlobalPR demonstrate that humor is an effective communications tool for Grammar of Green.

Humor and passion for the environment seemed less siloed to the Commonwealth and European audience members. Maybe the lingering remnants of our Puritan heritage require that we separate doing good from having fun. I hope these examples provide examples for change in that regard.

Changing habbits. Habbits are humanoid forms with body parts distorted relative to the environmental impact of common activities. Each body part is assigned to one impact and are grown where an individual’s impact is higher. Habbits has been adopted by staff at the Greater London Authority and Canon Europe committed to reducing their personal carbon footprint. This program is delivered by London Leader Rob Holdway and Giraffe Innovation, in association with the London Sustainable Development Commission’s 2009 London Leaders. Holdway spoke at Green Unplugged. www.changinghabbits.co.uk

Green Thing. Supported by people from 205 countries, Green Thing is a public service using a squid-headed character to inspire greener lives, focusing on seven things you can do and enjoy doing. Green Thing co-founder Andy Hobsbawn also covered the Buy Nothing™ campaign. www.dothegreenthing.com/amazero

Wombats. This 2005 message from The Foundation for Global Community shared by Dave Hampton is short and memorable. It’s hard to ignore the dancing wombat’s case for avoiding doom by recognizing we are all connected on one planet. www.globalcommunity.org/flash/wombat.shtml

What are your effective Grammar of Green humor examples?

We want to do something. The easy out is to punish the company you feel is responsible, or blame the government because they can’t come in with a quick fix. Some are calling for a boycott of BP, when the only people who would be hurt are their neighbors who work in the station or supply goods and services to it. Boycotting one fuel brand for another is not the answer as noted in Newsweek.

How about looking inward for the solution? Take this as a wake up call. Channel that anger into change and take permanent steps to reduce our reliance on oil. Take simple steps: drive less, cut back on use of plastics, recycle more of the plastics you do use. Make these changes habits, forever. Don’t go back to bad habits once the spill is out of the headlines.

The David Suzuki Foundation has lots of ideas on how to reduce your individual footprint. On a broader scale, Grist has some ideas for business and government that could send us in a better direction.

And just think, what if everybody did it?

As with New Year’s there is a lot of hype to use this benchmark for improvement. Instead of weight loss and financial stability, the focus is on reducing footprints and considering the next generation. For me deadlines are always helpful. Earth Day is a reminder to reflect on what else I can do and how I can be a better change agent.

Like the holiday cards from my insurance agent, I try to ignore the avalanche of corporate boasts and be pleased that the occasion was noted. Like adding 15 more minutes of exercise, a percentage may think about modifying behavior for the environment. In Atlanta and around the globe, community activities for individuals and business abound: tree planting; socials and challenges to celebrate this 40^th observation. The options let you choose what matters to you among flora, fauna, water, air, energy, and future generations.

Did someone you know become a supporter this year? Did you gather with friends who remember their first Earth Day? Let the day launch another year of considering the planet.

Is social media more popular in the green arena than in other sectors? In the building sector, DePalma noted that green references were more often retweeted including exchanges with green journalists to yield a broader conversation.

Since McCandless deals a lot with green regulation, he sees claims that amount to green washing among products that offer only slightly better performance. What he likes about social media from the green aspect, is the flow of information. If marketers are trying to hide, it is less likely to work since green promotes transparency. As an early adopter of social media with green clients, McCaffrey felt social media offered a good match for users with a higher level of passion.

Is it social media more important to establish transparency for established versus small businesses? McCandless offered that it was equally important to large and small organizations, although small business can reach scale faster on social media. Both DePalma and McCaffrey noted the need to put strategy and marketing behind the effort, stressing that social media is not free. It is a way to get your message out quickly. At the same time, McCaffrey emphasized that with a lot of clutter, a strategy was particularly important.

Miller works with large entities, balancing value and entertainment. Her firm had just announced some of the first useful metrics for social media. She predicts Facebook will be operating system of the future, advising that all business needs a local, scaleable viewpoint.

The conversation echoed themes that support our Grammar of Green whatever the channel—transparency, engagement, value, and strategy for clarity among the clutter. For more social media tips from the event, visit the O’Reilly/DePalma website here.

The event brought together renowned architect David Ling, davidlingarchitect.com, and wine guru Michael Green, michaelgreen.com, to discuss integrating wine storage in design projects. I’ve worked with Michael for several years but during the arrangements and execution of this event, I had the chance to get to know David Ling. I absolutely drool over his portfolio of work – streamlined and interesting with an incredible sense of light and space. He designs wine areas to provide ideal lighting in order to best judge the colour of wine when tasting. How is that for detail?

But the thing that really struck me when I interviewed David about sustainable practices was his confession that it was one project he worked on in Oregon several years ago (hear details here) that absolutely opened his eyes. It was this wine bar design where he took cues from the environment to reuse materials, work with natural materials, and build a respect for nature into every design decision. Now, he says, it just comes – pardon the pun – naturally. Why wouldn’t he continue making these kinds of decisions even when working on a NYC loft?

We all have our green eureka moments. I’m married to a New Zealander, so we’ve always had a fairly earth-friendly household reflecting his upbringing; pesticides have always been a no-no, veggie gardens rule and composting a way of life. Despite this, I still experienced a huge green eureka when I started working with Liebherr four years ago and I was researching their manufacturing practices. I read this line, “the energy released during production is recovered and utilized again in heating the manufacturing and office environments.” This was 2006 and Liebherr had been doing this for a very long time. I remember thinking, why wouldn’t EVERY business do this? It made me read more, think more and sitting in my office in southwestern Ontario, I looked around and thought, “What can I do here?”

Green is certainly verging on mainstream now, but even two years ago, it wasn’t. If the exhibitors at last week’s AD Home Design Show were any indication, more and more companies are having eureka moments and are making strong environmental commitments.

What was yours?
David Ling interview