As posted here, if you can lend a hand, please do.
Currently I have a research project on the go. I am looking for useful resources (books, websites, podcasts, experts) that help small businesses become more “GREEN” in their operations.
You see, I cut my entrepreneurial teeth organizing a sports event. The event is/was an ultimate Frisbee tournament. I was responsible for providing food, shelter and entertainment for roughly 600 people and I looked at the design of the event as a way to express and promote some things I believed in.
As someone who has spent well over 200 days of his life on enjoying and guiding canoe trips in places like Quetico Park, Temagami and Algonquin Park, it turns out the environment is something I believe in and want to see preserved.
So I gave the overage of my sports tournament to the Sierra Legal Defence fund – they do legal work and take on big companies and governments on behalf of the environment…it’s a GREAT organization. I also told all the players (all 600) that to cut down on waste they were to bring their own plates and cutlery.
All the players went with it. In over eight years we prepared dinner for about 5000 people… in about 16 bags of garbage. Think about your home and how much garbage 5000 meals (about 5 years of eating) generates…scary no?
I’m sharing this with you because I want to do more to help small businesses understand how they can cut down on waste in their business processes and generally operate in a more “GREEN” way. FreshBooks cuts down on the paper used to do business by facilitating paperless invoicing. We have been proud of this fact for years.
Over the coming weeks, months and years I want to share with you hundreds of useful tips that will help you and other small businesses operate with less impact on the environment. So again, if you can help me with my research, I’d appreciate it. Send me a note. Thanks.
Michael McDerment 
Michael,
Man, it is a small world.
What tournament did you run? Before moving to Stockholm, I ran Potlatch (http://potlatch.discnw.org), a 2,000 player tournament in Seattle for the last 4 years.
Two resources that you might enjoy with regard to being green.
First, Treehugger.com is a blog about green design. The founder Graham Hill has a great philosophy about how to integrate green design into people’s lives. I did a podcast interview with him which you and your readers might enjoy: (http://www.marketingmonger.com/2006/05/marketingmonger_podcast_21_interview_with_graham_hill_of_treehugger.htm)
Secondly, Inc. magazine has had a number of articles about this over the years including:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050601/building-design.html
Hope this helps.
Eric
P.S. The article by Stowe Boyd about survival was great.
Eric – what a small world indeed.
I’ve always wanted to go to Potlatch…I’ve heard amazing things. Still hope to some day in fact…The tourament I run/ran is Solstice here in Toronto (I know there is one out west…Oregon?)…the website has seen no attention in the last five years so I’m been a little reluctant to post it…but if you want to see some sweet year 2000 design, check out http://solstice-ultimate.com.
Anyhow…thanks for links. I will defintely check them out and I’ll pass your feedback along to Stowe. Cheers.
You should definitely head out to Potlatch because I think it is an amazing event but I might be a little biased. 🙂 If you do decide to put in a bid, let me know and I’ll put in a good word to make sure that you get a spot.
There is a Solstice tournament in Eugene, OR. Also a good tournament with great competition.
You had to go and post another Stowe article, didn’t you? I wanted to go to sleep and now I need to go read it. Sigh. 😉
Eric