Have You Turned Green Yet?
Kent Jacobson, a.k.a. "Mr.Success"

You’ve heard the comment; Lead Follow or Get out of the Way? Watch out the Green wave is coming and will get you.  If you have not noticed, environmental (green) initiatives are in abundance at the local and governmental levels.  Let’s start by determining where you fit on the environmental scale. Do you consider yourself environmentally friendly? On a scale of 1 to 10, are you a 1 (I care, but don’t practice good habits) or a 10 (I care, I recycle, my company recycles and I ride my bike to work or drive a hybrid)?  I suspect most of us fall some where in the middle; we do care and try to implement programs at work and home that support caring about the environment.  Please be informed as there are a number of formal government actions across the U.S. and world that may impact you.  

On a local level, have you seen the recycling auditors, yes there are people working for local communities that check to see if you are recycling properly.  I think should be an indicator, we need to take personal responsibility and do what we can to comply with your program. This is a perfect time to initiate or restart your home program with summer upon us. Recycling should be a fun family activity, you may want to invest a little time and energy to get this started, who knows it may even grow within the neighborhood if you don’t have a formal program yet. Start with your family, implement a program at home and see what happens.  A lot of schools and communities educate and promote recycling programs. Participate in your waste disposal company’s program, every little bit does help.  Here is a terrific interactive web site, go on and play the game,   <A href=”http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/mainmap.htm”>http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/mainmap.htm</A>.  Additional information can be found through Recycler’s World, <A href=”http:/www.recycle.net”>http://www.recycle.net</A>.  Try a program at home; it is never too late to begin.  By the way, never throw anything out the window of your car you are setting a bad example for the kids.

How about your business sales forecast? Has the forecast been impacted yet by two European Union (EU) directives specifying restricted substances (RoHS) use or Waste Disposal (WEEE)? Simply put, there are banned substances that the 25 EU countries will not allow to be imported beginning this summer.  The internet is full of information on RoHS this subject, you can type into and search engine RoHS. Guess what, California is going to implement similar RoHS legislation to be in effect, January 1^st, 2007 concerning product sold in and shipped to California. How do these directives and legislation impact you?  That depends on your product, of course there are exemptions but the best advice I can give at this point to research the directives and decide a course of action based on you product and potential revenue impact. Different states already have variety of green programs in place; my intent was to get you started again Thinking Green. 

Here is a shortlist of links to get you started:

US and European Union <A href=”http://www.eurunion.org” >http://www.eurunion.org</A>

California<A href=”http://www.greensupplyline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187201273”> http://www.greensupplyline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187201273</A>

UK<A href=”http://www.rohs.gov.uk/> http://www.rohs.gov.uk</A>

USA <A href=”http://www.buyusa.gov.europeanunion/standards.html”>http://www.buyusa.gov/europeanunion/standards.html</A>