Volume 4 Issue 1 - January 2008

Welcome to DestinationGreen!

ashkin

I could not be more pleased with the manner in which we ended the year and then began 2008. Momentum, indeed, seems to with us all. We are poised to make great strides in the coming months. The evidence continues to mount.

2007 closed in a very fitting fashion with the culmination of the Climate Change Conference in Bali. The gathering created a global “roadmap” for the world to follow in an effort to reverse the looming ramifications of global warming on our planet.

And more specifically to the green cleaning industry, I was thrilled at the overwhelming majority approval of the LEED-EB revisions by the US Green Building Council. Please follow the link (lower on this page) to read the Ashkin Alert on the announcement if you have not already done so.

This month's green selling tip explains how to use our latest book, Green Selling Tips as a powerful resource in becoming an effective leader in the selling of green products and services. As always, we have also included links to green news spotlights from the past month. One of which, highlights the Alliance for Climate Protection's announcement of a $100 million annual campaign to educate the public on global climate change. We have also chosen the Alliance as our Green Group of the Month for making this commitment.

We wish you nothing but the best in 2008 as you continue your dedication, leadership, and hard work.

Steve

As always, we encourage you to share your personal and professional strategies for “Going Green” with us for future columns. Submit them to editor@destinationgreen.com.

Green Selling Tip: Buy This Book

greenselltip

This month's Green Selling Tip is brought to you with the knowledge that time is indeed money. Over the years, we have published many sales tips to help you sell green products and services - hopefully these tips have, and will continue to assist you increase your bottom line.

I do recommend that you take advantage of our latest book, Green Selling Tips, so you have all of these resources at your fingertips. If you are new to the industry, or a longtime subscriber, this book will help you refine your bundle of Green Cleaning products, develop specific value propositions, develop pilot programs, overcome common objectives, and more.

Calls for Action

Calls for Action

Doing Business with the Federal Government?
Here is your chance to win an award from the White House!

If you are doing business with the Federal Government, the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive is accepting nominations until 31 January, 2008, for the White House Closing the Circle (CTC) Awards. This program recognizes outstanding achievements of Federal employees and their facilities for efforts which resulted in significant contributions to, or have made a significant impact on, promoting environmental stewardship. The awards focus on waste prevention, recycling, green purchasing activities, environmental management, green/sustainable buildings, among other categories and winners have in the past been recognized for their Green Cleaning programs. Please go to http://ofee.gov/ctc/ctc.asp for instruction and to access the application form.

LEED-EB Revision Wins Approval

usgbc

I am please to tell you that the US Green Building Council just announced that the revisions to LEED-EB have been approved and did so by an overwhelming majority!

According to Doug Gatlin, Vice President for Market Development at the USGBC (who was until recently the LEED-EB program manager) “it passed member ballot with flying colors. In fact, we received over 2,110 votes in all. Quorum requirements were for 1200! In addition to this, 98% of all votes were positive. This is a very high number of “yes” votes, so we can take this as a strong endorsement from the membership.”



Green News Roundup: This Month's Top Headlines

 
The Green Marketplace Article 2

The goal is green. So is the incentive.
Frustrated by what they see as insufficient action by the federal government, municipalities around the country are offering financial incentives to get people to go green which should also accelerate the demand for Green Cleaning.

Green EconomicsArticle 2

Cities cultivate 2 types of green.
Cities trying to strengthen the local economy and go green see the solution in green-collar jobs. They say that jobs in the $341-billion-a-year green industry have the potential to move people out of poverty.

Campaigning for GreenArticle 2

Environmental group to kick off campaign about global warming.
Interest in climate issues from our customers is only going to increase as the Alliance for Climate Protection will kick off a $100 million annual campaign to educate the public on global climate change.

Green BusinessArticle 2

Ga. carpet maker a leader in climate change awareness. This article is a good example of what companies in the cleaning industry can do and features Ray Anderson who built his $1 billion Georgia-based carpet business by, as he describes it, plundering the Earth. Now he's got 4,000 employees working to make the company environmentally neutral by 2020.

Green Group of the Month:
The Alliance for Climate Protection

asuWe have chosen The Alliance for Climate Protection as our Green Group of the month for a large part as a result of their launching a $100 million annual public education campaign on global climate change, using proceeds from Al Gore's “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Also - their web site has plenty of education, calls for action, and fun content - such as announcement of the winners for their ":60 seconds to Save the Earth" Ecospot contest. We recommend a visit!

The Ashkin Group Calendar of Events

calendar

Click below for The Ashkin Group's schedule of upcoming events and presentations.

Copyright (c) 2008 The Ashkin Group, LLC. All rights reserved.