This week I had the pleasure of attending one of B Corp’s periodic social gathering in the stylish SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Meet-ups and networking events are an ideal way to put a face on B Corp as an organization, but more importantly, to synergize with other certified B Corporation businesses.

Certified B Corporations run the gambit from web services to sporting goods retailers. Just a few of my personal favorites include Numi Organic Tea, New Leaf Paper, and of course Greenerprinter! Explore the entire list of certified B Corporations through B Corp’s online directory.

What are the benefits of joining the network of B Corporations? By becoming a B Corporation, a green company differentiates itself from other companies by truly walking the talk. As B Corp phrases it, it can exercise “its leadership, influencing the market beyond its own individual success.” The business also ensures that the values of the business survive through every phase of growth. And finally, a business can take advantage of discounts on business products and services, including Salesforce’s Enterprise Edition.

Through the course of the evening as I exchanged stories with my fellow B Corps, I learned that no matter what type of industry you served or how long ago you completed the certification process, we all shared hope and enthusiasm around the positive power of business.

Is your business – or the business you work for – a certified B Corporation? Why or why not? Add your comments below.

We conclude our series with SolarCity, a leading solar service provider.

About SolarCity

SolarCity provides solar power system design, financing, installation, monitoring, and related services, and serves residential, commercial and government customers in more than 500 communities in California, Arizona, and Oregon.

SolarCity and Sustainability

As a renewable energy provider, sustainability is the focus of our business. Our goal is to reduce pollution and lessen the impact of climate change by making clean power affordable enough to be adopted by millions of homeowners and businesses.

Other sustainability practices include the use of highly fuel-efficient hybrid cars, biodiesel and light trucks in our fleet; public transit incentives for employees; recycling of all excess construction materials; recycle, repurpose, re-use rejected paper such as cover sheets; recycle toner, aluminum, cardboard, and plastics; use timed lights and HVAC; and use of U.S.-manufactured solar modules to reduce the carbon footprint.

Printing Green

SolarCity strives to “walk the walk” in its day-to-day operations from a sustainability standpoint. As a solar company, other businesses are watching us to see if we will implement the same level of sustainability in our own operations that we encourage other businesses to adopt. The decision to use green printing has worked fine for us. There might be a slightly additional cost, but it’s  minimal and we make up for it by making use of digital collateral where possible.

Green Printing & Sustainability

Earlier this year, we were named Acterra’s Environmental Enterprise of the Year, in part due to our sustainability practices such as green printing!

Thanks to Andy Schoenstein from SolarCity for his assistance in providing this information!

We continue the series with Robert Sinskey Vineyards, a certified organic and biodynamic winery.

About Robert Sinskey Vineyards

Robert Sinskey Vineyards is a dirt-to-the-dinner table producer of fine wines. RSV is CCOF-certified Organic and Demeter-certified Biodynamic in all 200 acres of vineyards.

RSV pursues purity from dirt-to-bottle and is convinced that organic and biodynamic grapes create living, vibrant and expressive wines. Luxuriously elegant wines and earth-friendly farming methods are not mutually exclusive. RSV has found that caring for the land, combined with conscientious business practices, have helped define the well-crafted wines of RSV. After 20 years, the philosophy that “Wine is not an athletic event,” still holds true to this day. The goal has always been to make “pure wines of character that pair well with cuisine.”

Robert Sinskey and Sustainability

Fine wine should not hurt your palate or the planet. Since we are an organic and biodynamic vineyard, it would be hypocritical of us not to pursue sustainability in all aspects of our business and to offset our carbon footprint where possible. The winery operation produces 70% of its energy from solar energy. The current plan provides for a remodel of the winery and operations so that more than 100% of the energy required is produced onsite and all production water will be recycled.

Printing Green

For us, there was no transition at all from traditional printing to green printing. Greenerprinter is easy to work with and the end result is beautiful. We are constantly complimented on the quality of our collateral materials.

Green Printing & Sustainability

Printing green helps us to meet our sustainability goals because it was the right thing to do. It’s hard to talk about being green when that talk is printed on non-green materials. It was one more way of closing the loop.

Thanks to Robert Sinskey for his assistance in providing this information!

We continue the series with Brown and Caldwell, a company with a 60-year legacy of environmental stewardship.

About Brown and Caldwell

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA, Brown and Caldwell is a full-service environmental engineering and consulting firm with 45 offices and 1500+ professionals across the country. For more than 60 years, their creative designs and progressive solutions have helped scores of municipal, federal, and private agencies sucessfully overcome their most challenging environmental obstacles.

Brown and Caldwell and Sustainability

Brown and Caldwell’s legacy of environmental stewardship goes back to Dave Caldwell, who, since the founding in 1947, insisted that BC’s approach to facility design minimizes energy use. A true visionary, he pioneered and advocated wastewater reuse as early as 1970. Dave’s belief that the needs of society, clients and the environment can co-exist remains an integral part of the company culture.

As the company marks its 60th year, they introduced BC Green: an explicit commitment to delivering sustainable, economically efficient solutions to complex environmental problems. Sustainability – through BC Green – spans and impacts their personal and professional life much like the issue of work/balance. It will also lead to new ways of doing business at Brown and Caldwell, ranging from choices about the materials used and how offices operate to expanding the sustainable services provided to clients.

Printing Green

One factor in making the transition from traditional printing to green printing was the paper quality. The surface quality of recycled papers has improved over the years. The stereotype was that recycled paper was uncoated and had a speckled, grungy look to it. Today’s papers don’t even look like the recycled papers of the past. One of the challenges we faced in going green was being convinced that the quality of online “green printing” was just as good as the conventional way of printing; however, now we have found the biggest benefit to be the cost savings and getting high-quality printing in a matter of days.

Green Printing & Sustainability

Green printing helps us meet our sustainability goals because we can proof soft proofs online, we’re printing on recycled papers, we realize cost savings (by printing online), and we can even get eco-audits. The speedy service has also made life easier!

Thanks to Calvin Ng from Brown and Caldwell for his assistance in providing this information!

We continue the series with Clif Bar, a company that doesn’t just look at the bottom line – it looks at all five bottom lines.

About Clif Bar

Clif Bar & Company is a leading maker of all-natural and organic foods and drinks, including the organic certified CLIF® BAR energy bar, delivering Nutrition for Sustained Energy®, and LUNA®, The Whole Nutrition Bar for Women®. Committed to sustainability, Clif Bar & Company works diligently to reduce its footprint on the planet from the field to the final product. For more information, please visit www.clifbar.com.

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Clif Bar and Sustainability

We’re working to understand the impact of everything we do—from farmers’ fields to our final products. Ultimately, we hope to become not just a more sustainable business, but also a restorative one.

Founded on a love of the outdoors and a passion for making and enjoying good food, we recognize that we need to reduce our footprint through the food we make. As our business grows, being profitable sustains our business, but equally important are our four other aspirations—or bottom lines: sustaining our brands, our people, our community, and the planet.

Printing Green

On Earth Day 2001, we formally launched our sustainability program making a commitment to green our business. As we evaluated our business practices, transitioning from traditional printing to green printing was a natural progression for us. Conversations began to happen with our business partners; Greenerprinter being one of them. Through their services, Greenerprinter educated us about the importance of green printing and helped us support our aspirations of sustaining the planet and sustaining our business.

Green Printing & Sustainability

Making the change to green printing helped educate our organization about the importance of using less paper and utilizing the latest green printing technologies. Supporting Greenprinter in their efforts helps us meet the commitment we made to lessen our environmental footprint in 2001.

Thanks to Sandy Biagi from Clif Bar for her assistance in providing this information!

We continue the series with Annie’s, a leader in healthy – and tasty – food.

About Annie’s

Annie’s, Inc., based in Napa, CA, offers delicious foods made with the highest-quality natural and organic ingredients.  The family of well-loved Annie’s, Inc. brands includes:  Annie’s Homegrown, pasta meals, snacks and cereal; and Annie’s Naturals, unique salad dressings and condiments. All Annie’s, Inc. products are available nationwide at major grocery stores, natural food stores, mass merchants and online at www.Annies.com and www.AnniesNaturals.com.

Annie’s and Sustainability

Since Annie’s was founded, we have been committed to being responsible corporate citizens, and strive to integrate our philosophy of sustainability into every aspect of our business.  As stewards of our fragile planet, we’re motivated everyday to lessen our eco footprint on Earth. From selecting organic ingredient suppliers and green office supplies to working with some of the most innovative packaging partners around, we continually make choices that have a positive impact.

Printing Green

We’re always on the lookout for new technologies and innovations that make our current practices even better. There is always more that can be done, and we know that being a sustainable company is an ongoing process. Choosing a green printing partner was a natural extension of our overall commitment to sustainability.

Green Printing & Sustainability

Primarily, we wanted to choose a partner who we could trust to offer the best, “greenest” options for our business.  Greenerprinter allows us to choose business cards, mailers, fliers and sales materials that are printed on 100% recycled content, 50% post-consumer content, chlorine-free paper.  We have been impressed with Greenerprinter’s many certifications – from FSC to Green America Seal of Approval – and appreciate that they continually push themselves to seek out the latest sustainable innovations.  Annie’s always prefers to work with partners who share our values, and we’re proud of the relationship we’ve developed with Greenerprinter over the years.

Thanks to Aimee Sands from Annie’s for her assistance in providing this information.

We are proud to introduce a new series on our blog: “Partners in Sustainability.” In this series, we turn the spotlight to our clients, many of whom are setting new standards for social and environmental responsibility in business. All of them, of course, have made the commitment to sustainability by ensuring that their operations are aligned with their values. We invited them to speak directly to the connection between green printing and sustainability.

We begin the series with the Social Venture Network, an organization that is working on nothing less than “transforming the way the world does business.”

About Social Venture Network

Social Venture Network inspires a community of business and social leaders to build a just economy and sustainable planet. The Social Venture Network community consists of nearly 500 individuals who are some of the brightest and most innovative, engaging, socially-conscious business and social leaders in North America.

SVN and Sustainability

With our goal of transforming the world in mind, SVN is pleased to not just represent socially responsible business leaders, but support socially responsible businesses like Greenerprinter as a client and partner.

Printing Green

SVN has always worked with green printers as part of our organizational culture. The payoff is in having materials for our office and our events that are directly aligned with our mission. Working with Greenerprinter also supports our network since they source from other sustainable partners like New Leaf Paper.

Green Printing & Sustainability

It’s also been so valuable for our mission to introduce all of our members and conference attendees to Greenerprinter, so that we can promote further collaboration and business-to-business connections in the sustainability community and the wider world. Greenerprinter has been a pleasure to work with over the years. What a great partner in sustainability!

Thanks to Erica Dreisbach from Social Venture Network for her assistance in providing this information.