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If 10,000 Biters worked for companies that matched their average yearly donations, $16,200,000 more would go to good causes.
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Benefitzzz... A study conducted over 25 years found that afternoon naps increase productivity for 92.5% of workers.
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home › tip library › Eco-Friendly Office Week - Green Benefit Packages
Can you make employee benefits packages green?
The Bite
Yes, yes, and oh yes! A little sexier than 401Ks or company mugs, suggest that your company implement hot green benefits like employee carbon offsets, time off for volunteering and green matching programs.The Benefits
- Green your eco-footprint. Purchase carbon offsets for employee biz travel and commutes (biz travel accounts for as much as 40% of a company's carbon output).
- Clock in...and volunteer. The 20-million volunteer hours Americans give each year are vital for non-profits, plus volunteering is great for team-building.
- Incentivize.
Match employee donations or help them finance hybrids (as Bank of
America and Google do).
Personally Speaking
The Bite offsets the carbon output of its employees' most egregious habits and incentivizes the use of public transportation/alternative fuels. Even the enviro non-profits where Jen used to work didn't offer that!Wanna Try?
- Carbonfund, DrivingGreen, MyClimate, NativeEnergy, and TerraPass - just a few of the many orgs offering carbon-offset services.
- MyClimate - will help your company build a co-branded online carbon calculator.
- Idealist and VolunteerMatch - directories to help find volunteering ops.
Apr 20,2007
Sponsor
All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Bay Area Love
Ideal Bite isn't the only company with an office in the Bay Area to be taking a different approach to employee benefits.
In SF, you'll often see black vans driving around the city. I always wondered who was inside...FBI? CIA? ABBA? Actually, Google sends around carpool vans to pick up their employees and take them to their campus in Mountain View. How cool is that? Read about their other benefits initiatives here.
Last year, we also had a chance to chat with Diana Simmons, Sustainability Manager (yep, you read the title right) at Clif Bar, which is based in Berkeley. Then I read the book Raising the Bar, by the dude who started the company. They're also doing some really progressive things. Read the short version here.
In SF, you'll often see black vans driving around the city. I always wondered who was inside...FBI? CIA? ABBA? Actually, Google sends around carpool vans to pick up their employees and take them to their campus in Mountain View. How cool is that? Read about their other benefits initiatives here.
Last year, we also had a chance to chat with Diana Simmons, Sustainability Manager (yep, you read the title right) at Clif Bar, which is based in Berkeley. Then I read the book Raising the Bar, by the dude who started the company. They're also doing some really progressive things. Read the short version here.
-Toshio... off to eat a Clif Bar with some Silk Soy...
Biter Comments...
I'm a member of the Feigold Association of the United States whose members eliminate artificial colors and flavors; BHA, BHT, and THBQ (petroleum-based preservatives); and aspartame from their diets.
Many times members have submitted Silk Soymilk for review by the Feingold Association and it has never been accepted, so somewhere in Silk Soymilk is something I've mentioned above even though they don't list any of those things on their label.
Interestingly enough, at least one or two other Silk products are acceptable.
I can't find one that taste as good as milk. I'm thinking I'll just go organic milk...if I ever find it here. No luck so far. Baby Brookshire Brothers will bring some to their store. I'll ask.
I applaud the parent company of Silk products for their efforts to save the environment. However, under the heading of "Nobody's Perfect", I refer readers to an article in our local newspaper which, ironically, appeared in today's issue. Here is the link:
http://www.dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=9882&CHID=1
Let's try to keep our favorite suppliers honest.
Silk soymilk sent my friends mom to the ER. That should be a pretty clear indication that something is wrong with it.
For the full scoop, I will again recommend the book "The Whole Soy Story" by Kaayla Daniel.
i second that comment by aaron! please don't give your kids soy, especially babies unless you want them to go into puberty at age 6!!!!! for more info on the dangers of soy go to http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html or google "dangers of soy".
Yeah to Melissa and Aaron! Down with soy everything. I happen live in Boulder (a soy nation), have 4 children (two of which are vegetarian), have Celiac's disease (the no gluten issue). I point out these things only to highlight that it would be so easy for me to be a heavy soy head. Thank goodness that about a decade ago, when my first born was four and had eaten a good two years of soy everything, soy ice cream, soy bacon, soy bread, soy burgers, soy milk, I began to read about the dangers of soy. It is quite frightening really. Thanks for posting those websites for biters to read up on the controversy. I think the origional soy companies had the best intentions to produce healthy and compasionate alternatives to meat but now that there are alarming facts about soy (especially for children) I can't help but think that these same folks must get sent these studies by people who are concerned about soy and at this point have extremely healthy profit margins and are not willing to close down their soy shops. The estrogen in soy is off the charts in a child's body and is now shown to provoke certain adult cancers. Babies who are given soy formula (breast is best!) are consuming, albeit not necessarily from a synthetic source, the equilivant of three or more birth control pills a day in estrogen. It is awful for boys as well. In Asia the health benefits attained from soy are from fermented soy beans: various miso, temphe,a little tofu cubed in miso soup, in addition to a all the fish and seaweed and veggies. Only recently has even dairy found it's way into the Asian diet and the reports are that it is wreaking havock. America has completely exploited soy.Perhaps it is better for certain menopausal women to include some in their diet. It seems that a little might be good for those women who don't have excess estrogen (another up and comming pandemic with all the synthetic estrogens in our baggies,(wax paper baggies are a great option) and water and air)So what to do when the non meat options get challenging??? Well I am a total works in progress and would love to hear others peoples ideas too. So far I have gotten more into raw food, not tons of soy or wheat there, green smoothies provide outragous protein and vitamins. Basically you use a vita mix or anyother high powered blender and just toss in the kale, chard, beet tops, carrots and tops of, berries,lemons,apple,mix with 2 cups water and liquify. Amazing body results.The book, Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko,is the source for all the info. Anyhoo, soy has lots of other yucky side effects other than hormone imbalances.I wish everyone out there lots of courage and creativity on kicking the soy habit. Just know that I will still, about every 3 months, fry up an iron skillet of fried tofu with tamari and nutrional yeast and everyone including all the meat eaters love it! I can't stick with fanatical but it's good to know the facts. And unfortunatly we can't trust our food chain anymore. Raw food books have lots of receipes and with these smoothies I feel confident that my whole family is getting super nutrition. Just have to add extra fruit to the kids to hide the green taste a bit. Brown rice burgers with veggies and carmelized onions satisfy the veggie burger satisfaction too.I could go on and on as you can tell. Bless the whole world no exceptions.Eilan
Soy milk just isn't that good for you... I wrote this in an earlier milk entry: try hemp milk instead - it's super tasty and packed with naturally great nutrition: http://www.livingharvest.com. The company (local and small in Portland, OR) also makes hemp powder too to use for shakes/smoothies.
Perhaps the people in your bay area office would like to meet Jenna Raby (co-founder) and some of the other folks at the social enterprise, LaborFair - the first online jobs matching community.
Like Kiva, LaborFair has a person-to-person (P2P) approach whereby ready-to-hire people can find a reputable household worker faster, then directly contact that person by email or mobile phone.
But it gets better.
Good workers can get more jobs and build their reputation through the online reviews they receive from people like you. They can stop papering neighborhoods with promo flyers or going through agencies that take a chunk of their pay.
Thus, with LaborFair, those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder can work their way up to a better way of life.
In collaboration with worker centers, collectives, and worker coops, microfinance institutions and faith-based organizations LaborFair.com is creating a growing network of community organizations to provide people with more training, then listed on the site.
Think of LaborFair as an eBay for household services with fair trade built into the business.
See LaborFair as a “triple good business” – good alternative for ready-to-hire consumers, good for quality workers and good for a thriving local economy.
Hire a worker and change a life: http://www.laborfair.com.
Did you know that the residents of San Francisco have free Medicare. This is one of the perks of being a San Francisco resident.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Kevin Wright | April 20, 2007 at 09:33 AM