Communications for Development

Tomorrow I am going to a conference on a hot topic — Green Communications 2008: the case studies conference, put on by Business Development Institute and PR Newswire. I only hope it lives up to the promising relevance of its title. You can listen to the webcast live if you login here.

As someone who already thinks a lot about green communications, I hope I learn something new. So to preface what I am sure will be a titilating blog post tomorrow, here’s a mini-benchmark of my green communications knowledge.

- Walk your talk: don’t put green themes in your PR if you are not really living them out in your activities.

-Check your energy footprint. Are you really recycling everything (talk to your garbage company)? Are your lights on timers? Are you using the new energy efficient light bulbs and buying post-consumer waste paper? I hear office depot has a whole line of green products, and there are even companies that can print your company pens or catering plastic on recycled plastic. Let your building management know you care.

-Work from home for employees. During slow seasons especially, working from home has less of an energy footprint – no travel, no take out lunch, less energy use. And I am sure it would boost company morale.

-Make it someones job. Some one must be answerable to your greening plan.

-Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are a million greening blogs and studies out there already. Do your homework before you write a new white paper. One I like because its is targeted at foundations & non profits is Green Beyond Grants: A Toolkit for Greening Foundation Operations.

Now I am sure both my corporate social responsibility professor and my evaluation and measurement professor would be pleased. Tune in tomorrow to see what I’ve learned.