That’s the image Fairmont Hotels & Resorts wants its customers and business partners to picture. It’s part of the luxury hotel chain’s Green Partnership Program to not only boost business, but cut operating costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well.

The chain has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20% below 2006 levels by 2013. Fairmont’s touting this strategy because tracking GHG emissions is becoming the major benchmark for its industry, and the chain intends to position itself as an industry leader.

To help meet its CO2 reduction goal, Fairmont just adopted a Green IT strategy to attack energy usage. By the end of the year, Fairmont hotels will:

• automatically power down computer workstations and laptops after one hour of inactivity, which will earn the chain GHG reduction credits of 1,356 tons of CO2 a year
• divert electronic wastes from disposal to recycling in markets that support e-waste recycling
• develop donation standards to make sure Fairmont hotels and spas send e-wastes to qualified and respected recycling companies and charities
• adopt a green procurement policy to only buy products that are certified under the Energy Star or Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool programs, and
• partner with service companies that adopt Extended Product Responsibility programs.

Fairmont’s Green IT announcement is here.

The hotel chain has also adopted a green laundry program, using an ozone disinfection system that reduced energy costs by 20%. The Laundry Ozone Purification System is a non-invasive and passive injection technology that Fairmont says has dramatically reduced water, sewer, gas and electric bills at its Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma Valley, CA.

Details about Fairmont’s ozone laundry program are here.

Cisco reveals that when it focused on improving its workers’ quality of life, productivity jumped sharply and contact with customers remained just as high as when everybody was working out of an office all the time.

After opening up telecommuting to his employees 18 months ago, Cisco CEO John Chambers says his company has tallied $277 million in productivity savings.

The company also claims credits for helping reduce smog and ozone air pollution as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions by keeping its workers’ cars off the road.

Of the 2,000 Cisco workers surveyed:

• 91% said telecommuting is “somewhat or very important” to their job satisfaction
• 69% said they improved productivity by working from home
• 75% said timeliness of their work improved
• 80% said ability to communicate with co-workers is the same or better when telecommuting, and
• 80% said telecommuting improved their quality of life.

Cisco workers averaged two days a week telecommuting.

The Cisco survey is here.

Part of the way to make telecommuting work is to use computer software — virtual office technology — that lets the employee link up with company and customer computers remotely. Cisco provides this type of networking gear under the name Cisco Virtual Office.

Skip the greenwashing, but proudly tout how your offering helps reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

It turns out most consumers want to buy something green — they’re just looking for a reason to do it. So don’t be shy about telling them why your products are good for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) and GHG emissions.

Oh, and don’t fret if your think your competition is greener than you.  It turns out that companies making many environmentally friendly products aren’t doing such a great job of making the case for themselves.

Nearly 70% of those consumers surveyed by the Carbon Trust recently said they can’t reliably tell which companies are truly green. That creates a huge opportunity for marketers who can beef up their green campaigns.

The value of getting on your soapbox is underscored by other findings, such as:

• 66% said it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies that work on reducing their own and their customers’ carbon footprints
• 63% said they’d likely buy a product if they knew what you’re doing to reduce its carbon footprint
• 59% are skeptical about environmental claims
• 25% avoid buying from companies with poor ethical records, and
• 14% stopped buying from companies with poor environmental records.

But to win over consumer confidence, don’t just rely on advertising claims. Carbon Trust’s Harry Morrison says consumers aren’t looking for hype.  So you’ll need to offer real green benefits and have those benefits touted either in the media, through accreditation or some non-partisan third party.

The Carbon Trust survey is here.

To help you get started on your carbon footprint homework, Carbon Trust offers some tools to benchmark your energy, fuel, and vehicle usage as well as employee travel. For the Trust’s carbon footprint calculators, click here.

Wanna beat the recession and get a leg up on your competitors at the same time? Then make sure you’re shouting about the (real) eco-friendly aspects of your products and services.

Skip the greenwashing, but proudly tout how your offering helps reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

It turns out most consumers want to buy something green — they’re just looking for a reason to do it. So don’t be shy about telling them why your products are good for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) and GHG emissions.

Oh, and don’t fret if your think your competition is greener than you.  It turns out that companies making many environmentally friendly products aren’t doing such a great job of making the case for themselves.

Nearly 70% of those consumers surveyed by the Carbon Trust recently said they can’t reliably tell which companies are truly green. That creates a huge opportunity for marketers who can beef up their green campaigns.

The value of getting on your soapbox is underscored by other findings, such as:

• 66% said it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies that work on reducing their own and their customers’ carbon footprints
• 63% said they’d likely buy a product if they knew what you’re doing to reduce its carbon footprint
• 59% are skeptical about environmental claims
• 25% avoid buying from companies with poor ethical records, and
• 14% stopped buying from companies with poor environmental records.

But to win over consumer confidence, don’t just rely on advertising claims. Carbon Trust’s Harry Morrison says consumers aren’t looking for hype.  So you’ll need to offer real green benefits and have those benefits touted either in the media, through accreditation or some non-partisan third party.

The Carbon Trust survey is here.

To help you get started on your carbon footprint homework, Carbon Trust offers some tools to benchmark your energy, fuel, and vehicle usage as well as employee travel. For the Trust’s carbon footprint calculators, click here.

Repainting a roof white can deflect 75% of the sun’s light back into the atmosphere, thus reducing the impact of global warming attributed to the sun.

And, with all that heat bouncing off the roof, a business can dramatically reduce its air conditioning bill, which then helps reduce the other cause of climate change: greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

It’s a strategy that Steven Chu, Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), started promoting as something simple and relatively easy to do.

The Washington Post reports that research at Chu’s former employer, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, predicts that painting 63% of roofs white in 100 cities in the world’s temperate and tropical areas would have the same global warming reduction impact as removing all cars off the road for 10 years. The Post story is here.

Chu says DOE will explore ways to encourage more white roofs on private and public buildings in the U.S.

But the white roof idea’s not just a math exercise. California already requires flat roofs to be white and Wal Mart has white roofs on 75% of its stores.

Smaller buildings are also adopting the white roof idea. In Tallahassee, FL, a new FSU Credit Union branch will include a white roof. The building will qualify for a silver rating under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

Builder Culpepper Construction Co., Inc. says the white roof will cut the sun’s heat effect in half and reduced the size of the bank’s air conditioning system.

Click here for FSU’s story.

A new Washington Post/ABC News survey reveals that 75% of the public think it’s time for the feds to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants, factories and even their own cars.

Critically, the survey also notes that this widespread support for limiting the emissions blamed for causing global warming comes from Republicans, Democrats and independent voters. The poll comes just as Congress wrestles this summer with a 1,201-page bill to create a national cap-and-trade program to manage carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHG reductions.

However, there’s much less agreement over how to regulate GHGs. The poll notes that only 52% of those polled support the cap-and-trade program that would provide a cushion against huge price spikes and encourage market forces to temper regulatory costs.

And when those polled realize that reducing GHGs will hurt their bank accounts, support for action falls a bit more. When asked if they’d support GHG regulation if it cost them money:

• 62% still supported GHG action if it means higher prices
• 56% supported action if it boosted utility bills by $10 a month, and
• 44% supported action if utilities bills increased by $25 a month.

The survey also reveals that the younger the voter, the more supportive of a cap-and-trade program.

Nearly 80% of the under 30 crowd supported federal emission limits on GHGs while only 50% of seniors favored such action. Cap-and-trade support split along generational lines as well: Two-thirds of young voters supported it while only 40% of seniors like the cap-and-trade idea.

The Washington Post story is here.

A new study from the U.S. Global Change Research Program concludes there’s no doubt that climate change is here, and that unless action is taken to reduce CO2 and other GHG emissions, like today and right away, the effects will intensify. The program uses scientific experts from 13 federal agencies and the White House.

The report clearly makes the case that former vice president Al Gore was right about global warming.

Weather changes are already making an impact in the U.S. include more severe droughts in the Southwest, more storms in the Midwest and East and rising sea levels from Alaska to Florida. The cause? Human activity, from the industrial revolution through today.

And, what’s going to really upset those who don’t want to believe global warming is a problem, is that this report isn’t the work of President Obama, but the summation of 10 years of research conducted by the Bush administration.

The report warns that the weather changes caused by global warming will be more severe as the years pass. For example, summertime in Illinois will soon feel like steamy Louisiana.

As weather patterns change, snowpack and water supplies are already diminishing in the West, Southwest and Northwest. This hurts more than farmers and ranchers. Falling water levels in streams and rivers reduces hydroelectric power generation.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program report is here.

To see a slide of the extreme jump in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere compared over the past 800,000 years, click here. The site includes other slides graphically proving that global warming is occurring now.

The study’s top 10 key findings that will make global warming skeptics howl are here.

It may be hard for some global warming skeptics to believe, but the effects of all those greenhouse gases (GHGs) accumulating in the atmosphere are already creating severe climatic changes.

A new study from the U.S. Global Change Research Program concludes there’s no doubt that climate change is here, and that unless action is taken to reduce CO2 and other GHG emissions, like today and right away, the effects will intensify. The program uses scientific experts from 13 federal agencies and the White House.

The report clearly makes the case that former vice president Al Gore was right about global warming.

Weather changes are already making an impact in the U.S. include more severe droughts in the Southwest, more storms in the Midwest and East and rising sea levels from Alaska to Florida. The cause? Human activity, from the industrial revolution through today.

And, what’s going to really upset those who don’t want to believe global warming is a problem, is that this report isn’t the work of President Obama, but the summation of 10 years of research conducted by the Bush administration.

The report warns that the weather changes caused by global warming will be more severe as the years pass. For example, summertime in Illinois will soon feel like steamy Louisiana.

As weather patterns change, snowpack and water supplies are already diminishing in the West, Southwest and Northwest. This hurts more than farmers and ranchers. Falling water levels in streams and rivers reduces hydroelectric power generation.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program report is here.

To see a slide of the extreme jump in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere compared over the past 800,000 years, click here. The site includes other slides graphically proving that global warming is occurring now.

The study’s top 10 key findings that will make global warming skeptics howl are here.