Green Zone - Introduction

Hello and welcome to our Green Zone. I'm creating a new section of our blog designed to let the world know what we've been up to regarding our company's impact on the environment and what we're doing to help. You can expect bi-weekly installments, links, pictures, definitions, personal observations and stories about what positive things we did, what we’re doing, what we hope to do in the future and why. 

As any company should, Zone 5 has taken some common green approaches and applied them to our daily lives. There have also been some complicated problems that required solving and I want to share these stories with you for a few reasons. First, being environmentally aware should be considered standard business practice. It's becoming obvious that indifference isn't an option anymore. Second, in business not only do you have to actually do something positive, you have to let the world know what you did and why it was good. Third, I intend to remind everyone how easy being environmentally conscious actually is. Some of the green alternatives we implemented were even easier and CHEAPER than traditional methods. So easy in fact, that several of our goals were achieved by either a single phone call or a double click of the mouse.

So what exactly does “green” mean? The dictionary says “environmentally sound or beneficial” but everyone has their own personalized version. The more I learn the more it feels like a checklist of what not to do, but here at Zone 5 we aren’t interested in doing nothing, not to mention doing nothing doesn’t make for a very entertaining blog post. So this blog will focus on what we did instead. Also, we’ve heard the buzz words – sustainability, post-consumer content, carbon footprint etc. I'm going to take these concepts and explain how they apply to Zone 5 and what they mean to us.

Since this is our first introduction I want to let everyone know where I'm coming from. I'm not Al Gore. Not everything I do is green. I don’t drive a Prius (although my relative does) nor am I a forest ranger. That said, the older I get the more I find myself caring about the environment and the easier it feels to come up with environmentally friendly solutions in my personal and professional life.

In summary, what is the point of this blog? What is the point of life? Simple. Make everything better all the time. Improve your health, your environmental impact, your career, your relationships. Learn more about whatever you are into. Get better at it. Everything better than it was before. Check back in a couple weeks for my next installment. Hope to see you then, thanks.