"Although I was raised being naturally conservative, my inspiration for creating this solution came from a disturbing awareness gained while serving my clients.   I realized 'green' was chaos."

Recognizing a need:  A couple of years ago I had two dedicated ‘green’ businesses as clients -- one, a solar venture and the other, a builder that specializes in energy-efficient foundations for homes.   As I have done with all of my marketing projects before I begin, I put my head in my client's industry to learn what challenges, perceptions and misperceptions might exist.  When I examined the 'green' industry I instantly saw chaos, misuse, abuse and a lack of real progress. In fact, no one was able to even quantify the word 'green'.  Being feverishly solutions-driven, I couldn't resist the opportunity to create a solution that would not only help dedicated 'green' businesses rise above the chaos, but also create a simplified yet meaningful plan for every member of society, a tool for transparency, a way to measure progress and a social, financial and environmental incentive for all to engage.

A little research ... What were the businesses that I support doing?  As a practical exercise I decided to examine the businesses in my life to determine what they were doing environmentally.  I visited the websites of 15 businesses that I use in my professional and personal life, including: the printer I use for my client projects, my vendors, our grocery store, my coffee shop, companies that make the products that I purchase, our homeowner's and health insurance companies, our children's school, our recycling hauler and even our state government offices.  By doing this I learned that a few of these businesses/organizations had a 'green' message on their site and many didn't.  When reading the environmental page on the websites that had one, I really struggled to understand what they were actually doing.  One website communicated their goal to reduce their CO2 by 20% in 5 years ... yet when I read further, it wasn't clear what they were currently doing or how they intended to achieve that goal.

As a result, I was compelled to take my research one step further.  I called each of the 15 businesses/organizations whose websites I visited and interviewed them.  I asked them a number of questions (many of the questions are part of our criteria today) beginning with: Does your company recycle glass, aluminum, plastic, paper, and electronics?  Does your company use post-consumer paper in your office equipment? ....   Almost every answer was 'no'.   I gathered from my conversations that in a couple of cases there were efforts being made, but ultimately each company and organization sounded burdened by the task of trying to figure out what to do, how to benefit from it  and how to communicate their actions to the public.  I learned that in most cases the basics were being overlooked -- basics that are not only environmentally meaningful, but that can also significantly reduce their expenses.  

Consumers will switch their loyalty:  The next thing I wanted to know was whether consumers care.  The research to this question already existed thanks to many national and international studies such as, Gallup, Tandberg Global Studies, Cone Research, Good Purpose ...  Each of the studies indicate that more than 80% of consumers will switch their loyalty to support a company or organization that is more environmentally responsible (if the company is offering a like service/product for an equal price, convenience and quality). That statistic is the answer.  If genuine green actions can create a market share advantage, then we should be light-years ahead of where we are both environmentally and economically.   The challenge is, consumers have no way of knowing what a company does or doesn't do and businesses are exhausted trying to figure out what to do, how to communicate it, and how to rise above the chaos of 'green-washing'.   

Creating a solution: With the assistance from the Center for Energy and Environment, we established a 14 point criteria which consists primarily of cost-reducing EPA recommended actions.   At a minimum, every member of society can achieve a minimum of 9 of the 14 actions.   We created a one-stop-shop:  an easy yet meaningful plan, instant resources to implement the plan and online/on-location communication tools to deliver the message.  We have created financial and social networking incentives for every member of society to be inspired to participate and we have developed a universal method for transparency. 

With UP, even one child can change the world ... Eco-Heros and Exponential Progress:  One of the most exciting features of UPonGREEN  is that it has a way to visually display how one person, school or company can create exponential progress and perhaps improve the world at large.  With UPonGREEN, even one child could inspire an infinite lineage or tree of progress.  Here's a real-life scenario ... Currently we have schools that are UPonGREEN.  As a result, we now have children going home asking their parents to get their household UP (it's free for households/individuals).  Those children are also asking their parents to get their workplaces to meet the criteria and get UPonGREEN; and their workplaces are getting UP and inspiring their employees and vendors/suppliers to get UP; and those new members have inspired others, and so on... That is how one little child can spark a measurable change in the world.  And with our new EcoTree feature, we can visually show the exponential lineage of progress one person, one business or one child has inspired and how far their wildfire of progress continues to grow.  Imagine if the parent's workplace was 3M, Walmart or Cargill with thousands of vendors and hundreds of thousands of employees?  Change can come easily if we have a plan, simple tools and the right incentives to perpetuate it.

It's already working:  We have information from our business members and familiy members that shows that individuals and families that are UP are deliberately choosing businesses that are UP and they are also asking businesses that they support, to get UP! 

Transparency is Key:  Consumers and the public should have instant access to the genuine Eco-Profiles of all businesses, organizations and public offices, and those organizations who are willing to present their Eco-Profiles publicly, should be commended and should win the loyalty of consumers who care.

UP's Motto: 'Doing good' should be good for business.  In fact, we'd like to help make 'doing good'  become a measurable profit-point for all businesses and organizations.  With UPonGREEN, there are distinct advantages for those who are choosing to do the right thing and even public & financial advantages for our members who inspire others to participate.  Our solution is explosively viral with a positive purpose and a measurable outcome. 

There are no barriers to participate in UP.  It's a win-win-win:  We believe that we have created a win-win-win initiative that removes the burden and makes it easy to do the right thing and be transparent in your actions.    If I can be blunt, "No more meetings and discussions. It's time for measurable collective action."

Our program unites us all to embrace common actions for progress.  UPonGREEN is not exclusive, instead it is fully inclusive bringing greater awareness to other certification programs as well.  

If you'd like to be part of the solution with us, get UP and begin growing an EcoTree of Progress by inspiring others. 

Cheers,

Michelle "Mitch" Hedlund - Founder