Lots of small and midsize companies want to go green, but are afraid they can't afford it. Guidance, a Southern California Web design and e-commerce shop, makes it work for the planet, and the bottom line.
When Web design and development shop Guidance decided to to "go green" back in 2007, the idea wasn't even their own. It was inspired by an even "greener" client -- Bentley Prince Street carpet -- who demonstrated that sustainability and business success could go hand in hand.
Based in sunny Marina Del Rey, Calif., 16-year-old Guidance is a Web-based design/coding/hosting/project management shop employing some 53 professionals. The company specializes in e-commerce implementations for some high-profile entertainment industry clients like Universal Television as well as retailers large and small from Foot Locker to the Salvation Army, and also does Web development, portals and work for clients in the energy sector. Jon Provisor, co-owner, CTO & SVP Business Development, descibes his company as "outsourced IT for Web solutions," relying on Java, Microsoft, and open source solutions.
So where does the green stuff come in? Back in 2007, the company created the Guidance Green concept as an important part of the company's identity, with its own logo and everything:
It hasn't changed the world, yet, but it is making a difference.
"I don't think anyone has come to us and said, 'Because you are green, we want to do business with you,' but it's definitely part of the package" of how Guidance presents itself to clients, Provisor says. "We feel a little bit like a pioneer, and we often help our clients do it. Not as a service, just what we consider the right thing to do." The key, of course, "is that you still have to be very price competitive and provide value."
Fortunately for Guidance, "We're a service company, and our costs are largely our employees. I think it was relatively easy for us to be a green company." Guidance absorbed the costs, which "are not calculated into the cost of services to our clients."
It may even have saved money, since energy is Guidance's largest expense after its people. "We don't travel too much," Provisor says, "and our people live relatively close."
Worldwide, information technology contributes only about 2% of the total greenhouse gasses, with the biggest contributions coming from PCs and Monitors (39%) and servers and cooling (23%), and telecommunications (15% fixed and 9% mobile).
Gartner breaks down the sources of IT's CO2 emissions
Ironically, the hardest part of going green is measuring it, Provisor says. How do you track all the things that have environmental impacts, from electricity and computing to airline travel, commuting and even the office refrigerator? At the beginning of each year, Guidance fills out a spreadsheet that details the number of therms of gas purchased, kilowatt-hours of electricity used, and miles commuted during the previous year. According to Provisor, "Guidance requires all employees to submit their roundtrip commute information along with their vehicle's city and highway MPG. In addition, we keep all of our electric and gas bills to calculate the information needed."
Provisor recalls that "It took some thought, but the business processes were fairly straightforward."
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