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What do you currently do, what are your business aspirations and what do you hope to benefit from by joining this community?: Founder of YourGreenReview.com, an interactive Green Directory and community resource for news and information on all things Green. The primary purpose of the site is to address Greenwashing by highlighting responsible companies and outlining their sustainable business practices and verifying certifications held/methods of compliance (among other things).

Owner of Eco-Assist. EA is a sustainable business consulting service specializing in Environmental Performance Auditing and Environmental Management System Integration. Through on-site facility and document analysis, E.A. aids small to mid-sized businesses assess their current environmental performance and identify low-cost opportunities to improve the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit).

Sara Rampersaud's Blog

Greening Your Business: Who, What, Why, How?

What does ‘Green’ mean to your company and how does reducing your ecological impact translate into cost savings, a stronger public image and improving the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit)? Do you go for the low hanging fruit, printing on both sides and investing in inexpensive power strips, or do you dive headlong into complex environmental management systems (EMS) to gain certifications like ISO 14001? These are just a few of the questions you, as a small to mid-sized company, may… Continue

Posted on October 23, 2008 at 2:30pm

Going Green: The Simple Stuff

'Going Green' needn't be complicated or labor intensive. Here are just a few ways to Green your office and engage employees in reaching your Eco-Goals.

1.) Track your footprints: Carbon and water audits help track usage (footprints) and are the first steps in reducing your business’s ecological impact.

2.) Eliminate… Continue

Posted on September 22, 2008 at 1:25pm — 1 Comment

Going Green: A Competitive Edge

‘Going Green’ is more than a fad; it’s the new way of doing business and essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Trimming carbon emissions, paper output and energy consumption are just a few examples of how businesses are setting themselves apart and attracting new customers concerned about the impact products and services they purchase are having on the environment. But this isn’t just a point of ethics-it’s a multi-billion dollar industry with the potential to change the face of your… Continue

Posted on September 19, 2008 at 3:30pm — 1 Comment

Comment Wall (12 comments)

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At 4:04pm on December 8, 2009, Carl said…: Sara check out facebook-coolWIRE. We have worked with COTC and they did a page.

At 7:06pm on March 31, 2009, Michael Bowers said…: Good to see you today. Let me know what Cindy says about the database set-up and if you want to set something up with a web person to look at what will be needed to set up the site like you want it.

At 11:58pm on October 13, 2008, Kirk Lampert said…: Sara, I can see the issue you're referring to on Internet Explorer 6. Edit your style.css file and change the 'width' under #search from 1003px; to 150px;

The section in your CSS file will look like this:

#search {
background:#FFFFFF url(images/top.jpg) repeat scroll 0 0;
height:64px;
margin:0 auto 0;
width:150px;
}

Let me know if you need any help. When I made that change the page looked correct on IE6.

At 5:31pm on October 13, 2008, Carl said…: Sara there was a lot of green technology at the NECA trade show I was at last week in Chicago and thought you would have liked it to get ideas. I posted a video of our product on display there on my page. Have a good day.

At 12:30am on September 25, 2008, Randy Morgan said…: Sara,
Here is the website that our Grants Specialist, Sue Spiker, found for you: http://www.communitysolution.org/nsreports.html. It has similar information like her website, with a lot of focus on use of oil/gasoline, etc. A person from the organization is going to be speaking at an upcoming community development conference, that she has info. about. She also found other websites similar to yours.

She thought you could use your website for educational purposes and perhaps have online lessons/activities that schools/homeschools, etc could access for a minimal fee. There are a few educational websites that I found provided by large companies targeting schools, etc. Maybe you could tap into the central ohio market.

At 6:41am on September 19, 2008, Carl said…: Sara,
I think you have some good ideas and they can work out well. Good luck and if you need to talk feel free to e-mail me and I will send you the LEED info.

At 9:57pm on September 18, 2008, Kirk Lampert said…: Sara,

Here is an idea you may want to consider for your site: there is a free component called the Sigsiu Online Business Index 2 (SOBI2) which would allow you to easily create green company profiles. It would also allow members of your site to add new companies once you've set it up.

SOBI2 lets you define the fields you want (e.g. Name, Address, Phone) and does all of the back end database work for you. It also provides display, sort, and search functionality and supports other plug-ins for things like user reviews and ratings.

SOBI2 plugs into a free open source content management system (CMS) called Joomla. Joomla has won several awards, is one of the most popular CMS projects, and has a very large community. Joomla has a large number of templates and extensions you can add to your site, most of which are free or very inexpensive.

Several web hosts now offer "1 click" installs of Joomla which would allow you to quickly get it up and running. From there you would want to purchase and install a template for your site's look and feel (templates are typically free to $50), then install SOBI2 and get it configured.

Here are some related links:

Joomla: http://www.joomla.org
Joomla Extensions: http://extensions.joomla.org
SOBI2: http://www.sigsiu.net/sobi2.html
Popular Joomla Template Companies:
* http://www.rockettheme.com
* http://www.yootheme.com
* http://www.templateplazza.com
* http://www.joomlart.com/blogcategory/club_portfolio.html

Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can do to help.

At 11:22am on September 17, 2008, Kirk Lampert said…: It was very nice meeting you today. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help with your web site and database.

At 10:05pm on September 15, 2008, Michael Bowers said…: Check out this post...50 Ways to take your Blog to the Next Level

At 1:56pm on September 12, 2008, Randy Morgan said…: Very interesting....how long have you been up and running? Are you located in Columbus? What are some examples of profiles you're gathering?
Me? I'm a Business Consultant/ CBA with the Ohio SBDC, as well as an entrepreneur. I've been involved in many biz ventures as start-ups, acquisitions and exits.
I'm currently launching a new company w/ a patented product. Won't let the-cat-out -of -the bag quite yet.....but it has tremendous potential and we're gaining traction now.
I've also just started my own Vacation Club/ Management Co. in SW Fla. The success of this venture has also given me the opportunity to start a cleaning company to support the new entity.
As I type this,...I'm waiting on my biz partner to update me on our project in The Domenican Republic. We're developing a condo/resort with yacht slips and possibly a casino. This one's making me a bit nervous......fingers crossed!!! I also own a company, "Innovative Capital Solutions, Ltd" - which does exactly what the title states.
Hey....this might be a great start to my ABOUT ME section on this site. What do you think?