Kathy Kuntz
USGBC IMPACT Recap: Achieve Sustainability Impacts Via Behavior Change
On May 1, 2018, Cool Choices Executive Director, Kathy Kuntz, presented a session at the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) IMPACT Conference in St. Paul, MN titled, “If It Works Here…Green Lessons from a Very Red Place.” In her presentation, Kathy spoke about the affect of behavior and social norms as the applied to our 2017 Waukesha County program. Waukesha County is considered to be the most conservative county in Wisconsin. Here is a recap of the USGBC IMPACT 2018 event and Kathy’s presentation.
Achieving Triple Bottom Line Results via Employee Engagement
More and more, companies are making a commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, alongside increased profits. In fact, diligence with the first two can have significant influence with consumers. How entities prioritize and measure the performance of all three is known as a triple bottom line accounting framework. Ultimately, entities want sustainability and social solutions that benefit the triple bottom line—solutions that deliver value to people (customers, employees, and stockholders,) the planet (wise resource use,) while also increasing profits.
Generating Earth Day Enthusiasm Every Day
This is a busy time of year for sustainability professionals. Earth Day is THE holiday for advocates promoting environmental sustainability, whether as part of a corporate sustainability program or in a community-based setting. That means that green-themed lectures and sustainability fairs abound this time of year.
Ultimately that creates two challenges: First, the efforts occur just once a year. Second, in many cases, these efforts do not engage people, as we like to say, beyond the choir – people who are already trying to live an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle.
CERTs Offers Inspiring, Effective Clean Energy Leadership in MN
Minnesota’s Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) hosted its 2018 conference, Community Driven Clean Energy, March 27-28, 2018, in central Minnesota. The event showcased the many Minnesota communities where clean energy investments are paying off. The event also highlighted ways CERTs staff is helping communities become part of the solution.
Beyond the Green Team: Engaging a Broader Sustainability Audience
As we’ve noted before, corporate sustainability is becoming the new normal. More and more companies are issuing corporate sustainability reports. In 2016, 82% of the S&P 500 issued corporate sustainability reports, up from just 20% five years earlier.
Similarly, more and more communities—red as well as blue—are committing to green goals. Reducing waste saves money and increases resilience—benefits that appeal to everyone.
Successful Sustainability Advocates Filter Good Ideas Through Reality
Every sustainability advocate can envision an ideal world: a place where everyone recycles and composts appropriately. Where stakeholders don’t waste energy or water resources, and communities where sustainable practices are just what folks do.
Ultimately, it’s not that hard to envision the ideal end point. The challenge is creating a viable path from today’s realities toward that vision. A path that meets stakeholders where they are, and then engages and inspires them to become more sustainable versions of themselves.
This Isn’t Political: Sustainability Strategies that Work Everywhere
Ultimately, creating sustainability strategies that work are about aligning practices in support of a triple bottom line—outcomes that benefit people, planet, and profitability. Entities thrive when sustainable strategies and practices are embedded within an organization’s culture, i.e.: when the sales team makes sustainable choices just as do their peers in accounting and facilities. Too often, though, sustainability professionals are stuck in a silo, talking to themselves and a small group of die-hard enthusiasts.
Women in Green: Sustainability Is a Catalyst for Gender Equality
Cool Choices Executive Director, Kathy Kuntz, spoke at Women In Green, a celebration for International Women’s Day 2018, which was organized by USGBC Wisconsin, WSBC Women in Sustainability, Evolution Marketing, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, and Milwaukee Talks Green on March 8, 2018. Emphasizing the connection between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and gender equality, Kathy urged women to lead their communities to a more sustainable and equitable future.
Behavior: The Missing Link to Your Sustainability Efforts
Sustainability professionals can leverage technological advances to achieve significant energy efficiency objectives, to be sure. Ignoring the human side of the equation is a mistake, though. Encouraging employees to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviors provides the opportunity to shape corporate culture around sustainability, ultimately facilitating deeper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across all aspects of organizational operations.
Integrating Cool Choices into the Wylie Way
We are delighted to be launching a Cool Choices sustainability engagement program for the Wylie Independent School District in Wylie, Texas.
