From the Source- A good place to start when looking for a green caterer is to find out what type of food they use. Packaged, frozen and canned food not only lacks the quality of fresh food, but they require more packaging. Look for a caterer who utilizes local, fresh foods that are in season. This will not only ensure the tastiest of meals, but the greenest as well.

What Wares? Another important part of catering is the equipment and wares. An important aspect of green catering is minimal waste. Ask potential caterers if they use disposable chaffing pans and frames. If so, you might want to find a caterer with their own professional equipment. Also, inquire about the dishes. Not only do you want to avoid having your guests easting off of unattractive Styrofoam plates, you do not want to be responsible for the environmental harm. Plus, disposable wares are a good sign of a shoddy caterer.

Location Counts- Just as you do not want your food traveling hundreds of miles, you also do not want your caterer to make a major road trip for your event. Sometimes, setting up an event can take more than one trip from the caterer’s headquarters to the location of your event. Needless to say, the less driving, the better.

What’s Left? Because of Health Code regulations in most states, it is illegal to keep the food that is not consumed at the event. Often times, this means that very edible, totally safe food is thrown away. Not only is this a waste of food, it is a waste of the resources that went into preparing and serving the meal as well. Check with potential caterers to see what they do with left over food. Some caterers will donate leftover food to shelters that take prepared foods.

In the end, it is important to communicate your green desires with any potential caterer. Chances are, they will be willing to try and meet your expectations, even if it means they must adapt they way they do business.

While I was bothered by the amount of money were spending on these methods of advertisement, I was even more disturbed to see the unnecessary waste we were generating in the process. Not only did each method involve a paper product of some sort (non-post consumer recycled, I'm sure), the printing of our advertisement (non-soy based ink, no doubt) and the shipping of the material to our headquarters (and they didn't arrive in a fleet of Hybrids). Also, I would argue that instead of being read and thus effective, many of our ads fell on blind eyes, or into the hands of the wrong demographic.

Enter MySpace. Given that I don't have a conscious memory of what it is like not to have a computer, it only seems fitting that the youngest member of the family would be the one to usher the business into the MySpace world. When I first asked the bosses if our business had a MySpace page, they looked at me as though I was speaking another language and, in a sense, I was.

Innovest, an investment research firm, launched the study in order to better understand the effect of sustainability upon potential business investment. What they found was a much more substantial difference than most had predicted. In fact, the report found that, "In the longer term, the out-performance potential will become even greater as the capital markets become more fully sensitized to the financial and competitive consequences of environmental and climate change considerations”.

While this may be great news for some, it does not mean happy days for all. The report noted that the 'strong and postive' correlation between a business's performance and its sustainability was not necessarily true for every sector of business.

One day at lunch I was looking around my office at the many, many people eating and talking, and it dawned on me: most (if not all) of these people rely on individual transportation to get to work. "What a shame!" I thought to myself. "If there was only a way to reduce the amount that people had to drive to get to work!" With a mass rail or transit system out of the question, because we do not live in a very densely populated place, I began racking my brain for ways to decrease the amount of carbon produce by my office in our collect daily commute.

Inspired by a comment from my mom ("If you are so unhappy with the situation, why don't you just quit!"), I decided to attempt to not go into work. No, I didn't quit. What I did do was sit down with my boss and analyze the work I do on a day-to-day basis, and which things I do that could be done from home.

While it was not an easy subject to approach, nor the most comfortable conversation I have ever had, I came out with a totally new work schedule. It was important to stress that I would not be doing less work, nor would the quality of my work decrease. Also, we agreed that if either scenario happened, that I would immediately return to my normal work schedule. Now, instead of driving to work five days a week, arrive at 9 am and leaving around 5pm, I have flexibility in my "office hours."

Very recently my boss came to me and said. “Jessica, we need to do something about the graveyard, it is getting seriously out of control”. She was right. The box had turned into three boxes, nearly spilling out into the hallway whenever someone opened the door. So, now I had a mission. I had to figure out someway to deal with the tech stuff that was more sustainable than keeping it a closet (out of sight, out of mind- right?). Well, little did I know, the answer would be waiting for me in my inbox the next day. A friend of mine sent me an article that she thought I might find interesting. And interesting it was! Here is what I found out…

Since 1998, Rev. Charles Morris has been on a mission to make his church a sustainable place to worship, and the results are quite impressive. St. Elizabeth's Church, in Wyandotte, Michigan, is not only a place of God, but a place of innovation as well. It has taken Rev. Morris almost ten years, and over $150,000 to make his church a beacon of both religion and sustainability, two things he believes go hand in hand.

It all started with a heightened awareness of the harms of global warming, mixed with a responsibility to to his faith. The more educated the Reverend became about peak oil and depleted natural resources, the more worried he became about the prospects for future generations. At the same time, he could not help but feel that every bit of energy wasted was somehow connected to God. As he put it, "I was worried about our relationship to energy, and about our relationship to God… he is the creator of all everything, including life and energy." Instead of preaching from the pulpit, the Michigan priest got involved.

Pull the Plug — Is your microwave being used 24/7? No? Then why is it plugged in? While idle appliances don't take up a ton of energy, think about all the small lights that shine, blink or flash throughout your office. Each of those displays requires energy to light up. Further, even appliances without lights or displays can consume energy when they are not turned on. Stand-by appliances can add a constant 50-watt drain to your power supply.

Your computer is a big contributor to the problem of wasted energy. Did you know that when your computer is completely idle, even if your monitor is off, it still is probably pulling about 100 watts from the wall.

Now, you may be thinking, "green event planning?" Apparently there is an awful lot of environmental degradation happening at the hands of big events. As Seven-Star explains,

As planners, producers and consultants, our job is to provide easy, economical and practical solutions to reduce your event's impact on the environment and society. Every event has associated negative impacts: Carbon emissions result from shipping, exhibitors and attendees use fuel for travel, waste is generated, electricity is used, the list goes on. Our goal is to reduce and mitigate these negatives, then transform them into more profit for you and positive PR for your event.

Seven-Star has incorporated their sustainable philosophy, known as eR/sR, into their day-to-day operations. eR/sR is an acronym for environmentally responsible and socially respectful. As the company notes, "We coined the term eR/sR to precisely describe the high standard we believe in: true environmental responsibility and social respect. It's simple, it's user-friendly, and in the world we live in today, eR/sR is synonymous with a powerful alternative."

Resources — Just as two heads are better than one, the collective knowledge of several business owners can be extremely valuable. While I may not have known how to install a greywater system in my building, the café owner down the street sure did! By getting together to troubleshoot, you can save a lot of wasted energy searching for answers that your group members may already have. Having trouble finding the right green products for your company? More than likely, other group members will have helpful tips about the green products they use. Also, by combining areas of expertise, business can use each other as sounding boards for new ideas.

According to The Low Income Project Team, food deserts are "areas of relative exclusion where people experience physical and economic barriers to accessing healthy food." This does not mean that people in food deserts do not have access to any food... just the stuff that is relatively good for them.

In fact, a food desert often has an abundance of "fringe locations," or businesses that do not serve the sole purpose of selling foodstuffs, yet where food is available think dollar stores, gas stations, liquor stores, etc.). The type of food sold at these stores is usually the worst type of food, and when the only food available is pre-packaged, and full of preservatives, there are bound to be health risks.

In June, LaSalle bank sponsored a study that explored the nature of food deserts in Detroit, Michigan. Not surprisingly, what they found was a high concentration of food deserts. The report noted that "more than a half million Detroit residents live in areas defined as food deserts — areas that require residents to travel twice as far or more to reach the closest mainstream grocer than to reach the closest fringe food location."