Bringing green to business

While the green movement has some people buying hybrid cars, using compact fluorescent light bulbs and buying organic foods, for businesses, going green is often not so simple. In addition to striving toward sustainability, many companies face a tangle of regulations that complicate their efforts. Spotting a way he could help businesses become greener - and more profitable - University of Wisconsin Oshkosh geology graduate Tony Ungerer '86, launched a consulting company that works to do just that.

Petra Environmental Consultants, in Merrill, Wis., has offered businesses and manufacturing firms environmental consulting services and programs since 1997. These compliance programs help companies keep in line with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agency rules.

"If you look at all the regulations, they are the most convoluted mess you've ever seen," Ungerer said. "I help industry deal with the mess of rules and regulations."

Ungerer worked with the Wisconsin DNR to develop several permit streamlining processes that have been in place since 2006. To take his compliance programs further, he is becoming an Environmental Management Systems (EMS) auditor and is pursuing a master's degree in business management. He hopes to package his environmental management systems so users can more easily "take them off the shelf" and apply them to their businesses. And while regulations are complicated, there are a lot of tips Ungerer can offer to help businesses see ways they can be more sustainable.

"For instance, in an advanced EMS program, a business may look at their vendors and select one based on their environmental impacts (e.g., using electric vehicles). It costs less and is better for the environment," Ungerer explained. "Or, an EMS may assess better ways of reducing impacts due to travel. For instance, instead of flying multiple speakers to your location, going to them may be a better option from a business standpoint, and incidentally, have environmental benefits. You keep building this system, and it becomes a way of doing business."

Ungerer said that while today's technologies make it easier for businesses to be responsible, managing that technology and making sure the government is satisfied is a challenge. For him, that's job security. But he sees environmental management systems in the future as not so much an environmental initiative, but simply the way business is done. And when that happens, he said, "sustainability" will be just a buzzword of the past.

Eco-minded entrepreneur

Sometimes a single college course can transform a student forever.
Such was the case with Jennifer (Schauer) Kelly '01, when she attended a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh biology class.

"Ecosphere in Crisis was an overview of everything that was going wrong with the environment," Kelly said. "It changed my worldview and my perspective on how to live."

In addition to going eco-friendly in her daily life - eating organic foods, composting and recycling whenever possible - Kelly has made environmentalism a major component of her career.
She and her husband Steve, owners of S.K. Flooring in Appleton, Wis., encourage customers to choose green materials for countertops and flooring, including recycled glass and metal, plantation-grown bamboo, cork harvested from bark rather than felled trees or repurposed wood from old buildings.

Natural options, such as wool carpet and Marmoleum, an all-natural linoleum, directly benefit an individual's health as well as the planet's.

"What consumers need to do is look at what products they are placing in their homes and try to minimize the synthetic chemicals used in those products in order to maintain a higher quality of air," she said, adding that doctors have begun recommending formaldehyde-free flooring to asthma patients.

After earning a bachelor's degree in communication from UW Oshkosh, Kelly received a master's degree in environmental science and policy at UW-Green Bay. This fall, she will step away from business operations to pursue a doctorate in environmental sociology at Michigan State University. Her goal is to educate others about environmentalism as a college professor.

"Sustainability is a way of life. The more intertwined people become, the more it makes sense," she said. "It's common sense."

Living green, naturally

A commitment to sustainability and a desire for a simpler life have led University of Wisconsin Oshkosh sociology graduate Erik Kraemer '07, to a dramatically different lifestyle.

Kraemer, an organic farmer living in Neenah, Wis., trades farm work for room and board and makes a modest income - less than $3,000 a year - selling the vegetables he's raised. The occasional odd job keeps him afloat while he waits to take his crops to market.

"I'll just break even this year," Kraemer said. "Strangely, I don't mind. I'm better fed than most."

By living off the land, owning very few possessions and relying on finding people who are willing to trade goods for services, Kraemer's lifestyle may seem extreme to some people. But he points out that what he does removes him from the "rat race" and gives him time and freedom to enjoy simpler pleasures.

"I get to cut firewood for the winter, read, write and listen to music,"Kraemer said.

And his modest income doesn't prevent him from traveling. Last year, he visited Mexico with like-minded people who saw promise in his desire to re-order the economic value of farming in modern society. He hopes he can work with his friends in the future to start an organic farm in Mexico, while bringing back native art to the United States. The goal: to change the world.