Were you surprised to win the Green Business Leadership Award? 

We were shocked to win the Green Business Leadership Award.  There are so many amazing companies in the Green America Green Business Network that we admire and are inspired by.  We felt honored just to be nominated and had no expectation of winning.

What do you think set you apart from the competition? 

We seek to make a strong and supportive personal connection with all of our clients, and have the good fortune of doing that with many of the other Green Business Network members.  Also, we have a bit of surprise factor around offering a green alternative for merchant services, which is not something people expect and makes us unique.

How did the award make you feel and how do you think it will impact your business? 

Gratitude was the primary feeling following the announcement.  It meant so much to us to be recognized by the peers we admire, work with (Vital Hemptations was also a nominee and is a current client) and seek to serve. 

The impact on the business was a wonderful sense of affirmation and appreciation for the support.  We hope it will lead to more people working with us, and more people being inspired to make sustainable choices in all aspects of their business.

What’s green about your business and what made you decide to be green?

We consider the environmental impact when making all of our internal product and service choices.  This means choosing everything from recycled paper, soy-based inks, fair-trade coffee and planet-friendly cleaners for our office, to banking with New Resource Bank, hosting our website with a solar powered hosting company and using Better World Telecom for our internet and phone service.  We post all of the things we do on our website and actively solicit ideas from clients, partners and colleagues.

We decided to take this approach as soon as we sat down to design the company.  Dharma is a Sanskrit word that means “right action” and we saw operating with concern for the environment as a natural expression of that.

What’s your advice to other green businesses? 

Make sure you offer value to your customer beyond just being green, so that customers are able to choose you as a sound business decision.  We can’t expect our customers to pay any extra for our environmental practices.  Above all, we have to be an excellent merchant service provider so that our client is able to choose to work with us.  Only then can we offer the additional benefit of being green.  So make sure you are a great choice from a pure business decision standpoint, and then offer the added benefit of sustainability.

For businesses that aren’t green, what advice do you have for them?

If operating more sustainably seems daunting, break the approach down into small pieces, and recognize that every effort, no matter how small, makes a difference. 

Also, seek support in going green from networking groups and associations that focus on sustainability.  Leveraging the experience and education offered by those communities will prevent not knowing where to start and reinventing the wheel.  A great example is the Green Chamber of Commerce.

Finally, recognize that more and more companies, in every industry, are operating sustainably.  This increases the potential to choose green product suppliers and green service providers for all aspects of your business.

Did you face any obstacles in the process of “going green”?

We didn’t face any significant obstacles in going green, as we have plenty of control over our operations.  The downstream process is another story, where there are still BPA chemicals in credit card receipts, and terminals aren’t being recycled properly.  We’re looking into possible alternatives to this method of printing with some of our paper suppliers next year.  We use refurbished terminals whenever possible, but we also want to start a recycling program for non-functioning terminals.

Why did you join the Green Chamber?

We joined the Green Chamber to be a part of a like-minded business community and show our support for green policy initiatives.

Is there anything else about Dharma Merchant Services that you want Green Chamber members to know?

In addition to being green, we also have a socially-responsible aspect to our business: we donate 10% of the profits we make on each account to a charity that the account owner chooses.  Like Working Assets or Give Something Back office supply, we’re using a commoditized service to redirect money to non-profit organizations and back into the community.

The council started earlier this year when leaders with the Obama transition team approached several of the organizations involved in ASBC and asked them to arrange a meeting with leaders in the sustainable and socially responsible business community. After several meetings, the White House asked the group to draft a statement of principles and priorities. The group was able to get 1,300 business leaders to sign on and commit to these principles. As ASBC organizer David Brodwin explains, “Since there was such an overwhelming response, from there we decided to continue the effort as an onward force for change. Sustainable and socially responsible businesses need eyes and ears in Washington, someone on the Hill tracking progress of legislation, someone working with the media to frame the issues. Doing this kind of work for one association is just as easy as doing it for one hundred. So we thought, let’s get together and share the work so that even small business groups can have access to high quality information and advocacy tools.”

American Sustainable Business Council works on a wide range of issues, and policy priorities are set by the organizations that participate in the Council. There is broad support for climate protection and the development of a better energy policy for America. Recent news of major corporations leaving the U.S. Chambershows a split in the business community, and ASBC sees more businesses backing climate protection because they recognize it as a national economic imperative. Another hot advocacy topic for the council is financial reform. “The established Wall St. interests are competing against business owners and operators who don’t want to be knocked around by the upheaval in the capital market,” states Brodwin. In addition, several groups focus on small scale, local economic development, and on sustainable agriculture and food safety.

The partnership with Green Chamber sprouted from common connections in the Bay Area sustainable business community. Most early members came on board through connections and word-of-mouth, but now ASBC is taking a much more pro-active approach and reaching out to prospective partners. The next phase for the council is to recruit city-based and regional groups from all over the country, focusing on groups in politically divided places where the elected representatives are potentially persuadable on the key issues. Says Brodwin, “We’ve seen sustainable business groups emerging up in Pittsburgh, Houston and many other cities across the U.S. By joining ASBC, these groups can draw on a wealth of resources in policy and advocacy developed by other groups across the country, and they can gain broader support for their own initiatives.”

Support from business leaders is critical in pitched battles over climate protection and other issues. Brodwin says many policy makers want to do the right thing, but need the support of a strong local business network. “These policy makers need the business community’s help so they’re not branded as anti-growth and anti-job simply because they support an economy that can prosper over the long term.

ASBC hopes that members in the Green Chamber will take action on policy campaigns as they are launched, and also to help identify and recruit other business organizations into the council. “The faster we recruit other organizations, the stronger this association will be for everyone involved,” says Brodwin. “So if members are aware of other associations with which this message might resonate — whether they be sustainability groups in other cities, industry associations, associations representing coops and other innovative business models — please let us know. We are trying to cast a broad net and invite everyone to be a part of ASBC who shares our core values and wants to see change in the world.” To find out more information about ASBC, visit their website at www.asbcouncil.org or contact dbrodwin@asbcouncil.org.