Yellowstone Region Business Leaders Graduate with UnCommon Sense

Idaho Falls, ID (PRWEB) November 5, 2007 -- The UnCommon Sense Class of 2007 agrees that change is hard, but while it ain't easy being green, it's imperative for the future of their businesses. Eight businesses in the Yellowstone - Teton region, an area encompassing 25 counties in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, recently graduated from the Yellowstone Business Partnership's inaugural class of UnCommon Sense during a ceremony held at Four Seasons Jackson Hole in Teton Village, Wyoming on October 25th.

UnCommon Sense is a two-year leadership program that teaches businesses how to be sustainable in all their operations. This new regional program encourages its participants to incorporate environmentally-sound and community-friendly practices that make good "uncommon" business sense.

According to Gifford Pinchot III, the keynote speaker at the graduation and president and co-founder of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, the more power businesses and corporations acquire in this country, the greater their responsibility to operate sustainably. With more corporations adding Director of Sustainability positions and Blue-Chip CEOs calling for mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions, it's clear that doing "business as usual" is no longer viable. UnCommon Sense seeks to help businesses chart a new and more responsible course in the Yellowstone-Teton region.

According to Andrew Blanchford of Blanchford Landscape Contractors in Bozeman, Montana, "Execution is mandatory in UnCommon Sense. That was huge, because we always had the intention of incorporating more sustainable practices into our regular processes. We'd dream up great ideas in the four-month off-season, but once the season hit, we were too busy to put them in place. With the program expectations and the peer support that developed, we finally got the motivation to actually follow through." An added boon is that the staff's personal values now align with the business, another common theme among graduates.

To graduate from the program, businesses must complete four weekend workshops in a two-year period on topics such as organizational change, waste-stream management, facility and transportation efficiencies, responsible purchasing, social and community investment and offset programs. They are expected to incorporate what they learn back at the work site, something that all the graduates list as being an important benefit of the program. UnCommon Sense participants explore ways to reduce their solid waste and carbon emissions, decrease energy and water consumption, and expand their purchases of local and nontoxic products. In addition, each business is building social cohesion within the workplace and strengthening the social fabric of their respective communities.

Yellowstone Business Partnership (YBP) is an organization of businesses in the Yellowstone-Teton region. Its 250 members are dedicated to preserving a healthy environment and shaping a prosperous and sustainable economy for communities of the Yellowstone-Teton region. For more information on UnCommon Sense or YBP, contact Janice Brown, Executive Director, at (208) 528-0269 or visit the YBP website: www.yellowstonebusiness.org. Jan Brown and members of the graduating class are available for interviews.

Contact:

Janice Brown, Executive Director

Yellowstone Business Partnership

208-528-0269

jbrown @ yellowstonebusiness.org

Contact Sheet for Businesses:

Blanchford Landscape Contractors (Bozeman, Montana) http://www.blanchfordlandscapecontractors.com/

MacKenzie River Pizza Company (Bozeman, Montana)

http://www.mackenzieriverpizza.com/

Mountain Home- Montana Vacation Rentals (Bozeman, Montana)

http://www.mountain-home.com/

On Site Management (Bozeman, Montana)