The BEC is an organization that helps businesses understand and implement environmental regulations.

The organization was founded in 1989, by Jaime Lozano, with the intent of bridging communication between member businesses and relevant jurisdictions. Our focus is on helping businesses get beyond the unintended consequences of over regulation.

The BEC (Business Environmental Coalition) is a membership organization. We support large and small businesses in learning how to be more sustainable, limiting business waste and at the same time, work with law makers and regulators to ensure regulations do not negatively affect member businesses.

You can learn more about our history here.

Let's address what "Greenwashing" actually is... a marketing approach, designed to make your business look more environmentally friendly than it is... For example, a Dry Cleaner who claims to use environmentally friendly processes while still using toxic chemicals.

As educators, the BEC is primarily focuses on helping businesses to navigate existing environmental regulations, like SB-1383, and avoid the fines associated with these regulations.

In addition, we help businesses, who are interested, to discover ways to reduce expenses using environmentally friendly practices, for example Zero Waste.

In 2016, SB-1383 was passed with the intent of enforcing sutatinability on all businesses.

Where previous laws had a "Good Faith Effort" clause, SB-1383 requires mandatory audits of your business and Mandatory fines for discovered violations.

Most violations mandate a $50-$100 fine for the first infraction, and up to $500 for future infractions.

Understanding the mish-mash of environmental regulations can be overwhelming, and so, the BEC is focused on unraveling the ligislation and helping you to prepare accordingly.

Because SB-1383 is so far reaching, it is currently a large part of what we at the BEC are focused on. You can learn more about SB-1383 here, and keep an eye on our News Section for new developments!

If you are a small business and want to join at the chapter level, follow this link to our registration page, select your business category.

If you are interested in our SLCP/SB-1383 employee training, you will have the opportunity to purchase that training in the members area, after you have secured your membership.

Technically, the "Triple Bottom Line" is a method of accounting that takes in to account more than just dollars added to the bottom line.

Also Known As the "Three Ps" (3Ps) can be represented as:

• People
• Profit
• Planet

Simply put, we all know "Profits" are important. Without profit, there is no money for a business to grow and as Plato pointed out, if a business doesn't grow, it decays out of existence.

It's a common fallacy that "People" are not important to a business. But every business person knows, people are needed to keep the business growing.

It's true that a business doesn't exist to provide employment, businesses provide a product or service. While employment is effectively, a byproduct of that process, we recognize that taking care of your staff helps to make a healthy business and a healthy economy.

Many with little foresight, overlook the importance of considering the environment or our "Planet" as they move their business forward. Put simply, if your business harms those who rely on your product, it's not a very good business.

The "Triple Bottom Line" is about loking beyond short term profits and understanding the overall impact our businesses are having on the world around us.

There's a saying in the environmental community, "Zero Waste doesn't mean Zero, it means 'Zero or damn close to it!'"

Effectively, if you can reduce your "waste" by 90% or more, that is considered "Zero Waste." To clarify, if you put a recycleable soda can in the trash, that's considered waste. if you send it to be recycled, it's nolonger "waste," it's a "reclaimed resource!"

The idea behind zero waste in business is finding what is actually waste, and what can be Reduced, Reused or Recycled.

In simple business terms, every piece of waste in your trash is money that did NOT make it to your bottom line, and negatively impacts your profitability.

The quest for "Zero Waste" is simply an approach to finding the point where your business is operating at Maximum Efficiency and Maximum Effectievness thus providing the greatest profitability, and the lowest negative impact on natural resources (zero waste).