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Project Ideation • 77

It takes about 20 billion barrels of oil to make 5 trillion plastic bags.
Americans alone use more than 380 billion polyethylene bags and
throw away approximately 100 billion of them per year. Only about 1%
of these plastic bags are recycled.
Scientists estimate that it takes 1,000 years for a polyethylene bag to
break down, and as polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leach
into the soil and enter the food chain.

—From ABc.com, Good Morning America

deCision-making tools

Most of the decision-making tools—Pareto analysis, decision tree, six
thinking hats, etc.—can be adapted to include green components in the
process. We have listed just a few of our favorites.

Brainstorming

The foundation of brainstorming is a free exchange of ideas that are then
“boarded” with virtually no screening or judgment. No matter how
strange ideas may seem at the time, they should all be boarded for later
discussion and screening.
One of our favorite stories we like to tell about brainstorming is “The
Polar Bear Story.”

A northern Canadian electric utility company was having problems with
lines coming down because of icing. Ice coating the lines made them too
heavy and they would collapse, interrupting service and possibly caus-
ing harm (fire, shock). So they decided to brainstorm ways to prevent or
remove the ice. People in the team started to list ideas, and the moderator
recorded them:
• “Teflon coating of wires”
• “Heating elements around the outside of the cables”
• And so on

Jim, one of the team members, shouts out, “Polar bears.”
The moderator initially didn’t write this down, but then remembered that
the rules of brainstorming call for NO ELIMINATION at the EARLY STAGE.