For a small fee, the site will give you a personalized green audit and suggest a number of ways that you (or your business) can easily and affordably be greener. Even better, the suggestions are:

· Doable

· Not generic but specifically tailored to the answers you gave, and

· Save you money

It’s a great service, and business, and well worth your while checking out.

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This week, Office Depot (whom I do some work with) announced a new “Small Business Self Bailout” program and as part of that just launched a new website designed to help small businesses – www.TheSurvivalOfTheSmartest.com. It’s a very cool, Web 2.0 interactive portal with lots of valuable content, articles, funny videos, and more.

And in conjunction with that, Office Depot is also looking for the “smartest small businesses in the country.” More than $1 million in prizes will be awarded to 500 small businesses. To enter, make and upload a two-minute video explaining what your business is doing to be smart in the face of this challenging economy and you could be a winner.

***

What is it about Oregon that New Yorkers love so? It seems like whenever I open the New York Times, it is raving about Portland, and just yesterday, I met a salesperson in Manhattan whose plan is to retire in Portland. “My sister lives in Seattle,” she told me, and she visits here often. “I am going to open my own small boutique in the Pearl, walk around downtown, but not spend as much,” she said. After three days in New York, all I can say is, amen to that!