With help from Google's charitable arm, Google.org, a new carbon calculator was just rolled out by the Stockholm, Sweden-based Normative for small businesses to use. Normative provides carbon accounting software.The calculator is available at no cost thanks to the SME Climate Hub, which is a joint nonprofit initiative that helps small and medium-sized businesses reach their climate goals. Small businesses can identify and keep track of emissions with the calculator, a tool that will guide them in how they can take action that can reduce energy waste, increase efficiency and lower cost.

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Against such a monumental problem there doesn't seem much that small businesses can do, but solutions are going to have to come from everywhere. Small businesses are a large part of the economy and can play a big role in helping to achieve this goal and in the process help us shift to a prosperous low-carbon future. We've seen a wave of net-zero commitments from companies large and small, but we really need companies to translate these commitments and pledges into action

Climate Risk and Small Businesses

<figure><picture><source media="(max-width:600px)" srcset="https://img-cdn.inc.com/image/upload/w_970, https://www.inc.com/melissa-angell/h_450, https://www.inc.com/melissa-angell/c_fill/images/panoramic/radio-flyer-hero-wagon_495051_zgzspm.jpg"><source media="(min-width:601px)" srcset="https://img-cdn.inc.com/image/upload/w_1920, https://www.inc.com/melissa-angell/h_1080, https://www.inc.com/melissa-angell/c_fill/images/panoramic/radio-flyer-hero-wagon_495051_zgzspm.jpg"><img src="https://img-cdn.inc.com/image/upload/w_1920,h_1080,c_fill/images/panoramic/radio-flyer-hero-wagon_495051_zgzspm.jpg" alt="How Radio Flyer Redesigned Its Iconic Wagons for an Unlikely Setting: Hospitals" width="635" height="357"></picture></figure>Toy trends may come and go, but one thing remains consistent: Kids love to ride in wagons.Never was this made clearer to Adam Garone&nbsp;than when his then 3-year-old niece, Charlie was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018. During her eight-month&nbsp;stay in the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, the medical staff&nbsp;shuttled her around to&nbsp;chemotherapy treatments and MRI scans in a <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/201603/sheila-marikar/radio-flyer-iconic-american-red-wagon.html" dir="ltr">Radio Flyer</a> wagon.&nbsp;"The wagon was an integral part of normalizing and allowing Charlie&nbsp;to feel a little bit like a kid," says Garone, who serves as CEO of the Starlight Children's Foundation. "She could smile and have fun." Garone did not know it then, but this personal experience would greatly inform his&nbsp;involvement with Radio Flyer the following year.<a href="http://www.inc.com/profile/radio-flyer" dir="ltr">Radio Flyer&nbsp;is a four-time Inc. 5000 honoree</a>&nbsp;and pulled in $200 million in revenue last year. While the company&nbsp;has worked with Starlight since 2001 to donate wagons to more than 800 hospitals around the country, in 2019&nbsp;Garone and Radio Flyer CEO Robert Pasin&nbsp;decided to collaborate to adapt the wagons for hospital settings.&nbsp;This month, they will launch the newly patented design, the Hero Wagon, retrofitted specifically to transport sick children safely.The new Hero Wagon features a medical-grade, easy-to-disinfect fabric exterior, instead of the classic, but&nbsp;bulky, metal frame. The design is&nbsp;foldable, allowing hospital staff&nbsp;to collapse the wagon for storage and keep more on site. The Radio Flyer team added an IV bracket and clamp on the back so that a nurse or family member can pull the wagon without also needing&nbsp;to hang on to equipment poles or monitors. The handle now features a spring so that it won't fall down when you let go. Lastly, the team included a clear plastic pouch for the exterior--a dedicated spot for kids to slip in a drawing or photo, thereby giving them a sense of ownership over their wagon.The Hero Wagon redesign came about largely because the two organizations began to hear how hospital staff&nbsp;were customizing the wagons themselves to fit their needs, says Pasin. So Radio Flyer assembled a team of designers, researchers, and engineers to&nbsp;visit&nbsp;children's hospitals and&nbsp;conduct interviews with nurses and&nbsp;families to learn firsthand about the user experience. These in-person customer discovery sessions were crucial to the product's eventual design, Pasin notes.During the redesign process, the team made use of Radio Flyer's prototype shop where they were able to experiment with sewing, metal fabrication, welding, and 3-D printing. They&nbsp;deployed various wagon prototypes&nbsp;at the&nbsp;Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, to gather feedback on the new features and ideas for tweaks.The Radio Flyer and Starlight teams collectively poured&nbsp;more than&nbsp;1,000&nbsp;hours into the charitable project, estimates Mark Johnson, vice president of product development for Radio Flyer. The Hero Wagon is now in hospitals in 82 cities across 33 U.S. states and counting--each year, the organizations donate 1,000 wagons, with half going to medically underserved communities. <a href="https://www.starlight.org/wagons/" dir="ltr">Consumers also can donate</a>&nbsp;money to the Hero Wagon project.&nbsp;&nbsp;"It's just been this incredible partnership," says Pasin, who's led the company since 1997 and is the grandson of Antonio Pasin, who founded Radio Flyer in 1917.&nbsp;"We've gotten hundreds of photos and stories through the years from families telling us how the Radio Flyer wagon was a bright spot for them."<div>Feb 18, 2022</div>

Slashing emissions rates will help Mother Earth, but businesses might also stumble upon some appealing incentives as they go green.


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Science & Nature

Toy trends may come and go, but one thing remains consistent: Kids love to ride in wagons.

Never was this made clearer to Adam Garone than when his then 3-year-old niece, Charlie was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018. During her eight-month stay in the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, the medical staff shuttled her around to chemotherapy treatments and MRI scans in a <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/201603/sheila-marikar/radio-flyer-iconic-american-red-wagon.html">Radio Flyer </a>wagon.

"The wagon was an integral part of normalizing and allowing Charlie to feel a little bit like a kid," says Garone, who serves as CEO of the Starlight Children's Foundation. "She could smile and have fun." Garone did not know it then, but this personal experience would greatly inform his involvement with Radio Flyer the following year.

<a href="http://www.inc.com/profile/radio-flyer">Radio Flyer is a four-time Inc. 5000 honoree </a> and pulled in $200 million in revenue last year. While the company has worked with Starlight since 2001 to donate wagons to more than 800 hospitals around the country, in 2019 Garone and Radio Flyer CEO Robert Pasin  decided to collaborate to adapt the wagons for hospital settings. This month, they will launch the newly patented design, the Hero Wagon, retrofitted specifically to transport sick children safely.

The new Hero Wagon features a medical-grade, easy-to-disinfect fabric exterior, instead of the classic, but bulky, metal frame. The design is foldable, allowing hospital staff to collapse the wagon for storage and keep more on site. The Radio Flyer team added an IV bracket and clamp on the back so that a nurse or family member can pull the wagon without also needing to hang on to equipment poles or monitors. The handle now features a spring so that it won't fall down when you let go. Lastly, the team included a clear plastic pouch for the exterior--a dedicated spot for kids to slip in a drawing or photo, thereby giving them a sense of ownership over their wagon.

The Hero Wagon redesign came about largely because the two organizations began to hear how hospital staff were customizing the wagons themselves to fit their needs, says Pasin. So Radio Flyer assembled a team of designers, researchers, and engineers to visit children's hospitals and conduct interviews with nurses and families to learn firsthand about the user experience. These in-person customer discovery sessions were crucial to the product's eventual design, Pasin notes.

During the redesign process, the team made use of Radio Flyer's prototype shop where they were able to experiment with sewing, metal fabrication, welding, and 3-D printing. They deployed various wagon prototypes at the Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, to gather feedback on the new features and ideas for tweaks.

The Radio Flyer and Starlight teams collectively poured more than 1,000 hours into the charitable project, estimates Mark Johnson, vice president of product development for Radio Flyer. The Hero Wagon is now in hospitals in 82 cities across 33 U.S. states and counting--each year, the organizations donate 1,000 wagons, with half going to medically underserved communities. <a href="https://www.starlight.org/wagons/">Consumers also can donate </a> money to the Hero Wagon project.

"It's just been this incredible partnership," says Pasin, who's led the company since 1997 and is the grandson of Antonio Pasin, who founded Radio Flyer in 1917. "We've gotten hundreds of photos and stories through the years from families telling us how the Radio Flyer wagon was a bright spot for them."

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Climate Risk and Small Businesses

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