The six keys to driving change in a conservative corporate culture include: top-level support; management-level and administrative support; minimal risk; a clear path; bottom-line value; and political awareness.

There has been an enormous growth in national and state-level voluntary campus sustainability programs in the U.S. in recent years. These programs not only help universities and colleges institutionalize sustainability principles into everyday processes and actions, but also create a common knowledge pool of resources and best practices that enable these institutions to build strong sustainable communities.

The RES Alliance for Jobs, a coalition of America’s renewable energy companies and national renewable energy associations, has released a new study showing that a 25% by 2025 national Renewable Electricity Standard would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the United States. The “Jobs Impact of a National Renewable Electricity Standard” study found that a 25% by 2025 national RES would result in 274,000 more renewable energy jobs over no-national RES policy. This additional employment is equivalent to 2.36 million additional job-years by 2025. The study found that new jobs would be supported by renewable energy in every region of the United States. While the biomass, hydropower and waste-to-energy industries would see significant job gains in the Southeast, the states of the Great Plains and Midwest would employ thousands developing their wind resources and the Western United States would see job gains in its solar and hydropower industries. Without stronger near-term targets than currently envisioned, the study found that industries like wind will experience flat job growth and long-term stagnation, while the U.S. biomass industry could collapse altogether. The Alliance recommends that aggressive near and long-term federal RES targets should be pursued in order to attract manufacturing investment in the sector and to ensure global competitiveness of the U.S. renewable energy industry.

Sustainable Brands Boot Camp’s sixth session served as an excellent introduction to sustainable design. Nathan Shedroff provided an overview of the principles, frameworks and tools employed by sustainable product designers and discussed some of the design strategies implemented today by leaders in this field.

Educating employees about energy efficiency,conservation, recycling, waste reduction and other similar measures benefit not only the companies that institute them, but also the organization’s employees, but also the communities in which they operate.

The Sustainability Professional: 2010 Competency Survey Report provides insights into what sustainability professionals see as important skills needed and what are their most critical challenges.

Companies are now requiring their suppliers to address carbon management as a core business issue. A plan to deselect some suppliers in the future for failing to meet carbon management criteria set by the companies. These organizations are increasinigly developing strategies for engaging with suppliers on carbon related issues amd have emissions or energy reduction plans in place.

rebuilding trustIf we express our values through our community investment, then to substantiate our authenticity, we need to be consistent in applying those values to our core business.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) jobs appear to have been another casualty of the global economic recession. But, the good news is that, like other economic indicators, this one appears to be on the upswing.