A summary of the second webinar in the Sustainable Brands Boot Camp series, Innovation Opportunities in Response to Today’s Environmental Hot Buttons: Climate Change, Water & Waste. The webinar was led by Will Sarni, CEO and founder of Domani Consulting, an integrated sustainability consulting firm, and featured examples of new, innovative business and product strategies from various markets that are successfully being brought to market in response to emerging environmental and social strains.
As consumer expectations rise and trust in corporations decline, the need for ethical business practices is greater than ever. Yet in a recession, companies seeking to cut costs will likely postpone important CSR initiatives or cut spending in favor of core business initiatives. But it doesn’t have to be either-or. Companies that consider social and environmental initiatives as potential innovation platforms and brand builders — not expenses — will come out ahead.
Businesses around the world are feeling the pressures of rising energy, water, and the potential costs of emissions. While business risks and costs are driving many behavior changes, leading businesses are exploring sustainability concepts to identify opportunities. Many companies are addressing these risks by exploring the value aspects of business sustainability.
In order for a commercial office building to achieve the most in terms of sustainability, the landlord and its tenants must partner in working toward that goal. In the case of the landlord and tenant relationship, the governing document is the lease. If the landlord and the tenant agree that the property subject to the lease should be constructed, operated and occupied in a sustainable fashion, that should be reflected in the lease.
Grassroots Environmental Education recently launched a new web portal called, “HowGreenIsMyTown.org (HGIMT ), which is designed to provide local citizens and decision makers the tools they need to bring about meaningful and lasting environmental change in their communities. The 200-plus page online initiative draws together resources from government agencies and non-profits across America to address the issues of climate change, sustainability and environmental health in one web site.
West Coast Green is the largest conference on green innovation for the built environment. On October 1st-3rd at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco 14,000 thought leaders and forward thinkers will convene to engage in dynamic, big-picture, systems-thinking to reinvent business, laugh, make connections, affect policy, and create meaningful and lasting positive change. The event will spotlight 125 speakers, 104 education and networking sessions and 333 exhibits.
SustainableBusiness.com recently announced its 2009 Sustainable Business 20 (SB20) List: The World’s Top Sustainable Stocks. The 8th Annual SB20 List consists of 20 public companies that are leading the way to a sustainable economy. The list is presented in the Progressive Investor newsletter, published by SustainableBusiness.com, which tracks and analyzes green stocks. To choose the 20 companies, SustainableBusiness.com works with a group of judges, who are among the most respected green stock analysts in the world. Judges select companies across the range of green business sectors – solar, wind, geothermal, smart grid, water, food, agriculture, green building and transport. In addition, over a third of the companies populating this year’s SB20 List are “Corporate Pioneers” – companies with conventional products and services that are greening their product lines.
The Cleantech Group™, founders of the clean technology investment category and providers of global market research and other services for the clean technology ecosystem, recently announced that it is making its 2008 Annual Review & 4Q08 Investment Monitor available for free download to celebrate Earth Day 2009. For one week only, this report will be available to non-members to dramatically illustrate how technology is being used to save our planet and its natural resources.
