Johnson Controls Launches Energy Blog

Johnson Controls is the kind of company that ought to be a major leader in green building and sustainability in general. The are the biggest makers of hybrid car batteries in the US and responsible for the plumbing, electric and circulatory systems of many a massive building project. To their credit they talk a whole lot about energy efficiency, but the company website and sustainability reports are eerily silent when it comes to things like LEED certification, green building, and concepts like cradle-to-cradle and carbon emissions. Perhaps that will change as they become one of the few Fortune 100 companies to have a public facing blog – www.yourenergyforum.com.
Anyone who’s perused the ideas set forth in the Cluetrain Manifesto can appreciate the importance of this kind of development. What’s better in this case is that the blog doesn’t appear to be a super-polished corporate mouthpiece, and as far as I can tell is not screening comments. That’s a good thing. Too often, major companies are too scared to open themselves up to this kind of unscripted real-time communication – they fear not being able to handle any sort of negative commenting. This paranoia may ultimately spell the downfall, or at least seriously hinder the growth, of companies too slow to embrace the new global conversation. Fortunately for Johnson Controls, they’re finally moving ahead of the curve.
More on WBCSD.
Ed Note: The blog seems to have vanished (something funny going on?), but you can sneak a peek at the google cached version in case you think I was making it up.