3p Contributor: Scott Cooney
Recent Articles
Paul Hawken on the State of the Markets
Sustainable Industries continues to impress me. Yesterday’s SI Economic Forum featured Paul Hawken, well-known author (Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism, Blessed Unrest) and sustainability guru (the mind behind Wiser Earth and a variety of other startups). And while Mr. Hawken is a big draw, the discussion panel that followed also included some real movers and shakers with some fascinating insights into the green business world, including Lisa Michelle Galley, Founder of Galley Eco Capital, Matt Cheney, CEO of Renewable Ventures, Peter Rumsey, Founder of Rumsey Engineers, and Phil Michael Williams, VP of Technical Systems and Sustainability at Webcor.
The Ultimate in “Clean” Tech: Sludge?
Pop quiz: what does our municipal sewage waste that gets processed at wastewater treatment plants, and the great Pacific garbage patch, have in common?
Well, not much…yet.
A clean tech startup by the name of Micromidas may change all that, and in the process, change the game for plastic packaging.
Micromidas won the EPA’s 3P (People, Prosperity, Planet) clean tech contest earlier this year and is competing at this year’s Clean Tech Open in San Francisco. The bottom line is that it says it can convert 80-90 percent of sludge (biomass waste) to bioplastics. Typically, this sludge is either burned or allowed to decompose naturally, a process that takes 30 days or more. Either way, it contributes to climate change by producing greenhouse gasses. Instead of letting that happen, Micromidas turns that sludge into solid products that can be used in much the same way as conventional plastics.
Chance to Win $200 by Giving Your Opinion on Your Workplace’s Sustainability Initiatives!
Have you ever wanted to know how many companies give their employees the chance to recycle or compost? Ever wonder how your company stacks up to others in terms of sustainability initiatives? Ever ask, “why is my boss such a jerk?”– only because your boss said no to your suggestion for installing a programmable thermostat?
Brighter Planet, a Vermont-based company whose credit cards offer users the chance to give to community renewable energy projects with each purchase, has just launched a survey to give all of us the chance to talk about our company’s true environmental commitment. Each completed survey contestant will be entered into a raffle for a $200 prize.
What To Do With Paper Waste That’s Not Recyclable?
Most paper waste is recyclable. The margin may not be terrific on recycled paper products, except for clean white office paper, but it is usually sufficient to create secondary markets for most paper waste.
The problem arises, however, when that paper is contaminated with food or for some other reason is not recyclable (pizza boxes anyone?). Not only does this potentially contaminate other paper that may be recyclable, but it creates a waste management challenge to municipalities.
So besides using it for campfire kindle, what can we do with it?
Guiding Principles for the New Economy
As the Green Business Conference wraps up its second and final day before giving way to the world’s largest green event (San Francisco’s Green Festival, also put on by Green America), Bryan Welch, Publisher and Editorial Director of Ogden Publications, lent his weight to the festivities, giving the keynote address. In it, he laid out four guiding principles for the new economy and how these questions can help us create a three dimensional vision for the future of business, species, and planet.
Welch’s resume is impressive. Ogden Publications publishes Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, Herb Companion, and Natural Home magazines.
Woody Tasch: What Happens After Stimulus Money is Gone
Woody Tasch, author of Slow Money, and President and Chairman of the Slow Money Alliance, spoke on day 2 of the Green America Green Business Conference. He had a tough act to follow, getting up on stage right after Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Green For All.
Tasch, in his characteristic charismatic and down-to-earth style, was more than up to the task. The final question asked of Ellis-Lamkins was ‘What happens when stimulus money dries up? Where will the green jobs come from if the green labor force Green For All is working with don’t have entrepreneurial skills to create their own?’ Tasch was thrilled to be able to pick up the ball and run with that question, as a beautiful segue to the financial side of the new green economy.
“I’m so glad that young man asked that question. Where’s that money going to come from?” he asked.
Green For All at the Green Business Conference
Millions of new jobs. An inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Dignity. The ability to support one’s family. All done in an environmentally friendly way.
A worker owned cooperative that salvages building materials.
Efficiency audits for homeowners and small businesses.
Horticultural and permaculture companies creating local food from dilapidated landscapes in inner cities.
Many of us know the story of Green For All. It’s a beautiful congruence of old school environmentalism, sustainable economic development, and social justice. It’s one of the great feel-good stories of the new economy. But then Van Jones was badgered out of Washington by right wing nut-jobs because of some supposedly over-exuberant activism in his past.
So where is Green For All now? Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins spoke to the Green Business Conference about their vision for the future.
Social Media For Sustainable Business
At the Green Business Conference, Joey Shepp, founder of Earthsite, a boutique web design and strategy company, gave his presentation for best tips in using social media for sustainable businesses. This includes social networking, blogging, online reviews, and direct communications devices. The statistics are a bit surprising, even to someone like me who uses social media on a fairly regular basis.
- Four out of five people are using social media to interact with companies.
- Two thirds of people feel they can use social media to influence companies.
- Twenty percent of people trust advertising, 60 percent trust editorials, and 80 percent trust reviews written by their peers.
Shepp’s advice for businesses to take advantage of these trends?
10 Business Leadership Skillsets Needed for Our Uncertain Future
Green America’s Green Business Conference is going on today and tomorrow in beautiful San Francisco, CA, in advance of the weekend’s Green Festival. The conference opened with a talk by Bob Johansen, author of Leaders Make the Future, and futurist with the Palo Alto based Institute for the Future.
According to Johansen, businesses today are operating in a society that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. It’s a VUCA world, in short. The Institute studies the business community and its leaders, and finds that what we want in the business community is 1) clarity for where we’re going, and 2) flexibility on how we get there. The Institute has characterized 10 leadership skillsets for living and thriving in this VUCA world and achieving these aims. These will help business leaders clarifying goals on where their business is heading, and how they can get there.
The leadership skills go from the most common and simplest to achieve, to the most complex and actualized of intangible assets:
- The maker instinct: that intuition we have to ‘build something.’
- Clarity: ability to see past the noise and have a vision of what the future may look like.
- Constructive depolarizing: ability to calm a tense situation, reestablish broken lines of communication, and branch divergent interests together.
Book Review–Starting Green: An Ecopreneur’s Toolkit For Starting a Green Business From Business Plan to Profit by Glenn Croston
Glenn Croston’s latest book, Starting Green: An Ecopreneur’s Toolkit for Starting a Green Business From Business Plan to Profits (Entrepreneur Press) is a useful resource for entrepreneurial types looking to enter the green economy.
Croston describes the green economy as entering Green 3.0: the stage where business is beginning to make green its focus, bringing the other 95% of consumers (in addition to the 5% that do it because the environment is the #1 thing they’re concerned with) into the green world by making it easier for them to do so. In Green 4.0, according to Croston, “Everything is green.”
Should Eco-Labels Come from Government or Third Party Private Organizations?
According to Ecolabelling.org, there are more than 300 eco-labels commonly applied to products and services as diverse as building products and cleaning supplies. The website defines an eco-label as, “any consumer facing logo that claims an added environmental or social benefit.” Off the top of my head, I could only come up with about 20, and I work as a sustainability consultant and green business writer. As a fairly savvy eco-consumer, I would expect to know more about these labels, and to know more of them.
Some of these I know are good, such as the USDA Organic symbol, Energy Star for appliances, LEED for green building, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for sustainable forest products like wood and paper, and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for sustainable fish. Some I know are bad, such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), an industry-backed, greenwashing “eco-label” for wood products that is significantly less rigorous as FSC. But many, like the Green Seal…I simply don’t know enough about them, nor do I, as an industry professional, let alone a green consumer, have the time to learn about them all.
This leads to the inevitable conclusion that there are simply too many eco-labels, which leads to a lot of consumer confusion.
Making Drinking Water From Thin Air (Literally)
For an average of 60 cents per gallon, the DewPointe DH9 Atmospheric Water Purification System extracts water vapor from the air and converts it to pure drinking water.
By pulling moisture out of the atmosphere, the DH9 is said to eliminate virtually all contaminants that might otherwise occur in groundwater. The device then further purifies the water to eliminate 99.99% of contaminants. There’s an electrostatic air filter to remove small airborne particles like pollen and dust, a germicidal uV light that destroys bacteria and other microorganisms, a coconut hull filter that eliminates heavy metals, chlorine residuals and mineral salts, and a reverse osmosis (RO) filter to remove any remaining pathogens or fine particles. Unlike other RO filters, where the wastewater is then flushed (so that the user drinks one purified gallon for each six to ten that are wasted), the DH9’s revolutionary RO filter reprocesses it so that no water is lost. A gravity-fed storage tank holds 6.5 gallons that would be accessible even in the event of a power outage.
Too good to be true?
Boots on the Roof Offers Green Job Training
The interest in creating green jobs at the state and federal level has not diminished, nor has the interest by job-seekers in finding a green job. California recently announced $75 M in training for green job programs. Community Colleges in Oregon found that green job training was one of the fastest growing and most requested offerings their industry was seeing, despite the gloomy economic outlook.
The need for green job training is clear. Wind and solar provide limitless free energy. When compared to the costs of producing electricity by burning coal, there are higher up-front costs of setting up renewable energy like wind, solar, and geothermal. But the ongoing cost is considerably less, as the “fuel” is plentiful and free. Workers also benefit with jobs that are harder to export than manufacturing and other sectors.
A number of organizations are setting up green job training in their communities. Boots on the Roof is an organization founded by two groups of people: experienced green businesspeople and professional educators. This convergence is one of Boots’ strengths, as students receive training from qualified industry professionals at the same time as professional educators that can help enhance the learning experience.
Creative Incentives for Bars to Go Zero Waste: Patrons Plan To “Get (Zero)Wasted”
Alcohol service may seem like the least likely industry to be taking up the challenge to go green, but increasingly, bars are seeing good return on investment for a variety of sustainability initiatives. Getting bars to understand the win-win involved in waterless urinals, energy efficient lighting and sound systems, organic beer and wine, and going zero waste have all been the goal of Green and Tonic, a San Francisco-based group founded by return Peace Corps Volunteers.
This coming Saturday September 19th, Green and Tonic is inviting green-minded socialites to join them for an event designed to raise awareness and provide market-based incentives for bars to join the cause and go green. The event, informally known as “Get (Zero) Wasted”, is a pub crawl of three of San Francisco’s greenest bars, and will raise funds through a live auction to help more bars go green. A previous fundraiser in April 2008 for one of the bars now participating in the pub crawl has allowed that bar to divert 10,000 gallons of compostable waste and 6,000 gallons of recyclables from the landfill and give those items another life.
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