Sustainability & Green Business Webinars - September 2009

Now that the kids are back in school, this is the perfect time for you to sign up for a webinar and brush up on your sustainability knowledge or learn something new. Here is a list of upcoming webinars for the month of September. Remember, save the emissions...do it online!

Scoring Suppliers on Sustainability (Sept. 1)
Office Greening 101 (Sept. 2)
How to Write a Sustainability Report (Sept. 3)
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: A Webinar for Small Businesses and Nonprofits (Sept. 9)
Creating an Effective Plan for Your Company's Sustainability Efforts (Sept. 9)
Guide to Green Purchasing (Sept. 9)
Profiting from Power Savings (Sept. 10)
LEED Success Strategies: Indoor Air Quality, CO2 Monitoring, & LEED (Sept. 10)
How to Engage Your Community (Sept. 10)
Greening the Clinic: An Introduction to Green Health Care in Primary Care Settings (Sept. 16)
Carbon Offsetting 101 (Sept. 16)
Practice Greenhealth Greening Operations: Healthy Environments - Eliminating DEHP and PVC from the NICU (Sept. 18)

Green & Sustainable Business Webinars for August 2009

From a quick review of the Internet, here are the green and sustainable business webinars we've found for August 2009. Remember, save the emissions...do it online!

How to Create a Paperless Office (Aug. 1)
Office Greening 101 (Aug. 5)
Introduction to Renewable Energy Credits & Carbon Offsets (Aug. 5)
How to "Green" Your Business Travel (Aug 6)
LEED for Neighborhood Development: A Tool to Retrofit the Suburbs (Aug. 6)
Guide to Green Purchasing (Aug. 12)
Communicating Your Sustainability Initiatives (Aug. 12)
How to "Green" Your Meetings (Aug. 13)
LEED and the Urban Heat Island Effect (Aug. 13)
Introduction to GHG Inventories (Aug. 18)
Green Your Event (Aug. 19)
Carbon Offsetting 101 (Aug. 19)
How Green is My Building?: Tools for Measuring the Total ROI of Sustainability (Aug. 19)
How to Develop an Eco-Purchasing System (Aug. 20)
Green Power & LEED Projects (Aug. 26)
SSC Green Auditor Certification (Aug. 26)
How to Create "Green" Benefits (Aug. 27)

Sustainability & Green Business Webinars - April 2009

Sustainable business and green business webinars for April 2009 include:

Reduce Costs While on the Road to Sustainability - Measure, Manage and Reduce the Environmental Costs of your Buildings (April 2)
Cut Costs and Carbon with Your Real Estate Assets (April 8)
Green Energy eForum (April 8)
Meeting Tenant Demands for LEED (April 8)
Comprehensive Approaches to Stormwater Management for Higher Education (April 14)
Understanding Sustainable Dining Options for Higher Education (April 15)
Office Greening 101 (April 15)
Greening Your Office Operations (April 16)
Local Food Networks: Food Localization as a Sustainability Strategy (April 21)
Sustainability Careers for MBAs (April 21)
Sustainability Consulting 101 (April 21)
LEED Case Study: Challenges and Opportunities in Negotiating a Green Transaction (April 22)
A Guide to Green Purchasing (April 22)
Carbon Offsetting (April 29)

Save the emissions...do it online!

Sustainability & Green Business Webinars for March 2009

Mark you calendar for the following sustainability and green business webinars being offered in March 2009. Remember to save the emissions...do it online!

Telling Your Story: Making the Most of Your Greenhouse Gas Reductions and Sustainability Efforts (Mar. 3)
How to Green Your IT (Mar. 4)
How to Write a Sustainability Report (Mar. 5)
LEED for Retail in Action: Case Studies from Early Adopters (Mar. 5)
Creating Climate Action Plans (Mar. 10)
Office Greening 101 (Mar. 11)
How to Engage Your Community (Mar. 12)
96 Hour Sustainability (Mar. 17)
Green Collar Jobs: Sustainable Work in a Low Carbon World (Mar. 17)
Green Purchasing (Mar. 18)
Green Building Incentives 2009: Where & How to Get Them (Mar. 19)
LEED Volume Certification for Retailers (Mar. 19)
Sustainability: Utilizing Standards and Best Practices to Create an Effective Sustainability Strategy (Mar. 24)
LEED 101: Certification & Market Overview for Brokers (Mar. 25)
Carbon Offsetting (Mar. 25)
Sustainability Careers for MBAs (Mar. 26)
Sustainability Consulting 101 (Mar. 31)
Students: Need the Numbers to Back up Your Great Ideas? (Mar. 31)

Sustainability & Green Business Webinars - February 2009

Here are upcoming sustainability-related webinars offered by a variety of companies. Remember to save the emissions...do it online!

How Should Sustainability be Integrated into the Core Finance Curriculum? (Feb. 4)
How to Green Your Business Travel (Feb. 5)
Office Greening 101 (Feb. 11)
Environmental Sustainability as a Strategic Policy Issue: What Governing Boards Need to Know (Feb. 11)
How to Green Your Meetings (Feb. 12)
Sustainable Business Practices & Strategies (Feb. 17)
Green Purchasing (Feb. 18)
How to Develop an Eco-Purchasing System (Feb. 19)
Sustainability Consulting 101 (Feb. 24)
Carbon Offsetting (Feb. 25)
Sustainability Metrics - The Need to Measure (Feb. 25)
Practical Approaches for Eco-Design (Feb. 25)
How to Create Green Benefits (Feb. 26)
Low Impact Development for Public Works (Feb. 26)

Sustainability Conferences for 2009 - Mark Your Calendars!

Each month we list upcoming webinars on sustainability-related topics. However, there are still plenty of face-to-face conferences on a variety of topics of interest to the sustainable business. Here are a few conferences to mark in your 2009 calendar.

2009 State of Green Business Forum (Feb. 2, San Francisco CA)

UK Anti-Corruption Summit (Feb. 2-4, London UK)

Jerome Ringo: Environmental Evangelist (Feb. 8, Little Rock AR, contact: ARMFSA[at]hotmail.com)

Green Investments Summit (Feb. 9-10, Hong Kong)

Jerome Ringo of the Apollo Alliance Speaks on Green Jobs (Feb. 9-10, Little Rock AR, contact: 501-372-6092)

Climate Change Summit 2009 (Feb. 17-18, London UK)

Doing Good & Doing Well (Feb. 27-28, Barcelona Spain)

FT Sustainable Business, Responsible Investing (March 2, New York NY)

Green Festival (March 28-29, Seattle WA)

Wall Street Green Trading Summit (April 1-2, New York NY)

Carbon TradeEx America (April 7-8, Washington DC)

FORTUNE Brainstorm: Green (April 20-22, Laguna Niguel CA)

Green Supply Chain Summit (April 21-22, London UK)

Green Festival (May 2-3, Denver CO)

Responsible Business Summit (May 11-12, London UK)

Global Anti-Corruption Summit (May 14-15, Washington DC)

Green Festival (May 16-17, Chicago IL)

Greener by Design 2009: Greener Products for Leaner Times (May 19-20, San Francisco CA)

The Future of Anti-Corruption Law and Enforcement in Europe (May 27-28, London UK)

Global Corporate Responsibility Reporting Summit (June 11-12, Brussels Belgium)

Green Festival (Oct. 10-11, Washington DC)

Net Impact North American Conference (Nov. 13-14, New York NY)

Green Business Conference (Nov. 11-12, San Francisco CA)

Green Festival (Nov. 13-15, San Francisco CA)

Companies Warned: Go Green or Go Under

According to the results of a report released last week by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and global consulting firm A.T. Kearney, companies in the fast-moving consumer goods sector were warned that if they do not implement sustainable environmental strategies, their earnings could be cut in half by 2018.

Fast-moving consumer goods include food, beverages, personal care items and household care items. The analysis "concludes that physical climate change, water scarcity, deforestation and climate change policies could significantly increase the price of commodities, packaging, manufacturing and logistics." Many fast-moving consumer goods are "tied to natural resources at risk from environmental pressures," such as oil, natural gas, electricity, cereals, grains, soy, sugar, palm oil and timber.

Some recommendations of the report include changes in design and packaging, a network of more and smaller manufacturing sites spread across the country, and more local sourcing of production inputs. "Cost increases for FMCG companies that do not implement such strategies could diminish company earnings by 13 to 31 percent in 2013 and by 19 to 47 percent in 2018..."

Read the story here and read the full report, Rattling Supply Chains, here.

Conferences for Green Business

November is shaping up to be a very busy month for business conferences on sustainability-related topics. Here is a sampling of what's on the calendar.

Opportunity Green to be held November 8-9 in Los Angeles.

Green Festival to be held November 8-9 in Washington DC.

Co-Op America's Green Business Conference to be held November 12-13 in San Francisco.

Green Business Boot Camp to be held November 12-14 in Seattle.

The Sustainable Advantage: Creating Social and Environmental Value to be held November 13-15 in Philadelphia.

Green Festival to be held November 14-16 in San Francisco.

Greenbuild International Conference and Expo to be held November 19-21 in Boston.

Alternative Energy & Clean Tech Industry Conference to be held November 20 in New York City.

Green Business: Separating the Green from Business to be held November 20 in Fayetteville NY.

Social Venture Institute to be held November 21-22 in Philadelphia.

The Accountability Project CSR/Sustainability Training to be held November 25-28 in Toronto.

Business Adaptation to Climate Change to be held November 28 in Calgary.

Carrotmob: Vote With Your Dollars & Support Green Business

We've all been told that we should vote with our dollars in order to support the companies whose values and ideals are sustainable and responsible. But what if our consumer purchasing power were organized and coordinated so that companies could more immediately experience our collective consumer voice? That is the idea behind Carrotmob.

Carrotmob is a nonprofit organization that approaches businesses and proposes that consumers would purchase their products if the company agrees to set aside a portion of those profits in order to green their business. Businesses then determine what percentage of their profits they would invest in green projects if the consumers would collectively purchase from their business. The business willing to make the greatest environmental commitment is then rewarded with an organized and coordinated shopping spree of the supporting consumers.

Carrotmob is the creation of Brent Schulkin. To test his Carrotmob model, he approached 23 liquor stores in his San Francisco neighborhood. He suggested that he could organize shoppers to come to their store if the business agreed to take a percentage of profits from these shoppers and reinvest them in their own business to make it more energy efficient and environmentally-friendly.

Stores began bidding on how much they would invest in environmentally-friendly improvements, with K&D Market winning the bidding war with an agreement to invest 22% of their profits. The store was then reviewed by the San Francisco Energy Watch Program and recommendations were made for improving the environmental performance of the store. Carrotmob then organized a three-hour timeframe in which supporting consumers would patronize K&D Market. To everyone's surprise, consumers were were lined up down the street and around the corner in order to vote with their dollars and support K&D Market's environmental efforts.

The reward to K&D Market: sales in the three-hour period were more than triple what they normally make in a full day and sales were nearly double their projections for this project. Following up on their commitment to reinvest 22% of the profit back into the store for environmentally-friendly improvements, K&D Market will be able to retrofit their entire lighting system and install new gaskets on all refrigerators.

The goal of Carrotmob is to "throw up more cash, and change the forecast."

Watch this entertaining 11-minute video to see Carrotmob's first campaign and check out the website's In Your Town link to find a Carrotmob campaign to support in your city.



Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

Earth Day Every Day (At Work)

In honor of Earth Day, what can your business do to make a difference?

Create a list of options for becoming more environmentally-friendly in the workplace and begin with a single project. Establish goals and timelines for your project, assign responsibility for various tasks associated with the project, and remember to measure results so that you can share your success stories.

Here are some project ideas for starters:

Green Team - Create a Green Team to begin discussing and exploring issues related to sustainable business. Educate employees through emails, newsletters, and announcements. Get everyone involved!

Recycled Paper - Make the switch to recycled paper. It's possible to experience immediate financial and environmental benefits by making this single change at your office.

Green Procurement - Develop a green procurement policy that gives preference in purchasing to products and service providers that have minimal environmental impact.

Recycling - Establish a recycling program.

Reduce Your Emissions - Commit to reducing your carbon emissions by following the steps outlined in the Low Carb Corporate Diet.

Make every day Earth Day.

Sustainability Webinars in April

Here is a list of upcoming sustainability-related webinars for April (offered from a variety of sources). Don't forget to visit our site for a full list of upcoming and archived (on demand) webinars.

Save the emissions...do it online!

• Organizations II: Internal Influences on Corporate Climate Strategy (April 2)


• Extra Credit: Bringing LEED to College Campuses (April 7)


• Greening Your Office 101 (April 16)


• Supply Management's Role in Sustainability (April 17)


• The Carbon Reduction Workshop (Apr. 22-24)


• Green Purchasing (April 23)


• Carbon Offsetting (April 30)


• FTC: Green Packaging Workshop (April 30)

Conferences on Green & Sustainable Business

The number of conferences on green business and sustainable business grows every day. Here is a small list of upcoming conferences (arranged by date).

Greening Your Business: The Case for Sustainability, Poughkeepsie NY, March 14

Green Business Conference, Palo Alto CA, March 21

The CFO Green Conference, New York NY, March 28

Oklahoma Sustainability Network Conference, Norman OK, March 28-29

Seattle Green Festivals, Seattle WA, April 12-18

Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Baltimore MD, April 28-May 2

Sustainable Enterprise Conference, Rohnert Park CA, May 2

Green Business Conference, Chicago IL, May 14-16

Green West Expo, Los Angeles CA, May 20-22

Business and Sustainable Development Conference, Washington DC, June 12-13

LOHAS 12 Forum, Boulder CO, June 18-21

Southwest Washington Sustainability Conference, Vancouver WA, July 10-12

UC/CSU/CCCSustainability Conference, San Luis Obispo CA , July 31-August 3

Opportunity Green Sustainable Business Conference, Los Angeles CA, September 26-27

Sun Valley Sustainability Conference, Sun Valley ID, October 23-25

Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference, Vancouver BC, October 27-29

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Raleigh NC, November 9-11

Green Business Conferenece, San Francisco CA, November 11-14

Good And Green—The Green Marketing Conference, Chicago IL, December 3-4

Students Want Green Jobs, Businesses Want Green Credentials, Business Schools Race to Bridge the Gap

According to survey results of college graduates just released by KRI, "80 percent of those surveyed said they are interested in a job that has a positive impact on the environment and a whopping 92 percent would choose working for an environmentally friendly company." In response to the survey findings, MonsterTRAK has created GreenCareers, which focuses exclusively on green employment.

Yet as more businesses attempt to "go green," it is a struggle to find employees with a combination of the functional and technical skills needed AND who also have knowledge and understanding of sustainability, according to an article in the Boston Business Journal.

When Oakland's Community Bank of the Bay couldn't find a candidate with both loan experience and sustainability knowledge, they decided to hire someone who knew sustainability and teach them about banking. They are expecting that adding "green loan officers" will help them obtain a competitive advantage.

In an effort to bridge this gap, the number of classes and degree programs in sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are rapidly growing at business schools across the nation as the demand for green business skills is increasing. This blog maintains a list of colleges and universities with certificate and degree programs in sustainability and/or CSR (see our list of links for Business Education in CSR & Sustainability).

Are you ready for the future?

10 Tips to Green Your Office - Blog Action Day

Monday, October 15 is Blog Action Day. All bloggers are asked to unite and post a blog on a common topic: the environment. The purpose of Blog Action Day is "to get everyone talking towards a better future." So here is my Blog Action Day post.

The Green Office calculator allows your office to determine its current carbon footprint. "The self assessment tool aims to promote sustainability in the workplace by increasing awareness of the issues and providing easy, cost effective resources for improvement."

Here are some steps recommended by Sustainable Business Design that your office can take to reduce your environmental impact (and save money!):

1. Use email instead of paper.


2. Print and copy on both sides of the paper.


3. Buy recycled paper with the highest percent of recycled content.


4. Use environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies and detergents.


5. Purchase refillable office products (cartridges, pens, etc.).


6. Unplug items not in use or not used frequently.


7. Switch to a "green" hosting service for your web site.


8. Report and repair water drips and leaks immediately.


9. Start a vanpool or carpool program.


10. Create a "green team" to continue the work toward greening your office or workplace.