This weekend, the Bright Green Talent team had the pleasure of attending a panel at RMI2009 that consisted of the following environmental heavyweights: Amory Lovins: Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute; Ray Anderson: Founder and Chairman, Interface; Carl Bass: President and CEO, Autodesk; Janine Benyus: Author, Founder of Biomimicry Guild; and  Paul Hawken: Author of Natural Capitalism.

Though all the panelists had incredibly interesting insight to share, Ray Anderson stood out to me with his perspective on how integrating sustainability can improve a business, such as he has seen with Interface.

Here’s a cliff notes version of what he talked about:

• The “inevitability of the environmental movement”: “Once you get it, you get it.” He pointed out that he’d never met an ex-environmentalist; that is to say, environmentalism is a lens through which you come to see and understand the world, and once you get there, you can’t go back to ignoring environmental externalities and separating growth from resource limitations.
• The business case for integrating sustainability: For Interface, Anderson said: costs are down, products are better, the people are galvanized, and they’ve received good will from the marketplace. I thought the third point was especially interesting - he talked about how he’s been able to motivate Interface’s employees behind the product and the company, and how each is now an evangelist for the company.
• Biggest dishonesty in the market: lack of carbon pricing and acknowledging externalities.
• The state of the green business movement: “still in the stage of early movers and fast followers.” The key will be continuing to push growth and competition so that the whole industry and marketplace is integrating sustainability.
• Wise words for businesses: “Play to win, rather than not to lose.” He’s been focusing on sensitizing stakeholders, employees, and everyone else to environmental issues to establish Interface as an industry leader.
• Wise words for individuals: “Brighten the corner where you are, and then make that corner as big as possible.”

Of course, we don’t want to discount the advice and perspective of the other illustrious panelists.

• Janine Benyus, the biomimicry thought leader, brought up the shift in the environmental movement that she had perceived from scientists learning about nature to learning from nature. She believes there’s been a democratization of innovation - that small, innovative companies are going to break through and help lead the change.
• Paul Hawken talked about mobilizing the younger generations, his recent commencement speech (worth a read!), and his view on the inaccuracies of macroeconomics (memorable remark to an econ student’s question: “don’t worry about the macroeconomists; one coffin at a time”).
• Carl Bass of Autodesk talked about integrating sustainability into Autodesk’s programs in order to make sustainability accessible and scalable for designers around the world, and his belief in disruptive innovation.
• Amory Lovins spoke about his work with RMI (and how he’d worked alongside a lot of the other companies represented on the panel), as well as the importance of emphasizing hope over despair: “hope requires fearlessness.”

Some other coverage of the event:

• GreenBiz: Reinventing Fire
• Watch the RMI2009 site for videos and other materials from the event.
• Ray Anderson’s new book: Confessions of a Radical Industrialist

Buried in Time Magazine’s September 21 issue, whose lead story was “Out of Work in America” (sigh…), is a feature section on service in America. The section includes a few interesting articles - such as “The Responsibility Revolution” about responsible consumers, “25 Responsibility Pioneers” (which includes a number of our past and present clients), and an interview with President Obama and Michelle Obama around the concept of service in the United States.

While a lot of the content in there and initiatives featured are not new news to people who’ve been in this space for awhile, we take it as a heartening sign that these great companies - RecycleBank, Interface, CleanFish, among others - are getting national mainstream attention.

Another interesting theme that runs throughout is the idea of bringing public responsibility and “citizenship” back to the fore - Time’s poll reported that 68% of respondents thought most Americans do not live up to their responsibilities as citizens, 75% would pay $2000 more to buy a car that gets better gas mileage, and 46% think teh government should require stores to charge for plastic bags in order to encourage use of reusable bags.

This is, of course, all well and good, and more evidence of a heartening trend towards social responsibility at large. We just have to hope that people will actually go out of their way to do and pay for these things. Thomas Friedman’s 2007 editorial on Generation Q comes to mind- how millennials are replacing online activism and mouse-clicking with actual committed activism. There’s a lot to act out on and communicate to businesses and decision-makers - it’s on all of us to make sure we’re not just sitting back and hoping someone else will buy organic or lobby their company to initiate greener practices.

All in all, worth a read - if mostly for the inspiration from the 25 Responsibility Pioneers who’ve taken their beliefs to heart and to business to try to offer consumers more responsible options.

Image: Time Magazine

Nick shared his two cents with Times reporter Kate Galbraith about the value of sustainability-focused programs:

“Amid all the growth, experts warn prospective students to take a hard look at the value for money offered by the courses. At some schools, “there is a very large gap between the theory that they’re teaching and the actual requirements of the field,” particularly the financial and technical aspects of sustainability, said Nick Ellis, a managing partner at Bright Green Talent, an environmentally oriented executive search firm in San Francisco. He advises asking prospective schools about their placement rates in various green industries.”

Here’s the full article:

Sustainability Field Booms on Campus

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

BACK TO CLASS Bob Gressens signed up for continuing education at two universities to learn more about clean technology.

After 25 years in the high-technology industry, Bob Gressens sensed a growing excitement over environmental issues — and a new business opportunity. He followed his instinct, quit his job and went back to school.

“I want to give the next 15 years or whatever to sustainability,” he said. “To give back.”

In May, Mr. Gressens, who lives in San Francisco, began taking courses on topics as diverse as green building and sustainability management at the extension school of the University of California, Berkeley. He also signed up for additional coursework at a continuing studies program run by Stanford. If all goes well, he will find a job with an electrical utility, or elsewhere in the clean-technology field, after finishing his courses.

Mr. Gressens’s trajectory will sound familiar at educational institutions across the country, whose continuing education arms have seen a striking influx of students interested in the relatively new field of sustainability. At Harvard’s extension school, enrollment in environmental courses has soared by more than 70 percent in two years, according to the university, which has responded with new offerings in fast-changing fields like carbon neutrality and environmental economics.

Berkeley recorded a similar surge: three years ago, the sustainability studies office offered just five courses; today it includes 60 courses over a wide-ranging curriculum. Since 2006, enrollment has grown to more than 400 students per semester, from 55.

“In spite of the recession, we’re seeing strong interest in subject areas such as sustainable buildings, transportation, energy, economic policies and, of course, LEED,” said Pat Rose, the media relations manager of the Berkeley extension school, referring to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a certification system established by the United States Green Building Council. Being “LEED certified” has become important for professionals in fields including architecture and law; Mr. Gressens will be taking the LEED exam this fall.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education is just starting to survey whether colleges are offering continuing education courses related to sustainability, and not all are doing so. However, “we do have a sense from our members that these types of courses have increased in the past few years,” Paul Rowland, the group’s executive director, said in an e-mail message.

Many sustainability-focused continuing education programs offer certificates to students completing a certain number of courses. (At least four courses are needed for a certificate at Berkeley, for example, and 10 full-day workshops at the University of Oregon’s sustainability leadership program.) A few offer degrees, including the Harvard extension school, which confers a master’s in sustainability and environmental management.

Courses at Berkeley generally cost hundreds of dollars; at Harvard, they may reach $950 for noncredit attendees.

Business schools are also burnishing their sustainability credentials. A few, like Duquesne University’s business school in Pittsburgh and, as of this fall, City University of Seattle, offer M.B.A.’s in sustainability. Every two years, the Center for Business Education at the nonprofit Aspen Institute ranks the top M.B.A. programs with a social or environmental bent. The public management program at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business tops the 2007-8 list; the next survey is due out in October.

For homeowners who want to learn about energy-saving options, some institutions offer hands-on programs. The College of Continuing and Professional Education at California State University, Long Beach, has scheduled a three-hour workshop for later this month; attendees take along their utility bills for discussion. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, the continuing education arm offers workshops in straw-bale building and green remodeling. (This fall, its sustainable practices program, in conjunction with the university’s business school, will offer a program in sustainable management.)

Many universities are directing their programs toward managers, but another booming niche — occupied mainly by community colleges — involves training renewable energy technicians. Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, said more than 100 such programs were in operation around the country, at least 80 created in the last two years.

Amid all the growth, experts warn prospective students to take a hard look at the value for money offered by the courses. At some schools, “there is a very large gap between the theory that they’re teaching and the actual requirements of the field,” particularly the financial and technical aspects of sustainability, said Nick Ellis, a managing partner at Bright Green Talent, an environmentally oriented executive search firm in San Francisco. He advises asking prospective schools about their placement rates in various green industries.

Mr. Gressens, 53, said he was happy with what he was learning at Berkeley and Stanford. And he cited another advantage of the courses: the students.

At Berkeley, “you have people whose passion is to save the planet,” he said. “There are others who are just looking to make a buck. So that makes things interesting.”

[Also check out another article published today, "Ranking Universities by Greenness" to find the best of these programs.]

Every once in awhile, we come across an article or post that really resonates with what we believe here at Bright Green Talent. Colin Beavan writes a blog called “No Impact Man,” and in this post he describes what he would say if climate change didn’t turn out to be real. While we don’t give much (any?) credit to climate change nay-sayers (check out these photos of melting artic ice we came across yesterday!), Colin lays out all the other benefits that can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. There’s a lot of good work to be done out there! (By the way, Grist has a great guide on how to talk to global warming skeptics.)

What I’d say if I was wrong about climate change

By Colin Beavan

I get emails from people, every so often, asking what I would say and feel if I was wrong about climate change. What would I say if, after dedicating years of my life to bringing attention to the problem, I found out there was no problem.

Well, first, of course, I would praise God in thanks that we have no catastrophe to contend with. Then, since many of the measures needed to deal with climate change have a lot of positive benefits, I will think:

1. I am glad we created 5 million or more new jobs here in the United States in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable generation.
2. I am glad we created a culture that relies less on foreign oil, so that our children can live secure lives, knowing that the energy rug can’t be pulled out from under them.
3. I am glad we have found a way to save people and industry billions upon billions of dollars by making the use of energy more efficient.
4. I am glad the millions of children who suffer from asthma can now breathe easier thanks to the fact that we aren’t pumping the air full of toxins from our exhaust pipes and smokestacks.
5. I am glad that, by no longer burning oil and coal into our air, we’ve put an end to acid rain and the devastation of our aquatic life.
6. I am glad that we created good, reliable, fun-to-use public transportation system so that families no longer have to raid their budgets to pay for cars and gas.
7. I am glad we’ve stopped building suburbs, which make people unhappy and [thanks to the happy suburbanites who wrote in] are designed for cars not people, and instead build villages where people can have strong community bonds that help make life fulfilling.
8. I am glad we now have fuel-efficient automobiles.
9. I am glad that we’ve learned as a culture to get off the work-more-to-spend-more treadmill which gobbles up resources and leaves us unfulfilled and instead turned to a way of live full of meaning and purpose.
10. I am glad we developed local, fresh food systems that care not just about filling bellies but what we put in those bellies.
11. I am glad that we have rejected the philosophies of survival of the fittest and competition for resources as driving philosophies and have instead embraced a philosophy of compassion and justice.
12. I am glad that we have understood that a sustainable society cannot work without supporting all of its people and that we looked for and found ways to improve the lives of everyone.
13. I’m glad that we’ve come to see people rather than things as our most valuable resource and that, in embracing the respectful and loving principles of not wasting, we have learned not to waste youth in prisons but instead to get them help for their drug addictions and alcoholism.
14. I am glad that, in realizing our resources are limited, we have come to use them to do what is important and to help each other rather than compete with each other.
15. I am glad that we have come to see education as the ultimate in sustainable industries.
16. I am glad that we have developed distributed, renewable energy technologies that allow kids in all parts of the world to have electric light so they can learn how to read.
17. The list goes on and on, but in short, I am glad that we have embraced the opportunities presented by the crisis of climate change in order to improve our society in ways we should have done anyway.

And now, to turn the question back on those who say that either there is no climate change or that it is not a serious problem:

What would they feel if we did nothing about climate change and they turned out to be wrong?

What would they feel if we buried our heads in the sand, ignored the problem, and then irreversibly damaged the planetary habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security?

Penned by Carolyn

In the “green” space, credibility is crucial, and things are changing rapidly as investment   washes in and out of the sector, companies make big eco-commitments, or they slink away from their environmental goals. A great way to stay up to date is to sign yourself up for a few newsletters in the space you’re interested in moving into. Being well-read is also a networking tool — you can know who’s growing, who’s been bought out, who’s making  headlines. Use these developments as opportunities to reach out to the companies or people involved and start a meaningful dialogue.

Here are our 30 favorite green newsletters - our criteria included quality of news/writing, relevance, up-to-date information, and lack of spammy-ness.

General Green News:
GreenBiz & the other Greener World Media newsletters
Mother Nature Network
SustainLane
Treehugger
Climate Change Business Journal
Green Options
Environmental Leader
Grist

Clean Tech/Renewable Energy:
CleanEdge “Clean Watch”
Rocky Mountain Institute
Renewable Energy Weekly
GreenTech Media
CleanTechies

Activism/Policy:
Sierra Club RAW
Sierra Club Insider
350.org
We Campaign
Green for All
WWF

Green Business/CSR:
Ceres
Seventh Generation
Green America (formerly Co-op America)
Terrapass
CSR Wire
Reuters Carbon

Jobs:
Bright Green Talent
Green Job List
CleanLoop CleanTech
Green Career Central

Feel Good:
Daily Ray of Hope (Sierra Club)

We’re always open to feedback - if you have other suggestions or thoughts, please share them!

We had a chat with Tracy Hepler this week, an entrepreneur trying to green LA:

Q1 What are you up to at the moment?

Right now I’m constantly working on growing my baby, yourdailythread.com which is an online community space for green, sustainable and local living in Los Angeles. Our goal is to bring green down to the local level. There are wonderful national and global sites out there right now such as treehugger.com or grist.org, but they usually don’t focus on neighborhood issues. We try to focus on things that you can do in your own back yard, from community gardens to local green events—we sift through all green marketing and green washing to bring our readers the crème de la crème of local green issues.

I have also recently co-founded LYFE (Leading Young Future Entrepreneurs) with Hillary Newman (the Ecowarriorr) and Rachel Hurn-Maloney of Vie Eco Fashion Boutique in Los Angeles. LYFE brings together young entrepreneurs who care about the environment and want to network both professional and socially.

I also do freelance writing/blogging for a few other green/cause oriented sites including the Huffington Post Green, Causecast.org and I’m working on a few more side projects including bringing green to the Latino mainstream.

Q2 Why do you do what you do?

After graduating college, I thought I really wanted to work in the entertainment industry as a writer. I soon realized once in the industry that my calling was to use my skills towards work that would help make the world a better place. As cheesy as that might sound, it is true. I feel that climate change and the environment is possibly the most pressing issue of our time and I want to do everything in my power to bring change and inspire everyone to do everything they can to conquer this problem.

Q3 What keeps you awake at night?

Haha, this is funny because I’m currently on vacation and I can’t be away Your Daily Thread for more than a few hours—that is my baby, if you will, and I am so inspired to see it succeed all the way through.

Q4 You mentioned that you’re doing a summer special with YDT - what tips do you have?

Well I missed the 4th, but our tips are applicable for the rest of summer. If I could suggest one big thing it would be to avoid using disposables. For one hour of picnicking or bbqing your plastic plates and forks will sit in the landfill for hundreds of years. I don’t care how tasty you burgers are—it’s not worth it. Bring your own plates from home or if you need to use a form of disposable, use compostable ones from companies like Earth Shell. They’re made in the USA from old potatoes and other scrapes and can be thrown into the compost bin. If you don’t compost and must throw them away, they won’t take nearly as long to biodegrade. You can view the rest of our green summer bbq tips here.

Q5 If you were a g(r)enie, what would you wish for?

I get three wishes I assume!

1) I’d wish for green to be a major priority across, political, social and all other spectrums. I’m happy with the amount of progress we’ve made in the last few years, but I think we’ve got a lot more to do and a stronger sense of urgency is needed.

2) That every household and business in America used a recycling and composting bin so that we would throw less into our landfills.

3) That we’d return to eating healthy real food. I have been a big fan of Michael Pollan for a while and recently saw Food INC—it’s shocking how much of what we eat really isn’t food. I’d wish for a return to more seasonal organic food that everyone could afford.

From Net Impact SF’s site, in regards to last week’s green jobs event:

Penned by Christina

Last night I enthusiastically attended the book launch for Adam Werbach’s new book, Strategy for Sustainability. (For those of you who don’t know who Adam Werbach is, read on or learn about his company, Saatchi & Saatchi S).  They had a ton of great speakers, drumming, drinks and fire dancers!

During the performance, the drummers talked about what culture really means, how critical it is for society and how it connects to sustainability.  I can never hear enough of that type of thinking!  I was also reminded that Saatchi & Saatchi S focuses on and problem-solves utilizing SEEC - social, environmental, economic and cultural dimensions.  It really warmed my heart (and not only due to my proximity to the fire!) to see a thriving company that has pushed the boundaries of progressive business thinking.

(Photo by Nathan Wyeth)

Some thoughts from our founder, Paul Hannam, on why people are so intrigued and inspired by the idea of a green job.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2Ruox3jlM&hl=en&fs=1]

Penned by Tom

It’s always good to look at the bottom-line when assessing the environmental movement. There are a plethora of interesting success stories which demonstrate to executives the importance and benefits of going green, even if you’re a climate-change denier. Here are a few examples from Sustainable Business Consulting:

• A Global cleaning products company maximized natural lighting, installed occupancy sensors and enabled employees to control heating and cooling at their work stations. The ROI: Saved nearly $100,000 a year.
• A Fortune 500 global technology company gave employees the option to telecommute from home. The ROI: Saved $67.8 million in real estate costs in just one year and reduced 29,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and increased worker productivity by 34 percent.
• A 41-story, Class A+ office building with 1,000,000 square feet of office space located in the US reduced unnecessary after-hours and weekend lighting and initiated a high efficiency lighting retrofit. The ROI: Saved $386,000 in annual operating expenses.
• A Global cleaning products company restored native and drought tolerant plants, such as prairie grass and wild flowers, to the site. ROI: Saved $2,000 per acre in annual maintenance costs.
• A Global forest products company encouraged employees to commute using vanpools, carpools, walking or biking. ROI: Reduced total vehicle miles driven by 1.2 million and reduced emissions by 66,884 pounds of CO2 in one year.
• A US-based independent federal agency developed an advanced preventative maintenance inspection process for its delivery fleet. The ROI: Saved $3 million and 330,000 quarts of oil to date.
• A Cancer research center utilized off-hour lighting, fan shutoffs, occupancy sensors, high-efficiency chillers, L.E.D. exit signs, heat recovery from washers and efficient lighting. The ROI: Saved $317,000 annually, which is enough electricity to power 1,200 homes annually.
• A Medical center sent used toner cartridges to a recycling company that refurbishes and refills them. The ROI: Saved $20,000 annually.
• A Healthcare company recycled more than 6,000 tons of paper, plastic, glass and aluminum waste. The ROI: Saved more than $300,000 in disposal costs, diverted more than 18,000 cubic yards form landfills.
• A Major US-based retailer changed the specifications for individual item packaging and reduced the quantity of excess pins clips, bags, paperboard inserts, tape and tissue paper in its items. The ROI: Saved an estimated $4.5 million in labor costs and eliminated approximately 1.5 million pounds of waste.