ecofrenzy: what’s good in green

Sustainability is losing its meaning to me these days, as I hear it everywhere. At today’s Greener By Design conference, leaders from Wal-Mart, Sustainable Minds and Clear Standards discuss how they are translating the concept of “sustainability” into success metrics and tools that drive sustainable packaging, design and environmental impact reporting.

Rand Waddoups, senior director of business strategy and sustainability at Wal-Mart described Wal-Mart’s four part journey to sustainability, beginning with consensus building around need for sustainability, moving into an evangelist phase, and then to a clear recognition of the business case of sustainability. The fourth step, where they are headed today, is the ability to measure and track progress with sustainability metrics. They’ve found that suppliers that provide poor products are often also mistreating their employees, and cheating when it comes to factory compliance. So holding suppliers to a higher standard is good for business.

Waddoups explained how Wal-Mart’s packaging scorecard is driving sustainable change at Wal-Mart. The scorecard can be applied to every single product in Wal-Mart stores, and is actually sparking innovation in many suppliers. For example, Yoplait decided to revisit its package and totally redesigned its yogurt cups after they learned they were lagging their competitors on the scorecard.

And how do we communicate these messages and concepts to the every day consumer? As Waddoups explained, “Our average customer does not understand greenwashing…She is struggling to afford her principles.” Wal-Mart strives to give the consumer access to the information they need to make informed purchases, but, “We will not make progress on consumer products without much clearer data,” Waddoups stated.

Continue reading on GreenBiz.com.

When does green design become more than just a “nice to have?” What is driving the many advancements in environmentally friendly product design? A panel discussion at today’s Greener By Design conference brought together experts on
carbon regulation, product toxicity, and sustainable product certification to discuss.

For starters, how will carbon regulation impact product design? Steve Gutmann, Senior Commercialization Manager at EcoSecurities, explained that a cap and trade system will impact companies indirectly by raising the cost of energy. “95 percent of entities will not be directly affected by cap and trade, but their product design processes will be impacted by more expensive energy.” Gutmann advised companies to push on energy efficiency to position themselves strategically as carbon regulation develops.

In the voluntary carbon market Gutmann described a trend of more seamless ways of purchasing credits. Consumers are facing more and more options to make “micro-contributions” of 1 percent of their purchase price to go towards carbon offset projects. Another trend is the emergence of more local offset projects to choose from.

Toxics have recently become a renewed source of consumer concern. Dr. Richard Liroff, Executive Director of the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) speaks of a “toxic footprint” that companies need to understand. “If you want to sell to Wal-Mart and others that will follow their lead, you better know what chemicals are in your products. And ask yourself how to get rid of them,” Liroff advised.

Continue reading on GreenBiz.com.

“Nobody is as smart as everybody. We have all the solutions we need. Yes our problems are big. But if we’re all working together, now that becomes a movement,” David de Rothschild explained at today’s Greener by Design conference.

De Rothschild is the founder of Adventure Ecology and his latest adventure is inspired by the mass of plastic accumulated in our oceans, the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating landfill located between California and Hawaii that’s twice the size of Texas. His goal is to build a boat entirely of plastic bottles and recycled waste products, called Plastiki, and sail it 12,000 miles from San Francisco to Sydney departing in August 2009 as an environmental statement.

De Rothschild has built a team he calls the Smart Collective to combat inefficient design. He brought together a group of intelligent folks who had never built a boat

before to design the Plastiki. And it hasn’t been easy. He related that slick plans did not translate into a slick boat so easily, hence they’ve had some delays getting the ship to launch. They were initially inspired by a pomegranate -  the design of Plastiki attempts to recreate the way a compilation of pomegranate seeds can constitute something as solid but buoyant as a pomegranate. One major difficulty was achieving a solid structure for the boat, until they found a material called SRPET (Self reinforcing polyethylene terephthalate) which is a clean, recyclable plastic that is half the weight of fiberglass and three quarters the strength.

When finished, the Plastiki will be made of 12,500 2-liter plastic bottles collected by Waste Management, will weigh 9 tons, and will have a crew of six. The Plastiki will have a composting toilet, onboard renewable energy and a garden. “People are so shocked that we’re going to grow food on the boat,” de Rothschild mused.

Continue reading at GreenBiz.com.

Soyeon Lee, award-winning pianist and wife of TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky, recently released a new album, Re!nvented.  Not only does the album draw on reused or revisited classical selections, but the album itself is encased in reused/upcycled potato chip bags!

Lee worked with TerraCycle to produce the world’s most eco-friendly CD packaging- made from chip bags collected by millions of school children in North America. Each case is unique; made by compressing the shredded bags. Typical jewel cases are made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), an inexpensive petrochemical-based plastic that is notoriously difficult to recycle and is linked to elevated cancer rates among workers and people who live near manufacturing plants.

This is clearly one small step in the right direction – ideally I think music would be distributed online rather than on physical CDs and our data centers would be powered with renewable energy.  But in the meantime, we need to be thinking more and more creatively, searching for ways to use what we already have to suit our needs, as Lee has done with her new album.  Not only is the package a unique conversation starter, but the music is exquisite.  See more photos here.

If you are trying to do good in the world (as opposed to just making money), how do you know if you’re having an impact? How do you measure and manage that good? The recent Global Social Venture Competition culminated with a full-day symposium on Social Entrepreneurship. Sara Olsen, founding partner of SVT Group and a leading practitioner of impact management, led a workshop on social impact assessment at the symposium. Candace Taylor, director of Corporate Strategy and Sustainability at Wal-Mart and co-founder of Urban Oasis Development discussed her work as a case study example.

Impact measurement is a new and evolving discipline. Practitioners, like Olsen, are developing environmental and social accounting methods. Historically we have focused on financial value, which misses the broader picture of people and planet.

One emerging tool is social return on investment (SROI) analysis. SROI is an attempt to understand and manage the non-financial value created by an organization relative to the investment required. SROI is comprehensive, and measures the net impact of an organization, so that both positive and negative impacts are taken into account. While some people look for a monetary measure of SROI (dollars per impact) only, SROI includes quantitative, qualitative and narrative information about impact as well

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Can a Business Do Well By Doing Good?

If you’ve ever contemplated this question, then we’d like to introduce you to the musings and insights of Jeffrey Swartz, CEO of Timberland. Under Jeff’s guidance, Timberland has grown from a $156 million company in 1989 to a $1.4 billion company in 2007.

In this interview, Jeff shares candid thoughts, successes and challenges of infusing a business with values – the values stemming from three generations of family leadership at Timberland. You’ll be inspired to re-think what impact it’s possible to achieve through your business.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

• Jeff Swartz expounds on “selling values” (Timberland) versus “selling sex” (other clothing retailers)
• Timberland’s Facebook campaign which mobilized thousands to action
• How Timberland creates positive impact in the communities and countries where its products are produced
• Is Timberland is more like Bono or Al Gore in creating messages for consumers?

Read the transcript and listen to the audio of my interview with Jeff Swartz on Green Business Innovators.

Water is one of the greatest challenges of our times, and with this week’s launch of Imagine H2O, it has become a great opportunity. Imagine H2O is a non-profit with a mission to inspire and empower people to solve water problems.

Through an annual business plan competition, Imagine H2O will address the water problems of developed economies and bring together a community of entrepreneurs, investors, water experts, academics, and caring citizens who collectively have the power to solve the water crisis. The aim is to develop the Silicon Valley for water, an ecosystem of stakeholders to the next great water innovations.

Water supply is perhaps our most pressing issue, even in the US. For example:

* The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that over 50% of America’s groundwater is polluted.
* In 2007, 40% of states suffered droughts and over 70% of states are anticipating water shortages by 2013
* Over the last 25 years, droughts have killed more Americans than any other U.S. weather disaster and have caused $150 billion in damage nationally.
* Up to $1 trillion is needed to rebuild America’s aging water infrastructure

But today less than 0.5% of early-stage investment goes toward water innovations. Imagine H2O is offering $50,000 in prizes for business plans promising the greatest breakthroughs in the efficient use of water.

“What sets this prize apart is our Incubator Program and ‘ecosystem’ for water leaders,” said Tamin Pechet, Imagine H2O’s Chairman and Executive Director, who co-founded the organization at Harvard Business School in 2007. “The winners will also receive thousands of dollars in business and legal support and access to a network of partners, customers and financiers to help bring their ideas to market so they can make a real difference.”

To kick-off the business plan competition, Imagine H2O hosted a water entrepreneurship workshop at UC Berkeley in collaboration with the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC) this week, which brought together water experts to discuss opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation in the sector.

So what are some opportunities for entrepreneurship?

Michael George of Sutter Securities suggested that improving utility pricing of water such that utilities have an incentive to help customers conserve is an area aching for innovation. California is making strides here, but we have a ways to go. “We are now subsidizing our most limited resource,” he explained. Another opportunity is in increasing the efficiency of water use in agriculture, where 80% of water is used.

Rachel Sheinbein, of CMEA Ventures and formerly Intel, brought both the industry and investors’ perspective to the panel. Since water is mis-priced, it is hard to get ROI from water savings. If there is no savings, why would a company care? We need corporate water champions and innovators to develop a business case for water conservation. If an innovation can save time and energy as well as water it will be a lot more marketable. She recommended entrepreneurs look to commercial and industrial applications before residential, as the channels for reaching residential customers are more difficult to navigate.

Panelist Dana Haasz from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission noted the biggest issue around measurement and accountability in water. “There is no link between programs and number, demands and goals…the lack of measurement rolls up to the high level,” she explained.

Alexis Strauss, of the EPA’s Water Division, cited the need for an integrated, cost-effective and portable system that would use solar energy to treat drinking water and deal with waste-water.

The competition’s inaugural prize will focus on water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse. Entries will be accepted from anyone in the world beginning in September, and winners will be announced at a showcase event in early 2010. Future years’ competitions will have different prize topics addressing other critical water problems.

[Originally posted on TriplePundit]