GREEN :: News

GREEN BUSINESS

Green Living
07.26.07 – MSNBC.com
Graduates of the class of 2007 are finding the job market is receptive to those who want to do good by the environment. As public awareness of global warming grows, companies are scrambling to put in place greener practices, to present themselves as more eco-friendly and to develop products and services to fill a new demand for all things green. The phenomenon is creating jobs in fields like urban planning, carbon trading, green building and environmental consulting.

The Green Scene
07.25.07 – Sun-Journal.com
The hum of trucks crisscrossing the yard at Safe Handling has a little different timbre these days. That’s because the fleet of 25 is now using biodiesel at its Rodman Road facility and on its short-haul deliveries to customers throughout Maine.

"Right now, we’re at 2 percent biodiesel (fuel mix), but we expect to reach 20 percent within three weeks," said Andy Meyer, vice president of green initiatives. "When we do, I believe we might become the biggest consumers of biodiesel fuel in the state."

In Chicago, a Haven for Green Enterprise
07.25.07 – New York Times
While other developments have trumpeted their green qualities in recent years, Green Exchange directly tests Chicago’s market for products and services intended to produce a cleaner, more natural and healthier way of life.

Companies Embrace ‘Green’ Packaging
07.25.07 – The Cincinnati Enquirer
The new corporate interest in sustainability is driven not only by concern for the environment, but the more practical desires to hold down expenses and gain a competitive edge with consumers.
"I’ve been in the packaging business for 24 years, and this is the fourth time there’s been a ‘green’ movement, but this time it’s for real," said Mark Matthews, vice president of packaging at xpedx, the packaging and paper distribution unit of International Paper Co.

Testing the Waters for Clean Tech
07.23.07 – CNET
Sensicore, which builds sensors and software for monitoring municipal water quality, is hoping that investors have a big thirst for clean tech ventures. Founded in 2000, Sensicore is among a wave of clean tech start-ups creating technology to better manage natural resources. But even though water conservation and quality is an increasingly pressing problem, there are few high-tech water management companies.

American Air to Show Off Its Green Side
07.18.07 – Wall Street Journal
American Airlines, the world’s biggest airline by passenger traffic and a unit of AMR Corp., is preparing a marketing campaign next month to show off its green side. In the past six months, environmental concerns have become a priority for the airline, David Cush, senior vice president of global sales, said in an interview. Both corporate accounts and individual customers increasingly are asking the airline for information about its environmental policies, he said.

For Job Market, Green Means Growth
07.03.07 – Forbes
According to Kevin Doyle, president of Green Economy, a Boston-based firm that promotes an environmentally healthy workforce, the green industry in the United States in 2005 was about $265 billion employing 1.6 million people in an estimated 118,000 jobs. Green businesses have also been growing at a rate of about 5% annually during the last three years, Doyle says. Two particularly hot areas are global carbon credit trading, which doubled to $28 billion from 2005 to 2006, and construction and services associated with ”green buildings” that meet industry standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. Today, the green building industry is worth $12 billion; 10 years ago, it was unquantifiable.

Green Business’ Go-to Guys
06.28.07 – CNNMoney.com
It’s no longer a surprise when big companies launch environmental initiatives. This has been good for the planet, good for the image of corporate America, and very good for GreenOrder, a small but influential New York consulting firm that advises Fortune 500 clients on how to make money by going green.

Giving Lamps a Green Light
06.23.07 – Wall Street Journal
Green products are gaining traction in American homes, but energy-efficient lamps mostly haven’t caught on. The lamps tend to be unstylish and emit harsh-looking light. Now, the makers of so-called light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are rolling out a new crop of desk lamps that aim to address those shortcomings.

Why Green Investing has Gained Focus
06.21.07 – Wall Street Journal
For Holly Isdale, managing director and head of wealth advisory at Lehman Brothers, global warming isn’t a scientific theory — it’s an investment opportunity. "It’s not just tree huggers" who think about global warming, say Ms. Isdale. "There’s money to be made, and people want to know how to make it."

Computer Power Waste Targeted
06.13.07 – Wall Street Journal
Google Inc. and Intel Corp. announced an effort to get computer makers and customers to adopt technologies that reduce energy consumption. The initiative sets annual targets for reducing power usage on personal computers and server systems. PCs waste about half the power they consume, while computers overall account for about 2% of world-wide energy usage, backers of the effort estimated. If computer users meet the targets, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to supply power for computing uses could drop by 54 million tons a year and save more than $5.5 billion in annual energy costs.

GE CEO Sees ‘Green’ Unit Growing Faster
MSNBC.com
General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said his “green” ecomagination unit is on track to “blow away” its 2010 sales target of $20 billion as demand for environmental products and services surges.

IT Managers Have Green On Their Minds, But Not On The Books, Says Report
InformationWeek
While the majority of IT procurement and operations executives are interested in buying products that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient, most companies don’t have formal "green" criteria for their tech purchasing decisions.
That’s the conclusion of a report by Forrester, which found that 85% of the 124 executives surveyed say environmental factors are important in their IT planning, but only 25% of them have written green criteria into their purchasing processes.

Consumers Demand Greener Products, And Tech Companies Are Responding
Optimize
More U.S. consumers are familiar with the concept of green products and how their actions affect the environment than they were last year, according to a new survey.
As electronic and computer companies increasingly move toward greener products and recycling procedures, a 2007 ImagePower Green Brands Survey shows a shift in U.S. consumer attitudes.
"Green is no longer an issue marginalized to fanatical environmentalists," pollsters with WWP’s Landor Associates, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and Cohn & Wolfe, said in a prepared statement. "Nearly all Americans display green attitudes and behaviors versus a year ago."

Who’s the greenest of them all?
InfoWorld
Back in the ’80s, it was hip to be square (if you believe the dogma of the prophet Huey Lewis). These days, being green is where it’s at, and while many companies are scrambling to tout their eco-friendly, energy-efficient ways, the media and other organizations are also celebrating companies they deem the greenest in the land — and decrying those that fall short.

Doing right thing isn’t easy, even for those who want to
USA Today
USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that more Americans than ever — 60%, up from 48% a decade ago — believe that global warming has begun to affect the climate. A slightly larger percentage think it will cause major or extreme changes in climate and weather during the next 50 years.

An environmental ethic is growing on business
Los Angeles Times
Since the first Earth Day almost 37 years ago, U.S. companies have been eager to trumpet their environmental good deeds, even when they were more about public relations than clean air or water.
But increasingly, corporate America is going green in new, serious and costly ways. After years of being prodded — and in some cases punished — by protesters, lawmakers, regulators and, now, even Wall Street, businesses are looking beyond the bottom line.

Business of Green: A Special Section
New York Times
An environmental ethic is growing on business

IBM sees green in environmental tech
CNET.com
IBM, a company that makes big money tackling big problems, is turning its attention to the planet’s environmental woes.

Biggest Private Buyout Ever Has Green Tinge
ABC News
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts buys Texas Power Company on the condition it cancel some coal plants.

The New Math of Alternative Energy
Wall Street Journal – Energy Special Report
Does going green finally make economic sense? Preview of article; subscription or fee required.

Beyond The Green Corporation
BusinessWeek
Imagine a world in which eco-friendly and socially responsible practices actually help a company’s bottom line. It’s closer than you think.

Leveraging the Eco-Advantage
Chief Executive
Two eco-aware CEOs explain their business models.

Green is the new black
CorpComm
An incredible 96 percent of UK consumers now know about climate change and 28 percent are very concerned about its effects, according to a recent study.

10 Green Giants
CNN Money
These companies have gone beyond what the law requires to operate in an environmentally responsible way.

What Every Tech Pro Should Know About ‘Green Computing’
InformationWeek
Forget Al Gore and his Oscar for a global warming documentary. To gauge how today’s trendy green movement is affecting computing, skip Hollywood and head to Wall Street.
There, Green Computing isn’t a save-the-planet-for-our-kids movement. It’s about the other green: cutting operating costs as the demand for computing power soars. It’s a movement grounded in measurable, near-term results. “The top priority at hand is data center efficiency,” says Sabet Elias, CTO of investment bank Lehman Brothers, which last year boosted energy efficiency 25% and set a goal of another 35% by next year.

GE chief: All engines go for alternative energy
CNET.com
Immelt was the keynote speaker on Saturday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy 2.0 Conference, where he asserted that the energy industry is becoming more diverse because of improving economics and societal changes.

Green Investing for Today and Tomorrow
GreenMoneyJournal.com
The media often uses the term “green investing” to describe SRI in general. That’s an unfairly narrow label for a broad variety of investment strategies, some focused on avoidance social screening, or social advocacy, or a variety of other socially responsible approaches and goals. We at Winslow define “green investing” as an investment approach with a primary focus on environmental risks and opportunities.

A Smart Approach to Sustainability
Buildings Magazine
Myth and misinformation surround the topic of sustainability, clouding its definition and purpose, and blurring the lines between green fact and fiction. “Some [facilities professionals] think that a green building will require sacrifice in terms of comfort. That’s certainly understandable … it goes back to Jimmy Carter wearing his cardigan and telling us all to turn down the thermostat. But, we’ve come a long way since then; there are strategies today that can provide the same level of comfort with much less energy use,” says Ralph DiNola, principal, Green Building Services, Portland, OR.

Green Tech
CNET.com
Going green is a lot easier than it used to be. You don’t have to eat mashed yeast or wear itchy shirts to start cutting down on carbon. Dive into our videos, how-tos, and features to find out how tech can help you get greener, starting with 25 ways you can go green.