Green Business

Green business means business that incorporates social, environmental, and economic values together. Some people call this the "triple bottom line." Also "sustainable business" or "socially responsible business." Like it or not, businesses are the most powerful institutions in the world. A small change by a huge corporation can have a huge effect, by educating consumers, by reducing the impacts of the business, by mobilizing a constituency for further change.

Projects that I have worked on:

SEE Green- A green business directory for Sonoma County, California that was published in cooperation with the Sonoma West Times and News from 1998-2001. I started the project with Dennis Judd, an environmental consultant. It was my first project out of college, and, motivated by the possibility of transforming business towards sustainability, starting from a concept, I got several hundred green businesses to advertise, wrote articles, put on business mixer events (like a Green Chamber of Commerce) and at one point produced several dozen radio spots called "The Environmental Moment" which aired twice daily on KSRO Radio AM1350. The SEE Green Directory was published 3 times a year, and over 25,000 directories were distributed.

Greenopia- This is a green business directory for Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Toyota Prius is a great example of an innovation that could make a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions without asking consumers to sacrifice quality of life. (I know that in the big picture, consumers will have to make major changes, but in order to bring in the mainstream, we also need options that don't require sacrifice.)

Savvy investors are putting their money into companies that recognize the triple bottom line, have fewer climate change risks, and can take advantage of the business opportunities of a low-carbon economy.

Green Business ideas that I support:

Socially Responsible Investing

CleanTech

Books to check out:

Paul Hawken: The Ecology of Commerce

David Korten is the author of "When Corporations Rule the World." This is a good book to read to learn about un-sustainable business, and why green business is so important.

Natural Capitalism- Lots of stuff about efficiency and changing incentives so that businesses will automatically do the right thing, instead of being forced to by government regulations.

Dee Hock: Birth of the Chaordic Age- A really interesting book about the organizational structure of VISA and how that relates to networked relationships such as the Internet.

More to come...