Green Business » Interviews

Innovation Is The Key To Becoming Green

robertludvig — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:33:05 +0000

John Grant is an optimist by nature and instead of being an activist he tries to build things, taking the positive appoach to climate change. His best advice to a business person who is asking the question, “where do I start” is simply one word – innovation. He asks companies, what is the one thing that is five or ten years ahead of everyone else and moving things foreward. Everything else will fall into place is one focuses on the innovation.

Obviously, many small businesses that want to transition to becoming a green business don’t have the one magic bullet, but what they do have is the passion to make small and subtle changes that will positively impact the environment and hopefully their company’s bottom line.

Mr.Grant’s believes that businesses should change and adapt to the new green economy by focusing on innovation. By jumping in businesses can immediately begin the transition to a greener company. Mr.Grant also believes a businessis making a mistake by communicating to the public just how many wonderful things that company is doing. moving forward..progress…innovation.

imlication. make it part of a business..either, make subtle changes that keep up with innovation, AND/OR business relaizing that we, as a society, cannot keep going the way that we currently are, almost saying that enough is enough. And how can a business make changes even if huge profit isn’t the end result? Make small innovation to positively impanct the environment, innovations that are necessary anyway, but make those changes green changes.

John Grant is an optimist by nature and the author of the book The Green Marketing Manifesto. He consults companies on going green in the areas of marketing and innovation. His best advice to a business person who asks the question, “where do I start” is simply one word – innovation. Mr.Grant asks companies, what is the one thing that is five or ten years ahead of everyone else and moving things forward? Everything else will fall into place if one focuses on the advancement of products and services. By jumping in fearlessly, businesses can immediately begin the transition to becoming a greener company. Mr.Grant also believes businesses are making mistakes by telling the public just how many wonderful things they are doing to help the environment. Allowing your company’s green products or services speak for itself is a much more effective way to gain credibility in the green economy.

A Focus On Business and Climate Change

robertludvig — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:45:05 +0000

The Prince’s May Day Network, was founded by the prince of Wales in 2007, over 1300 business have signed up and are commited to run their business in a environmentally friendly way. These businesses have also comiteed to spread the word with regards to the urgency of climate change, and to empower the businesses community as well as individuals to show them that everyone can make a differnce.

Jim Haywood Environment dierector for an organization called Business In the Community. Leads a small team who focuses on climate change. Get businesses to commit to taking action against hurting the environment. Working with business to show how they impact society and the environment.

jim believes that in the United Kingdom, businesses contribute at least 40% of the emmissions that leads to negative climate changes.

How? empowering their employees to make a difference both at home and at work, including working with their supply chain. This thing seems to snowball, where one person can effect the actions of many withing the business community. The next step is to look at the customers. How can they provide services and products to live in a more environmentally friendy way. Mr.Haywood stresses that one of the most important things businesses can do is to show leadership, showing inspiration

Jim Haywood is the Environment Director for an organization called Business In The Community. Working through the Prince’s May Day Network, Mr.Haywood leads a small team that focuses on climate change. His organization tries to get businesses to commit to take action against harming the environment by working with business to show how they impact society and the environment.

Jim believes that in the United Kingdom, businesses contribute to at least 40% of the emissions that leads to negative climate changes.

The Prince’s May Day Network, was founded by the Prince of Wales in 2007. Over 1300 business have signed up and are committed to running their business in a environmentally friendly way. These businesses have also committed to spread the word with regards to the urgency of climate change, and to empower the businesses community as well as individuals to show them that everyone can make a difference.

Mr.Haywood accomplishes these goals by empowering employees of these businesses to make a difference both at home and at work, including working with their supply chain – this is how one person can effect the actions of many within the business community. The next step is to look at the customers and ask how they can provide services and products to live in a more environmentally friendy way. Mr.Haywood stresses that one of the most important things businesses can do is to show leadership.

Ray Anderson: Pioneer of a Movement

robertludvig — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:43:21 +0000

It is difficult to start any type of business, so if you want to start a green business you better find out what your motives are. If you decide to begin the search, start by looking at the pioneer of green business, Mr. Ray Anderson. He will tell you his answers and motivations for starting an environmentally friendly carpet business many years ago, before running a green business was the thing to do.The reasons why the pioneer of green business started his company are truly inspiring. Two of Mr.Anderson’s philosophies? Take nothing, do no harm and only take from the earth what can be given back to the earth.

I have mentioned Mr.Anderson in previous posts, but I wanted to write about him again because his message is an important one, and vital to anyone who wants to start a green business. The environment and the business community can work harmoniously and thrive as one unit, working together for a greater good. Sappy? Yes. Truthful? Absolutely. So take a look at Ray and be as inspired as I am of a man who was ahead of his time, becoming a pioneer in green business. His dedication and vision are as inspiring as his words in this video.

In the following video, Mr.Anderson speaks about the logic of sustainability. After watching the video you may ask yourself, how could you not start a green business?

A Green Business Entrepreneur Speaks

robertludvig — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:14:00 +0000

The following video made me smile and I immediately knew I had to post it at Green Business. It comes from a participant at Green Business Camp who perfectly exemplifies the spirit that many green business owners possess. He truly is an inspiration. What do you think!

Green Business: Green Construction Practices

robertludvig — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:12:11 +0000

The builder in the accompanying video follows Leed certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Some very important information about green building practices can be found at the U.S. Green Building Council website.

The following are four points that Rex the builder says are key factors in building green.

1-Recycling of waste materials.

2-Erosion protection around the job site.

3-Choice of materials.

4-Where materials are purchased.

Greenwashing In Green Business

robertludvig — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:32:38 +0000

The marketing of green businesses and the products they sell is on the rise, and so are ethical concerns. In the following video Dave Michael Garg investigates the relatively new phenomenon of greenwashing. The term greenwashing has to do with businesses misleading the public as to the true environmental impact of their ‘green’ product.

Bringing Back The Handkerchief

robertludvig — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:26:08 +0000

Rugula Appenzeller is owner of the green business Hank&Cheef. Using organic cotton ethically sourced from Turkey, Hank&Cheef has brought back the handkerchief, finally. Kudos to them for reinventing an indispensable but forgotten product. I hope they are successful.

Alternative Energy: CEO Interview

robertludvig — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:29:49 +0000

I just wanted to thank the guys at Alternative Energy News who published my interview with Gary Thompson, CEO of Sierra Geothermal Power Corp. It was a great experience talking with the head of a company specializing in creating alternative energy. If you want to read the interview in its entirety, please click here. A special thanks goes out to Alex Ramon, webmaster at Alternative Energy News, for getting the ball rolling.

6 Reasons For Writing About Green Business

robertludvig — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:30:21 +0000

I asked myself a simple question the other day, “Why did I start a blog about green business, and have the my original reasons changed over the course of the past few months since writing about the topic?” On the surface it may seem like a simple question, but it really digs deep into my heart. After thinking about it for a few minutes I started to write down a few answers – here they are:

1) I want global warming to stop…NOW!

2) Business and the environment do not have to be at odds with one another.

3) People are good, and by providing resources, news and other information about sustainability they may change the way they live their life.

4) The consciousness and attitude about the environment is changing, and I want to help speed up the process.

5) I want to learn more about green business.

6) I want to bring people together who share the same interests.

The only thing that has changed over the course of the past few months is that I discovered the sheer number of people who write about the environment. I am inspired by everyone and all of their incredible articles.

Let’s change the world.

Wind Farm Opposition Grows

robertludvig — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:33:16 +0000

Canadian companies that create wind farms are having a rough time building them as opposition groups are delaying the building, some of these delays are over one year because of appeals. Much of the opposition feel that wind farms have, at the very least, two major strikes against them – they are noisy and they are an eye-sore.

Enbridge, a leading company in the Canadian wind farm industry, have actually had to decrease the size of their planned wind farm because of such heavy protest from local groups.

The key factor that supporters of these farms attribute to the opposition is ignorance. Although Canada is an ideal country for wind-farms because of its two coasts, as well as the prairie provinces, they are playing catch-up to most European countries in relation to the percentage of power harnessed from the wind versus the more traditional forms of energy creation.

Educating the public is necessary if these companies plan on eventually thriving, but the oppostion do make a valid argument with regards to the negative impact that wind-farms have.

I wrote the author of the above video telling him that I was happy to see some objective information about wind farms from such a knowledgable person. The following was his response as it was presented it to me.

“I’m only trying to present the facts as the developer presented them. Turbines are only as good as their location. The AWEA recommends only wind class 3 and above locations. Unfortunately due to the huge subsidies granted to the wind industry,the best locations are not always chosen.As you can see from my other videos about wind farm locations/wind speeds in Illinois, the Oak Prairie Wind Farm in Illinois is to be built in an area of class 2-3 wind. There is class 4 wind in the same county, but those locations are not being considered for development. This will cost us all tax money and clean energy. The difference in output from class 3 to class 4 is quite a bit as my video shows. So that being said, keep in mind support for wind power should really be support for the best locations.”

“By the way as far as the whole NIMBY thing, I ran a wind turbine in my own backyard for 4 years before I sold it due to lack of output and lightning strike issues. I now use solar only. The wind farm developer for Oak Prairie Wind Farm lives many miles away and uses no renewables at his home. He is only in the project for the land lease money. Energy is not his main incentive. The county wants to tax the towers so they don’t care about output/location. Check out protectillinoisenvironment.com for some good wind-power information.
Thanks for your interest,

Steve

PS-Did you know that Com Ed and the AWEA made a report about Illinois wind resources and found that the entire state of Illinois has a total wind energy potential of only about 6780 Mega Watts.About 1% of Illinois total consumption!”

Some of the best advice that I ever received seems appropriate to use right now. There are two sides to every story – and then there’s the truth.