Green Business

An exciting forum focusing on environmental issues in the media is going to take place in Los Angeles on December 8-9, 2008. This green media forum includes a number of interesting keynote speakers, most notably Gary Wilk who is VP of World Wide Operations & Green Ambassador of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. You can find out more by clicking the image below.

Sustainable agriculture is, in my opinion, a viable green career choice. The following video focuses on a small farm operation. These farmers care about what they do. From top to bottom, the owners and managers offer a hands on approach to farming. Mostly selling to local markets, they sell a seasonal selection of local produce.

As my current focus seems to be on green jobs, I want to share this video with you – a 3 minute excerpt from a larger discussion. Carnegie Ethics Studio presents Norine Kennedy who speaks about the environment, jobs and sustainability. Ms. Kennedy believes that the business community, by being environmentally conscious, can open new markets while helping to solve sustainability challenges.

It is a pleasure to watch someone speak about green business with such eloquence. Well Done, Ms. Kennedy.

If you would like to watch the full 90 minute discussion click here.

I have been on sort of a tangent lately with regards to careers in the green marketplace. Sorry if anyone out there is getting a little bit annoyed, but I found another great site that is focused on finding green jobs and I would like to share it with you. Green Careers is powered by MonsterTrak and it is a wonderful way to launch your career in the environmental marketplace. You can click the image below if you would like to be directed to the site.

With massive job cuts going on in America at the moment I wanted to add a resource to help anyone and everyone search for a green job. The website TreeHugger has a very impressive job board that is updated daily. I hope it helps in your quest for a better job – one that will help our fragile environment. You can click on the image below to go directly to their green job board.

One might say that a more traditional form of green business is a farmers market. A non-profit organization, eatlocal.org located in Vancouver, BC, Canada offers vendors a medium to sell their organic fruits & vegetables, free-range chickens and a vast array of other amazing eco-friendly products. The market offers space for vendors in the following categories; farm, prepared food, and crafts. They also designate space for service providers, from on-site coffee vendors and bike repair to massage therapy. Many farmers markets, such as those put on eatlocal.org, support eco-friendly vendors. Do some research to find a farmers market in your area so you can support a local small green business owner.

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.

First things first, who is business.gov. From their site:

Business.gov, the official business link to the U.S. Government, is managed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in a partnership with 21 other federal agencies. This partnership, known as Business Gateway, is a Presidential E-government initiative that provides a single access point to government services and information to help the nation’s businesses with their operations.

Business.gov offers, what they believe, are ten steps a business must follow in order to be deemed a green business.

1. Comply with environmental regulations
2. Develop an environmental management plan
3. Build green
4. Buy green products
5. Adopt energy efficient practices
6. Reduce, reuse, recycle wastes
7. Conserve water
8. Prevent pollution
9. Create a green marketing strategy
10. Join industry partnership and stewardship programs

Yesterday I wrote a little bit about greenwashing. The subject is so compelling that I did some more research and stumbled upon the following video – a very entertaining piece from RANvideo (Rainforest Action Network). They talk about Wal-Mart’s sustainability initiative and the potential that the company has to drastically reduce the negative impact it has on the environment. Is Wal-Mart greenwashing or are they serious about their green initiative?

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.