green business

Welcome to the audio archive & slides for the first chunk of our green finance summit "How To Save The Planet on A Budget". This second hour looks as the real-life challenges with making green business profitable.[read more]

President Obama Visiting Solyndra, May 2010 (Solyndra)The sun has set on Solyndra. The solar panel manufacturer, once the darling of the US Department of Energy, which bestowed its blessings in the form of a $535 million loan guarantee, is shuttered. Despite this guarantee, which some sources say was almost completely drawn down,...[read more]

This morning the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program released a comprehensive new report, "Sizing the Clean Economy," which takes a detailed look at the United States' ongoing transformation toward a low-carbon future. The report, co-produced with Battelle Technology Partnership, presents the most detailed data available...[read more]

Today’s guest post is from Steve Zwick, who edits Ecosystem Marketplace, an online news service that reports on market-based solutions to environmental problems.  Based on the premise that the cost of production should include the cost of environmental degradation, EM is published by non-governmental organization Forest Trends and...[read more]

Think people aren't interested in electric cars in the United States? Try this on for size: before a single Nissan LEAF has been seen in a U.S. showroom, they are apparently sold out. Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said recently that the company had already received 19,000 orders in the United States and Japan for the all...[read more]

Anyone who paid attention learned a lot from the global financial crisis of 2008. Here are three lessons that were burned into my brain: 1. Live within your means. Debt creates risk. When homeowners, investors or banks take on lots  of debt, and something goes awry—and it will—they will pay, big time. 2. We’re interdependent. It’s...[read more]

Original photo by ATIS547 I was asked on Twitter recently where to find a list of links to tech companies’ CSR reports. I didn’t know where to find one, so I built one and as well as just the links, I also added in a few extra observations I noted about the reports. Company Latest Report...[read more]

This post comes from one of new industry insiders Joanna Hamblin, a marketing consultant. This is Joanna first post and I’m excited to see her future insights. Stay tuned! With the constant fluctuation of energy and natural resource prices, more and more companies are evaluating and embracing sustainability not only to cut and...[read more]

Guest Post by George Kneisel According to a survey of Canadian and global supply chain managers by Capgemini, a leading international consulting firm, sustainability has moved up from no. 3 in 2009 to no. 2 in 2010 as the top business challenges. 56% of companies now consider sustainability a key issue, up sharply from 34% from one year...[read more]

Walmart and GE are the superpowers of corporate sustainability. They have enormous impact (WMT) and influence (GE). Recently, I hosted a dinner about sustainability for Motorola where an executive named Bill Olson described how the company developed its Eco-Moto W233 Renew carbon neutral, energy efficient, environmentally friendly phone...[read more]

Siemens and Wasion have entered into a strategic cooperation framework agreement to conduct research on feasibility of jointly striving smart grid pilot projects in China. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the companies will establish a joint strategic cooperation team to conduct such feasibility researches in the areas including...[read more]

Energy & Climate Minister pledges "not one atom of help" from the government The future of nuclear energy in the U.K. does not look bright based on the rhetoric coming from Chris Huhne, (right) the new government's Energy & Climate minister and key advisor to Conservative Party coalition partner David Cameron. In a May...[read more]

(BYD's e6 electric car) Warren Buffett is a busy man, and never more so than during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meetings, sometimes called the Woodstock of capitalism, which attract thousands of people each year to Omaha, Nebraska. But Buffett found time during this year’s gathering to sit down for an hour with Chuanfu Wang, the...[read more]

Recently, I’ve been getting asked more and more who and what companies to follow on twitter. So, I’ve decided to put together some lists. BEWARE, if you’re not familiar with twitter you may have no idea what I’m talking about. Today, I did my first #FollowFriday for my favorite green people around Boston. It went something like...[read more]

In the previous post of this series on the book Green to Gold, I explained how the downside and upside of environmental (or climate change) initiatives may be managed. In this final installment, I will talk about thirteen pitfalls to avoid. One of the reasons why I like this book is that the authors do not just offer examples of success...[read more]