Green For All And Living Cities Announce Creation Of “Energy Efficiency Opportunity Fund” During Clinton Global Initiative

Today, at the closing session of Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting, Living Cities and Green For All unveiled the Energy Efficiency Opportunity Fund alongside former President Bill Clinton.  The groundbreaking fund will finance innovative efforts to retrofit homes, businesses and community facilities to achieve greater energy efficiency while also creating jobs and cutting energy costs for low-income families.

By investing in new models for financing retrofits, the Fund will help catalyze and leverage additional funding from federal, state and local governments, financial institutions and foundations.

”This Fund is an extension of Green For All’s commitment to build a clean-energy economy that is ripe with broad opportunity and shared prosperity for every neighborhood,” said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All.  “Economic recovery and economic opportunity can converge through smart investments in people, place and planet.”

The Fund will provide a unique platform for “triple bottom line” returns, including:

• A financial return of 2 – 3 percent annually;

• An environmental return in the form of reduced energy consumption and avoided greenhouse gas emissions; and

• A social return that saves money and creates jobs for low-income people.

”The creation of the Fund is part of our intentional strategy to ensure that low-income people and places can benefit from the emerging green economy,” said Living Cities CEO Ben Hecht.

The sponsors estimate that when fully deployed, a $20 million fund would leverage approximately $200 million in financing for building energy retrofits. On an annual basis, this would mean:

• 37,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided – the equivalent of more than 4,700 cars taken

• off the road;

• 25% energy savings on average in 15,000 homes, with total household savings of $6 million;

• 25% energy savings on average in 2,000 commercial/community buildings;

• 2,500 clean energy jobs, with substantial opportunity for low-income people; and

• Improved health increased household income and/or greater worker productivity experienced by 40,000 people.

Green For All and Living Cities are considering investment opportunities both in states traditionally seen as environmental strongholds such as California, Washington and Massachusetts, as well as in cities in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions that are developing innovative strategies. 

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Financial Crisis Inspires Doing Well by Doing Good

Nothing has put the mandate for doing well by doing good more front and center than the financial collapse one year ago. For three decades, Greed has been Good! Better than good, it was great!

In America in the 1930s, a chicken in every pot was the social goal. People in the Great Depression were literally starving. Anyone with parents or grandparents who lived through those times is familiar with stories of struggle and strife. In the 1940s, defending our freedom was the call of duty for every citizen. War brides dreaded the sight of uniformed men at the door and mothers prayed for their sons to return home alive. Honor and freedom were the goals citizen’s strove for on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 1950s, a safe and secure life climbing up the corporate ladder was all any family could want. Moms stayed at home baking apple pie and dads worked to put two cars in the garage. Father’s Knew Best, kids were respectful, and a common morality ruled.

In the 1960s, things got a bit more real again. A throwback to the 1940s, principles of right and wrong, justice and injustice threw the nation into a state of turmoil. We didn’t always believe the same thing, but at least we had beliefs. The 1970s brought with it a new restlessness in post-war America. There was no cause to fight for anymore. The apathy led to the Culture of Greed.

Oliver Stone made a movie ironically intended to expose the superficiality of the world of finance. Instead the Hollywood version of the money machine made Greed a Star. Gordon Gekko became an American idol and profit at any cost became glamorous.

It didn’t matter how you made money anymore, just that you made it. You could beg, borrow, and steal to get to the top and it was all acceptable. It was simply “good” business…

Now a new kind of good business is breaking through to the other side. No longer a fringe idea for those outside of society, the Business of Good is one of the biggest industries in the New Economy.

The Wall Street Journal, one of the Greed culture’s loudest voices, reported this week on the move of talented college grads out of finance and into “doing good” professions. A MIT graduate student who originally intended to go to Lehman Brothers switched his plan to engineering and solar-power technology. New grads are flocking in droves to social entrepreneurship careers, social advocacy start-ups, better world businesses, and environmentally sound green business endeavors.

Phew! More proof that there is silver lining in every dark cloud. And it only took a major economic catastrophe to do it!

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The Energizing of Green Awareness & Business Practices

How to Manage a Camel – Project Management

NOTE: This article is reprinted from the September 2009 edition of Project Management Tipoffs. If you wish to contribute an article to a future edition of Tipoffs, email us at this address, and be sure to subscribe to PM Tipoffs to read our responses by clicking here. The August edition can be found by clicking here.

Can we truly afford to dismiss green practices as a business staple these days? Well, sad as it is to say, the economic woes over the last year may very well be the excuse most companies hesitant to go green are looking for. ‘Push it to the back of drawer, we’ll pull it out another time if we have to,’ goes the thinking. ‘Keep it in the black, never mind the consequences.’

Even when you know that green practices are the correct thing to do, using economic woes as an excuse not to do so is akin to hiding from the issue. The PR’s not so good, either.

This thinking ignores a golden opportunity for businesses when times have been their toughest. There’s no denying the damage of public relations fallout for ignoring green initiatives in good times, even to the biggest companies out there. But when times are tough, the PR fallout of not sticking with it can prove brutal when competitors proved willing and able to go green years before.
 
Ken Whitley of Tree Appeal, a company that encourages businesses to plant broadleaf trees, feels that companies owe it to their track record and company history to take green steps early with an idea to be at the forefront of the issue over the long term. The opposite and more damaging ‘go green’ tactic, naturally, is to leap before looking.
 
‘You must get your credentials before you can shout about it. You can’t buy history,’ he said. ‘It’s all about the track record, the commitment to the issue.’
 
Adam Broadway, Associate Director of Beyond Green, a sustainability-based project management firm, believes that the key word in his company’s mission is sustainability. The ’s’ word, he feels, encompasses more positive ecological responsibilities for project managers and businesses as a whole.
 
“The most important issue is to think in terms of wider sustainability issues which cut across all elements of the project,” he said. “Sustainability in terms of environmental, economic and social elements are far more important.
 
“It must be remembered that green is one thing but the most important issue is to embed genuine sustainability into the project…that is much more effective in the long term but equally more difficult to achieve in the short term.”
 
To the blind eye, project managers might seem strongly pre-disposed to effectively coping with management of green issues within a project. We know how to adjust, we know how to roll with the punches, and we know how to channel the things that really matter.
 
But not everyone is so certain that’s the case.
 
“There is still considerable scepticism out there,” he said. “There are less ‘deniers’ but still a large number of ‘delayers’…those people who feel something will be invented to save the world.”
 
Tom Mochal, PMP and co-founder of green-pm.com, agrees, stating that businesses seem to be the key drivers in green practice.
 
“I think that many project managers work on green initiatives, but they are not the result of their own green thinking,” said Mochal, who is also President of TenStep, Inc., an American company focused on methodology development, training and consulting. “These projects were developed by other sponsors in the company and then the project manager gets asked to run them.
 
“I think the specific role of the project manager is not necessarily lagging the rest of the industry but I do not get the sense that we are ahead of the curve either.”
 
The ‘down the road’ issue is not the lone reason to dismiss the economy as a reason to avoid green initiatives. That said, it does play a minor role in the matter of front-runner greenness – the tendency of companies to undertake green measures in better times, but abandon them when times are tough.
 
Whitley’s view of environmental issues, built over a career of green-minded work primarily in the agricultural sector, shapes a way of thinking that stresses greenness as an ethical matter.

“If you abandon your environmental practices as an ethical business issue because of tough economic times, you’ll be seen as a fair-weather supporter,” he said. “Keep it on your agenda, and you’ll gain a right of passage to be a legitimate long-term deliverer of true green projects, not just jumping on the band wagon when it suits with superficial greenwash.

“In an economic down turn you must look to differentiate your business with added value otherwise you will be competing solely on price which is a downward financial spiral.”

via projectcentric.co.uk

University of Kentucky Using Local Foods to Serve it’s Student (Video)

Watch why the University of Kentucky is buying local foods for its dining halls! For more information, visit: <a href="http://uknow.uky.edu/conten&#8230;

http://uknow.uky.edu/conten…</p>

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CSR Minute: September 25,2009 – Intel + Asian Institute of Management’s CSR Award; Insight Forum’s Comm Symposium Discount; Anellotech and U Mass Amherst’s Grassoline

Corporate Social Responsible News: Intel + Asian Institute of Management’s CSR Award; Insight Forum’s Comm Symposium Discount; Anellotech and U Mass Amherst’s Grassoline

IEMA Workshop: A unique course for CSR Professionals hosted by CSE in Chicago

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) in North America successfully extended the momentum of corporate training in CSR and Sustainability by hosting its CSR Practitioners’ Workshop in the US on September 1-2, 2009. More than 80 Professionals from 5 continents have already join this unique workshop, which is certified by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), and is designed for all professionals responsible for the Sustainable Management of their organizations. The certified workshop, launched in Europe and expanded in many different countries successfully by CSE, represents a stepping-stone for organizations that want to implement Sustainability into their operations gradually, one-step at a time.  

The carbon neutral workshop attracted an eclectic group of professionals, ranging from CSR Managers to University Directors, and finally CSR Bloggers. Participants of the workshop represented five continents and a myriad of industries, backgrounds, and expertise. The workshop was covered by CSR blogs on Vault.com, CNBC and other media.  

The training workshop, presented by trainers Nikos Avlonas, Nick Andrews and Dr. George Nassos, covered urgent issues in a series of modules ranging from Corporate Responsibility (CR) Strategy Development to CR Reporting and Assurance.  The workshop also included several group-interactive workshops, which allowed participants to analyze the status of their organizations in terms of CR, and how the issues and methodologies covered applied to their real-life business circumstances.

The CSE workshop is certified by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), and is designed for all professionals responsible for the management of CSR, Marketing, and Public Relations activities. General Managers, Public Relations Managers and Sustainability and Environmental Professionals can advance their Sustainability understanding, acquire the skill and knowledge that will bring added value and authenticity to their company, and also earn an official business qualification through this two-day workshop.

CSE will host its next Certified CSR Practitioners workshop and Roundtable discussion on February 9-10, 2010.

To request additional information or register in the next workshop contact CSE at research@cse-net.org or info@cse-northamerica.org.

 CSE is a leading advising organization & Think Tank with offices in Chicago, Athens and Brussels specialized in providing sustainable development solutions to various corporations and institutions.  It represents the outcome of the cooperation between experts and scientists, who deal with, apply and provide support in the most advanced practical methodologies towards sustainability, while adhering to social and environmental criteria. Through its network of international partners, CSE offers coaching in a vast array of advising services promoting Sustainability & Excellence to Organizations, Society and Governments. CSE is operating in more than 10 countries.  For more information please visit www.cse-northamerica.org . CSE is proudly situated in the first exclusive Green Business Community in North America, Green Exchange.

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