Greener Purchasing Summit 2011

On Tuesday, November 15, 2011 between 1:00 PM and 6:30 PM (Pacific Time) at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California, there will be a Greener Purchasing Summit. Speakers include Yalmaz Siddiqui, Senior Director Environmental Strategy, Office Depot and David Gottfried, the founder of the US Green Building Council.

Yalmaz develops strategy and drives integration of a wide range of environmental programs into Office Depot, globally. Under his leadership the company was ranked the #1 greenest large retailer in the US by Newsweek magazine in 2010 and 2011.

Yalmaz holds a Masters in Environment & Development from Cambridge, a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill and serves as a Co-chair of the Green Products Roundtable, an EPA-supported effort to define ‘greener product’ for B2B purchasers. Yalmaz is known for his ability to simplify complex environmental concepts in a fun and compelling way.

David Gottfried is internationally acknowledged as one of the foremost founders of the global green building movement. In the early 1990's he founded the first green building council, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which has since been adopted in 89 countries and is among the fastest growing nonprofits in the world. He also founded the World Green Building Council and created the concept for the LEED® green building rating system (adopted by 140 countries). An international speaker, David has delivered hundreds of keynotes in over a dozen countries. Gottfried has 30 years of multidisciplinary real estate, consulting and non-profit experience in the building industry and is an adviser to ten GreenbuildTech™ startups.

David received his degree in Engineering and Resource Management from Stanford University. Now a private business owner, David is CEO of Regenerative Ventures and Regenerative Network. Regenerative Ventures, a GreenBuildTech™ adviser, consultant and green business incubator, has assisted over 100 organizations in establishing sustainable building strategy, corporate sustainable business program invention, and business development. Regenerative Network is a private business-to-business green building consortium that assists to accelerate the adoption of high performance green building products. Its Members comprise the world’s leading green building product manufacturers.

The summit will also include Greener Purchasing Case Studies: Lessons from Leaders. Selected winners of Office Depot’s Leadership in Greener Purchasing Awards will share their ‘lessons from the trenches’. They’ll speak on making the business case, overcoming barriers, writing greener purchasing policies, measuring results and engaging end users.

Agenda

12:00pm–1:00pm Free access to Chabot Space & Science Center exhibits (optional, at your own pace)
1:00pm–1:30pm Welcome and Digital-dome planetarium show
1:30pm–2:15pm Delivering on the promise of Greener Purchasing (Yalmaz Siddiqui)
2:15pm– 3:00pm Keynote: Greening an Industry and a Life (David Gottfried)
3:00pm–3:30pm Networking Break & Greener Products Expo
3:30pm–4:15pm Leadership in Greener Purchasing Awards Ceremony
4:15pm–5:00pm Greener Purchasing Case Studies: Lessons from Leaders
5:00pm–5:30pm Greener Products Expo (Continued)
5:30pm-6:30pm Cocktail Reception

To register click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Training Workshops in Toronto

On November 3rd and 4th, 2011, the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) hosted its global Training Program “Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner” in Toronto. This was the organization's first training workshop in Canada. Participants included sustainability managers, environmental consultants, external relations advisors and communications executives from a wide range of business sectors.

Speakers included Nikos Avlonas, President of CSE, the former Prime Minister of Sweden Ola Ullsten, and GRI USA Focal Point Director Mike Wallace.

At present, more than 300 Sustainability Practitioners from 5 continents and over 30 countries have received CSE's Sustainability Practitioners qualification including organizations like Oracle, Sara Lee, Grainger, World Business for Sustainable Development, Lloyds Banking Group, Whole Foods, North Face, Vanity Fair, Mercedes Benz, Shell, NV Bekaert, Baker Hughes, and ZAIN.

CSE’s next Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Workshop will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on December 6th-7th 2011. For more information contact Louis Christopher at sustainability@cse-net.org

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Video: IBM Road Map for Going Green

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Review of Some of the Companies Present at Solar Power International 2011

Solar Power International (SPI '11), took place at the Dallas Convention Center between October 17th and 20th 2011. There were general sessions including the participation of leading solar companies. The solar sector is very important in the US as one of the only sectors that is growing and creating jobs. Right now there are over 100,000 solar jobs and the industry enjoyed a growth rate of 6.8% in 2010. That is phenonmenal growth compared to the rest of the American economy.

Some of the companies involved at SPI '11 include Jinko Solar, Rosendin, PsomasFMG, Gestamp, SunEdison, KRoad, NRG, 8Minute, SoCore Energy, Sunlight Partners, Meridian, SunDurance, Main Street Power, ESA Renewables, Clean Power Group and Clean Focus, just to name a few.

Rosendin Electric

Rosendin Electric is a company that is best known for making sound business decisions. They are well diversified in the types of solar projects they pursue, whether it is a rooftop or a ground mounted system. Their broad reach provides their customers with the benefits of diverse capabilities and excellence in service wherever they may be located.

Rosendin began nearly three years ago when it acquired a small California start-up that specialized in the solar power industry; Rosendin has taken a slow and deliberate approach to building its expertise, reputation and business portfolio in the solar PV market sector. There is no question to the fact that the results have been impressive. This year, the company expects to complete approximately $100 million in solar projects – double the $50 million in solar projects it developed in 2010, and a quantum leap from the $3 million in solar work it completed in 2009. In 2012, Rosendin forecasts its solar project sector to more than triple to approximately $350 million, according to Duncan Frederick, Director of Solar Operations.

PsomasFMG

PsomasFMG was founded as a joint venture between Psomas Renewables and First Management Group. Their plan and execution has been to bring the expertise of management leadership and development engineering together creating a team of highly skilled individuals. With a purpose of bringing value to the solar energy industry, while reducing development costs.

Gestamp Solar

Gestamp Solar is a developer and operator of utility-scale photovoltaic plants. It vertically integrates the solar plant components that lead to success. They are committed to achieving best quality and perfection with maintenance and security as theirpriorities in the development of solar plants. Theycontrol all the stages of the process: development, construction and maintenance. Gestamp Solar is a company leader in solar engineers supported by their Headquarters. The developmentactivity is performedby companies belonging to the Gestamp group to ensure on timedelivery. They are focused on fully developing and integrating large-scale solar energy projects which is adding value to the solar industry.

SunEdison

SunEdison is a global provider of solar energy products and services. The company develops, finances, installs and operates distributed power plants using proven photovoltaic technologies, delivering fully managed, predictably priced solar energy services for its commercial, government, utility and residential customers. To date, SunEdison has deployed over 450 megawatts of solar energy throughout the world.

KRoad Power

K Road was originally founded in 2002 as a vehicle to help recapitalize and restructure troubled US power companies following the power market crash of 2001. In 2008 the company turned its sights exclusively to the renewable power sector and power infrastructure related to building a clean, sustainable energy future for the United States.

K Road is run by a seasoned team of professionals from Sithe Energies, Inc. and Goldman Sachs with over 150 years of combined leadership experience in the industry. Led by former Sithe founder, Chairman and CEO, William Kriegel, K Road professionals have successfully developed and safely operated over 15,000 MW of conventional and renewable power assets creating safe and reliable electricity for millions of customers with an acute sense for building exceptional shareholder value while protecting and supporting the project stakeholders.

Today K Road has 11 power projects in the Southwestern U.S. at various stages of development, totaling 2300 MWs. The majority of K Road projects are located on Native American reservations. The portfolio includes the 850 MW Calico Solar Project in San Bernardino County, California, one of the world's largest permitted solar projects which upon completion will generate clean reliable renewable electricity for over 350,000 homes.

NRG Energy

NRG entered the solar space in 2009. Because of Tom Doyle’s years of solar and wind background they were able to enter the solar space by initially finding and investing in a number of projects that were approximately 75% to 80% ready to complete. Each project needed something that NRG could provide to push them across the goal line which made them ideal for NRG. Then there were a number of projects that would require an equity investment and NRG had positioned themselves as an investor when the projects didn’t have development or financing risks.

NRG set up a 3 tier system where they could work immediately on some projects that were ready and others that were not ready to move forward. Tier 1 projects had a PPA agreement, site control, transmission agreement and the ability to close financing by the end of 2ndQuarter 2011. NRG presently has about 900 MW’s of assets in the tier 1 category. The tier 2 portfolio is about 900 MW’s as well but it is lacking one of the components that are in tier 1 such as it may have site and transmission completed but it may not have an off taker agreement.

For more information about the SPI '11 event including interviews and videos click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Video: IBM - Energy & Climate - Innovation that matters

In this video energy and the climate are reviewed with a focus on efficiencies and the future of the digital utility is explained. IBM is helping pioneer the digital electricity grid which holds promises to lower massive amounts of emissions and save vast amount of energy and capital.


© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Video: Sustainability...Your Competitive Advantage

Caterpillar Sustainable Development Manager John Disharoon presented "Sustainability...Your Competitive Advantage" daily from the stage in Generations Park at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Video: Navigating the Journey to Sustainability

This paper combines theory from a variety of theoretical streams such as business education, learning, psychology, social psychology, and complex systems to present a case for embedding sustainability literacy into all tertiary business education, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, irrespective of social culture. The argument is premised on assertions of emerging sustainability values across countries around the world, the impact of the business sector on resource use in society and the role of Education for Sustainability (EfS) in shaping graduates attitudes and knowledge. Given EfS and sustainability itself are both journeys of learning, is it argued that tertiary institutions must actively engage and navigate their students' journey of learning towards sustainability. (By:Liz Sidiropoulos, CQUniversity).

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Video: The Journey of Sustainable Business

Can business profit through sustainability or is this all just wishful thinking? Trace the journey from the Industrial Revolution to the present to find out. This video also explores the model provided by the late Ray Anderson who introduced sustainability into all aspects of Interface's operations in the 90s.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

The Green Market's Earth Day Activity

Happy Earth Day! The Green Market is celebrating Earth Day with ten days of posts devoted to providing green resources and examples of sustainable businesses. The Green Market is also working to support sustainable business and to share best practices that ensure an ecologically and economically balanced future.

The business community is essential if we are to reverse the environmental crisis we are facing which is why The Green Market is celebrating Earth Day with a series of posts focusing on green and sustainable business. These posts offer important resources and information to help make every day Earth Day. The Green Market's homage to Earth Day includes a total of 26 posts, it started on April 12 and runs until April 23.

Two Examples of Business at Work on Earth Day 2011
10 Business Pledges in Support of A Billion Acts of Green
Green Your Business on Earth Day
Small Businesses Can Benefit from the Growing Green Market Too
Businesses are Combating Climate Change and Turning a Profit
The Rise of the Green Consumer
U.S. Consumer Attitudes on Green
Cost Benefit Analysis of Sustainable Business Practices
New Types of Insurance Reduce Risk and Accelerate the Adoption of Green Energy
A Greener Insurance Company
HP's Sustainable Innovation Serves the Planet and Profits
PUMA's Sustainable Packaging Innovation
PUMA's Comprehensive Sustainable Strategy Now Includes Environmental Accounting
Xerox's Green Innovation
Bschool.com's "10 Great Companies Who Were Green Before It Was Cool"
Power Shift Rally at the US Chamber of Commerce in DC
Surveys of America's Greenest Brands Suggest that Redemption is Possible
Greener Japanese Companies
Dan Miller on the Psychology of Climate Change and the Business of Change
WWF's Long History of Helping Businesses to be More Sustainable
WWF-UK's Green Game-Changers Initiative for Business
Deal Between Carbon Trust and Siemens Good for UK`s Green Economy
Green Guide for SMEs from the Carbon Trust
Cooperation Between Environmental Organizations and Businesses
Zotos Earns a Place on the EPA’s Top 20 On-Site Power Generation List
EPA’s Top 20 On-Site Power Generation List

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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