Business Planning for Climate Change- A 'Climate Change and the Bottom Line' Conference Recap

November 6, 2013

By Katia Blackburn

Climate change is real: It’s happening fast, it’s extremely expensive, and preparing for it requires a collaborative full-court press. Cascadians already getting traction with their preparation, protection and prevention strategies shared their experiences and plans at Climate Change and the Bottom Line conference, held on October 31.

RECAP- Good Business Workshop: Leveraging Your Sustainability Report to Drive Performance and Increase Brand Value

Author: Candice Goldsmith

The reasons behind continued adoption of GRI and CDP are clear- 95% of the Global 250 companies report that sustainability and carbon disclosure (through the CDP) is viewed by over 650 institutional investors as an indicator of business health. Cynthia Figge, Partner and Cofounder of EKOS International and COO and Cofounder of CSRHUB, and Russell S. Barton, Ph.D., Partner and Cofounder of EKOS International, highlighted the importance of these emerging standards during the Tools for Tomorrow event on March 21, 2013 by discussing that today’s business environment is driven by customer’s expectations, stakeholder interest, as well as ratings, requirements, and standards.

The ultimate goal is to use sustainability reporting as a framework to drive continuous improvement; enrich the brand; deepen relationships with suppliers, employees, community, and customers; and increase value for the triple top line including less waste, improving employee relations, and increasing profits.

Benefits

There are two primary categories that explain why companies are starting and continuing to report: external and internal benefits. 

Fledge: The Socially Conscious Company Incubator

(Guest Post by Michael Libes)


Consumers these days are more and more environmentally conscious, energy conscious, health conscious, community conscious, conscious of sustainability, and even conscious of consumption itself.

Entrepreneurs who try and reach these companies are too often thwarted, with few tools and services to help them through the challenges of creating a sustainable, viable company.

Fledge is here to help!

HUNTER LOVINS: A Re-cap

(Written by Maureen McGregor)

Have you heard of the new Tools for Tomorrow program at Sustainable Seattle? If you haven’t here’s the scoop: Sustainable Seattle has partnered with Bainbridge Graduate Institute to bring you a sustainable business program packed full of resources that can be utilized by all. For starters there are CSR Leaders Roundtables where business leaders discuss the viability of going beyond the triple bottom line to bring about better business for all. Good Business Workshops are a series of engaging workshops that teach leaders innovative ways to make your business more sustainable. Lastly, but certainly not leastly, this program provides Industry Innovator Forums with big name speakers, like the one held at Seattle Public Library last night featuring Hunter Lovins. 

Did you miss it? Luckily, I’m here to re-cap.

Green Storage Ideas For Any Business

Guest post by Kenneth McCall of Storage.com

Today's ever-changing and ever-developing world has led to the gradual depletion of its natural resources. Furthermore, many of the resources we exhaust are used for the production of packaging materials that are detrimental to the environment. However, with just a little bit of extra effort we can do our part in saving the planet, starting with our business storage strategies. Here's a look at ecofriendly substitutes for environmentally harmful storage and packaging materials.

Bioplastic
Containers made from plastic take up to thousands of years to decompose. During this time period, little chunks of plastic end up in our oceans, suffocating marine life and gradually entering our food chain to harm all living organisms. On the other hand, bioplastics are nontoxic and take a significantly shorter amount of time to biodegrade. Furthermore, by switching to bioplastics, you are reducing the need for the foreign oil used to produce plastic. Bioplastics are manufactured using local biomass materials that help conserve the amount of energy used for production. Energy is further conserved during decomposition because less energy is used for recycling bioplastics.

Sustainable wood products
Sustainable wood comes from trees that are grown faster than they are cut down in order to meet the needs of society without compromising the needs of future generations. Consider switching to storage pieces that are made from sustainable woods, such as bamboo, cane, mango, maple, and more. Avoid products that come from slow-growing trees such as oak, beech, spruce, and redwood. Research the companies in your local area that offer storage furniture and pieces in sustainable wood. To learn more about the promotion of responsible forest management, contact the Forest Stewardship Council, an international non-profit organization.

Recycled cardboard
Cardboard that has been deposited into landfills is known as old corrugated cardboard (OCC). Recycled cardboard is made from this OCC and only take 75% of the energy that it takes to make a cardboard box from harvested trees. Furthermore, there is a decreased emission of sulfur dioxide when cardboard is made from OCC. In addition to using recycled cardboard containers for your office belongings, also remember to properly recycle this cardboard after use. Research your community's local recycling program and see what you can contribute.

Rentable plastic bins
There are now many companies offering rentable plastic bins for your packaging needs. If you need to move something to or from your office space, consider renting from a local company in order to reduce the amount of packaging material waste deposited into landfills. Look up the size of the boxes the company offers and estimate how many you will need to transport your belongings. These companies will deliver empty boxes to your business and will then come back to pick them up when you are done.

Biodegradable packing peanuts
Packing peanuts are made from polystyrene, a substance that is incredibly harmful to the environment. A much more environmentally friendly alternative is cornstarch based packing peanuts. These packing peanuts can simply be dissolved in water after you are done using them. Furthermore, there is less static in these packing peanuts and can be a better choice for cushioning your electronics and other fragile items. These packing peanuts can easily be made in your own kitchen with ingredients that can be found in any local grocery store.

Why Six Solutions?

Our next workshop (next Thursday) will be Six Solutions for Sustainable Business, which we're presenting in partnership with APICS, the association for operations management.  APICS's acronym stands for "Advancing Productivity, Innovation and Competitive Success", and we occasionally get questions about how that fits with our work, and why this workshop is relevant to our main audience.  Ron Sullivan, the workshop instructor, has put together a short FAQ addressing this and other questions:

Why is Sustainable Seattle partnering with a group focused on inventory, production, and supply chain?
The problems of the environment cannot be solved without the active participation of business. The better we understand the opportunities for business to become more green the better we can perform our mission.

I work in an NGO. How will this seminar benefit me?
NGO's are helping businesses do the right thing. Classic examples include:
  Nature Conservancy and Starbucks
  World Wildlife Fund and Lafarge
  NBIS and Grays Harbor Paper
  Sierra Club and Walmart
The synergy of and an NGO helping a business is greater than either working alone.  The seminar will help you recognize the opportunities.

My diet is very disciplined and I don't want to go to an event that serves low quality food.
The venue for the seminar is just down the hall from the Bon Appetit cafeteria, a leader in sustainable and healthy food.  Each person attending is given complete freedom to select their choice of breakfast , breaks, and lunch as part of the seminar fee.

And here is a sort of FAQ for people from manufacturing businesses, which should give you a broader sense of what the workshop covers:

A recent note from IDC included the ten things the author hears most often from manufacturers in discussion about sustainability.  What kind of response to these comments would we expect from someone that had been to the Six Solutions for Sustainable Business seminar?  Here are the ten points with such a response. 

1.  We have to build a business case for sustainability.
Very little is done without a payback in dollars, for which a traditional business case will suffice.  To make valid decisions though many use the triple bottom line, considering.not just cost and payback, but also social and environmental impacts and benefits, which are seldom stated in dollars.  This is a change to the traditional way.   

2.  More and more customers are asking me about my sustainability programs and my footprint.
If you are business to business your customer may be using sustainability criteria as impetus to benefits, for example to reduce waste, which makes you a better supplier.  If you are business to consumer some of your customers will pay up for your efforts and most will at least use it as a tiebreaker, so it is becoming a competitive issue.

3.  I need a corporate view of my sustainability data.
Don’ let the need to roll up disparate sites get in the way of each site’s progress.  

4.  I have to find an easier (i.e., cheaper and faster) way to demonstrate my environmental footprint.

Companies start with scope 1, just the energy within their plant, and then evolve to scope 2, including suppliers.  At least one software supplier can provide a scope three life cycle assessment of your product from which the footprint information can be extracted for the whole supply chain.  

5 - The process of collecting sustainability data is not very automated or integrated.
This is a good thing – the questions we are asking today will probably be quite different from those of tomorrow. 

6 - I don't have a sustainability budget.
For each element of the plan, if you have a business case you have a budget. 

7 – I'm not sure that sustainability is helping me attract a better pool of new candidates, but my sustainability progress has a positive impact on my existing employees.
People that can bring their values to work with them do have better morale.  Once you have published the results of your efforts, for example through a CSR report you will be convinced of the effect on drawing job candidates.   

8 – I need to customize my approach to sustainability to my industry, to my products, and to my processes.

Yes you do!  There are common themes though and one idea of using the six solutions structure is to make comparisons between both similar and dissimilar companies more easily. 

9 – My sustainability initiatives are strengthening my relationships with my suppliers.

Efficiency improvements in transportation logistics reduce waste and environmental impacts for both.  Managing life cycle impacts reduces waste for both.

10 – Sustainability relates to my brand and reputation in the marketplace.
The LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) segment has continued to grow.  Retailers (and other businesses) are using criteria that benefit more sustainable suppliers more often.  Failure to meet green criteria adversely impacts public perceptions. 

Sustainability in Operations and Supply Chain Management

Following is a guest post by Ron Sullivan, the director of sustainability at APICS Puget Sound.  Ron will be teaching a workshop—Six Solutions for Sustainability—for us next month, and this is what he hopes the workshop will help participants to do:

Sustainability: the New Dimension of Operations and Supply Chain Management

We hear bad things about the environment, and one thing is certain:  the solutions must engage businesses of all kinds.  New ways of thinking will inform a company’s course.  The result is a vision of the future based on systems thinking and the concepts of the natural step, cradle to cradle design, the triple bottom line, and the continuing influence of the quality movement started by Deming. 

We can structure sustainability efforts into two types.  The first is incremental, expanding the intent of continuous improvement activities, for example reducing waste.  The second is transformative.  New products such as solar and wind power supplanting coal are an example.  We have to consider both types of change. 

Some of the changes we will see require a fundamental rethinking, a paradigm shift.  An example is our current economic theory with its almost religious obsession with profit.  A new theory is emerging that is compatible with the triple bottom line. 

The changes are part of an extension of current responsibilities in the field combined with more extensive work with other functions in the company, which in sum lead to a new strategy for the business.

About the presenter:  Ron Sullivan, CFPIM, combines a career of over two decades in manufacturing companies with studies for the past four years at the University of Washington focused on the environment and sustainability.  His professional experience includes procurement, materials management, and systems analysis.  He is the director of sustainability for the APICS Puget Sound Chapter, and developed and presents the “Six Solutions for Sustainable Business” seminar which will be presented for the fourth time on March 5 at Seattle University.

The I in Ideal

Jon Ramer’s Idealnetwork.com launched today. You remember Jon – He was the Interra guy, the singer at Center for Spiritual Living and that guy who is behind and in front of many a – sustainability curtain. And today he launched Ideal Network.

Well, who cares?

Have you ever asked yourself whether sustainability and business diametrically opposed? Whether doing business means the inevitable destruction of the environment? Is sustainability a world without businesses? Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, would say it does. Ray Anderson, founder of Interface carpets would say it does not. He set the goal of being the first environmentally restorative business.

The jury is still out, but one thing we know for sure: All of us participate in business activities everyday. Whether it’s the clothes you are wearing, the bus you took to work (fueled by? Built by?), the lunch you ate, the laptop you click away on, our everyday lives are seeped in business. Business, or trade, infuse and inform our lives. Think back to the Greeks. As xenophobic as they were (the word barbarians comes from their perception of foreigners talking barr-barr-barr), they embraced trade with those across the seas and mountains, and their culture changed and flourished from it. Today, we are in a similar place, but the trade we participate in is a different one – it purposely forms our culture and we, sometimes, feel at its mercy. Is Coke it for you? Or Pepsi?

How do we, as people – not “consumers” – but people who need to eat, sleep, clothe ourselves, take care of each ourselves and others – take a role in answering the question of whether business is good or bad for sustainability? Certainly your choices of what you buy make a difference. Your lifestyle does too. And the market – or method of purchasing – makes a difference. Online, at a farmers market, in the mall, at the corner market. From a mega multinational corporation, locally owned, a mom-n-pop, a cooperative, a B- corp.

Idealnetwork.com takes online shopping, group-on and B-corps and blends them all together. With Idealnetwork, about one quarter to one third of the money goes to a local non-profit. But it goes beyond that. IdealNetwork is looking to foster relationships between businesses and local activist, and to inspire people into community activism. You can just buy your stuff, and no cost to you, some of the money goes to make your environment, community or economy a healthier place. Or you can buy your stuff, learn more about efforts and organizations in your community and get engaged.

This week Idealnetwork launches with Theo’s chocolate. The International Labour Organization tells us about 80% of the worlds chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast and neighboring countries, and most of it is harvested by slave child labor. Theo’s chocolate is fair trade. Today, for $10 you can get $20 of fair trade chocolate and donate $2.50 to many causes – including the Seattle Area Happiness Initiative!

We don’t have the facts yet to answer the question of whether sustainability and business are antithetical or business can be done to make our environment, society and economy a better, fairer and more healthy. But we can contribute to making the facts so that when the jury is in, it’s not because we destroyed anything. We all know we have a long way to go to reach sustainability. We also know that new ways of doing things are needed. The IdealNetwork is a way for us to start thinking about those new ways, and to contribute towards the creation of the path towards sustainability.

written by Laura Musikanski, JD, MBA

Dream a Sound Future Final Event a Huge Success

On 10/10/10 Sustainable Seattle held its Dream a Sound Future Final Event at the Seattle Center Pavilion. The event was made possible by generous gifts from a long list of collaborators including Frog Box, Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, SCALLOPS, Feet First, Washington Lawyers for Sustainability and a special thanks to Mike O'Brien City Council member who gave the keynote speech to launch the day.

The event had twice as many entries as was our original goal and the variety and talent of the entries were astonishing. We had musical performances including original songs, raps, and music videos shot entirely in the city of Seattle.

We had artistic visions of the future with a variety of mediums from oil on canvas, crayons, pen and ink, to collages, clay, and wood. The entries were pictures and words all around a concept of a more sustainable world with practical applications, dreams, and aspirations. We had performance art, essays and audio recordings, a break dance crew and to tie it all together we had a wonderful MC, Ania who was the program lead for the entire event.

One of the most interesting aspects of the event was an entry that was an audio recording and performance piece. The audio was of two women talking in a coffee shop about the past, our present, and talking about some of the things that we didn't know that has fundamentally changed the society in which they lived. It was an optimistic and sometimes haunting recording talking about the unlimited potential of human beings to bring about positive change if we only have the courage to start taking those initial steps.

We are already looking forward to next year's competition and if you want further information you can email us at dream at sustainable seattle.org. We look forward to making the next Dream event even more successful and far reaching than the first. Thank you to all participants and sponsors and let's get started on our next iteration!

Sustainable Seattle in the News

Sustainable Seattle has been recognized as a world leader in sustainability indicators for many years and in February the Tampa Bay Business Journal, using some of the indicators from Sustainable Seattle and other organizations, awarded businesses certificates of recognition for excellence. The following is a reprint of the article from the Tampa Bay Business Journal and all rights remain with them.

(For the original article click here).

Thursday, February 18, 2010, 1:09pm EST | Modified: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 1:10pm

Walker, Pender, DLA among sustainable companies to be honored

Tampa Bay Business Journal

Eighteen Tampa Bay companies will be recognized Friday at Earth Charter U.S.’s second annual Sustainable Business Awards luncheon. A partnership with the University of Tampa’s Center for Ethics, the event will be held at UT’s Vaughn Center.

The honorees were selected out of a pool of 32 companies nominated by graduate students of Jan Roberts, founder of Earth Charter and an adjunct instructor at UT, a release said.

The students, guided by Roberts and Dr. Daniel Verreault, co-director of the Center for Ethics, developed the award criteria using sources such as Global Reporting Initiatives, Sustainable Seattle, Sustainable Florida and the U.N. Global Compact.

“These companies are setting the standards for Tampa Bay area sustainability practices,” Verreault said in the release. “They are taking a people, profit, planet approach to company policies and also realizing significant cost-savings in their operations.”

Case studies were performed on a single honoree in each of the three categories, based on number of employees, to assess the sustainable measures the companies have put in place.

The law firm DLA Piper in Tampa, the leader in the large company category, put in place its Climate Change Project that aims to provide subsistence farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with the means to reduce the effects of deforestation, drought and famine using the sale of greenhouse gas credits to create long-term revenue. DLA Piper attorneys have donated $300,000 to the relief efforts and will continue to invest in the rebuilding of Haiti, the release said.

DLA Piper also offers a hybrid vehicle reimbursement policy and an alternative commuting incentive program for employees who use public transportation, carpool or bicycle for at least 60 consecutive days.

In the medium business category, Pender Newkirk & Co. in Tampa reinvested half its profits in 2005 in software programs aimed at becoming a more paperless company, the release said. Employees can now store files electronically, receive faxes via e-mail, employ electronic payroll and scan documents instead of making paper copies. The office also uses all recycled computers.

Walker Brands, a branding agency in Tampa, is among the honorees in the small business category.

The company is the first privately funded company with a building certified Gold by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the release said. It includes heat flow reduction features, native landscape with less irrigation required, motion-sensored lighting, reclaimed heart pine wood flooring and more than 75 percent exposure to natural light.

As a result, the building’s design has reduced energy consumption by 30 percent and water consumption by more than 40 percent.

The complete list of honorees includes:

Large Business Category, 251 or more employees:Xerox

Progress Energy

McNichols Co.

DLA Piper

Sandpearl Resort

Medium Business Category, 51 to 250 employees:Pender Newkirk & Co.

Infinity Business Systems

Creative Recycling Systems

Creative Contractors

Rev1 Power Services

Coastal Caisson

Small Business Category, 50 or fewer employees:Rising Force Construction

IT Authorities

Nvirotect Services

Walker Brands

Bay Tech Label

Happy Feet Plus

Special Award for Innovation:K.B. Industries Inc.

Tom Garrett, assistant professor of communications at UT, will have his students film the award presentation and conduct interviews with the honorees on their sustainability efforts. The footage will appear on Earth Charter’s Web site.

Based in Tampa, Earth Charter U.S. is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide an ethical framework to building a more sustainable global society.

Brown Bag Event Wrap Up

The Brown Bag event on January 20, 2010 was a resounding success. The event was held at Elliott Bay Books in historic Pioneer Square on a blustery Wednesday night. Over twenty five people were in attendance in the underground reading room of the expansive book store and the staff had to bring in extra chairs to accommodate all the participants.

The event was put on by a partnership of Sustainable Seattle's STARS program and Elliott Bay Books. The topic of discussion with author Jacqueline Powers was Transitioning to Green.

The book is all about making changes as home owners and to some extent renters to make the places we live more sustainable and green. Ms. Powers kept repeating the need to be "Green and Sustainable," numerous times as she sees the green movement as only the beginning. We cannot simply lower our amount of waste, but we must also gain some material benefit as well. People will do the right thing more often if they get something tangible in return.

Ms. Powers is an Interior Designer and General Contractor who was a member of the United States Green Building Council creators of the LEED certification awards. She talked about how as an interior designer she did not have the control necessary to insure that the materials being used in the homes were sustainable or from verifiable lands of origin. She realized that in order to be sure that the materials actually had the properties they claimed, she would have to be able to check the authenticity of said materials.

She launched into a review of her book Transitioning to Green with a caveat towards knowing where your building materials originate. One of the main problems that people have when they are remodelling is not knowing the origin of the materials. She suggested calling the manufacturers and requesting the certificates of authenticity especially for wood. Wood as a resource is going to be the most used material and the origin of the wood used in construction is one of the many reasons for deforestation of the tropical rain forest. It is important to make sure the wood is from the United States as it is from plantations that did not erase the carbon dumping rain forest to put in that extra porch.

The audience had a chance to ask questions and most were about different materials she would recommend for various projects. One man asked about insulation and the response was unexpected, "Fiberglass, spray soy, caster bean foam and shredded blue jeans." The follow up questions about the use of former linens as insulation was expected and Ms. Powers went on to elaborate that shredded blue jeans are recycled material and useful for closing up the inevitable gaps when using traditional fiber glass insulation.

After the event was over Ms. Powers stayed on to chat and answer more informal questions and sign copies of her book, which she had for sale in a neat stack to her right. Many people stayed after small talking and networking and the evaluations of the event were positive.

Our next event is the first annual Environmental Film Festival on February 11, 2010. Be sure to mark your calendars for this mind expanding event.

Upcoming Events: Greendrinks

SEATTLE GREENDRINKS: COMING EVENTS

Green Lunch: Friday, 15 January
Sign up today to meet other Greendrinkers for a limited period of time in a small-group setting. Our monthly Green Lunches might be perfect for you! Join a small group of Greendrinkers for the next Green Lunch on Friday, 15 January.

Agent Green: 12 February
We're still locking in details of the 12 February Agent Green event, to be held in Greenwood, but please save the date. And if you haven't already, stay in the loop by joining the Agent Green group on our website or following @Agent4Green on twitter. We need your help spreading the word and attending to make these events a success!

SEATTLE GREENDRINKS: PARTNER EVENTS

Work With Meaning: Developing a Sustainability-Related Career: 12 &
15 February

Back by popular demand, Seattle Greendrinks partner Foresight
Design will again put on their Sustainability Careers Workshops in February!
These classes empower participants to not only develop a sustainability-related
job, but also a more meaningful one. Created by seasoned sustainability
professionals with more than 10 years of diverse experience each, the seminars
have been refined with input from over 400 participants. Part 1 will be held on
12 February; Part 2 will be offered on 15 February, from 5-9.

GoGreen ’10 Conference: 21 April

GoGreen '10 is a one day sustainability conference for business in Seattle built to motivate, inspire, and educate business owners to “go green” and become more sustainable. GoGreen ‘10 teaches tactical steps on “greening” business, providing actionable steps to sustainability for business owners and decision makers. Attendees will learn from live success stories and participate in panel discussions geared to provide solid takeaways to make any size of business the most sustainable that it can be. Seattle Greendrinks members save $25 when registering for GoGreen ’10 Seattle via Discount Code: GreenDrinks.

Greendrinks Partners

Please visit our partners to show your support of forward thinking businesses!

Who's Who: Sustainable Connections

The mission of Bellingham-based Sustainable Connections is to be the local forum where businesses come together to transform and model an economy built on sustainable practices.

They work with local, independently owned businesses that have the autonomy to make any transformational change in their business that they can imagine… reexamining where we buy goods and services, how we consume energy, grow and distribute our food, build homes, and even, how we define success in business. Sustainable Connections is supporting a community of innovators in green building, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, supporting independent businesses in town centers, and mentoring a new breed of entrepreneurs that have designed their business with a sustainable vision.

Posted by Matt Ross.

Who's Who: Properity Partnership

The Prosperity Partnership's economic strategy is based on the following fundamental principles:

1. People living here have good jobs and earn good incomes.
A healthy, educated, vigorous and engaged citizenry is vital to a successful economy. We all share the goal of building an economy that provides good jobs with good wages. We all want the opportunities to learn skills, bring them into the marketplace and be rewarded for our efforts.

2. Jobs are created by businesses.
Good jobs and incomes come from competitive and prosperous enterprises. We want our region to be a great place for people to start businesses that will have the potential to grow and prosper. This means a place where policies and regulations are clear and effective, and are constantly adjusted to create a good business climate.

3. Embracing our region's diversity is good for business.
The new economic reality means that we must marshal all of our resources to compete successfully in a global economy. That means historically under-developed economic sectors-small and minority-owned businesses in particular-must be fully integrated into our region's economy.

4. The region has vibrant cities and thriving communities.
Over the past decade, the region has successfully focused employment growth into dense, walkable, urban centers. This approach has enabled employees to commute to work through a variety of modes, and has guided the region's transportation investments. As the region's economy grows, it will provide additional opportunities to further enliven our cities and communities.

5. The region has a healthy and beautiful environment and a good quality of life.
Our high quality of life and healthy environment make the region a great place to live and raise a family, which is crucial to a healthy and vibrant economy. We need diverse housing choices, effective transportation systems, good schools, as well as public parks and places for our enjoyment. A healthy environment, with clean air and water, is at the core of the Puget Sound lifestyle. We also need strong communities that offer residents opportunities for recreation and leisure, promote the arts, celebrate our heritage, and preserve our cultural resources.

6. Regional collaboration on a shared economic agenda ensures our region's long term, sustainable economic prosperity.
In this increasingly interconnected global economy, we must recognize that the 4 counties and 82 cities of our metropolitan region are a single economic unit. Working together as a region is our best chance to guarantee shared economic prosperity for us all.

Posted by Matt Ross.

Who's Who: Northwest Environmental Business Council

Since its formation as a regional organization in 1996, NEBC has become the recognized voice of the industry - advocating for science-based regulation, supportive policies and tax structures, the dissemination of knowledge, and the adoption of best practices.

Going beyond its roots in environmental protection and remediation, NEBC product and service members also work in waste and recycling, water supply, wastewater treatment, energy, land use and construction, "green" chemistry and manufacturing, greenhouse gas management, and related fields. This collection of sectors is now coming under the umbrella of "sustainability" or "clean technologies," but NEBC members were there from the start.

Members cover an ever-widening spectrum, including engineers, consultants, contractors, scientists, lawyers, product and technology providers, insurers, project financers, business support professionals, plus a host of other disciplines and firms supportive of NEBC's goals. NEBC's structure as a cross-discipline, cross-sector organization fosters transfer of knowledge and learning, builds synergies among members, and expands business opportunities.

Posted by Matt Ross.

Who's Who: Urban Visions

Urban Visions believes sustainable development choices, smart growth and increased density can create a vital, vibrant and compelling alternative urban sprawl.

They believe in creating innovative urban communities that offer a wide array of experiences for individuals, where life's amenities and necessities are within easy reach. A vibrant downtown is a powerful mixture of office space, housing, retail, open spaces and the arts.

Posted by Matt Ross.