January 24, 2009
The Book of Procedings from the Green Enterprise Unconference, held 12/3/08 in Mountain View, is now availabe for download.
Green Enterprise Unconfernce 2008: Book of Procedings
The BoP includes a summary of the event, a copy of the agenda, a list of participating organizations, and notes from many of the sessions.
Please check it out, and let us know what you think.
Also, if you would be interested in attending or sponsoring a similar event in 2009, please let me know.
January 13, 2009
The first bit of news is that I’ve recently started a new gig at the Environmental Defense Fund doing full time what Bill is pushing on with this blog – helping to increase the size, efficiency, and impact of social networks that will increase global sustainability and decrease environmental damage. It is really important, if we are to respond to the threats to our oceans, climate, and food supplies, that we are able to quickly explore new ideas, improve and adopt the good ones, and discard the bad ones. I’m convinced that the best way to do this is to invest inthe social capital that holds together human networks that are solving these serious problems and that we need social media to make these networks big and fast. I’m looking forward to talking with people about these ideas and can be reached by email at dwitzel@edf.org or by phone at 202-572-3250.
The second bit of news comes from the new gig. Yesterday, the Environmental Defense Fund launched their new EDF Innovation Exchange website. The site pulls together a body of work created by EDF’s Corporate Partnerships Program highlighting:
You can also follow EDF’s Innovation Exchange on twitter.
Let me know what you think.
December 4, 2008
I got a chance to chat with Justin Yuen of fmyi (and formerly of Nike) at the Green Enterprise Unconference yesterday.
Justin shared his thoughts on the current state of sustainability in the enterprise, and the power of green teams.
December 3, 2008
Lunch is (slowly) wrapping up at the unconference – these people have a lot to talk about with one-another! Just to give a taste of what we have been discussing, here’s the list of topics participants are leading:
Yeah, the discussions are as good as you might think.
December 3, 2008
I’m in the lovely Computer History Museum in Mt. View California attending Forum One’s first Green Enterprise Unconference. This is our first effort to use some of the network building approaches outside of the realm of online community, in particular, for sustainability. The open space approach is particularly exciting because you don’t know what will come out of it and what will be discussed. The agenda will be fixed by the participants in a few minutes.
Here are some of the notes we had about possible sessions, in advance of the event. I’ll let you know what we end up with in a little while.
Now, to discover what really gets discussed.
December 1, 2008
On tomorrow and Wednesday, I will be attending the Green Computing Summit, subtitled “Why Green Government is Good Business.”
According to the schedule, there are three tracks on the first day:
1. Greening Federal Operations (paid conferees only)
2. Virtualization — For the Data Center and Beyond (paid conferees only)
3. Professional Education Program (open to all attendees)
Only the first two tracks continue on to the second day.
I’m looking forward to it. The last talk I heard on the topic of green computing was the “Green Software. Really?” panel at the 2008 South by Southwest Interactive conference.
November 26, 2008
What do you think of when you hear the word “collaboration”?
Personally, I think of jazz. For example, you might take a look at this tune by the Ravi Coltrane Quartet with Drew Gress on bass. I tickle the ivories a little bit myself, so I really appreciate seeing accomplished musicians come together to perform.
What if you were the EPA? What would “collaboration” make you think of? (Play along now, you are going to be the EPA for a little while.)
EPA (you): Collaboration? It makes me think of our open and transparent rule-making process at regulations.gov!
DJ (me): How does that work?
EPA: We use regulations.gov to encourage the public to comment on proposed regulations; e.g. rule-making proceedings.
DJ: Cool. I really dig jazz collaborations. Is EPA collaboration kind of like that?
EPA: Well, our collaborations don’t involve saxophones, pianos, or drums.
DJ: Well, maybe they should!
EPA: What do you mean?
DJ: Surely you realize that saxophones produce carbon dioxide. I hear that you are currently looking into regulating carbon dioxide because it is a greenhouse gas (GHG).
EPA: (surprised, not sure what to say)
DJ: Don’t just sit there with a dumb look on your face. This is supposed to be a collaboration. Don’t you want to invite some saxophone players to collaborate?
EPA: Are you kidding? We don’t need to do that.
DJ: Who are you to say? I thought this was a collaboration. If a saxophone player wants to join in the collaboration, who is stopping him? That would be awfully rude and non-inclusive of you. I might have to protest.
EPA: I’m not stopping him per se. But it wouldn’t make much sense, would it? Carbon dioxide emitted due to saxophone playing is purely natural and thus outside the scope of my jurisdiction.
DJ: (exhales) That’s a fair point. But I don’t feel satisfied.
EPA: That’s not my problem. Take it up with another branch of government.
[the end]
What Does Collaboration Mean To You?
We’re gearing up for a DC-area collaborative unconference about sustainability to happen in the spring of 2009. How would you like the collaboration to work? Who should be there? The EPA? Let me us know.
And, if you feel so moved, feel free to cook up some alternative endings to the dialogue above.
November 21, 2008
Chris Wolz and I made it over to The Atlantic’s Green Intelligence Forum on Wednesday at Washington’s lovely, new, Newseum. The event was in a traditional format with three panels — smart markets, smart policy, and smart sources — plus keynote talks by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Thomas Friedman closing the day. There was a little bit of Q&A time after each piece and time for networking during a break and lunch. The agenda and speaker bios are available in PDF format.
There was a lot of agreement that we need a price on carbon, that cap & trade seemed most likely though some thought a tax would be better. Thomas Friedman gave the most inspiring talk (all the substance is in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded though), but it was generally high quality conversation throughout.
Chris (cwolz) and I (dwitzel) were the only ones twittering and I’ve posted our twitter stream below (in chronological order) with a few annotations in brackets.
dwitzel: Woolsey just joined the panel. Wants better batteries & more robust grid. [Woolsey was one of my favorite speakers. He's thought hard about eneregy and climate.]
dwitzel: Woolsey. solar thin film has good potential
dwitzel: Woolsey’s farm house has solar panels, batteries, & plug-in hybrid. can drive 20 mi on yesterday’s sunlight
dwitzel: Mendonca incent utilities to use their capital and create a green corps of trained installers
dwitzel: The Sec of Energy has a lot of security. Does he have the nuke codes? I know he has all the nukes. [He had 3 Secret Service looking guys with him. Seemed a little excessive.]
dwitzel: Bodman. Established 3 bio-energy research labs. Oak Ridge, Madison & Berkeley [Bio research is the priority? Politics!]
dwitzel: Bodman. 17 licenses for multiple nuclear plants submitted
dwitzel: Smart policy panel – Claussen, Pew; Karsner, Former DOE; Leverett New America;
dwitzel: Karsner Everybody already knows what to do. Question is how
cwolz: About 300 people at this Atlantic Mag “green intel. Forum” – and seems only @dwitzel and I tweeting. Hm – tech adoption…
dwitzel: Leverett Energy independence is a myth and we’ll be worse off if we pretend otherwise [This set off a small firestorm. I think Woolsey's point that "like salt, we need to make it so oil is not a strategic commodity" really made the point and is achievable.]
cwolz: People here from hill, NGOs, consulting, gov, media… Atl-mag says pleased with turnout and expects next year event even bigger
cwolz: Leverett (new Amer fnd) energy indep is a myth – not helpful. And we’re stuck with fossil fuel economy for long time…
cwolz: Leverett: question is how to make our strong reliance on fossil fuels carbon inconsequential.
dwitzel: Leverett wants more oil & natural gas. Karsner disagrees. Fun! [A lively panel.]
dwitzel: Leverett wants more O & Ng _from Iraq_ (missed that bit) [Meant Iran here]
cwolz: andy karsner – former DOE- solving carbon problem requires action on cars, coal, and forests.
dwitzel: Man, can’t type & think today – from _Iran_
dwitzel: Karsner – do immediate, 1st yr write-off for _anything_ that reduces GHG to released hoarded capital
dwitzel: Karsner – CAFE increases -> people moving further out. Need holistic approaches
cwolz: Karsner: get immediate impact by allowing 100% year 1 depreciation for biz and home invests in energy effc’y
dwitzel: Smart Sources panel: Ballentine, Green Strategies; Holliday, DuPont; Steiner, Waste Management; Turnage, Nuclear at Constellation
dwitzel: Turnage: Unistar 1/2 owned by France comp. Building 4 nuke plants in US [French firm is the EDF Group]
dwitzel: Steiner: Waste Mgt to put solar & wind on landfills
dwitzel: Holliday: DuPont makes 5k materials 37% new in the last 5 years
dwitzel: Ballentine: “alternatives” are those that don’t hurt the environment and don’t threaten nat’l security
dwitzel: Holliday: we need gov’t involvement in energy b/c incumbent has 90% share (plus explicit & implicit subsidies)
dwitzel: Thomas Friedman to give the final talk. 1st to use ppt
dwitzel: Friedman: US has lost its groove. Needs to solve the world’s biggest problems to get it back.
dwitzel: Friedman: gov’t not maximizing pent up innovation at the speed, s ope, & scale we need
cwolz: Thomas Friedman: world is hot- 2 deg F change is huge – like 98.6 to 100.6′
November 18, 2008
If you are interested in discussing issues related to sustainability and environmental concerns in the enterprise, please consider joining us for the Green Enterprise Unconference on December 3rd in Mountain View, CA.
We have a great group of green and sustainability professionals participating in the Unconference, including folks from the following organizations:
• Google
• Yahoo
• Sun
• Dominican University Green MBA Program
• GreenIT
• Accolo
• Cisco
• CarbonFlow
• Random House
• Positive Impact Partner
• Planning for Sustainable Communities
• Goodwill Industries
• Clean Tech Group
• Sustainable Silicon Valley
You can see the full list of participating organizations here: http://greeneu08.eventbrite.com/
The conference is being facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin, (just named as one of Fast Companies most influential women in web 2.0).
If you have any questions, please let me know – bjohnston@forumone.com
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