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.

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:

• online tools like a paper use calculator and  a guide for creating greener corporate fleets;
• case studies of work with Citigroup to improve paper and packaging, McDonald’s to reduce antibiotics, FedEx to use hybrid trucks, and more.

You can also follow EDF’s Innovation Exchange on twitter.

Let me know what you think.

Justin shared his thoughts on the current state of sustainability in the enterprise, and the power of green teams.

• How to design & implement a recycling program
• Reducing waste: Single use products, promotional giveaways, zero waste policy designed to reduce waste.  Durable goods
• Green (IT) Technology & Social Benefit Orgs
• Debunking the Myth that Green Costs More
• Shifting Timeline for ROI
• Fostering Effective Collaboration & Partnerships for Sustainability
• Generating Ownership & Buy-In from the Top Green in the C-Suite
• How-To’s for Social Business (Purpose Before Profit)
• Marketing New Building Products. Changing Paradigms
• Private / Non Profit Public Sector Partnerships in Sustainability
• Sustainable Community – The New Green Factory in Town?
• Creating New Green US Social Enterprise Business
• Reducing Energy Usage in the Office – Making Enterprise Energy Efficiency Easy to Understand and Deploy
• Ecosystem of Green Marketing
• Reducing Air Travel
• (How) Can Social Networking Support Green Innovation & Adoption
• Models for Developing a Persuasive Call to Action/Program
• Carbon Footprints: What are they, Why do them, How much do they cost?
• Change Capitalism
• Office Green Checklist
• Educating Urban communities on a more sustainable lifestyle using social media methods & alternative methods
• Measuring Success (Standards) $ vs Carbon VS Certification
• Demo of the Best Green Social Media Practices (Transparency)
• Carbon Offsets: What are they, why buy them, what does it cost?
• Engaging Students in Green Products and Technology
• Integrating Eco-Consideration into Incentive Programs
• Culture Change
• Green Ideas: Questions and Discussion About Green Cert.
• Sharing
• Sectoral Strategies for Sustainability
• Carbon Footprint of Online Communities
• Tell us Your Legal or Contractual Issues Related to Sustainability

Yeah, the discussions are as good as you might think.

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.

• Who “owns” Sustainability initiatives?
• Sustainability / Green Metrics
• The evolving role of the Sustainability Manager
• Lessons Learned: Pitfalls and Best Practices in Greening the Enterprise
• For Beginners: Laying a Solid Foundation for Sustainability Strategy
• Green and Marketing: How to walk the line (without going over)
• How to recruit and grow evangelists
• Can social networking approaches promote/accelerate green innovation?

Now, to discover what really gets discussed.

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.

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.

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′

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