Joel Makower opened the State of Green Business conference with a quick allusion to “A Tale of Two Cities” drawing insight that green business is in the “the best of times and the worst of times”. Here is a quick literature lesson to draw out the reference even further.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
In San Francisco last week, doom and gloom projections of our future were in direct contrast with some surprisingly exciting insights that point toward the ‘next industrial revolution’.
As for the gloomy projections:
Saul Griffith of Squid Labs, suggested that we ‘Be Honest with Ourselves’ and admit that we need to dramatically reign in our consumerism. “We need to each own 1/10 as much stuff, and own it 10X longer. We need to trim our individual allotments from 18kW of power to 2.2kW.”
Jamais Cascio, Senior Fellow of The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, suggested that GeoEngineering, the large-scale manipulation of our environment, may be the only way for us to buy enough time to solve our carbon issues. If nature is no longer natural, who decides what our new nature should look like?
Wendy Cobrda from Earthsense indicated research showed zero correlation between what consumers think and the reality of companies’ sustainability.
As Rob Bernard from Microsoft said “we need to go from incrementing our way to revolutionizing our way to a solution.” But it appears that people are starting to think differently to solve problems. Once they get out of the box, there are plenty of opportunities, so early signs should be encouraging, not discouraging. Here are some of the positive changes we heard at the conference:
Joel Makower noted that, among the 11 positive key indicators, green energy patents were up significantly. And, green building, waste reduction and energy efficiency are all up. Green Business and consumers alike are responding when there are direct benefits to them and to their bottom lines.
Serious Materials CEO Kevin Surace illustrated that point, noting that the Empire State Building, a 1934 structure, is going to be 60+% more energy efficient, delivering a three year payback from energy savings and avoided equipment.
Between Saul Griffith’s statistics illustrating the US’s lifetime contributions to carbon and Peggy Liu’s review of China’s efforts to reclaim its own “China Dream”, our minds were opened to the notion that collaboration instead of competition might just have a shot. After all, greenhouse gases don’t respect borders.
Green IT offers some great hope. Autodesk is working to accelerate green design by nudging users toward greener choices, making sustainable design the default, and offering state-of-the-art design tools to innovative new companies through their Clean Tech Partner Program. This program grants free design and engineering software to early-stage clean technology companies in North America who are working to solve some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Companies like Best Buy aren’t resting on old paradigms either. Investing in electric bike maker Brammo, they are embracing the larger role of electronics experts. A much bigger positioning than stereo store. And, as the experts, they promise to help explain why the more energy efficient models pay off in the long-run.
Despite the frustrating lessons we heard from the panel on ‘green-washing’ and ‘green-bashing’, it is clear that marketing plays a critical role in educating consumers and businesses alike. We’re expecting people to shift from cheap, disposable everything to heirloom quality and longevity in every purchase. One step at a time. It took several iterations to find the right mix of messages that turned CFL light bulbs into a winning item on Wal-Mart shelves.
Now that I’ve digested the various messages from the State of the Green Business Forum, I have to agree with Van Jones description. “Between optimism and pessimism, there’s a space called sober and determined,” Jones said. I suppose those are the necessary attitudes to forge ahead in such uncertain times. I think Dickens would agree.