Recently in Green Business Ideas Category

Conversations with Green Gurus puts green marketing into a new perspective. Looking differently...creates new ideas for the new reality facing us.


Green marketing is a matter of prioritization for both companies and consumers. It's time to think of green marketing differently. It's not about whether people with "pay more" for green.

It's about a tipping point in our civilization. Green motivations include such strategies as...

• Avoid risk
• Save money
• Improve health
• Disclosure of key metrics
  
• Survive!

Do something!  Try something better! 

"Green marketing is about solutions and making progress!" says Grant.

Greening Existing Buildings

Greening existing buildings is the next big green building trend.

If we are ever to meet our carbon reduction goals, we have to dramatically improve the existing building stock. Jerry's new book, "Greening Existing Buildings" (McGraw-Hill, 2009) recaps how to work a project through the LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) rating system.

LEED-EBOM has been the fastest growing LEED rating system this year.

"Greening Existing Buildings" has already been named one of top 10 architecture books of 2009 in a national newsletter. You can find out why thousands of buildings are now pursuing this LEED rating by ordering this book now or by downloading free chapters.

In Greening Existing Buildings, Jerry tackles the question of the day: how to upgrade the performance of the large stock of existing buildings, to meet the latest green building standards. This authoritative book analyzes all of the LEED for Existing Buildings Platinum projects, features more than 25 interviews with leading practitioners, more than 20 specific building upgrade case studies and numerous tables, charts and illustrations. It's truly a "how to" book for greening anyone's building. The book will be available in October 2009.

Jerry Yudelson is a professional engineer with an MBA. He has trained 3,500 people in the LEED green building rating system, and has chaired Greenbuild, the world's largest green building conference, for the past five years. The founder of a green building consulting firm, he is the author of three books on green building marketing and an advisor to manufacturers, venture capital firms, design firms and developers.

Look Inside This Book:

Chapter 3: Markets for Greening Existing Buildings (PDF 300KB)

Chapter 10: LEED Certification Challenges and Approaches (PDF 27MB)

Greening Existing Buildings

Greening existing buildings is the next big green building trend.

If we are ever to meet our carbon reduction goals, we have to dramatically improve the existing building stock. Jerry's new book, "Greening Existing Buildings" (McGraw-Hill, 2009) recaps how to work a project through the LEED for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) rating system.

LEED-EBOM has been the fastest growing LEED rating system this year.

"Greening Existing Buildings" has already been named one of top 10 architecture books of 2009 in a national newsletter. You can find out why thousands of buildings are now pursuing this LEED rating by ordering this book now or by downloading free chapters.

In Greening Existing Buildings, Jerry tackles the question of the day: how to upgrade the performance of the large stock of existing buildings, to meet the latest green building standards. This authoritative book analyzes all of the LEED for Existing Buildings Platinum projects, features more than 25 interviews with leading practitioners, more than 20 specific building upgrade case studies and numerous tables, charts and illustrations. It's truly a "how to" book for greening anyone's building. The book will be available in October 2009.

Jerry Yudelson is a professional engineer with an MBA. He has trained 3,500 people in the LEED green building rating system, and has chaired Greenbuild, the world's largest green building conference, for the past five years. The founder of a green building consulting firm, he is the author of three books on green building marketing and an advisor to manufacturers, venture capital firms, design firms and developers.

Look Inside This Book:

Chapter 3: Markets for Greening Existing Buildings (PDF 300KB)

Chapter 10: LEED Certification Challenges and Approaches (PDF 27MB)

Smartphones are taking over a lot of the content delivery market.  With embeds such as GPS, it is making the phone a portable computer that makes life and work more immediate.

Apps -- those bite size computer applications that are specialized, and so very global are great for companies and organizations to create or have created if you need immediate interactivity with your clients or prospects.  For instance, if you have a chain of locations... or can deliver information over the phone...those are perfect applications for "apps". 

CIO Zone has listed the Top 10 Trends for Mobile Apps and they are a window into our changing world ... and world of marketing.  Check them out:

Top 10 Trends for Mobile Apps

Money Transfer

Location-Based Services

Mobile Search

Mobile Browsing

Mobile Health Monitoring

Mobile Payment

Near Field Communication Services

Mobile Advertising

Mobile Instant Messaging

Mobile Music

Deborah Fleischer, founder and president of Green Impact, works with mid-sized companies to launch green initiatives . In a recent entrepreneur's coaching event, she observed three key challenges common to many of the companies she spoke with.

1. Lifecycle assessment (LCA): LCA is an approach that considers the cradle-to-grave lifecycle chain involved in producing, using and disposing of a product or service. It forces you to consider materials use, energy consumption and related greenhouse-gas emissions of your product, packaging and transportation decisions.

While larger corporations might have the resources to tackle LCA head on, across the board, the start-ups were struggling with easily accessing good data to help them estimate the key impacts associated with their entire value chain.

A few LCA resources for start-ups to consider include Sustainable Minds, Earthster and EIO-LCA.

2. Packaging: Many of these clean tech products require packaging and pushing for recycled content and avoiding plastic is a challenge for a CEO with twenty other competing priorities.

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition is a great resource on this issue.

3. End of life: Thinking about what happens to these new "clean" products at end of life is challenging. How do you create incentives to get consumers to recycle or return a product? One of the start-ups was considering a rebate program and another planning on using a mailer to make it easy to return the product at the end of its life.

Read more at Matter Networks

Deborah Fleischer, founder and president of Green Impact, works with mid-sized companies to launch green initiatives that encourage innovation and grow market share.

EcoSpeakers.com is the Speakers Bureau of EcoIQ. EcoIQ works to expand the audience for the valuable ideas and good work of speakers, authors, journalists, researchers, photographers, videographers, documentary producers, publishers, web site sponsors, and event planners who focus on the transition to a more sustainable future.

EcoIQ operates EcoSpeakers.com to promote speakers for conferences, meetings, training programs, and community, business, and university speaker series.

As you consider which speaker or speakers may best meet your needs, you may want to keep several things in mind.

First, EcoSpeakers has created a series of topic pages on which they have placed the speakers that are most clearly focused on particular topics.  

EcoSpeakers is  constantly developing new information on  speakers that can help you better match them with your needs. 

Finally, don't hesitate to ask for their ideas and recommendations concerning speakers that might meet your needs.

It's important to will to understand your audience and your objectives, and with detailed knowledge of speakers' strengths and backgrounds, the folks at EcoSpeakers.com will develop options and supporting information for your consideration.

Marc Cooper's cover story for The Nation:

Let's make it easy to understand. California might be suffering its worst drought in decades, but the entire Golden State is underwater. Goodbye to those timeworn, bubble-gum-colored fantasies of the Endless Summer, California Girls and gleaming, pool-pocked suburbs. Hello to a new set of descriptors: "Bankrupt." "Ungovernable." "California Nightmare." "Failed State."

Read the full story here.