Newsletter // GreenBuzz: August 31, 2009 :: Shattering Green Consumer Myths, Gap's Water Successes, and More...

Whatever happened to the Dog Days of August?

Time was when things quieted down in summertime. Companies held off major announcements, product launches, and the like. No longer. This summer, in the midst of the worst recession in generations, the green business world doesn't seem to have taken a day off, let alone a vacation.

Consider book publishing. It used to go quiet in summer, as "everybody" left for their summer homes in the mountains or the Hamptons. Novels (a.k.a. "beach reading") would come out in June, but that was about it. This summer saw the release of a spate of books on green and sustainable business, from the likes of Ray Anderson, Gil Friend, Adam Werbach, Bob Willard, Andrew Winston, and others.

Corporate environmental initiatives haven't been quiet, either. In the past 60 days, we've reported on significant stories coming out of FedEx, Ford, Frito Lay, Gap, Kimberly Clark, Kraft, Nike, Nissan, Pitney Bowes, Seventh Generation, Steelcase, Tesco, and Timberland, among others. Oh, right: and Walmart. We've seen significant reports published on a wide range of topics, including energy efficiency, green marketing, risk disclosure, supply-chain operations, and the growth (!) of corporate environmental departments.

There's more, but I'll let you peruse our new and improved archives (another summer development) to see what you missed when -- if -- you managed to get away.

Who Rings the BELL? At Greenbuild this November in Phoenix Ariz., Johnson Controls will present an expanded second edition of its Building Efficiency Lifetime Leadership awards, which aim to honor individual leadership in the field of energy efficiency, sustainability, and renewable energy. The company is currently seeking nominations for leaders, and the winners -- chosen by a panel of industry experts and Johnson Controls executives -- will be announced on November 11 in Phoenix. More information and the nomination form are available to download here.

Profiting from Power Savings: On September 10, join GreenBiz.com's John Davies in conversation with Brett Goodwin, VP Marketing for Verdiem, in a fast-paced and engaging free webinar on cost-effective strategies for IT management. You'll learn how to reduce PC energy costs by up to 60% with zero impact on productivity. For more information, or to register, click here.

By the way, the Verdiem webinar is the first of a half-dozen or more webinars we'll be presenting this fall, offering a wealth of insight and inspiration, so stay tuned. It seems we've been busy this summer, too!

The third annual Green Grades report card looks at and grades the paper sourcing policies of 12 office retail, general retail and wholesale/distribution companies.
 

This report from the Sustainable Enterprise Institute finds that of the companies in the Russell 1000 index that have anything approaching an EHS policy, less than 10 percent include policies to make them effective. 

In these tough economic times, sustainability leaders and CIOs are looking for projects that deliver a fast payback and lower their environmental impact. In this session, IT executives and a PC power management expert will discuss their approach to greening IT operations and delivering rapid paybacks for the investment.