Green equals green

Reading Daily Kos last week, I found out that California and Texas ranked top in the country for number of clean-energy jobs. Industries vary from science to marketing, from engineering to financial planning, with very competitive salaries.

According to the Pew Charitable Trusts' study,

“…[the] clean energy economy grew at a national rate of 9.1 percent, while traditional jobs grew by only 3.7 percent between 1998 and 2007.  There was a similar pattern at the state level, where job growth in the clean energy economy outperformed overall job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia during the same period.  The report also found that this promising sector is poised to expand significantly, driven by increasing consumer demand, venture capital infusions, and federal and state policy reforms.

America’s clean energy economy has grown despite a lack of sustained government support in the past decade. By 2007, more than 68,200 businesses across all 50 states and the District of Columbia accounted for about 770,000 jobs. ...

"The clean energy economy is poised for explosive growth," said Lori Grange, interim deputy director of the Pew Center on the States.”

Highlighting the economic benefits and opportunities within energy reform is crucial for any environmentally concerned coalition. As important as the environment is to you; business, profit, and economic growth is just as important to others, and when trying to convince them, it’s important to use messaging that highlights a common good for everyone: a more sustainable state, both environmentally and economically. 

Someone should get Ray Anderson on an Environmental Coalition

In this TED talk, Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Global, describes the business logic of sustainability. The data he presents would sway any CEO or business owner to get on board for sustainability in the business sector. Since realizing the err of their ways and making the right changes, Interface Global has saved 70,000 tons of used carpet from landfills, created innovative systems used to recycle carpet, lowered costs by 400 million dollars, recreated their products so they are the best they’ve ever been, aided in having employees that are rallied around the products as well as the cause, became a leader in the marketplace and increased sales by 160 percent.

You see, while individual members of the business community may completely agree with being more (or totally) sustainable, as a whole, most businesses are concerned with cost and profits. Instead of letting them know how much good they will be doing for the earth and generations to come, it’s a lot easier, as Ray Anderson demonstrates, to sway them with numbers. Specifically, lower costs and higher profits.

As a side note, Interface Global is halfway to their goal of having a carbon footprint of ZERO, which they hope to have completed by 2020. Also be sure to check out one of their side projects, Mission Zero, a community where people can meet like-minded individuals and share innovative ideas and valuable resources, all with the mission of reducing our environmental impact.