Well in 2011, San Francisco took the title as the “greenest city in North America”. The study, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit studied the environmental performance and commitments by 27 major metro areas in the U.S. and Canada, and we won!

 This is greatly due to the efforts of this month’s guest speaker, Johanna Partin. Johanna serves as Director of Climate Protection Initiatives in the office of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, where she advises Mayor Lee on citywide sustainable energy, climate, transportation, green building and other programs promoting sustainability for San Francisco.

In addition to creating change in the mayor’s office Johanna has over 17 years' experience in the fields of renewable energy, microfinance, gender equity and sustainable development, and has worked both locally and in more than 15 countries around the world.

If you are interested in learning more about change starting at the local level and how you can help Johanna and the city of San Francisco keeps it title, come to our next EcoTuesday event January 24th at The W Hotel, SF.

To see what topics Johanna will be discussing and register for this very special event, click here.

Our last EcoTuesday SF was a great success. We had an amazing turn out and we learned a lot. Did you know that IT data centers are responsible for 2% of world emissions, yet they can positively impact the remaining 98% of emissions in the world?

Thank you to our wonderful brilliant speaker, Peter Perrault, from NetApp who was able to explain IT and its role within Sustainability so clearly that even non IT people like me were able to comprehend.

NetApp practices what they preach by “keeping their own house in order first” therefore they have worked hard to receive the first EPA Energy Star certification for a data center. Additionally, they understand that the People portion of People, Planet and Profit is equally as important and offer all their employees 40 paid hours to do community service in the local communities. Must be why they are ranked #5 by FORTUNE as one of the top 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2011(netapp.com).

I also want to say a big thank you to Shelly and John at CompoClay who helped us out tremendously with our last two events and have provided such a welcoming place for all our EcoTuesday attendees.

And finally I would like to extend a warm Thank You to everyone that helped make EcoTuesday a success over the past year, we greatly appreciate your feedback and support and we look forward to an amazing 2012 with all of you!

Yesterday I caught up with Lindsay Hassett, a Green MBA alum. Last year she started an LED lighting company called Illumalighting and was one of the first "clients" at the Green MBA's Venture Greenhouse. Recently, she sold Illumalighting to Evolvelectric, an electrical contracting company focusing on sustainable electrical efficiency and EV stations. I asked her a few questions to get a better sense of the Green MBA program and learn more about the school’s offshoot, the Venture Greenhouse.

How did the Green MBA program support you in developing Illumalighting from an idea into a fully-fledged company? 

My Green MBA started in 2001. It helped me so much by combining my whole background that I had in business and gave me the triple bottom line perspective. I had traveled around the world and was upset at how we're treating the planet. The Green MBA program opened my eyes to a different way of doing business and gave me the base to create the foundation for my company.

I was one of the first nine graduating members of the Green MBA program. I was also one of the first clients of the Venture Greenhouse. Being involved with both organizations has been a major life changing experience.   

Illumalighting was one of the first companies that was "incubated" in the Dominican University's Venture Greenhouse. How did this relationship affect the growth of the company?

I created this venture with a lot of passion. I went into the Venture Greenhouse with an application, but not a business plan. My first goal was to create the identity and the website and learn how to present the mission to companies. I landed Embassy Suites and SunPower, mostly because they needed lighting. Not every large corporation can do that themselves, but I can offer more than what they could get on their own from Home Depot or some lighting distributors businesses commonly use.

The Venture Greenhouse team met with me every week we met for an hour to help with strategy and execution. We'd also have a group meeting with all the other companies in the Greenhouse to share ideas and resources. The ongoing coaching every week was great. They helped guide me with each decision I needed to make and it was very helpful. I'm so grateful for all of their support.

Congratulations on getting acquired by Evolvelectric. What's next for you as the companies merge? 

Changing lightbulbs is the lowest hanging fruit for any business to reduce costs. I want to help companies do exactly that. Every time I walk into a space I notice the lightbulbs and how they’re used. I find myself looking around and checking out what companies are consuming. There’s a lot that can be replaced right now. Companies will be forced to make changes because some of the old bulbs won't be available in the future.

We have some great projects in store now. We are working with a large car dealership now as well as a shopping center. We are excited about the new ordinance in San Francisco for buildings 50K square foot and above, there will now be a mandatory benchmarking. Buildings have to figure out how much energy they're using each year. It's definitely a way to educated those building owners or tenants as to the opportunities for where they can save. It will also put pressure on buildings that are not making energy efficient investments. I expect that we'll be doing a lot of work with buildings that need to measure their results.

It's important to me to continue to speak out for energy efficiency for quality of life which comes from reducing pollution which decreases the impact on our health. I’ll definitely continue to do that in as many ways as possible. I look forward to working with realtors, commercial spaces, property managers and others to help them realize there are incentives, resources, and programs out there that will help decrease both energy use, and costs!

Would you like to learn more about the Green MBA and how the program can support you in creating the career of your dreams? Join us on Tuesday, November 15 at EcoTuesday. You'll have the opportunity to talk with a handful of people who can share more details about the curriculum. Register today!

The Penny Ice Creamery, located in downtown Santa Cruz, is one of the many businesses that have made a huge impact on a local economy and launched by a Green MBA graduate. 

The owners and creative visionaries, Kendra L. Baker and Zachary E. Davis, use sustainably grown local ingredients, such as wild fruits, vegetable, herbs, and even flowers to bring ice cream lovers new flavors with each season. A recent Yelp reviewer states, "Some of the best ice cream in Santa Cruz. The flavors here are very strange, so be open! You can still get a lot of the classics, too." There are reports that there are often lines out the door on nice, sunny days. 

Davis is an alum of the Green MBA and the business plan for The Penny Ice Creamery was his Capstone project before completing the program in 2009. He and Baker secured a loan through the Small Business Administration, funded by federal stimulus funds. Davis had a very unique idea: to thank Obama for the loan with a "THANK YOU" video (it's fun to watch!) instead of a card (his mom must have been proud!). In it, Baker and Davis shared how the loan made it possible to contribute to the local economy through creating jobs and buying goods from other local businesses (when they opened their shop, they hired 11 employees and worked with 20 local businesses). The video got the attention of those at The Huffington Post and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and was soon after "retweeted" by The White House. 

In what came as a complete surprise, in November 2009, Vice President Joe Biden called Davis to thank him for creating the video and recognizing the Administration for the stimulus package. What was even more thrilling was a call the following January, when the pair was invited to sit in Michelle Obama's chamber during the State of the Union address to the nation.

The journey to Washington DC seems like an incredibly fantastic event to take place during the infancy of a local business! The Penny Ice Creamery is a clear example of the types of companies that are born during (and after) a student's time at the Green MBA. While a trip to Washington DC wasn't a part of Davis' Capstone plan, the entire Green MBA curriculum is designed to support business professionals reach their goals.

Please join us on Tuesday, October 25 in San Francisco for a great speaker and the opportunity to talk directly with Green MBA grads! Register soon and see you there!