The holiday season is now a distant memory and it's now time to gear up for the incredible shifts that can take place in business in 2012. 

This is the year that we can all make an impact on our future through all of our actions - small and large. One of the most simple steps you can take to support the sustainability movement is to fully acknowledge a friend or colleague's actions. Perhaps this person is an active part of your company's green supply chain, a co-worker who executed a set of initiatives that saved the company thousands of dollars, or a loyal customer who continues to purchase your products even when her budget is small. Acknowledgement is a great way to show stakeholders that you are thankful for their support - which can lead to powerful shifts in the conscious businesses that we all want to create!

Our first event of the year is right around the corner and will take place on Tuesday, January 24th. This month we'll gather in Cleveland, Dallas, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley. When you attend this month, consider how you can contribute to a fellow participant by acknowledging them for an action they've taken. It's a great conversation starter and it just might start an incredible ripple effect.

February marks our 5 Year Anniversary! The time has flown by so quickly and there has been so much evolution in sustainability history since the first event. Please come to celebrate with us in San Francisco on February 21st. Yes, that's a week earlier than usual. We'll be celebrating at the Bently Reserve and participants will enjoy free drinks and receive a free KOR water bottle with registration. Sounds fun, doesn't it? All of the other EcoTuesday events will still take place on the usual 4th Tuesday of the month (on February 28th). Please add these important dates to your calendar!

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!

Veriflora®, one of this year's Opportunity Green Conference sponsors, is a leading sustainable agricultural certification and eco-labeling program recognized as the gold-standard in the floriculture and horticulture industries. Most of the flowers around the conference as well as the long stem roses that were given out during Thursday evening's party were Veriflora certified.

Veriflora® certified growers who participated include California Pajarosa, www.pajarosa.com; Resendiz Bros., www.resendizbrothers.com; Green Valley Floral, www.greenvalleyfloral.com; and F & B  Farms and Nursery, www.fandbfarms.com.

Veriflora certifies cut flowers, potted plants, improved input devices, and peat moss products through its ‘Responsibly Managed’ peatlands annex.  The multiple attributes of sustainability addressed by the Veriflora certification (for more information click here) include:

1. Environmental Sustainability 

Sustainable Crop Production

Resource Conservation and Energy Efficiency

Ecosystem Protection

Integrated Waste Management       

2. Social & Economic Sustainability

Fair Labor Practices

Community Benefits

3. Product Integrity

 Product Quality

Product Safety

If you want to know where to buy Veriflora certified fresh cut flowers or potted plants, go to the Preferred Retailer Program page on the Veriflora website.

November's speaker in Silicon Valley was Adriane Erickson from Acterra. If you missed the networking event last week, you still have a chance to apply for Acterra’s Environmental Awards, see below for more details.

Applications for Acterra’s 2012 Business Environmental Awards are now available - click here.  

This year’s categories are: Environmental Project, Environmental Innovation, Sustainable Built Environment, and the Acterra Award for Sustainability. 

Any business, municipality or organization located in the following counties is eligible to apply: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz County. Non-profits may also apply if environmental work is not their central mission. 

The deadline to apply is Friday, December 9, 2011. For more information, please contact awards@acterra.org. 

From speakers to sponsors to attendees, this year’s Opportunity Green Conference had many visionaries that spanned the green economy. One particular booth that I loved was peopleforbikes.org. People for Bikes, a non-profit focused on promoting biking across the nation. Many of our cities in the US need to incorporate bike lanes into their city planning.

Why do we ride? A few interesting facts from the People for Bikes’ website: 

47% of Americans would like to see more bike lanes, trails, and bridges in their communities.

• I personally would love to see the Bay Bridge not only create a bike lane from the East Bay to Treasure Island but also from Treasure Island to San Francisco. How many people travel across by foot or by pedal on the Golden Gate Bridge a day? How wonderful would it be if the Bay Bridge would be accessible by foot or by pedal? 

1 pound of CO2 pollution cut for every mile pedaled. 

50% of trips Americans make are less than 3 miles.

• How wonderful if you could get your exercise while commuting! 

$8,000 spent on average each year owing and operating a car.

3 hours of riding per week reduces the risk of hear disease & stroke by 50%.

$10 saved each day by commuting 10 miles round trip by bicycle instead of car.

This year’s conference theme of Accelerate fits perfectly with this non-profit.  “We chose the theme ‘Accelerate’ for this year’s conference because the successes that have gotten sustainably-minded people and companies to where we are today accelerates and offers the momentum to drive to an even better future.”

The goals of People for Bikes align well with the goals of green acceleration.

People for Bikes:

One for all: Build a national movement to improve bicycling in our country.

Opportunity Green:

We facilitate the movement to transform business for good, through advancing change and market transformation by providing open-minded professional unprecedented approaches to sustainability.

People for Bikes:

Let our voices be heard: Every six years, the federal government allocates billions of dollars to expand and improve our country’s transportation infrastructure.  We must improve our bike infrastructure to have the healthy planet everyone dreams of.

Opportunity Green:

Because we have the unique opportunity to do good for our world and our business simultaneously. Now is the time when our leadership is most needed, and will have the most impact on the future of our organization and communities.           

We must Accelerate the use of biking in order to have the future we all wish for.

Power to the Pedal People.

Living in the Bay Area we are the hub of technology, but how can technology help us become more sustainable? This month, we explore the unique opportunities that tech provides to us to  become more efficient and more environmentally responsible, all while saving a tremendous amounts of money.

November’s speaker, Peter Perrault from NetApp, better known as the “Green Giant” is well versed in how to overcome environmental challenges and turn them into real savings. In 2008, “PG&E presented NetApp with a rebate of $1.4 million under PG&E's Non-Residential New Construction Program, which encourages PG&E's commercial, industrial, high-technology, and agricultural customers to implement energy-efficient building and process design and construction” (Netapp.com).

Peter heads NetApp’s Global Sustainability Program and has extensive experience in sustainability and environmental economics. In addition to leading the way in green tech he also is the co-chair of the Environment Committee for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an advocacy organization working to ensure economic health and a high quality of life for the entire Silicon Valley community.

Come learn more about how IT can enable sustainability for the greater good at EcoTuesday SF, November 15^th(one week early!).

Please RSVP  here.

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!

This week on November 10^th and 11^th, I will be representing EcoTuesday by attending the Opportunity Green Conference in Los Angeles. This is a wonderful conference that happens yearly with visionaries attending from the green economy. Go to the Opportunity Green website for more information.

This year’s theme of Accelerate fits perfectly with the current momentum of the green economy. We must continue this acceleration in order to have the amount of positive change we need in this world.

Personally, I am especially energized to listen to Conde Nast 2011 Designer of the Year, Yves Behar speak about Redefining Design. Founder and Chief Designer of fuseprojects, Behar has lead many inspiring projects including One Labtop per Child, underwear designed with compostable packaging, “See Better to Learn Better” and many more. Redefining the way we design products incorporating sustainability in every step of the way is the design of today.

What's the value of a green education in getting a green job? Here's your chance to find out!

The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Project Management Institute has been holding a series of 3-hour interactive Green Project Management seminars on topics like sustainability at major corporations, case studies on green projects, and even fusion energy. For more, see the PMI SF Bay Area green blog.

Our November seminar, on Saturday the 19th, will cover the importance of green education in getting a green job. It’s crucial for project managers to be familiar with current legislation and how it affects the overall supply chain. As we move toward stricter standards and globalization of products and services, we must be informed about how products are harvested, manufactured, and distributed throughout the globe. Kelle McMahon, CEO of the Green Science Academy, will show us how the landscape of the job market has changed, making project management skills even more valuable -- in fact, vital -- in today’s job market. She will explain how the skills she developed as a project manager helped her build a company that supports the triple bottom line: people, planet, and sustainable profits. Moreover, she will explore how you can transfer your skills to a job in a green industry, as well as showing how green education will differentiate you from other professionals in the marketplace. If you’re thinking of moving into a green job, this workshop will be perfect for you.

To register, go to the PMI registration page. 

Seminar Series - Details

The Green Project Management Seminar Series is co-sponsored by Keller Graduate School and the Project Management Institute San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. The seminars are held on the third Saturday of each month from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon PDT, at Keller Graduate School’s Daly City location. For details and registration information, click here.