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.

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.

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!

Your customers, investors, employees, investors, community, suppliers, and family.

This is just a short list of the many types of stakeholders that support your company. All stakeholders are important for the progress and prosperity of a business.

Strategic employee engagement is the most effective way to foster successful economic, environmental and social initiatives in a company. Employees are learning more about best practices around sustainability, which in turn helps to save the company money. Companies can support these new ideas to spur innovation that will have a ripple effect with the other stakeholders. When a company focuses attention on the employee stakeholder group, it thrives. 

On Wednesday, September 21, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion entitled, "Community and Stakeholder Engagement: A Sustainable Approach" and will be joined by representatives from B Corporation, The Green Chamber of Commerce, and the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence. We will discuss communities, renewable energy, stakeholder groups, and more. 

The event takes place at the Hotel Palomar from 6:30-8:30. The cost is $30 and food/drink is provided. The first ten people to sign up for the roundtable will gain free entry to EcoTuesday in SF, so register today!

During the roundtable, I will focus on the following: 

Employee Engagement Through Building A Green Team: Your Key To Sustainability

• Your employees as important stakeholders
• Tips you can use to get employees enrolled in your company's sustainability intitiatives
• How strategic initiatives increases motivation and productivity

Please join us this month in cities across the country to meet new business contacts and friends. Our event this month will take place on Tuesday, September 27. We encourage you to register beforehand so that we know you'll be joining us. In San Francisco ten people will have the opportunity to quickly share their "elevator pitch" about their company in supportive environment! We hope to see you at an EcoTuesday this month.

By the way, our November event will be held a week earlier, on November 15. We will not be hosting a December event.

San Francisco EcoTuesday will feature Erica Priggen, Executive Producer at Free Range Studios this coming Tuesday. Please join us to learn from a Bay Area award winning creative agency working towards building a more just and sustainable world.

As the head of Free Range's video and entertainment department, Erica Priggen oversees the creative and strategic development of all of the company's video campaigns. With a Master's in Consciousness Studies, she brings a deep study of sustainability and systems thinking to her work, with a concentration on the importance of storytelling and mythology as tools for cultural transformation. Erica is the producer of Free Range's award-winning The Story of Stuff, as well as other hits such as 350.org, The Good Life, the Alliance for Climate Education's national high school assembly program, and the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop video series.

The mission of Free Range Studios is to enable their clients to communicate key messages and empower individuals to transform society through the innovative use of digital media, storytelling, graphic design and strategy. They amplify the impact of their work by inspiring others through values-driven business practices.

In addition to having Erica lined up as our fabulous speaker this month, we've got a great venue for networking. We are being generously hosted by Adobe at their San Francisco office located at 601 Townsend. This building is the oldest LEED-certified platinum green building in the world and we'll get a chance to hear a few words from the Adobe Green Team. Plus, both Honest Tea and San Francisco's Haamonii Shochu will be there to pour teas and tea-shochu cocktails.

We get started at 6:30, come join us for some great networking, introduce yourself to a room of professionals, and to learn something new!

RSVP here, $5 online or $10 at the door.

We have some exciting new ambassadors who have come on board in the last month or so.  They all have come in to our existing EcoTuesday cities to breathe life back in them.   We have brand new teams in Portland and the Silicon Valley.  We also now have assistance for Carol in Minneapolis to keep it thriving.   Thank you to all who have assisted in bringing our new leaders onboard.  We look forward to seeing what will happen in 2011.

Minneapolis

Jina Penn Tracy
Jina became interested in environmental issues after surviving a rare cancer at age 19, caused by a drug her mother had taken during pregnancy.  This led her to many years of organic gardening, child-rearing and cooking.  All while building and selling a small business.  Now, Jina puts that passion into "Ethically-Aligned Weath Management"; designing socially responsible investment & financial “life” plans for her individual, family and business clients as the owner of Raeheart Financial.

 Jina believes that EcoTuesday networking should be fill us with inspiration, buoy our spirits, and help us to create a foundation of support in our lives so we can accomplish greater and greater things.  She believes that deeper than the fight or flight instinct is the true survival instinct; the instinct in humans to come together, cooperate and create a better and more fulfilling tomorrow. EcoTuesday is a place to do just that.  For more, click here.

Portland

Pandora Patterson
Pandora is very active in the Sustainability community in Portland.  She volunteers with environmental non-profit groups and is active in my neighborhood association. She is also a fan of public transportation and bicycling.  Pandora has a Website Development company and actively promotes implementing green business practices. She thinks through education we can show how businesses can be green and financially sustainable.  She also believes that business should include the 3 pillars of sustainability: Social Responsibility, Respect for our Environment and Financial Sustainability.  She loves PDX and believes it’s one of the most livable cities in the world. They have such great local businesses and resources in our great city.  Continue to keep Portland ahead of the curve to be the most livable city anywhere! For more, click here.

Kristy Morris
Kristy is a budding creative mind, who has a background in visual communication. It is important for her to provide a well-executed design in all forms of media; print, web and photo, for small businesses. She is currently part of sales and marketing for Eclectic Home, a local business that provides unique, innovated, sustainable solutions for a healthy space. It is her goal to show that eco-friendly is more than paper bags and muted colors, she can show that it is fun, cutting edge and a trendsetter.  For more, click here.

Silicon Valley

Fenja Blobel 
Fenja holds a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Environmental Analysis and Policy from Boston University. While at BU, Fenja built an Excel VBA metric model to assess a household's environmental impact with data collected from a self-developed comprehensive questionnaire. In May 2008, she received her LEED AP. Growing up in Germany and California influenced her understanding of how different cultures, habits, and norms can affect people's behavior towards the environment. Most recently, she lived an enlightening year in Tokyo, where she entrenched herself in Japan's sustainability industry.  For more, click here.