by Erich Schwartz – Green Space BC: Business in Vancouver
Historically, environmentalists and government have tended to lead the charge for sustainability, but it is now businesses that have taken charge. The shift in leadership occurred in Copenhagen in 2009 when the negotiations failed. Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, succinctly stated “after Hopelesshagen, governments have been left to the wayside”. While Barbara Kux, Siemens’ Chief Procurement Officer, stated “the Green race is on!” Both statements were made at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Amsterdam Conference this year on Sustainability and Transparency that was attended by some of the Greenomics team.

The conference concluded with a record attendance topping 1200 delegates from 77 countries made up of executives and senior managers from major international firms, governments, NGO’s and others. The GRI’s mission is to make reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of performance as normal and as important as financial reporting. The GRI presented some very ambitious goals including having all medium and large sized companies, totalling 80,000 firms, issue ESG reports by 2015, or explain “why not”. As well, GRI intends to set the standard for integrated reporting (a combination of sustainability and financial reports) by 2020. Of note, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is targeted as a prime case study for the type of content that should be required in a truly transparent sustainability report. For example, detailed safety data would need to be included, since it was stated that BP released an exceptional sustainability report, and yet the disaster still unfolded.
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by Frank O’brien – Western Investor

Erich Schwartz, a former science teacher who now consults on the business of sustainability, has a lesson for real estate developers and others still sitting on the green fence. “It’s time to stop talking.” said Schwartz, who heads Vancouver based Greenomics. “it is time to take action.”

Schwartz, who has dutifully sat through the apparently endless seminars, workshops, study sessions and conferences that frame so much of the green movement, said the evidence is in, and the bottom-line benefits are too positive to ignore.

Those developers and contractors who are not building energy savings, recycling and sustainability into their projects, he said, are simply cheating the eventual owner and tenants. It will become increasingly expensive to own, live or work in a non-green building, he explained.

Schwartz was reacting to reports that, in the face of an economic downturn, some real estate developers seem ready to jettison green construction techniques in favour of lower costs. The study, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 by PricewaterhouseCoopers notes that, “Portfolio problems, the construction stall-out and increasing angst could distract from the push to reduce buildings’ carbon footprints and install green technologuies.”

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This article reprinted with permission from Western Investor magazine. Visit www.westerninvestor.com to find an outlet near you.

Greenomics President, Erich Schwartz , is interviewed by Business in Vancouver (BIV), an award-winning weekly newspaper serving Greater Vancouver, Canada, since 1989. It targets business decision-makers and provides local business news and information.

Assessing the Assessors: Sustainability Consultants can help you learn the lay of the land as you try to save the planet – By Corey Van’t Haaff

Make no mistake: the field of sustainability is big business, but who exactly is throwing a hat into the ring? The line between green and greenwashing isn’t always obvious, and education might be the only clear answer. The question is, Who do you turn to in order to get that education?

The problem might be pretty simple to some: we are using too much energy and creating too many greenhouse gases (GHGs). But the means to deal with the problem aren’t always as easy. The low hanging fruit – the easy fixes – will help the environment a bit, but in the long term, you need to develop a strategy to accomplish greater goals.

You can do it for humanitarian reasons, to be socially responsible, and that may be enough for some, but not for everybody. From a business perspective, the debate also has to centre around a reduction in costs. Together, cost-savings, social responsibility and environmental protection are a three-pronged approach that will work.

“The issue is not about saving the planet. It’s about saving yourself and creating a sustainable world where people flourish,” according to Erich Schwartz, president of Greenomics, a consultancy company focused on the business of sustainability.

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“This article reprinted from Green Space magazine, delivered free with Business in Vancouver newspaper. Visit www.biv.com to subscribe.”

There are four key principles for building a Sustainable Business Building, but how all of them apply may not be completely intuitive. The articles we present are intended to expand upon those principles to demonstrate their meaning in a practical way. This article “A Lesson in Zero Waste Cruising” demonstrates how all four principles are being undermined by recreational activities and the products we make to support those activities. In this article, you will see how our recreational activities are contributing to:

• the progressive buildup of substances extracted from our Earth’s crust
• the progressive buildup of toxic chemicals and compounds
• the progressive physical degradation of our natural environment; and
• conditions that undermine people’s capacity to meet their basic human needs

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