The State of Green Business, 2008

My colleagues and I at GreenBiz.com have just published State of Green Business 2008, an accounting for how, and how much, the greening of business is moving the needle on environmental issues.

The simple answer: not much — and certainly not enough.

I'd been thinking about this report for a good five years, but it was only last year that my team and I got to it. Probably a good thing: The state of data on business and the environment likely wouldn't have been sufficient in previous years to accomplish this.

The free, 64-page report includes the top green business stories of the year just passed — a lengthy piece I'd previously debuted in this blog (see here, for example). But the heart of the report is the GreenBiz Index, a set of 20 indicators of progress on the greening of business.

It began with a simple question: With all that's been going on in this arena — all of the things I write about here, and the 1,000 or so news stories we reported last year on GreenBiz.com, ClimateBiz.com, GreenerBuildings.com, and GreenerComputing.com — what was the actual impact? Was all this activity actually moving the needle on climate change? Was it reducing our use of energy, water, and materials? Was it making any difference?

We set out to find out.

It was extraordinarily difficult, one of the more challenging exercises I've been through. The quantity and quality of available data were wanting, to say the least. Some of the things we set out to measure weren't possible — for example, it turns out there's no current data on the use of water by business and industry in the United States, the focus of our inquiry. In other cases, we had to cobble together our own indices, such as piecing together the quantity of materials - cardboard, aluminum, steel, and glass - used for packaging.

But the effort was worth it. We believe that the GreenBiz Index represents the best accounting of business progress on the environment.

Of course, I'll look forward to your comments. We'll be updating this annually.

The report is free, downloadable here.

Comments

[Mark W. McElroy]

Hi Joel:

Sounds like an interesting report. I'd like to read it, but your conditions for receiving it are too invasive for us -- annual revenues, etc. Too self-serving for you, I guess. What does our revenue have to do with your report? And how much do you earn, anyway? Yes, I know -- what does that have to do with anything? Exactly my point.

Anyway, I think what you are doing is really good stuff. But I wonder why you continue to restrict your focus on sustainability to purely environmental issues. I know you are aware of the multi-bottom-line view of the subject, but it puzzles me why you continue to ignore it, as if environmental issues are somehow the exclusive focus of sustainability. It's as though if we buy into your view of the subject, we have to put our green eyeshades on and ignore all other sustainability problems in the world. What about Non-Green issues? Don't they count for anything?

Indeed, you say the "GreenBiz Index represents the best accounting of business progress on the environment", but what about the non-environmental impacts? I tried to read your report for more insight, but then I got hit with your privacy-invasive questions.

That all said, I know how invested you are in the green-buzz thing. To suddenly take a position that sustainability is more than that could be problematic for you. You have my sympathies. Good luck working it out.

Regards,

Mark

[Lara]

Joel - Great report. I expect that future editions of the report will be even more interesting than this first one...

Sincerely,

Lara

[Dave]

Wow. I appreciate that businesses are taking into account their sustainability and consider the sustainability a test of innovation.

As kind of a part two to measuring a companies impact - I was jazzed today when I read about some huge companies that will be conducting an assessment of their supply chain to determine their carbon footprint. See this post -
http://sattlerclothing.com/blog/

[alex]

Great report but we also have to be on the look out for "green washing". I really enjoy reading your blog; it always has great dialogue. I was wondering if your readers have heard anything about online carbon calculators. I am not an environmental nerd but I came across a couple, and with everyone going green these days I thought I would check out my footprint. I took my test at WWF.com, and the EPA site along with www.earthlab.com. Does anyone know about any other ones? Let me know, and it would be cool to hear any thoughts on these things. Oh and I think Earthlab.com is the best site it has the easiest calculator to use and they are doing stuff with the super bowl, spinning football and global warming together is pretty impressive.

[Laurens Laudowicz]

joel....you are the best guy out there in the field of sustainability. i have been following your blog closely now for about a year and i cant find anyone out there that states the facts as accurately and combines them with such great whizz as you do. thank you for the many hours of joyful interesting reading and study materials.

we are currently developing a green technology product.

after going over our mission over and over again we realized that we do not only want to have the greatest impact, but also want to do it in the smallest period of time possible.

to make it short, we NEED your help. i would like to talk to you. are you coming to the Hawaii Executive Conference in May'08 that i had mentioned to you before?

aloha

laurens
808.351.2891

[Christine]

Your report on Clorox's new line is very interesting, although it begs the question: if Clorox bleach and "the bleach cycle" are safe and sustainable, then why does Clorox need a line like Greenworks? The logic behind creating this new product line is unarguable, but why is the company continuing to sell regular Clorox bleach if the new products are more environmentally friendly and work just as well? Clorox seems to be sending mixed signals to the market- "here are our environmentally friendly products, but we also have environmentally unfriendly products if you would prefer."

I, too, am a little concerned that Clorox may be greenwashing. The website only states that Greenworks products will be all "natural", but does not give a clear definition of what natural means. Your article also notes that Clorox plans to make the Greenworks manufacturing process carbon neutral, but says nothing about the manufacturing of Greenworks other products. Will Clorox "green" all of their manufacturing or are they just attempting to gain a little good will with environmentalists?

With all that said, I do believe Clorox has produced a high quality product that is safer for the environment and is affordable to the general public. I agree that Greenworks is a good step to get brand leaders to create greener products.

[Jabeen Quadir]

Chlorox does have a webpage that states their commitment to environmental sustainability and associated initiatives they have underway. It doesn't seem to extend to social or governance aspects of corporate responsibility and sustainability at this time.