Markets do work, but they work according to how they’re designed.
By Paul Gilding, from green@work magazine ‘05

Let’s talk honestly about markets and sustainability. Many, myself included, argue the power of markets to drive change—that the only method powerful enough to drive sustainability globally and quickly is to unleash market forces. We give these mystical forces the potential to alleviate poverty, reduce population growth, solve climate change and save biodiversity, and that’s just for a start.
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I still buy the argument. However, if we’re honest we’d have to concede performance to date has actually been abysmal.

Sure, there are some impressive examples of individual companies doing things unimaginable a few decades ago. However, the reality from the point of view of the planet and its people is that the income gap is widening, climate change is upon us and getting worse, China and India are gobbling up the world’s coal (and will soon be emitting the consequences). Then when forecasts in global economic growth are combined with the forecast consequences of what is, in reality, largely business as usual, the situation starts to look very ugly, very quickly.
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Creating a sustaining architecture for the 21st century, using the enduring laws of nature.
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, from green@work magazine ‘03

Just over a decade ago, when the city of Hannover, Germany, asked us to develop a set of design principles for the 2000 World’s Fair, design for sustainability was in its infancy. While the desire to move toward a solar-powered world had gained significant momentum among the environmentally conscious by 1992, and the ideas that inform ecological design had begun to manifest themselves in encouraging innovations in “green” architecture and technology, a coherent framework for applying sustainable design to all sectors of society had yet to emerge. Imagining designs that celebrated nature and technology, human health and vibrant commerce was even further off the map.
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The Hannover Principles were conceived to lay the foundation for this hopeful, new paradigm. We knew at the time that our efforts were just a first step. Though we were striving to identify universal principles based on the enduring laws of nature, we also understood that our knowledge of the world was incomplete. So, too, was our ability to predict all the many ways in which the creativity of the world’s designers, architects, business leaders and NGOs would push design for sustainability beyond the limits we could imagine in 1992. Thus, we saw the Principles as a living document—a set of enduring ideals and an open system of thought that would evolve as it was put into practice.

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Company makes commitment to more sustainable packaging in the region

Wal-Mart Stores committed today to reduce phosphates in laundry and dish detergents in the Americas region by 70 percent by 2011. Wal-Mart also announced plans to accelerate its drive toward more sustainable packaging in the Americas region by reducing packaging by 5 percent by the end of 2013. [Read more →]

Designing a “green” building under the LEED guidelines presents a unique challenge to construction: the building needs to be more energy efficient than required by code. In essence, the code does not anticipate the obstacles of green building issues. With the help of Rolf Jensen & Associates’ (RJA) code expertise, the Genzyme Center synchronized sophisticated engineering and careful design to meet the five core features of the LEED standard’s framework for environmental design.
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Innovative project to generate $8 million annual savings, decrease dependency on fossil fuels

MILWAUKEE – Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. has signed an $89 million energy savings performance contract with Johnson Controls, Inc. to apply advanced energy conservation solutions, including a biomass gasification system, to the campus.

This project is the first signed initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) Initiative, which is an action plan to dramatically transform the DOE’s energy, environmental and transportation management. TEAM aims to meet or exceed the aggressive energy efficiency goals set forth by the federal government laid out by President Bush, fundamentally transforming the way the DOE manages energy use in its facilities.

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Travelers of Massachusetts offers key discounts for those driving environmentally-friendly vehicles

WORCESTER, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Massachusetts drivers are increasingly going green as the number of registered hybrid vehicles in the state has increased by 36 percent during the past nine months. The timing couldn’t be better for those drivers as the state’s new managed competition system for auto insurance allows them, for the first time in state history, to take advantage of auto insurance discounts created especially for hybrid drivers from insurers such as Travelers of Massachusetts.

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The Roof is Growing! Targets Middle School Students, Educators

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) today announced the availability of The Roof is Growing!, an educational resource for middle-school students and teachers about green roofs and their environmental benefits. The resource includes a lesson plan, workbook, and online interactive program designed to engage students on how green roofs cool cities, clean the air, create habitats, and control stormwater.

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WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Farm Bill passed yesterday by the U.S. House and today by the U.S. Senate will encourage biofuel producers to move more rapidly to commercialize advanced biofuels and help farmers transition to growing energy crops for a sustainable biofuel industry. Biotechnology Industry Organization President & CEO Jim Greenwood today thanked House and Senate leaders and issued the following statement:

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ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of financial institution executives say they plan to build new or undergo a major remodel of an existing branch in the next 12-24 months and the vast majority (88 percent) say green initiatives are important to their financial institutes, according to 2008 IBT Market Pulse Survey: A Different Shade of Green released today.

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LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Quartet is introducing consumers to the first environmentally-friendly whiteboards and bulletin boards to hit the retail market. Its new Envi™ line boasts MBDC’s (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry) Cradle-to-CradleSM silver certification, which verifies that the boards are created to ensure minimal impact to the environment throughout their entire life-cycle.

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