A few friends asked me what I did for Earth Day. Amongst all the green activities and celebrations organized that day, I decided to attend the Fortune Magazine’s BRAINSTORM: GREEN event in Pasadena. The conference gathered over 300 top business and environmental leaders. A series of panels discussed the impact of the green movement and explored the opportunities and challenges faced by entrepreneurs, big companies and the financial community. For the organizers Earth Day surely meant business this year.
Earth Day 2008 was definitely the biggest so far, with events and activities organized around the World, and with wide news coverage. A month later, I ask myself though a simple question: what is left of all this activity? The green movement is growing for sure, and sustainable values are diffusing through Government and Business organizations.
However, talking with other bloggers and PR professionals at the Fortune event, there is now a public fatigue for green information. Announcements by large firms — like Dell who announced a green PC on Earth Day — will make the news. But the public is overwhelmed by the “green wave” and marketers are over-using a green angle. To the companies I talk to, I currently advise them to use substantial information to back up their green PR.
Interviewing representatives from Nortel, which used the event to showcase its new Telepresence solution, a question came up: is going green just another business transformation initiative (like integrating 6-sigma quality control and the Internet into their operations) or rather a core value that must be added to any company that wants to be attractive and sustainable. Nortel’s VP for green initiatives answered “It is both”, noting the green image was also useful to improve the morale of the employees and attract top fresh graduates.
The two-day Fortune event was also an opportunity to meet attaching characters. Reuven Agassi continues to works with his son Shai — they started several start-up companies together — on the Project Better Place to develop and distribute electrical cars. Shai Agassi used to be #2 at SAP and left in 2007 to pursue interests in climate change and alternative energy: he raised $200M for his project and launched a plan for electrical cars in Israel with the support of the Government and Renault-Nissan's CEO!
Between two CEO-level panels a high-school student, Avery Hairston, was asked to share his experience about his non-profit RelightNY that he runs with classmates in New York: they raise money to buy CFL light-bulbs and distribute them to low-income housing. His goal is to educate New Yorkers about green alternatives and put forward simple acts that can make a difference on the Environment. I later spoke with Avery, who flew on a red-eye to Pasadena between exams and was chaperoned by his mother: his innitiative has received wide local news coverage, and he is trying now to engage electricty companies to do the same, like PG&E in California that started to dstribute CFL bulbs.
One of the benefits of Earth Day and events like Fortune's BRAINSTORM: GREEN is to gather inspiring personal initiatives like Reuveni's and Avery's with large corporations and financial institutions. As inspiring as their projects can be, the car manufacturers and the electricity giants are the ones ultimately who can replace the park of vehicles and light-bulbs in the next 10-15 years around the country and have a significant impact on the environment. Earth Day was finally the time for me to drive green and put my money where my mouth is… I got myself a hybrid car, like many other people this year if I look at the number of Toyota Prius on the freeway. A friend of mine in Boston calls it the "pius". Sign that I am only a follower, I could not benefit from the tax rebates that fade overtime. Yet, it made sense for me financially with gas prices skyrocketing. And with 50 miles per gallon, it is nice not to have to stop at the gas stations as often. Like many companies today, I try to align my budget constraints with my green values…
