“We’re still here.”
Thus begins Greener World Media’s State of Green Business 2010. According to the report, the survival of green business and its representatives is good news. Of course, you can look at survival as proof of endurance, which is what the report does, in cautiously optimistic terms.
The report, written by GreenBiz.com’s Joel Makower and his colleagues, outlines areas of green business that trended up last year, despite the Great Recession: radical transparency, green marketing, green innovation, hybrid/other alternative vehicles, energy efficiency, IT, management of toxics, local food, packaging, clean tech.
You can detect the reasons behind the report’s cautious optimism in the the GreenBiz Index, “a representative basket of indicators that tell us, in aggregate, the progress U.S. companies are (or aren’t) making in 20 measures of environmental performance”. Six indicators saw progress (clean energy patents, energy efficiency, green IT, green office space, paper use/recycling, and water intensity), 11 stood still, and 3 fell behind.
Though hardly an upbeat read, State of Green Business 2010 is perhaps the most systematic regular evaluation of the green economy. Consider it, therefore, required reading for any sustainable business professional.
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Joel Makower et al., State of Green Business 2010, Greener World Media / GreenBiz.com, 2010.
