Great article by Christopher Gleadle in today’s Environmental Leader:
More and more organizations see the importance of sustainable business practices. They have recognized that there are very substantial financial benefits to be obtained by integrating sustainability thinking and practices into all their business processes. Once you take into account the wider, longer-term, and often hidden costs, the financial benefits of good, practical, sustainable, working practices are enormous. (read more here)
Business report, one of the most comprehensive discussions and measurement of the environmental impacts of the emerging green economy. In addition to documenting corporate progress in improving their environmental performance, the report tracks larger trends that will affect corporate America in 2012.
2011 solar installations in the U.S. smashed previous records with 449 megawatts of new capacity in just three months. This increase represents attainment of a yearly milestone of 1,000 megawatts in solar installations, surpassing the 887 megawatts completed throughout all of 2010. This 140% growth year-over-year would be impressive trending numbers in any industry.
Here in North America, energy use represents approximately 30% of operating costs for commercial buildings, and HVAC comprises 30-80% of that energy cost. It’s not rocket science to recognize that implementing simple, energy efficient measures can dramatically reduce consumption; accordingly, business owners and commercial property managers are actively seeking ways to leverage these efficiencies without the costs and complications associated with complex burden of major structural improvements. 
announcement as I was zipping up my boots after security screening. It turns out that Boston 
opportunities to spend a day learning about industry trends and network with like-minded professionals? 10? 20? Even more? One stood out for me, the 
some other catchy alliterative phrase, corporations around the world are embracing the concept of the 
years-long shift to electronic health records (EHRs). Their findings: the project has eliminated 1,000 tons of paper waste, 68 tons of x-ray film (and the chemicals to process it) and saves patients millions of gallons of gasoline from avoided medical visits. From these findings, the authors extrapolate that, if EHRs were to be implemented nationwide following Kaiser’s example, the net reduction in CO2 emissions from healthcare would be 1.7 million metric tons. The article also points out that Kaiser, to its credit, also details the negative impacts of the switch: Over 87,000 megawatt-hours of energy is needed to power the computers and data centers that make the EHR system work. And those computers add up to an additional 250 tons of e-waste generated by switching to EHRs. Find the complete article at