greencollar

A long overdue, but informative look at how the smart grid is evolving and the challenges the industry faces as it works to get to scale.  Listen as Drew Johnston, Smart Grid Development and Deployment Consultant at Landis+Gyr, explains the current state of the marketplace, challenges utilities face in modifying their business models to help minimize customer's use of energy and how pilot projects throughout the country are showing great promise.

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An interview with the CEO and Founder of Locus Technologies about the state of water tracking, utilization and optimization in industry today.  How it is paralleling the focus on carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and how businesses are utilizing better tracking and information about their water usage to create opportunity and business returns.

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Check out Green Collar Research for the whole story.  This is a great interview and a terrific story of corporate commitment and green business success.

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Need to light a new parking lot?  Safely and reliably illuminate a campus?  In this interview with Channing Page from SolarOne Solutions, we discuss the state of the art in exterior solar lighting and the related business benefits.  Stop digging trenches and pulling wires and lower your total cost of ownership while making a statement!

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One of our favorite sayings at  Green Collar is "You can't improve what you can't measure".  That is why we were so excited for this interview with Amit Chaterjee, CEO of Hara.  Hara is the leading and fastest growing provider of environmental and energy management software. Their mission is to enable organizations to grow and profit while optimizing resource utilization and minimizing environmental impact.

Hara's software helps companies track their "organizational metabolism" and centralize data about their energy, water, carbon and waste in order to use that information to create opportunity.  Generally selling to Fortune 5000 companies, Hara has been proving itself to be a solution that creates "substantial cost savings" and "massive energy reductions".  These often come as a surprise to many of their customers, who may have never taken a hard (or holistic) look at this information before.  Amit tells us of one client who thought their enterprise energy expenditure was around $50 to $80 million per year, but with Hara they realized it was closer to $250 million.  After the shocked expressions wore off (which probably took a while), they got to work and started slashing those numbers.  Amit used a line which I loved..."it is better to lay off energy, than people."  Amen to that.

The insight they are providing and working with their clients on exploiting is rapidly becoming respected and considered vital.  As you will hear, Hara believes it is almost to the point where 'Sustainable" finance could be considered a critical discipline in a Fortune 5000 company.

Hara echoes the refrain we have heard Green Collar on many occasions, that the huge majority of businesses - even large businesses - do not have someone who is responsible for energy usage (not to mention carbon) across the enterprise.  Shocking but true.  My guess is that as Hara continues to accelerate and provide the data companies need to make good decisions, you are going to see a lot more companies who have someone responsible for ensuring the company makes smart decisions.

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Interview with Karen Biscoe, founder and president of Green Search Partner - http://www.greensearchpartner.com. 

Q: As a recruitment specialist in the green space, how do you feel the green economy is doing in the face of this recession? T

A:  The green industry, like many others with respect to job creation, is moving very slowly. Over the past several years there has been a tremendous amount of innovation and development of new technologies, both from the commercial and academic sectors. But for many of these entrepreneurs, the struggle continues for capital and resources required to get these technologies past the proof of concept stage, and out into the marketplace. You can’t create jobs if you don’t have the funding to get your product to the market. 

Q:  What sectors of the green economy are gaining traction?

A:   Small Hydro-Electric seems to be gaining more traction here in the northeast. There has also been an increase in development of new polysilicon technologies, bio fuels, and waste treatment/management. 

Q:  How does your firm define a 'Green' business?

A:  This is what I call the gray/green area. There are several definitions of a green business. In my mind, the primary definition is a business that focuses on the direct development of technologies or systems that make a positive impact on the environment and decrease our dependence upon traditional fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Another definition is a company that utilizes eco-friendly resources in the development of products that allow people to enjoy a higher quality, sustainable lifestyle without compromising environmental integrity. Additionally, a green business can be defined as one that, while not directly involved in the design and manufacturing of a green technology, they are employing the dynamic use of new or existing technologies designed to increase awareness and ultimately allow the user to manage and reduce our overall CO2 emissions. Examples of this are demand-response control solutions, or consulting firms that retrofit buildings to increase energy efficiency and decrease water usage. Some may define a green business as one that employs and maintains sustainability policies relative to how they run the operations of their company, such as a robust reduce/reuse/recycle policy. From my perspective, sustainability is something all companies should be practicing consistently. Having a sustainability policy doesn’t necessarily qualify a company as a “green” business.

Q:  What types of employees and executives are green companies looking for?

A:  Great question, I get that one a lot. The answer is pretty subjective based on where a particular company is in its development. The initial need is usually on the R&D side, so civil, environmental, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineers are in high demand in the early days of development. As a company moves from research and development to commercialization, a GM with good project management experience, a project finance person and market research expert is likely to find a role within a clean tech company before a salesperson would. But, I would also venture to say that if you are a business development expert with strong relationships within the public utilities this is a good time for you to be getting your resume out there.

Q:  Does your firm specialize in a particular type of hire, or do you fill all hiring needs for green businesses?

A:  Typically, a founder or CEO will call upon me to help build out their management team or to hire several key staff people for the organization. Considering the average size of a client company is between 2 and 50 employees, being nimble and highly adaptable as a recruiter can make the critical difference for them. However, there are certain roles best handled by a recruiter with specific technical expertise, such as IT. In this case, it’s best to say “I can’t help you with this, but I know someone who can”. 

Q:  Are large, traditionally non-green businesses looking to bring green expertise on-board? For what reasons.

A:  Yes, but the roles they are hiring for depends upon the business model in question. Those organizations that have put sustainability on the top of their priority list may hire at the corporate level to put sustainability policies in place. I’ve had several clients adjust or add titles to their org charts such as “Chief Sustainability Officer” In some cases, companies have hired or brought in and marketing and branding consultants to “green up” the company’s identity and public profile. In companies with very complex manufacturing and distribution operations, hiring a senior person to implement a green approach absolutely makes sense and should be the company’s top priority. That’s not to say there is no need for other talented professionals in their R&D, operations, sales or even IT departments. But many companies are still very hesitant to hire on the basis of a green agenda alone, they will need to see the market stabilize before hiring the “nice to have” green collars among us.

Q:  What makes recruitment in the green sector unique?

A:  It’s incredibly dynamic, educational, and exciting. The green movement has really captured both the analytical left brainers and enterprising right brainers throughout this nation. The competitive collaboration of our brilliant academics paired with the creative energy of business leaders has once again harnessed the entrepreneurial spirit of US. I hope the new technologies coming from countries like China and Israel serve to inspire our government leaders. We need more commercial and government support to provide the necessary funding and resources to launch these worthy start-ups.

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In this terrific interview with Susan Heaney, the Director of Corporate Responsibility for Avon, we review the holistic and inclusive approach that this $300 Million, Fortune 300 company takes to sustainability.  Avon has been a business that has had corporate responsibility as a key organizational tenet since the 1800's and they have embraced green in a big way.  

Currently they have major initiatives underway to reduce their paper consumption and packaging impact.  Because Avon does not sell through retail, but instead through their unique direct sales force, their product brochures & catalogs represent a key short-term strategic focus for minimizing environmental impact.    Additionally, even though their products are packaged in a more environmentally friendly manner than many competitors because they do not need to be packaged to be displayed in retail, they are working to continue minimizing the weight and impact of the product packaging.

Some of the most impressive ways that Avon is making a difference is with their employee and team engagement.  Some of the unique things they have done:

1. Created a "Green Ambassador" role at every Avon facility in over 60 countries.  The competition for these volunteer positions was fierce and the ambassadors - who do this job in addition to their normal responsibilities - are responsible for spearheading the Avon green initiatives in each location.
2. They launched a corporate initiative called "Hello Green Tomorrow" which embodies all the current initiatives as well as the corporate policies that are helping drive positive change
3. The created a task force of 20 Associates that make up their Green Task Force that help develop the company's green road map and put together business plans for chosen initiatives
4. This year they launched a Green Innovation Challenge open to all employees to submit their best green ideas.  The ideas are judged based on creativity, impact, feasibility, scalability and whether the team is in position to move the project forward and implement it.  They received over 200 submissions from 35 countries, and they have boiled it down to 3 finalists which will be presented to the board.

When we discussed the key pieces of advice that she would have for an organization that is just getting moving and not nearly as far along as Avon, she suggested focusing on two building blocks to generate a return-on-investment:

1. Materiality - Focus on what you do as a company and what you do best and look for the low hanging fruit.  In Avon's situation, this is selling consumer packaged products through a paper-based sales approach.  Look at the core aspect of your business and opportunity will identify itself.
2. Mobilization & Engagement - Get your team involved and amplify the passion of your organization.  This happens to be a core competency of Avon and by empowering, educating and engaging their 6 million employees and agents worldwide, Avon is working on their mission to facilitate a green global movement.

With organizations like Avon leading the way in looking at sustainability as both a business and a social opportunity, I am confident we are going to see vast amounts of progress in sustainability in every sector of the economy in the coming years.

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In this interview with Gene Wang, CEO of People Power Co., we discuss how wireless sensor networks are going to play a key role in energy efficiency, the smart grid and electronic product development going forward.  People Power has developed an Open Source wireless sensor local area network (OSHAN - stands for Open Source Home Area Network) that anyone can develop for.  According the OpenOSHAN wiki:

[OSHAN] will be used as the foundation for many wireless consumer devices, turning those wireless electronics into internet connected electronics. Under a BSD-style license, anybody is welcome to check out, contribute to, and use OSHAN in turning new ideas into devices you can actually feel in your hands. OSHAN is an extension and flavor of TinyOS, kind of how Red Hat and Ubuntu are flavors of Linux. TinyOS already has thousands of users and embedded developers worldwide, which is a lot of brain-hours for you to leverage in your own projects.

The benefit to businesses of leveraging a network like this is that provides data on energy usage, allowing the company to accurately define ways to lower energy costs.  As more and more interconnected devices become available, the multi-model communication stack of OSHAN (it can talk to WIFI, 900Mhz, Zigbee, etc.) will provide a standardized platform for these devices to have bi-directional communication so that the business can have centralized control over energy usage.

In addition to OSHAN, People Power has also released their first commercial device, the SuRF (Sensor Ultra Radio Frequency) board.  the SuRF Board provides an open source hardware developer's kit for wireless sensor networking with an open source operating system & network stack based on IPv6.

So what does this mean, and what should businesses expect?  Look to see products coming to market that will allow you to set up an energy network in your facilities.  This network will grow over time and provide you with vast amounts of data that will allow you to tightly control your energy costs. 

Listen to the full interview to learn more.

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Paul Baier, the VP of Sustainability Strategy with Groom Energy, has been helping Fortune 500 companies with their green initiatives for several years and he has noticed some trends.  When we discussed what he has identified as areas of consistent green return-on-investment, he didn't hesitate, and quickly rattled off 5 key projects:

1. Lighting upgrades
2. Building Re-commissioning (examining and repairing all building systems so they work optimally, thereby vastly lowering energy consumption and waste)
3. Capitalizing on government financial incentives to improve energy efficiency (Federal, State, even local)
4. Lowering reliance on peak load energy usage (mid-day)
5. Instituting behavioral changes inside a company

Groom Energy is lazer focused on ROI producing energy management initiatives, as well as helping companies lower their carbon footprint.  They are providing thought leadership in the new field of enterprise carbon accounting.  ECA is the process a company goes through to get a complete and on-going picture of their carbon footprint so that they can improve it and eliminate energy waste and wasted money.  In the interview, we discuss the explosion in large companies implementing ECA (from 5% five years ago to over 75% today) and the benefits they are reaping from having this data at their fingertips.  A few months ago, I spoke with the VP of a large company (and one of Groom's clients) that had recently completed the first draft of their carbon footprint, and he said to me that now everywhere he goes in the company he sees $100 bills lying on the floor.  The company had no idea how much money they were wasting and are recouping tremendous returns on the project.

Take a listen to the interview.  If you are interested in how to get moving in taking your company green, this conversation is going to give you some great ideas....

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Peeing is Believing. 

That's what Klaus Reichardt, the founder and owner of Waterless Co, Inc.,  told me during our insightful interview about the benefits of waterless urinals.  Klaus has been a producing and deploying waterless, odorless urinals since the 80's and is a true pioneer in this space. 

The interview highlights the business and environmental benefits of this product and makes a compelling case that any CFO would appreciate.  Here are 5 reasons businesses should be looking hard at Waterless Urinals:

1. They save on average 30,000 to 50,000 gallons of drinkable water per year, per urinal.  Imagine a building like the Sears Tower in Chicago...at 110 stories tall, it probably has 1,100 urinals.  That means one building is literally flusing away over 33 Million gallons of potable water every year.  And what about the Atlanta airport (you know, the major city that was two weeks away from being out of water a couple of years ago!)?  There is no way they should still be using flush urinals when a waterless option exists.
2. That wasted water translates to Return-on-Investment.  Water costs, on the low end, around $7 per 1000 gallons.  That means a savings of over $210 per year, per urinal (and up to $600 in some water districts).  With these types of urinals costing between $250 and $500, the math is easy.
3. Lowered Vandalism.  No more punk kids pulling on the handles until they overflow all day.
4. Cleaner!  Urine is sterile.  It is by keeping the urinals constantly wet that all the bacteria is created.  The mechanism to keep the restroom odorless relies on a liquid that is lighter than urine...the urine passes through it and no odor can come back up through it.  As an aside, I've been in many buildings with waterless urinals (of different kinds) and there has never been an odor...they work great.
5. Lowered building and maintenance costs.  Eliminating all of that active plumbing cuts down on the services of tradesmen necessary to install, maintain and repair the urinals (which happen to be one of the most fragile systems in a building....you guys out there know exactly what I'm talking about...think constantly running, won't flush, etc.).

Check out the entire interview with Klaus.  You'll thank yourself at the next cocktail party you attend...you'll be a wealth of knowledge!

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