Economy: Turning the Ship of the New Green Economy

In February and March of 2007, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and The Clark Group are convening thought leaders from a variety of disciplines to explore the on-going environmental transformation of the U.S. Economy.The Turning the Ship dialogue will commence on February 5, 2007 with a 5-week on-line discussion hosted by www.greenbiz.com exploring the latest developments in the field of corporate environmental sustainability.

As Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz writes:

The drumbeat of headlines has become steady and strong. Each week, it seems, the rhythm of news stories about the greening of business picks up tempo.

Just since new year’s, for example, we’ve reported in GreenBiz.com that: Swiss Re will give rebates to employees for purchases that helped reduce their carbon footprint; GE and AES will jointly develop greenhouse gas reduction projects; Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, will label the products it sells according to their carbon footprint; HP will surpass recycling a billion pounds of used electronics; Morgan Stanley’s vice chair will head a new group focusing on market-based economic solutions to global environmental and climate issues; Wal-mart’s new 360 Sustainability plan will make environmental concerns central to its business decisions. And ten big companies joined forces with a activist groups to demand that Congress enact comprehensive global warming legislation.

And 2007 is barely a month old.

Meanwhile, over the past several months, Business Week, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, and Business 2.0 have all run cover stories on the greening of business.

What, in Al Gore’s name, is going on here? Could the mainstreaming of green business finally be upon us?

Maybe. But we’ve only just begun — and we’ve got a long, long way to go.

Join the dialogue: Turning the Ship