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Is there quantifiable evidence that green is gaining momentum? The question only requires that you take a superficial look around in the business community to see it. Business leaders know that flexibility and adaptation to changing circumstances are the fundamental aspects of corporate survival.

Today, natural resources conservation and socially responsible practices are playing a major role in project planning. In fact, it is a fairly obvious requirement for a well-run organization today, whether large or small. As energy and material costs rise, evidence of this truth is even more accentuated.

If you want to know whether sustainability is a high priority, you first need to understand what pressures accelerate the process of moving toward green business trends within a company and across the nation.

Employees in their 20’s & 30’s

The most obvious source of pressure is the younger generation of employees. According to the 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study, an impressive 83% of millennials (those born between 1979 and 2001) place greater trust in organizations that are socially and environmentally responsible. Those who missed the seventies and eighties era of excesses are often stunned by the lack of conservation practices by the older generation. They have been well enlightened in conservation and environmental awareness since they were elementary school age.  Studies of human-resource patterns show that employees in their 20’s and 30’s are more prone to believe in companies that take responsibility for the environment. In fact, a poll conducted by Mortgage Lenders Network USA reports that 94% of all Americans prefer to work in a setting that is designed to be energy-efficient and ecologically sound.

Customer Base

The second most likely source of pressure to go green is your customer base. A company may be losing market share by continuing to provide products that were previously highly regarded but by today’s standards are not considered to be green. Organically grown fabrics, locally grown produce, energy-efficient appliances and non-toxic materials are all suddenly taking the spotlight and turning heads – innovations created by, you guessed it, employees in their 20’s and 30’s. Consumer pressure will continue to be a dominant force for corporate change.

Financial and Insurance Institutions

More subtle but economically convincing pressure can come from financial and insurance institutions. Funding for a new venture is more easily obtained from some lenders if it has an environmental link, especially for construction projects. These same greener projects can be more economically insured with discounts provided by major insurers.

Corporate Leadership

The most compelling pressure, but more difficult to quantify, could come from the personal convictions of one or more corporate leaders. All that needs to be said is “It’s just the right thing to do.” This is a push that will have sustained impact and continued support since it comes from policymakers within to permeate the entire corporate culture.

A prime example of this type of executive pressure is the Texas Instruments chip fabrication plant in Richardson, Texas. The facilities planning team was told to reduce the construction budget for the new plant by 30% as compared to the last one built a decade earlier. The team took it upon themselves to suggest a sustainable design that would also save operating costs. Integrated design helped the team beat the 30% capital-cost goal and achieve significant, long-range operational-cost savings. The facility reduced energy use by 38% and water consumption by 35% through extensive reuse and recycling. The attention to energy recovery resulted in fewer boilers, which led to an emissions reduction of 50%. Local materials and products with recycled content were used for construction and 90% of the construction waste was recycled. Much of the landscaping was created with native plants that require no irrigation and minimal maintenance. The facility is the first LEED Gold certified chip plant in the world. The overall savings benefit to the company is projected to be $4 million a year on a net $1.5 million investment, a savings of $2.67 for each dollar invested.

Numbers don’t lie. They tell us that green is big and getting bigger. TI’s building project clearly illustrates that you can take green to the bank and continue to do so year after year. Job creation and corporate growth will be linked to green initiatives for the foreseeable future. Because green is more efficient and better for us all, we can see on the horizon quality of life improvements that will launch us into a truly sustainable future.

Lily pads multiply exponentially. They begin growing in the spring with very sparse coverage and by late summer they can look like this. One day you could come to the pond and where you saw gaps yesterday, the whole pond is covered today.

The recession has made living a greener life more fashionable. People are cutting back on driving, exercising more, eating healthier and even taking up gardening to save money –- or just to be current. Making that a more enduring lifestyle is easier than changing the marketplace, but only because of individual initiative. The energy of that initiative could just be the catalyst that propels us into a greener society.

We may be on the cusp of a real paradigm shift that will take us back to organic healthy practices, lift us up to be more responsible citizens and launch us into the creativity of more efficient, greener products that advance us to greater heights of achievement and quality of life.

At the moment less than 20% of our Fortune 500 corporations have really made green strides, even though all companies have at least dabbled in green or have fulfilled the required greener compliance adjustments. What we are beginning to discover, however, is that there is a fresh approach to the marketplace. A common awareness of the problems associated with a non-green mindset and the possibilities that greener products and practices provide is becoming the correctional modifier that engenders spontaneous collaboration of management, workforce and consumers to set new standards and, simultaneously, create real growth in the economy. It would not be the first time that remediation measures resulted in a pressure cooker environment that re-invigorates a fresh approach to a quagmire of repetitious activity and gives birth to a sustained renewal.

Trade shows are mushrooming with green ideas that have been turned into green products and innovative solutions. If you haven’t been to one recently, take my suggestion to attend and make a mental note of all the innovative ideas that are being brought into the marketplace. Yes, there’s much work yet to be done, especially in the US. The average American still consumes twice as much fuel each year as the average European. We’re pretty spoiled. We have large houses and several cars and we use them to make lots of trips to buy any little thing and shop for the next thing that catches our eye.

Not that those things are so bad, but if we could convert some of that energy into personal productivity and consciously seek ways to green up, we could absolutely regain what has been lost in our economy. At the same time we would live longer, healthier, happier lives. What we would find is a new passion for living emerging from within. Creative juices would begin to surprise us with new ideas and innovations. Sensitivity for the burdens of others would cause us to make a real difference in our home, our workplace and our community.

Even now, this can be witnessed to some degree in corporate America. More companies are working on sustainability standards for their own company and then assuming the leadership to show their suppliers how to make greener products, biodegradable packaging, greener, less toxic chemicals and other areas that are still being defined.

A good illustration of this is triple-concentrated laundry detergent. It does a better job cleaning, costs less and is chemically less toxic to the environment than the product it replaced. On the shelf it might look like it costs more, but if you do the math you will see the savings.

Green advancements in lighting is another area where leaps are taking place. LED’s (light emitting diodes) are super-efficient bulbs that use 10 to 30 times less energy than incandescent bulbs. They may seem a bit pricey, but they last for 35,000 hours –- at 3 hours a day average, that’s over 25 years. Incandescent bulbs last only about 1,000 hours. Even if you were to spend $20 for one of these 6-watt bulbs (equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb), you are saving money in just a very short time.

That, my friend, is crossing the rubicon of irreversible green momentum. One green idea sparks another and one day, when you least expect it, economic and environmental recovery becomes a reality.

An investment should be more than just an instrument to gain personal wealth. Of course, if you didn’t believe it would be profitable, it wouldn’t be a wise move. Right? What if you were to think of your investment as an action/belief statement about your core values? What you do with your money actually says more about what you believe than what you say.

If you know that the capital you invest is going to result in harm to innocent people, but you do it anyway because it is reported to give a good return — well, you know what that is. It’s just wrong! Something doesn’t have to be illegal to be wrong. Why not make a quality decision to invest in ventures that accomplish what you believe in?

I believe that I can only commit the resources at my disposal – time, energy, money – into products or businesses that are sustainable, life-giving and socially responsible. I wholeheartedly recommend that you do the same. I have put a great deal of thought, research and soul searching into ideas that will benefit the world we live in and future generations. I believe that we must turn the corner – effect paradigm shifts and make the hard decisions that our grandchildren will enjoy and, hopefully, we will be able to enjoy.

Want a great example? Meet a company that has become a world leader in solar energy manufacturing and installation — First Solar, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. They are a publicly traded company and I quote from their own company release, “Protecting the environment and conserving natural resources are at the forefront of First Solar’s mission and core values.” Over 2 gigawatts of solar electric power has been produced by them and they just had a record-breaking year.

Because of their commitment to manufacture and install low-cost, high output, high longevity products, they are not only a major producer of renewable energy products, but they are pushing toward the goal of lowering the cost of solar panels to under $1/watt. Additionally, they have established an aggressive program to recover and recycle damaged or replaced product from previous installations so that sustainability is inevitable.

Green building practices, green agriculture, green energy, green industry, fresh water projects are all sustainable endeavors for the economy of future generations. Markets will reflect the decisions that investors make. We haven’t even begun to see what can happen in 10, 20, 50 years if we make up our minds to do it and to devote whatever resources we can into it.

Green is here to stay. It’s not just a hot fad. It is key to the future of all life on earth. The real question that should be asked and is being asked more and more is “How do we plan and how do we invest so that we grow an economy that is truly sustainable?”

Because demand is outstripping production, the petroleum industry will dry up and give way to the growth of green energy. This is inevitable, regardless of my opinion or yours. Peak Oil studies done 50 years ago are playing out in current events today. I believe renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal are clearly the most promising alternatives, but bio-fuels and biomass technologies may also play important roles in future markets.

As recent as 60 years ago, enormous tracts of land were deteriorating from fertile timber growth to barren land because of deforestation practices. There was no plan for reforestation. There was no forethought of soil conservation practices. Soil erosion further complicated the reversal of this natural dilemma and made it difficult to reforest on degraded soil. Fortunately, the timber industry began to plan and develop strategies that were not only green, but financially sustainable. The result – green investments systematically transformed the timber industry into one of the most stable markets on earth.

Nature has phenomenal recuperative abilities, but the unrelenting extraction of natural resources has demonstrated that some resources can never be replaced.  Once consumed and turned into carbon gases and particulate matter, there is no recycling of petroleum-based fuels. Implementing every possible plan to encourage the use of renewable fuels is a step towards rebuilding global economics. Just as a methodical reforestation plan to replace cut timber with new trees and better growing and harvesting methods, energy plans can do the same thing. There are some situations where there is no possible means of a reversal, but there are paradigm shifts that can avert disaster and create growth.

Every plan has its subtle differences, but the common thread is the intentional strategic investment of time, energy and capital that captures the vision of perpetual growth and viable sustainability. There will always be consumable products, but the industries that produce consumables must exercise wisdom and understanding. They must employ green business practices and socially responsible thinking to assure the continuity of the natural resources that feed their industry.

It is my belief that these types of business strategies make green money a good investment. These good investment practices create sustainable financial markets. The industrial revolution may have turned us all into consumers, but we can become conscientious consumers. Why not, then, go ahead and make the effort to become producers, providers and investors in a green economy?

What if you could cut your electric bill in half and be greener at minimal or no net cost to you? Given the innovations, developments and publicity that promote a greener world, it seems inescapable that you have to spend more money to go green. But let’s explore a little deeper.

Let’s ask the tough questions. Why should it cost more for recycled products than for original? Why does a hybrid vehicle cost several thousand dollars more than a conventional when they only improve fuel economy by 10-12%? Why would someone pay $200,000 for a geothermal system to heat and cool their home? Why should it take 10 to 20 years to break even on solar or wind power or solar water heating? Are we really saving our forests by using more expensive non-wood materials? Why do biofuels cost more to produce than petroleum fuels?

The obvious reason that more people are not jumping on the green wagon has to do with financial considerations. In some instances higher costs might be justified by the benefits, but frankly, it is generally cost prohibitive to go green. Sure, Hollywood is full of greenies. It’s free publicity to promote love for the planet and it’s a nice tax break, too!

Forget Main Street, let’s go all the way to my street, where I have to balance my checkbook or go to my online bank site every few hours to track my spending. So what’s my point? There are lots of ways you can go green and save money, and if that’s true, then we should spend some time exploring ways of going green without going broke.

In this blog I want to explode some myths about some much-publicized green ideas. I want to motivate you toward a more sustainable life. I want to give you some food for thought about some obvious and some not so obvious ways you can be green and save some green.

Here are some specific ways to benefit from the green wave without the dramatic switch to renewable energy. First, let’s talk about some things you can do immediately that will “reduce your carbon footprint” and, if you apply them all, you could cut your electric bill by 50% or more. What could you do with that much more disposable monthly income?  Read More . . .

Until very recently, the overwhelming opinion of the financial world has been that green energy is a great idea but the real money is still to be made in fossil fuels.  That viewpoint is beginning to see the first indicators of change.   Some leaders in financial markets are making bold statements like this:

“For a number of years there has been talk about the importance of sustainable energy, but targets have not been achieved when it comes to creating it. The tide is, however, changing. Government initiatives have an important role to play. We expect renewable energy markets to grow significantly in 2010 and thereafter following the introduction of favorable incentive schemes.”  (6-22-09, Roberto Cominatto, current manager of the Julius Baer Energy Transition Fund.)