The Institute for Sustainable Development is a non-profit partnership of university and business leaders with the mission of aiding smaller enterprises and their communities become more sustainable, fostering a new generation of sustainability leaders, and promoting dialogues about the theory and practice of sustainability across cultures. Green Plus, the Institute’s flagship program, exists to educate, network, and reward small enterprises in their triple bottom line efforts.

“There’s a great deal of work to be done to connect sustainability efforts between business and government,” said Chris Carmody, Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development. “‘Help me help you,’ is often the message we hear from responsible businesses to city, state and federal governments,” Carmody concluded. “Many governments are strong particularly at making their own operations and public infrastructure environmentally friendly but haven’t figured out how to engage, encourage, or get out of the way when it comes to sustainable business efforts. We’re looking for cities that have made their local businesses active partners in their sustainability movements,” Carmody concluded.

“This award takes a broad view of social, economic, and environmental sustainability,”adds John Cary, President & CEO of Next American City. “Together with the Institute for Sustainable Development, we’re looking for innovative approaches, new models, and measurable impact in cities of all kinds across the country.” Next American City is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth, examining how and why our built environment, economy, society, and culture are changing. The organization’s quarterly magazine, interactive website, emerging leaders program, events, and other initiatives are all creatively focused on the future of cities.

Nominate a municipality for the Green Plus Sustainable City Award

Deadline for Nominations: April 15, 2011 (Midnight)

Award Winner Announced: May, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Nomination Guidelines

Green Plus is not only a “green” (environmental) program – it is an effort to encourage a balanced commitment to the triple bottom line – People, Performance, andPlanet. Through Green Plus, the Institute strives to help smaller enterprises learn across regions from one another as well as from academic experts. Through Green Plus, the Institute also aides business and public sector leaders in understanding how they can help smaller enterprises improve their communities – through education, revisions in regulation, access to capital and other means.

The Institute for sustainable development is looking for examples of cities that have gone above and beyond current best practices – institutions that have not only made their operations sustainable or their environment better, but have actively reached out to a) smaller enterprises and b) other public and non-profit partners to create a community-wide commitment to triple bottom line sustainability.

Rules

• Any legally incorporated town or city in the United States or Canada may be nominated for a Green Plus North American Sustainable Enterprise Award.
• Any individual or organization may nominate a town or organization for the award, and an entity may nominate itself.
• There is no fee to be nominated.
• There is no required membership in any organization to be nominated.

About Next American City

Next American City is published by The Next American City, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth in America’s cities and examining how and why our built environment, economy, society and culture are changing. Its team achieves this goal through the publishing of a print and online magazine, events across the country, and advocacy on issues central to the future of cities.

About Partners for Livable Communities

Partners for Livable Communities is a national, nonprofit leadership organization working to improve the livability of communities by promoting quality of life, economic development, and social equity.

For questions about this award, please email khausman@gogreenplus.org. 

“CoreNet Global, an organization for corporate real estate professionals, and commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle made the results of their fourth annual Sustainability Survey available yesterday.”

“Conducted last November, the survey gauges attitudes and trends on sustainability and owned and leased corporate facilities.”
Read the rest of this story by Leslie Guevarra here: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/02/10/more-companies-now-willing-pay-extra-green-office-space#ixzz1EF2dPioV

“In the United States, most electricity is generated at a central utility power plant, and separate heating and cooling equipment is used on-site in homes and buildings. In contrast, CHP (also known as cogeneration) systems generate electricity and thermal energy in a single, integrated system. Heat that would be otherwise be rejected in traditional separate generation of electric energy, is captured with CHP and used for heating or cooling processes in industry or buildings. The total fuel efficiency of these integrated systems can reach 80 percent, much greater than the 35 percent average from separate systems.  A CHP system can reduce the carbon emissions from power and heat generation
over 50 percent, with significant NOx and SOx emission reductions as well.”

Click here to read the rest of the article by Shannon Helm from the North Carolina Solar Center.

“The focus of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber is on a sustainable economy for our city and region.  We see Green Plus™ as a visioning and valuable tool to assist our members in creating sustainability plans for their businesses,” stated Marc Jordan, President/CEO of the Chamber.

The program is available at a substantial discount through participating chambers of commerce throughout the U.S. and Canada in the 1,300 chamber ACCE network. The ACCE and the Institute for Sustainable Development conduct the annual Green Plus North American Sustainable Enterprise Awards which gives participating small businesses the opportunity to gain tremendous exposure for their efforts toward triple bottom line sustainability.

“There are many great home-grown sustainability efforts already going on in our region,” said Jordan. “Green Plus™ gives our members the opportunity to both learn new practices and share their own knowledge across North America – while also opening up new business opportunities,” he added.

“On a personal level, I applaud your vision and leadership for involving the Chamber and local businesses in making North Myrtle Beach more sustainable,” stated Daniel Abel, Ph.D., Director, CCU Sustainability Initiative.

Green Plus™ was developed by the North Carolina Research Triangle based Institute for Sustainable Development - a combined effort of universities and chambers of commerce to provide smaller employers with affordable tools to improve their triple bottom line sustainability. The Green Plus™ model was developed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business in 2007. UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University developed online sustainability tools for small business that were tested in Ohio and North Carolina throughout 2008.

“Smaller enterprises employ most North Americans and are the key engine of new job creation,” said Chris Carmody, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development. “Large employers have benefited greatly from their sustainability efforts. Green Plus™ was created to give small employers the same opportunities to save and make money while going green and being sustainable,” Carmody continued. “The North Myrtle Beach Chamber’s emphasis on sustainable economic growth makes it an ideal Green Plus™ partner,” Carmody concluded.

To help promote the Green Plus™ program the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce has recruited “ECO” the Starfish.  ECO is asking members to “Go Green” by signing up for this valuable program.  As of January 26th, the following businesses have signed up as Charter Members of the Green Plus™ Program: A&I Fire Water & Restoration, Avista Resort, Damon’s Grill, Elliott Realty, HTC and Ocean Drive Beach & Golf Resort.

The North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau has been serving the local community for the past 10 years.  The mission of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce is to be recognized as the premier business organization serving the North Myrtle Beach area and its business members by providing quality products, programs, and services while influencing issues that enhance the economic prosperity of our community.  In August 2009, the Accrediting Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce designated the North Myrtle Beach Chamber as an Accredited chamber with 4-Stars.

The day long program was set up by the two organizations to showcase positive leadership in sustainability by chambers of commerce around the country. Participating chambers included the

• Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
• Bridgeport (CT) Regional Business Council
• Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce
• Greater Waco (TX) Chamber
• Greater Columbia (SC) Chamber of Commerce
• Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

The day long session, titled “Enterprise at Home for Progress at Large“, illustrated examples of innovative sustainability leadership in economic development, public policy, planning, and small business assistance by local and regional chambers (please see the Partners for Livable Communities  summary of innovative sustainability program by chambers around the United States).

Some chambers, including Bridgeport, Columbia, Indianapolis and Waco, set a strong example in their own communities to encourage better environmental stewardship. Waco, for example, is believe to be the first chamber of commerce to build a LEED certified building (Gold).

Others discussed how they utilized their brand as a sustainability – conscious community to attract new companies to their regions. The Chattagnooga Area Chamber presented a very compelling case study of how its sustainability efforts brought Volkswagon and related suppliers to its community.

Finally, others developed scalable programs to help chambers broadly calculate and reduce their carbon footprint – such as the Greater Kansas City Chamber’s Climate Prosperity Project.

Adam Klein, Vice President of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber (CHC) of Commerce, appeared with Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) director Chris Carmody to discuss CHC’s incubation of the ISD and the development of the Green Plus program – a small business assistance, education and certification program designed to scale across North America. The Green Plus program was titled, “Democratizing Sustainability: Bringing Main Street into a Sustainable Economy.”

Green Plus is the official small and medium sized enterprise sustainability program of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives. The ACCE has 1,300 North American Chamber of Commerce members representing 1.2 million businesses. The ACCE also manages the Ford Foundation Fellowship for Regional Sustainable Development that trains chamber of commerce executives and economic development officials in integrating sustainability into regional development strategy.

Going green and sustainable can be a valuable way to attract new customers or clients, increase your organization’s visibility and prove your commitment to your community.

The next step is gaining recognition for your efforts.  More and more consumers and businesses are looking to work with sustainable companies and here is a good opportunity to be recognized.

“Triangle Business Journal‘s Green Awards will honor those in the Triangle who make efforts to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their businesses and their communities. By doing so, they show others how to strengthen the environmental health of our region.

Triangle Business Journal will recognize individuals, businesses, government leaders and entities, and nonprofit organizations in Triangle Business Journal’s special focus section on Oct. 23.

Work or projects completed from June 2008 to June 2009 will be considered.

The two major categories are General Awards and Green Building Awards.  To be considered, companies must have operations in at least one of 13 counties that comprise the Triangle region: Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake, and Warren.”

The deadline for nominations is August 26, 2009.  For more information or to nominate your business, click here.

Three small businesses from the landscaping, restaurants, and IT sectors discussed how sustainability in general and Green Plus in particular help them improve operations, save money, and become better environmental and community stewards. The businesses included Bland Landscaping, the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, and iContact. The Triangle Success Forum is an annual forum hosted by Triangle area chambers of commerce and other strategic partners to generate discourse and find solutions to the region’s growth-related challenges.

This year, Green Plus presented at the event, along with Duke Energy and Progress Energy.

If you can’t view the video above, click here to see it on YouTube.

Optimism about the U.S. economy’s prospects improved sharply in the second quarter, but compensation freezes, layoffs and capital spending cuts are still on the horizon for about half of companies, according to a new survey of CPA financial executives.

Nearly one-fifth of respondents were optimistic or very optimistic about the U.S. economy’s outlook over the next 12 months, according to results from the Business & Industry Economic Outlook Survey Q2 2009, conducted by the AICPA and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Barely 5% expressed similar optimism in the first quarter of 2009. It is the first time in almost two years that the proportion of respondents expressing optimism in the U.S. economy has increased quarter to quarter. The government, improving economic indicators and the availability of credit were cited as causes for optimism in open-ended comments by respondents.

While more than one-half (53%) of respondents had a pessimistic or very pessimistic outlook for the economy in the second quarter of 2009, overall pessimism was down from 83% in the first quarter. The percentage of respondents who were “very pessimistic” decreased even more sharply-from nearly 21% in the first quarter to 7% this quarter.

Click here to read the rest of this article at the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants Journal of Accountancy.

And while we’re at it, let’s not talk about climate change, environmentalism or being socially responsible. Instead, let’s talk about efficiency and reflecting the true cost of our lifestyle choices in our product prices. This is the surest way to move our society toward a sustainable future.

We are approaching the eye of the needle when smarter companies realize that we are running out of cheap resources and the cost of raw materials will only go higher. The recent run-up and subsequent decline in gasoline prices is indicative of a worldwide trend in higher raw material costs. Given increased population, increased demand from developing countries and a finite planet, this should come as no surprise to anyone — even climate change deniers.

Click here to read the rest of this article on GreenBiz.com.

Over at Best Buy, Hamlin Metzger helped jumpstart the company’s volunteer Social Responsibility Network in 2005. The group now exceeds 200 and Metzger recently became the company’s first senior manager of corporate responsibility.

They are all members of Net Impact, a network of students and professionals committed to corporate social responsibility, and are among 15 “intrapreneurs” who are successfully combining sustainability ideals with traditional corporate job functions. Net Impact, in partnership with eBay, today released a new report on the intrapreneurs titled, “Making Your Impact at Work: A Practical Guide to Changing the World From Inside Any Company.”

Click here to read the entire article on GreenBiz.com.