by Hunter Lewis

“Whether one looks at our ailing planet, our ever less affordable healthcare, or our failing economy, we see the same underlying problem: a rejection of maturity in favor of a childish refusal to look ahead. What we need instead is a more complete and all-encompassing concept of sustainability.” Rear the manifesto at>>

http://changethis.com/63.03.CompleteConcept
http://changethis.com/pdf/63.03.CompleteConcept.pdf

By Joel Makower

Newsweek magazine unveiled its first annual Green Rankings, the fruits of a near-Herculean endeavor: rating and ranking the environmental performance, achievements, and reputation of the S&P 500. The list, published today in a 12-page special section in the magazine as well as online, is the culmination of an 18-month journey. The resulting rankings are straightforward, almost elegant, but it wasn’t a straight or easy path. Like most such rankings, they’re imperfect. They’ll likely be challenged and debated, especially by some of the lower-ranking companies, not to mention the activist/blogosphere community. But it may well be the best effort yet to rigorously and comprehensively assess the mainstream corporate marketplace — at least in the U.S. Reach the full story >> http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/09/21/inside-newsweeks-new-green-corporate-rankings

By Perry Goldschein and Beth Bengston

Stakeholder engagement is a critical, yet often overlooked or under-prioritized aspect of many organizations’ sustainability efforts. The Sustainability Stakeholder Engagement (SSE) conference offered insights and practical ways to build effective relations with stakeholders, from customers, employees and investors, to suppliers, NGOs and communities. SSE gave considerable attention to social media, a topic near to our hearts (Beth is putting the final touches on a white paper on this subject to release next week). The panel on engaging consumers offered perhaps the liveliest conversation with the audience. Here are takeaways from the sessions we attended. Read them at >>

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/09/17/how-engage-stakeholders-sustainability

WorldChanging Team
by Sarah Goodyear, Posted 9/14/09

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we’ve got a something of a debate going on the subject of putting new transit routes alongside highways in American cities.

Last Friday, Yonah Freemark at The Transport Politic noted the opening of Portland’s Green Line with a post titled “Portland’s New Rail Line Is Welcome News, but It’s Not Routed as It Should Be.” The line’s location on the highway right-of-way, argues Freemark, will discourage transit-oriented development

Read the full story at>>  http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010504.html

Joe Romm, 8 Sep 09

I’m spending a few days in Elizabethtown College next week as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. One of the talks I’ve proposed is “Job Security in a Globally Warmed World: What you need to study to be employable in 2020 and 2040.”

Perhaps the talk title should be “What Color is Your Parachute? It better be some shade of green.”

Read the full story at >> http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010473.html

Local governments are looking for powerful tools to create momentum for addressing climate change: What if our taxes and fees were calculated according to greenhouse gas emissions?

Nearly a thousand mayors have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, sprinting past a virtually toothless federal climate change commitment and creating momentum for real grassroots action toward sustainability.

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/09/02/planting-seed-municipal-carbon-economy

by Eric Stewart
Creative Loafing

Last October, an economy that had been running its course for the past three decades was laid to rest. Our country has been on a nearly 30-year credit bubble where we have binged on cheap credit to buy up homes at ever increasing values. This 30-year ascent made us think it could be forever. But this bubble was based upon unsustainable principles and ecological destruction.

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2009/09/08/what-we-need-to-form-floridas-green-economy/

WorldChanging Team, 25 Aug 09
It’s All in the Name: A New Tool Will Provide Assurance for Green Claims
By Peter ter Weeme.

Despite the troubled economic times, recent research shows that consumers are continuing to purchase “green” products. According to a survey conducted in March of this year by BBMG, an American branding and marketing agency aligned with “forward-thinking brands and conscious consumers,” nearly seven in ten Americans (67%) agree that “even in tough economic times, it is important to purchase products with social and environmental benefits.” Half say they are still willing to pay more for them. Read the full story at >> http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010386.html