Green Business

In the third annual edition of the State of Green Business report, Greener World Media continues efforts to measure the environmental impacts of the emerging green economy. This year’s effort was colored by the Great Recession and its myriad of impacts on individuals, companies and governments around the world. Would the economic downturn nip the green economy in the bud?

Of course, 2009 also was a time of political transition in the United States, the principal arena of our focus. How would regime change affect companies’ environmental policies, performance and progress? Would companies envision a new era of environmentally activist government?

If so, would that compel them to become more proactive or to dig in their heels? The answers aren’t simple, and therein lies the foundation for this report. As in previous years, it shows a mixed bag of encouraging and discouraging news and trends.

On balance, however, we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. First and foremost, green business activity did not go away amid the harsh economic environment. It survived - and even thrived.

In some cases, such as with energy efficiency, the recession provided a stimulus, as the need to cut operating costs in order to maintain competitiveness became ever more valued by executives, their boards and their shareholders. The quest for information gathering for this report isn’t an end to itself. As in previous years, Greener World Media tries to provide context to the robust green business taking place and to help answer the question: Is all of this activity actually moving the needle?

That is, did all of the hundreds of environmental announcements and achievements by companies during 2009 actually result in their doing better, environmentally speaking, than the year before? Clues to the answers can be found in the annual GreenBiz Index, which looks at 20 measures of green-economy progress, from energy use to e-waste to employee commuting habits. In many cases, progress is evident, though not necessarily at the scale and speed needed to effectively address climate change, water shortages, resource scarcity and the toxicity of consumer products, among other pressing issues.

Definitive answers to these questions can be subjective, often in the eye of the beholder. Greener World Media leaves it up to you to decide for yourself whether all of this amounts to good news or bad or, more likely, something in between. How will all this play out as the recession ebbs and the economy rumbles back to life?

Will newfound efficiencies and sensibilities fall by the wayside, or have things indelibly changed? How the green economy fares during the economic recovery will be the subject of another year’s report. Hopefully, the next one.

The report can be downloaded here . Source: www.stateofgreenbusiness.com Joel Makower, Executive Editor, Greener World Media, Inc.