Why the Big Apple Can Be the World's First VERGE City

January 25, 2012

A full summary of Andrew Shapiro's panel, "Can New York Be America's First VERGE City?" at GreenBiz Forum NYC.

As if recent football results weren't enough to heat up the rivalry between New York, Boston, and San Francisco, add to the contest the quest for title of "greenest city."

At the GreenBiz Forum 12 in New York City today, this rivalry took the form of a panel question: Can the Big Apple be the first VERGE city in the U.S., or maybe even the world?

Of course, New York has a long history of leadership in finance, media, and fashion. But green? Why not Masdar, or one of the new built-from-the-ground-up green utopias, asked session moderator Andrew Shapiro, co-founder of GreenOrder.

Full article: GreenBiz

IF11: 4 Ways to Find Innovation Outside Your Company

October 17, 2011

A full summary of Michael Ellis's workshop "Finding Innovation Outside Your Walls" held at GreenBiz Innovation Forum.

In many ways, a culture of collaboration helps to propel companies along their own personal environmental innovation journeys. While much of it takes place behind the scenes, a growing number of companies are reaching beyond their four walls to find sources of innovation.

During a workshop held on the last day of GreenBiz.com's 2011 Innovation Forum, Michael Ellis, a principal with consulting firm Green Order, and John Wilbanks, vice president of science at Creative Commons, showed how a range of companies, including Nike, GE and Coca-Cola, are using new forms of collaboration to spur innovation, sometimes with mixed success.

"These are all just tools," Wilbanks said. "If you think of them as magic bullets, you'll probably shoot yourself and not the problem. But if you can define the problem cleanly enough and find a community of solvers who are actually going to do the thing, it may have a pretty good chance of working."

Ellis and Wilbanks broke down the collaboration pathways into the four following categories, along with examples of what has and hasn't worked, and when companies should or shouldn't use these methods.

Full article: GreenBiz

It Takes More Than Smart Meters to Make a Smart Grid

August 30, 2011

Truman Semans was quoted in an article on Cisco's Technology News Site about the importance of engaging customers with the smart grid.

Without time-of-day pricing, instant readouts of usage and smart appliances that can react to price changes, the consumer benefits of the smart grid are limited. So are the benefits to utilities. It's cheaper for them to pay users to temporarily curtail usage during peak periods than it is to build new capacity.

"Physical infrastructure isn't enough," says Truman Semans Jr., a principal at GreenOrder, a strategy and management consulting firm.  "Only an ecosystem approach is going to work."

Microsoft and Google recently shut down their Hohm and Power Meter, their energy-saving software projects, in part because consumers weren't interested. In an article at GreenBiz called How to Succeed in Energy Management Where Google, Microsoft Failed, Semans advised utilities to make efficiency "fun and fulfilling" for customers—or to make it easier by, for instance, inviting customers to sign up to have their usage automatically rationed.

Semans said: "More and more research out there that shows that a lot of people are not really interested in energy efficiency. So how do you get people involved in something that they don't care about, or isn't costly enough to make a difference on their bill?"

Full article: Cisco

Memo to the CEO: 4 Strategies for the Intersection of Policy & Business (part 1)

By Catherine Potter, Truman Semans and Scott Browne
February 13, 2012

Approaching your policy agenda from a business point of view -- and vice versa -- can improve your company's environmental innovation and effectiveness. Think about it: Smart environmental innovation uses insights and tools from the business, government and non-profit sectors, and policy weaves through all three.

Full article: GreenBiz

The Crunchies Awards and The Best of 2011 Sustainable Tech

By Jill Bunting
January 24, 2012

Voting for the 2011 Crunchies is underway, and sustainability-enabling tech companies have snagged nominations across the board. The Crunchies gave shout-outs to the sleek Nest learning thermostat, the money-saving platform Airbnb, and the inspiring charity: water. This is in addition to nominees in the "Best Clean Tech Startup" category (we like Array Power in this group).

For your consideration, below are companies chosen by the GreenOrder Tech Team that didn't make the Crunchie list, but we're touting as ones that are poised to spark sustainable innovations in 2012 and beyond.

Full article: GreenBiz

Automakers Lead the Way to Sustainable Mobility in Detroit

By Adam Happel
January 19, 2012

The 2012 North American International Auto Show is currently rolling through the COBO Center in Detroit, Michigan, where automakers are revealing not only a diverse portfolio of cars built for sustainable mobility, but also showcasing new ways of thinking about product development and urban transportation through the lens of sustainability. Leaders in the field now face increasing competition from a host of fast followers as efficiency and lowered emissions become the norm for many automakers.

Read more: GreenBiz

The Conference Board

Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Conference

June 20-21, 2012 | Washington DC | Beth Lowery, moderating panel: "Sustainability Reporting: Transparency and Risk"

Managing partnerships in the future will require new skills and techniques. New ESG linkages will forge unique relationships between finance, transportation and manufacturing functions. Multi-dimensional roles, integrity, intellectual property and due diligence will circumscribe the strategic value of ethical social responsibility. This conference will look at such issues in the developed and emerging world markets with an eye to  helpful and  disruptive technologies and social forces and the impact on the business model.

A pre-conference (click here for details), pragmatic seminar on sustainability reporting, will discuss integrated reporting, risks and transparency and highlight best practices from leadership companies. Additionally a post-conference workshop (click here for details) will devote 1/2 day to evaluation and metrics for ethics, sustainability and compliance management.

Past Conferences, video

The GreenOrder team frequently participates in and speaks at industry conferences throughout the year. Previous speaking engagements have included:

Aspen Environment Forum, Andrew Shapiro, moderator, video

Aspen Ideas Festival, Andrew Shapiro, moderator, video

The Atlantic Green Intelligence Forum, Truman Semans, panelist, video

Chevrolet Volt "Plugged-in" Panel discussion, Andrew Shapiro, moderator, video

Cleantech Forum

Clean Tech Summit, video

Clinton Global Initiative

Coca-Cola Supplier Sustainability Summit, Andrew Shapiro, keynote, video

Economist: Inovation, Fresh Thinking for the Ideas Economy

Economist: Ideas Economy: Intelligent Infrastructure, video

Fortune Brainstorm Green, 2011 (registration required to view video, select April 5 afternoon sessions, "Where's the ROI?")

Forbes CEO Forum

GreenBiz Innovation Forum

GreenBiz State of Green Business Forum

GreenBuild

Milken Institute Global Conference 2011, 2010

NetImpact

TED

The Atlantic Green Intelligence Forum, Truman Semans, panelist, video

The Business of Plugging In Electric Vehicle Conference

U Mass Clean Energy Connections, Truman Semans, keynote, video

Urban Green Expo

Wall Street Journal Eco:nomics

World Environment Center Colloquium

World Future Energy Summit

GreenOrder Recognized as "Smart Innovator in Independent Research Report"

August 23, 2010

GreenOrder, an LRN company, is recognized as a "smart innovator" in a new research report on environmental sustainability consultants. The "Smart Innovators: Specialist Sustainability Consultants" report - which provides a detailed independent assessment of leading firms that provide sustainability consulting services - was released by Verdantix, a research firm focused on climate change, carbon markets and business sustainability.

Press Release | PDF 94KB

US PREF: Top Banks and Investors Partner to Inform Energy Policymakers

September 14, 2009

Alliance of Finance Experts to Act as Resource to Federal Government on Renewable Energy Policy
The members of the U.S. Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance ("PREF") are pleased to publicly announce the creation of a new organization consisting of a group of financial institutions, other large firms and companies, renewable energy investors, and thought leaders that will offer expertise and knowledge about renewable energy finance to the Obama Administration, government agencies, Congress and others who are shaping renewable energy policy in the U.S.

Press Release | PDF 156KB | www.uspref.org

Leading Green Strategy and Management Consultancy GreenOrder Named "Ideal Choice" for Green Growth Opportunities in Independent Research Report

February 04, 2008

GreenOrder, an LRN company, today announced it has been named "an ideal choice" for companies "seeking revenue generating advice on innovative product offerings" in the Green Quadrant: Climate Change Consulting USA (Green Quadrant). The independent research report was released by Verdantix, a business research firm focused on climate change, carbon markets and business sustainability.

Press Release | PDF 136KB