R.E.preneur

REpreneur Debates: America's Environmental Consciousness

As part of REpreneur's posts entitled REpreneur Debates, this post is a result of Kyle's comment on the Green Options Blog: Red, Green, and Blue.

A few months ago I began reading the Red, Green, and Blue blog focusing on the politics of environmentalism (and those who feign environmentalism).  I found this post from Jennifer Lance describing how America had "supposedly not budged an inch on their environmental views in the last dozen years.  I chose to disagree. Study the picture below of a Gallup Poll describing the environmental sentiments of Americans that has been taken each year for the last 19 years.

While I acknowledge that the numbers have changed little since their first recording, the graph shows some interesting trends that I believe were misconstrued here.

First, you have the steady decline of the drastic action trendline from ‘96 to ‘03. Paired with the simultaneous steady incline of the “Don’t do any extra” trendline. I believe these can be attributed to the extended disappearance of 1970’s activism and environmentalism.

Furthermore, the trends displayed post-2000 are a result of the harsh language and utter failure to address the issue of global warming used by the embarrassment that is the Bush Administration.

However, after the declines up to that point, Al Gore as well as corporate leaders acknowledged the issue, U.S. environmentalism shot up and we have made huge gains in the last five years.

I foresee this trend continuing, green will not be a fad, it will be mandatory. Those companies who implement the highest standards of green and whom display leadership will increase their brand values tremendously. Corporations who fail at this, will cease to exist without radical overhaul of their business.

New AWEA report: Wind Generation By State

Hat tip to the website Environmental Leader which I discovered after rummaging around through Al Gore's new WE campaign website.

If you haven't heard of the WE campaign, you gotta check it out.  It is a collaboration, supported by the non-profit Alliance for Climate Change. 

I love the Action Alerts that allow citizens to send messages & sign petitions to politicians, business leaders, banks, and the press urging them to consider and act on global climate change now. 

Back to the report.  Out today by the American Wind Energy Association, the AWEA Annual Rankings Report summarizes leading wind supporters by state, congressional district, managing owners, manufacturers, IOUs, Public utilities, and rural electric cooperatives.  Its really quite well done.

Plus the writers knew that executives hate reading long paragraphs, so they pretty much summarized everything using pictures, charts, graphs, and lists.  Love it.

Anyone looking to invest in Wind energy?  From the report a market share breakdown by manufacturer. 

Green Building Market Research - Picture Post

For your enjoyment, less words more pictures.  These graphs and charts are part of some research I've been doing about the size of the green building market.  Let me know if you like the Picture Post. 

The Green Building boom is just beginning.  P.S. If you are doing something unique in this industry, I'd love to hear about it.

See, green buildings don't cost that much more than regular buildings.

This one might be my favorite. 

Source: Energy.gov