• Tweet Up A Storm
  We will be live tweeting all day from The Conference Center. We invite you to join us by adding your perspective to the dialogue via the official event hashtag: #GoGreenSEA. The more voices the merrier! If you can’t make it Wednesday, be sure to follow along online for all those juicy tidbits on how to make sustainability work for your business without sacrificing the bottom line.
• “Pop” By!
  Drop by the GoGreen Pop-Up HUB — organized by the HUB Seattle — and take part in an organic roundtable conversation led by a certified visual facilitator. Share your ideas and learn from your peers in a open, informal atmosphere. We can’t wait to see what comes out of these idea pods!
• Exercise Your Voice
  Write a blog post and share it with the GoGreen community. We love hearing from attendees on what they take back to their organizations and the “a-ha!” moments they experience while at the conference. If you whip up a recap or want to share a project you took on as a result of GoGreen, make sure to send us the link. We’d love to spread it out to our network of thousands of green business professionals!
• Strike A Pose
  Snap a shot with a new or old connection in our photo booth and then look for yourself on the GoGreen Conference Facebook fanpage! We’ll be posting your next profile image shortly following the event.

We hope we’ll see you this Wednesday at GoGreen ’12 Seattle — we have a killer day of sustainability for business in store! Tickets are available online until 5pm Tuesday, April 24. Space permitting, tickets will also be available onsite the morning of Wednesday, April 25, starting at 7:30 a.m.

GG: You’re an expat Portlander. It’s pretty clear that New York is a significantly different scale to work at. Are there similarities between the two?

David Bragdon: I think the cities require very different approaches. A lot of the effort here in New York relates to energy efficiency — particularly in buildings both public and private — and reducing energy demand. There is a good deal of emphasis on building and zoning codes. In Portland, I worked much more on park issues and nature preservation. So the portfolio and priorities are very different.

GG: In New York, do you find the size and the scale a challenge that requires intense negotiations? Or do they present opportunities to make a greater impact?DB: The scale of New York is an advantage. A city of 8.4 million can make a pretty big impact. Reducing energy consumption in the buildings in New York alone will make a significant impact at the national level. More importantly, New York City is a market leader, as far as the real estate and financial sectors are concerned. In both of those sectors, New York is the dominant player in the country. So, piloting new techniques here can potentially have an effect that is duplicated elsewhere.

GG: Can you talk about the PlaNYC? What is it and how does sustainability fit into the puzzle?

DB: PlaNYC is a series of interconnected strategies to make New York City a greener and better place for the year 2030. There are aspirational goals that form the foundation, but it includes 132 very specific, tangible initiatives that the City is undertaking. Examples of those initiatives are the creation of more pedestrian plazas in neighborhoods, creating more playgrounds, planting a million trees, improving the energy efficiency of our buildings through the code system and rezoning areas of the City around subway stations to enable more density around those areas. It’s a combination of long term goals and short term actions to put the city on the path towards accomplishing those goals.

GG: Is this something other cities are doing?

DB: One of the reasons I was attracted to come to New York is the combination of vision and action that is more present here than anywhere else. Portland has a vision for 2040, but doesn’t necessarily have the financing tools to actually get to where they want to go on that path. Whereas, New York has a long-term goal, but also very specific things it can accomplish in the short term — especially in terms of financial investment in that vision.

GG: What role does the private sector play in realizing that vision?

DB: The private sector here is very engaged around energy efficiency. And there is a lot of activity in the real estate and financial industries. Industry is looking for ways to be more competitive and sustainability investments are a big piece of that. The private sector in New York is very constructively engaged in sustainability issues. Whereas, in many cities, industry takes an adversarial view of government.

GG: Can you give us an example of what those public/private partnerships look like?

DB: One example is that we’re working with banks on financing energy efficiency. Private capital is being matched with public capital to fund energy efficiency retrofits. Working alongside the private banking sector, we’re using federal dollars to provide credit enhancements to private dollars.

GG: To those that say that New York City is not a sustainable city, what is your response?

DB: The average per capita energy usage of New Yorkers is far below the American average. New Yorkers walk more, drive less and use less energy overall. An urban lifestyle is generally far more sustainable than a suburban lifestyle. And since New York is the most urban city in the country, it’s one of the most sustainable cities in the country on that note.

A lot of rankings are very subjective — they don’t take into account external factors like where the electricity supply is coming from. So a city that uses a lot of electricity that is generated by hydropower might rank higher than a city that actually is conserving far more electricity, but sources that energy from a coal plant. Which is better? It’s sometimes hard to say. But a lot of things are based on geographical advantages. The availability of hydro nearby or a moderate climate that doesn’t require citizens to use AC all summer, those are facts of geography, not policy choices somebody made. Often there are too many complexities to factor in to really compare apples to apples.

GG: How important do you think the aspect of identity is? San Franciscans and Portlanders like to consider themselves greenies and they are very proud of that. Does the same need to be true for New Yorkers in order to drive behavior change?

DB: No. I think the value proposition for New Yorkers is embedded in quality of life. So, things like the ability to get around safely on a bike or the ability to walk to a park within 10 minutes of your house. Those are the real manifestations that make sense to people, as opposed to an ego boost about being on a green list in some magazine. What we’re trying to do is provide services that are good for the environment and that make this a good place to live.

GG: PlaNYC is a huge endeavor that tackles some major issues across such a wide array of areas. What advice would you offer to our readers who want to take on big challenges around sustainability that sometimes seem overwhelming to execute?

DB: What I think PlaNYC does really well is base action on a measured diagnostic of what the real problems are. It is very specific about what actions can be taken to affect each issue. I would urge any municipality or organization working to improve itself to be very clear about what problem(s) you’re trying to solve and then be very strategic about the tools you choose use to do so. Plan for tomorrow by taking action today.

David Bragdon is the Director of Long-Term Planning & Sustainability in the Mayor’s Office in New York City. He will be a featured speaker at the inaugural GoGreen NYC, September 19, 2012 at the Times Center. For more information or to register, visit: newyork.gogreenconference.net.  

Rico Quirindongo looks at his purpose as an architect a bit differently then some might expect — he puts people first, designing structures that not only serve the needs of the community, but also allow for greater engagement with building systems. That space for engagement also sets the foundation for behavior change and culture shift that comes from emergent systems. In our Emerging Leader Spotlight, Rico tells us how we can make our buildings greener and significantly improve our communities in the process.

GoGreen Conference: Has the role of the building changed over the past 100 years? Or is it us that has changed? 

Rico Quirindongo:  It has less to do with the role of the building and more to do changing role of the design team and/or the building owner as they create and maintain a structure. What role does a building play? Providing shelter. Creating community. We’ve been pretty consistent on that program. But culturally, there hasn’t been a clear acknowledgement that those buildings — those highly evolved caves that we now create — have a profound impact on the ecosystems we inhabit.

Buildings are responsible for almost 50 percent of energy consumption on the planet — be it through maintenance or construction. If we can design buildings better — such that they are self sustaining within their own environment and don’t have to pull energy off of the grid — the energy crisis literally just goes away. So, it is less about the role of the building and more about the role of us; the humans, as stewards of the environment and stewards of our own environment. How do we create and maintain our structures to actually live in concert with the environment around us for our own benefit and for our own survival?

GG: It sounds like you’re touching on behavior change here. Considering the fact that humans don’t have the best (in terms of evolution) track record of thinking long term, do we need additional incentives on top of good design to drive behavior change? Things like gamification elements? 

RQ: I have come to understand, especially looking at social media, that we have begun to change culturally — it’s all about data and the conversation around this data is helping designers drive down energy consumption through design that works for people. We can now put filters on all of the random data being collected and see where things intersect. The question has become, “How do you take that data and leverage it to make smarter decisions about how we live?”

There is a lot of conversation about the importance of utility monitoring and developing the ability to do that real-time. This has a major impact on budgets during the construction and the maintenance phases. Right now it’s hard to create an energy budget, because you can’t track it and make adjustments in real time. If we give people those tools, all of a sudden they can establish a budget for themselves: how much gas, how much electricity, how much water are you going to expend in the month of January? If you use less energy than you budgeted, do you get a reward for it? And does anyone else care about that?

If you live in a building or neighborhood with a community of people, managing utilities can become a group effort with rewards and competitive elements based on technology that now allows us to see and control utilities remotely — on your smartphone even — which encourages behavior modification and eventually, culture modification. I think that is a really exciting paradigm shift.

GG: Switching gears. Research shows that less economically affluent communities are often historically left to bare the brunt of environmental hazards and energy inefficiency in their built environments. How is it possible to get better design into the hands of the people that need it the most — but might not be able to afford it through traditional models?

RQ: The financial performance of a project is just like the energy performance of the project — it’s a series of puzzle pieces. I had a project designing a museum which included affordable housing above the museum. The funding diagram for that project had like 60 different funders putting all the pieces together — it was complicated, but there was also opportunity in there.

I’m also working on a project of small homes where we evaluate engineers as they go through the design process. Once it was bid, there was so much money saved because of efficiencies built into the design that we are now being asked by our clients to reinvest half of those savings back into additional energy efficiency and sustainable building design. Which is great, because an affordable housing community will now receive the on-going benefit. The point is that you can do it, but you have to be creative and you need good data that will motivate people to act.

If I know that I lose $200 a month because I leave my heat on at night or when I leave the house, I’m probably going to start turning off the heat when I leave the house and while I’m sleeping. If we just make that knowledge conscious, people begin to change around it. For a design team, if the goal is to maximize the budget and put as much money as we can into sustainability components after fulfilling the foundational brick and mortar elements,  it simply changes the nature of conversation from the ground up.

In Golden Gate Park there are two highly published buildings that were built five years apart from each other. One of them is a copper clad museum that was on all of the front covers of design magazines for its beauty. But in that first year of existence, the owner learned all of the copper-cladding — while completely beautiful — was unintentionally polluting the ground water when it rained. The water that runs down the building was pulling copper into the ground water system.

Meanwhile, five years later another building is constructed across the way and it also made the front page of all of the design magazines. But it got attention because it’s a green building with rolling ecoroof and uses 50 percent of the power that similar buildings use. It is in concert with its environment.

Five years was the difference in those buildings designed for the same client, the point being that it’s important to be clear, conscious and responsible for the dollars we have for a project. We don’t need more money, we just need to have our minds and hearts in the right place in order to design buildings that result in the betterment of the environment and the communities we live in.

Rico Quirindongo is a Principal at DKA Architecture, working extensively with community organizations to make positive impact in their neighborhoods. He is a featured speaker at GoGreen ’12 Seattle, April 25 at the Conference Center downtown, providing his insights and expertise on our Emerging Leaders: Trends and Culture Shifts as a New Generation Takes the Torch panel. Registration and event details can be found at seattle.gogreenconference.net. 

Photo Credit: Daniel Schwen

Portlanders, we are offering a special deal this week to attend GoGreen ’12 Seattle. Through Wednesday, April 4, register with a friend or colleague under our Buy One Get One Free offer. If you’re one of the first three pairs to sign up, you’ll also win two free train tickets to Seattle on Amtrak so you can ride to the event sustainably and in style!  Here are the details:

• Check out our killer line-up for 2012 in Seattle and the full program focused on building the business case for sustainability.
• Register with a friend or colleague under the Buy One Get One Free ticket option by 11:55pm on April 4 and get two tickets to GoGreen ’12 Seattle for the price of one! **You must use the discount code “TWOFORONE” in order to get this rate. After you enter the code, the ticket price will cut in half.
• The three speediest Portlanders to register under the Buy One Get One Free offer will win a set of train tickets to Seattle! These tickets can only be used for transportation to GoGreen ’12 Seattle. If you win one of the train ticket sets, our team will contact you for your information and take care of the reservations.

Other questions about the Buy One Get One Free offer? Contact us at: seattle@gogreenconference.net.

The rules are simple:

1. Tweet the session you’re most excited to attend at GoGreen ’12 Austin to your followers. Here’s our program and if you click on the session titles, you can view descriptions for each panel.
2. Remember to use the hashtag #GoGreenAUS in your tweet, so we can track your entry.
3. Include a link to the GoGreen Austin Website so your friends can check out this year’s killer program as well.
4. Sit back & relax. You’re entered to win two tickets to GoGreen ’12 Austin — one for you and one for a friend/colleague of your choice!
5. Check your Twitter account on Friday, March 30. We’ll be announcing the winner via Twitter and you’ll have a limited time to respond and claim your tickets before we pass them on to someone else.

We’ll see you next Wednesday for a jam-packed day of sustainability for business at GoGreen ’12 Austin. If you want to purchase tickets today, you can do so here. Remember to use the code “SOCIALMEDIA” to score a $25 discount exclusive to our social media and blog fans!

The clean tech industry is growing up and like any other, maturity is not coming without growing pains. But in Austin, clean tech has helped keep the economy booming despite a global recession and is a solid contributer to the city’s growing reputation as a international hub of innovation. In this Green Line Series interview, clean tech expert, Iga Hallberg, gives us the run down on the industry’s next frontiers and the impact it is poised to make on global energy markets.

GoGreen Conference: The clean tech industry has seen its ups and downs of late. It’s been the darling of the green jobs movement and it’s been at the heart of several major controversies over taxes, subsidies and incentives, and international accusations of bad sportsmanship — despite all of that, what kind of real, progressive impact has clean tech made on the energy and tech industries as a whole in the past five years?

Iga Hallberg: I think we need to look at the clean tech industry as a system and consider both the generation and conservation of energy on assessing the impact of clean tech on our communities and economy. According to Bloomberg Energy Finance, over $1 trillion has been made in investments into renewable energy since 2004. The renewable energy generation industry has grown very rapidly in the past few years with global renewables power capacity (minus hydro) at over 300GW currently.

We have seen similar progress on the efficiency side and huge investments in technologies in smart lighting, thermostats, appliances, building materials and standards. It is fascinating to see the different types of programs that are being supported in different regions globally and as we would expect, those programs typically fit the resources available in those areas.

For example, we have utility scale solar plants being built in the Southwest, while rooftop systems are more prolific in urban areas in California and the Northeast. Likewise, many private homes and commercial customers have taken advantage of new more efficient lighting technology. Today, the German solar industry still employs hundreds of engineers and workers developing technology throughout the whole value chain despite the fact that much of the panel manufacturing has moved to China recently.

The industry is growing globally and continuing to invest even in a soft economy making renewable energy more cost effective and available to many more developing countries than even three years ago.

GG: Has the industry’s image been damaged by the controversies surrounding its growth? Do you see a reframing of the story as necessary to securing the industry’s future success in the States? If so, what is the story that needs to be told?

IH: This is a very young industry which will go through maturing cycles like any other. A lot of the policy and incentives have been offered to support initial growth and are designed to be reduced and ultimately taken away. The industry MUST learn to sustain itself through rapid scale and simultaneous cost reduction in order to be competitive on a global basis. That goes for solar power, as well as things like better insulating windows for homes. We have recently seen similar cycles in the semiconductor and display industry in the 1980s and 90s and the explosion of personal electronics in the past 10 years with rapid globalization of products and applications. Whole industries have been developed to support our use of our favorite communications devices.

We have also had a number of public failures and one wonders about motivations for their massive publicity, but those of us in the industry watching the rise and fall of certain technologies and services recognize that it is a natural process of industry maturity. We all can point to different technologies that have had great promise and have not been adapted by the market or were replaced by a more innovative or generally more useful idea. These patterns will continue to occur and we should expect to see more creative and better technologies as we move forward.

GG: Austin has put several decades into developing its clean tech sector. What’s the big picture ROI for the region? When clean tech does well, how does that affect the rest of the business community and citizens?

IH: We have a rich history of innovation in Austin and it has served the community here very well. The Austin Chamber of Commerce lists approximately 225 companies in the clean tech sector. These range from start-ups to mature companies employing thousands of workers. This innovative culture has helped rank Austin as the top city for “clean tech incubation” according to SustainLane Government.

The clean tech industry appeals to people in many ways, whether it’s an opportunity to work with leading-edge technologies, fast growing markets and innovative business models; or a deeper level of personal satisfaction for making our communities cleaner, more sustainable and healthier. Our city council has been responsive to Austinites’ desires for more progressive policy that is also environmentally friendly. I believe this aspect of our city is a key factor that has made Austin one of the fastest growing cities in our nation.

GG: What advancements in the industry really have you revved up right now? What do you think the next big thing will be?

IH: I think we have tremendous potential to make significant progress with energy efficiency measures. There are number of new products and solutions we are testing in the Pecan Street smart-grid community here in Austin, for example. I also think that there are innovative business models developing as a result of major breakthroughs in clean tech technologies that will impact very old and very inefficient industries such as agriculture. I am personally working with a vertical grower to help launch their business on this front.

GG: Much of your background is in solar. In Austin, that certainly makes sense as a primary player, but what other technology/innovations do you see as vital to the clean energy mix that will wean us off fossil fuels and into energy independence?

IH: We have a number of companies here in the clean tech industry in Austin that participate in the whole solar value chain such as HelioVolt, Solarbridge and SunEdison. We also have attracted lighting companies that are gaining real market traction such as Illumitex and Firefly LED and leverage many similarities of the semiconductor and solar industry. But we also have many software and services companies in Austin such as Incenergy, whose technology is used in commercial buildings to monitor and control energy usage, that serve that market along with iControl and Site Controls (acquired by Siemens). As a community, we have been active to attract battery and storage technology innovators and alternative fuel developers. It is a very dynamic and vibrant market!

GG: Do you feel its possible for the private sector to get to that tipping point without government playing a role? If not, what kind of role do you think government should play? Should we still be focused on incentives or are there other strategies to pursue that could be more effective with less risk of fallout?

IH: We have been fortunate to learn from the experiences of other countries like Japan and Germany who have tried and tested various incentives and government policy. The impact of those incentives has had a clear and direct influence on the rapid cost reduction of solar and wind power and therefore economic viability of those energy sources. The industry is well aware of the time limits of those incentives and has aggressive roadmaps across the board to achieve grid parity in all markets. The Department of Energy and our National Renewable Energy Labs have well documented goals to reach $1 per watt cost targets for solar panels, for example. We are also all looking to our policy makers to start changing the incentives non-renewables are receiving. The economics would be very different today if the comparisons of renewable vs. non-renewables technologies were completely stripped of all incentives.

GG: If we (as a nation) fail to invest rigorously in clean tech endeavors, do we risk our position as a world leader of innovation — and perhaps even as a true leading nation in general? What are the costs of not engaging in the pursuit with vigor, conviction and good ol’ fashioned American stubborness?

IH: I believe that the innovative culture in the United States will prevail. We seem to be reaching an economic tipping-point in many markets and across a number of technologies that will start to become mainstream in the next few years. As those develop, we will see related technologies and services continue to develop. We have seen this historically in other industries, like semiconductors and displays, and anticipate we will see this again in clean-tech.

GG: How does this translate for business owners and leaders? What can they do to get on board the clean tech train and support the industry?

IH: Fundamentally, almost every business has some aspect of their customer base or market that can be considered clean tech. I think we must be thoughtful about our value proposition as business leaders and understand where our customers stand on these issues. Opportunities to “green” our business will continue to evolve as technology shifts occur and market and policy changes push and pull us towards more significant “clean tech” participation in our personal and professional lives.

Iga Hallberg is the principal of PivotMKTG, and advisor to Incenergy & HelioVolt where she was formerly the Vice President for Business Development & Marketing. She will be speaking at GoGreen ’12 Austin, Wednesday, April 4 at Austin Music Hall on our 2012 Forecast: Top Innovations in Clean Tech panel session. Get tickets and learn more about the 2012 GoGreen ’12 Austin line up at www.austin.gogreenconference.net. 

Note: For the past six months the GoGreen Conference has been engaged with CORE, a fantastic non-profit in Colorado working to advance a coalition of sustainable businesses within the region, to produce the 2012 Sustainable Opportunities Summit. We have been lucky enough to interview some of the incredible speakers on this year’s Summit line up and are distributing them here for you to enjoy & learn from. 

Aaron Dignan believes that games can fundamentally change how we work, act and play — essentially making us more productive, motivated and happier at the same time. He also argues that gaming concepts have the power to change our behavior in ways that many other systems have failed. For sustainability advocates this an idea with huge potential. It’s no secret that behavior change from our earth damaging habits to more sustainable ones has been hard to come by in the mainstream. In this interview, the Undercurrent Founder/CEO and author of the book Game Frame tells us what’s on the horizon & just how powerful these ideas really are.

Sustainable Opportunities Summit: How great is the potential impact of gamification within the realm of sustainability? What kind of problems can it help us solve?

Aaron Dignan: The potential for games to impact our behavior can’t be overstated. Gamification for sustainability could help us crowdsource solutions to complex problems, or simply change our behavior and choices on an individual level. Home power consumption compared to neighbors and peers on your bill is one promising area.

SOS: Why is gamification so effective in generating a shift towards greener behavior where governments, incentives, the media, dire & conclusive reports, branding & advertising — even good ol’ fashioned common sense — have failed?

AD: People have to be motivated to engage with an idea. Most sustainability messaging is about reduction – have less, do less, get less. By bringing elements of competition, creativity, and luxury into the mix, that message can be more like: achieve more.

SOS: Is the effect based in a social construct of our culture? Or are most human beings wired to respond to the allures of games across the board?

AD: Our hardwiring for games goes far beyond our culture. The basic wetware of the human brain is structured to crave, to chase (and be chased), to explore the world around us looking for rewards. The very idea of a game is just an emergent manifestation of our basic nature.

SOS: What are some of the coolest ways you have seen gamification principles applied for sustainability’s sake?

AD: The visual feedback (and automation) of the Nest thermostat is impressive. It learns your preferences, programs itself and then helps you save energy with a simple display. You can also access it from your computer or mobile device and control the temperature of your home from afar.  The EcoDrive visual inside some of Ford’s vehicles is also very effective.

SOS: Any major sustainability projects you’re dying to see gamification elements added to? Why would it be so rad (and effective!)?

AD: I’d love to see carbon feedback on every receipt. Imagine seeing the carbon impact of a burger vs. a taco. How might we all adjust our behavior if we had that information at our fingertips?

SOS: How can businesses adopt this strategy for internal sustainability programs (as opposed to consumer facing projects)? Could you provide a couple of examples (real or potential) where gaming could make a big difference in the success of a program?

AD: Simple ways to begin: put up a scoreboard. Show how each department is performing vs. the average. Ensure that everyone is building new skills as part of the initiative — learning is key to play. Set goals at different levels and challenge everyone to unlock the next one. Make high performance in the initiative equal social status and access — to a special monthly meeting for instance or some other reward.

SOS: How does the concept of adding a gaming layer into our work apply to small businesses or non-profits — organizations that might not have the resources to hire an expert or build out an app for their team? Are there simple ways to enact the concept without needing to build out a massive, technical infrastructure?

AD: Manufacturing facilities have simply written the number of pieces they produced on the floor with chalk before the next shift comes in. Something as simple as that challenge works. You don’t need an iPad app to incorporate the concepts.

SOS: Do you believe gamification is a silver bullet of sorts for behavior change, or are their limits to its effectiveness? If so, what are they and how can organizations mitigate the challenges?

AD: It’s only as good as its design and follow through. Games need to be play-tested, and they need to be expanded over time. Design something. Test it. Watch it. Change it. Think of a game as a behavioral EQ that you need to tune constantly. It’s not every really done.

SOS: Talk to us about “flow activities” and why achieving a balance between challenges and our capability to meet them is important. How does this play out in a situation where broad behavior change is being pursued, but different categories of ability are present within a population? Should we, in essence, be thinking in terms of creating levels or stages of behavior modification in order to affect both the long-tail and the mainstream?

AD: Everyone needs to be challenged according to their ability, yes. The most important thing is moving forward — a rate of improvement. If everyone does a little better every month, then it doesn’t matter whether you have a big or small footprint. They’re all getting smaller.

Aaron Dignan is the CEO of Undercurrent and the author of Game Frame. He will also give a special presentation on the concept of gamification as applied to sustainability at the 2012 Sustainable Opportunities Summit. To learn more or to register, visit: sosummit.org

GoGreen Conference: Let’s start big picture. This is a transformative time for healthcare — lots of questions are being asked on how it can improve, how it can increase the quality of care and how it can be more financially efficient. From your perspective, what is the overarching vision in your industry for how sustainability can make an impact on what you do?

Trennis Jones: If you look at hospitals alone — we use about 836 trillion BTUs of energy annually. We produce a little over 30 pounds of CO₂ emissions per square foot — broken down, that is more than 2.5 times the energy intensity in carbon dioxide emissions for commercial office buildings. So, if U.S. hospitals spend over $5 billion annually on energy ­­ — often equaling one to three percent of a typical operating budget — that works out to about fifteen percent of the profits. That’s a big chunk.

Then you have in-patient facilities, which use an average of 240,000 BTUs per square foot. Hospitals account for four percent of the national billing square footage, but we account for eight percent of national energy consumption on average. That four percent of difference represents a big opportunity for us. The question is:  How do we capitalize on that and not lose the sight of the fact that our number one goal is to care for our patients better?

Big picture for us involves looking at how we can construct and renovate better. How can we construct that building going up differently than we would have in the past in order to be greener and more efficient? We recently finished construction on Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. That building was constructed with the vision of it being a “green hospital.” In fact, it was the first LEED platinum hospital in the world. And even though we just closed out on the main building, we are adding on a new unit that will feature at a 20-kilowatt photovoltaic array for the solar water heating system that will reduce energy consumption for that unit by three percent. With the future in mind, we are also installing three electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for patients who are driving progress by owning an EV.

GG: Obviously these initiatives are already having an effect on Seton’s bottom-line. Do you feel sustainability can directly affect the quality of patient care as well?

TJ: When considering costs, any type of organization that is in business passes on to the consumer. So, in the healthcare space, if you reduce your costs through energy efficiency and strategic reuse of materials (cloth surgical gowns, for example, or reusable sharps containers), you can pass the savings on to patients through lower costs for their care.

GG: What about waste? It’s not the sexiest topic, but for so many industries — hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing — waste management is on the minds of facility managers and CFOs as a big opportunity to reign in operating costs. How does the Seton Healthcare Family approach waste management?

TJ: You can look at it two ways – consuming responsibly and reusing whenever possible. On the one hand we have a waste stream made up of things like paper. We can make better choices on what kind of paper we use and how we dispose of it. We also have waste that comes from things like batteries, that we now look recharge as opposed to throwing them away. Or, as I indicated earlier, we can reduce the consumption of goods through reusing metal instruments that can be sterilized rather than thrown away.

So we look at how we purchase things – we use an environmentally preferred purchasing that prioritizes things like source materials and reduced packaging. And we look at how we use things. We’ve reduced the amount of linens in circulation by switching from paper to cloth gowns. Then we look at the type of cleaning solvent used for its earth friendliness and non-toxic makeup.

GG: Is this transformative approach to waste creating a new market for services within healthcare?

TJ: It creates different markets. For example, going back to the sharps containers, now we contract with a company that comes in and switches out used containers for sterilized, reusable units as opposed to a group that simply takes single-use sharps containers away to be disposed of. When you change systems, you employ different services and consume different goods around that system. So it’s often times less about creating more markets, but rather about engaging with more sustainable markets and providers.

GG: Do you feel that integrating sustainability values into your Seton’s core values and implementing programs accordingly has helped your organization be a better corporate citizen in the communities you serve?

TJ: Yes it has. Not just as it relates to Seton Healthcare Family, but also as it relates to Ascension Health (of which we are a subsidiary), the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in the nation. We have sustainability goals, throughout all of the hospitals in the system, which are designed to help us be more efficient and also do our part as a community leader and consumer of resources in the region.

GG: You were on the board of Seton Healthcare Family before you came into your current position – what were the key decision-making factors in adopting sustainability? There are a lot of companies who are still on the fence in terms of sustainability. Board members and executives who may be thinking, “yeah this is great, but what’s really in it for us and how do we make it happen.” How did you get the support to execute these values within your operations and strategic planning?

TJ: As a board member you are a representative of the community and you have a responsibility to the organization to help uphold the role it plays within that community. When I was on the board, the decision was made to build the Dell Children’s Medical Center. The decision build green was made based on several factors. We asked ourselves how we could be a community leader through this process. We felt that building a sustainable, cost-effective hospital was an important way we could contribute. Reduce the consumption of energy was both fiscally smart for us because of the cost savings, but a way to conserve resources for the benefit of the region. And it allowed us to walk our talk — to demonstrate what being green means for an organization with an eye fixed on the bottom line.

GG: What benefits have you seen — in particular, what cost savings — as a result of adding sustainability into your strategic planning and decision-making process.

TJ: If you reduce your energy consumption by three percent annually– that is huge for your bottom line. You also have an increased impact on the regional economy and realize the cost-savings from working with local providers – the products that you use there are increasingly from within a few miles of the community. When you’ve got sustainability in mind, you aren’t flying things in from Europe. The cool part is that you witness a transformation in that your hospital is supported and also built by the community.

GG: By the people, for the people?

TJ: By the people, for the people — and built to take care of the people.

GG: That three percent — what kind of scale is that for you? Is that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars saved?

TJ: That would definitely be somewhere in the range of  hundreds of thousands dollars.

GG: So it’s a noticeable impact?

TJ: It is noticeable, yes. It will give you and those who visit here a noticeable savings in the cost of your care. It also reduces the burden on the regional energy system. Let’s take 2011 for example – we had one of the hottest summers on the books within the Central Texas region. Let’s say we had built Dell Children’s Medical Center without energy efficiency in mind. That certainly would have been a drain on the grid during those months — right when they were asking us all to cut back on energy used. So, as we look out to the future, doing things like installing solar panels to help heat Seton’ water helps the community beyond our internal cost savings. It’s our responsibility, as a community leader, to take on those challenges and find opportunity to help where we can.

Trennis Jones is a Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and
Corporate Responsibility Officer for Seton Healthcare Family. He is also a passionate advocate for community development. Trennis will join the Texas Sustainability Leaders keynote panel at GoGreen ’12 Austin, April 4 at Austin Music Hall. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit: austin.gogreenconference.net. 

The US Government has some Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs, for short) — which we are big fans of. One of them? To be a Zero Environmental Footprint entity. With budget cuts looming and global competition heating up, it’s these kind of aggressive goals that will drive innovation and efficiency in our government and the industries affected by its supply chain influence. In this Green Line Series interview, General Services Administration’s (GSA) Rocky Mountain Regional Administratior, Susan Damour, tells us about the competitive edge green businesses have in selling to governments and ways GSA is making an impact on the supply chain in favor of a more sustainable economy.

Sustainable Opportunity Summit: What are the main tenants of GSA’s Sustainable Procurement Policy? Why did GSA adopt its Green Gov effort?

Susan Damour: GSA’s role as acquisition professionals is to be the anchor and the steady hand for the rest of the government. The agency provides more than $55 billion of best-value products, services and solutions for federal customers. That means that if we were a private sector company, we would rank in the top half of the global Fortune 500 companies.

GSA adopted the “Green Gov” effort for a couple of reasons. The government is frequently driven by Executive Orders (EO), such as EO 13514. At GSA, we embraced the sustainability agenda in the extreme, if you will. We agreed as a senior management team to set a Zero Environmental Footprint (ZEF) as our organization’s aspirational goal. And yes, this is certainly ambitious.

ZEF is about a good government getting ever better. It’s about no waste. Eliminating waste is a huge lever for government as it faces down budget constraints and takes full advantage of innovation bursting onto the scene. No waste is about finding new ways to wring out inefficiencies while boosting performance. It gives us a clear path between great constraints and even greater possibilities. GSA supports that 95 percent of new contract actions include the supply or use of products and services that are environmentally friendly.

SOS: What kind of impact has this policy made, thus far? Are you seeing significant change since its adoption? What kind of future impact do you expect going forward?

SD: Because of our role, GSA has the potential to make, move and influence markets. We are in the position to model new behavior, cutting-edge technology, and inventive ways of thinking for the rest of the federal family and the private sector. We’ve had a number of changes in our business. Let me give you a few examples.

First, we build, manage and dispose of 374.6 million square feet of space. At the end of FY 2011, GSA reported an 18.8 percent reduction in Energy Use Intensity from the 2003 baseline for goal-tracked buildings.

For the same set of buildings, we achieved a two percent annual reduction and at the end of FY 2011, we reported a 13.3 percent reduction from the 2007 baseline in water consumption. Across the nation, we awarded 250 water conservation projects. At the end of FY 2011, we installed advanced water meters in 139 buildings and advanced energy meters in 228 buildings.

GSA is also practicing sustainable design and implementing sustainable operations and maintenance practices across multiple buildings in our existing portfolio. As of September 2011, we achieved 62 LEED certifications, nationwide, in our lease construct and owned inventory.

As of September 2011, 285 leases representing 11 million square feet in 252 buildings included the entire suite of green lease provisions available in GSA’s Request for Lease Proposal. Additionally, GSA held leased space in 147 buildings with a third party green building certification.

Finally, we purchase and maintain a federal fleet of some 400,000 vehicles. In FY 2009, GSA used approximately $64 million provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replace more than 17,000 motor vehicles with more energy efficient motor vehicles. The new vehicles have a combined fuel economy of 7.8 miles per gallon higher than the vehicles replaced. GSA’s purchase included 3,106 hybrid-electric vehicles, the federal government’s largest one-time purchase of hybrid vehicles. The agency is practicing electronic stewardship to reduce energy consumption, with 99 percent of GSA electronic assets being Energy Star qualified.

SOS: Is there a particularly successful project in the Rocky Mountain region that demonstrates the power and benefits of green purchasing?

SD: GSA’s vision is to turn the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado, into the most sustainable campus in the country by 2020. GSA recently installed seven megawatts of solar photovoltaics that when combined with an already existing 1.2 megawatt solar park, will provide more than 15 percent of the campus’ annual electrical needs.

The combined capacity of all the solar arrays is enough to power 1,064 residential homes for one year. After EO 13423 was signed in 2007, the Rocky Mountain Region recognized a need for training materials to educate federal agencies on how to meet the goals. So, GSA developed a course which showcased how GSA and our schedule vendors can help them meet their green procurement goals.

SOS: Does a greener supply chain (within GSA’s scope of work) make America more globally competitive? Will participating vendors play a role in securing a continued leadership role for the United States as we forge deeper into this millennium? If so, how?

SD: Sustainable products are more cost effective in the long-term. Vendors can be innovative and make products with more environmentally friendly attributes. The United States Government spends more than 300 billion dollars annually on various goods and services. When you consider the acquisition regulations federal buyers must adhere to (i.e., Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act), it’s clear that our green procurement goals can and will affect the competitive edge of our country.

Take a simple example of the paper we use in our offices. The EPA mandated that all paper contain at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. This pushed the manufacturers of printers and copiers in to adjust the equipment to work with more recycled content. It has affected the market for recycled consumer paper as well as the supply chain of the paper, itself. In turn, it makes these products available to the average shopper at a competitive price.

SOS: Do manufacturers and distributers with sustainable products or operations gain a competitive edge in selling to the Federal Government? If so, what kind of standards are you looking for from vendors? How do they benefit?

SD: Yes, manufacturers and distributors can align their products to the various Green Icons on GSA Advantage. Doing so will give their products appeal to the agencies that need/want to buy products with environmentally-friendly characteristics. GSA Advantage offers thousands of products and services to meet your environmental purchasing goals. Products found on GSA Advantage that have an environmental attribute will show above their conventional counterparts in GSA Advantage searches.

The standards vary depending on the category of product or service such as BioPreferred, Energy Star Compliant, CPG Item, EPEAT or NESHAP Compliant. For many products on GSA Advantage, vendors determine (self-certify) which environmental symbols will be listed with a product.GSA also publishes an annual environmental edition of MarkeTips — a marketing publication directed to users of the GSA supply system — that highlights green products and services.

SOS: Where can businesses and organizations go to find information about Green Gov policies and resources for joining GSA in its quest to green the supply chain?

SD: Businesses and organizations can find information about green government policies and resources at GSA.gov website. Also, be sure to take a look at whitehouse.gov/greengov.

Susan Damour is the Rocky Mountain Regional Administrator for the GSA. She will also be speaking on the Selling To Governments With Sustainable Procurement Policies panel at the 2012 Sustainable Opportunities Summit (presented by CORE and produced by the GoGreen Conference) in Denver, Wednesday, March 21. Don’t miss Susan and 60+ additional green business leaders share insights and advice on how to be a sustainable — and profitable! — company. Register through February 21 and take advantage of Early Bird Rates.

Image Credit: City of Austin

If you live in the City of Austin, Texas and you want to run a green business—you’re in luck. Not only does the City support and encourage its hometown organizations (over 80% of which are micro-businesses; having 20 employees or less) to embed sustainability into their values and operations, but it provides coordinated programs to make the process easier, faster and the results more impactful. At this year’s GoGreen Austin event, the City will be hosting a special session called How to Become a Green Business:  An A – Z Guide. This session, in particular, will be a great opportunity to pair the strategic and tactical advice learned throughout the day at GoGreen with concrete information about the real-world resources available in the Austin area. Austin’s own Chief Sustainability Officer, Lucia Athens, will moderate a panel of local business leaders who have worked with the City to lead their companies through the adoption of greener values and programs. The session will focus on the following aspects of greening your organization:

• Energy Efficiency (and available upgrade incentives)
• Water Management
• Zero Waste Strategies
• Commuting Solutions
• Carbon Footprint Reduction

This session will also speak to a new understanding of what sustainability means for the Austin Community. The City’s Office of Sustainability has outlined a definition  that shows the integrated nature of how it applies to all aspects of doing business and building a thriving, prosperous community.

Sustainability means finding a balance among three sets of goals: 1) Prosperity and jobs, 2) conservation and the environment, and 3) community health, equity and cultural vitality. It means taking positive, proactive steps to protect quality of life now, and for future generations. — Office of Sustainability, City of Austin

Image Credit: Office of Sustainability, City of Austin

Learn more about the City of Austin’s Green Business Leaders program at their website. To view all GoGreen ’12 Austin sessions and register for the event, Wednesday, April 4, visit austin.gogreenconference.net.