SB20 – The World’s Top Most Sustainable Business Stocks

Each year, Progressive Investor ranks the top 20 most sustainable businesses on the stock market.  Businesses chosen vary in size, location, and industry, though all are contributing to an environmentally-productive economy, according to an expert panel of environmental analysts.

Companies that perform a head above their counterparts in the following two categories qualify for the SB20:

Sustainability Criteria – Businesses have innovative performance models and/or are creating cutting edge green technologies.

Financial Criteria – Preferably profitable companies with strong management and balance sheets.  Each company would enhance a portfolio even if it is not in a buying position today.

View the SB20 from the past three years.

Progressive Investor also publishes ten issues a year highlighting these businesses in depth, as well as information on the following topics:

– News Highlights related to renewable energy, green building, private equity and our other
investment sectors
– Upcoming or recent IPOs, new mutual funds, ETFs
– Upcoming Investor Conferences
– Trends affecting green investing, such as China and green technology
– Stock Market Commentary as it relates to green investing
– Updates on stocks we cover
– Green company stock profiles
– Analyst Conversations on their outlook for the stock market or stock recommendations on
specific segments such as green building, thin film solar, batteries, investing in forests, etc.
– Comprehensive list of the most important green stocks with buy/hold/sell ratings & brief
updates

Click here for subscription information.

The New Economics of Place – Economic Development Through Form-Based Coding

A new Form-Based Codes webinar will soon be available!  The topic involves using transportation and well-developed streets to attract and sustain jobs and infrastructure.

Scott Polikov of Gateway Planning, who is leading the webinar, “played a key role in incorporating urban design criteria into the Texas roadway design manual. He serves on the boards of directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism and the National Civic League, and is an Associate of Neal Peirce’s CitiStates Group.”

The webinar begins Monday, December 13, 2010 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM (Eastern Time)

Click here for more information and to register.

Sustainable Business PODCAST

Like the average individual, your busy day does not always include catching up on the news.  This is especially true if thumbing through the paper, clicking a mouse, or holding a magazine ties up your hands from other tasks like stocking shelves or doing paperwork.

SustainableBusiness.com posts a Podcast every Friday morning called “Green Week in Review” that highlights green business headlines from the week in a short and sweet 15-minute segment.  They do all the story-sifting for you and feature events and updates pertinent to your commitment to providing sustainable, quality service as a green business owner.

Today’s episode considers the following:

• G20 Re-Affirms Pledge to Cut Fossil Fuel Subsidies
• Green Building Market Grows 50% in Two Years
• LEED Projects Surpass One Billion Square Feet
• NRDC Founding Director Awarded Medal of Freedom

Tune in to fill dead air with engaging, informative internet broadcasting!  Turn banal moments into Fireside chats in this new Golden Age of Radio where podcasts are the new pink (radio show).  We hope you will listen and post feedback on the SBN blog to jump start intramember discussion.

Please also share other related podcast links that you already enjoy.

Laurel Highlands Conservation Coalition Conference this Thursday

Great opportunity awaits you, as a business-owner and as an individual, to meet with others in the region to discuss conserving the natural resources of the Laurel Highlands.

According to the adage “strength in numbers,” the Pennsylvania Environmental Council is hosting a day-long conference to bring together conservation partners and welcome new interest.

The conference is this Thursday, September 30th, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

@ Ligonier Town Hall on the Diamond in Ligonier

The Coalition would like to:

a) advance more thorough policy

b) attract more attention from foundations and economic vectors for regional issues

c) make sure that the region won’t miss opportunities to protect and benefit from its natural resources

d) unify opinion to push a broader campaign

e) educate by hosting a regular forum on regional issues

Conference Agenda

Register – 9:00

Welcome – 9:15

Why form this coalition? – 9:30

Break – 10:30

Renew Growing Greener/gas extraction tax – 10:45

* Andrew Heath, Executive Director, Renew Growing Greener

Take action – how to support funding – 11:45

Lunch and presentation: Visualizing Public Health Impacts of the Marcellus Shale Play

* Chuck Cristen, Director of Operations, Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission – 1:15

* Chuck Duritsa, member of ORSANCO

Policy and Planning Recommendations Regarding Marcellus – 1:45

* Jack Ubinger, Pennsylvania Environmental Council

Break – 2:15

Monitoring of Marcellus impacts (panel) – 2:30

* Len Lichvar, Somerset Conservation District; Bev Braverman, Mountain Watershed Association; Drew Banas, Loyalhanna Watershed Association.
* Dave Sewak, Trout Unlimited

Wrap-Up – 3:30

To register: Email your name, organization, and contact information to laurels@pec-pa.org.

Click here for more information about the event.

The Coalition would like to:a) advance more thorough policy,

b) attract more attention from foundations and economic vectors on regional issues

c) make sure that the region won’t miss opportunities to protect and benefit from its natural resources

d) unify opinion to push a broader campaign

e) educate by hosting a regular forum on regional issues

Webinar Tomorrow in Greensburg! Sustainable Form-Based Codes

Join the Smart Growth Partnership for Form-Based Codes Institute Webinar:

Integrating More Sustainable Design Into Form-Based Codes

When:    Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 1:00 – 3:30 pm

Where:   Donohoe Center, 214 Donohoe Road, Greensburg, PA

Registration Fee:  $5.00 (payable at the door)

To register, please contact the Smart Growth Partnership at 724-552-0118.

This webinar (which is a seminar broadcast on an online website, for those unused to internet jargon!) features five speakers with degrees in public planning and/or experience with town planning firms, LEED certification, and code-writing.

The itinerary for their talk includes case studies of sustainable design in compliance with code, and also effective ways to communicate to the public how these sustainable design features can enhance community infrastructure.

More specifically, you can hear professionals from around the country discussing renewable energy, green roofs, urban agriculture, landscaping, community-based transportation, and especially pertinent to this area, stormwater and wastewater conservation.

Registering online costs $75, so this is a bargain to watch it with the Smart Growth Partnership in Greensburg.  It might also be a great opportunity to connect with other concerned citizens about green business codes.

For more information on the speakers, click here.

Packaging waste

As a follow-up to compostable materials for restaurants, this article from Mother Jones Magazine offers a quick read with some revealing statistics and a dash of wry humor about the social, psychological, economic and environmental implications of packaging and waste in the U.S. Just something to chew on…

A few standouts:

Nearly 10% of a typical product’s price is for packaging.

The global packaging market is worth $429 billion.

Nearly 1/3 of Americans’ waste is packaging. Just 43% is recycled after use.

In 2007, Americans threw away 78.5 million tons of packaging—520 pounds per person. That’s a 71% increase from 1960.

35% of Americans say that they seek alternatives to excessively packaged goods, and nearly 1/2 of consumers worldwide say they’d sacrifice convenience for more environmentally sustainable packaging.

Trail Users Will Bike Further to get “Green” Products

A recent survey in which 140 trail users participated reveals that they will go further for “green”!

Here’s a summary of what we found:

• The majority of respondents were ages 55-64 (32.1%), followed closely by 45-54 (25%).
• 49.2% of respondents said they would pay more for products or services that are mindful of their impact on the environment; 34.4% of respondents said “It depends.”
• 45.7% of respondents said they would be “much more likely” to patronize a business in the Trail Towns that supported practices that are mindful of their impact on the environment over one that was not; while 37.2% said they would be somewhat more likely.
• When asked if they would bike further to get products that were provided in a way that was mindful of their impact on the environment 78.1% of respondents answered “Yes” or “It depends.” The average number of extra blocks they’d be willing to bike is 7.