Green Options

“We need solutions at the speed of business,” says Hunter Lovins, author, speaker and founder of Natural Capital Solutions in the Naturally Successful DVD, produced by Arnold Creek Productions, Inc., known for its award-winning videos on sustainability used by organizations around the world.

Naturally Successful is an expertly assembled compilation of inspiring interviews of the leading visionaries giving a voice to the emerging green ECOnomy and the businesses that are in the business of remaking the world for the better. The release of this video couldn’t be better timed as millions of Americans explore ways to prosper despite the economic downturn.

“Build your business around your calling,” continues Lovins, who like the many leaders featured in the DVD, recognize opportunities for enterprising ecopreneurs to solve the most pressing problems now facing us, turning some profits in the process while achieving a happier, more fulfilling life. “We’re not in a sprint. We’re in a marathon to save the world…What is it that you love to do? How do you make a business of it?” asks Lovins.

To grasp the scale of the sustainability movement afoot and harness ideas to guide your green business, this 78 minute DVD offers insights on what being an ecopreneur is all about with a focus on building a values-driven business, providing meaningful leadership, achieving results beyond profits, serving customers, thinking long-term, seizing opportunities in new and existing markets, creating a thriving business and embracing a new type of commerce that seeks to make the world a better place. Interviews are woven together like a well-made life raft for anyone setting out to launch a green business that thrives with a triple bottom line.

As I’m still getting back into the groove of regular writing, I’m a bit late to the game on Danielle Sack’s profile of/hit piece on architect and “cradle to cradle” guru William McDonough in Fast Company. As you might imagine, this one’s already made the rounds of the green blogosphere, and most of these posts involve a healthy degree of introspection regarding McDonough’s place as a “green messiah,” and the worth of the ideas he’s spent much of his career promoting.

So, let’s get some issues out of the way. No, McDonough and partner Michael Braungart did not originally conceive of the concept with which they’re most famously associated: as Hunter Lovins notes in the article, “Walter Stahel in Switzerland actually coined the phrase [cradle to cradle] 25 years ago, long before Bill started using it.” McDonough doesn’t live in a “green” house. He’s likely blown some deals with companies like Interface and Nike by demanding too much money, and making unreasonable intellectual property claims. Some of his projects haven’t lived up to the hoopla (if they’ve been finished at all). And, for all I know, he may well be an arrogant, self-serving jerk (I don’t know the man).

With all of that said, though, my primary reaction is “OK… but does any of this really matter?”

No doubt McDonough, like the rest of us, is a flawed human being, and perhaps many of us have been willing to grant him hero status prematurely (we’ve certainly sung his praises numerous times here at sustainablog). I think if we get caught up in the “battle of Bill,” though, we miss the more important issues here: the relevance and importance of cradle to cradle design, the legitimacy of certification processes for “green” products, and the relationship of these concepts to consumption in general.

Have you been thinking about getting a sustainability focused MBA? Have you been wondering what they’re really like? If they have substance? If they have depth? If they will be of any use to you out there in the real world? Well today, in part 2 of a series on sustainability focused business education, it’s all about Presidio School of Management, where I was part of the third cohort.

What’s to know about it, from an insider’s perspective? Let me tell you, it was a tremendously beneficial experience, on an educational, personal and professional level. I gained confidence, learning extensively how to give a great presentation, even enjoy the experience, from a starting point of utter terror. I learned how to work in teams, of varying strengths, skills, and personalities, and how to manage when things become, well, unmanageable. I got a broad and deep understanding of what’s going on in the realm of sustainability, in terms of business, government, and society as a whole. And beyond that, I saw how the emerging sustainable business paradigm overlaps with the existing, and how to bridge between the two.

Greetings out there in the webosphere from chilly Grass Valley, California, and thanks for reading Ecopreneurist. My name is Paul Smith, and I wanted to take time to introduce myself, and tell you where I see this site going, and what I’d like it to do for you.

A little about me: I’ve been deeply immersed in the realm of sustainable business since being a part of the 3rd cohort at Presidio’s MBA in Sustainable Management program in San Francisco. It was one of the first to have such a deeply green program, and arguably, is one of the best. Those who teach there are not there to be professors for a living. They are there to create more colleagues to enable the conversion of business as usual to business as a force for good in the world. They are people like Hunter Lovins, who, along with being a powerful force in her own right, has collaborated with people such as Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins, creating what she is most known for, the book Natural Capitalism.