While we at EarthPm assert that “a project run with green intent is the right thing to do”, we are also realists.  Businesses cannot stay in business if they constantly lose money on their ventures.  If businesses are to be encouraged to do that right thing, a noble effort, they will also need to “justify” the   bottom-line.  That is why we, along with a lot of other people, say that it is not only the right thing to do, but going green makes cents.

A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal included a section on the environment, ECO:nomics – Creating Environmental Capital.  In this EarthPM post, we’d like to highlight a couple of the “Best Practices” outlined in the section.  It not only included what works, but also contrasted with what doesn’t work according to some “green leaders”.  For instance, from Steve Fludder, VP Ecomagination, GE (one of the companies featured in our upcoming book), on businesses addressing climate change, a business should “continue to focus on improving your company’s own energy efficiency” (feeds the bottom-line), and “don’t let the current uncertainty over government action become an excuse to stop innovating”.  For financing green projects (of particular interest to us as project managers), Richard Cohen, Managing Director, Environmental Strategic Investment Group, Bank of America, says “create new training and education programs to train the energy work force”, and the current government and regulatory environment “are Byzantine and bureaucratic, and that discourages financing”.  There is much more in this Wall Street Journal section that we find very interesting, including a view from “big oil”, and a top ten ranking of “clean-tech” companies.  Look to future posts for some more information on these and other topics.