Green & Innovation: Andrew Winston Joins New EDFix Calls

Andrew Winston's "Green Recovery"

Author and green business expert Andrew Winston joined us for the November 23, 2009, EDFix Call (that's the EDF Innovation Exchange's new conference call and podcast series about sustainability and innovation). Winston, co-author of Green to Gold and author of recently released Green Recovery talked with EDFix host Jerry Michalski and other call participants about green innovation he is seeing in the face of the economic downturn.

Highlights from the discussion included:

• Advice for companies facing financial slowdowns to "lean on stuff, not people." Firing people is the "easy" way out; creating eco-efficiencies is the profitable way out.
• Props to the "green superpowers:" high-profile companies demonstrating the value of green in business, such as IBM, GE, Walmart and P&G.
• Energy savings of up to 70 percent could be wrung out of most existing buildings.
• The importance of "heretical innovations" that "ask a different question" to challenge traditional business practices. Examples included Tennant using tap water to replace chemicals in cleaning machines and Boeing exploring bio-fuels in planes.
• Traditional companies directly addressing "the innovators dilemma" to compete with their own, established, product lines as Clorox has with its Green Works line.
• Why does green investment not get the respect (or percent of capital expenditures) that R&D and marketing get?
• What about business schools? Are we seeing the perspective on sustainable business that we need from the trainers of future business leaders?
• Green will have more impact when it's built into everyday "micro" business decisions such as investment analysis and cost/benefit analysis.

Please listen to the call and leave any reactions as comments on this post.  You can also follow Andrew on Twitter.

We'll be holding these conference calls on the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month at noon eastern time (9am PT). If you would like to participate in these calls, please contact Dave Witzel or Jerry Michalski, or add yourself to the announcement list.

You can also:

• Listen to or download the podcast of the full discussion with Andrew Winston (48 min.)
• Get a taste by listening to or downloading Jerry Michalski's brief summary of the call (10 min)
• Find out how to participate in upcoming EDFix Conference Calls

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