Author Archives: Beth Trask

Are we Entering the Post-Green Team Era?

By | Bio | Published: July 24, 2012

Are we on a path that moves us beyond volunteer green teams onto one in which sustainability is so deeply embedded into corporate culture, goals and business practices that every job is a “green job”? Or is employee engagement just another “to do” for already over-stretched sustainability teams? Environmental Defense Fund recently gathered corporate sustainability [...]

Posted in Behavior, Innovation | 2 Responses

Treasure Hunts: Engaging employees equals successful energy reduction and big savings

By | Bio | Published: March 14, 2012

Employee engagement is becoming a hot topic around the corporate water cooler.  Increasingly, CSR managers are seeing it as a way to not only have happier employees, but also to drive business value. At the same time, many companies are not fully taking advantage of energy efficiency, despite all the opportunities it can offer for [...]

Posted in Education, Energy Efficiency, Innovation, Partnerships, Tools, Treasure Hunts | 2 Responses

Crowd-sourcing stirs up fresh ideas for recycling TVs and monitors

By | Bio | Published: February 28, 2012

Can our old TVs and computer monitors, which are filled with toxic substances, be safely and profitably recycled into new products?  We don’t know, but with tens of millions units expected to hit the waste stream over the next few years as households upgrade to newer flat panel models, we need to find out. And [...]

Posted in Chemicals, Eco-Challenge Series, Health, Innovation, Innovation Exchange, Partnerships, Safe Products | Leave a comment

Could you deliver a solution to the television-recycling problem?

By | Bio | Published: November 14, 2011

As more and more households upgrade their old TVs to the newer flat panels, a troubling question must be asked:  What happens to the old ones?   Over the next few years, an estimated one billion pounds of discarded TVs and monitors are anticipated to hit the waste stream. Recycling seems like the easy answer, but, [...]

Posted in Eco-Challenge Series, Innovation, Innovation Exchange | 4 Responses

Learn about sustainability benchmarking and reporting from your peers – in just 30 minutes

By | Bio | Published: March 7, 2011

Share your latest experiences with sustainability benchmarking and reporting — and learn from others working in the field — on this Tuesday’s “Growing GIBN Conversation.”  This conference call is a part of the Green Innovators in Business Network (GIBN) monthly series on timely business-sustainability topics. To kick off the conversation, Environmental Defense Fund’s Kirk Hourdajian [...]

Posted in Events & Activities, Innovation, Innovation Exchange, Private Equity | 1 Response

Solutions Labs connect business “changemakers” around the country

By | Bio | Published: January 23, 2011
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Durham, NC; New York, NY;  Washington DC; Minneapolis, MN; San Jose, CA; Chicago, IL; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; and Fayetteville, AR. Those were the locations for the nine-city Solutions Lab series in 2010. From these one-day, participatory events, we got to hear from more than 700 business-sustainability “thinkers” and “doers” around the country. Participants included [...]

Posted in Events & Activities, Innovation Exchange, Solutions Labs | Leave a comment

EDF and GE Partner on Local Energy Savings Projects

By | Bio | Published: December 15, 2010

In a world of uncertainty, energy efficiency may be the only sure bet, zero-risk investment.  If you look for energy efficiency opportunities, you will find them—and you will save money.  Period. That’s why GE refers to its energy efficiency-process as the ecomagination “Treasure Hunt.”  And, with help from GE and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), hunting [...]

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Events & Activities, Innovation, Partnerships, Tools, Treasure Hunts | Leave a comment

Adam Lowry, Robin Chase to discuss “New Business Models” on Tuesday’s EDFix Call

By | Bio | Published: November 22, 2010

The "Future of Green" podcast series continues tomorrow — Tuesday, November 23 — with a discussion about “New Business Models for Sustainability.”  The speakers are Robin Chase, entrepreneur and founder of ZipCar, and Adam Lowry, co-founder and chief greenskeeper of Method. To join the live conversation, dial into the following number at 10 am PT/ [...]

Posted in EDFix Calls, Future of Green, Innovation | Leave a comment

Solutions Lab in Fayetteville on Nov. 5th – Helping Suppliers Get Ahead of the Sustainability Curve

By | Bio | Published: October 18, 2010

Retail suppliers, large and small, are being asked to do more and more.  Report carbon emissions.  Eliminate waste.  Reduce energy, water and chemical inputs.  Save the planet. As the first step on this journey, suppliers are being asked to “be transparent.” But what does supply chain transparency really mean for them?  And how can suppliers [...]

Posted in Education, Energy Efficiency, Events & Activities, Innovation, Partnerships, Solutions Labs, Tools, Walmart | Leave a comment

Solving the equation for sustainability-focused corporate culture

By | Bio | Published: June 1, 2010

How can you shift a corporate culture so that it embodies environmental sustainability?  That was just one of the big questions explored at the recent Green Innovation in Business Solutions Lab in New York City. At these "open space" conferences, participants self-organize into working groups charged with finding solutions to specific challenges.  I spent much of [...]

Posted in Behavior, Events & Activities, Innovation, Solutions Labs | 4 Responses