Greener World Media, Inc. (GreenBiz.com), the media group with a collection of online green business publications, has just announced the launch of their State of Green Business 2008 report. Their bottom line conclusion: “Green business has shifted from a movement to a market.”
To come to this conclusion, GreenBiz.com examined 20 topics to create a GreenBiz Index to evaluate how “green” green businesses are these days. Turns out assessing each measure of green was a bit of a challenge. In most cases they weren’t able to find enough data to determine the impact green businesses are having on climate change.
(When you think about it, even a year ago most of us wouldn’t have even thought to ask how green a company was, let alone think about how to measure it! As time passes, we’ll have more indicators to track.)
Of the 20 indicators included in the GreenBiz Index:
- Eight indicators show that green business is doing well, “swimming” as the report terms it. These eight indicators include carbon transparency, clean tech investments, clean tech patents, energy efficiency, green office space, paper use and recycling, quality of management, and toxic emissions.
- Ten indicators show that green business is holding on, “treading” as the report terms it. These indicators include alternative fuel vehicles, building energy use, carbon trading, corporate reporting, employee commuting, employee telecommuting, environmental management systems, green power use, packaging intensity, and pesticide use.
- Two indicators show that green business is losing ground, “sinking” as the report terms it. These indicators include carbon intensity and e-waste.
If you are interested in starting a green business or working for a green business, I strongly recommend that you read the State of Green Business 2008 report. (You can download the report for free.) In addition to giving us a baseline picture of green business, I believe this report offers a gold mine of business opportunities.
If you have the skills to resolve any of the issues highlighted by the report, you may have the seed of a winning business/career ideas.
I look forward to reading this report year after year. Kudos to Greener World Media, Inc. for taking the lead on this critically important undertaking.