Change Is Good

The North King County Green Business Conference is a wrap! The theme was “Go Green to Make Green, Getting More Bang For Your Buck”, and that pretty well summed it up. Whereas the first NKCGBC back in 2008 was about the theory, this second conference was the practicum.

The first keynote speaker was Steve Gerritson of Enterprise Seattle, who spoke at length about how the current "green, sustainable" movement in building design and business practice is no fad, but the new normal.

Cheap oil is gone and energy will only become more expensive, and the effects of climate change can only exacerbate that. He defined "clean technology" as “any technology that reduces energy or resource consumption.” And he insists energy conservation is just sound business strategy.

Stan Price, the second keynote speaker, is from the NW Energy Efficiency Council. He gave an animated and informative speech about the "low-hanging fruit" of energy efficiency. His prime example was a Seattle company that bought five buildings and invested $2.3 million into updating them. Of that, $660,000 was for energy efficiency improvements, which prompted a $330,000 incentive from Seattle City Light. The company made a net gain of $1.3 million per year and increased its property’s asset value by $30 million. Similar gains could be had by small businesses, he said. “Just chop a few zeroes off.” He left us with a memorable mantra for a quick return on almost no effort or money: “Turn it off. Turn it down. Tune it up.”

The morning breakout session had three subjects: waste reduction and recycling, transportation, and pollution prevention. I sat in on transportation, moderated by Jeff King and presented by Cathy Blumenthal, Rideshare Coordinator, King County Metro Transit and John Mauro, Commute Director, Cascade Bicycle Club. I had expected (before I knew who was speaking) that it would be about the coming of Link Light Rail and the like, but I got a lot out of it anyway. Metro runs the largest vanpool fleet in the nation, and Community Transit and Pierce Transit run the second and third biggest fleets. We do it right up here. Blumenthal showed off the new Rideshare software they’ve introduced.

John Mauro followed that with a discussion of the practical and perceptual challenges for bike commuting and what we can do to optimize our companies and cities for it.

The afternoon session’s subjects were marketing in a green economy, water conservation, and energy efficiency and conservation. I attended the marketing session and found it overflowing with useful information. Stephen McCloskey, faculty at Shoreline Community College, spoke a torrent on the difference between green and “greenwashing,” or claiming to be green without actually doing anything green. He explained the “triple bottom line” that includes success as part of the community and success in environmental action with the narrower financial success, and ended with “The Four Cs”: Customer solutions (relationship), Customer cost (total--psychological, societal, environmental, and price), Communication (2-way), and Convenience, then handed off to Tracey Warren of Ready, Set, Grow.

Warren told us all about marketing via social media sites--Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all. She stressed that it was all about building a community, and to do that you must really be there and not rely only on auto-updating services. You also have the chance to search all the complaints people have made about your company and research your customers’ public information to serve them better. I have to say, social media marketing is greener on the face of it than "old-school" marketing since it doesn’t rely on sending out thousands of pieces of paper with little chance of return.

The main room in the Student Center was lined with almost two dozen exhibitors, ranging from Enviro Stars small business green certification and Barefoot Imprint natural and recycled promotional goods to Carter Subaru “On The Road to Carbon Neutral” and Irons Brothers Construction, with the city, college, utilities, banks, and other organizations rounding it out. Oh, and Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Patch was there, too!

I’m hoping we won’t have to wait another three years for a third conference, because I consider this one a real success and I’m certain as it helps Shoreline and Lake Forest Park prosper many more businesses will want to participate.