What are the drivers for sustainability in a down economy? Why are companies still doing it?
I’ve talked to companies who aren’t spending any money they don’t absolutely have to.

Less than a one year payback should be attractive. The City of Fremont planned a lighting retrofit with a 10 month payback to start at the beginning of the fiscal year so their operating costs would be lower for the year by doing the project than by not doing it.

Why are companies doing sust. projects?
1. Cost saving
2. Risk management
3. Branding
4. Employee morale – show employees that mgmt cares; it’s not about bringing in and retaining talent at this point.

Supply chain – it’s about risk management mainly.

WalMart index – transparency index – WalMart may be being less bad by pursuing sustainability initiatives but they are still useful to the sust. Effort because they set the tone for their industry. There is power in being one of the biggest companies.
EDF Climate Core Program – Sell it as saving money by looking at energy efficiency. Find the internal advocate who’s been thinking about this. Hard to find this person because s/he may be in any number of different departments and may have different motivations for wanting to do sust projects.

Need higher level sponsorship because they set the tone for the company. Need top down support and grassroots support to be truly effective.

How do you market green now? How do you justify it to consumer?
Framing – We need to reframe issues (organic produce from a community supported agrictulture farm is cheaper than conventionally grown in the supermarket. Organic also has more vitamins and tastes better than conventionally grown produce.

Storytelling is powerful – what is cool, healthy. Keep retelling these stories.
TreeHugger is helping make the green stories cooler. We need more of the mundane everyday storytelling.