The second-annual SXSW ECO conference just wrapped up, and I am beyond excited about the people I encountered there.  (A tremendous thank you to EARTH-NT for connecting environmental and clean tech advocates in Dallas to this event.)  Something remarkable happens when you convene an international group of professionals and activists to brainstorm solutions.  Trying to break through inertia can feel like solitary work, so I’m thankful for the chance to “recharge” along with other green-minded social innovators and thought leaders. 

In the coming weeks, I will be writing on several of the many groundbreaking ideas and technologies from the conference, including:

• GIVE ETF: Philippe Cousteau’s new sustainable investment fund
• Global Water Games, a joint project of UVA, Azure Worldwide, and The Nature Conservancy
• OgilvyEarth’s Mainstream Green report on how marketers can close the green gap
• AMD’s Tim Mohin’s book, Changing Business from the Inside Out: A Treehugger’s Guide to Working in Corporations
• Dell’s Planet group, a global green team
• Washington Post environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin’s book Demon Fish
• Sustainable seafood solutions from Fish Revolution and I Love Blue Sea
  
• Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff videos, viewed over 20 million times by people in every country in the world

It’s 2050. The roads are much less crowded, and engine growls have given way to bird song. The old zoning rules have been repealed and sprawl is no longer subsidized; developers now pay the full costs they impose on public infrastructure. Workers still go to the office a few days a week, but many work from home exclusively. Fueling stations dispense biofuels and hydrogen, complementing the ubiquitous smart-charging points for electric vehicles. Clean energy has replaced fossil fuels in quantities sufficient to power society as we know it.

Such is the future described in Reinventing Fire, the Rocky Mountain Institute’s meticulously-researched manifesto on the new energy era.  Click here to read my complete article and view my interview with RMI CEO Michael Potts on Greenbiz.com.

Overdue for some eco-tourism?  Environmental advocates and social innovators would be hard pressed to find a better excuse to travel to South America than the upcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit.  Marking the anniversary of the first Earth Summit held there in 1992, the once-in-a-generation event is the latest in a series of United Nations conferences on sustainable development dating back to Stockholm in 1972.

The upcoming three-day conference will focus on building a low-carbon green economy and creating a global governance for sustainable development.  Severn Cullis-Suzuki, the 12-year old girl who silenced the world for seven minutes at Earth Summit 1992, is among the international thought leaders expected to attend. Severn’s sobering call to action, immortalized in a 1992 video, is still a relevant rallying cry for this year’s Summit.  In fact, given the leaps in technology, the issues she implored participants to address two decades ago may be much closer to workable solutions.

There is justifiable concern today over greenwashing – the intentional or misguided practice of using vague sustainability claims to market to consumers.   However, in our rush to expose the imperfect, we risk neglecting the good.  As industry heavyweights and policy wonks sort out new standards, Dallas is getting into action.  The Lone Star State may is one of America’s biggest energy consumers, but we’re also one of its biggest producers of renewable energy. This paradox makes our region extremely relevant in the sustainability discussion.

This article first appeared in Sustainable Brands.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Like most clichés, this one conveys some truth, as do words attributed to ancient Greek poet Hermesianax: “As within, so without.”  Those who have endured inner-work fully enough to enjoy the outward results will attest that self-awareness leads to empowerment, which in turn leads to voice.  Leadership, expressed through courage and contribution over passivity and disengagement, begins when we recognize our potential and accept the responsibility that goes with it.  As within, so without.

So what does this have to do with sustainability?  Everything.  Truly sustainable sustainability - the kind that occurs when a critical mass internalizes new ways of thinking and being and leverages that into organizational and societal change – begins with the transformation of individuals.

As a consultant, you get used to seeing a certain amount of slippage when a project ends.  Too frequently in change management, once key players make their exit, the momentum dies and the culture reverts to type.   However, when the type of organization you are dealing with possesses qualities of strong leadership, community spirit, and efficiency, they are capable of achieving outstanding results, even when they are continuing the project on their own.  I frequently stay connected to clients to hear their progress, but last Friday was rare.  I had the privilege of applauding my client’s success at an awards celebration, along with elected officials, top-level administrators, community leaders, and hundreds of happy children.

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization, recognized Sam Rutherford Elementary in Mesquite, Texas, as the first-place Texas state winner of “Recycle Bowl,” the first comprehensive nationwide recycling competition for K-12 students.  Teachers and students earned $1,000 in prize money for recycling a total of 19,657 pounds of recyclable material (about 38 pounds per capita).   “The amount of energy saved could power a television set for 857,000 days,” said David Feckley, Senior Regional Natural Resources Manager for Nestle Waters North America, who sponsored the contest.

Other VIPs who took the stage included Mayor of Mesquite John Monaco, Keep America Beautiful Director of Recycling Programs Kelley Dennings, and Texas State Representative Cindy Burkett.  Watching them honor this elementary school in was a proud moment.  Although I wouldn’t claim this school's win as mine, I drew enormous satisfaction from knowing that EarthPeople played a role in helping them get there.  It was an honor to be part of the visionary team - including Kathy Fonville, Water Conservation and Recycling Coordinator for the City of Mesquite, video producer Wade Odom, and many others - that helped produce the district's award-winning recycling campaign.

For many years I’ve been frustrated watching sustainable business consultants stay within the existing paradigm, position every potential green decision as narrowly dependent on whether “it meets the business case,” avoid asking the big questions (or even acknowledging there are any), and show no awareness that they—and their clients—live on, and have a stake in, endangered planet Earth.  They may quietly have known this, but were careful not to show it.  But I’m happy to detect considerable progress in the past few years, particularly in the last one and a half years, from a growing number of them.

With his article A Vision of Real Corporate Leadership on Sustainability, Andrew Winton is threatening to become the U.S. version of Europe’s Jem Bendell—far ahead of everyone else.  Fortunately, he has some competition (or in the sustainability-adapted sense: coopetition) for that role from a few other consultants.

In Triple Pundit’s recent article, “Changing Perceptions at Chevy: Feedback Please,” Eban Goldstein, a sustainability advisor to Chevrolet, requests comments on the company’s new video campaign. Judging from the first posted comment on the piece – “just more of the same bunk” - their goal of changing perceptions may prove difficult.

Still, the initiative does make GM look like a new company.  They are not just relying on the Volt.  The historical arrogance seems gone.  The company that went looking for dirt on Nader, “killed” the EV (although I think back then it was more that their heart wasn’t in it), consistently fought environmental legislation, and has been famously shortsighted, is hopefully past.  A near-death experience, combined with having to accept government investment, can do that.