Green business in the US

How is the US faring on sustainability? Speaking at the excellent Greenbiz conference this week, in San Francisco, I had an opportunity to take the temperature. 

The folks at Greenbiz launched their ‘State of Green Business’ 2012 report. Their overall message was, that after years of upward progress, environmental issues had reached a plateau. This levelling-off was partly due to the economic gloom, and partly to the lack of progress in Washington. The bright points are clean-tech, green-power and information technology. But action has stalled in many other areas, and with legislative gridlock, climate change is sliding down the corporate agenda.

Other themes where I picked up a real buzz were: smart cities, with California in the vanguard; green product design, with the aim of making such products truly aspirational; and local manufacturing, enabled by new technology and supported by both environmental and job concerns.

However, the strongest impression of all is the incredible ideological polarisation. Climate change has long moved beyond rational debate; and even clean-tech is becoming a dirty word in many circles. Which makes me think that the work we are doing to make mainstream business more sustainable is probably the best way forward at the moment.