Gil Friend’s Blog
The mysteriously elusive sustainability business case (and where to find it)
I presented the opening keynote recently at the Communitelligence conference, Communicating Sustainability 2010: Integrating Social Responsibility Into Your Organization's DNA, held at Applied Materials HQ in Santa Clara, California. Why the "mysteriously elusive...
A comment about comments
Since I really want to hear from you, dear reader, I just loosened the reins for comments on this site. The result: 50 spam comments over night. The result of that: I've restored comment settings to "Authenticated commenters only," so you'll have to go through that...
4 Qs for Q4: A Sustainability Checklist to Finish the Year and Plan the Next
How much will your business need to change in the coming years? Will you be one of the many caught in a reactive, last-minute scramble to adapt? Or will you chart a strategic course that enables you to survive as an organization, profit your shareholders and...
What the German Military, the DOD & 29 of the World’s Largest Companies Have to Say About Peak Oil & the Sustainability Business Case
[From News from Natural Logic, Oct 2010] You may not have seen this study from the German military think tank has analyzed how "peak oil" might change the global economy. You should. According to Spiegel Online: The study... uses sometimes-dramatic language to depict...
Some favorite quotes and words of wisdom
Early Presidio MBA grad Maryline Daviaud Lewett recently invited students and faculty to share their favorite quotes. She kicked us off with: "For in the end, we will conserve only that which we love; we will love only that which we understand; and we will understand...
Developing world’s bold constitutional steps toward a greener future
From Ode: Environmental progress looks south In 2008, Ecuador became the first nation in the world to enshrine the rights of nature in its constitution. The document now asserts that nature "has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles,...
Dealing with Downturns
Some people wonder whether business will (or should) slack off on sustainability investments during this lingering economic "downturn". Here's what Warren Buffett had to say in a previous cycle (2001): I'm sure we are in a recession, probably a relatively deep and...
Upcoming Presentations & Events
Here are some of the key places I'll be speaking over the next few months. I hope you'll join me if you can -- and invite me to speak at your next event! Keynote: Sustainable Energy: Pathways, Policies and Pitfalls Association of Energy Engineers annual conference...
“When in the Course of human events…”
Worth reading today. Out loud. In its entirety. Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the...