Greetings!
In our last newsletter, I revealed Natural Logic's secret agenda. Along with helping our clients design, implement and measure profitable sustainability strategies, we have our eyes on a parallel agenda: To transform the economy of an entire planet. This one. In a single generation. (The good news: they actually go hand in hand.)
And, as fate would have it, I've had the opportunity to offer some policy advice along these lines to the chief executive of the fifth or eight (depending on the month) largest economy in the world, my old boss Jerry Brown. See the "Open Letter" and key policy recommendations below.
I've hinted for several months now about the forthcoming eLearning version of The Truth About Green Business. Sustainability In Practice (developed together with our partners at Tripos Software) will deliver engaging, on-demand, interactive learning right to your employees' desktops, and will be available in Q1. Let us know if you'd like to preview the courses when they're ready.
Now in its second printing, The Truth About Green Business has been called "simply the best green business book around" -- "a definitive guide," "practical, inspiring, solutions-oriented," "simple without oversimplifying," "a must-have playbook," and more. (And it's a great addition to any business school curriculum.)
Finally, a word about making change happen. Sustainability is challenging, and takes amazing performance. Oscar winners have acting coaches. Olympic athletes have performance coaches. Great singers have vocal coaches. Who's your sustainability coach? If you're interested in having one, check in here and contact me directly before the end of January for our special start-the-year-right offer.
With best wishes,
Gil Friend
President & CEO
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An Open Letter About The Next Economy
to California Governor Jerry Brown
I had the honor recently of spending an afternoon with California Governor Jerry Brown's "kitchen cabinet" on energy policy.
 I worked in Brown's Office of Appropriate Technology -- a policy incubator in the Governor's Office -- during his first administration. In part because of that experience, I'm cautiously optimistic -- about his ability and commitment to get something done in very difficult circumstances. (California's been using smoke and mirrors to kick huge budget deficits down the road for years.) And I welcome to opportunity to offer some council.
In this "open letter" to Governor Brown, here's what I'm advising he say to the people of California. (I wouldn't mind other governors borrowing from it; I don't think he would mind either. ;-) Some specific policy recommendations follow in the next article.
Fellow Californians,
I'm mostly thinking about two things these days:
1) How do we solve the financial crisis we've inherited, caused by decades of kicking the can down the road, of thinking about today at the expense of tomorrow, instead of dealing with things as adults.
2) What California is going to look like 50-100 years from now
You've heard my plan for the first. Here's my plan for the second.
The key: Investing in critical infrastructure for the economy of the 21st Century.
California's historic success -- as an economic engine, a fountain of innovation and creativity, and a mecca for millions -- came in large part from the investments we made in the critical infrastructure for the economy of the 20th Century: roads and highways, the State Water Project, a great university system.
There's a temptation in times of economic difficulty to focus on the belt-tightening and neglect the investment. Both -- belt-tightening and investment -- are necessary. We have only to look back to the investments this country made in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The WPA and CCC and other programs built, fueled as much by will as by money, built much of the infrastructure -- roads, bridges, buildings, schools, parks and more -- that we have all taken for granted. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to do that again.
There are five key components to this investment:... (Continued)
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Six Key Policy Moves for Building a Sustainable Economy
(Offered to California Governor Jerry Brown -- and whoever else might like to take up the challenge.)
Green Chemistry
California has been making world leading effort rewriting toxics regs with the inspiration of the Cradle to Cradle protocol. There's been some recent lobbying drama, but it's essential to get this one right. There's an opportunity for world-leading leverage, as we've done with AB32. There's great actual business interest (and habitual business resistance) to carve out leadership in the emerging green chemistry markets -- which will be big.
Kill pollution subsidies
In what ways does government policy -- or worse, government spending -- subsidize pollution by letting companies avoid cost and liability? If we don't know, let's find out where, and stop it. (There's a synergy possible here between fiscal conservatives and environmental progressives.) One way to address this is through extended producer responsibility (EPR). There's been recent legislation across the country, and even more recent policy proposals, including Natural Logic's EPR White Paper.
Tax shift
Institute a revenue neutral tax shift to reduce taxes on corporate and personal incomes and increase taxes on resources and pollution. AB32 is part of the story, but not enough. Key to this: eliminate or sharply limit carbon allowances to legacy producers under AB32. There will have to be a phase in (hitting them with the full charge all at once could be extremely dislocating) but there should not be a giveaway. It's not sensible -- financially or ethically.
Green business assistance
Small business, the source of innovation and jobs, lags behind business in green implementation, as a result of limited knowledge, R&D capacity, and credit. All these could be addressed by leveraged state efforts: use state agencies (business as well as "environmental" agencies) as channels of information and support to local green business certification programs; encourage financial institutions to provide bridge financing. There's a role for the University of California (and CalState University -- along the lines of the old California Energy Extension Service) in many of these.
Performance-based regulation
This is another opportunity to gain business sector support for aggressive environmental initiatives. When you get down to it, businesses don't object to "regulation" as much as they object to burdensome regulation and regulatory uncertainty. Streamlining regulation to focus wherever possible on performance rather procedure can reduce regulatory costs for government as well as for business, reduce burdensome reporting requirements and better protecting environment, health and safety, all while driving -- not constraining -- innovation. Coupled with open data initiatives, this could open the door to pioneering innovation in real time regulation and also provide a boost to California's tech industry.
Open Data
Following in the path of the US Federal Government (http://data.gov) and the British Government (http://data.gov.uk), make http://data.ca.gov a leader of the burgeoning movement for government transparency. Doing so can automate important functions of regulatory compliance (that are currently human resource intensive), dramatically reducing costs -- for both government and industry. (Cost reduction and ease of use are critical factors that will determine whether the State will be able to successfully implement and enforce AB32 and the Green Chemistry laws). As bonus benefit, data.ca.gov would further fuel new green tech innovation and jobs in Silicon Valley and throughout the state. (Disclosure: I chair a startup, Open Data Registry Inc., that holds some key enabling technology.)
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Natural Logic
designs, implements and measures profitable sustainability strategies.
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In Conversation, Feb 3:
Gil Friend & Bryan Franklin
The kickoff of our new "In Conversation" series has been rescheduled for February 3, right after the State of Green Business Forum. Please join us in San Francisco for
Cracking the Door to the C-Suite with Your Sustainability Message..
(This is the first in a series of public conversations we'll be hosting with people who are making a remarkable difference.)
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Other Events
Other upcoming events include:
Recent events have included a radio interviews with Rebecca Costa, author of The Watchman's Rattle, Dec 24 on KNVR-AM and
webstreamed here, and Betsy Rosenberg's On the Green Front Dec 29.
Check our complete speaking schedule regularly; we update the page as events break. And contact us any time for keynote speakers for your next event.
(Need some persuasion? Check out these videos of recent speeches to the Commonwealth Club and the Clean Tech Open and on our video pages at YouTube, FaceBook and Natural Logic.)
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Natural Logic:
At Your Service
Natural Logic can help you and your organization in several very specific ways:
Assess your Sustainability Plan, and help you refine it to achieve greater real world impact and greater executive buy-in.
Provide frank, "Rapid Diagnostic" assessments of your gaps and opportunities in relation to Risk, Carbon, Metrics, Operations, Capacity -- and prioritized recommendations of how you can move against them.
Develop -- and help you sell to your C-suite and Board -- a plan and budget that will catapult your sustainability initiatives to a new level.
Provide strategic briefings to help your executive leadership understand "The Mysteriously Elusive Sustainability Business Case."
Coach your sustainability team -- and company leadership -- in the personal and business practices that are essential to fulfilling the commitments that you've made -- to your board and your boss, your family, and to yourself.
Read about our Full Cycle Sustainability™ approach, and contact us today to determine which of these programs is right for you.
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