Tag Archives: business

Episode 46 Mahesh Ramanujam

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The statistics of the U.S. Green Building Council and the global movement that it helped spawn are almost beyond belief, especially for me as its founder and first CEO, going back to October 1992 when I set out to begin working on its start-up in San Francisco.

This week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast features an interview with Mahesh Ramaujam, USGBC’s new President and CEO. He took over late last year from Rick Fedrizzi, who now heads of the Well Building Standard.

In our conversation, we learn of the unprecedented stats of USGBC and about Mahesh’s agenda for continuing to make the organization a global leader and as he says, “relevant.” His three areas for continued excellence include:

  • driving consensus
  • innovative business strategies
  • authentic thought-leadership
  • the business case for a sustainable built environment

During our conversation, I got goose bumps when Mahesh quoted: “If you love something, set it free.” You’ll also learn more about that and how USGBC is now engaging the lowest 20% of buildings to go green.

To boosting triple-bottom-line profitability through our buildings and homes!

David Gottfried

Episode 31 Rob Bennett

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“Just, resilient and sustainable neighborhoods are imperative for environmental, social and economic health. Yet business, as usual, is a brick and mortar linear machine that doesn’t embrace the totality of urban life,” according to Rob Bennett a recognized leader in the sustainable cities movement.

Our cities have significant economic displacement and marginalization, resulting in health disparities and environmental degradation.

I’m excited for you to meet Rob Bennett in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. Rob is the Founder and CEO of EcoDistricts. He has more than 20 years of experience shaping municipal sustainable development projects and policy and considers himself a civic entrepreneur. Rob served as the City of Portland’s Executive Director of its Sustainability Institute.

It’s imperative that we not only better understand the relative vibrancy of our neighborhoods, but help to make them prosper on a triple-bottom-line basis. But where do we start? EcoDistricts is providing the blueprint and inspiration.

Please join me in learning about EcoDistricts and their new framework for collaboration and integration of the whole neighborhood in my Regen360 podcast interview with Rob Bennett.

-David

PS: The mission of my Regen360 podcast show is to find active solutions that ignite progress and inspire transformation. Learn about how to evaluate and build your neighborhood into a flourishing ecodistrict. And if you’re digging my podcasts, please leave a review comment in iTunes and send me a note. I’d love to get your feedback.

Episode 24 Hunter Lovins

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I remember the first time I met Hunter Lovins. We were on a joint trip to China, invited by a group sponsored by the mayor of Shanghai. Our mission was to help brainstorm the future sustainability of a city that wanted to double in size in about ten years, adding the equivalent density of San Francisco.

On the morning of the first day we boarded a bus to tour the old city, where they’d started to tear down many of the historic structures for their growth on steroids. I looked over at a woman standing next to Amory Lovins, who I’d met before at a few early U.S. Green Building Council meetings at the renowned Rocky Mountain Institute, one of the foremost environmental NGO think tanks in the world, which Hunter cofounded.

She had on a large black cowboy hat, pointed red and black cowboy boots and a large thick oval metal belt buckle securing her thick brown leather belt around her dark blue jeans. Long braided brownish blonde hair hung down over a checkered pink and white flannel shirt. She looked fit and strong. Later I learned that Hunter was an active rodeo barrel racing champion.

During our intensive US/China brainstorms on how to mitigate the environmental impact of the massive development plans for Shanghai and decades later of good work and interactions, I’ve come to admire Hunter’s prolific mind and passion for nurturing business and capitalism to solve our ecological problems in a win-win.

In this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show, Hunter says, “It has become really apparent that there is a business case for sustainability. Activists used to think that it was simply a moral imperative that we would lose life as we know it on the planet, and that remains true, but what has changed… is that companies have realized that when you behave more responsibly to people and the planet, you make more money. Surprise!”

Hunter has an incredible background. She’s president of Natural Capitalism Solutions and has been a professor of sustainable business at several MBA programs. She’s an author of more than 14 books, global keynote speaker, and Hero of the Planet award winner by Time Magazine. Hunter was Rocky Mountain Institute’s CEO for strategy and has a law degree.

It’s my pleasure to invite you to listen in to our conversation as Hunter Lovins and I discuss the future of business and our planet in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show.