NewsBytes: Green Conference, Standards, Cars (Diesel) and… Sam’s Club?
1) PME Enterprises, founder of the M2W and M2Moms conferences have entered the green space! Their first annual Good and Green Conference will be held in Chicago, November 29th and 30th. If you need insights on how to integrate environmental awareness/sustainability throughout your brand so that consumers see you talking and walking in the same direction - check it out. (Full disclosure: I am on the advisory council and hope to see you there.)
2) Pay attention to any underground, blogger rumblings about sustainable standards and marketing you hear (especially anything called SMART© Certified
Sustainable Standards). A recently launched informal council, spearheaded by Mary Hunt, author of In Women We Trust, will only grow louder with the added force of female bloggers and consumers signing on. Check out this thorough post by Elana Centor of Blogher, which refers to the very cool "One in a Million" effort launched by Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse, and shares the many other things we discussed on a conference call last week.
3) Clean diesel has come to town. As reported by Mark Landler (reg. required) in today’s New York Times, if the Frankfurt Motor Show is any indication, hybrids may have to move over: "Betting that diesel power will become an alternative to the hybrids popularized by Toyota and other Japanese carmakers, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen all plan to sell new diesel automobiles in the United States in the coming year, and many of them are on show here."
4) Sam’s Club has gone green in pretty impressive ways (well, at least one store has). According to an article by Kimberly Morrison in The Morning News (Arkansas), more efficient lighting methods were one key: "Inside the store, 219 skylights are coupled with a high efficiency
lighting system that adjusts artificial light according to how much
natural light comes through the skylights. This system is called ‘light
harvesting’ and uses less electricity while generating less heat.
Similarly, high-efficiency LED lighting can be found throughout the
store, and motion-sensored lighting at the freezer and cooler units
helps conserve energy." The store even got the Sierra Club seal of approval.
