West Coast GREEN: Thinking Differently

Not a week goes by in my professional or personal life where I don't meet someone new exploring sustainable living, about to attend a 'green' conference or more commonly, I discover that an existing friend or business contact has moved from traditional tech into all things green.

A friend from CNET recently migrated to Building Green TV, a girlfriend left a global branding company she founded to re-build a home in Marin that embraces green design and construction practices, and a former Wired News reporter bud is now a co-founder of Matter Network, which examines the strategies, technologies and products that are powering the shift to a sustainable economy. And that's just the beginning.

And why not? There are certainly a ton of opportunities.

Gore's book and movie have certainly raised awareness about the issues at hand and his outward-bound PR campaign to change the way people think about global warming and other green-related issues seems to be paying off.

Clearly, he's not the only one encouraging Americans and the rest of the world to think differently. Plus, we have new political candidates adding all things green to their campaign pitches, much more aggressively than they did four and eight years ago.

West Coast Green was in full force in San Francisco the past few days. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was on the speaker list, as were many experts on green building and sustainable living. Some of the topics included: solutions for climate change, lifecycle building challenges, an unusual look at green 'buildings,' global ecology, hatching a green building business, intersection of sustainability and spirituality (right up my alley), as was harmony, beauty and sacred geometry.

They also addressed the business side (also up my alley), such as cost effective techniques for green building, planning and land development, and greening project management. They held a panel on green solar as well as a business transformation boot camp (gotta love it), as well as a session led by David Rousseau called 'getting your green projuct funding.' 

And if you're in the Bay Area, check out EcoTuesdays and GreenDrinks. Don't dismiss the opportunities here.