Community IT Innovators. Established 1993. Serving social mission organizations with integrated technology services you can trust.

Last week, CITI attended the Green Business Summit and awards event at the Omni Shoreham Hotel hosted by the Washington Business Journal. Thanks to the efforts of Brian McIntee, our CFO, and Katherine Mowers, Senior Project Manager, CITI was a 2009 finalist for an award in the Innovation category for implementing green IT practices and significantly reducing energy consumption at our office. George Washington University took home the award for innovation, but they clearly deserved it for their efforts in reducing the amount of waste left behind by students at the end of each term, so it made the disappointment of not receiving the award a little bit easier to take.

At the green business summit, there were panels of experts addressing a wide range of sustainability efforts, from HR best practices like telecommuting and recycling, to videoconferencing and remote monitoring, to less painful financial audits. While these may sound like a bunch of unrelated topics, the underlying narrative for most of their discussions involved sharing their customers’ interest in making the world a better place or attracting the best talent by being the kind of business that values sustainability just as much as everything else.

Among the panelist were John Friedman, representing the Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SBNOW), and Scott Pomeroy of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, who gave SBNOW and CITI a shout-out for the green business certification process where we earned the highest Green Pillar level certification.

Susan Cunningham, Director of Sustainability Consulting and LEED AP at Gensler, presented a compelling argument for a green development framework for any businesses that focuses on:

• Operating Savings
• Stewardship of resource (or asset value)
• Brand
• Productivity

Susan, as well others, talked about people-driven businesses, knowing the full extent of the expertise you have in the room, and establishing a good measurement practice as keys to a successful green development framework.

Tom Russo, Chief Technology Officer at Akridge, talked about how he practiced his “green pitch” on his elementary school kids under the assumption that if his kids could understand the value of taking something old and combining it with something new, than the average CEO shouldn’t have too much trouble embracing the concept of sustainability within their organization.

With all of the different ways that folks are becoming greener, from the zero waste movement, to climate legislation battling through a maze of opposition, to new green EPEAT rankings for IT equipment, where does a green IT solution fit it? Give us a call. We’d be happy to talk with you about it!

There was a large, organized conversation called an “Unconference” in Washington, DC recently. The purpose? To get innovative-thinking people from business, nonprofit and public sectors talking seriously and collaborating on ideas, policy direction and practical solutions on a variety of good business practices for an environmentally sustainable future … all this based in a hope that such conversations may lead to action of sizable leaps. The Environmental Defense Fund and Ashoka co-hosted the event on June 11 at Google’s offices. Quick note:  an Unconference has no agenda when you show up – the participants create the topics (a facilitator gets you going), host the sessions and drive the direction of the conference.

Here are a few highlights:

• Smart grid: Have you heard of this? Also called the “energy internet”. The idea is that your home or organization’s electricity use could be at your fingertips, in real-time, which would enable us all to see information and that will help us make different choices about our energy use. Right now even the utility company has to send someone to read the meter. But what if you could see the results of the meter anytime of day, via the internet in as close to real-time as possible? Here is a demo of a power meter Google is developing.

• Green certifications: We want and understand the need for a 3^rd party credible certification, and  there are many certification programs developing. What are common standards? How do you know which one to go for? Conversation on this topic popped-up several times during the event.

• What is the purpose of business?: Does business exist only to only make a profit? Or does it have a greater mission, one that is concerned about how it can contribute to the social fabric of our communities and environment? This topic came up in more than one session. For Community IT Innovators we are a voice for the latter, that business exists for a greater social mission and is responsible for considering the environment in its operations, with profit-making as a means to support its greater mission … it’s this greater mission that drives what we each do every day.

• Innovation is asymmetric: How are problems solved? Oftentimes it’s the people on the periphery, not the actual persons trying to solve the problem – it’s when the problem solvers reach out to their nearest colleagues, who have some insight into the topic, who can really help bring about the solutions. And people recognize each other as innovators, not just for the their innovations (no matter what field or specialty one may have). In this way, innovators across disciplines can help each other.

• Green metrics — benchmarks and standards: The details of what businesses, nonprofits and the public sector are measuring, and on what standards we base these on, really varies. From one company to another in the same sector (even competitors) are not reporting the same metrics. Green metrics are being tracked – this is a good thing – there was a sense in multiple conversations that for the benefit of the public and other key stakeholders, we need to move towards having some standards for green metrics.

Our hope it that these and other important topics will be carried further along by innovative thinkers in the Boston, Austin and San Jose ‘Green Innovation for Business Unconferences’. We will be awaiting further communication from the Unconference hosts about next steps, possibly involving working groups, that can get to working on actionable steps.

Notes from the Washington, DC  Green Innovation for Business Unconference are available here if you wish to peruse them.

Community IT Innovators will be donating 10 hours of strategy consulting to PowerMundo, the winning team in the William James Foundation’s Socially Responsible Business Plan competition. On Friday, March 20, the William James Foundation hosted a finalist competition and awards ceremony, where the top three finalists competed. The final three teams each selected from a pool of prizes in order of finish.  We are happy to be one of the top choices of the top finisher, and one of more than 20 socially responsible businesses helping the foundation grow the next generation of social entrepreneurs.  We are excited to work with PowerMundo to provide technology and online strategy consulting to help them reach more communities.

PowerMundo grabbed the crowd’s attention and impressed the judges with their business plan to market and distribute affordable, sustainable gadgets to bring solar-powered light, radio communications, and other modern conveniences to poor communities in Peru, with the products distributed and sold by members of the communities they serve.  The business will make available clean technologies to replace kerosene lamps and indoor cooking fires, improving the quality of life for people in developing areas and reducing pollution. They will work with micro-finance institutions to create economic opportunities for individuals interested in selling the goods. Michael Callahan, principal, did a great job of telling their story, personalizing their business idea with the story of Maria, a vendor in a community in Peru where they tested their business plan, and showing a variety of the solar-powered lights and other tools that they make available.

Two other finalists, Black Oak Venture Capitalists, who plan to conserve agricultural land as a financial investment opportunity, and First Earth, who plan to support indigenous communities and sustainable agriculture, presented their plans as well. Seeing the finalists, panel discussions on social entrepreneurship, and talking with other socially responsible business leaders made for an inspiring and enjoyable occasion.