everything coming up green

Ever since I started working on the HP project, it seems like the only thing I can read about relative to corporate efforts is the Environment. For instance, I just glanced at the newest (March 5) FORTUNE. There is an interview with the 32 year-old CEO of a company that supplies more solar power to US companies than any other. There is a whole section on sustainable forestry that has ads from Waste Management, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and other organizations touting their environmentally-friendly businesses. Haas has already won two business case competitions this year relating to triple-bottom-line businesses. Richard Branson, the world's favorite mogul, has just announced that he's donating $25mm (albeit in very small steps) to any individual who can come up with a working remedy for removing at least 1B tons of carbon dioxide each year from the Earth's atmosphere. HP has joined a couple of tech consortiums that are actively trying to reduce the amount of energy required by its servers, and has already had success with smart cooling technologies that appeal to customers with high power bills. The Economist keeps me updated about progress on green technologies and environmental groups' progress in Europe. And An Inconvenient Truth just won Best Documentary at the 79th Oscars.

The list could go on and on - it's just part of the developed world's DNA to be talking about climate change right now. Not sure that anyone on his own has developed a solution per se, but it certainly has be thinking about (a) the importance of recommending some action on Environment for HP; (b) the potential to do something related to Climate Change for our final project in this class. Certainly there is a happiness angle on it, though it might not be intuitive at first. One, people will be happy if they pay less for power. Two, they will be happy knowing that they are reducing the Earth's footprint (can back this up with data). Third, and possibly most interesting, climate change means different things to different people...which means that we as b-school students can add some value to the "debate" (not sure why there is debate...really have to figure out how much of that is political rhetoric vs. science) by showing certain insights and creative analysis of what's important to people. Very tired right now after coming home from class but will think more on this later.