President-Elect Barack Obama stands a better chance of advancing a green agenda in his first 100 days in office if he can mobilize the country around environmental issues and tie green initiatives to economic recovery, according to a panel discussion at the GreenBiz-Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Leadership Dinner Thursday.

Businesses must also address societal problems by incorporating sustainability into economic policies and focusing on long-term solutions, according to a panel of experts gathered on the opening day of the Business for Social Responsibility conference.

Senate Bill 375 opens a new front in the state’s battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: land use.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) begins auctioning off permits today for the carbon dioxide that can be produced by more than 200 electricity generators in 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. The event comes on the heels of a key development of the Western Climate Initiative, another cap-and-trade plan being pushed by seven states and four Canadian provinces.

Banking and software company Misys launched the "carbon management equivalent to TurboTax" this week at the Corporate Climate Response conference in Chicago. The Open Carbon World portal also offers policy news, a community forum, carbon library and carbon Wiki to bring companies up to speed on carbon and help them enter the market.

It's an evolving practice filled with pitfalls and the expense of accurately measuring product carbon footprints across supply chains spanning continents. If companies can clear that hurdle, they then face the challenge of conveying the information's significance to a general public that doesn't yet understanding its meaning.

Eight wineries will buy renewable energy credits as part of a program called Green My Vino, a Facebook application that lets users lead the charge.

FoodServiceWarehouse.com launches its Going Green Program today for restaurant operators interested in meeting LEED standards, or scaling back operating costs at a time when rising energy and food prices are threatening profit margins.