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As 2010 draws to a close, GreenBiz asked executives from a range of companies -- all of whom have been featured in the news this year -- to tell us about their most exciting green prospects, the challenges and the changes they anticipate for 2011, and what they think 2011 will look like from the perspective of 2012. Here's what they told us.
What are you most excited about for 2011?
David Wilkerson, Corporate Director of Sustainability and Product Stewardship, Residential Division, Shaw Industries
We are eager to see the commercial market recovery trend that we experienced in the last half of 2010 continue. We are continuing to invest in innovative solutions for attacking the 3.5 billion pounds of post-consumer carpet waste that goes to landfills each year. In addition to our flagship Evergreen Recycling Facility, we recently launched Re2E, a reclaim to energy facility that will convert post-consumer carpet waste to steam energy and electricity to run a carpet manufacturing facility. We are expanding our purified carpet pellet production, which allows us to convert post-consumer carpet to other products, such as automobile parts. And lastly, we will continue to expand our carpet to carpet initiatives.
Joseph Danko, Director of Sustainable Solutions, CH2M HILL
With our current executive leadership and the tenacity and focus of our Collaborative Working Group we have been able to create new business opportunity areas, develop new technologies and form new business constructs that we couldn't even see before. This has been made possible by leveraging our resources through the company, integrating expertise between our business groups and enabling innovation by creating diverse and focused teams. The platform and focus we have developed in 2010 has positioned us for significant additional growth in sustainable solutions throughout the firm in 2011.
Tim Carey, Director of Sustainability and Technology, PepsiCo Americas Beverages
Continuing to watch a growing number of consumers make buying decisions based on a product's and company's environmental commitments and performance. Consumers have the power to make incredible change in the world and we're excited for them to help us make a positive impact.
Terry Yosie, President and CEO, World Environment Center
There are so many opportunities to generate progress through unique partnerships across the public, private and NGO sectors in all regions of the world. The ability to expand learning and creativity to solve practical problems in specific locations is very rewarding on a personal and professional level. A related source of excitement is to experience how intelligent and motivated people/organizations “get it” and can achieve impacts disproportionate to their size. I’m a great believer in non-linear thinking that is applied outside the context of existing decision making methods and hierarchies. Sustainable “coalitions of the willing” that emerge more-or-less spontaneously through self-generated networks possess an authenticity and skill sets that can frequently solve on-the-ground problems more effectively than larger and more established organizations.
Let's just hope that 2011
Let's just hope that 2011 will see less things that are harming our planet, and more things invented and used in the hopes of making it better.
I am excited because
I am excited because something very promising is birthing, and our community is at the front: http://erikvanlennep.com/the-shift-hits-the-fan. Discuss! How can we get better organized to add momentum?
I am excited that new funding
I am excited that new funding mechanisms are finally going to enable developers to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries. Up to 2011 promising waste conversion technologies (as defined by the DOE and USDA) were unable to raise sufficient investment capital to match loan guarantee requirements. That is slowly changing.
The importance is that we will start to see regional facilities that can convert post-recyclables, beetle kill, forest salvage and thinnings, hurricane knockdown, and ag residues into alternative fuels and biomass power to replace fossil energy. New crops, reforestation, and cultivation practices will develop to make energy production sustainable while protecting environmental interests (soil, water, air, and species diversity). The result... less dependence on foreign oil, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions by major sources, cleaner air and water, less mining and drilling, and waste-to-energy development in urban areas to displace the need for landfills.