Greener By Design is now in the books, a highly successful two-day event last week. We were grateful for the high-quality audience, top-notch speakers, generous sponsors, and all of the others who contributed to the rave reviews we've been getting.

If you were one of the unlucky ones, there's plenty of reports and blog posts left behind, from my opening remarks and William McDonough's opening keynote to the closing panel on designing for energy efficiency. In between are nearly a dozen other reports, all found here. In the coming days, we'll post video excerpts and other resources.

Meanwhile, the world of green business goes on. And on.

I'm Lovin' It. One of the more impressive documents I've seen come out of corporate America lately is one from McDonald's. Yes, the burger-and-fries folks. (I'm well aware that praising McDonald's not popular among the green set, but that's never been a driver for me.) Last week, the fast-food chain published a booklet documenting more than 80 green practices from locations and operations worldwide. Having followed McDonald's environmental activities for twenty years, I knew about some of these. (In the early 1990s, the company documented more than a hundred waste-reduction activities it had undertaken, the most prominent of which was banishing the polystyrene foam hamburger packaging.) But many were new to me.

Example: The company had been unable to source potatoes from India despite the fact that India is the third-largest potato-growing country. Farmers there simply couldn't produce high-quality potatoes due to outdated farming and irrigation practices. By working with its supplier there to teach farmers how to use high-efficiency irrigation and other techniques, McDonald's helped producers there grow the crop with far less water. And the company is now sourcing potatoes locally, shipping far shorter distances, cutting energy use and greenhouse gases. 

In another instance, after Greenpeace published a report indicating that the soy used to feed McDonald's chickens could be contributing to Amazon deforestation, McDonald's Brazil worked with the activist group to commit to a zero-deforestation plan, including a two-year moratorium by farmers on producing and sourcing soy from newly deforested land. The ban has since been extended.

It's a good read -- dozens of brief examples -- and offers insight and inspiration about how a behemoth can address its many environmental challenges by engaging with stakeholders, local governments, and its own teams on the ground to find appropriate solutions in nearly every corner of the globe.

Harvard in San Francisco? On June 4, I'll be giving an evening lecture at the Harvard Club of San Francisco, part of the group's Clean Tech Thought Leader Series. The event is open to the public. Information and tickets here.

This guide is designed to empower current and aspiring social intrapreneurs to find ways to integrate sustainability into their day jobs.

This survey of 143 organizations from Australia, New Zealand and the United States finds that some elements of green IT practices are taking off at companies of all sizes, but as a whole there is significant room for improvement.

This highly participatory,two-day event brings together corporate and consultant sustainability professionals to explore going green from compliance to innovation.