San Francisco Green Business Conference Version 2008

As we walked into the San Francisco Green Business Conference 2008, our expectations rose just a tad when we spied not only the recycling, landfill and compost bins (with Biobags) but also fair trade coffee and organic tea which may seem insignificant but first impressions mean a lot. As is the case with many Green festivals, summits, etc in the Bay Area that a significant percentage of attendees hailed from the local region however it we enjoyed seeing representation and discussion from people in “red” states.

With the economy on just about everyone’s mind, the green business conference made for timely discussion. A panel of Jay Harris, publisher of the still independent Mother Jones, Adrienne Brown (Executive Director, The Ruckus Society) and Paul Ray of Integral Partnerships, discussed the how the recent election will effect the green marketplace which included intriguing topics about “affordable green.” A lot of people (us included) think that with people watching their dollars even more closely that the green economy suffer a downturn. That’s exactly why we need to spend more to dig us out of the hole. However, the green economy isn’t a silver bullet. If it was then businesses such as Whole Foods wouldn’t be experiencing a downturn in profits.

We enjoy numbers and video clips as much as most human beings (maybe even more) so one of the later discussion led by Mitch Baranowski (BBMG) and David Lubensky of Bagatto raised our awareness. These markets awareness gurus discussed, among other things, how “green” is the new “new and improved” and that with all of the green product and service claims, the public wants to see specifics rather than the general generic green claims that appear to have become more prevalent. One particular video clip struck a chord with us clip of a woman in a Midwest supermarket reading an ingredient label. This “box-turner” picked up a product, scanned the label and uttered, “An inch of ingredients, how bad could that be?” For us and many of the green business attendees, that inch spoke volumes.