We have finished up our participation in GreenBeat 2009 conference on the Smart Grid.  Vantage Communications was a strategic partner for the event, which provided me with a unique view of a major green conference that I would like to share.

1. “VentureBeat is doing its first green conference. Would Vantage be interested in participating?” Andie Rhyins, Publisher of VentureBeat

Actually, I answered yes, before Andie finished the question.  I knew if VentureBeat was putting together a show, this was a rare opportunity to be part of an important event from the beginning.  As the first GreenBeat event, we had a clean sheet of paper and the opportunity to provide a defining voice for marketing and PR that would help attract attendees, sponsors and speakers. It also was a bit scary knowing that our white board scribble and initial PowerPoints needed to be made into a conference with topics, speakers, attendees and press in very short order.

2. “Fw: Al Gore has agreed to come to GreenBeat” Matt Marshall

This was the header of a late Friday e-mail at the end of August. In less than 10 words, the bar had been raised for everybody. It also meant that we had to rethink our media outreach for the show. You may be asking why a conference run by a highly influential blog needs to do outreach to other media?  Part of the attraction of a conference for high-level speakers is the ability to reach a large number of highly influential people. Approximately 500 people attended GreenBeat in person. However, the number of people that read about the show can be in the hundreds of thousands. While VentureBeat does provide in depth coverage of the show to its readership, it is important to maximize awareness by being seen and heard on multiple channels. Media coverage for GreenBeat inlcuded the New York Times, CNET and Earth2Tech which has an aggregate audience in the millions. Immediately following the show, Techmeme  had VentureBeat ranked #5 of the sources most frequently posted to Techmeme.  This  was a higher ranking than even the New York Times.

3. “My name is Jim Rogers and I’m one of the speakers” Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy

What as particularly impressive about GreenBeat is that despite the large number of high profile speakers and attendees, there was virtually no attitude or hubris. The CEO of Duke Energy attended without entourage, and the above quote is how he introduced himself. He made himself available to anyone who wanted to talk with him. Vinod Khosla was in the lobby for much of the morning available to talk to anyone. In his talk, John Doerr gave his e-mail and invited start ups to send him business plans. I attend many conferences and I never have seen a friendlier conference than GreenBeat. This is a real testament to Matt and the GreenBeat team. I look forward to seeing you at GreenBeat 2010.

Last week, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Washington, DC. This particular episode of Extreme Makeover featured the remodeling of both a house and a community center/school. I got an all-access, behind-the-scenes pass, thanks to a VIP invite from my client, Serious Materials. Its super-insulating SeriousWindows were selected for use in both projects.

Extreme Makeover’s energy goals for these two projects – a near net-zero home and community center – will provide both the Tripp family and The Fishing School with efficient homes and lower bills. With input and guidance from the Department of Energy (DOE) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a DOE Laboratory, each project was designed with advanced energy-efficient materials and serve as examples for cost-effective near net-zero energy building design.

It was great to see so many people volunteering for an amazing family and an amazing organization right in my backyard. And to see that sustainable design was at the forefront of the project really showed me that green building isn’t just a buzzword; it’s here to stay. One of our friends, Tara Taffera of Door & Window Manufacturer Magazine joined us on-site on Tuesday. You can read her thoughts here. We also met up with Lee Patrick Sullivan of Clean Skies News. Robin Roy, VP of Projects & Policy of Serious Materials, discussed the super-efficient windows with Patrick outside the house on Tuesday.

Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited the site of The Fishing School to see the progress of the projects designed with guidance from Chu and his team at the DOE, which will ultimately serve as examples of near net-zero energy buildings.

And while I didn’t meet Ty Pennington, I did meet Paul Dimeo! All in all, a good week!

With Michelle Obama planting the first vegetable garden in the White House, we too increasingly focusing on the role of food in our environment. However, most of us do not understand what is required to produce the food we eat and make it readily available to us day in and day out.

For example, we no longer have to wait until June to get those early season strawberries. Today, we enjoy year-round what was once considered a seasonal fruit. This convenience is something we enjoy without knowing the severe negative impacts it has on our environment. I will bet that you did not know that our food system uses 19% of all fossil fuels, the highest consumption, second only to cars.

Why not take a first step by more carefully choosing our daily food? Here is an interesting low-carbon diet quiz on Facebook provided by Bon Appetit – http://apps.facebook.com/bonappetitquiz/. Next time when you have to choose between a green salad and a Caesar salad, you will know whether or not they have roughly the same carbon footprint.

Environmental organizations are also raising consciousness on the environmental effects on the food chain.  For example, The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is launching the Growing Green Awards to recognize the contributions of people who have demonstrated leadership in the field of sustainable food. Winners of the “Going Green Award”  will be announced at the annual NRDC San Francisco benefit on May 9, 2009.

Vantage is proud to be partnering with Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) to publicize this event.  E2 is a national community of individual business leaders who advocate for good environmental policy while building economic prosperity. Stay tuned to learn more about growing green.

Update: Thanks to everyone who participated and viewed our speaker panel discussing “Sustainable Innovation in a Recession” via our Live Stream and at our San Francisco Earth Day event on April 16, 2009 .  We will be posting videos of the panel discussion here on Vantage Points. So please bookmark and check back.

More details can be found here: Celebrating Earth Day – Vantage Style

Live streaming video by Ustream

Most people assume green building is expensive. An interesting post about a recent study published by Good Energies, a global energy efficiency and renewable energy investment company, shows some surprising conclusions about green building costs:

The built environment has a profound impact on the economy and the earth. If you haven’t checked out the website of our client, Serious Materials lately, click on over for some interesting facts on the built environment: 

“The ‘built environment’ is responsible for 52% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – which compares to only 9% for cars and light trucks. We can slash that number by re-engineering common products that use or lose the most energy. And local plants will create thousands of green-collar jobs here in the U.S., further reducing carbon footprints.”

With the economic outlook for 2009 looking just as gloomy as the latter part of 2008, it does seem like a lousy time to be touting construction and the like.  But while some industries may be looking for a bailout, green building is on the rise. And that’s not just good for the environment. It makes economic sense too.

I just left GreenBuild in Boston, where our clients Serious Materials and IES were exhibiting. The attendance appeared to be down from last year, but Vendors were saying that the quality of leads were up. Obviously, that is a good thing. Despite the down economy, business is still booming in green!

While there were some great companies there promoting fabulous products, there was also a lot of greenwashing going on. This really doesn’t surprise me, as companies want to jump on the market that seems to be making money right now.

But I would caution companies that this might not be the best solution, your customers will usually see through this. Editors almost always see through it, and will undoubtedly either not cover you, or cover you in a less than favorable way. I would focus on the benefits your product really does have and promote those. Think about what really makes you different than your competitors. Nowadays, NOT greenwashing just may set you apart.

The election results provide some insight into the key trends for cleantech and Green PR.

Barack Obama stated “there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy….That’s going to be my No.1 priority when I get into office.” According to Katie Fehrenbacher of Earth2Tech, “if Obama delivers on some of his pledges, he has the potential to bring significant federal support of clean technologies, a unified international fight against climate change and a necessary buildout of U.S. energy infrastructure.” This would provide many opportunities for companies in the greentech space. Of course, there is a risk of the creation of a cleantech bubble.

Here in California, the cleantech outlook was cloudier. Two propositions that would have provided government support for alternative energy initiatives were defeated. However, their defeat should be a bellweather that ultimately will be positive for the public and something that people in the Cleantech and Green PR space need to take into account (if they haven’t done so already).

Each of these propositions had flaws that led to their defeat. Chris Morrison of Venturebeat commented, “California has come out as the United States’ clear leader in cleantech, so the careful consideration, and then rejection, of this bill by the solidly liberal, pro-renewable voting base of California could be a sign that voters are quickly coming to grips with the actual issues surrounding the industry, as opposed to blindly voting for or against measures based on fear of global warming or energy prices.”

Three months ago, Kendall Wayland posted about the backlash against greenwashing. The lesson from Election Day is that credibility is more important than labels. A more knowledgeable public means that claims about green technologies and their benefits need to be backed up. It means that education and thought leadership are now more important than ever. This is an approach that Vantage and our clients have jointly practiced in our green PR efforts. We are proud of the coverage that has been generated through these efforts.

This election has the ability to be an important first step adoptiing cleaner technologies and fighting climate change. With this opportunity, comes a responsbility to make sure that green pr accurately communicates the science and capabilities of cleantech technologies. It won’t be easy. But, yes we can.