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.

Why should the media and bloggers have a monopoly in recapping last year’s events? Though most Vantge Points posts are about thought leadership, we want to get in on the action too. So here is the very first Vantage Communications Year in Review.

Despite a very challenging economic environment, it was a year of continued success for our clients as well as for our agency. Some of the 2008 highlights are recapped below: 

1. We re-launched the company as Vantage Communications with a new website and our Vantage Points Blog. 

2. 10 new clients joined our client family. This reflected strong growth in green building PR and social media.  We are also proud that 10 of our clients have been with us for over 2 years.

3. Multiple clients received recognition as recipients of elite awards including Wall Street Journal’s 2008 Technology Innovation Award,Aspen Institute for Innovation in Energy Conservation, Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 50, Light Reading’s Leading Lights Award, eWeek Top 10 Products of 2008 and Popular Science Best of What’s New.
4. Vantage Communications also cleaned up on awards with the Stevie Award for Best PR Campaign and finalists for Platinum PR Award, Sabre Award and Stevie Award for Best Company.
5. Our clients were consistently featured in top tier publications. Please check out our best of coverage which includes Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, NY Times, Fast Company, Forbes, CBS, ABC, FORTUNE, WIRED, and USA Today.
6. As an innovative communications company, we’ve truly embraced social media. Our staff is active on Facebook and Twitter and 18 people contributed to Vantage Points.
7. Vantage expanded its client services to include more new media capabilities such as video production & editing and audio podcast support, completing several client projects during the year.
8. Company-wide Vantage has added new green initiatives across its offices. It is important to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

We are very proud of our 2008 accomplishments. We could not have achieved what we did without the support of our clients and the members of the Vantage ecosystem. For this, we are truly thankful. We have more innovations in store for 2009. But for now, here’s a toast to our clients, our team, our partners, and the new companies we’ll partner with in 2009!

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.