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

Did you know that if you drink one beer after work, then throw it in the recycling bin – that one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch television for three hours? It is amazing how much of a difference we can make together if each person began cleaning up their environmental habits. With Earth Day just around the corner, the Vantage Team is celebrating the changes we’ve made to help Mother Earth, and hosting bi-coastal networking events tomorrow to do so.

Both the San Francisco event – sponsored by Autodesk – and the Orlando event will feature giveaways and collect voluntary donations to benefit the Northern California and Central Florida chapters of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), respectively.

The San Francisco event will also feature a speaker panel discussing “Sustainable Innovation in a Recession,” with panelists from the USGBC-NCC, San Francisco’s Green Building Program, Forbes Magazine, Autodesk, and Serious Materials.In case you can’t make it, the panel will be streamed live right here on this blog starting at approximately7:00 pm Pacific/10:00 pm Eastern – so check back! Please tell your friends and use the buttons below to share and tweet.

So whether you’re on the East Coast or West Coast, we hope you can join us! For full details, or to RSVP, check out the following links –

San Francisco

http://earthdaysanfrancisco.eventbrite.com/

Orlando

http://earthdayorlando.eventbrite.com/

There is no way around it.   This is more than likely the worst economic climate you have lived through.   But Monday, I was inspired by a small Pennsylvania town that gave me great hope for green jobs and what it can do for America.

I was with our client, Serious Materials, and Governor Edward Rendell in a suburb of Pittsburgh – Vandergrift, Pennsylvania.   We were there to re-open a windows plant that had been closed by its previous owners and where the workers have been hired back to begin producing energy-efficient windows.

I’m not here to plug my client.   What I am here to do is to share with you the way the economy has hit in American towns across the nation, and how their spirit and determination to make a change is a great lesson for us all.   I have been working on this event for weeks and have been taken aback by the stories I’ve heard.   But as I was driving in from Pittsburgh it really hit home.

The thing that really struck me was when one of the rehired employees, Robin Scott, took the podium and talked about the green movement.  He said, “This is more than just a job to me.  It’s also doing our small part in this tiny corner of America to move this country forward, I’m not a Treehugger by any means, but even I know we have to change.  We can’t leave the world the way it is now.  So if we can get this green movement going here in Vandergrift, then that is what I wanna see!”

It doesn’t matter how or why these people became a part of the green movement, the only thing that matters is that they now embrace it.  Being green is no longer a California thing or a hippie thing, it is just the right thing to do for ourselves and the many generations that will follow us.

There has been some debate over the effectiveness of green jobs. But I’ve seen first hand the difference and the positive influence green jobs can have on our country,  on our small towns and on our environment.  Ultimately, I was inspired by the people and their drive to make a positive change. The people in Vandergrift have given me a gift – the gift of perspective.   One I will take with me for the rest of my life.

As a follow up to my post last week, it seems that national news is not the only thing people are Tweeting these days. I thought you might also be interested in some of the upcoming tradeshows that are embracing social media.

Even tradeshows in traditional brick and mortar industries like construction are jumping on the social media bandwagon.   On Friday, BUILDER Online let everyone know that they will be Tweeting throughout the 2009 International Builders’ Show (IBS):

“BUILDER Online will be there, posting daily from the press room to keep you informed about the latest products, news, and business strategies even if the travel budget doesn’t permit you attending in person this year.”

And they linked through to the social media seminar at IBS. Looks like an interesting seminar, incorporating social media into an industry tradeshow.

A few other publications at this week’s show that will be Tweeting live:

ebuild

EcoHome Magazine

Are you attending? Please keep us updated on Twitter. If so, be sure to tag your live Tweets – #ibs09 {http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ibs09}.

See you at the show either live or on Twitter!

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.

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.