Planet Relations

12/13/06 UPDATE: Wal-Mart named to One Degree Hot List, a list of the top 10 people/organizations who in 2006 most influenced climate policy, science and public opinion.       Wal-Mart was named the "most socially responsible company" according to a poll of more than 30,000 consumers from 25 countries conducted by The Reputation Institute, [...]

We're pleased to announce that Planet Relations has been selected for Who's Green 2007, published by Ecotone Publishing. According to Ecotone, Who’s Green© 2007 is an annual directory "designed to serve as the pre-eminent resource book for locating firms, companies, organizations and institutions that are actively participating in the growth of the green building industry.[It] [...]

Is the sustainability movement becoming unsustainable? According to the Leonardo Academy, GreenBuild 2006 was responsible for the following emissions: Carbon Dioxide = 13,269,500 lbs Sulfur Dioxide = 5,100 lbs Nitrogen Oxide = 17,900 lbs Particulates (PM10) = 2,800 lbs Mercury = 0.0389 lbs While several companies (and individuals such as myself) donated/purchased emission reduction offsets [...]

The County of Alameda recently certified Planet Relations as a 'SLEB,' or small, local and emerging business (SLEB). According to the County's contracting website, the program is… … designed to enhance contracting and procurement opportunities for small, local and emerging businesses within Alameda County. The County … benefits by inclusion of all size businesses in [...]

Over the past week, the ‘green’ blogosphere has erupted about wind power, Whole Foods, and an energy company called Renewable Choice. I won’t weigh in specifically on the (perceived) controversy. Rather, I will take this opportunity to point out the role of new media (social media) and the importance of managing one’s reputation in the [...]

In my diverse client portfolio, one client/program was recently profiled in the San Francisco Business Times. The California Insurance Careers Program is a unique collaboration between the insurance industry and California’s community college system. The insurance industry in California is big ($106 billion!), and hires scores of entry level workers every year. California’s community college [...]

A new ‘marketing discipline’ is emerging called Social Media Optimization. No doubt, many of you have heard about Search Engine Optimization, where marketers fine tune a website’s structure/format/delivery to ensure that search engine bots/spiders accurately and fully capture the site’s content. The more fully optimized, the higher the natural listings on Google and elsewhere (note: [...]

Last week, the Northern California Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council held a member forum .There was a lot of lively discussion about ways to increase dialogue among the green building community locally. GreenBuildingNow is the outgrowth from those discussions. It will thrive and flourish if there’s compelling content (from you, the subscribers). It [...]

Stay tuned. A new listserve (via GoogleGroups) focusing on the wants/needs/accomplishments of Northern California green building professionals will launch this week. More details to follow.

Last weekend, I attended West Coast Green, the residential green building show held at Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco. I have to commend the organizers. The show felt like a west coast GreenBuild, which is a compliment. The show was the natural evolution of Green Materials Showcase, which Christi Graham has been organizing for [...]