Taking Care of Business

By Joel Makower, Chairman & Executive Editor

Amid the political, economic and social whirlwind that passes for daily news these days, the public has shifted its collective gaze away from environmental and climate issues -- to the extent its gaze was ever focused there in the first place.
Simply put, "saving the earth" has taken a back seat to "saving the day."
In that light, I've taken a look this week at a couple of surveys of Americans' attitudes toward sustainability issues, and the results aren't encouraging. While the years -- decades, really -- of educational and marketing campaigns are paying off in the form of increased overall awareness, the citizenry is simply not turning that into action. Even when it comes to cutting their own home energy bills, as Leslie Guevarra reports.
And when it comes to climate change, the deck is stacked against them, as my friend and colleague Cara Pike explains. She's been looking for several years at consumer attitudes, particularly toward climate change, and explains why we're losing the battle for their hearts and minds.
Green Building's Growing Markets: On a more optimistic note, green building seems to be doing reasonably well, considering the dismal state of the overall building and real estate markets. At least, that's what Rob Watson tells me. He'll be providing the details on Tuesday, when we publish our annual Green Building Market & Impact Report. Join Watson and John Matthews, Chief Sustainability Officer at Diversey in a free webcast to hear the latest green building trends. Registration required.
BSR, AOK: Last week's BSR conference brought more than 1,000 professionals to San Francisco to examine the state of the art of corporate social responsibility. Our editorial team was there in force. You can the fruits of their labors below, with more here. You'll also find stories of announcements made at or around the event: Enablon's new networking platform, Best Buy's new focus on home energy, and Levi's growing quest for "better cotton."