How Online

The trumped-up "Climate Gate" scandal has drawn an inordinate amount of attention, with climate change deniers using fairly innocuous evidence to question the integrity of all climate science. Even if the deniers were right — which they're not — the business case for investing in environmental innovation still holds up, as does the moral imperative, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro.

Like many people, I was holding out hope for a binding policy agreement on climate change from Copenhagen, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro. Now, global leaders can re-frame the climate challenge as an opportunity to drive innovation and economic revitalization. We need a game plan that connects policymakers with business leaders and investors to drive the development of solutions.

The aspiration to create "green jobs" should be seen as shorthand for two public priorities — immediate job creation and long-term transformation of the economy for sustainability and prosperity — and both goals can be addressed simultaneously, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro. What we need to ask is: How can we make every industry a green industry and every job a green job?

President Barack Obama has taken bold steps to change America's direction on energy and the environment. But can he rise to the challenge in the green arena? No matter how admirable his achievements on green spending, policy and personnel, success will require inspirational leadership that drives bottom-up change, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro.

A silver lining of the downturn is that energy efficiency has moved to the top of the business agenda, with the recently enacted U.S. stimulus package. The package includes more than $11 billion in funding for efficiency that will hopefully achieve the trifecta of saving energy, money and jobs, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro.

In the recent debate over whether Washington should bail out the U.S. auto industry, there has been plenty of blame and finger pointing. What about us, though? Have we consumers also failed to get Detroit to face reality? And if taxpayers do bail out Detroit, how we can ensure that the money is well spent? asks HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro.

It's no secret that data centers and computer networks account for a high percentage of many companies' total energy consumption. Yet in the new "green" economy, IT is increasingly a place where companies can save money and energy while reducing their carbon footprint and preserving the environment, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro.

Employees are increasingly pushing their companies to act on corporate sustainability. They want their employers to not just say the right things, but to practice what they preach, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro. As you think about recruiting, retention and workforce productivity, how can you make sure that your company is taking the right steps forward?

For companies that want to make environmental leadership a source of competitive advantage, a key place to focus is research and development. If you're trying to integrate sustainability successfully into your company's research agenda, here are three ways to start, says HOW Online contributor Andrew Shapiro.

In large enterprises, sustainability is a management challenge as much as an environmental challenge, says HOW contributor Andrew Shapiro. So how do you manage green? A company needs the right strategy and clear sustainability goals and metrics of success. That's why an eco-czar needs to be a coordinator, champion, catalyst and sometimes provocateur.