Zcause Blog; Anthony Zolezzi.com

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Ex-President Clinton brings clarity
To ‘Brainstorm Green Conference’

May 11, 2009

On Earth Day, I attended the Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference, an event that seemed to draw mostly C-level individuals from a wide range of companies. The central theme of this three-day event was an exploration of environmental issues ranging from global warming to food traceability. I found the people to be very stimulating and the panels quite professional. There were especially pertinent discussions of the Obama administration’s views and the recent EPA announcement that greenhouse gases are harmful to human health. Overall, the zeitgeist was positive. But even though I am never inclined toward pessimism, I felt like the high fives were a little premature. I didn't really see enough "disruption," other than Shai Agassi of A Better Place telling the Ford, BMW and Toyota people that there is a better way for them to do business, and that is to turn the entire automobile industry into a "mobility" industry.

I just couldn’t help wondering if many of these CEOs of big public companies -- especially the energy companies -- would really be moved to do anything when they got back. Or do they feel they did their job simply by coming, perhaps participating in a panel discussion and defending their current positions? For that matter, can any public company ever be expected to do anything that cost money in the short term but could be very beneficial in the long term as it relates to their bottom line and the health of our people and planet? Some statistics were pretty sobering. For example, out of $37 trillion invested by various institutions, it was pointed out that only two billion is working in the environmental or green space sectors. Then came estimates that global damages from the international coal industry would add up to the equivalent of some $360 billion Euros, and that the total health care cost from U.S. power-plant pollution is about $167 billion.

But then in the final speech by none other than former President Bill Clinton, all of the brainstorming that took place over the course of the conference seemed to come together. His message, which really resonated with me (and probably a lot of other attendees as well), was one that gave both clarity and cohesiveness to the entire event: if you have neither an invitation to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December nor a seat in Congress, then there is only one thing you can and must do, and that is to create working models that effectively demonstrate how we have changed the consumption and production of energy in a way that makes good economic sense, and can transform the world. Clinton’s speech was one that seemed to electrify the entire conference, as well as bringing a smile to my face (I’d even go so far as to say it saved Earth Day for me) as I realized that at GreenOps we have created just the kind of model he was talking about in the way we collect and reprocess materials.

Afterward, many people went up to shake the former president’s hand, and he hung around and talked with everybody. So I kind of moved over a little closer, and to my surprise he reached over two people to shake my hand, which gave me the chance to pull him a little closer and whisper in his ear that ….. but I think I’ll keep that part a secret, at least until September , when I’ll be attending the Clinton Global Initiative Meeting (a prospect I can say I’m really looking forward to at this point). Stay tuned.

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