Printer-Friendly Version
Email This Page
Contact Us
Join Online
To reserve booth space in Spring Green Festivals. Booths are going fast!
Learn more about credit card processing »
Announcements
April 5, 2010
Join us for a Special Green Business Screening Webinar April 15
Want to expand your reach? What better way than to be in the 2011 National Green Pages? We’ll tell you how on April 15th at 2 EST/1CT/12MT/11PT.
If you have heard about our screening and approval process, but have not yet completed the process— this is your chance!
If you want your business to be in the upcoming Green Pages and the new/improved GreenPages.org, this is the time to submit your application. The deadline will be here before you know it: May 14th.
Join us on April 15th for a look into “Screening 101” with Tish Kashani, our Senior Researcher, and Rebecca Shaloff, our Screening Director.
We will walk you through the application, offer our Top 5 helpful hints, and answer your burning questions.
If you can’t participate in this interactive webinar or don’t know your screening status, e-mail Tish Kashani directly at tkashani@greenamericatoday.org.
Your Feedback on GBN Priorities
Thank you to everyone who completed our member survey last month. Your feedback was insightful and will help us shape the membership benefits we offer in the coming years.
Topics that were popular included adding more webinars, putting the Green America Seal of Approval on products, using our soon-to-be launched GreenGage tool, and taking a pro-active role in policy issues that are critical to green businesses. High on the list of policy related items were health care costs, toxic chemical ingredients, and climate change/clean technology. Also high on your list is supporting federal support for small business development.
Stay tuned to see how our new programs and opportunities unfold in the coming weeks and months.
Consumer Financial Protection Agency Update
Thank you to all our members that signed the letter calling on the Senate to create a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). The letter has garnered over 200 signatories and remains open for additional signers.
The CFPA is a key element within the larger financial reform package being debated on Capitol Hill. A strong, independent CFPA would protect both consumers and small businesses from predatory financial products and services. Given the role of the mega-banks in helping to create the financial crisis the nation faces, it is clear that banks cannot be allowed to largely "self-regulate" as they have been.
The Senate Banking Committee has recently released a new version of the CFPA, which it now calls the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Concerns with the new legislation include how the CFPB would be independent if it is housed within the Federal Reserve as proposed. In addition, the new bill creates a council, comprised of the very institutions that have failed to protect consumers, that could appeal the decisions of the CFPB.
Green America is working with the American Sustainable Business Council to monitor developments on Capitol Hill, and will alert our members when a floor vote is expected. Visit our website and lounge for updates!
Become a Green Business Networker
Pocket a little green and grow the green economy! When you bring in a new member to the Green Business Network, you earn a commission of 20%. With dues starting at $100, we're talking real green.
Report from the Ethical Sourcing Forum
Reflecting the Green Business Network’s commitment to the people who make the goods we source, a member of our screening team attended the Ethical Sourcing Forum March 18-19, courtesy of our friends at CSRWire. It began with a reminder from David Schilling from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility that the recession has hurt three kinds of people most: women, low wage workers, and immigrants across the globe. His panel, which asked about Sustainable Progress with the central theme addressing progress in CSR, included a mix of responses.
Matthew Bishop from The Economist pointed out both that transparency is coming whether or not we like it and are prepared for it, largely from cell phones and their ubiquitous cameras. The Friday afternoon panel on drivers of CSR success was a reminder that approaches to CSR on the ground level can be wildly diverse with the same potential for success. Haworth signs its products with the materials in mind, and as such has partnered with other companies in zero landfill factories in India and China, while Coke does most of the procurement for its 200 plants is done locally, allowing them to take advantage of local materials and strategies. Overall, the conference was a great chance to see how the big players are transforming their approaches to transparency, corruption, and reporting.