The sun, the warm weather, golf and the arts are what typically attract retirees to Southern Arizona. For those choosing to live at La Posada in Green Valley, there’s a new consideration: green living.

“The average age of our residents is in the mid-80s. They are a very politically active and environmentally conscious population,” says Tim Carmichael, director of marketing for the nonprofit continuing care retirement community for people ages 62 and up. “Most of the changes we’ve been making at La Posada have come about through our residents suggestions who are concerned about water and energy usage. So we’ve taken that on and have hired Pepper Viner Homes as the developer for the planned Park Centre Homes neighborhood which we hope to break ground on by the end of 2009.”

None of the 35 homes to be built will be owned by residents. Instead they’ll pay an “entrance fee” that on average will be about $450,000 — 70 percent of which gets returned when the resident leaves. The fee, along with additional monthly maintenance costs also provides for of having medical staff nearby.

La Posada’s 35 homes won’t be for sale, residents will instead pay a partially refundable “entrance fee.” Advertisement

As for being green, all of the homes will be energey efficient and built with low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) in the cabinetry, paints and flooring. (VOC are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate at room temperature and can be harmful, especially from sustained exposure.)

Read more…link goes to Inside Tucson Business

The newly formed Green Media Alliance, a partnership of media related firms, will hold its first-ever business-to-business event, “How to Survive in Tough Times” Friday (April 24).

The half-day of events will feature a morning workshop, Green Marketing 101, followed by networking and exhibits and then a luncheon with the aim to bring businesses together to share solutions capitalizing on growing consumer trends demanding a green marketplace.

Jacquelyn Ottman, a Manhattan-based consultant to Fortune 500 companies, is the keynote speaker. She is responsible for the EPA’s Energy Star program that has become a familiar signpost on consumer appliances.The move to green can be a significant financial investment for a business, especially in these recessionary times, but when asked if she sees it paying off, Ottman says, business should be able to more than recoup their initial financial costs.

Read more…link will take you to Inside Tucson Business

Published  March 23, 2009

By Mae Lee Sun

Yes he did and I was there.  In that human sea of two million on a sunny, 20 degree day in D.C. to testify to the fact that indeed, a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens, neighborhood to neighborhood and email to email, can in fact change the world.

Although awe inspiring in it’s historic ramifications, as tiny American flags were waived in the air and babies of all colors were held to the sky in homage to a brighter, more culturally, racially and economically diverse future, and while I cried, my friends cried and the whole darn mass around us cried, the Inauguration of the first black president went far beyond a kumbaya moment.  That would trivialize the power of the people who, one by one, felt they had voted for change, hope and what is in the best interest of humanity over self-interest, fear and planetary destruction.

Photo by Carrie Abels

So now that it seems we’ve picked the right person for the job, who and what is responsible for translating our voted for hopes and values into action? Action that will bring forth the dream of a sustainable future and green economy?  And how long is this plan going to take?  After all, our new president is just one guy, albeit a truly exceptional one.  But he has neither the time nor ability to clone himself into a mass of thousands to execute the task at hand- putting one million hybrid cars on the road that get 150 miles per gallon on the road by 2015; to implement cap-and-trade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050; to create five million new (green) jobs by investing 150 billion over the next 10 years into private business to build clean energy; and the list of initiatives he’s committed to goes on.

Bill Snape, senior counsel based in D.C., for the Center for Biological Diversity, remains hopeful that the progressive environmental platform and promises that Obama ran on, will come to fruition.  But he’s also skeptical to what degree it will actually be green vs. green washing due to the other kind of powerful force- business- that he says has and always will be at the forefront of the Washington political scene regardless of whichever party has taken office.

“I’m going to state the obvious.  The last eight years (of the Bush administration) have been a complete environmental disaster and a failure from an energy perspective. A lot of resources were funding Bush and Cheney who were oil men and locked into dinosaur-like thinking but I’m laying this out as a premise.  Now we have this president who really does represent ‘Hope’ because he gets the big picture, he gets that we have to look at creating new jobs and new forms of energy.  He picked a cabinet who understands the issues.  That said, the real significant questions are how the Democrats and moderate Republicans are going to go about making these changes- but at least we aren’t in the state of denial of the last eight years,” says Snape, adding that his major concern is where the money for green technology and jobs is going to go and how it’s going to be tracked.

Photo by Carrie Abels

For example, Snape wonders if the Obama administration’s upcoming CAFE standards and endangered species/global warming rules will be governed by the best available science or by the oil and gas industry who compromise to the lowest common denominator.  The same question holds true with regard to any global warming bill that Congress eventually passes.

With a stimulus package that’s in the billions and a document that approximates 1600      pages, who’s to know what’s really in it?  As a veteran of the Washington political scene, Snape says backroom deals are commonplace, promises with large price tags are made and that in itself makes it impossible to monitor and accurately manage that huge of an undertaking that won’t be complete until several years from now.

“It’s an incomprehensible amount of money.  Some of that money will go to the very industries that caused the problems in the first place, (oil, gas, auto) and not the ones’ who are committed to energy efficiency,” he says, arguing that both Democrats and Republicans are involved in the collusion and that when it comes to down to business, it’s just how D.C. works.

“It’s (D.C.) greased with money and it’s how everyone is kept happy and gets their piece of the pie…even many environmental groups will be happy with any little change because they’re so fond of working with Obama and feel he can do no wrong.  We all feel a sense of hope but he’s not a messiah.  He’s bound by political processes and he needs to be pushed.”

Henning Matthaei, managing director of Wind Power Planners, a cutting edge wind technology firm, based in Hamburg, Germany, prays this isn’t the case.  He says that many Germans and much of Europe have faith in the Obama energy agenda and feel that significant changes can happen through the new administration that would have positive consequences across the global economy.  Matthaei has hopes of bringing a successful German-based system of fixed pricing for power purchasers to the U.S., specifically to the southwest and New Mexico where wind is abundant and other resources, like water, are scarce.  As a successful entrepreneur, with founder and fellow German, Lorenz Berends who has built wind farms in France, Germany and throughout Europe, Matthaei wants to help the U.S. plan, build and maintain wind power utilities.  He says it would be a safe investment and one that would stimulate a sustainable, green economy with the development of a green grid; transmission lines, wind power, solar power and electric cars.

Photo courtesy of Wind Power Planners

“Even before Obama was elected the U.S. planned on developing 20 percent of its power from wind energy by 2030…it’s a multi-billion dollar business all over the world.  We (Germany) are a leading source for sustainable systems but just don’t have a lot of open space in Germany left- but we know the technology and can assist in bringing it to the U.S.  Places like central New Mexico have a lot more wind in relation to the proportion of inhabitants it could serve so there is a much bigger potential here,” he says, adding that wind resources in New Mexico alone are estimated to be around 50 GW.

Even so, PNM, the state of New Mexico’s public utility company, has received requests for interconnection from planners for up to 2000 MW- the equivalent of nearly four nuclear power stations.  According to Matthaei, that is a “kick in the ass for anybody who has environmental concerns” because he feels wind power can be developed decentralized and be in harmony with nature and its inhabitants. “That’s why we (WPP) develop much smaller wind farms and keep in contact with the concerns of people who live around them,” he says.

Matthaei feels one of the biggest power struggles however, is money and politics much in the way Snape asserts.  Even if you’re smart, talented, care about the environmental impact of sustainable energy development and even if you’ve got technological expertise like WPP, breaking into the energy market, green or otherwise, is hard.  The bigger, existing players in U.S. and global energy dominance, like BP (aka Beyond Petroleum and formerly British Petroleum), have been able to lease enormous tracks of land from the U.S. government, like they did with oil drilling, to keep the smaller players like WPP, out.  Since BP is one of the largest energy and oil corporations in the world, operating in over 100 countries with an annual revenue close to 300 billion dollars, is there room for a so called green economy that is truly value-based, to emerge unscathed and separated from politics, big business and profit?  Is that all bad?

Gary Hirsch, chairperson for Vistage International in Tucson, a private, executive think-tank of CEOs from small to medium-sized businesses locally (and much larger worldwide) says that profit doesn’t have to be a four letter word when it comes to implementing energy and environmental policies.  Having worked for an energy company in D.C. prior to moving to Olympia, Washington, and then settling in Tucson over four years ago, Hirsch asserts that profit in and of itself is not bad and the real question is whether it’s obtained in a way that benefits society as a whole, regardless of what size the company is.

“A bumper sticker in an Olympia food coop parking lot said, “Profit is Theft.”  That’s utterly ridiculous.  Profit is reward for risk, for thinking smart and for being ahead of the curve with new ideas for products and services.  We need to remember that 75 percent of the jobs created in the US each year are created by small to medium sized businesses, not by the giants that make the news daily but by the businesses founded, owned and quietly operated day-to-day by your neighbors. These businesses may employ from a handful to more than 500 people who can count on a paycheck and benefits for each day they work. For many, their loyalty and commitment are without question, but we can’t compare that with the concerns of the owner who every single day must be thinking about whether there will be enough cash to make payroll, keep the lights on, pay suppliers and fund benefits. Profit, when it’s there, is the reward they get for juggling this load every single day,” says Hirsch.

From his experience in working within both the public and private sector, Hirsch also feels that this is an enormous responsibility and for the most part, this business population is scared that the current administration will add regulatory and tax burdens that take them past the breaking point—the point at which he says they say “It’s just not worth it any longer,” particularly as they are forced to lay off competent, dedicated workers just to keep the doors open.  “And many of the business people I meet and work with day to day claim they are drawing nearer and nearer to that point.”  So how is it that entrepreneurial green guys like Matthaei realistically become part of the new green economy, one not controlled by huge, corporate profiteers who may overlook environmental and social concerns?  It almost seems a double-edged sword if what Hirsch asserts is true. And what kind of position does that put Matthaei and Snape in as each try to lobby for greater governmental accountability and equitable spending on the development of green energy programs?

Hirsch asserts that lest we err by casting the small business owner as ultraconservatives, they are actually a rather diverse group- as represented by Matthaei and WPP.  Many clearly share the social and environmental agenda of the current administration and share the national pride of electing an African American president. But, as Snape mentioned earlier as well, there is a great deal of concern within the business community at large about the extent and efficacy of planned government spending.  The question essentially comes back to where and to whom is all this money going to go?

“Business owners believe that they will be the ones called on to pay the lion’s share of the costs without necessarily deriving benefits, even as their cost of doing business mounts. They question the wisdom of omitting “buy American” clauses from the stimulus bill and like most Americans, view much of the bailouts paid to date as folly.

Do we paint a picture of the business owner as self-interested? Of course we do. Policy is a balance of represented self interests. But for the small to medium sized business owner who has been called “the engine of American business” they question whether under this administration their interests and the extent of their contribution to society and the economy will be adequately represented,” says Hirsch.

And even with a commitment to transparency in government under the Obama administration, only time will tell if the green economic growth we’ll be referring to is what gets passed from pocket to pocket.

Mae Lee Sun is a local freelance writer

(photos posted online differ from what appears in print)

For budding green entrepreneurs, it seems to start with an idea.

An idea based on connection with something larger than oneself, where values of sourcing materials sustainably, focusing locally and keeping ethics at the forefront translate into action- action which generates a product or service that will benefit the whole in the long rather than short term and tend to be free of any ties to the larger grid of business as usual.

Despite the state of the economy, the green industry and emerging technology fields are generally on the upswing, especially in Tucson and where down-home ingenuity, creativity and independence have come together in the creation of some cottage industries focusing on such things as landscaping, spices and interior design.

Pamela Portwood with Greener Lives thinks the time is right to start a green business. Janelle Montenegro photo Advertisement

Going green outdoors

“I’ve always been interested in the healing aspects of plants and nature…my philosophy is to provide a landscape that the customer will love, while encouraging a connection with the outdoors and nature, and bringing the therapeutic value of plants and nature into their lives,” says Penny Batelli, sole proprietor of Blooming Earth, a landscape design and consulting business.

In business since 1988, Batelli says that although work has definitely slowed due to the economy, she isn’t necessarily concerned about “growing” her company beyond herself.

Her livelihood seems inspired more from a love of the land than from creating a burgeoning corporation complete with a host of employees and a burning drive to make a huge footprint on the world.

“I’ve just always had steady employment for myself, other than the first year maybe, based on word of mouth, referrals and no advertising…(believe it or not) I’m surprised at how many of my clients really don’t seem to care much for green or sustainability, but I try to educate and encourage them through the use of low water, drought tolerant, low maintenance plant materials, water harvesting and efficient irrigation design.”

Batelli is not alone when it comes to nurturing her love of green despite the market demands for something less than that which she does provide as necessary.

Going green with food

Flavorbank, a gourmet spice company now in it’s 40th year, doesn’t necessarily tout ‘organic’ as much as it is about sharing food, community and what can be obtained through ‘fair trade’ and locally whenever possible according to owner, Jennifer English, who feels sometimes the politics and label of organic overshadow the greater value of how something is used and sourced.

“I don’t believe that ‘organic’ means what we want it to mean and symbolize anymore,” English says. “James Beard, the father of American Gastronomy, said that food unites us. I believe we are united by food (rather than label of organic/not organic).”

Her company, while thriving, is growing back to the height of its success in the 1990s when revenues were in the multi-millions. Once sold exclusively in specialty stores, Flavorbank products are facing downward pressures from chain retailers. With products such as Greek garlic rub, Hawaiian sea salts, Tahitian vanilla bean, Chipotle pepper powder and Lampong black peppercorns, English says she is committed to reviving the specialty brand, “one peppercorn, one customer at a time.” Lately she has been adding products, such as Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s Afrikya Foods, based on the Ethiopian-born star chef’s new book, “Soul of a New Cuisine.”

Living a greener life however, always seems to be at the forefront for these entrepreneurs no matter what they choose to make a living at.

Going green indoors

Pamela Portwood, a former journalist is another example. Used to working as a one-person firm, she has turned her writing about green and design into a successful and modest business of creating socially responsible interiors for her residential clients by creating a company called Greener Lives specializing in healthy, eco-friendly homes and lifestyles.

“Interior design is a second career for me,” Portwood says. “I spent over 15 years as a freelance writer. In 2008, I decided that the interest in green design had grown enough that this would be a good year for me to start my own business.”

She came to that decision after graduating with an associates degree in interior design at the Art Center Design College in 2005 while waiting for a good position to open up.

“Greener Lives is still becoming established. Although I’d love to see the business grow, I’m not thinking of becoming a big corporation,” says Portwood.

Now with several design interns and projects, Greener Lives expects to take in $40,000 in revenue in her first complete year in business.

Like other green entrepreneurs, Portwood notices not everyone is quick to spend time and money on entirely green products and services. But she is creative about how she works with that information through sourcing things at both small, local suppliers who provide sustainable products like couches covered in organic fabrics, reclaimed wood flooring and also by looking to big-box stores such as the Home Depot, which carries a non-toxic paint she highly recommends that still fits within the budget for those with monetary limitations.

For more information: Blooming Earth, www.bloomingearth.net or 325-7605;  Greener Lives, 548-6812;  Flavorbank, www.flavorbank.com or 747-5431

Published January 15, 2009

By Mae Lee Sun
Just before three-thirty on a Friday afternoon, in the middle of Tucson’s Sam Hughes neighborhood, Zhu Ping Hodge puts on a pot of boiling water in preparation for an open tea tasting that takes place at the same time every week.  She’s recently returned to her shop, Seven Cups Teahouse, from China after spending several months there researching and buying new and varietals selections of high grade organic teas.

Having opened Seven Cups only four years ago, she is pleased at how popular the place has become.  Like in China and other countries around the globe, the teahouse in Tucson attracts those who are looking for everything from a serene environment in which to contemplate and rest, or come seeking education on tea culture and a comfortable place forge meaningful relationships.

Simon Smith and friends Melissa Nagelspach, Lauren Woods, and Heather Wallace enjoy good conversation over a cup of tea at Seven Cups Teahouse in Tucson. Photo by Mae Lee Sun

“Ever since the emperors and high officials made it popular to drink tea in their palaces hundreds of years ago, the common people followed.  At first, drinking tea was ceremonial, a tradition to show respect for your ancestors. But it was during the Tang dynasty in the 1300s that families adopted it as a necessary part of daily life,” She says.

The medicinal value of tea is largely why it became popular. As practicing herbalists, the Taoists were called upon by royalty to recommend certain types of tea believed to extend life or to help induce a sense calm and relaxation.  Drinking tea was welcomed before meetings and in situations where unnecessary confrontation was to be avoided and to keep the peace.

The jingle of bells strung along the storefront door, welcome in a handful of random guests. They each take a seat, gathering around a custom tea table made from a slab of a JiChi (chicken wing) tree.  The tea tasting begins, each round accompanied with a bit of tea history and impeccable instruction on preparation and consumption.

In the main tearoom, softly lit by a handful of red silk Chinese lanterns dangling above seven, hand carved wooden tables, a group of four young women sit chatting about their lives and school. Although not emperors, the ages-old wisdom that comes with drinking tea seems to have crossed the boundaries of culture, age and time as to why these women imbibe.  “If you’re stressed you can come here and have a cup of tea and everything feels better” says Simone Smith, adding that she’s falling in love with the place although it’s only her second time here.  Smith’s friends give similar reasons for frequenting the teahouse, saying they like the calming atmosphere, the taste of the teas and enjoy bringing other people to the experience.

On occasion, a middle-aged man and his son can be seen at Seven Cups playing a quiet game of chess.  They’ve become ‘regulars’ as have dozens of other Tucsonans who have claimed the teahouse as their own and want to see the tradition of tea culture thrive.

Meanwhile, across town in the northwest foothills, another group of regulars meets for a similar reason but under a different ambiance at the Chantilly Tearoom on Genematas Drive.  The surroundings are Victorian, graced with white lace, floral printed table coverings and fine china.  Proprietor Tamara Read opened the shop six years ago for many of the same reasons as Hodge- the sense of serenity and privacy that it offers to those who want to take a reprieve from the daily hustle and bustle or want a special place to celebrate their lives in a European manner.

“I started a few clubs here, like the Stitch and Scones and the Reading Club as a way for people to come together and share in their interests and bring along friends.  Stitch and Scones is a knitting club that meets twice a month.  Some of the regulars have their own china that they’ve purchased and store here so that when they come, it’s brought out specifically for them.”

On occasion, the calendar might offer hat decorating classes or an Alice in Wonderland Tea. Sundays are reserved for private parties which many local charities book to hold fundraisers. During the holidays, there’s Storytime with Mrs. Claus.

Read, like Austin, has grown up around tea and has visited numerous tea rooms throughout the years.  Some of her  customers referred to Chantilly as a ‘beautiful happening’ and an ‘oasis of serenity’, so in that respect, it is not so different from Seven Cups as they have both attracted a strong community following and have been around for nearly the same time. The tea classes they offer differ in custom although both attract groups wanting to bond through the shared experience.

Rick Rupkey, president of University Termite & Pest Control, one recent morning was along the perimeter of his office building, with business partner Ryan Horn, simulating what they look for as potential problem areas where pests, such as termites, might gather.

“You have to look closely to see if the downspouts are clogged with leaves or if there are gaps where the pipes come out of the wall. If rocks are butted up against the building, we’d have to suggest moving them out.” says Rupkey, who has learned addressing potential problems in simple ways is the first line of defense in upholding the National Association of Pest Management’s new green standard.

Rupkey, Horn and the 30 technicians they employ suggest things such as caulking and rearranging landscaping.

Rick Rupkey                                 Photo by Mae Lee Sun

Although it can be more labor-intensive to be green, University Termite & Pest Control has been walking that sort of line for years. It was the first Arizona pest management company to be accredited as meeting the QualityPro Green service standard and one of only 19 companies currently certified by the National Association of Pest Management.

The certification requires extensive training and background checks for technicians, following regarding pesticides are applied and documentation and record-keeping of each inspection site.

The methodology harkens back to the 1950s use of Integrated Pest Management techniques used in agriculture. The focus then, as it is now, is on preventative maintenance by eliminating sources of food, water and shelter and looking at environmental factors such as light and humidity, as a deterrent to infestation. It also encourages the introduction of natural predators, such as praying mantis or spiders.

“Seventy-eight percent of people do not use a pest control company and many do their own application. Yet, 80 percent of homeowners have no idea what IPM is but they seem to know what green is,” Rupkey says. “So we have to communicate with customers along the way to make sure they have exhausted mechanical, cultural and biological alternatives before even considering the use of a pesticide. It’s asking questions like ‘Have you sealed the cracks along the floor?’, ‘Are you wiping off the grease around the stove?’ It can be tricky because people don’t want roaches or ants in their kitchen or termites eating their investment and they also don’t want you telling them how to live their lives.”

As they play diplomats, Rupkey says he and his staff also must stay focused on education.

Like holistic medicine, the results are slow in coming compared to conventional pest control measures such as spraying or laying down gel-type products or granules. At some point, he says, they are no longer using a so-called ‘green’ methodology, but that too, he says, is a matter of keeping clients involved. Even ‘green’ can be toxic if used excessively and in the wrong amount.

Dave Burns, a LEED accredited professional and design principle of Burns Wald-Hopkins Architects, says although he is not familiar with the QualityPro Green program, it’s what the industry should be doing since all new construction is required to be treated for termites.

“Quite a few green building measures require more interaction with the end-user,” Burns says. “They (homeowners or facilites management personnel) are part of the solution in counteracting any of these kind of problems. The ultimate goal of building is in being more harmonious with the environment. I have no opinion on how successful this program (QualityPro Green) will be because I haven’t heard of it yet. But it sounds like it’s moving in the right direction.”

Sometimes ‘green’ is not seen as a viable option in commercial situations such as schools, which Rupkey says he finds odd.

“Who’s the most vulnerable population in our community? Children. We want to do our best to keep them healthy,” he says. “Now that we have our certification, one of the first things that we will do is move all of our clients who are schools, into the QPG program. It’s really only a three degree turn for us as a company but this has authority behind it. We can say, you really don’t have to worry about the one ant you saw by the mailbox. Or, we need to look at addressing those six scorpions you found this week.”

Rupkey says he is excited about introducing the program to several school districts he already works with, including Amphitheater Public Schools and the Flowing Wells Unified School District.

University Termite & Pest Control was started in 1974 by Rupkey’s father and a friend after they stopped working for a popular competitor. The company has steadily grown from being centered around the University of Arizona — from which three generations of Rupkeys graduated — to cover the entire state.

Rupkey feels the QualityPro Green program will open up the potential to attract people to pest management who would not have considered it before.

“If people can take the green approach, they will,” he says.

For what many may consider to be a one (free-range) horse town, Tucson has managed to grow more than it’s share of green media venues. The growth mirrors the national green scene that’s continuing to blossom on the Web and TV, in newspapers and on the radio.

The local sampling includes Tucson Green Times (formerly Tucson Green Magazine), “Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream” radio program at 12:05 p.m. Saturdays on KNST 790-AM, “Green Tuesdays on The Mountain KWMT 92.9-FM and regular green living segments on KGUN 9 News.

Nationally, there’s the daily e-news source GreenBiz.com, Discovery TVs Planet Green channel, and National Public Radio’s “Living on Earth” that airs weekly on 300 stations (though not in Tucson).

Are these media forways substantive? And what impact do they really have on changing sponsors, viewers or listeners’ habits of heart and mind? Does having a ‘green’ special section in a newspaper generate revenue for both the outlet and advertisers seeking to reach across the aisle? So much green, so little time.

Gina Murphy-Darling, host of “Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream,” says of her 10- month-old entrepreneurial endeavor, that it’s for the long-haul and not just jumping on the bandwagon.

With a vision of being the “Oprah of Green,” Murphy-Darling may be on to something given that the show has gone from a half-hour time slot to a full hour within the past six months on a talk radio station that prominently features the conservative voices of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

But Murphy-Darling says it has nothing to do with politics as much as it has to do with the persona of Mrs. Green who is able to deliver her environmental message in a fun and interesting way.

Without being prompted, she rattles off statistics about the number of disposable plastic bottles per year found in landfills and exhibits her deep knowledge of green acronyms such as GMOs (genetically modified organisms as in genetically modified foods), talks of what books to read, and expresses her concern about the millions of pounds of pharmaceutical drugs dumped into municipal water systems.

“This is fun (having a radio show) but there’s a real side to Mrs. Green. I feature and partner with businesses who understand that it’s about creating systemic changes from within-which will cost money, but will serve everyone in the end,” she said. “It’s a question of asking themselves how green can they honestly be?”

As an example, Murphy-Darling, the gregarious, business savvy chair for Angel Charities and former founder and president of social services provider, Providence Service Corporation, has personally approached some of the bigger companies in Tucson, such as Wells Fargo and Chapman Automotive, as potential show sponsors.

Wells Fargo was the only financial services company in 2007 to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partner Award. Chapman Automotive is becoming a certified compressed natural gas vehicle repair facility. Murphy-Darling is also starting to attract unsolicited attention from other business, including Cox Communications and El Charro Café restaurants.

“We’re barely scratching the surface,” she says. “Everything we do as leaders is an opportunity to be that truth – from the inside out.”

Mikaela Quinn, editor and publisher of the Tucson Green Times shares that view.

Quinn and her husband Jim Ricker are partners in the Times. In October, they celebrated the publication’s first anniversary.

“Green media is growing and trying to raise awareness of the issues really going on and are giving people the resources and information to change their lives and reduce their carbon footprint,” Mikaela Quinn says. “Our focus is local because there are a lot of individuals and businesses doing fabulous things, coming up with creative and innovative solutions to problems…as a community, we need to look at it as the whole pie.”

If you break that juicy green pie down, the response has been positive for Tucson Green Times. Printed on 100 percent post-consumer paper, and distributed to over 300 locations, the publication has more than doubled since it’s inception with the goal of doubling that again next year. The individual slices amount to a monthly circulation of 45,000. That’s within about 10,000 of the circulation of the DesertLeaf in the Catalina Foothills so it appears readers are paying attention.

Although technically still a barely profiting start-up, Tucson Green Times has maintained a 70 percent monthly renewal rate with advertisers – most of whom are service providers such as water harvesting companies and photovoltaic installers.

According to Quinn, and as Murphy-Darling also asserts, the response rate for advertisers in each of their respective venues is significant. Both “Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream” and Tucson Green Times offer Web-based versions, packed like a bushel of GMO-free, organic Granny Smith apples, full of practical consumer information and links to products and services.

“Advertisers like Jason Tankersly, the owner of Fairfax Companies, a construction waste company, are absolutely thrilled,” says Murphy-Darling. “They’re getting emailed by people who are listening to the show who didn’t know that things like landscaping waste can be recycled…landscaping waste…that is so cool.”

Quinn and Murphy-Darling agree the time could not be riper. The public is hungry for these resources and they supply what they want, as “sort of a clearinghouse.”

It’s not just from our ads, it is also from businesses we write about in articles — and they are not paid editorials,” says Quinn, who along with Murphy-Darling says she’s put out the possibility of attracting investors, not just any, but ones who really understand that this is a good business investment.

The Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona will be adding “green” coursework to its MBA curriculm.

Paul Portney, dean of the Eller College, unofficially made that announcement at a presentation he gave recently to the Sunbelt World Trade Association.

Paul Portney, Thomas Venklasen photo Advertisement

MBA programs across the United States have been doing something similar for about the past five years to accommodate students who have an interest in integrating environmentally “green” principles into the way businesses are run.

The UA offering will only be one class – a three-unit elective – to be offered for the first time in the fall 2009 semester.

“It’s enough for now,” Portney said in an interview. “Right now we’re in the process of raising money to support the development of the one class.”

He said he is meeting with faculty to determine who is interested in pursuing the green coursework and how it will be developed.

“If it’s successful, it is conceivable that we’d also offer it at the undergraduate level as well,” Portney said, adding that as long as he is dean, Eller won’t be offering a separate green MBA track as other schools have done although he admits the idea to add the course was driven by student interest.

Pioneering green schools, such as Bainbridge Graduate Institute, on Bainbridge Island across Puget Sound from Seattle, Wash., and Dominican University, in San Rafael, Calif., have pioneered full-on green MBA programs, offering such courses as eco-commerce, environmental accounting and social justice and business.

Portney envisions the one course in the Eller College to have a distinct focus – one which will help use existing projects and prospective projects at the UA as case studies for MBA students to help administrators make difficult financial decisions.

As examples, there may be environmental reasons for the UA to install photovoltaic panels on rooftops, or develop a water conservation plan, or green transportation. The MBA students will be given the opportunity to work in cross-disciplines with like-minded students in other UA programs, such as the school of engineering, Portney said.

Some would argue the one class isn’t much of a step.

Gifford Pinchot, president and co-founder of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, says traditional MBA programs who offer one or two courses on sustainability will essentially contradict themselves because the core of the curriculum ignores social impact on community and the environment.

Pinchot, whose book “Intraprenuering” has been used in the curriculum of business schools across the country, feels students need to be shown how to integrate social and environmental issues into all of their decisions and make a profit while being applicable to the “real world.” It’s not a matter of either/or, it’s innovation in all respects.

“Students from Bainbridge and places like Presidio are skyrocketing up the career ladder because there is a hunger out there for people who have a firm grasp on how to think clearly about business and sustainability at the same time,” Pinchot said. “This is not solely about being a tree-hugger. It’s about what also makes a company a lot of money.”

A good example he says is when Trillium, an asset management firm, hired three interns for the summer. Two were from Ivy League schools and one was from Bainbridge. The one from Bainbridge was the only one who was hired because Pinchot says “he got it.”

Like the UA’s Portney, Eric Orts, professor and director of Initiative For Global Environmental Leadership at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, remains a skeptic.

“I think it would be a mistake to say that it doesn’t matter where you go to school. I think you could make more of a difference by having a connection to a school like Harvard, Cornell or Michigan because some of the best people doing the research are at these schools,” Orts said. “There might be a role for students who go in that direction but I am skeptical of the long-term benefit.

“Forget about the green side,” he said. “First you need to understand how a business operates and what the real problems are. We don’t have things like an Ethics MBA even though that is an issue in business, so why a green MBA? I think these programs lack a tough-mindedness.”

And while Pinchot agrees that traditional MBAs have their place if your orientation is “one ahead of all others and ignore social responsibility,” he said green MBA programs will tend to be criticized because other schools haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

What he is finding is that faculty at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Duke and others who come to teach business at his school are taking back the knowledge they are learning from both students and other faculty and beginning to teach differently at their own schools.

Graduates, Pinchot says, also seem to have little problem cashing in on their education and are finding themselves employed in top executive positions in places like mining, the oil industry, engineering and the public sector. And he asserts, “These typically aren’t students who would have applied to business school.”

As of this year, there are a number of MBA programs across the United States offering coursework in sustainability. The Aspen Institute Guide to Socially Responsible MBA Programs 2008-2009 ranks 130 business schools. Among those at the top are Stanford, University of Colorado at Boulder and University of California at San Diego.

Consumers are becoming more savvy about green issues. Al Gore and the support of Hollywood movies like “The Day After Tomorrow” and “WALL•E” might have something to do with it. Not to mention the decades of efforts on behalf of pioneering environmental organizations and growing scientific data that suggests we have no choice but to pay attention.

It’s no surprise then that when a movement becomes popular enough, corporate America takes notice. At least when it comes to turning the language, icons and products of it into marketable commodities as was done with the counter culture of the 1960s.

More recently, in the past decade, images drawn from yoga and Buddhism were used to sell to more niche consumer products from soft drinks to hip cars — items associated with an enlightened sense of being.

Now that ‘green’ has emerged as the next big trend in selling, it’s hitting the market hard, having widespread appeal and can be found in a range of mainstream advertising.

As examples, Wells Fargo has printed the words “Go Green” on mailing envelopes of mortgage statements encouraging customers to switch to online statements to save trees. The Boston Red Sox, who along with a Major League Baseball Team Greening Advisor, established initiatives for the first time this past Spring, that include installing solar water heaters at Fenway Park and launching the Poland Spring Green Team who pick up plastic bottles from fans between innings. And BP changing its name from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum and chose University of California Berkeley as the host of its Bioenergy Sciences Institute to research clean energy alternatives.

While no one was really expected to abandon their religious beliefs and flee to an ashram in India or a Zen temple in Japan after drinking a nirvana-powered soft drink, the corporations as well as consumers of this century are expected to embrace the green trend in both principle and in practice. But navigating through what exactly “green” is and how to integrate the principles associated with it into advertising and marketing campaigns can be tricky.

So what’s an aspiring green business to do?

Here are eight tips to get started:

• Become fluent in sustainability.

Understand how it relates specifically to your product or service as well as in the overall scheme of doing business. If you aren’t aware, your customers won’t be either.

• Educate your customers. Marketing firms have indicated the green consumer typically likes to be shown the practical value and benefits of what is being offered and why it’s worth a higher price. The marketplace is too competitive to merely label your product green and expect it to sell. Take the ‘Energy Star’ branding as an example of success.

• Use clear language that conveys a positive image of your product or service. Niche specific or ambiguous terminology might turn off the average consumer.

• Be wary of sending contradictory messages and ‘green washing.’ Are you advertising your company as ‘green’ with little to back it up? Are you endorsing environmental causes merely to boost your company image? If so, you’re likely to be found out by environmental watchdog and activist groups, causing a public relations nightmare. Note the recent public apology Goodyear had to make after making false environmental benefits claims about its Eagle LS2000 tire on its Australian website.

• Highlight environmental progress and programs your company has in the works. Companies of all sizes have become popular models of corporate excellence for the environmental/sustainability initiatives they have in place. Some examples are Google, New Belgium Brewery and Tucson’s own Brooklyn Pizza.

• Invite consumers into the dialogue. Help them to help you become a responsible business by asking for their feedback — not just on the product but on how you do business. Consumers want to know whether you’re socially responsible too.

• Network with other green-based businesses. Green business alliances are being established in many cities and are becoming certified as green by entities such as the American Consumer Council in San Diego, which lets customers know you are an environmentally responsible corporation by issuing a recognizable logo.

• Don’t rely on the green wave to last forever. Green it if you mean it. Offer the best product available because it makes sense and if you want everyone to benefit in the long term.