I must admit, I was somewhat speechless when last month’s issue of the Harvard Business Review landed on my desk. Actually it landed on my colleague Kate’s desk, and I stole it before she even had the plastic wrapper removed. The theme for the issue, announced in large font on the cover, was “Sustainability and Innovation: How Green Will Save Us.”

About 15 years ago, I had the (mostly) enjoyable experience of attending Harvard Business School. I had already started my career in environmental work and thought business school would be a good way to build the skills I would need to bridge the gap between business and environmental interests. In typical Harvard Business School style, my section-mates dubbed me the “token environmentalist.”

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Mob mentality is being used to convince businesses to combat global warming. How? Through Carrotmob, a “reverse boycott” phenomenon taking hold worldwide.

According to their Web site, Carrotmob is “a network of consumers who buy products in order to reward businesses who are being socially responsible.” It uses consumer buying power as leverage to convince businesses to act more responsibly and to improve the way their business operates in relation to environmental impacts.

A good example is their first ever action, which happened in San Francisco (see the video below). Founder Brent Schulkin visited bottle stores in his neighborhood and asked them to pledge a certain amount of their daily takings to “greening” their business.
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As someone that is passionately involved in getting clean tech businesses off the ground I can’t help thinking that some of the businesses in this space are missing a trick or five?

For the last few months I have been working with a renewable energy business that is crammed full of engineering and proven IP excellence, they have a strong business model, off-take agreements and contracts in place – an investors dream. But it is lacking one key ingredient – and that is business soul. The emphasis on the business is – due to the background of its people – driven on a project management and large corporate structures, they are keen to debate sign-on fees, investor restrictions, pension funds, multi-layered structures and confining operating procedures based on what they know.

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