Photo Blog: Theodore Roosevelt Island, Washington DC

Theodore Roosevelt Island, DC is a beautiful national park, dedicated to the president's love of conservation. Ideal summer day outing...

Banking Green

PNC Bank has emerged as the one of the greenest businesses in the world. Apart from encouraging e-banking and reducing paper transactions, PNC has developed a green program in the last decade that has set it apart from other private institutions.

From 2002, all new or renovated banks have been USGBC LEED certified which is very impressive. PNC has more LEED certified branches than any other company in the world!
Their buildings are made of recycled materials and have very high energy efficiency standards. Most of their buildings not only achieve LEED certification, but also are eligible for a Silver rating.

PNC says the greening of their banks has not only helped in greater employee retention and well-being, but their eco-buildings have reduced their operating costs by over 35%.
At a recent Grand Opening of a new branch, close to where I live, they gave away goodies in a nice big "re-usable" bag. I hope folks in my neighborhood will use that grocery shopping!

Apart from all the goodwill they create with their environmental initiatives, I personally feel that a company with such a high level of corporate responsibility will also have sustainable banking and lending practices. Looks like PNC is leading the way in two of the most urgent needs of the hour. Sustainable Business and Banking!

An ecological thriller is on its way!

Many of you may have heard of Colin Beavan, or the No Impact Man, who along with his family went off the "grid" for a year. His experiment will be featured in a documentary and a book.

Before he started, in 2007, he said, "For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…"

Sounds really hard.

Colin tried to minimize his footprint, no one can "not-impact" the earth, but Colin off-set his now small footprint via positive environmental efforts, like reforestation and other initiatives.

I am really looking forward to watching the documentary and see how he dealt with missing out on all the energy guzzling we are all habituated towards. I don't think Colin intends to preach his drastic lifestyle change to everyone, but really educate everyone (and understand for himself) on how we cannot sleep-walk through our daily routine, but must really sit-back and think about its consequences.

The documentary is being screened right now and a book will be released in 2009.

Home

A free film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, French photographer, journalist, reporter and environmentalist. Arthus-Bertrand known for his aerial photography came up with this project in 2006. It took 3 years, shooting in 54 countries for 217 days to complete this project.
Arthus-Bertrand made this film to highlight the imbalance caused by Human influence and presents both wonder and warning about our Home and the urgency to re-build it.

Must watch
http://www.home-2009.com/us/index.html

Well said...

As Thomas Friedman says in his latest book ‘The World is Hot, Flat & Crowded’,
“The hour is late, the stakes couldn’t be higher, the project couldn’t be harder, the payoff couldn’t be greater”.