December 9, 2010
Special Edition - St. Louis Climate
Prosperity Project Update
RCGA Presents Awards to Inaugural Class
of
St. Louis Green Business
Challenge
Fifty-eight area businesses,
institutions, and organizations received awards for successfully
completing the first year of the RCGA’s St. Louis Green Business
Challenge. These participants completed a
scorecard of requirements to form green teams, reduce waste,
conserve water and energy, improve indoor air quality, and
provide clean transportation options. The Challenge
is a program of the RCGA’s Climate
Prosperity Project, the mission of which is to create and
sustain regional prosperity by cultivating green savings, green
opportunities and green talent.
The Challenge represents the green savings aspect
of the Project and proved to be a strong catalyst for
implementing sustainable business practices.
Participating companies shared their measurable
accomplishments in reducing waste, improving energy efficiency
and lowering their carbon footprint, while saving money for their
firms. For example, Dan Jay, Managing Principal of
Christner (see below), a Clayton-based
architecture firm and a member of the
Challenge Advisory Committee, said that the Challenge
provided a road map for his company to incorporate green business
practices throughout their daily work.
“RCGA member companies aggressively took up the
Challenge and proved that these business strategies can provide
'green savings' by helping grow their bottom lines through
sustainable practices. This effort is one of our key initiatives
to advance a green economy for our region,” said Richard
C.D. Fleming, President and CEO of the RCGA.
The RCGA engaged the Missouri Botanical
Garden’s EarthWays Center to serve as Resource Advisor to
Challenge participants. The EarthWays Center staff, Glenda Abney
and Jean Ponzi (pictured below), organized
seminars and performed site visits to help company Green Teams
implement their sustainability strategies. In
addition, participating companies hosted Green Business Tours to
showcase their accomplishments in sustainable-workplace programs
ranging from recycling to building energy improvements to
customer and employee education.
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Glenda Abney, Director,
EarthWays
Center
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Jean Ponzi, Green Resources
Manager,
EarthWays Center
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“These businesses have found that
embracing sustainability can be efficiently integrated into daily
business practices,” said Glenda Abney, Director of the EarthWays
Center. “The work accomplished by RCGA and the 2010
Challenge companies proves how ‘green thinking’ can help achieve
company mission, budgetary, marketing and community impact goals.
The Missouri Botanical Garden is proud to be part of this
Challenge!”
The Challenge awards were presented on
December 7th at the Point of View Conference Center in
downtown St. Louis. Certificate of Achievement Awards were
presented to 45 companies, with Circle of Excellence recognition
for companies earning more than 100 points on the Challenge
scorecard. Awards of Merit were also given to
companies that demonstrated the greatest gain on their scorecard
accomplishments: 3Degrees/St. Louis Earth Day, Brown Shoe
Company Inc., Burns & McDonnell, Christner Inc., Color Art
Integrated Interiors Inc., EDC of St. Charles County, Express
Scripts Inc., Laclede Gas Company, Madison County Treasurer's
Office, Tarlton Corporation, UMB Bank, Walsh & Associates and
Wells Fargo Advisors.
Photographs of the award ceremony can be
viewed here. Log on to http://www.stlouisgreenchallenge.com/ to see
case studies of the inaugural class and learn more about the
Challenge.
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More than 200 green team
members from companies across the St. Louis region celebrated
their RCGA St. Louis Green Business Challenge Awards at a
ceremony at the Point of View Conference Center in downtown St.
Louis.
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Enrollment for the second class of Green
Business Challenge participants will begin in January 2011, and
is open to all  RCGA
members. Challenge participants
will
meet
regularly throughout the year to learn about sustainability
policies, products and services from their fellow participants
and companies from across the region. Tours of area green
businesses and operations will also be organized
for Challenge participants. For more information
contact Eric Schneider, RCGA Senior Director - Energy and
Environment (pictured left) at eschneider@stlrcga.org
The RCGA congratulates all the
participants in the inaugural class of the St. Louis Green
Business Challenge for advancing sustainable business
practices and prosperity in our region!
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RCGA
Congratulates
the St. Louis Green
Business Challenge
Class of
2010!
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3Degrees/St. Louis Earth Day
Ameren Corporation
Arcturis
AT&T Missouri
Bethesda Health Group
Brown Shoe Company Inc
Bryan Cave LLP
Bunge North America
Burns & McDonnell
Cassidy Turley
Christner Inc
Color Art Integrated Interiors
Commerce Bank
Deloitte
East-West Gateway Council
of Governments
EDC of St. Charles County
Emmis Communications
Express Scripts Inc.
Farnsworth Group
Federal Reserve Bank
of St. Louis
FOCUS St. Louis
Gallop, Johnson Neuman
Geotechnology Inc
Graybar
Habitat for Humanity
St. Louis
HOK
IAMCP-St. Louis
Laclede Gas Company
Lewis and Clark
Community College
Mackey Mitchell Architects
Madison County
Treasurer's Office
Maritz
Markwort Sporting Goods
Company
McKendree University
Metro
Millipore
Missouri Botanical Garden
Monsanto Company
Moonrise Hotel
SCI Engineering Inc
Southwestern Illinois College
Special School District of
St. Louis County
St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Community College - Cosand
Campus
St. Louis County
Economic Council
St. Louis RCGA
St. Louis University
Stan Gellman Graphic Design
SWT Design
Tarlton Corporation
The Boeing Company -
St. Louis
The Hauser Group
The Partnership for
Downtown St. Louis
The Vandiver Group
Tower Grove Park
UMB Bank
Walsh & Associates
Wells Fargo Advisors
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RCGA Green Workforce
Talent Project
Nears Completion
The RCGA and the St. Louis area
Workforce Investment Boards are working together to identify
opportunities in the St. Louis green economy and to help align
the region's workforce with those opportunities. This
initiative, called the Green Labor Market Information
(LMI) Project, is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor
- Employment and Training Administration and the Missouri
Economic Research and Information Center to study green jobs and
skills training at a regional level.
The project contacted employers in
the green economy, specifically in the sectors of building design
and construction, energy, manufacturing, agriculture, waste and
remediation, and public administration. These sectors were
identified as having the greatest growth potential in a green
economy. The RCGA convened focus groups and surveyed more than
650 area employers to determine their workforce needs.
Half of the employers surveyed believe the green economy
will present opportunities for growth, with energy efficiency
cited as an important area.
Twenty-five
percent of green companies said they now have job openings,
indicating the potential strength of the emerging regional green
economy. In addition, a quarter of surveyed
employers are looking to train and retrain employees on
sustainability. Sustainability is becoming a
standard business practice, on par with safety and
diversity, and employees will be expected to have
sustainability skills to advance in their jobs. Employers
responded that waste minimization ranked nearly equal to safety
training as the most important skill for their employees (see
chart below and click to enlarge).
The results from the employer
surveys will be described in the LMI Project's Green
Jobs Report to be distributed to the community at the end of
January. The report will also include a list of
green occupations in the St. Louis region and pathways to those
careers.
In addition, The Green LMI Project is
working with the Higher Education Sustainability
Consortium to inventory the green curriculum and courses
in the St. Louis region. The inventory will assist
employers and employees in finding additional sustainability
training opportunities across the region.
The Green LMI Project culminates
with a symposium on January 26th and a Career
Opportunities Showcase on January 27th, both of which
are parts of the Green Confluence 2011 organized by the Center
for Sustainability at St. Louis University.
Business leaders, educators and workforce professionals will
provide their perspectives on the St. Louis region's green
economy and potential. The
conference concludes with the launching of a St. Louis Green Jobs
website that will have information on green jobs,
the inventory of green higher education programs and the analysis
from the Green Jobs Report. The following day a Green Career
Opportunities Showcase will be held for the community with area
employers, members of the Higher Education Consortium, and area
workforce training centers exhibiting information on green
careers in the St. Louis region.
When the Green LMI Project ends on
January 31st, stronger relationships will have been
formed among area green employers, education institutions, and
workforce training centers so that St. Louis will be better
prepared for the emerging green economy. For more
information on the Green LMI Project, contact Meredith Turk at
mturk@stlrcga.org.
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Green Economy
Symposium & Green Career Opportunties Showcase
January 26-27, 2011
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Held at St. Louis University - Busch
Student Center
Speakers on green economy, green careers,
education and training in the St. Louis region
Launch of Green Jobs website for St.
Louis region
Networking opportunities with leaders
from green businesses, higher education, and the workforce
development community
Green Career Opportunities Showcase (Jan.
27) features exhibits from area employers, higher education
institutions, and workforce centers presenting green career paths
and training
Symposium and Showcase are parts of Green
Confluence 2011 with St. Louis University's Center for
Sustainability
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Pending EPA
Regulations Could Adversely Impact Electricity Costs in St. Louis
Region
The
RCGA Energy and Environment Council met on December
8th to learn about the pending regulations proposed by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and how they may impact
electricity costs and generation in the St. Louis
region. The EPA has proposed or finalized 29 major
regulations and 172 major policy rules in the last two years,
covering emissions from carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone,
and particulate matter. The new regulations stem from the
agency's recent endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act.
Warren Wood, Vice President of Legislative
and Government Affairs for Ameren Missouri, described
the pending timeline (see graphic below and click to enlarge) of
EPA regulations as a potential "train wreck" that could adversely
impact electricity generation and costs in the St. Louis region
and across the country.
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Wood (pictured below left) noted
during his presentation (click here) that 78% of Missouri energy
comes from coal-fired power plants, the majority of which are
more than 30 years old. When faced with the pending
regulatory requirements and short timeline proposed by the EPA,
utility companies may be forced to retire older plants, thereby
reducing baseload capacity. It is projected that
the new regulations could cause a nearly 10% decrease in
generating capacity in our region. With
electricity demand expected to grow more than 25% in the next 20
years, Ameren and other Missouri utilities are looking for new
solutions to address capacity challenges, such as the joint
proposal by electric service providers for a site permit for a
second nuclear plant at Callaway.
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Warren Wood, Vice President -
Legislative and Government
Affairs, Ameren Missouri
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Al Owen, Utilities Manager, The
Boeing Company - St. Louis
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The new EPA regulations are also making
long-term capital planning very difficult for large industrial
users, said Al Owen, Utilities Manager at The Boeing
Company - St. Louis and chair of the Missouri
Industrial Energy Users Coalition (pictured above
right). Boeing has made a commitment to reduce
energy consumption by 25% by 2012, and Owen views energy
efficiency as an important hedge against higher electricity costs
in the future. Boeing has also adopted several
sustainability strategies to reduce energy costs, including a
LEAN Plus manufacturing process that analyzes the BTU
contribution for each product. "Reliability at a reasonable
price" is Owen's mantra for utilities management, and he sees the
Midwest as continuing to be a good place for production
facilities.
Jim Alexander, RCGA's Vice
President of Business Recruitment (pictured below left),
explained in his presentation (click here) that energy availability and
costs rank as top factors in site location and expansion
decisions. St. Louis is known as a low-cost energy
region, with rates more than 40% lower than the national
average. Alexander also described several RCGA
business expansion projects related to manufacturing facilities,
data centers and financial services operations where electricity
costs will be a critical factor in location decisions.
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Jim Alexander, Vice President - Business
Recruitment, St. Louis RCGA
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Roger Walker, Chairman, Missouri Energy
Initiative
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The Energy and Environment Council
concluded with an overview of the new Missouri Energy
Initiative (MEI), whose mission is to become a trusted
source for energy information in Missouri, said Roger
Walker, Chairman of the Board for MEI and Chair of the Future
Energy Group at Armstrong Teasdale (pictured above
right). The Initiative is in its infancy, said
Walker, but in 2011 it will publish white papers on Missouri
energy issues and offer policy analysis and alternatives.
Click here for more information on the Missouri Energy
Initiative.
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Climate Prosperity Links
Economic Development with Sustainability
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The Climate Prosperity Project is a national
framework advancing the concept that innovation, efficiency and
conservation of resources can lead to increases in employment,
income, productivity and competitiveness of a region.
Launched in 2009, the Project is funded by the Rockefeller
Brothers Foundation and headquartered in Washington, D.C.
St. Louis is one of four pilot regions,
along with Denver, Portland and Silicon Valley,
that is following the path toward climate
prosperity. The RCGA leads the St. Louis project
with activities such as the St. Louis Green Business
Challenge (green savings), the St. Louis Green
Economy Profile (green opportunities) and Green
LMI Project (green talent). Next year, the RCGA
will begin a “Greenprint”, a set of strategies to build the
market for clean and green products and services, grow the
regional base of clean and green industries, and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. (see below graphic and click to
enlarge)
The national Project is led by
André Pettigrew, the former head of Economic Development
and Trade for the City of Denver (pictured right),
and  RCGA President and CEO Dick
Fleming, who serves as Chairman of the Board of
Trustees. One of the goals of the national project is to
influence policy and promote the work being done by the regional
pilots. Pettigrew has met with officials from the White House
Office of Urban Affairs, U.S. Department of Commerce Economic
Development Administration and the National League of Cities to
educate them about the goals of climate prosperity and the
importance of rebuilding the American economy through a green
lens. "While businesses have long understood how
sustainable practices spur innovation, create new markets
and increase employee productivity, translating this model to a
regional level is a breakthrough idea," said
Pettigrew. He called the regional pilot sites “learning
laboratories” for climate prosperity where business, labor,
education and environmental communities are coming together to
create unified “greenprints” for stimulating economic
growth. In his meetings in Washington, Pettigrew
recommends that the federal government take advantage of these
partnerships and strategically invest in climate prosperity
regions.
One such example is the awarding
of $4.6 million to St. Louis by the U.S. Department for
Housing and Urban Development for a Sustainable Communities
grant. The grant, to be led by East-West Gateway
Council of Governments, will foster a sustainable development
plan for housing, transportation and economic development in the
St. Louis region. The RCGA was a supporting
organization for this grant. Pettigrew said that he will
continue to spread the message of Climate Prosperity in 2011, and
predicts that St. Louis will become a national example of how
economic growth and sustainability can occur.
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