THE TRANSITIONING TO GREEN INITIATIVE:
The "transitioning to green initiative" is committed to helping you find your place in the world of the new green economy!
Headed by Dr. Jeana Wirtenberg, this organization exists to empower you to transform yourself not only in your career choices but also in how you choose to live the rest of your life.   

• Are you looking to transition into a greener career? 
  
• Attend the Transitioning to Green Forum, a highly interactive, unique, one-day event with subject matter experts (SME’s) in sustainability and green jobs.
• Click here to read more about the Forum and to register!

---

NEW YORK-CT METROPOLITAN AREA SUSTAINIBILITY NEWS...

See the new D.E.E.P. in Connecticut grow in 2012!

DEP NOW DEEP
http://cga.ct.gov/2011/TOB/S/2011SB-00001-R01-SB.htm

Energy bill sought by Malloy wins final passage
Mark Pazniokas, CT MIRROR
June 7, 2011

In a bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives gave final approval Tuesday night to a complex bill sought by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and negotiated by his environmental commissioner to remake how Connecticut procures and regulates the generation, purchase and delivery of electricity.  The legislation approved 138 to 9 both refines and expands a sweeping energy bill passed last year on the final day of the session on a partisan vote, only to be vetoed by Malloy's Republican predecessor, Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

It creates a highly centralized power authority in a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to be overseen by Commissioner Daniel C. Esty, who appears destined to become the most powerful state official outside the governor.

"We're going from one extreme to the other, from a disjointed system to a very centralized one," said Rep. Sean Williams, R-Watertown, a member of the Energy and Technology Committee.

Following a unanimous Senate vote Monday, the final action Tuesday is a vote of confidence in Esty and an expression of the willingness by politicians to accept a radical change in the hopes of lowering the cost of the most expensive electricity in the continental U.S.  The legislation delivers on a promise by Malloy, the first Democratic governor in 20 years, to modernize and expand the state's regulatory structure into an agency that can shape and quickly adapt to energy markets.

"We started off with a governor who made energy the focal point of his administration, and clearly he wanted an energy bill," said Rep. Vickie Nardello, D-Prospect, the co-chair of the Energy and Technology Committee. "He's the first governor in my 17 years here to make energy a priority."

It was passed with a broad, if tentative, consensus reached by the administration, Democratic and Republican legislators, and the electric industry, including Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating.  One industry source said the bill appears to be a thoughtful, balanced approach, but the sweep of its reach and the centralized power in hands of one commissioner inevitably leaves the various players unsettled.

"We have indeed centralized the agency. The commissioner has a great deal of authority, and with that goes a great deal of responsibility," Nardello said. "It's going to be our job as a legislature to ensure that authority is used properly."

Esty, 51, an energy adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, is a Yale professor and author of nine books, including a volume that marked him as an environmentalist attuned to economics. Malloy named him commissioner the same day he proposed the new department.  Republicans were skeptical about some of Esty's energy market theories at his confirmation hearing, but the ranking Republicans on the Energy and Technology Committee, Rep. Laura Hoydick of Stratford and Sen. Kevin Witkos of Canton, praised his handling of the negotiations that produced a consensus bill.

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said in a partisan year, the energy bill "was a refreshing respite. It was a classic example of what you can do when you sit down with people on all sides of an issue."

Expectations will be high for the new agency. Connecticut has been a loser in the era of deregulation, when electricity became a commodity set by market price under a dizzying set of state and federal rules.

The state's two utilities, CL&P and UI, no longer generate power. They sold off their generating stations and now are simply a delivery system. They provide "standard service," competing with smaller companies that buy electricity and deliver it via the grid maintained by CL&P and UI.  The hope for the new energy authority is a nimble bureaucracy that can set policy and quickly react to market changes to help procure electricity at the best possible price. The old paradigm was reliability and stability over all else.

"It's just not part of the mission," Rep. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, said of lowering energy costs. "It's been about avoiding brown outs. Success should be a higher bar than that."

Electricity was purchased through a so-called "laddering system," an overlapping series of contracts. The new system allows shorter contracts, presumably allowing the state to capitalize on market changes.  The bill abolishes the five-member Public Utility Control Authority, the body that oversees the Department of Public Utility Control, and creates a three-member Public Utilities Regulatory Authority that will be part of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The legislation restructures and expands the Clean Energy Fund and adds a new funding mechanism: the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority. The fund will look beyond rebates for solar energy to energy efficiency, electric vehicles and natural gas infrastructure.  Last year, the bill heavily favored solar as an alternative energy source for residential users. The bill passed Tuesday encourages energy sources that produce low or zero emissions, regardless of the technology.

Its final passage was applauded by business groups and environmentalists.  Joseph Brennan of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association said the group's members were optimistic that the new agency would help bring down energy costs.

"The passage of this bill begins to bring Connecticut's energy policies and infrastructure into the 21st century," said Charles Rothenberger, staff attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "With the establishment of the DEEP, the state will be able to develop a real energy strategy for the first time."

---

Pomp, circumstance and a new era at the DEP
By Mark Pazniokas, CT MIRROR
March 18, 2011

The swearing-in of Daniel C. Esty as the new commissioner of environmental protection blossomed Friday into a celebration for Esty and a milestone for an agency that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to quickly embrace a broader new mission.

Conservation officers in red dress tunics and flat-brimmed Stetsons snapped to attention as Malloy and Esty approached an auditorium crowded with curious employees, environmental advocates, legislators, utility regulators and a state labor leader.

Esty is one of Malloy's stars, a Yale professor with a national reputation for new ideas about reconciling environmentalism and economic growth. Malloy wants Esty to head a reconstituted agency that will safeguard the environment while acting as a catalyst for economic development and a watchdog over energy policy.

"I've asked Dan Esty to take this responsibility, to re-engineer this department with all of you in this room," Malloy said. "This new charge of this new department is very important."

Esty hopes to be the last commissioner of DEP and the first commissioner of a proposed Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which will require the approval of the General Assembly.

"It is a challenging time to be in government. We do have a lot to do to transform this department into a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection," Esty told his employees. "And as all of you who work here have heard me say, we're going to have a third 'E,' and that's the economy, in mind every day. We do have to contribute to the governor's agenda of rebuilding a platform for economic growth."

With blunt public comments about the need to streamline permitting procedures, the new commissioner already has stirred the bureaucracy at the DEP headquarters, a former insurance company home office down the hill from the State Capitol, across from Bushnell Park.

The building has many accouterments worthy of a corporate headquarters, including a sunny auditorium on an upper floor, where Esty took the oath of office from Malloy, who joked about size and plush wood paneling in his new commissioner's office.

More than almost any other state agency, the DEP is facing pressure to do business differently as it takes on an expanded mission, following years of a shrinking staff.

Malloy has proposed folding utility regulators into the new, expanded department. Several utility commissioners sat in the row behind Esty and his family. Across the aisle sat legislators, including co-chairs of the Environment Committee and the Energy and Technology Committee.

Behind them were DEP employees, environmental advocates and other guests, including John Olsen, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO.

"We're very enthusiastic about the way this administration has started," said Roger Reynolds, a senior attorney with the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "Obviously, nothing has really happened yet. But we're very enthusiastic about the way things are moving."

Reynolds was among those who said the ceremony Friday conveyed the Malloy administration's ambitions for a department that has lost staff and, to a degree, credibility at the General Assembly.

"Did you see how surprised the DEP was that the governor had walked into the building? I mean, that really says something. This agency has been an afterthought. It hasn't got the resources and attention that an agency that is this central to the environment and the economy is," Reynolds said.

Malloy said he sees the expanded DEP, along with transportation and education policies and a reorganized economic-development agency as "really the front line of our job creation agenda over the next 10 and 20 years."

Environmentalists say they are comfortable with the new mission, if the agency still can perform its historic central role of environmental protection.

"This agency has always been central to the economy. If you don't get permits through, if you don't have the resources to staff adequately, if you don't reward good behavior and punish bad behavior, the economy is going to suffer," Reynolds said. "I don't think any of the recent governors in history have really understood that."

Chris Phelps, the program director of Environment Connecticut, a policy group, said many in the environmental movement already had embraced a broader view of environmentalism.

"It's about energy, environment and the economy," said Phelps, who also attended the ceremony. "These things are intertwined."

Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen, the ranking Republican on the Environment Committee, said Esty is a dynamo, perhaps the most impressive appointment by an administration that he sees as full of bright, energetic appointees.

Roraback, who was elected in 1994, the start of 16 years of Republican rule in the governor's office, said the Capitol needed a dramatic change.

"There was a staleness about the place, and it has been upended," he said.

But Roraback said the expectations are high, especially for Esty, whose portfolio of issues is vast. He said he knows that Esty has a work ethic to match his intellect--he has a habit of returning emails late into the night--but he will have to win over the bureaucracy.

"It's the same orchestra over there. They have a new conductor," Roraback said.

And amid the good feelings about a new, enthusiastic commissioner are questions about the efficiencies that Esty says he will bring to both the compliance and permitting functions of the department.

Malloy smiled when asked about the doubts.

"It's a demonstration of how broken Connecticut is that people don't think you can be efficient and environmentally friendly," Malloy said. "I know you can."

"We've got very smart people, and we have to empower them to do their jobs, to give them the right laws to do their jobs, and then we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard," he said. "And that's what I'm looking to do."

---

'Smart growth' gaining ground (old article)
By By Angela Carter, Register Staff
Saturday, November 17, 2007

NEW HAVEN — There is a small but growing demand among consumers for “smart growth” features in the housing market, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official who spoke at the first Smart Growth Conference Wednesday.

In addition, more home builders and developers are incorporating smart growth principles in their projects, said Lee Sobel, the real estate development and finance analyst in the EPA’s Development, Community and Environment Division.

Sobel was the keynote speaker at the conference, organized by the statewide citizen group 1,000 Friends of Connecticut and held at Southern Connecticut State University.

Smart growth refers to a planning and design concept that communities use when housing and commercial developments are formulated. It emphasizes improving transportation, as well as protecting public health, the environment and cultural and historic resources.

The EPA plans to release a research report on the topic in February, Sobel said.

Because New England has few large tracts of land available that appeal to developers in conventional projects, Sobel said the opportunities for smart growth here are likely in urban neighborhoods where sites are being rehabilitated or in small communities where “the infrastructure stops” but land is available to add a modest number of buildings.

“It’s really about providing the consumer with a new choice for housing, working, shopping, playing and getting around,” he said.

During the EPA’s study period, from 2001 to 2004, researchers found that “one-third of today’s home buyers want a smart growth product,” Sobel said. In that time frame, there were 7.7 million housing starts, with 33,085 of them featuring smart growth units, simultaneously showing both lagging support and market potential, he said.

Heidi Green, president of 1,000 Friends of Connecticut, said about 340 attended the conference, which included morning and afternoon workshops on how smart growth relates to issues such as sprawl, affordable housing, the state economy and public health.

Green said the organization is likely to hold such events again. “Conferences are a good way to inspire people and to educate people,” she said.

It also gave members of the coalition a chance to meet and build a base of supporters who will keep smart growth issues at the forefront next year, the first year campaign finance reform laws will apply to state races, she said.

---

Looking for a green job in New Jersey? Montville, NJ expert Dr. Jeana Wirtenberg can help
Dossier: Dr. Jeana Wirtenberg, founder, Transitioning to Green
By SALLY SILVERMAN • SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD • August 17, 2010

MONTVILLE — Dr. Jeana Wirtenberg is founder of Transitioning to Green, a professional membership organization dedicated to the green transformation and comprised of leaders in sustainability, industry, academia and organizational leadership. Together, they seek to help organizations utilize human resources in recruiting and training the talent needed to effect the transition to the green economy.

She also is cofounder and senior advisor at the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise in the Silberman College of Business at Fairleigh Dickinson University and lead editor of the book, "The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook, When It All Comes Together."

"Everything I write and speak about is about people, the planet and profits," Wirtenberg said.

Green jobs: "In New Jersey, there are more than 100 jobs in every field that could be transferred into green," she said.

Her website www.transitioningtogreen.com lists jobs ranging from quality control, engineering, sales and transportation in the fields of chemistry, electricity and water.

"An example of a job in the corporate world would be chief sustainable officer to a green-team leader in municipal government," she said. "For example, Covanta Energy and PSEG have openings, and the government has green jobs on O*Net," she said. "There are green job banks in the IT field — the whole telecommunications field is going green. As far as the field of finance, in the future, people will have to be accountable for emissions."

A Transitioning to Green Careers certification program, cosponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, is being offered at the Petrocelli College of Continuing Studies at FDU.

The government and green: "The government has good intentions, but there are institutional barriers, fragmentation and a disconnect in communications. Obama has good intentions and has done a few good things but, given the state of the economy, we should be focusing our energy on this. I'm trying to work with the government to keep businesses in New Jersey," she said.

Beginnings: Wirtenberg was born in Brooklyn and grew up in New York City.

"When I was 5, I knew I wanted to get a Ph.D. although I don't think I knew what it was," she said. Wirtenberg received a bachelor's degree in math with a minor in psychology from the City College of New York; and a master's degree and Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA.

"I've always been a change agent to make the world better. I love knowledge and learning," she said.

Career path: Wirtenberg's first job was with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which helped her complete her dissertation on Title IX. She was HR director at Public Service Enterprise Group and held positions in marketing and human resources at AT&T for 13 years.

At home: Wirtenberg lives in Montville with her husband, Bill. She has a son, Justin, 20, and Bill has a son, Spencer, 20. Her mother, Pearl, also lives with them. Wirtenberg loves to dance and travel to places such as Quebec City and the Caribbean.

Mentor: Chuck Nakamura, who was chairman of the clinical psychology department at UCLA and to whom Wirtenberg dedicated her book.

---

“Creating a Sustainable Future: A Global Study of Current Trends 2007-2017”
Complimentary Sustainability Report & Webcast Now Available Online

H I G H E S T    R A T I N G  -  F O U R    " B O O K S "   (equivalent of 4 stars - "must read" category)
R E V I E W :   People & Strategy Journal, Volume 31.3 (fall 2008).

The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook

Authors: edited by Jeana Wirtenberg, with William G. Russell and David Lipsky in collaboration with the Enterprise Sustainability Action Team.

Reviewer: Michael Williams, Professor, The Eli Broad College of  Business, Michigan State University.

The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook is a collection of well-written essays by 29 members of the Enterprise Sustainability Action Team. The editors organized the essays to convey the importance and method of developing core competencies and resources focused on long-term, global sustainability. The editors define sustainability as an enterprise’s awareness and ability to renew and rejuvenate
resource inputs, while not degrading local and global ecosystems.
 
A sustainable enterprise is likely to pursue a triple-bottom-line strategy tied to three broad domains of stakeholder needs: social, environmental, and economic.

The book is divided into five parts and contains explanations, activities, challenge questions, case examples and tools that leaders and managers can apply to help break down barriers to creating
sustainable organizations and enable their organizations to work in sustainable ways.

Part I provides the introduction and overview of how a leader can use the book to understand and implement sustainability. Central is the “Sustainability Pyramid Model,” created by the editors,
which describes the common qualities of nine sustainable enterprises. The pyramid is stacked in three layers: the foundation layer, the traction layer and the integration layer. The foundation layer includes: deeply embedded values, senior management support, and management’s commitment to sustainability as central to an enterprise’s strategic plan.

Part II presents three primary ingredients of the foundation of a sustainable enterprise. The first is leadership, effectively illustrated by the “Leadership Diamond,” created by Daniel F. Twomey, a contributor
to the book. Second is thinking about sustainable enterprise and the importance of having an open mind to see the opportunities afforded by sustainability. Third is the presentation of specific methods for developing a sustainability strategy.

Part III identifies the challenges of managing change. In particular, the essays in Chapter 5 concentrate on the employee as an essential stakeholder in the transition to sustainability. Chapter 6 gives
excellent examples of metrics and measurement systems to quantify and identify a company’s long-term sustainability.

Part IV turns to globalization and the challenge to look outside of oneself and beyond our bounded rationality to view the world. The essays attempt to challenge the reader to change and think in a much larger context. Finally, Part V is titled “When it all comes together,” and it is a very well laid out summary of the book.

Overall, this book is a very user-friendly and practical book on sustainability. It is well written and comprehensive, very clear and concise in its explanations and applicable examples. The key challenge
the editors continually ask themselves and the reader is “what more can be done?” The first thing to do is to read, understand and follow The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook.

PEOPLE & STRATEGY 31.3 

---

T H E    B O O K :
Today, managers and leaders of organizations, in both the private sector and civil society, are being challenged as never before to find ways to play a proactive role in addressing the concerns of sustainable development. But they are often overwhelmed by a bombardment of conflicting messages from the media, shareholders, customers, employees, and NGOs. The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook helps managers deal with this confusion. It teaches them how to strike a better balance, moving from an “either/or” mind-set to one that holistically embraces social, environmental and economic issues simultaneously. It addresses the “what” (“what is a sustainable strategy for  a company or organization?”) as well as the “how” (“how do we go about building a sustainable enterprise?”).

The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook has been put together by an outstanding network of experts from business (Microsoft, Sony, Philips, and AIG), consultancies, and academia. Its aim is to teach and guide leaders, managers, practitioners, students, and professors in every sector of society, and in every industry, in creating a successful and sustainable enterprise. By making the steps needed clear, understandable, and simple to follow, the book naturally engages readers in their journey and encourages their participation in three key ways: by increasing their understanding and awareness of what sustainability means at a conceptual and practical, as well as a personal, level; by energizing and expanding people’s commitment to building sustainable enterprises; and by providing readers with extensive tools and techniques so they can individually and collectively take actions that will improve the social, environmental, and economic performance of their organizations in both the short and long term.

Each chapter of the book illustrates through models, tools, cases, stories, and examples from a wide range of companies how to integrate sustainability into the day-to-day realities of running a business. Managers are coached, facilitated, and guided to enable them to create a better balance between the short and long term, to help them to become change agents in their organizations and to provide answers to the question “How do I make a difference?” Some of the areas covered are leadership, strategy, managing change, employee engagement, metrics and measurement, networks, and globalization.

Readers of The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook will find access to the innovative “Living Fieldbook”, which is an online community support service providing ongoing updated assistance in building a sustainable enterprise.

The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook offers an ingredient that has been missing in the enormous outpouring of information on organizations and sustainability: an holistic integration of solutions, which will make the journey personal for each reader.

---

Dr. Jeana Wirtenberg

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Business at the Crossroads: Aligning Commerce, Earth and Humanity

March 12, 2008 • 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. Eastern 

Environmental and social issues have historically been of peripheral concern to business.  At best, companies have felt compelled to “give back” to society in the form of philanthropy or other good deeds directed at the natural environment or the community.  Today global companies stand at a crossroads—facing terrorism, environmental destruction, and antiglobalization backlash—while searching for new sources of profitable growth.

So rather than treating social and environmental issues as expensive luxuries, many companies are now fusing social mission with competitive strategy.  This Webcast explores the integration of sustainable development and environmentalism in business strategy and illustrates how such practices can increase shareholder value and competitive position.

What you’ll learn:

Join us to discover business practices that are more inclusive, more welcome, and far more successful—for both companies and communities, worldwide. For example, you’ll hear about:

• Paths to profitable sustainability: Shattering the “trade-off” myth
• New commercial strategies for serving the “base of the pyramid”: What enterprises have learned about doing business in income-poor regions
• Becoming indigenous — for real, for good: Co-discovering new opportunities, co-creating new businesses with the poor
• Learning from leaders: best practices from companies such as DuPont, HP, SC Johnson, Tata, P&G, and more

About the Presenters:

Stuart Hart, Ph.D., is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environmentalism on business. He is currently the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. He also serves as senior research fellow at both the Davidson Institute (University of Michigan) and Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Mr. Hart is author of the best-selling book Capitalism at the Crossroads and wrote the seminal article Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World, which won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in Harvard Business Review.

Jeana Wirtenberg, Ph.D., is president of Jeana Wirtenberg & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in building sustainable enterprises through leadership, culture change, collaboration and learning. She is co-founder and Director, External Relations and Services, of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (ISE) at Fairleigh Dickinson University, focused on bringing people together to learn how to develop and lead thriving, sustainable enterprises that are “in and for the world.”

Working with CEO's, Presidents and VP's of Fortune 500 companies, Jeana has helped organizations reach the highest levels of performance excellence by aligning their vision and values with business strategy. She is lead author on several recent articles on sustainable enterprise, the future of organization development and she is also one of the lead authors on AMA’s report: “Creating a Sustainable Future: A Global Study of Current Trends and Possibilities 2007-2017.”

Attending this Webcast is complimentary, but you must register online or by calling 1-800-262-9699.

Webcast Details:

Date of Event: Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Time: 12 p.m.–1:00 p.m. Eastern
Fee: Complimentary
Meeting Number: 17190 - 00001

---

You're invited to listen to this FREE AMA WEBCAST, again and again!!!

“Green Leadership: Creating  Business Value”  which was broadcast on  Wednesday, February 6th, 2008, is online here.  Dr. Jeana Wirtenberg, Director of External Relations and Services, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (ISE) interviewed Andrew Winston, co-author of Green to Gold which highlights what works-and what doesn't-when companies go "green."

·       This American Management Association Webcast explored how smart companies use environmental strategies to innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage.
·       Here's a great opportunity to discover how forward-thinking organizations are putting environmental sustainability into their strategic plans and execution.

---

---

The twelve most widely used sustainability-related practices;

How the most sustainable companies create a foundation, traction and broad stakeholder engagement for sustainability.