Greenbuild 2007: Green in More Ways than One

The green building industry has attracted the attention not only of large contracting firms and Fortune 500 companies, but also a mushrooming population of entrepreneurs. Turning a desire to be part of the green building movement into a profit can offer a variety of challenges, however.

A panel of four entrepreneurs offered their comments on green entrepreneurship at a Greenbuild 2007 session that was part of the conferences “Big Ideas” series.

Malcolm Lewis of CTG Energetics, Irvine, Calif., noted that a healthy percentage of new business ventures fail each year, so unbridled optimism may not be the healthiest outlook.

But he and the others on the panel also commented that taking on too much work and saying “yes” to every potential project also carries risks.

After a business gets rolling, Lewis remarked that it will be critical to “develop the communication infrastructure and systems” that will help an entrepreneur share ideas and share the workload among co-workers.

Josh Radoff helped start YRG Sustainability Consultants, New York, just 16 months ago and told attendees that “it’s been a whirlwind, rollercoaster year.”

The company has grown from two full-time employees to 17 in that time and has opened offices in other cities to be near clients and to fully tap into the labor market.

Thus, among his challenges has been defining sustainability as a means “to navigate the massive demand out there” for consulting services such as those provided by YRG.

Peter Nicholson of the Foresight Design Initiative, Chicago, also noted that when it comes to defining sustainability, “We’re all making it up . . . every day. It’s a dynamic field; it’s changing every day.”

Nicholson says the key to growing his regional sustainability organization has been to keep in mind a three-step process of “connect, learn and do.”

Joel Ann Todd of Cabin John, Md., related to attendees how earlier this decade she stepped away from a 45-employee company that she had helped found. Her goal was to re-focus on the type of work she actually liked to do rather than being an administrator.

Drawing on her experience as a supervisor of 45 people, Todd told budding entrepreneurs that “one of the biggest challenges you will face” is finding the right employees.

Now that she is operating as the home-based proprietor of a design charette consulting firm, Todd said that the challenges are different. “The discipline is not to get yourself [motivated] to work; the discipline is to stop,” she stated.

Todd said that when she closes the door to her home office each evening, she makes a conscious effort to keep the door closed and not re-enter to check incoming e-mails or voicemail messages.

Self-confidence will also be important, she told budding entrepreneurs. “The fear is that if you turn something down, the next job won’t come along. It takes discipline to say ‘no’ and to have confidence in yourself that the next job will come along,” she remarked.

Provided an entrepreneur has that confidence, she encouraged attendees to figure out what they like to do best “so you can build your business around it.”

The 2007 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo was held at McCormick Place in Chicago Nov. 6-9.