What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
Thoreau

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, “We did it ourselves.”
Lao-Tzu

Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.
Alan Watts

I feel that my whole life is a contribution.
Pete Seeger

We live in a time, after all, when hard-nosed bosses compose awestruck disquisitions on the nature of “change,” punk rockers dispense leadership secrets, shallow profundities about authenticity sell luxury cars, tech billionaires build rock ‘n’ roll museums, management theorists ponder the nature of coolness, and a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead hails the dawn of New Economy capitalism from the heights of Davos. Conservatives may not understand why, but business culture had melded with counterculture for reasons having a great deal to do with business culture’s usual priority–profit.
Thomas Frank

To start with, the Network’s membership directory, freely available to the public, is a valuable resource for identifying the green business movers and shakers in the Boston area. It includes both businesses and other organizations involved in green business development.

To many people the events are the real attraction of industry networks. Bringing together those that are currently doing things in green business and those interested in getting in on the action, the Green Business Network hosts and promotes events with a variety of topics.

For example, the SBN is co-hosting a fantastic event titled “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding the World.” The event features sustainable development authors, business leaders, and professors from Boston College all talking about what interests them in the industry of sustainable food sourcing. This particular event takes place on October 29th. More information is available here.

Finally, the Sustainable Business Network of Boston offers programs such as the Sustainable Business Leadership Program. The SBLP provides technical assistance that is practical for local business leaders looking to implement more sustainable practices into their organizations.

So if you are in the Boston area and are interested in green business, the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston is a fantastic resource for learning more about what is already happening.

So what now? To be honest, I’m not exactly sure. I think we have to wait and see how the idea actually gets implemented, or even if it does. I expect France will be the first to publish reports that include the new measurement, though I’m not sure when that will happen. The key is for the measurement to prove it’s worth. I’m excited to see what kind of analysis we can draw from the first published reports.

“The Vermont Fresh Network encourages farmers, food producers and chefs to work directly with each other to build partnerships. Building these regional connections contributes to stronger local communities and their economies.”

Buying local produce can be difficult. Determining whether or not all the ingredients in a particular product actually came from where the product was produced is next to impossible. Check out one man’s attempt. The Vermont Fresh Network aims to change that. They remove the difficulty from the consumer and build the decision to purchase local food into the supply chain of restaurants and grocers around Vermont.

This reduces food distributors (middlemen) who take huge cuts out of a food producers margin. Many of these Vermont farmers were barely scraping by. Additional profits by reducing distribution costs is the break many of them needed to stay afloat.

In addition, direct farm to consumer sales in a small region like Vermont dramatically reduces the amount of imported products needed as the prices can finally be competitive. With reduced imported products come reduced transportation and all the costs associated with it such as truck emissions and road usage.

Regional food networks that support direct farmer to consumer / restaurant interaction benefit local economies substantially. Do you know of other regional food networks like the Vermont Fresh Network? Let us know.