Bert,
The California Green Business program is a very good one so far, and I believe other localities have used it as a model. I just earned my Green Business certification through that program for Roughstock, and it was fairly thorough to be sure.
The main flaw, one which the program`s planners are working on supposedly, is that it focuses on greening a business` operations only (and not its products). This is simply a logistics issue; at this stage of the program`s development they have limited resources and are still learning themselves how to best certify businesses and ensure compliance.
As programs like this develop, however, the requirements will continue to grow. The process of introducing sustainable practices to a business is not—and never will be—cut and dried. Each business is different and has different requirements. Take the restaurant biz: finding non-toxic ways to clean an industrial kitchen is far more of a challenge than it is for my home office, for example.
But the California Green Biz Program is great, because it allows the government to
learn from business. My hope is that the lessons learned by the Cal Green Biz folks will eventually inform the regulations imposed by local and broader gov`ts.
Back to your original point, though: one of the reasons the sustainability movement has taken so long to get off the ground is because there are so many definitions, and the definitions themselves must evolve and be adaptable. This is a
very difficult thing. To regulate, legislate and define something that by definition must be flexible and fluid is incredibly difficult. This is why self-regulating business is so important to this movement.
You might also be interested in browsing the
Dictionary of Sustainable Management, created by the folks at the Presidio School of Management. It`s a great resource.
Best,
Jess
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