The founder, CEO and president of Natural Logic (a strategic sustainability consulting firm) was one of the more active elements of Green Cities Florida, contributing to two different sessions. One session based around his book, dedicated to explaining the opportunities of green business and debunking some of the myths. The other session was a speaking engagement along with Terry Gips (Sustainability Associates Minneapolis) for a discussion on greening your business while turning a profit in a recession. This session focused on getting everyone in an organization on the same page when it comes to making a business more eco-friendly. As Gil puts it, “The engineering is easy…Getting it so that Joe and Mary do different things when they show up at work on Monday morning, that’s where the real art and challenge of this work is.”

After helping such clients as Nike and General Mills develop strategies to become more sustainable while still being profitable, Friend had plenty of experience to offer the attendees of Green Cities Florida, who ranged from local government types to university officials developing sustainability curriculum. His experience in the field is a goldmine for Green Cities and the future of Florida’s sustainability movement. In his interview, Gil talks about Green Cites as a place to connect and refers to several people developing courses for their educational institutions that are now have a relationship to build a better model for sustainability in academia. Building relationships to find solutions is the essence of Green Cities and the idea is gaining momentum with every event.

We at Green Cities Media would love to thank Gil Friend for helping to make the Florida event one to remember and hope to work with him again in the near future.

Want more Gil Friend? Of course you do. Below is the Green Cities Florida onsite interview with Mr. Friend, by one of his biggest fans Kimberly Miller.

Make sure you check out the pre Green Cities Florida interview
You can learn more about Gil Friend and Natural Logic here
Interested in reading Gil’s newest work? Order here online.

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I’m Kimberly Miller with Green Cities Media, standing here with Gil Friend of Natural Logic, on site at Green Cities in Orlando, Florida.
Could you recap for me what you’ve been doing here at Green Cities and the sessions you’ve been teaching?

Well I taught two sessions here. We did one yesterday on the Truth About Green Business, based on my new book coming out on May 29th from Financial Times Press. It was a high density overview of Green Business, like Green Business for Dummies except not for dummies. So, we did a course based on that, a one hour drinking-from-a-fire hose, here are some of the basics about green business, to a full room. This morning I shared a session with Terry Gips from Sustainability Associates in Minneapolis and we did a 2.5 hour session on how to green your company and profit from greening in a recession. So, a more sweeping overview that was grounded very much in the Natural Step framework as a basic way of thinking about these issues and communicating about them and getting everybody in the organization on the same page. Because the truth is, that’s really the key. The hard part isn’t the technical issues. As much innovation as it requires, the engineering is not the hard part. If you tell an engineer you need a building that uses half as much energy, she can build it. If you tell an engineer you need a building that uses 40% or 80% less water, he can build it. But getting the human beings who live and work in that building to change their behavior is where the real art and challenge of this work is. The natural step framework is really one of the indispensable tools for doing that. So, we did a basic quick introduction to that and talked about how to apply it with case studies of how companies have put this to use. Then, there was a lot of discussion with the room.

Who were the attendees in your sessions?

It was a broad mix. We had people from government, mostly county and city governments in the region and all the way down to South Florida, a bunch of people from Universities and Colleges who were developing curriculum programs in this area, a lot of business people, too. Both small businesspeople and from larger aerospace companies, a number of scientists and a bunch of folks just checking it out trying to figure out what their place in this new revolution is.

What do you think is the vibe here? Are people optimistic for the future, are they hopeful?

I think some are. I haven’t been through the Open Space session yet so I haven’t had a chance to really feel that. But, the people I’ve talked with one-on-one and in my sessions are very enthusiastic and eager to be a part of this. If we’re being realistic, there is more fear today than there was a year ago. I find it in myself. I am a congenital optimist, always have been. We’re in a world of challenge right now. We’ve got the financial meltdown to deal with and stacked up behind that are a half a dozen other crises waiting to roll in from off shore. Ranging from energy to carbon to soils to biodiversity to collapse of fisheries and on down the list. So, it is important not to be facile about this.
On the other hand, it is an enormously exciting time because we’re in a sustainability explosion. Not just the number of people, but the type of people, and the range and diversity in the business world and in government who get this, that understand we’re in a transformative moment at least in American history if not world history. I know that sounds “high falutin.” but this is the kind of time that when people look back 50 years they will say ‘that was historic’. We are in historic now. And we have the opportunity to reinvent the economy, and reinvent infrastructure and reinvent the ways we do business. OR not. We might fail. But if we do that successfully it’s like opening a new frontier and there’s enormous business opportunity for businesses and people of all sorts.

How do you think a conference like Green Cities fits into this historic moment?

A conference like Green Cities fits into this historic moment because it brings together this kind of diversity of people: government, business, academia, NGO and individuals with an interesting focus around a region, here, where we are in Orlando, central Florida. One thing that has happened here is not just people hearing from experts but people meeting with each other and forging connections with each other. Now, this open space session that the conference is ending with is an opportunity for people to find where their common interests are, where they can support each other, where they can work together. Just one example of that, today: we had somebody leading an MBA program at a college, someone developing a sustainability bachelors program at another college, someone developing an online program at another college, several people in the extensions service doing outreach to agriculture and industry, and I think none of them knew each other before today. It’s a place to connect not just for friendship, relationships, and support (although that is good too) but to connect for action and to connect for commitments to move things forward because there is a lot of work to do.

Did you have a chance to attend any of the sessions?

I attended a few sessions myself. I attended the opening keynotes yesterday morning and in particular I thought Brian Nattrass’s talk was a real knock out. You would expect that I have a bias toward Brian because he’s also based in the Natural Step framework. What was really striking in his talk was the work he’s done with the US military. And the way the US Military has embraced sustainability to a surprising degree. It is one of the big surprises, and of course Wal-Mart is another surprise. Places that were the least expected players and the least expected leaders are doing remarkable work. So I was in a session yesterday with some lawyers and people from NRDC and from a sustainability consulting firm talking about some of the finance and strategy issues specifically in relation to the power industry. One person pointed out that FPL here is planning to build some nuclear reactors. There was significant cost as there always is with nukes. There are now looking at about 22 billion dollars to develop about 1.1 megawatts of generated capacity and the woman from NRDC pointed out that for that much money you could generate 4.4 megawatts through efficiency. So, the question is – what’s economical? Why do we make the financial decisions that we make? And how would the nuclear industry survive if it wasn’t heavily subsidized? And for all of the people who say ‘Oh gosh, we can’t afford solar” I ask, what can we afford if we pull the subsidies out from under coal, oil, and nuclear and actually have a free market in energy?

What are you doing after you leave Orlando?

I’m hopping a plane to Los Angeles. I have a meeting tomorrow with a Chinese delegation that’s looking into clean tech developments in cooperation with the United States and China.

Good luck with that and with your future projects. It was nice to see you!

Thanks so much, great to see you.