Getting Green Done

Soccer moms drive Priuses. Sport utility vehicles are going hybrid. Families are using hemp shopping bags. More and more companies are developing ''green'' buildings. What's more, the business consultants say going green is easy and profitable. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are still fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why? Because implementing sustainability is brutally difficult. In this witty and contrarian book, Auden Schendler, a sustainable business foot soldier with fifteen year's worth of experience, gives us a peek under the hood of the green movement. The consultants, he argues, are clueless. Fluorescent bulbs might be better for our atmosphere, but what do you say to the boutique hotel owner who thinks they detract from his? And how do you convince a chain-smoking karate expert mechanic to put biodiesel in his vehicles? Scientists tell us we have to cut CO2 emissions 80 percent by mid-century. That's going to take more than a recycling program. We'll only solve our problems if we're realistic about the challenge of climate change. In this eye-opening, inspiring book, Schendler illuminates the path.....AUDEN SCHENDLER is executive director of sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company. He worked previously in corporate sustainability at Rocky Mountain Institute. Auden has been a trailer insulator, burger flipper, ambulance medic, Outward Bound instructor, high school math and English teacher, freelance writer, and Forest Service goose nest island builder. An avid outdoorsman, Auden has climbed Denali, North America's highest peak, and kayaked the Grand Canyon in the winter. His writing has been published in Harvard Business Review, the Los Angeles Times, Rock and Ice, and Salon.com, among other places. In 2006, Auden was named a global warming innovator by Time magazine. He lives in Basalt, Colorado with his wife, Ellen, and their children, Willa and Elias.