The New York Times reports that large, publicly held companies are being challenged by institutional investors on their green policies.

Rockford businesses heard a similar message last month when former Metro Center chief Doug Logan keynoted the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce’s
Annual dinner. Click here to watch Logan’s Speech.

“Green is good for business,” Logan said. “No longer is the environmental movement a private domain of tree-huggers, knee-jerk liberals and do-gooders. There is a lot of money to be made and a necessary transformation we have to go through if we’re going to survive as a civilization. Cities like Rockford must can either be proactive and in the forefront of this revolution — and incidentally reap the benefits over the next two or three generations — or get caught missing the boat as this community did with NIU, the toll road and the Chrysler plant.”

Logan said Rockford should look at ethanol and other biomass technologies, and wind power as opportunities. And he revived an idea from 1984, when he was running the Metro Center, of installing turbines on the Fordham Dam to generate power for running the downtown arena.

Other ideas:

  • Insist that the city and county buy only hybrid vehicles
  • Make Rockford Mass Transit District and other public bodies that use heavy equipment purchase non-diesel equipment
  • Commence a campaign to stop the ubiquitous purchase of bottled water. “You are part of a city that is in the water business. The success of your water department is a part of who you are. We have been captives to the marketing might of Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola, which by the way own significant portions of what the water business is all about. You have water taps and I’m here to tell you Rockford water tastes pretty good. And The bottles are a nightmare for landfill operations
  • Begin discussions with the NIU to establish a biomass tech center in Rockford
  • Erect a wind generator at the four points of the compass in the city as sculptural symbols of the city’s commitment to renewable energy sources.

And Logan, the consummate promoter, said when Rockford has a successful green project it needs to scream about it from the rooftops.

“Look at the mileage that a little promotion has gotten Richie Daiy with his green rooftop initiative — an idea by the way that was stolen from several cities in Europe and then branded by Chicago,” he says. “The whole country sees the home of the Chicago stockyards as a modern-day Mecca of environmentalism.”

Who woulda thunk it?