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St. Louis Greenprint Report Highlights Economic Sustainability for Region

By: Christi Dixon | 12/20/2011

Last week's launch of the St. Louis Greenprint 2012: An Action Plan for Growing Our Region's Green Economy heralds a tremendous opportunity for the St. Louis region.  Following the lead of Silicon Valley, Denver and Portland, St. Louis is now considered an early mover on sustainability and green economy development.

There's a clear path from growing our success as a region in sustainability leadership to being a more competitive market and one that attracts more businesses. That path begins with collaboration!

Convened by the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association, champions from 50 diverse organizations (including Standing Partnership) rallied to concept, populate and edit the debut report.  The St. Louis Greenprint effort stands out - bringing together at least 15 sectors of what makes up our green economy - as more than just lip service.  St. Louis is ALREADY a green economy.

Quotes from the 2012 GreenPrint report that we thought were worth sharing:

• "St. Louis is the fourth pilot region to develop a regional Greenprint...The St. Louis Greenprint is unique from the others in that this region has a very different business culture and energy mix than the other pilot regions, thus allowing this Greenprint to serve as a potential model for other Midwestern regions."
• "The Greenprint is born from the Climate Prosperity Project - a national initiative begun by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 2009. The Climate Prosperity Project is a national effort advancing the concept that innovation, efficiency, and conservation in the use and reuse of resources can increase jobs, incomes, productivity, and the competitiveness of a region."

In working with GreenPrint, we learned three keys to becoming more sustainable as a region: 

1. Growing understanding among organizational leadership of the value sustainability creates for their business;
2.  Equipping marketing teams with a clear approach for developing communications that reflect their organization's actions and their stakeholders' interests; and
3.  Highlighting more businesses that are making their operations more sustainable.

We are excited to be part of a campaign to expand regional awareness of what progress can look like, along with identifying opportunities for more collaboration.

Among the regional sustainability leadership, we're especially proud that 10 Standing Partnership clients contributed to Greenprint or took the St. Louis Green Business Challenge this year, including Doe Run, Graybar, Monsanto, Metro, St. Louis Community College and URS.

Posted in Sustainability