Forget Politics: Green Business is Here to Stay

Yesterday, I received a comment to an earlier post. The commenter, Kwame, referenced the special election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat in the U.S. Senate. He wondered what affect Republican candidate Scott Brown’s surprise special election win would have on the state of green business. I thought Kwame’s question was an interesting and timely one, worthy of inclusion in a separate post.

From a political standpoint, Tuesday’s special election struck national Democrats like cloud-to-ground lightning. And as a result, Democrats in the U.S. Senate have lost their filibuster-proof super majority of 60 seats.

Massachusetts special-election voters may not have been thinking about green business when they cast their ballots. But with the Bay State’s decision to elect a conservative Republican to the U.S. Senate, the goals that President Obama and Democrats in Congress set out to achieve – including  renewable energy projects, green tech, clean tech, and so-called “green jobs” –  would appear to be at-risk.

From a political standpoint, time will tell how well green business issues resonate with members of Congress.

But from business standpoint, I don’t think that green business will be severely impacted. From Fortune 100 brands like IBM to Wal-Mart to the smallest of enterprises, many well-respected companies have embraced – or are about to embrace – energy efficiency, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility.

We know that American companies of all sizes are going green because doing so makes good business sense. What we don’t know is how long will it take before the new green economy takes hold.

I have high hopes for 2010. And, in the months ahead, I believe we are going to make a lot of progress on the green business front. Hopefully soon, lots of high-paying green business executive jobs will materialize.

Maybe now, as a result of this stunning Republican win in normally Democratic Massachusetts, green energy and green jobs will be less about politics – less about avoiding filibusters in the U.S. Senate – and more about getting people back to work, quickly.

To paraphrase President Obama, Green business should not be a Democratic Party or Republican Party priority. It should be an American priority.

So to Kwame and the rest of The Green Suits out there, I say forget politics. Green Business is here to stay.

And those green business executive jobs of your dreams? Get ready! They are on the way!