Love is in the air. Photo: iStockphoto The on-again-off-again flirtation between big business and the mainstream environmental movement seems to be progressing into a full-on steamy love affair -- and perhaps even a committed, long-term relationship. On Tuesday morning, a handful of Fortune 500 execs joined Jonathan Lash, president of the environmental think tank World Resources Institute, to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in favor of a mandatory federal cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. "Voluntary efforts alone will not solve the [climate-change] problem," DuPont CEO Chad Holliday told the assembled senators. He added, "We see a whole …

"The test of a first-rate intelligence," F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." It's time for greens to co-opt corporations. Photo: iStockphoto If so, then the growth of the green economy -- embraced by corporations, heralded by politicians -- marks something of an IQ test for the progressive movement. How can we at once celebrate companies that move toward better practices while acknowledging how much farther they need to go? The signs of change are everywhere. General Electric and BP …

In this guest post, model and sustainable business consultant Summer Rayne Oakes recounts her recent interview with socially responsible investing expert Thomas Van Dyck. (Read more about Oakes in a Grist profile.) I first met Thomas Van Dyck in June 2005 during the height of San Francisco's World Environment Day celebrations. It was a brief two-minute introduction wedged between a chaotic green trade show and a trippy drum-circle gathering. All I managed to find out during that time was his job description: investment consultant. In my mind, I lumped him in with the typical French-cuffed, Ferragamo-tied, Rolex-wearing beings I see …

Ceres publishes list of top 10 industry laggards on climate change Which companies will be caught with their pants down when greenhouse-gas regulations hit? Environmental investment group Ceres has released a list of 10 U.S. corporations that shareholders say have failed to adequately plan for the climate-changed future. The list includes Wells Fargo, urged to reduce emissions from financial clients, and big-box retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, for being "unresponsive" to requests that it publicize its green goals. Listed for not investing in alternative-energy technologies were, unsurprisingly, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Massey Energy, and TXU Corp. The Ceres report coincided with investors …

New Belgium Brewing Co. is known for its Fat Tire Amber Ale and a number of other bubbly bevvies. But you'll want to think twice before chugging the company's latest concoction: the ecofriendly microbrewery is teaming up with energy startup Solix Biofuels to brew biodiesel from algae. (Yeah, I pirated the headline -- arrr ... how could I resist!) Before you choke on your brewski, let me explain why you're in no danger of finding bits of pond scum in your pint glass: New Belgium isn't bottling the stuff; instead, they're providing CO2 -- a byproduct of fermentation and boiler …

M.B.A. students increasingly required to take courses in sustainability We can't say finance, accounting, and marketing get our rocks off, but we're jazzed about a growing trend: 54 percent of U.S. business schools require students to take a class in sustainability or corporate social responsibility, a jump of 20 percent since 2001. At MIT's Sloan School of Management, one popular course examines how the positives of free-market capitalism might be integrated with more sustainable corporate practices. "We thought it would be popular among a niche of do-gooders, but even the investment banker types are interested," says class co-designer Richard Locke. …

Green jobs are all the rage these days, so why are you still unemployed? "If the green job market is so hot," asks one frustrated jobseeker, "why can't I find a job?" Could columnist Kevin Doyle of the Environmental Careers Organization have been wrong about his assertion that environmental careers are on the rise? Doyle lets the crestfallen applicant down gently, stands by his belief in the surge, and offers seven possible reasons why green job searches can stall out.

"If the green job market's so hot, why can't I find a job?" I've been talking up the rising eco-job market so much that I should have known there would be a backlash. It came most recently from an exasperated job seeker who's failed to land a decent job, let alone get an interview -- or even find appropriate positions to apply for. "Is this the 'hidden' job market I've heard about?" she asked. "It seems downright invisible!" Hmm ... is it possible that I could be, well, you know, um ... wrong? (Heavens no!) Let's explore. The environmental careers …

The snow at Davos didn't melt away worries about climate change. Photo: Benjamin Zurbriggen/World Economic Forum There was something different in the air at this year's Davos gathering of global movers and shakers -- and not just an increase in CO2 concentration. Instead of the irrational exuberance of the 1990s or the celebrity-studded glitz of recent years, we found upbeat but serious discussion of big issues -- climate change in particular. A few days before the World Economic Forum opened its doors on Jan. 24, people were fretting that for the first time in living memory the snows might not …

On heels of climate report, governments and businesses get real Heeding a call from French President Jacques Chirac, 46 nations are backing a plan to create a powerful new U.N. Environment Organization that could police climate offenders. Egregious emitters Russia, China, India, and the U.S. didn't leap up and down volunteering to join, but Chirac will keep pushing, since the "very survival of humankind hangs in the balance." Whatevs. In other news, 12 corporations including Nike, Polaroid, Sony, and IBM pledged to cut emissions totaling 10 million tons annually by 2010 as part of the World Wildlife Fund's "Climate Savers" …