13 July 2012: GreenBiz.com has published the fifth annual edition of the “State of Green Business” report, which measures “environmental impacts of the emerging green economy.” The 2012 report finds that sustainable business is being affected by the current recession, and there is little progress in corporate sustainability. The report features contributions from experts on sustainable business, and contains the GreenBiz Index, a set of 20 indicators of businesses’ environmental performance.

Ten key trends are highlighted for 2012: chief financial officers are becoming increasingly involved with sustainability; sustainable consumption gets buy-in; “green gamification” (the use of “game mechanics” to make ordinary activities fun and rewarding) scores points; sustainable mobility improves; clean technology survives negative perceptions, and investments are predicted to increase; energy efficiency gains “star power”; “big data” (data sets too big to be accessed with traditional databases and spreadsheets, but require new tools and techniques) creates big opportunities; carbon footprinting becomes increasingly popular; sustainable cities take center stage; and sustainability has become less newsworthy as it is integrated into business as usual. [Green Growth Press Release] [Publication: State of Green Business 2012]