Heartening news for purveyors of green. Sustainable Brands Weekly reports:

Eighty percent of corporate sustainability executives in the Fortune 500 plan to maintain or increase their budgets in 2009 – despite today’s down market, according to a new survey.

As we discussed in this piece on How To Cut Your Costs And Make Your Package Greener, cost saving efforts often have the unintended or sometimes intended impact of making your product and processes more eco friendly. As more and more companies discover this salient fact, the scales will tip from just incidental greening of product to full scale efforts to promote sustainability WHILE cutting costs.

We may have reached a tipping point.

Spending on clean technologies – as a percentage of corporate revenues – is expected to increase 73% through 2010.

Spending on sustainable waste management initiatives is expected to grow 20% in 2009.

Eighty-two percent of respondents rated energy efficiency as their most important area of focus and investment.

Cost savings, revenue generation, and brand strength are the top drivers of corporate sustainability initiatives.

Continuous efforts promoted by both large businesses and the incoming Obama Administration can only trickle down to businesses and consumer. I like that type of trickle down economics!

How to get started? Try these tips from Greenbiz.com.

The Six Keys to Driving Change in a Conservative Corporate Culture 1. Top-level support.

2. Management-level and administrative support.

3. Minimal risk.

4. A clear path.

5. Bottom-line value.

6. Political awareness.

