The announcement that SAS’ new conference center will support LEED standards is a great opportunity to ponder some of the converging trends in environmental sustainability. With evidence that the economic benefits rival the environmental gain, companies are really taking notice.

The Climate Counts Scorecard showcases companies taking steps to mitigate their carbon footprints and directly encourages consumers to patronize (and promote) them. That’ll get CEOs to look up from their stock charts. And studies such as “Measuring the Transparency of Environmental Sustainability Reporting" from Brad Rollins, Katie Delahaye Paine and Peter Kowalski, help put some context and credibility around the claims, using companies’ public communications as data points.

SAS CEO Jim Goodnight said at the launch of the company's SAS for Sustainability Management last spring that it no longer matters what you believe about the causes of climate change. Addressing it has become a business reality, thanks to media attention and consumer concerns.

What’s important here is moving the discussion beyond “greenwashing" to achieving real improvement, from both an economical and environmental perspective. Economical? That’ll get the CEO to do more than just look up – how about sign up!

As for SAS’ own credentials, SAS is putting its money where its mouth is by using its own SAS for Sustainability Management to begin to incorporate green initiatives into the company’s overall performance management framework. SAS Canada’s LEED-compliant headquarters , which opened in April 06, was Toronto’s first LEED- registered commercial building. The new conference center in Cary will overlook a solar farm that feeds the grid on which it sits. SAS UK, which rests on the riverfront (lucky them!), is exploring hydro-electric power to supply some of its energy needs.

It will be exciting to see how analytics can not only validate and justify forthcoming efforts, but actually create new levels of incentives to do the right thing.