The Environmental Grantmakers Association just published a free online toolkit for greening foundation operations called “Green Beyond Grants.” It contains tips, specific steps, resources, and checklists for going green and practicing environmental sustainability. Topics in the guide include conserving energy, purchasing green materials and supplies, serving sustainable food and beverages, reducing waste, and conscious traveling.

Any organization that travels, runs an office, or hosts an event will find this guide useful. Events are a particularly good place to reduce waste and teach sustainability practices to others. Just last night the Women’s Environmental Network hosted a “zero waste” event in San Francisco. All plant-based utensils, cups, and plates were collected for composting, including the vegetarian tamale husks.

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Top row (left to right): Hammerskjoeld Simwinga of Zambia, Willie Corduff of Ireland, Orri Vigfússon of Iceland. Bottom row (left to right): Julio Cusurichi Palacios of Peru, Sophia Rabliauskas of Canada, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar of Mongolia

Yesterday evening in the San Francisco Opera House, the 2007 Goldman Environmental Prize ceremony celebrated the achievements of six grassroots environmental leaders from around the world. Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman, founded the annual award in 1990 to recognize environmental heroes from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions and to amplify the voices of these grassroots leaders. The award winners receive worldwide visibility for the issues they champion and financial support of $125,000 to pursue their vision.

The six prize winners will also be honored at a smaller ceremony tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25 at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC.

This year’s winners are:

North America: Sophia Rabliauskas, 47, Canada: Working on behalf of the Poplar River First Nation, Rabliauskas succeeded in securing interim protection for a portion of the boreal forest of Manitoba, effectively preventing destructive logging and hydro-power development while calling on government and international agencies to permanently protect the region.

Africa: Hammerskjoeld Simwinga, 45, Zambia: In Zambia’s North Luangwa Valley, where rampant illegal wildlife poaching decimated the wild elephant population and left villagers living in extreme poverty, Simwinga created an innovative sustainable community development program that successfully restored wildlife and transformed this poverty-stricken area.

Asia: Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, 40, Mongolia: Munkhbayar successfully worked with government and grassroots organizations to shut down destructive mining operations along Mongolia’s scarce waterways. Through public education and political lobbying, Munkhbayar has effectively protected Mongolia’s precious water resources from additional unregulated mining.

South & Central America: Julio Cusurichi Palacios, 36, Peru: In the remote Peruvian Amazon, Cusurichi secured a national reserve to protect both sensitive rain forest ecosystems and the rights of indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation from the devastating effects of logging and mining.

Europe: Willie Corduff, 53, Ireland: In the small farming community of Rossport, Corduff and a group of fellow local residents and landowners successfully forced Shell Oil to halt construction on an illegally-approved pipeline through their land.

Islands & Island Nations: Orri Vigfússon, 64, Iceland: With business savvy and an unwavering commitment to reverse the near-extinction of wild North Atlantic salmon, Vigfússon brokered huge international fishing rights buyouts with governments and commercial interests, helping bring to an end destructive commercial salmon fishing in the region.

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Yesterday evening the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco presented a panel called: “Green Capital: Profit and The Planet?” Panelists included Peter Liu, Founder of the New Resource Bank; Hunter Lovins, faculty member of the San Francisco-based Presidio School of Management and co-author of Natural Capitalism; Steve Pinetti, Senior Vice President of Kimpton Hotels; and Will Rogers, President of The Trust for Public Land.

My guess is that the question mark in the program title asks: Can businesses implement green and socially progressive best practices without cutting into profits? The answer was a resounding yes. And in many cases, businesses should save money or make more.

Almost any discussion about values-driven business and sustainability will refer to the “triple bottom line,” also known as “People, Planet, Profit.” In the case of Kimpton Hotels, Steve Pinetti described why his company is committed to this approach to business and lessons learned along the way. From his illustrations of Kimpton’s experiences integrating environmental and socially-responsible principles into the business model must lead to a solid and strategic implementation that reaches everyone from the employees to guests. For the program to succeed, the third P - profit, relies on the most effective investment in the first two Ps - “ People and Planet.

It took six months to identify the program and one year to incorporate it into the business plan. It also took one year to find adequate cleaning supplies for the rooms. For example, they knew that if the cleaning agent did not foam, then the cleaning staff would think it was not working and likely use an excessive amount. Now after 3 years, they have identified 44 viable alternatives for their supplies. And according to a guest survey, 16% said that they were there because of the company’s environmental commitment. Based on the responses to their program, Pinetti firmly believes that “people want to do business with folks who share the same values.”

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After five years, Literacy for Environmental Justice is getting close to breaking ground on a one-of-a-kind community-based green building project in San Francisco’s Hunters Point neighborhood. The “Living Classroom,” will be built in Heron’s Head Park, a 24-acre restored wetland built on a former landfill and cared for by hundreds of community volunteers. Read more about this innovative project that combines environmental justice with the latest in sustainability principles here in an interview with LEJ’s architect Toby Long.

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