Charlottesville is going green. During a tide of concern about climate change and energy preservation, Charlottesville is becoming one of the latest cities to pass environmentally friendly standards.

The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress reported the city is constructing a vegetative roof on city hall and the police department headquarters. The lifespan of the buildings’ roofs was ending, and city officials took the opportunity to build an environmentally friendly roof. Green roofs are designed to reduce energy costs and reduce stormwater runoff.

The city has also offered a lower tax assessment rate for energy-efficient homes and agreed to offer energy-saving light bulbs to residents.

Charlottesville certainly isn’t the only community responding to concern about the environment. Albemarle County, for example, installed a green roof on its government headquarters. Arlington County requires all developers to construct buildings according to sustainable standards from the U.S. Green Building Council or contribute to the county’s Green Building Fund.

All across Virginia, localities, businesses and educational institutions are responding to the call for environmental stewardship. Virginia Business will look significantly at this trend in its April issue.

Be prepared to see just how green Virginia can be.

The Washington Post wrote an interesting story today on a bill proposed by state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax.

The bill, SB 339, says that if an employee doesn’t speak English in accordance with an established workplace policy, it can be labeled misconduct. Under rules of the Virginia Employment Commission, an employee who is fired for misconduct is ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits.

Cuccinelli told the Post the bill evolved from a conversation with an employer whose unemployment taxes went up after he fired an employee who didn’t learn English. Cuccinelli said the bill would give employers a recourse against employees who promise to learn English but don’t.

Currently, more than 100 people have commented on the bill on the Post’s Web site.

If Verne Harnish were the coach of the Indianapolis Colts, he would probably ditch the team’s famed no-huddle offense.
Harnish, an Ashburn-based author, columnist and small-business consultant, finds great value in a regular 15-minute “huddle” of staff members. The huddle is part of his idea that “learning and coaching” are key elements in the success of a small business.
“Whoever learns faster wins,” says Harnish, who addressed the Virginia Council of CEOs on Tuesday at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.
The huddle is one thing that CEOs can do to in “getting their gut back.” He is not talking about the pounds they gained over the holidays but the gut instinct they relied on in starting their companies. Too often, Harnish notes, building a business means CEOs get further and further away from the information they need about customers and competitors. “Because of their inability to stay in touch, their gut goes bad,” Harnish says.
He believes that once or twice a day huddles allow the CEO to get information, communicate with staff and decide on at least one thing that must be accomplished in the next four weeks.
The profitability of companies that use huddles is three times higher than the industry average, Harnish says.

A few years ago, anyone would have laughed at a proposal to ban smoking in restaurants in Virginia.

That’s changed rapidly in the past three years.

In a state where the early economy was based on the tobacco crop and the largest cigarette manufacturer in the country is headquartered, more than 10 bills have been introduced in the General Assembly this year that would curb smoking in public places.

Prior to 2005, proposals to curb smoking were much less prohibitive, such as banning smoking in restaurant bathrooms or tightening controls to prevent teen smoking. A 2005 proposal to ban smoking in public indoor areas failed the Senate handedly - 26-14.

Since then, lawmakers have been more brazen in bills aimed at curbing public smoking, and they have in turn enjoyed more success. A similar plan passed the Senate in 2006 but was left in a House of Delegates committee. In 2007, a plan to ban public smoking failed in the House of Delegates, but the chamber passed a bill that would require restaurants allowing smoking to post a “smoking permitted” sign. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine added an amendment to prohibit smoking in all restaurants, which failed in the House of Delegates. Without the amendment, Kaine vetoed the bill.

This year, Kaine has pushed again for a ban on smoking in indoor sections of restaurants. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, is sponsoring the bill, which would prohibit smoking in any food establishment, including private clubs.

Other bills go further, such as HB 500, which would ban smoking in all public indoor areas. Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, has introduced that bill.

Yet others, such as SB 202, would give localities the power to ban smoking.

The business and tobacco lobbies surely won’t let these proposals go by without a fight. They argue that restaurant owners should retain the right to choose whether to allow smoking.

Twenty-eight states have banned smoking in restaurants. The likelihood that Virginia will be the next state to pass it is unlikely, but don’t expect it to go away anytime soon. Each year these proposals are gaining ground.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s nationally ranked Adcenter has changed its name to the Brandcenter. The new name, say university officials, more accurately reflects the graduate program’s mission to reshape advertising and branding education. Started in 1996, the program has garnered high rankings — No. 1 in the country by Creativity magazine in 2005 and one of the world’s 60 best Design Schools by BusinessWeek in 2007.

The name change is timely with the program’s move into new digs. It’s now located in a Clive-Wilkinson-designed building on VCU’s new Monroe Park addition campus, which opened yesterday. The campus is also home to new buildings housing VCU’s business and engineering programs. For more information about the program, see our online interview with the program’s Executive Director, Rick Boyko, which ran in the November issue.