U.S. organic industry has been growing at 24 percent annually for the past 6 years. Organic farmers receive premium prices for their products and are expanding their acreage while conventional farmers tied to the chemical/pesticide cycle have been hanging by a thread for years.

The European organic food market, also at less than 2 percent of total food sales, is expected to expand to as much as 10 percent by 2006. With a population of 370 million, Europe has more potential than the U.S.

Thousands of green building pilot projects world-wide shows that sustainable design principles and environmental building materials work. Now these principles are being integrated into government policy, agencies, are crafting contractor guidelines to ensure the billions of construction dollars they spend each year are deployed sustainably.

Research in France shows that simply using energy efficient windows with advanced glazing systems reduces annual energy needs by 45 percent in southern regions of the country.

In the UK, a proposed tax on energy use in the business, agriculture, and the public sectors would be returned as a 0.5 percent reduction in the employer's contribution to payroll taxes, and for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. A surcharge would be applied for use of coal and gas, and for total energy consumption.

The Car industry is spending billions to bring alternative fuel vehicles to market. In the U.S., Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) regulations become law in 2003 - a minimum of 10 percent (160,000) of new vehicles in California, New York and Massachusetts must produce zero emissions or earn ZEV credits from greatly increasing the proportion of ultra low emission or hybrid-vehicles on the road.

Auto executive surveys suggest that five to ten percent of the global vehicle market will use alternative fuel by 2010, and the fuel cell market may be several billion dollars by that time.

Purchase "green power." People are signing up in record numbers for renewable electricity blends offered by early movers. 20 years from now, the Energy Information Administration predicts renewable energy will account for 10 percent of energy use in the U.S.

EU country wind investments are growing even more rapidly at 40 percent annually in Germany, Denmark, Spain, and UK. EU power sector emissions can be reduced by over 11 percent by 2040 using wind power. Denmark no longer allows new coal power plant construction.

In only two years since the first forest certification body was accredited, more than 10 million hectares of forest are certified to meet the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) criteria, equal to 115 forests in 25 countries. Two years ago, according to Debbie Hammel, program director, there was more supply than demand for certified products. "Now the situation is reversed and demand is easily outstripping supply."

PricewaterhouseCoopers, an accounting firm, predicts after-tax losses of C$1 billion (US $1.5 billion) for the British Columbia forestry industry. Their advice to the industry is to implement sustainable certification or lose markets.

Banking industry leaders increasingly perform environmental due diligence in decisions to extend credit lines, finance projects or equipment.

Wildlife Federation world banking survey expect to intensify this focus over the next three years with three-quarters of European banks taking this on board. In the future, "eco-rating" systems or screens may well be applied to equity investments.

While virtually no one targeted the environmental industry for investment two years ago, two thirds of respondents now direct some credit or investment in the industry; some institutions have environmental business units. Nearly every responding institution expects to increase this activity over the next three years.

Agenda 21, the core document that emerged from the 1992 UN business and industry includes articles that suggest companies should report annually on their environmental records as well as on their use of energy and natural resources.

The debate has shifted from whether companies should produce corporate environmental reports to what kinds of information should be released and in which format.

Several European countries, including Denmark and the Netherlands, have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, laws that require companies over a certain size to publish environmental reports.