Last week after putting together a list of 16 people you must follow on twitter for green business, I was struck by one particular dimension of the compilation: it was all men. I certainly had no intention of making the list all men but didn't even realize the lopsidedness until several hours after publishing. As the post gained traction, I wondered how long it would be until someone called me out on the male-ness of the assemblage. It didn't take long.
Reader elsameow commented, "That’s a nice list, but why are they all men?" Tail between my legs I owned up to the error (blaming it partially on a Colbertian inability to see gender), and suggested it might make for good fodder for another post. So in honor of International Women's Day, I bring you Earth & Industry's alphabetical listing of 16 Women You Must Follow on Twitter for Green Business. Like last week's list this is just a sampling of the many great green business twitterfeeds out there so please add your suggestions in the comments below.
@ChristineArena Christine Arena is an author and blogger with specialties in CSR, sustainability and ethics. Cristine is writing about green business and interviewing industry leaders at ChristineArena.com.
@DianeMacEachern A communications professional, speaker and accomplished writer, Diane MacEachern is passionate about empowering consumers -- especially women -- to use their marketplace clout to protect the environment. Diane is the author of Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World.
@ecofashionista Kelly Drennan is a writer, speaker, ecofashion activist, green publicist and event producer. She tweets about green fashion, living and issues.
@elaineishere Elaine Hsieh is "business savvy green building consultant whose professional activities focus on energy and sustainability." Elaine is also Pacific Regional Council Chair of the US Green Building Council. She tweets about green building and a range of energy and environmental issues.
@greenhance An Adjunct Faculty in Marketing at Marymount University, Jennifer Kaplan has conducted in-depth research into consumer attitudes about how small businesses can most effectively go green. Jennifer is also a blogger for Ecopreneurist.com and author of the new book, Greening Your Small Business.
@greensara President of Eco Assist Consulting and founder of YourGreenReview.com, Sara Rampersaud tweets and retweets high quality sustainable business content.
@jasminchua Business obviously means much more than heavy industry, manufacturing and technology. Editor of Ecouterre Jasmin Malik Chua writes about sustainable fashion and beauty.
@Jaymiheimbuch Jaymi Heimbuch is an eco-dabbler at TreeHugger and Planet Green. Jaymi writes and tweets mostly about clean tech, green gadgets, sustainability and global water issues.
@joannayarrow An "explorer of 21st-century sustainable living," Joanna Yarrow is a writer, broadcaster, consultant and founder of Beyond Green, a full service consultancy that can conceive, plan, design, communicate, develop business models for and help to deliver sustainable developments.
@kate_sheppard Environmental reporter and blogger at Mother Jones, Kate covers more politics than business in her writing and tweeting. But Kate's inside the beltway muckraking on the energy industry and the Chamber of Commerce make her a must follow for anyone interested in the business and politics of green and greenwashing.
@katiefehren Prolific clean tech blogger and editor at GigaOm's Earth2Tech, Katie Fehrenbacher has been covering cutting-edge technology and startups in Silicon Valley for over seven years.
@MariaEnergia Maria Surma Manka is a self-described energy guru, PR professional and blogger. A member of the original writing team at Green Options, Maria is a contributor at Earth & Industry as well as the voice of reason on Earth & Industry Radio's "Gang of Four" podcast.
@mkaufmann Michelle Kaufmann is an architect "working on smarter ways to design, build and live." Founder of Michelle Kaufmann Designs, her award-winning green prefab building designs have caused us to redefine what it means to build green.
@OliviaZaleski Host of CNN, Fortune Mag's Business of Green series and CNNmoney.com environmental correspondent, Olivia Zaleski also launched HuffPo Green, and is a contributing editor at "The Daily Green" and regular guest expert on ABC's "Good Morning America Now."
@OrganicMania Lynn Miller is a green marketing consultant and mom who is "Crazy about Organics and Green Living." Organicmania is a blog "devoted to cutting through the hype and figuring out when it makes sense to lay out the big bucks for organic and green purchases. Lynn also tweets with a business focus at @4GreenPs.
@TaigaCompany Julie Urlaub consults, blogs, and works with businesses leaders to help them address sustainability interests. Julie's blog and twitterfeed is full of practical bits of strategic advice to help businesses green their operations.
Of course, you can also follow @earthindustry on Twitter. Earth & Industry focuses on the intersection of people, planet and profit, leading the discussion on how companies can maximize profits while being responsible citizens of this earth. Tweets are from the Earth & Industry writing team, anchored by editor Tim Hurst (@ecopolitologist).
See also:
Who to follow on twitter for environmental politics
Who to follow on twitter for green business
Photo credit: magerleague via flickr/Creative Commons
Follow Timothy B. Hurst on Twitter: 
Thanks, Tim! Both lists are valuable and I’m now following everyone on them. Cheers!
Great list Tim!
It’s great to be included in a list consisting of talented and though leading ladies in the sustainability space! Appreciate the mention!
Best, Julie
Great list.
I would also add:
http://twitter.com/ElaineCohen & http://www.twitter.com/subrigavar
I know you have only places for 16 but these two women are really great tweeps to follow too!
Tim, thanks so much for including me and my @OrganicMania and @4GreenPs accounts in your list! What a nice surprise and I guess I’ll view it as my first ever “International Womens Day” present!
I now count @DianeMacEachern and @greenhance (Jennifer Kaplan) among my friends, having first met them through this crazy bloggy/tweety cyberspace thing.
I’ll view the other 13 women I haven’t yet met as friends-in-waiting!
What a great list but I think you have left out at lot of great green Twitter users. Which happens with every top Twitter list. And I really like and admire many of your choices, and am friends with some and others I follow. But, can I suggest some more green women peeps to follow, including myself? I’m @thesmartmama (I was a finalist for a Shorty Award for best green content on Twitter this year, and as a founding member of GreenMoms won the Shorty Award for green last year). I also think that @thesoftlanding is doing some wonderful tweeting on non toxic solutions, particularly for plastics; and @greenandhealthy is a great female representative for Healthy Child Healthy World; and there are so many more . .
Thanks Jennifer! Yes, making these lists will undoubtedly result in some omissions. Keeping the list to my somewhat arbitrary limit of 16 took some work and I had to leave off some very qualified tweeps.
Thanks for your input!
Hi There: I’d add Michelle Hucal – @hucalm to that list. Here’s her Twitter profile:
“Editor of premier green building magazines/ websites(Environmental Design + Construction & Sustainable Facility), trying to be a green mom.”
Terrific list, Tim!
Some of my favorite green writers and some real leaders in the green movement. I know we’ll be hearing more from all of them…and you were savvy enough to recognize them early!
Thanks Maryanne! Yours is another name that could just as well have been on the list (@mcmilker).
Great list! A reminder to tune into those that I was already following. And some excellent new additions.
Would like to see more women in the business of sustainability have the time to Tweet!
Catherine Greener is a good Greenie to follow @catgreener
There are so many women worthy of a mention here. There are millions of mothers and women entreprenuers in the green space that are changing the course of commerce in another way –by starting and growing their own businesses. I have interviewed many of them on my podcast, Women Of Green. WOGs are changing the world one carpet, diaper, cleaning product, one sexy lingerie at a time. Not only by the products they buy, but by the businesses they start.
Take Liberty Phoenix Lord who lost her 2 1/2 year old baby to toxic poisons in her home and started a green building store, Indigo Green Store (named after her baby) in her community so no other mother would ever have to experience what she did.
And then there’s Margarita McClure, a mother of three who refused to put disposable diapers on her babies because she knew that the chemical in the liners contain sodium polyacrylate, the same substance removed from tampons in 1985. So what did Margarita do? She started Swaddlebees, now a 2 ½ million dollar company that manufactures organic, totally cool cloth diapers that have moms dumping the disposables for a healthier choice for their babies
These are the true mothers of invention. And as a mother and green business owner myself, I started Women Of Green to tell their stories, to turn up the volume of their voices and encourage other women to do the same.
Carolyn Parrs
http://www.WomenOfGreen.com
http://www.MindOverMarkets.com
http://www.GreenMarketingBlog.com
Follow me at twitter.com/carolynparrs
Women Of Green Fan Page on Facebook
Elena M. Michel of Second Eden in Charlotte, NC is making big waves in that area. She is an architect specializing in sustainable consultancy and design. She really focuses on reducing costs, cutting carbon, meeting requirements, and achieving environmental sensitivity in her work. Definitely worth a look if you need those services.
You can find her on twitter at: @secondeden or her webpage: http://www.secondedenstudio.com
Thanks for helping to crack the glass ceiling in this area! Great article!
I would add @Radiance_within to your list. Her posts on ecology, science, and social conscience issues are wonderful.
Just after reading your headline, I immediately thought of two women your list is missing. @greennovate by Mihela Hladin tackling environmental education in China, and @sustainologist Lizette Smook manufacturing sustainable textiles and products out of S.E. Asia. Check their websites for more Greennovate.net and Innovasians.com respectively.
I hope my blog which has 200 green business ideas, a green marketing contest, and lots of green help for entrepreneurs would be worthy of following. PS I am the author and a woman…lol Thanks for all you do to further the cause. We need to build momentum in green business if we are to save this planet!
COOL list! Thank you!!