John Daley listens to a presentation during the "Covering the Green Economy" seminar in Phoenix

John Daley reports for KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, and has covered everything from mine disasters to the Elizabeth Smart case.

He specializes in political, investigative and environmental reporting and was both a Knight Journalism Fellow and a Western Enterprise Reporting Fellow at Stanford University.

He was also a fellow during the Reynolds Center’s “Covering the Green Economy” seminar in June.

Daley began covering the environment in 1992 when he started working as broadcast journalist.  Since then, he’s worked the general assignment beat while continuing to develop a speciality in environmental reporting.

“Since growing up climbing mountains, hiking and skiing in Colorado, I’ve always had a profound interest in reporting on the natural world and our relationship with it,” he said.

While Daley said he hopes environmental pages will eventually find their way back in to major media outlets, he isn’t sure if the current business model can support a stand-alone section. He’s certain, however, that environmental issues will increasingly “dominate our world.”

When it comes to his overall journalism career, Daley said he’s motivated by uncovering important stories and informing the public  He is currently investigating a story about a board member for the local transit authority in Salt Lake who might have used his position to personally profit.  The story has been unfolding for about two years and Daley said it has the potential to become a significant public-service piece.

One of Daley’s biggest accomplishments was the publication of his essay “Zephyr to Zion.” The essay appeared in a book about climate change in the Rocky Mountains titled, “How the West Was Warmed: Responding to Climate Change in the Rockies.” Daley said the essay was a revelation because it gave him an opportunity to write in an unfamiliar way.

“The essay form is a big change from writing two minute stories for TV news,” he said.  ”It was a challenge, but very satisfying.”

Ortiz was also a fellow during our “Covering the Green Economy” seminar. He chatted with us about his experiences covering the business beat and his thoughts on China’s growing role in the world’s economy.

What aspect of business coverage are you most interested in?

“Energy and unions – two vastly different areas of the business beat, which is probably why I like them. I think energy and the implications of how we procure it will continue to have a huge impact on society and the global economy. It affects everyone because most of use electricity and drive. On the other hand, while not everyone deals with unions, they are collectively a powerful group, and as a reporter, there’s so much to uncover. It never gets stale.”

What’s your greatest accomplishment so far as a business journalist?

“I still have a lot to accomplish, but any day I can get a private business owner to reveal their finances is an accomplishment.”

Does covering the business beat require a special set of skills?

As journalists I think our mindset is to parachute into any story, whether it’s breaking news about a shooting or the local college announcing a new president or a company laying off hundreds of workers. So I don’t think to cover business well you need to have a degree in economics or accounting, you just have to bring that same set of skills you would use to cover any beat to business. But it takes a lot of understanding about how companies operate and the financial aspects of a business to make a business story stand out.”

What will be China’s impact on the world economy as it continue to grow?

“What China does and says will continue to have great implications on the global economy. China’s recent announcement to allow its currency to appreciate and its exchange rate to become more flexible is expected to help bring stability in the global market and increase household incomes in China. Most extraordinary to me has been the growth in Chinese buying power and the possibility of a middle class lifestyle. More foreign companies will certainly want a part of the Chinese consumer market if the value of the currency rises. I remember reading a story about an Ikea in China where people just went to take pictures but didn’t really buy anything. Maybe soon they will.”

Asher Price writes for his newspaper's green blog, "Salsa Verde"

Asher Price covers the environmental beat for the Austin American-Statesman. He talked to us about the challenges and rewards of reporting on one of the hottest topics around.

How did you get your start on the environmental beat?

“I had been a general assignment reporter at the Austin American-Statesman for a couple of years. It was good, interesting work, but I found myself skating from story to story. I was looking for a beat to develop depth to my reporting, and the environmental beat happened to have opened up at the time.”

Why is it important to have a reporter assigned to the environmental beat in a newsroom?

“It makes for interesting and sometimes important stories – profiles about what crazy things people are doing to get off the grid or stories that explain the intersection of money and politics and energy. By having an environmental beat, the paper is showing that it is serious about engaging in complex issues.

“The environmental beat is especially significant in Austin, which sits by a large underground aquifer and by a region that has numerous endangered species. On an everyday level, environmental issues affect all of us – in terms of air and water quality, say – and our readers are interested in these issues.

With the oil industry so large in Texas, how is the BP spill impacting your coverage?

“In an odd way, the BP oil spill feels a little distant from Austin. Our city is at least a three-hour drive to the Gulf, and then it’s the wrong part of the Gulf from the spill. We’ve been grappling with how to write about it. I’ve written about the state’s spending and response historically to spills in Texas waters.

Asher Price, an environmental reporter for the Austin American-Statesman

How have you seen environmental reporting change as the topic becomes more mainstream?

“I’ve had the environmental beat for four years, and in that time it hasn’t changed much, frankly. It’s possible it’s gotten more attention — especially when the price of oil spiked a couple of years ago — but my sense is that by the beginning of this decade it was already a hot topic.”

What do you hope readers take away from your stories?

“Mostly I hope they’ll be engaged a little more on a topic and see a little more nuance to it. So much information we get is bifurcated into good/bad or yes/no, often promulgated by advocacy groups of one stripe or another. On political stories, I hope they understand there’s invariably a relationship between money, power and policy, and on lighter stories I hope they’re entertained.”

Solar panels at Arizona State University's School of Sustainability by Kevin Dooley

Patrick O’Grady has been a reporter in Arizona for nearly 15 years and currently works for the Phoenix Business Journal covering technology, sustainability and manufacturing.  He has recently won awards for his coverage of the solar industry in Arizona.

We spoke with him about his reporting on the green economy and asked his advice for reporters looking to add environmental stories to the biz beat.

What is most exciting  part of  covering the green economy?

“There are too many things from which to choose. It’s a growing sector of the economy, and it’s so diverse and there are tons of new technologies springing up to deal with environmental issues. One day is covering green building, the next solar, and a third working on a new energy system. There’s never a dull moment.”

Should Arizona be playing a bigger role in the development of solar technology?  Is it truly a viable replacement to current methods?

“Yes, Arizona should be playing a bigger role in solar technology development. Arizona came to the party late and is just getting its feet under it in terms of development of the technology. The focus here is primarily on manufacturing and not research and development, with a goal of moving more manufacturing in as well as spurring solar installation as a replacement career for construction. ASU and UofA, however, have several active fields of solar technology development, from concentrated photovoltaics to solar collecting dyes that can be used on fabrics and generate enough electricity to perhaps power an iPod or a laptop.

As far as solar being viable, it depends on what power source you want to replace. Right now, solar could replace natural gas as a peak power source, but it’s still a few years out on replacing base load power sources such as nuclear and coal. The technologies exist to expand solar power beyond when the sun is out, it just needs to be implemented on a large scale. The challenge at this point is somewhat technical, but much more financial in nature as well as having a number of regulatory hurdles.”

What advice do you have for reporters looking to incorporate environmental coverage on the biz beat?

“Environmental concerns are weaving their way more into business. Companies are looking at their carbon footprint and the life cycle of their products, not just in a cradle-to-grave scenario but from cradle to cradle, how those products break down and can be used again.

Patrick O'Grady

Always be skeptical of their claims. Businesses are looking for any way they can to spin their company as green, and in today’s economy they are looking to grab the green niche as a marketing tool. And like any story, watch the money. In Arizona, the stimulus funding has been a boon for the energy-efficiency industry, but so many new people are jumping into the business that it could lead to problems down the line. The same thing is happening in home solar installations as well.”

What is the importance of having an environmental reporter on staff now compared to 10 or 15 years ago?

“The level of environmental awareness is continuing to grow and has either reached the level of tipping point with the mainstream public or is about to. There also are many issues that can be covered from an environmental perspective. Building new freeways, for example, can lead to discussions of clean air and land use issues, as well as the potential of other green transportation methods. Particularly in urban areas, the issues of water, land and sky are becoming increasingly important in the quality of life factor that many businesses use as a determining factor of where they are going to locate and many people use for the same reason.

“There also is a tremendous amount of federal money flowing to green projects that likely will be a springboard for even the non-mainstream ones to become more widely recognized.”

Reynolds Center President Andrew Leckey introduces Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Houston bureau chief.

“Covering the Green Economy” seminar on June 28-30, 2010.

This three-day specialized workshop was made possible by a grant from the McCormick Foundation. The program was designed to help journalists spot greenwashing, understand how to track stimulus money earmarked for “green” initiatives and get up to speed on eco-trends in a variety of industries.

The seminar’s jam-packed schedule and a list of top-notch speakers, including best-selling author and coal industry expert Jeff Goodell, ensured that attendees left with a slew of story ideas and a firm grasp on the world of sustainability.

Take a look through the recordings, resources and tools below. At your own pace, you can walk through the self-guided lesson on covering the green economy. This interactive course covers a wide variety of beats that touch on the economics of environmental issues.

STIMULUS: Russ Choma is an investigative reporter who focuses on climate and energy issues, transportation and stimulus spending for the Investigative Reporting Workshop, Nieman Watchdog and Grist.org.

AUTOS: Jim Motavalli, a freelance environmental reporter and author who blogs for a variety of publications including The New York Times. He has a weekly syndicated “Wheels” column and also writes for NPR’s Car Talk.

Jim Motavalli, right, talks with a group of fellows over lunch.

FOOD: Steve Short, CEO of Atlasta Catering and Event Concepts and Colin Tetreault, director of sustainability management for Atlasta, talked about trends in the food industry … including the food we are eating.

BUSINESS, SCIENCE AND HEALTH: Susanne Rust, a Knight Fellow at Stanford University and a former award-winning reporter for the Milwaukee Journal. Sentinel.

BROWN ROOFS, BLUE DORMS and PLATINUM CONDOS: Bryn Nelson is a freelance science writer and editor with a special interest in technology, biomedicine, and ecology. Formerly an award-winning science writer for Newsday and a weekly columnist for MSNBC.com.

THE SHIPBREAKERS: Gary Cohn is a freelance investigative reporter, adjunct journalism professor at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism and winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

THE ENERGY STORY: Jeff Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to New York Times Magazine. He is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller “Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith.”

WATER: Craig Pittman is an award-winning environmental reporter at the St. Petersburg Times and the author of two books. Pittman also spoke about turning a good story into a book. Shaun McKinnon is an award-winning reporter who writes about climate and environmental issues for The Arizona Republic.

OIL: Angel Gonzalez is Houston Bureau Chief for Dow Jones Newswires, where he helps lead the Newswires’ coverage of the global energy industry.

Fellows took notes on laptops during Bryn Nelson's session, helping this 3-day seminar be truly green.

Story ideas were running wild in the session presented by Bryn Nelson, a freelance writer and editor, and former award-winning reporter for Newsday.

Nelson’s presentation was wonderfully put together and his knowledge of the topic was obvious.  It was broken down in to four different sections, each with plenty of opportunities and ideas to bring to your editors.

The first covered “Green Roofs,” or buildings that have plants and other landscape growing on the rooftops.  It provides a number of benefits, reducing water runoff, energy consumption and household temperatures.

In one study a blacktop roof temperature was reported to be 159 degrees Fahrenheit, and a similar building with a Green roof was reported to be at 109 degrees.  This is a popular trend as it also increases resale values, adding beauty to homes and providing natural habitats to a number of insects and animals.

Green walls or urban gardens are being explored in L.A. where tomatoes, strawberries, hot peppers, watermelon, lettuce, radishes and legumes are virtually growing on the street.  As urbanization continues ideas similar to these may lead the “green” generation.  Looking for these trends may provide multiple story ideas.

Nelson also gave a brief overview or LEED and other certification agencies.  It may be interesting to take a closer look at different agencies requirements.  There is also a bill currently sitting in the Senate after having been approved by the House known as Home State Energy Retrofit Act of 2010.  This would provide up to $6 billion to those looking to retrofit their existing homes to be more energy efficient and environmentally sensitive.

The next category was titled “Forever in Blue Jeans” focusing on alternative products being used in construction.  Two big areas to take a look at insulation and flooring.  Insulation has a number of new options as builders look to move away from fiberglass.  Cellulose, spray foam, soy based, and recycled denim insulation are all being discussed as alternatives.  In flooring, bamboo, eco-eucalyptus, and GeoDeck (composite wood alternative) are vying for position in the green building market.

Green makeovers are becoming more and more popular with a number of options.  The U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria was the first of its kind to be LEED certified.  Dorms at Ithaca College in New York and Emerson in Boston have received ratings from LEED and Energy Star.  Net Zero homes and buildings appear to be next in green building trends.  These buildings create as much energy as they use, leaving a zero net carbon emissions.  A high school in Los Angeles is under construction and is being called Net Zero High, and is expected to be completed in 2012.  A new pizza shop in New York called “Revd UP Pi” will be serving organic pizza, using solar and wind energy to provide their electricity, and plans on growing its herbs on the rooftop!

It is all a lot to take in but exciting to see all the trends out there.  Building trends are inherently have local angles as almost everywhere is experiencing growth or change.  Hopefully what was discussed today can provide you with a few ideas, and encourage to look for similar trends in your part of the country.

Jeff Goodell

Join us at 10:30 a.m. PDT on Tuesday for the LIVE stream video of Jeff Goodell’s keynote talk on Covering the coal story: From Appalachia to geo-engineering.

• VIDEO: LIVE streaming: Jeff Goodell at 10:30 a.m. PDT, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. (This link will go live 15 minutes before the session.)
• TECH TALK: To view the streaming link above, you must have QuickTime, which you can download for free.

Jeff Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to New York Times Magazine.

He is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller “Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith,” based on the terrifying hours nine Quecreek miners spent trapped underground and “Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future,” which is the basis for an upcoming feature documentary.

Goodell’s latest book “How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix the Earth’s Climate” is the daring—some would say crazy—effort to adjust the Earth’s thermostat and save us all from global warming.

Steve Short, CEO of Atlasta, shared his thoughts on sustainable food and business.

Lunch was delicious, a buffet style table full of chicken pesto sandwiches, sliced beef tenderloin sandwiches, fresh greens with caesar or raspberry vinaigrette dressing, different types of breads and cheeses, and pasta and potato salad.  However, the best part about it may have been the two speakers.  (Not to take anything away from the food of course)

Steve Short, the CEO of Atlasta Catering & Event Concepts in Phoenix, spoke about the evolution of his company.  How at first it was simply about the bottom line, but within the last few years he has worked to make it sustainable.  In fact, Short claims his company may be as little as two years away from being a zero waste food business.  He was joined by Colin Tetreault, the director of sustainability at Atlasta who has a Master of Art’s from the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

At first glance it seems odd to think of how food, sustainability and business coverage may converge.  However, within minutes of the presentation it became pretty clear.

Tetreault provided some stats from McDonalds, and their production.  This type of information could be gathered on just about any business and it is pretty fascinating.

These numbers are for worldwide production:

• 75 burgers a second are sold
• Equalling approximately 1,296,000 pounds of ground beef per day
• A 2,000 lb steer yields about 400 lbs of ground beef
• That equals approximately 3,240 cows in a day
• It requires 8 lbs of feed for every 1lb of beef produced

A number of different story ideas could be generated from these numbers.

According to these two gentlemen there is often quite a bit of confusion involved with “going green” in the food business.  Organic certifications can be very confusing, coming in a number of different levels.  Even at a local farmers market products shouldn’t be labeled “organic” as it is a copyrighted part of FDA regulation.  Stories could focus on that confusion, the certification process, and the legitimacy of the certifications.

A story could focus on genetically modified organisms.  What are the pros and cons?  Is there a lack of labeling and awareness to these sorts of products?  Obviously with a population of 6.8 billion it almost seems to be a necessity, and for the first time over 50 percent of that population are living in urban areas.

The growth in popularity for organic products is leading to a change in the use of  land as farming practices must be altered.  It changes the transportation, production, and consumption of these products.

Company profiles on local businesses striving to do the same as Atlasta.  So often businesses to the least they can for simple advertisement.  ”Going green” at a restaurant often means changing the lightbulbs, but many companies out there are looking to make a difference and are waiting to be found!

Russ Choma, an investigative reporter who focuses on climate and energy issues, transportation and stimulus spending. He’s a contributor at several publications including the Investigative Reporting Workshop, Nieman Watchdog and Grist.org. His recent series, “Blown Away: America’s billions for clean-energy jobs are flying overseas,” found that more than 80 percent of the first $1 billion in grants to wind-energy companies went to foreign firms. | VIDEO: Russ Choma session. The challenges and rewards of reporitng the biggest pro-green legislation.

Jim Motavalli is a freelance environmental reporter and author. He blogs for The New York Times, Mother Nature Network, BNET and The Daily Green, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times’ “Automobiles” section, and has a weekly syndicated “Wheels” column. He also writes for NPR’s Car Talk and his work has appeared in publications that include Popular Mechanics, The Nation, The Boston Globe, Salon and Grist. | VIDEO: Jim Motavalli session: Greening the auto industry: Hype or reality?

Susanne Rust is a Knight Fellow at Stanford University and a former reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. At the Sentinel, she co-authored the Chemical Fallout series, a groundbreaking investigation into toxic consumer goods. The series won the Meeman, Polk and Oakes awards and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. | VIDEO: Susanne Rust session: Three corners of the environmental triangle: Business, science and health

Bryn Nelson is a freelance science writer and editor with a special interest in technology, biomedicine, and ecology. Formerly an award-winning science writer for Newsday and a weekly columnist for MSNBC.com on science and technology innovation, his work has been featured in a variety of publications, including Nature, Science News and portfolio.com. | VIDEO: Bryn Nelson session: Brown roofs, blue dorms, platinum condos: Emerging trends in green building.

Gary Cohn, a freelance investigative reporter, is an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism and winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. | VIDEO: The Shipbreakers: A step-by-step guide to taking your local environmental story global

Craig Pittman is a award-winning environmental reporter at the St. Petersburg Times and the author of two books. His stories on Florida’s vanishing wetlands garnered national attention after it showed how government policy failed, resulting in many acres being lost to development.

Shaun McKinnon is an award-winning reporter who writes about climate and environmental issues for The Arizona Republic. He also blogs and reports on water, including the Central Arizona Project, a $4.7 billion canal that delivers water to Phoenix and Tucson and regional issues surrounding the Colorado River. For his series, “Ruined Rivers,” McKinnon traveled more than 5,000 miles throughout Arizona and Mexico to report the in-depth stories of six rivers.

Pittman and McKinnon session | VIDEO:  Tracking the toll of development on water from East to West.

Angel Gonzalez is Houston Bureau Chief for Dow Jones Newswires, where he helps lead the Newswires’ coverage of the global energy industry. He has written about OPEC, hurricanes, Big Oil companies, renewable energy and the BP oil spill for Dow Jones Newswires, WSJ.com and the Wall Street Journal. Previously he covered green energy and biotechnology for the Seattle Times, and worked as an oil reporter for Dow Jones. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, he’s a graduate of the University of Paris and obtained a master’s in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. | VIDEO: After the spill: The future of Big Oil in a greening economy