If going green started as a noble endeavor, it's now just a best practice. Yesterday at a USGBC meeting at 300 N. LaSalle, we snapped FTI Consulting's Chuck Gorum, right, who says his company felt that not having a green building for its office would leave it behind in employee recruitment and new business development. John Buck Co.'s Matt Cohen  has proof that it works—the UBS Tower  at 1 N. Wacker, one of the first LEED Core and Shell buildings, sold for $540M to Hines in 2008.

Matting by Design's Max Andrews, Lance Construction Supplies'Peter Lozano,  and North American Corp.'s Alex Cooper all market green products. Max's company recently landed a contract with Best Buy to provide it with recycled floor mats. Alex is working to get more companies to buy post-consumer paper and janitorial products (yes, that's the PC way to say “toilet paper.”)