sustainability

Who Moved My Green Cheese?

Glenn Croston — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:47:43 -0500

Climate talks got underway in Copenhagen on Monday with representatives from 192 nations. A great many people around the world see climate change as the greatest global threat we face, likely to adversely affect billions of people in the decades ahead if nothing is done. The feeling is not

"I'm Green. Are You?" Are You Up For the Sustainability Challenge?

Glenn Croston — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:01:20 -0500

We are in the midst of a shift in the way many of us look at the world, the shift toward a greener world. It’s a change in how we think, the decisions we make, and the actions we take. It’s a change from living just for today, to living in a way that can last for all the years, decades and centuries to come. It’s a big change, but when we’re talking a

Four Ways to Break Through The Holiday Noise

Erica Salamida — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:18:44 -0500

Last year, I was working on a sustainability campaign around the holidays, and a TV producer challenged my client and me to come up with some green tips that haven’t been “done before.” You wouldn’t think that was such a tall order, but for a national TV outlet, it turns out nearly everything has been done before. LED Christmas lights? Nope. Unexpected ways to weatherproof your home? Over it. Some of the tips were truly different but too “off the wall” for a mainstream audience.

Coda's All-Electric Sedan Revs Up U.S. Auto Market

Chris Dannen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Sliding into the driver's seat of Coda's electric sedan for the first time, I looked around for clues. Here's 100 years of automotive history, reinvented -- what's different? No gear-shift, just a knob that engages the car's two speeds, forward and reverse. A battery-life gauge. Not much else. Then I pull into midtown Manhattan traffic and hear the road noise, the thrum of passing air. They were always there, but now there's no engine roar to drown them out. The Coda's motor barely whimpers as it speeds into a new market for cars with no gas and no exhaust.

Novomer's Plastic Reduces Greenhouse Gas-But Will it Biodegrade?

Tim McKeough — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Plastics are a favorite target for environmentalists because they're slow to biodegrade, typically require petroleum to create, and eat up a lot of landfill space. But imagine if the material actually helped reduce greenhouse gases. That's the type of product that Novomer, a startup spun off from Cornell University, has created. Its plastics are made largely from CO2 captured from factories and are suitable for everything from disposable utensils to industrial coatings.

Sustaining your business, and sustaining yourself in business

Connie Glover — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:44:24 -0500

During my graduate studies in Sustainability through Arizona State
University I have learned much about organizational strategies built
around sustainability initiatives. The definition of sustainability is
“meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”
Sometimes it is referred to in the context of the more commonly known
Triple Bottom Line which takes into account an organization’s social,
economic, and environmental practices and policies. Plainly put, making
money while doing good.

HOMErgents Bring Refugee Shelters Back to Basics

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:11:36 -0500

Blog FAIL: What was I thinking?!

Erica Salamida — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:51:10 -0500

About four or five years ago, when everyone started launching corporate blogs, a lot of people (myself included) thought it was OK to just use it as a medium to post press releases, without a lot of context. Like the scrunchie, that guy I dated sophomore year, and stirrup pants, this goes down in history as one of those “What was I thinking?” moments.

How Your Small Business Can Grab the Green Business Spotlight

Glenn Croston — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:02:51 -0500

The green entrepreneurs I speak with every day have great stories to tell about their phenomenal work saving resources, cleaning our energy, and creating a better world. These stories do more than entertain; they get attention and bring in business. Telling your story is one thing, but making sure that it’s heard is another. Tools ranging from PR to Twitter

Wal-Mart's Deli Pizza Box Is Surprisingly Sustainable

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:20:13 -0500

Say what you will about Wal-Mart's tendency to crowd out mom-and-pop stores, it's hard to begrudge the company for its sustainability efforts. In the video below, we see that Wal-Mart's deli pizza boxes are part of a closed-loop cycle that uses retailer's boxes to make new ones, saving 40 million gallons of water and 8,600 tons of solid waste.

In Defense of O'Dwyer in the Social Media vs. PR Fiasco

Erica Salamida — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:01:02 -0500

Jack O’Dwyer has been doing PR for 40 years, and he’s a well-known, albeit curmudgeonly, expert in the industry. In a recent interview with Dave Armand at PRSA, Jack denounced social media, saying that PR people’s jobs are to deal exclusively with the press.

New Models for Engaging Consumers: A Report from Opportunity Green

Ravi Sawhney — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:25:00 -0500

The business and sustainability conference Opportunity Green, held this past weekend in L.A., was an amazing experience. As we watched the various films and presentations, my wife and I moved from fear (How will the world survive?) to guilt (Look how we've polluted our planet!) to the hope that we can all work together, connected by the belief and passion that we will find a better way.

Nau Pop-Up Shop Is Serious About Sustainability

Stephanie Schomer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:23:47 -0500

West-coast based clothing company Nau is opening a pop-up shop in New York for the holidays, and is taking the word "sustainable" to the next level.

Here/Nau/NYC opens Thursday in Soho, featuring its line of eco-friendly clothing. But what's interesting about the store is that everything--apparel aside--has been collected from waste products in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Hawaii's Deep Blue Solution to A/C Woes

Ben Paynter — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:42:17 -0500

The design is complex, the island logic simple: Find a cheaper way to cool tropical buildings and you can spend less on imported oil. All that money saved on overhead means--Aloha!--more clam shells for everyone to dump back into the economy.

Why Values Trump Rules and Regulation

Dov Seidman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:59:36 -0500

Everywhere I travel, I hear the same refrains: "We need more regulation," or on the flip side, "If we hadn't deregulated, we wouldn't be in this financial mess."

It looks like the White House is of this mind-set. Citing Wall Street for helping to create a "culture of irresponsibility," President Obama wants to impose more rules on the financial industry by, among other things, creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Sustainable Sites Initiative: A LEED Rating System for Landscapes

Ariel Schwartz — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:47:03 -0500

Social Media as Time Transporter

Shel Horowitz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:59:28 -0500

Thirty-one years ago, the housemate with whom I’d found an apartment
moved out, and I invited a poet friend of mine to take his place. We
shared that apartment for several months, until he, too, moved on, and
another friend moved in.

Last weekend, I went to see that poet friend for the first time since
around 1980. We’d been completely out of touch–but about a year ago, a
mutual friend tracked my wife down on Facebook. Turns out that mutual
friend also convinced my old housemate to join Facebook, where we found
each other a month or so ago.

Social Responsibility

C.K. Prahalad: How do you think about sustainability?

Ellen McGirt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:45 -0500

Laptops for Kids and Shared Village-wide Cell Phones can Fight Systemic Deep Poverty

Shel Horowitz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:39:10 -0400

Horace Mann, founding President of Antioch College, famously said "Be ashamed to die until you have won one victory for humanity." Neither Nicholas Negroponte nor Iqbal Quadir will ever have to worry about shaming themselves in front of Horace Mann's ghost.

These two M.I.T. professors have both made substantial contributions in developing countries, bringing life-changing technology to villages that don't even have electricity or running water.

Social Responsibility

The Booth Babe Tactic Goes Solar

Erica Salamida — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:31:52 -0400

Consumer technology vendors notoriously use the “booth babe” to grab the attention of nerdy passers-by at conferences. After all, nothing says “Check out my new widget” like a hot, clueless chick dressed as a pirate. (Sarcasm, naturally.) I was saddened to see in a post this week from NYT’s Green Inc. that the same kind of thing is happening in the solar industry.

The Freakonomics of SuperFreakonomics

Glenn Croston — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:38:06 -0400

The new book SuperFreakonomics by Drubner and Levitt has become more than a mere book – it is a news event itself because of the chapter about climate change. The blogosphere and mainstream media are crackling with controversy over this section, practically guaranteeing huge book sales. This is no accident I imagine.

SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES HAM STRUNG ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Brett Galvin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:44:34 -0400

SMEs FINDING SUSTAINABILITY BENEFITS OUTWEIGH THE COST

Brett Galvin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:37:19 -0400

Naked Men in Locker Rooms and Why I Think SMART Objectives Can Undermine Sustainable Behavior

kevin moss — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:14:38 -0400

SMART Objectives are a
popular management tool in business and have been for some time now. If you are
not familiar with the concept, SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic and Timebound. Typically, SMART objectives are metrics
cascaded through an organization that set objectives for individual employees.
They are used to manage performance and contribute towards determining pay and
bonus.

Show Me the Green Money - How to Find Stimulus Funding for Your Cleantech Business

Glenn Croston — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:30:52 -0400

As the US economy slowed, the US Government stepped in with the $787 stimulus package passed in February 2009 as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). A big chunk of the stimulus, about $67 billion worth