The Inspired Economist

Last week Bill Gates entered the digital publishing world by establishing the Gates Notes – an online evolution of his now annual January letter sharing his thoughts and learnings on the progress of the issues central to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It’s interesting and symbolic that the next chapter of his life story would include an “open source” platform for sharing IP on social innovation.

It’s not that he’s such a great writer or that this will yield hints for the release of a revolutionary cause-related software program. But rather he’s put out there an experimental platform for sharing insights that might be absorbed and advanced by others. Read the rest of this entry »

The best inventions make our lives easier. Often so simple in concept as to be beautiful and brilliant, these break-through ideas become an “overnight” success when a confluence of factors intervene to create a perfect storm of benefits to the customer. Is Rentcycle on the verge of such success?

Rentcycle officially launched in October 2009. The brainchild of founder Tim Hyer, their mission is to facilitate the business of renting “stuff”. Recognizing that the process of renting equipment is both painful to customers and highly inefficient to business, Rentcycle developed a model that creates efficiencies through online scheduling, tracking and inventory management. Customers can get info, pricing and check availability of the equipment they want to rent while niche boutique business owners are finally able to create a streamlined rental process that has been up til now, a giant time suck due to the laborious manual processes of every step.   Read the rest of this entry »

Eight billion dollars.  It’s what we currently spend in the National School Lunch program.  It’s not currently part of the health care legislation being debated, but some, including Ann Cooper and Beth Collins, co-founders of the Lunch Box Project, think it should be. The Lunch Box Project is tool for schools and their various stakeholders to bring healthy food to their cafeterias.  Cooper and Collins claim that when fully developed, the toolkit will include a multi-faceted approach that can help any school transition from processed food to a “whole foods environment where food is procured regionally and prepared from scratch for the student population.” Read the rest of this entry »

One thing I didn’t cover last year when I wrote “How to do Cause Marketing Well” is whether cause marketing should even be done at all. But I found that a very interesting question to consider when reading “The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing” in the Summer issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Angela M. Eikenberry argues that cause marketing is “consumption philanthropy,” connecting shopping with a social good, whereas high-levels of consumption in the developed world could be hurting philanthropists’ efforts to save rain forests, fisheries, etc. And it may be counterproductive in increasing empathy for people in need and a sense of responsibility to help.

Cause Marketing Generally Works for Marketers

I’ve been a fan of cause-related marketing programs (although I typically work with smaller entrepreneurial businesses and not the Project Red and Pink Ribbon campaigns in the market). It’s clear why those of us with a marketing perspective would find a lot to love. As MC Milker wrote in our Network, consumers are interested in products tied to a cause. Since consumers respond, corporations are getting involved. Eikenberry cites IEG Inc, reporting, “Cause marketing expenditures went from almost zero in 1983 to and estimated $1.3billion in 2006″.

But for a moment, let’s think about the perspective of nonprofit organizations and fundraisers (and maybe even philosophers). Eikenberry says cause marketing “devalues the moral code of philanthropy by making virtuous action easy and thoughtless”.

Can Philanthropy Leading to Social Change?

Eikenberry is skeptical of that consumers can right the world’s wrongs. When they are buying and fulfilling their material needs and desires, “they generally have little impetus to consider…’the public good’”. She sites two studies that show that when consumers have bought a cause-branded product they are less likely to make charitable contributions and feel they have “already done their philanthropic share”. So does cause-marketing decrease or increase the amount of money going to charity? ‘hard to know, but it is definitely shifting where the money goes. Read the rest of this entry »

Although most larger businesses are at least making an effort to greenwash their enterprises, small and medium size businesses are a bit slower to adopt this trend.  Largely, this is because they view it as a big project, and just don’t yet understand that simple items can help green their operations in many ways.  Greening a small or medium business can also add another element to marketing branding that has been proven to be highly successful!

Here are some ideas for moving green without any major studies or projects:

1) Switch to eFax and stop using your paper fax.  This way, you have the faxed page readily accessible in your computer and are no longer wasting paper. 

2) Put all desktop PCs and printers on power strips, and turn them off at night. This saves both power and money.

3) Use Webex or Go-to-Meeting for initial sales meetings to save travel costs and the carbon footprint associated with air travel.

4) Email PDF’s of brochures instead of printing and distributing them.  If you must print, use recyclable materials.

5) Switch lights to CFLs or CCFLs instead of incandescents.

6) Use cloud computing to store your data instead of on-site servers or large hard drives.

7) Buy materials and supplies locally whenever possible.

Keep A/C and heat turned down to as low a level as possible to still keep a comfortable workplace.

9) Move to a virtual PBX VoIP phone system such as that offered by Ring Carrier.  This means you no longer have a power burning PBX on your site, and you can also save 60% on your phone bills.  

10) If at all possible, allow your employees to telecommute at least one day per week.  If this is not possible, find ways to incentivize them to take public transportation or ride their bicycles to work.  

Any more ideas?

At one point, it seems as though virtually everyone has sat in front of washing machine and watched the soaked clothes tumble through the suds. That tradition may be a thing of the past if a new “virtually waterless” laundry machine finds its way to the mainstream.

Although only in prototype stage, this new machine may be able to save up to 90% of water compared to a conventional machine and will also cut carbon emissions. Created by Xeros, this machine replaces the old school idea of cleaning clothes. The technology goes with full on chemistry advances by replacing the majority of the water with reusable nylon polymer beads, the machine can clean clothes in less time than traditional machines, and we see these waterless wonders then you can thank Professor Stephen Burkinshaw, from the University of Leeds who made the discovery that certain types of polymer beads could be used for cleaning. Read the rest of this entry »

In the constant push for ever newer and greener technology and energy, we sometimes forget that it is often both simpler and cheaper to revisit old techniques in new ways. And that’s exactly what a group of researchers in California has done.

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Green business practices are not limited to factories and buildings anymore.  According to Yahoo Finance, some insurance companies are offering clients who drive green cars or live in green homes a break on their premiums.  Still others are offering to rebuild a green home that is lost due to fire or other catastrophes “greener” than it was before.

Novato based Fireman’s Fund is now offering a 5% discount on homeowner’s policies for those who live in LEED certified homes.   Fireman’s also offers a Green Upgrade, which allows a homeowner the option to rebuild it greener with a slight premium adder. 

Farmer’s Insurance offers up to a 10% discount for drivers of hybrid vehicles currently, and is planning to offer a new Green homeowner’s policy in 28 states by this summer.   

Very soon, it will pay to go green! 

When we start talking about fossil fuels, most of us immediately think of coal, oil, and natural gas. But in the developing world where many people have little to no access to electricity — or even in places that do but have regular issues with outages — these are all secondary to kerosene.

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Do you need to raise funds for your local school or non-profit organization?  Consider FundingFactory’s funding-through-recycling program.

While funding in a down economy is not an easy task for any kind of venture, schools and non-profits seem to bear the brunt of the recession even more than for-profit companies. But as funding gets even tighter, the concept of a green economy is burgeoning. One company, FundingFactory, actually provides by being the first link in supply chain for re-manufacturing.

Educational and nonprofit fundraising organizations within the continental United States can earn funds for technology, classroom equipment and even cash through FundingFactory’s fundraising-through-recycling program. Each year more than 350 million inkjet and laser cartridges are thrown away. In addition, 35 million cell phones are discarded. Funding Factory, alleviates the volume of waste in landfills while providing a beneficial fundraiser for nonprofit organizations nationwide by purchasing used recyclable cell phones and cartridges. Read the rest of this entry »