Famed international jeweler Tiffany and Company has recently signaled its intent to expand a metrics-driven CSR and sustainability program from its Madison Avenue headquarters. This is exciting news for the field, as it is hard to imagine a global corporation with a more mythic brand resonance. With a reported 19% share of the global jewelery […]
Beyond Blood Diamonds: What Can CSR Achieve at Tiffany? Read More 👉
San Diego lobster fisherman Shad Catarius (no relation to the spawning fish) supports an annual trapping tax of of $300 currently before the California legislature. The tax on the $7.8 million annual spiny lobster market would raise the cost for Catarius to make a living on his boat McGhee Marie. In a San Diego Union-Tribune
California Fisherman Doesn’t Want to Catch the Last Lobster Read More 👉
I’ve blogged a number of times about the benefits of purchasing paper that uses an environmental certification like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). But has not using one of these certifications become a negative differentiator? Can it get you kicked out of the running? I just read a post on
Rejected! Can Lack of Environmental Certification Hurt You? Read More 👉
PG&E is the first American energy utility company to measure its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Pacific Gas and Electric, Northern and Central California’s energy provider and the Golden State’s largest utility, announced Tuesday that it would be measuring its scope 3 (or indirect) greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). This stunning announcement marks the first time
PG&E To Measure Scope 3 Emissions: Is Anyone Watching? Read More 👉
In the last 24 hours, I’ve experienced The Tale of Two Communications Philosophies. The contrast between the two drives home, to me, the challenge facing the green industry. First, a conversation I had with a client — a new business start-up — about its website copy (which I’m writing). Sure, they wanted to let people
Don’t Make Greening So Hard Read More 👉
My recent terrible customer service problem with UPS (an overnight letter, containing my children’s birth certificates, that was supposed to be delivered on January 29th still hadn’t arrived on February 16th…) led me to Google the news on UPS, just to see what other bad things they were up to. It didn’t take long to
Why UPS Won’t Bother To Improve Service Read More 👉
My last post on questioning conventional wisdom on recycled paper generated some terrific comments. After all, when you look more deeply into some of these issues, they aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Is possible that post-consumer waste (PCW) paper isn’t as green as we think it is? The question was worth asking.
Does PCW Paper Really Save Energy? It’s Worth Asking the Question Read More 👉
If you want to “green” your news reading, just go online, right? Ditch that dirty, landfill-clogging paper. Not so fast, argues Sarah Westervelt, environmental expert and activist. In a recent article on The Dead Tree Edition, Westervelt said that she was “too informed about what’s going to happen to my computer when I’m done with
Newspapers May Be Greener, But What About Redundancy? Read More 👉
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.
Open Source Social Innovation Read More 👉
I did something a little nuts today. I have run a small niche publishing business since 2000, and I learned very quickly that when you print books on demand and sell them retail, you either lose nearly all your profit margin by buying packing boxes or you have to charge a lot more than you
Lessons Learned from an Envelope Box Turned Inside Out Read More 👉
While the U.S. Postal Service bleeds red with billions of dollars in financial loses ($3.8 billion in 2008), they keep earning environmental accolades for their green roofs and energy conserving initiatives. Today, some post offices are even LEED certified by the US Green Building Council. As I wrote about last week, the US Postal Service
US Postal Service: Delivering Sustainability? Read More 👉
It’s the time of year when people are making resolutions to lose weight, better manage their finances, better manage their anger, and myriad other things. Is increasing your commitment to environmental sustainability on that list? As I wrote in my very first post for The Inspired Economist in the fall of 2008, the neat thing
What’s Your Green Resolution for 2010? Read More 👉
The only thing I could easily find in the whole place — with a “Made in the USA” label — was underwear. What I didn’t expect to find, was a mall heated by the sun (and body heat). Forget the “conservative right” or “liberal left.” If America has a religion, it’s that of the consumption
America’s Mecca: the Mall of America Read More 👉
Stan Ovinshisky graduated from high school and took machining courses at a technical school. With this formal education he has made significant contributions to solid-state physics, neurology, chemistry and cybernetics. He also invented an electric car battery. You may recall his appearance in, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
Community Colleges: Disappearing Shop Classes and Green Technology Read More 👉
Troubleshooting and making repairs in shop class utilizes the complete scientific method. To repair a malfunctioning device the student must first hypothesize why it is not working. Next the student must design an experiment (test) to determine the correctness of this hypothesis. The student must repair and test that the device is working.
Soulcraft and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: The Demise of Shop Classes. Read More 👉
Mass production has been used since the industrial revolution as a means of creating large quantities of standardized products. It has many advantages over one-at-a-time production. It reduces coast and provide interchangeable parts. Its disadvantages are that it can over produce and it dehumanizes labor. Mass production will often continue to build inventory in spite
Mass Customization’s Role in a Sustainable Economy Read More 👉
The Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) cites the case of a widowed public school teacher that retired with a $900 monthly pension. She would have been eligible to receive $600 survivor benefits based on her husband’s Social Security contribution, but the windfall elimination provision (WEP) eliminated all of her survivor benefits.
Is Social Security “Windfall” Penalty Fair to Labor? Read More 👉
Sustainability will not be an over night phenomenon. In fact I would argue a sea change is taking place but have barely begun to see the ripples. With a new administration, government has demonstrated that they will be playing an instrumental role on the compliance and technology side.
Sustainability: Government, Business and… Brands? Read More 👉
[social_buttons] The front pages in the UK this week are a-spread with the news of record profits at Barclays Bank, with accompanying bonuses for top bankers. This echoes last week’s story at Goldman Sachs. Given the recent bailouts and government support, the Economist is right to note that ‘such largesse looks cheeky at best’! Although
Why the Financial Crisis Spells Doom for the Climate Change Fight Read More 👉
For years, the consumer electronics industry has taken a bad rap with the green community – and deservedly so. Cheap electronics components eat up considerable natural resources, need cheap labor to produce, and until recently, have been designed to be “throw-aways” when the latest and greatest widget comes along. Nothing is ever black and white,
More Ways Electronics Technology Can Help Green the Earth Read More 👉
The Dilemmas Project, a multi-media platform for engaging citizen participation around the ongoing dilemmas ordinary people are facing every day.
Testimonies of a Culture in Transition Read More 👉
The opportunity for San Francisco’s composting effort will be to imaginatively engage us in a herculean effort to educate AND motivate compliance.
Composting: inspiring behavior change Read More 👉
It’s no surprise that the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufactures oppose the American Clean Air and Security Act, but so does Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Dow Chemical and Ford Motors support it.
The American Clean Air And Security Act: What Is It? Read More 👉
US oil, natural gas and coal (fossil energy) companies perpetuate the “energy independence” myth. According to this myth, importation of oil is our energy problem. Buying foreign oil is “the greatest transfer of wealth in history,” and “It sends money to governments that hate us.”
Coal Has Peaked: Will This Impact The American Clean Energy And Security Act? Read More 👉
