Monthly Archives: November 2011

Shipping is the lifeblood of the modern economy, vital for businesses to stay active and meet the demands of their clients.  Often, in the rush to get products out, shippers will overlook practices which may be considered greener, for shipping practices that are easier because “it’s the way it has always been done.”  In a [...]

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It was probably only a matter of time before we saw this story: An electric vehicle’s battery pack catches fire, drawing into question the safety of electric vehicles in general. Ever since lithium-ion batteries were found to sometimes catch fire in laptops or cell phones, sooner or later we’d most probably see the same thing [...]

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Western Union will partner with USAID to launch the second African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM) that will kick start African diaspora business networks.

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Last Friday, retailers tried to convince you to shop as much as you can, opening their stores as early as Thursday at midnight and offering large discounts. Only one retailer seemed to be in a non-party mood. On that same day, Patagonia, the outdoor apparel clothing company, advertised a full-page ad on the New York [...]

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Environmentalist David De Rothschild believes that the paradigm rift between green and industry is partially due to both sides succumbing to a barrage of moralistic and highly-politicized rhetoric.

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For those of you, like myself, who have been wondering when someone would get around to combining the two highest-mileage automobile propulsion strategies, hybrid and diesel, your wait is finally over—almost. French automaker Peugeot just launched their Hybrid 3008, which they call, “the world’s first diesel ‘full hybrid’ production car.” The new 3008 HYbrid4 is [...]

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Chicago examines options for its recycling program By: Brent Tarnow The City of Chicago, despite its long history of dreadful recycling services, has recently instituted a “managed competition” between two private operators and its own Department of Streets and Sanitation to determine who should win the city’s recycling contract.  Mayor Rahm Emanuel designed a six-month [...]

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the Presidio Graduate School (PGS), finds itself at a strategic crossroads. When the school was founded eight years ago, the driving need was to teach sustainability to business leaders. Convinced that benevolent companies could exist and prosper, industry leaders like Dick Gray joined together to form a superior school to spread the word. The school has been successful – so successful that Stanford, Berkeley, Dominican and other local schools are in the game now.

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As we enter a new era of transparency, awareness, and responsibility to our fellow residents on this planet, new ways of living, leading, and doing business are required to meet these new challenges. Our future generations require action now. Leadership is a key ingredient to this necessary evolution.

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A farm fresh fried egg is a beautiful thing. Featured on Neapolitan thin-crust pizzas, juicy high-stacked burgers, and now, here before me, this vivid orange crown jewel is served over a perfectly braised pork belly and gleaming steamed rice. I have the recent culinary trend of “would you like an egg with that?” to thank for this extra pop of color, protein, and pure delectable ooze.

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By: Richard Thornton – Community Planner, Architect and Native American Historian Five hundred years ago, the young Spanish colonial town of Pensacola was surrounded by permanent and seasonal wetlands. The swamps were considered a vital part of the colony’s defenses – in more ways than one. They made transportation of heavy siege cannons near the [...]

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It’s Monday and you wake up without an alarm clock, looking forward to your day at the office—you love what you do and you love the people with whom you work. You are a member of a community: trust, mutual support, open communication, and friendships sustain your whole self as much as the income you receive from your job.

Just a dream?

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The UK government has been lending secret support to Canada’s campaign against the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive (FQD), which would greatly restrict tar sands imports into EU member countries, according to The Guardian’s recent article. The UK government even went as far as opening a “new consulate in the province to support British commercial interests,” [...]

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“If you don’t have a sustainability plan, you don’t have a business plan” is the note on which the media company Bloomberg News introduced its new Bloomberg.com Sustainability section yesterday. That’s a pretty pithy way to sum up the mainstreaming of corporate social responsibility, but Bloomberg being Bloomberg you’re going to get a dollop of [...]

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Several studies show that minority parents are more likely to give their children bottled water. A study by the department of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin found that African American and Latino families are three times more likely to give their children only bottled water as compared to white families. The Archives of [...]

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While it seems logical that many restaurants have already begun to reap the benefits of installing onsite worm composting operations, airports may not be the first place people would think of to have such systems in place. The Charlotte Douglas International Airport will change that fact when they open a $1.1 million recycling center in [...]

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A visit by Leon Kaye to a RFID trade show in Korea gave a lesson on how RFID can play a role in reducing waste and encouraging more sustainable business practices.

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The Durban Climate negotiations, the Rio+20 conference, record damages from extreme weather events and the ongoing turmoil in global financial systems and markets is an opportunity for governments, financial institutions and stakeholders worldwide to support and participate in the development of a global market for conservation bonds, according to the the Global Canopy Programme. Their latest report lays out the whys and hows of forest conservation bonds – innovative debt securities that the organization believes can be used now to help raise the huge investments necessary to avoid deforestation and equitably and justly monetize the value tropical forests provide.

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Occupy Wall Street is challenging the fast money paradigm. The faster they can move money, the richer they get – but at a severe cost to everyone else. What about those who are producing goods and services that we need to survive and live a life of modest quality? Food production is one of the most important industries on the planet.

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This post is part of the capital markets open letter project by MBA students at Presidio Graduate School. Open Letter To Governor Jerry Brown From Katherine Athavale, Katie Branagh, Norman Rossman, Dale Wannen Dear Governor Brown: We are writing you to ask your support for an innovative new way of financing positive social outcomes: the [...]

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By Jeff Klein In the first post in this 3-part series on Stakeholder Engagement Marketing (SEM) I proposed that marketing is misunderstood and suggested that the deeper purpose and potential of marketing are rarely recognized or embodied. I also outlined the context for SEM. In the second post in this seriesI outlined the first phase [...]

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This post was originally published on the CSRHub Blog. By Carol Pierson Holding Banks are big proponents of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). They give extensively to charities, pay their employees generously and contribute to the environment with LEED certified buildings and sustainable operating practices. They measure and monitor the results of their CSR investment, and [...]

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Both Nike and Puma adopted a strategy of creating a movement around reframing the word “sustainability”. Although both movements were targeted towards demographically similar markets, the respective target customers have diverging sensibilities. What will be most interesting to see is how the PR of 2011 develops into the actions of 2012.

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Just because a product has a label stating its environmental credentials, it does not mean necessarily that the product is environmentally friendly. Greenwashing abounds, and it is hard for consumers to know what is truly “green” and what is not. Consumer Reports launched an Eco-Label App for iPhones to help consumers make informed choices. The [...]

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PepsiCo, has committed to purchasing sunflower oil sourced from farmers in Mexico. The arrangement will also lead to its snack food products becoming more healthier for its customers.

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The Sixth International Green Awards celebration took place at a glittering gala in London last week. The awards, which are accredited by the Royal Society of Arts, were established to recognize creativity in promoting international sustainability, focusing on media, communication, product design, people and innovation. Their goal is to “bring together and make more visible a [...]

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What is going on in Congress? First, it talks about giving pizza sauce the status of a vegetable, now it wants to cut the budget for national parks. A number of federal programs are under discussion to be axed and a ‘super committee’ is said to be in charge of trimming excess spending to rein in [...]

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The U.S. Green Building Council has just launched a new app service that should help make it easier for builders to get the most bang out of their LEED buck. The new service, called the App Lab, is a catalog of applications created by third parties that are integrated with LEED data. App Lab is [...]

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Geothermal power’s grown at a much slower rate than other forms of renewable energy over the past decade. That’s not due to a lack of resource potential, however. Recent studies have shown just how abundant geothermal resources are in many parts of the world. Growth rates are expected to be high in Kenya, Iceland, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, while activity’s also ramping up in Australia, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines.

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E-waste is a serious problem in all parts of the world. A UK-based start-up WEEE Systems has ambitious plans to tackle the growing issue of e-waste. They recently revealed that they are in the process of developing a prototype plant capable of providing closed-loop recycling services to leading electronics manufacturers. WEEE Systems wants to involve at [...]

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