3p Contributor: Jenni
Recent Articles
Op Ed: Why The Christian Right Fights the Environmental Movement
In 2005, 1200 concerned scientists issued a statement that “Biodiversity is being irreversibly destroyed by human activities at an unprecedented rate”. It was estimated that as many as 50, 000 plant and animal species disappear each year. In April 2007, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned “there is observational evidence” regarding the impact of climate change on physical and biological systems. It has serious consequences for agriculture and food security. Examples of this include drought and famine in Africa, and heightened frequency of flood in Asia.
Sadly, while increasing number of progressive Christians are beginning to view the environmental crisis as a spiritual issue deserving the attention of all people of faith, the Christian Right has chosen to limit their discourse to homosexuality and abortion. Demonizing the environmentalists as “New Age worshippers of Satan”, and calling them everything from “tree-hugging pagans” to “socialists”, the neo-cons have ignored the undeniable facts about environmental degradation.
Those who can build… Skanska´s role in transforming New York
”Those who can, build. Those who can’t, criticize,” was a famous line of the late Robert Moses. Although he never held elected office, Moses charted the course of urban planning and development of New York City for the best part of the twentieth century. For those too young to remember, or too far from the Big Apple to have lived its transformations during Moses´ long trajectory as the eminence grise of New York City government, I recommend Robert Caro´s monumental biography, a visit to New York Transit Museum’s exhibition The Triborough Bridge: Robert Moses and the Automobile Age, on view until April, 2008, or at least a quick scan of his 1981 New York Times obituary.
It was Moses’ “cherished ambition… to weave together the loose strands and frayed edges of New York’s arterial tapestry,” according to the transit authority press release for the exhibition, a sentiment that could be used to describe Sweden based multinational corporation Skanska AB´s relationship to the same city. Just as few people identified Moses as the man behind the changing landscape of New York from the 1930s to the 1960s, few people today would relate the name of Skanska with the renovation of the Lexington / 53rd St. subway station, The World Trade Center transportation hub project at Ground Zero or the transformation of the FDR Drive. In the most recent issue of its own company magazine, “Worldwide”, the company suggests that, “Skanska could well be New York’s best kept secret,” and lists no less than 27 Skanska projects in the greater New York area.
All´s well that ends well.
Reading about World Water Week in Stockholm, I remembered one of my all-time favorite Treehugger articles: Ryan’s Well – It’s Not Who You Are, it’s What You Do. When 6 year-old, Canadian born, Ryan Hreljac found out that in other parts of the world people were dying for lack of clean water, he thought that he should personally do something about it. Thinking that a well in an under-developed country cost around 70 USD, Ryan badgered his parents to give him paying chores until he dutifully saved the amount needed to give a far away community a source of clean water.
Cheerfully presenting his hard-earned savings he discovered that seventy dollars was the cost of the pump – the pump and the well together would cost around 2,000. We´re talking about a six-year-old and a six-year old´s concept of personal goals and world realities. However, the bad news did not faze Ryan. His indignation that children died daily for lack of water was too strong. He continued to save money, tapped his friends and community and a well was dug in Northern Angola. To date, Ryan, now within the framework of Ryan´s Well Foundation, has raised more than a million dollars and built 277 wells in ten countries.
New Wave Thinking- World Water Week in Stockholm
Last week the International Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) celebrated World Water Week. With the big-picture, multi-disciplinary approach that the Swedes take to almost everything, the city became a showcase for the proposition that problems as diverse as poverty, hunger, illiteracy, environmental degradation and gender inequality can be addressed through water and sanitation projects.
More than 1500 participants from 140 countries met for a program that included workshops, panel discussions and partnership-building events.
This year’s conference theme was “Beyond the River – Sharing Benefits and Responsibilities” and focused on trans-border co-operation over shared sources of water, land and water management and how to cope with weather and climate-related disasters.
Zara, Inditex and Amancio Ortega – the Responsibility of International Success
Ed Note:I’m happy to announce Jenni Lukac from Barcelona as a 3P contributor. This is the first of 5 in depth pieces that should add a little more variety to the site, as well as a bit of European flair! Withour further ado…
If I mention the names Amancio Ortega and Inditex to anyone outside of Spain I usually receive the puzzled response, “Who?” If I mention these names in Spain, they are almost universally received with a mixture of sincere admiration and ill-dissimulated envy – and I know what the other is thinking: “Him, again. How on earth does he do it?” Son of a railway employee from León, 70-year-old Ortega is the founder of Inditex, the richest man in Spain, the seventh richest in Europe and recently ranked 23rd in Forbes´ list of wealthy individuals worldwide.
Zara, the largest of Amancio Ortega’s companies and the flagship of his Inditex empire, recently moved up from 77th to 73rd place in Businessweek´s list of the 100 World’s Best Brands, the first Spanish firm to rank in Businessweek´s top 100 and the highest ranked name in fashion. The company also scored an astounding fourth place in Google’s Europe and Africa rankings, following Nokia, Ikea and Skype and ahead of fifth place BMW. Since 2002, Inditex has formed a part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Index. No other Spanish company can compare with the rate of expansion and the CSR and environmental protection credibility that Inditex has sustained over the years. Having eclipsed his domestic counterparts and outpaced the foreign competition, such as H&M, Ortega’s empire stands in a class of its own.
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