A new greener economy will be shaped by both large and small businesses. Our StartUp category, usually published on Friday as part of the Startup Friday theme features new companies, small entrepreneurs, and sometimes just hair brained business ideas all of which are aimed at solving some kind of environmental of social problem – through business. Enjoy.
I have a confession: when it comes to cooking with all-natural foods, I’m not terribly picky. As long as I don’t perceive a food to have pesticides sprayed all over it, I’m pretty content to eat it. And, without much rhyme or reason, if a product comes in a can or a box, I usually [...]
Junk Mail. It’s a bad thing, all around, right? Forests worth of paper, tons of emissions delivering it, and 98%+ of the time, ignored. What good can possibly come from it? Hang on a minute. Dukky has something different to offer, which may just make junk, er, direct mail an increasingly efficient thing, for all [...]
Windspire wind turbines were present at President Obama’s inauguration festivities. The 30 foot tall and four foot wide wind turbines generate power when the wind blows against vertical airfoils, which is then converted to AC electricity. Each wind turbine produces about 2,000 kilowatt (KW) hours per year in 12 mph average winds, and includes wireless [...]
For The Good Entrepreneur contest, the notion that an idea can change the world is not an idealistic daydream; it is one of the contest’s motivating forces. The Good Entrepreneur is designed to help green startups with triple bottom line ideas realize those ideas, thereby promoting environmental and economic growth as well as entrepreneurialism. In [...]
When I was younger, the most difficult thing to get a kid to do was eat brussel sprouts. And even when Peter claimed to like them on the Brady Bunch, it was still a tough sell. So, imagine how difficult it is to get kids to eat healthy nowadays, or more importantly, get them to [...]
Increasingly, organizations that work toward ending poverty in underdeveloped parts of the world are basing their efforts on teaching skills and providing tools for those populations in need–rather than providing them with aid, such as food or other resources. It’s the whole teach-a-man-to-fish principle, and it appears to be catching on in governmental aid efforts, [...]
By Deborah Fleischer, Green Impact I had the opportunity to be a sustainability coach to some of the Clean Tech Open semifinalists earlier this week. The Clean Tech Open is an organization of leading entrepreneurs, academics, investors and companies, working together to accelerate the development of clean technology start-ups. In addition to getting support around [...]
Filt, a Japanese startup, puts old cooking oil to a new use: candles. The Tokyo-based company has implemented a unique process, Fast Company reports. First, it collects used cooking oil from cafés and other local sources. Then, it filters, colors, and scents the oil. Finally, it congeals the oil in containers made of recycled glass [...]
In an inspiring bit of can-do from southern Africa, two electrical engineering students at Kenya’s Nairobi University have built a cellphone charger that uses energy generated from riding a bicycle. Cellphone use in Kenya has gone from 200,000 in 2000 to 17.5 million today. But in a country with intermittant electricity, Kenyans routinely pay the [...]
Innovative start-ups such as Plextronics are hot on the trail of some rather astounding developments when it comes to in renewable solar/photovoltaic power generation: inks that convert sunlight into electricity.
Before Katrina, New Orleans was known more for the free-wheeling atmosphere of its streets than the free-thinking of its business leaders. The economy was largely controlled by manufacturers and the oil and gas industries, with a business culture that valued seniority and lineage over raw talent. In stark contrast to that commercial stodginess was the [...]
If you happen to find yourself in San Francisco this weekend, and furthermore, if you find yourself in Dolores Park, you are likely to see Nicolas and Danilo Masuelli. And you are likely to notice their bikes. The pair are a couple months into a new venture: designing, building and selling bike frames made of [...]
T-shirts have long been used as a mechanism of expression. Your favorite band. Your life stance. An obscure quote. That you’re a brand whore. But beyond that, what good are they? Sure, you can buy an organic cotton one, or perhaps bamboo, soy, or any of the other options. Great, but still a small and [...]
The bathroom consumes a lot of water. The average public urinal washes a gallon of water down with each flush, and on average, uses over 10,000 gallons of water a year. A small invention called the EcoBlue Cube is said to eliminate 99% of the need to flush a urinal. A two inch square, the cube [...]
Boulder, Colorado-based Namaste Solar looks like the “real thing”– a solar power systems provider committed to establishing a Triple Bottom Line business driven by ethical consideration of people and the environment as well as generating profits.
More than 500,000 people in Indonesia attempt to make a living collecting and reselling garbage. Artist Ann Wizer lived above a colony of these trashpickers and inquired about what waste they could not sell: plastic drink pouches and other non-biodegradable plastics. Wizer began purchasing these scraps from the trashpickers and using them to create bags, [...]
Now that carrying a water bottle has long passed being the domain of the crunchy crowd, there’s another hurdle to address: Where to get good water once you’re done with that first filling you did in the morning, when you’re out there in the world. What do you do? Get it from potentially dodgy tap [...]
Although Green Project Inc. is still a start-up, it is already playing with the big dogs – in the legal arena. The Los Angeles-based “eco-friendly” ink and cartridge toner recycler is engaged in a legal battle against Epson, one of the largest inkjet manufacturers in the world. Judging from the circumstances of the lawsuit, I’ll [...]
If you’ve ever attempted to further complicate the moving process by being “green” about it, you’ve probably at least considered the problem of cardboard boxes. You, and the founders of MoveGreen, a Florida-based startup that provides SmartPacks, a re-usable, recyclable, and recycled alternative to cardboard boxes. An important endeavor, given the fact that, according to [...]
Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) is not a new technology, but commercial utilization is. In the past, panels demonstrated high efficiency in the laboratory, but were not designed for manufacturability. Since SolFocus was founded in 2005, the company has taken a different approach to this technology. “We have designed our product for manufacturability,” says Nancy Hartsoch, VP [...]
Cityscape Farms, a greenhouse based urban farming initiative, promotes their mission with the slogan, “An idea whose time has come.” Whether it’s San Francisco’s new aggressive regional food policy or the famous organic garden on the White House lawn, the local food movement—specifically the urban local food movement—is garnering increasing media attention and validity. Yet, [...]
In some ways, donating to a charity can be like cleaning a really dirty house: when a cleaning sesh provides really visible results, it provides a heightened sense of satisfaction, thereby encouraging future clean up endeavors. A remarkable new startup, the Jolkona Foundation, is banking on this parallel. The organization encourages young donors to give [...]
In La Cocina’s large, commercial kitchen, three women joke with each other, their laughter amplified by the room’s high ceilings and brushed steel fixtures. They carefully dust powdered sugar on a fresh batch of alfajores, pastry-style cookies filled with dulce de leche, a caramel-like filling made from heated milk. Preparing for an upcoming local farmer’s [...]
When Gavin Newsom announced last week that the city’s new sustainable food policy calls for more urban land to be used to grow food, many residents wondered where the additional land would come from. According to Garden Fare, a new and growing business in the Bay Area, most residents don’t need to look any farther [...]
It’s changing the basics, the nuts-and-bolts of our lives, that can make the biggest difference. Adding color to the clothes we wear requires many times their weight in water – as much as 600 times as much water per ounce of fabric. Colorep, Inc., a California sustainable technology company, has patented a process known as [...]
A new green clothing company, Green 3, is attracting attention for more than just its comfy, eco-friendly apparel. Those in-the-know have taken notice because of the company’s founders: Jim and Sandy Martin, former corporate execs at Oshkosh B’Gosh and Kohl’s, respectively. By gosh…. The pair transitioned from executive positions at two of the nation’s largest [...]
It is said that “big things come in small packages.” Such is the case for an innovative startup launched by four suburban New Jersey Moms: the Back2Tap campaign. These moms-turned-green-activists began the program by educating school children on the benefits of using reusable water bottles. Since then, the campaign has grown; it now funds water-related [...]
In recent years, both business and individuals have gotten increasingly clear that it’s necessary to reduce our energy consumption, both for the emissions it produces and the increasingly limited sources of it. Or have they? For most people, aside from their monthly energy bill, there’s little connection to the rest of the world when it [...]
Israeli start-up ETV Motors is testing what it hopes will be the future of the hybrid electric automobile. The car, yet to be named, does not have an internal combustion engine like many hybrid vehicles. Instead, the Israeli hybrid has an electric engine (in the rear of the vehicle) that is comprised of two primary [...]
Hollywood isn’t the first thing you’d think of when it comes to being green. From elaborate productions that zap thousands of watts of energy to excessive on-set food trays that leave behind mountains of waste, one would guess the mecca of entertainment creates more of a drain on our natural resources than preserves them. I [...]
Best Practices in Corporate Volunteering
Communicating Corporate Responsibility with AHA
The Future of Fair Trade with Fair Trade USA
Bard College MBA in Sustainability
Sustainability Ratings and Key CSR Topics
How to Invest for Income and Impact
Energy Options: Pros and Cons from Solar to Nuclear
[coming soon] The Green Beer Series 2012
San Diego: June 4-7
Sustainable Brands 2012: Join us as the Sustainability, Brand Strategy and Innovation Communities convene to shape the future. Discover and participate in the sustainable brand revolution by collaborating to shift consumer demand, drive heretical innovation, and evolve the business case. 20% Reader discount with code "nwtripsb12".
Webinar: June 5
Running an Effective Corporate Volunteer Program with AngelPoints: Key clients discuss how they put the AngelPoints Volunteering solution to work for them. Attend this webinar to learn best practices, tips & tricks - and how to get an effective volunteer program off the ground at your organization.
Seattle: June 11-12GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!
Portland & Seattle: June 13 & 14
Sustainable Industries Economic Forum:
NYC: June 27-28Responsible Business Summit USA: Discover how to fully embed and integrate CSR in your organization. Learn how to collaborate with key stakeholders and establish competitive edge using proven CSR strategies. Hear best practices from GAP Inc, Timberland, Lockheed Martin, Life Technologies, Campbell Soup and many more.
Minneapolis: July 19-20GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!
Boston: Sep 13-14GRI Certified Training: Demand for sustainability experts is growing rapidly as companies look for proven professionals. For companies, GRI trained employees mean faster implementations and better use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. Join our partner ISOS group for this two day session. Early bird discounts apply!
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