Serving people, planet and profit: An 'integrated bottom-line' approach to looking at business for entrepreneurs, activists, and decision makers
Welcome to Triple Pundit. Economy, environment, and society are interdependent. For too long business has thought of itself as separate. We aim to change that. If you would like to contribute by becoming a columnist or simply have some ideas to share,
3P is excited to be attending the 2008 Sustainable Brands conference in Monterey, CA this June. If you are responsible for your company's brand or sustainability strategy, there is no more important conference to attend this year. Please register for the conference here, and we'll see you there.
The 3P Newswire has it's very own RSS feed. Just click here to subscribe.
The main mission of the Urban Alliance for Sustainability is inherent in its very name.
“Our goal is to integrate and inspire the sustainability movement” added Melissa Plotkin, volunteer coordinator of the Urban Alliance for Sustainability (UAS).
Melissa and I met on a sunny Tuesday morning last week over a jolt of coffee to discuss the growing organization, it’s mission, the challenges UAS faces, and their work building community and helping unite the oft-times far-flung sustainability movement in the Bay Area.
In practical terms the goal of UAS is to connect individuals, businesses, and non-profit groups as a means of sharing resources, fostering collaboration, and reducing overlapping efforts. A kind of “efficiency of purpose”.
Instead of a single-issue advocacy group, the UAS is an umbrella organization designed to educate and enable a more “united front” amongst businesses, individuals, and advocacy groups interested creating a sustainable society.
That’s a pretty tall order and Melissa attests to the difficulty at times in explaining the UAS mission to folks accustomed to one-cause sound bites -the elevator speech doesn’t always come quite as easily.
Nonetheless, Melissa had it well in hand with “integrate and inspire”.
The job of UAS is to bring to bear the resources of the entire environmental and sustainability movement… from educating people interested in lightening their eco-footprint, to promoting greener building design or encouraging greater innovation and use of renewable energy. Whatever it may be, there are unseen and mutually beneficial relationships that UAS can bring to light and help cultivate.”
But how?
Think back to when you actually saw a UPS truck sitting at a crowded intersection waiting to turn left. Depending...[read more]
Total vehicles sales have dropped 12% in the U.S. since March 2007. Why? What does this mean for the...[read more]
Cambridge, Massachusetts has earned a reputation as a community promoting forward-thinking energy and environmental policies. From sustainable building to transportation and...[read more]
Israel’s southernmost Eilot region is a special place in several respects. For one, the desert blooms here, thanks to an aquifer that has turned it into an agricultural center. It also holds a unique place in the hearts and minds of the world’s birds, ornithologists and birding enthusiasts, as it in the migratory route for hundreds of species making their way north to Eurasia and their breeding grounds. It’s also a budding center of entrepreneurial spirit and renewable energy, home to the Arava Power Co., which is hatching plans to build a 500 kWhr solar farm on Kibbutz Ketura.[read more]
Here's another reason for retailers to charge for plastic bags. The swirling debris of plastic trash in the Pacific...[read more]
China announced this week that production and use of plastic bags in supermarkets and retail shops will be banned...[read more]
HP’s been a big proponent of a range of more environmentally sustainable business practices for quite some time now. Welcome news is that it is finding ways of doing a lot more in the way of recycling, and in rapidly industrializing China. An initial 31 HP equipment drop-off centers have been established in Chinese cities and more are coming, making it easier for individual consumers and SMBs to do their part in closing the product lifecycle loop.[read more]
San Francisco planners have decided to make Treasure Island a model of urban sustainability. For those of you unfamiliar...[read more]
Waste: By the numbers In 1990 the average American was sending 3.1 pounds of trash to landfills each day....[read more]
At the GreenXchange conference last Tuesday, Tadashi Maeda, the Director General of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), remarked,...[read more]
Energy and resource intensive, emitting a range of greenhouse gases and leaving behind mountains and fields of e-waste, we've come to depend and indeed thrive on the myriad devices, computing and communications power digital information technology has brought us. Now leading IT providers are getting serious about their resource use and the environmental effects of their worldwide operations.[read more]
Airline travel is carbon intensive – there’s no way around that. Despite more fuel-efficient and cleaner burning engines on newer...[read more]
Many of us have heard snipets in the news of vanishing bee colonies in our agricultural-rich states over the...[read more]
The New York Times reported today an intriguing article on what's happening in Fort Collins, Colorado - a city...[read more]
When managers consider how to reduce the carbon footprint of their products, distribution methods and packaging should be near the...[read more]
The recent release of the 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, produced by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, shows that two-thirds of...[read more]
How many General Mills product developers does it take to envision a more sustainably produced Hamburger Helper? The geniuses came...[read more]
The Business Development Institute and PR Newswire are putting on a half-day conference in New York on Tuesday, July...[read more]
Arnold Creek Productions has a great video out that showcases 12 different companies and organizations that are pioneers in the...[read more]
Our second 3P Case Study is on the Facilitated Workshop Aproach to Sustainability Management. Janice Nietzel and Sarah Feinstein suggest...[read more]
The first in what we hope to be a long list of MBA business case studies is one I helped...[read more]
 |
 |
Add this box to your site Add your feed to this box |
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
The Lazy Environ- mentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living
World- changing: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual
Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development
The Sustainability Advantage : Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line
Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
