It's sometimes painful to watch the big automakers scrambling to right their collective ship, coming out with prototype vehicles like GM and Segway's lovechild, the P.U.M.A. (granted, my colleague Steve Puma—no relation—noted that it is a step in the right direction). But on the flip side, it's a joy to hear about cool startups like Zambikes and Bamboosero.
Vaughn Spethmann founded Zambikes in an effort to develop both employment opportunities and appropriate transportation for Zambians. Not only did he and his Zambian bike-builders create standard steeds, they also created innovative designs including the "Zambulance," designed to carry sick people to hospitals in places where other means of transportation aren't adequate or always available.
As described in this BBC piece, the companies are working with enterprising Africans to produce bikes—including mountain and cargo bikes with a bamboo frame—in Zambia and Ghana. They are sold in Africa and the US.
Think your "Conflict Free" diamond is conflict free? Think again. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), the well-known initiative...[read more]
Industrial designer Virginia Gardiner has designed not just a new toilet, but a new closed-loop management system that will...[read more]
“The negative impacts of climate change are already causing migration and displacement.” So begins “In Search of Shelter”, a...[read more]
Liz Cook is too modest. Ask her to tell you what her company does, and she’ll pull an (admittedly...[read more]
I am a strong believer in the fair trade business model. The notion that producers, especially those in developing...[read more]
The TriplePundit European tour had an interesting break today at the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. Easily one of the...[read more]
Shell managed to settle out of court the long-running lawsuit charging it was complicit in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Nigerian activists but local and international social justice and environmental organizations are continuing to push for greater corporate social and environmental responsibility in the midst of a West African oil rush.[read more]
By Rebecca Busse In my quest for a new, innovative, scalable microfinance model that could also be coupled with environmental...[read more]
By Rebecca Busse "Doing well by doing good" is a commonly heard phrase in sustainability circles, and the Microfinance California...[read more]
Following the lead of an organization called the East Bay Green Tours, the city of Richmond, CA, long considered a...[read more]
One of the things that I like best about about the fight to slow climate change is that it...[read more]
In the karaoke zone in Chiang Mai, the northern capital of Thailand, the Can Do bar, sex-worker owned and...[read more]
Last week, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula as he is affectionately referred to, announced a...[read more]
Van Jones is awarded the Environment Award for Individual Thought Leadership by the Aspen Institute[read more]
“Disruptive innovations are best incubated outside of the mainstream market,” proposes Cornell University’s Stuart Hart in a recent online Q&A...[read more]
As the world strives to comprehend and adjust to a plunging economy, a debate with a positive spin is...[read more]
By Kathleen E. McLaughlin - GlobalPost TAIYUAN, China — The residents of Taiyuan measure their air pollution in dirty clothes....[read more]
Of all the things we consume, clothing seems among the most environmentally benign. But given the frequency with which...[read more]
There is a fundamental flaw with most humanitarian aid efforts: they are, at best, short-sighted. Wealthy Country A swoops into...[read more]
Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun are hard at work figuring out how to bring light to the more than 1.5...[read more]
Breaking the cycle of poverty that condemns successive generations in many countries around the world to lives of strife is no mean undertaking. Intel, Kiva.org and Save the Children have joined forces to combat poverty and help improve primary school attendance and education in some of the world's poorest, conflict-torn countries. [read more]
Poznan's all about finance. A roundup of some of the proposals that have generated an interest.[read more]
Times are tough and the outlook may be bleak, but executives and employees of leading corporations, such as Intel, are coming out and renewing their commitments to community giving and corporate philanthropy—this as the UN celebrates International Volunteer Day. [read more]
Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka and the one of the seminal thinkers behind the modern social enterprise movement,...[read more]
How to empower and enable indigenous and local residents in forest communities is the key question climate negotiators at COP 14 in Poznan need to be asking themselves, according to ForestAction Nepal and the Nepal Federation of Community Forester Users.[read more]
