The top eleven remarkable moments at the Wall Street Journal’s Eco:nomics Conference

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Valentine’s Day has had a long history, and for centuries has been celebrated as the day of romantic love. It’s been referred in several literary works through the centuries, including Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the Middle Ages, people exchanged hand-made paper cards as tokens of love. Since 1913, when Hallmark started mass producing Valentine’s Day cards, [...]

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13 key predictions for the corporate responsibility market in 2012.

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In November, Fast Company continued the migration of their online presence toward Co… meaning that each of their sections will be renamed and rebranded using Co+[term]. “Co” means “complementary” in mathematics, or “forming a satisfactory whole.” Co.Design has led the way with its unique look and feel as it explores the important role of design plays in our world. Now, [...]

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Social enterprises are picking up the where the system is leaving off, investing in human beings and equipping them with the tools to create a new world built around compassion, respect, innovation and imagination.

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If you’re looking for a company that is constantly adopting to fit itself to the changing times and at the same time makes sure this journey takes the sustainability path, Xerox should be at the top of your list. This company has transformed from a paper products company to a business process and document management company, [...]

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Environmental NGOs have often been perceived as anti-business, anti-growth, tree-loving, bunny-huggers. However, they have evolved to become organized, structured and strategic. Instead of always standing outside with protest signs, NGOs can actually work with companies to help implement their CSR initiatives. This is happening more commonly than previously imagined. Watchdog organizations not only put the [...]

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In 1984, when the world was assaulted with terrible pictures of famine coming out of Ethiopia, several original charity singles like We are the World, Do they know its Christmas? came out to bring awareness to the cause. The world vowed then that this tragedy would never happen. Sadly, fast forward 27 years and it’s [...]

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Close your eyes for a minute and try to visualize sustainability. What image comes to your mind? Is it a sad polar bear standing on a melting ice cap or a long line of giant wind turbines standing in a field? If you’re thinking of the latter rather than the former and know how to shoot a good picture as well, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has a competition that might be of interest for you.

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The glass ceiling is alive and well, especially for start-up entrepreneurs. According to American Express Open 29% of all US businesses are owned by women and their numbers are growing by 1 and a half times the national average.  “There are over 8.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States, generating nearly $1.3 trillion in [...]

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As foreshadowed by GE’s Ecomagination reach-out to start-ups, it is expected that start-ups and not large corporations will lead the clean tech revolution. As these small companies work to improve the future of humanity, they will need the support of clean tech incubators well versed in the intricacies of sustainable business development.

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I saw a yoga class in a business for the first time while touring Clif Bar’s new and very green headquarters during my interview with CEO Kevin Cleary. Cliff Bar measures its operations and rewards its associates around five aspirations: Business Brand Community People Planet Some of the “people” oriented milestones Clif Bar has achieved [...]

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Small businesses, those with fewer than 500 work associates, are the economic lifeblood of the U.S. economy accounting for over 50% of U.S. employment. From examples like Apple to Clif Bar to Walmart, the American Dream continues to inspire our economy’s entrepreneurs to start a business and grow it to an international scale supplying the [...]

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As a new Media Company, Twitter has become an important tool for us. However, we’ve learned our readers have varying levels of experience with it, so I thought it would be helpful to put together a post outlining some of the ways we’ve found twitter to be useful, as well as some tips and lists [...]

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By Marc Stoiber, originally for Fast Company. By now, you’ve most likely heard the term cognitive surplus. You understand the concept of harnessing worldwide brainpower to solve business problems. You can probably even cite some famous examples of cognitive surplus. The case of AG Lafley, who threw down a decree to source 50% of P&G’s innovation from [...]

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Since 2002, when Clif Bar made the strategic decision to source product ingredients from organic farms, the company has achieved impressive growth even in the face of a lingering recession. Today, the company has national retail distribution in all 50 states for approximately 100 product offerings and has achieved international expansion into Canada and England. [...]

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This time last year Britain’s commitment to cleantech was inspired, the outlook optimistic. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t an effective agreement on climate change as government plans looked to be more than sufficient to provide for a low-carbon future Britain. But it’s not been a good year for cleantech in Britain, from the financial [...]

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Earlier this year I wrote about the expanding relationships between non-profit and for-profit organizations. Historically, these relationships have been either adversarial or based on corporate philanthropy and cooperative marketing. Today, however, we see more in-depth collaborations, based in the reality that no one group can meet our social and environmental problems in isolation. These new [...]

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In business, surely the name of the game is to compete: produce the highest quality good for the lowest cost, protect your trade secrets from competitors and screw them over where possible. But what if it isn’t? Not any more, anyway? That’s what 2degreesnetwork.com suggests to its members: the chance to cooperate to solve problems [...]

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The UN sanctioned COP16 is just around the corner in Cancun, Mexico.  Will this year’s COP16 give us bona-fide treaty signed by governments across the planet?  Will it be another impasse as in past years?  Or perhaps something a little different?  There is a slightly different twist running parallel to treaty negotiations by governments.  This [...]

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Research on the U.S. and German solar industry suggests a permanent job is created for every six to nine homes that install a roof top solar system. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates there are almost 15 million unemployed Americans today. So if each of the approximately 80 million single family homes in America [...]

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By Erica Frye The sustainability community talks a lot about making the business case for social and environmental responsibility. We compare notes on how to measure financial return and swap stories about creative ways we have successfully framed complex outcomes. We beat this particular drum because we know the current corporate model demands it. We [...]

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When it comes to innovation, Best Buy continues to surprise me with with just how far ahead they are of every other big-box retailer. For example, they are currently the leading retailers of electric bikes and scooters, and have recently added Brammo motorcycles to the mix. However, Best Buy’s long-term strategy includes much, much, more [...]

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The following is a guest post by our friends at Saybrook University’s Organizational Systems Program (a 3p sponsor) – designed for students who want to understand the nature of organizations, collaborative practices, and transformative change. by Chuck Piazza As can be seen by the current economic crisis and issues regarding global warming, leading organizations in [...]

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The following is a guest post by our friends at Saybrook University’s Organizational Systems Program (a 3p sponsor) – designed for students who want to understand the nature of organizations, collaborative practices, and transformative change. by Jorge Taborga Do you know your supply chain? Most people don’t.  Most people never think of themselves as consumers, [...]

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Walmart is gaining a considerable amount of attention from its big-picture strategic goal to be “supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, creating zero waste and selling products that sustain people and the environment.” Much has been written about its intent to green its supply chain to achieve a 20 million metric ton reduction in greenhouse [...]

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I was reading Cory Vanderpool’s article, prompted by an article in The Atlantic about how the Grateful Dead discovered innovative marketing secrets almost 40 years before they became mainstream, and I wanted to add some of my own thoughts about one marketing method that is hotly contested today: giving away content and making money off [...]

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In an earlier post, we at 3P asked you to nominate a book you feel is a “must read” for those interested in sustainability.  There’s so much to know:  sustainable food, renewable energy, social entrepreneurship, alternative transportation, green chemistry, biofuels, low carbon lifestyles, socially responsible investing……  how can we possibly keep up with all the [...]

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I’m a huge fan of science-fiction movies with dystopian futures, such as Blade Runner, Minority Report, Children of Men, or my favorite, Idiocracy. In most of these stories, the villain is an very powerful entity or its minions, and power-hungry corporate conglomerates are, more often than not, the driving force for evil. These stories have [...]

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“The conceit that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons in the political sphere is not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the Court’s disposition of this case.” – Minority Opinion by Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor. News outlets and the blogosphere are abuzz with reactions to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision [...]

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