It was at Sustainable Brands, a conference I always make a point to attend, that I first heard market researchers discuss cost less, mean more as a key product design for winning customers. Cost less, mean more “Cost less, mean more” struck home for me because it aligns with economic theory which defines consumer procurement [...]

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UK-based New Economic Foundation (NEF) recently issued a report about the economic losses incurred due to overfishing.

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This might sound shocking because, not only do I contribute to a publication focused on green and sustainable business news, but I graduated from a school that focuses on sustainable management.  With a cogent résumé towards a green economy, why might the green economy not include me?

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It’s time for citizens and politicians to treat each other like adults. With all the talk of failing politics in Washington, and the birth of new political movements over the past few years, conditions are ripe for increased citizen engagement. This piece recommends diversifying transportation modes as a way to begin reuniting Americans.

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At BSR a few weeks ago I was excited to have Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn directly answer my question “Is promoting Black Friday midnight sales contrary to social responsibility?” His answer was pretty straightforward: No, it’s not irresponsible, it’s responding to what the market wants. Best Buy’s competitors do it, people want it, and it’s a part of modern [...]

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It seems to me that the big “government bailout” of banks and selected industries was significantly one sided. There could have been a more equitable solution that considered all sectors of society and not just the “fat cat risk-takers” and politically entrenched businesses. Here’s how:

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By Maggie Winslow How are we going to return to full employment in the U.S.?  We can’t just keep producing more and different consumer goods, hoping jobs will come from their production and consumption.  We don’t have the natural capital for that plan.  But, what if everyone could afford to work fewer hours so that [...]

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Walking in Greenwich Village after Gernot Wagner’s talk at the New School last Tuesday, I realized that I’m probably not very far from the home of Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man. I find it very interesting that these two bright people, who are so passionate about the future of the planet, have such different [...]

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3p is proud to partner with the Presidio Graduate School’s Macroeconomics course on a blogging series about “the economics of sustainability.” This post is part of that series. To follow along, please click here. By Maggie Winslow What should we be thinking about the state of the global economy?  Are we just in the bottom [...]

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The taxi drivers in Athens aren’t happy. Neither are the café owners or the workers at the state-owned power monopoly. Its plain Greece’s 700,000 government civil servants are also upset, not to mention the multitudes of retirees younger than 55. The bruising cuts and taxes being foisted on them, politely called “austerity measures,” are being used to combat what is now famously called the Greek Debt Crisis. The citizens of Greece say they are just too much to bear. And so they instinctively respond to it all with a “moutza.”

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With each passing year, our ability to lead more environmentally conscious lives continues to grow. But one area of life that the green movement seems to have left behind is the world of investments. Investments are a part of daily life. This is how many make their living and how many more than that earn their retirement. However, the ability for an environmentally conscious individual to invest in a purely green exchange traded fund has been a dream up until now.

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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a national accounting measure based on the market value of all final goods and services produced within a geographical entity within a given time period. It is often expressed as a comparison to the previous quarter or year. Significant changes in GDP sometimes have important effects on the stock market. Policy makers often use it as the gauge of our economic health and as an indicator of our national economic wellbeing.

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The following is part of a series by our friends at CSRHub (a 3p sponsor) – offering free sustainability and corporate social responsibility ratings on over 5,000 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies. 3p readers get 40% off CSRHub’s professional subscriptions with promo code “TP40“. Originally published on the CSRHub blog By Carol Pierson [...]

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This post is the first in a series of articles by Jeffrey Hollender on cooperative businesses models, specifically from Mondragón, Spain That Italian and Basque cooperatives have grown so large is somewhat a mystery since, unlike capitalist enterprises, cooperatives are not expansionist by nature… Capitalist enterprises tend towards growth because increased scale generally leads to [...]

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Edward Glaeser doesn’t see the point in urban farms. Well, it’s not completely true – the Harvard Professor does see educational value in them for school kids, but that’s it. Last month Glaeser wrote an interesting piece on the Boston Globe about urban farms (“The locavore’s dilemma“), where he made a very persuasive argument that [...]

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By Ryan Cabinte Daniel Altman and Jonathan Berman’s recent paper, The Single Bottom Line, caused a stir in sustainability circles last week, partially fueled by coverage in the New York Times. The paper argues that focusing on profit—the single bottom line—is a more efficient and sustainable way to promote social benefit than emerging frameworks like [...]

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by Nancy Roberts From financial system meltdown to Arctic ice meltdown, the detritus of a capitalist system gone off the rails is all around us. On June 15, four panelists with differing levels of optimism gathered to speak to an engaged crowd in San Francisco about how, if, and when Capitalism might be redefined. California [...]

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By: Maggie Winslow “Cut taxes.  Let people decide how they want to spend their money.”  This has been the rallying cry of the small-government advocates for the last few decades.  It is a very appealing idea.  However, letting people decide how the bulk of our national income is spent is not necessarily good for social [...]

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Yesterday, a mock hip hop battle video was released describing two opposing economic solutions to the recent “great recession.” On one side, we have John Maynard Keynes, who advocates for more stimulus and more deficit spending to get the economy out of recession. On the other side, we have F.A. Hayek, who champions savings and organic [...]

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This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA program. You can follow along here. By Peter Blanchard According to an estimate from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the last year, commodity prices have shot up 20-30%. The head of the IMF explains that this increase [...]

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Earth 2017 projects that 20% of the world’s economy will be in sustainable goods and services by 2017 based upon the assumption that “unsustainable” goods and services will increasingly cost a lot more at the cash register and pump while sustainable goods and services will become increasingly price competitive as they gain production economies of [...]

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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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A Harris Poll posted this question with a list of various industries: “Which of these industries do you think are generally honest and trustworthy – so that you normally believe a statement by a company in that industry?”

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By Brandon Tidwell, FedEx Global Citizenship Lately, I’ve been living on airplanes and in automobiles. I work remotely for FedEx and spend a lot of time traveling to see family, explore new places or keep up with friends. Travel has been in my blood since I was seven, taking my first flight on Braniff Airways. [...]

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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 John Adams Have the arguments for sustainability gotten stale – or left out the most important points? Make no [...]

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By William A. Sundstrom With the state’s unemployment rate stuck at around 12 percent, many Californians are suffering and desperate for a paycheck. Exploiting their pain, two Texas oil companies, a pair of out-of-state billionaires, and other backers of Proposition 23 hope to convince voters to effectively repeal California’s landmark clean energy law in the [...]

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By Derrick Mains, CEO of GreenNurture The concept of economics, in general, is about how one action affects another and the idea of tracking the consequences of action and inaction into every aspect of the economy. The challenge is that our economy, and capitalism itself, is changing from a purely financial view to one that takes [...]

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The State of Land Development – By Tony Wernke, Terry Mock, and Greg Yoko Follow Tony and Terry on Twitter: Tony – @Sustainable4U; Terry – @SustainLandDev Moving forward, you can’t achieve one without the other two.   These are certainly interesting times in our industry. Throughout history, land development has been the backbone of our [...]

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The cumulative lessons of recent events in Asia: more economists and policy experts in Asia are reevaluating the focus on economic growth, especially GDP, as a measure of a nation’s success.

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By Dave Meyer So, it’s official.  I have a “bad” back.  A very competent neurosurgeon told me the other day that “you have structural issues”.  Indeed I do.  This all started after I went hiking with my family in late 2009 and experienced a burning pain in my legs, followed by numbness and teeth-gnashing lower [...]

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