Top 8 Environmental Songs for Earth Day

I’m a huge fan of good music. Music that has a message, as well as a beautiful guitar riff or drum solo. Music is something that everyone around the world has in common, so it’s especially gratifying to see artists make good music with a powerful environmental message. Sometimes it takes an entire song, or single chorus line, to get people thinking about lyrics, but these artists have definitely done their part to be eco-advocates and musical geniuses in my book.

Here are 8 environmental songs from the last few decades that make statement about the plight of the planet (and they’re also pretty fun to groove to):

1. Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

Joni wrote this song when she was in Hawaii in the 70’s. In Wikipedia she quotes, “I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.”

Favorite lyrics – “Hey farmer farmer/ Put away the D.D.T. now/ Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees.”

2. Jack Johnson – Gone

Jack is one the most eco-minded musicians around, and this song addresses the effect of human consumption on the environment.

Favorite lyrics – “Look at you out to make a deal/ You try to be appealing but you lose your appeal/ And what about those shoes you’re in today/ They’ll do no good/ On the bridges you burnt along the way.”

3. Marvin Gaye – Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)

 This sad but soulful song is from Marvin’s 1971 LP What’s Going On. He sings about the deterioration of the Earth and how “things ain’t what they used to be.”

Favorite lyrics – “What about this overcrowded land/ How much more abuse from man can she stand?”

4. Johnny Cash – Don’t Go Near the Water

 Need I say more? It’s Johnny Cash!

Favorite lyrics – “When it gets down to the cities then the water turns into a dirty grey/ It’s poisoned and polluted by the people as it goes along its way/ Don’t go near the water children see the fish all dead upon the shore/ Don’t go near the water cause the water isn’t water anymore.”

5. The Talking Heads – Nothing But Flowers

This single from the Talking Heads’ 1988 Naked album talks about a world without technology and fast food restaurants…nothing but beautiful flowers!

Favorite lyrics –“Once there were parking lots/ Now it’s a peaceful oasis/ You got it, you got it/ This was a Pizza Hut/ Now it’s all covered with daisies.”

6. The Pixies – Monkey Gone to Heaven

Released on The Pixies’ 1989 album Doolittle, this song’s main theme is all about the environment. Pixie frontman and song writer Black Francis says, “The song mainly deals with man’s destruction of the ocean and ‘confusion of man’s place in the universe. On one hand, it’s [the ocean] this big organic toilet. Things get flushed and repurified or decomposed and it’s this big, dark, mysterious place.”

Favorite lyrics – “There was a guy/ An under water guy who controlled the sea/ Got killed by ten million pounds of sludge/ From New York and New Jersey.”

7. James Taylor – Traffic Jam

This song is featured on the James Taylor 1977 album JT, and it’s all about the personal and environmental outcomes of being stuck in a “dam traffic jam.”

Favorite lyrics – “Now I used to think that I was cool/ Running around on fossil fuel/ Until I saw what I was doing/ Was driving down the road to ruin.”

8. Michael Jackson – Earth Song

This song was written and produced by Michael Jackson for his 1997 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. It touches on topics like war, the environment and animal welfare.

Favorite lyrics – “Did you ever stop to notice/ All the blood we’ve shed before/ Did you ever stop to notice/ The crying Earth the weeping shores?”

Pretty good list, isn’t it? If you have any other songs to add to the list, please let me know. We need to keep combining good music with a green message. To include more songs on this list, visit the original blog post here.

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Employees: Advocates of Your CSR Program?

Most business leaders would agree that an organization’s strength is, in large part, based on its internal resources and the practices utilized to cultivate talent.  When it comes to building a sustainable business reputation, employees are just as critical, and who better to communicate the message than the internal business stakeholders who live the day-to-day operations.

Our professional consulting finds that highly effective organizations are doing more than simply attracting and retaining top eco-talent.  Through continuous communication and employee engagement, companies are equipping their internal stakeholders with the information to communicate their business sustainability actions.

In a recent article, The Role Your Current Employees Play in Attracting New Talent, PCS describes the critical role employees play in communicating corporate actions.  When attracting new talent, 80% of candidates view current employees as a credible source of information.

So what are your employees saying about your organization?  Are they equipped with information and engaged in your company’s business sustainability programs to passionately communicate the message you would like the world to hear?  Leading ‘green’ talent organizations are responding and creating sustainability advocates by:

•    Cascading business sustainability strategies down through organizational and individual performance goals.

•    Informing, motivating, and actively engaging employees in the company’s business sustainability programs.

•    Integrating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into the business processes, corporate performance, and employee recognition.

•    Actively engaged with key stakeholders on sustainability issues, including employees to understand how sustainability issues are affecting the business.

•    Performing transparent reporting on sustainability concepts and sensitive issues, with both positive and negative results.

Within our professional consulting experience, we have seen many companies over the years live and die by the quality and effectiveness of their staff.  Building and motivating the organization has always been a critical criterion to retaining top talent; however, it is becoming more and more important to communicating corporate sustainability actions.

Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Find Your Celebration:Local Earth Day Events

With Earth Day right around the corner, it’s time to start planning! You know you want to attend a couple of kick-butt events, but you might not be sure of where to find them. Lucky you, reader, for I’ve done the research and found the best websites for planning.

First things first, identify the environmental issues that are most important to your state. If you’re not already aware of what they are, here’s an example of how to find them.

Say, for example, that you live in Michigan. By typing in the key words “environment + issues + Michigan”, I was taken to a great website discussing the effects of the emerald ash borer on our tree population. To date, “…the emerald ash borer has unintentionally expanded to cover the entire Lower Peninsula… at least 40 million ash trees have been killed in the area. The ash borer has spread to 12 other states including New York, Minnesota and Missouri.”

Yikes! Definitely need to do more to counter that nasty beetle.

Now, on to finding an event that’s close to home. I suggest checking out the EPA and clicking on the link for your region. Under the Region 5 Michigan section, I found a great link for Earth Day celebrations surrounding the Department of Natural Resources. What do you know? Just what I need!

The process above is pretty straight-forward. Basically, you just keep on clicking and eventually you’ll find the celebration that’s right for you. And many more that might strike your fancy.

If for some reason you can’t find what you want, take action: submit an idea for an event or, big one here…, volunteer to coordinate one! After all, it’s about taking action.

Here are a couple more websites that you might find helpful: eHow: Attend Local Earth Day Events and 350.org.

Enjoy, and let me know what you find! Share your activities and help inspire our readers.

By Gingerly Green of Two Girls Go Green (@TwoGirlsGoGreen)

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Managing Your Business Sustainability Message

Global eco awareness over the last decade has been on a steady incline.  Corporate and small business sustainability action indicates more companies are beginning to recognize sustainability risks and opportunities in addressing environmental and social concerns.  However, even the most action-oriented organizations face reputation risks when marketing claims exceed sustainable action.

Today’s consumers are becoming more educated, and many companies are realizing there is a diminishing return in simple ‘green’ marketing.  The dramatic increase in global eco awareness has resulted in a significant shift in ‘green’ consumer expectations.  To manage one’s sustainability reputation in today’s social media environment, leading business sustainability minded organizations realize that actions speak louder than words.

A strong reputation is a critical component of every business, but it is especially important in driving consumer eco awareness of a specific product or service.  To build business and product reputation, a company should be able to demonstrate what they say they value.  In this light, a recent lesson learned by many organizations is the over-statement of company sustainability intentions and actions.  Our professional consulting believes a “keep it simple” approach can prove to be the most effective. 

When communicating to the outside world, be aware that the audience is not privy to the same level of internal information and business action understanding.  Sometimes referred to as the “curse of information”, loosing site of this basic concept can get your organization into some undesirable conversations.  Here are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind:

Simple:
•    Are you conveying your understanding of the big picture or specific action?
•    Is the topic of your message a significant environmental or social achievement?

Creditable:
•    Are other activities in your company consistent with this message?
•    Have you engaged stakeholders and incorporated their feedback?
•    Do you have data to back up your claim?
•    Could your claim be supported by a third party?
•    Is the message honest and not self-glorifying?

Concrete:
•    Is the issue you are addressing material to your business?
•    Have you invested significant resources?
•    Did you spend more money on the activity than on communications?
•    Have you already achieved the results in your claim?

Our sustainability consulting focuses on the propagation of sustainable actions, and we work with clients to effectively communicate business sustainability successes.  We encourage business to provide even greater transparency into the implementation of sustainability concepts in core business functions.

Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

Winning Characteristics of Green Teams

Upon first glance, the idea of a corporate green team may seem fairly simple—a small effort that allows a subset of employees to gather around a shared interest. In practice, however, green teams can be much more powerful than that. They can inspire, activate, and engage employees to create meaningful changes within a company.

 ”Green Teams”, a formal or informal group of people in a company who are passionate about environmental issues, are gathering in offices across America to brainstorm solutions and promote ways in which their company’s practices can become more environmentally sustainable.  As explained in our sustainability consulting, a green team can reduce paper use, increase recycling, promote energy conservation, and more, making a huge difference within a department or building.

 A question asked in our eco friendly consulting is, How to we get started?
 

• Start by finding interested individuals, encourage co-workers from different levels and parts of your organization, and meet with management to get approval and buy-in for the idea.
• The best way for your green team to blossom it is to pick an initial project that everyone can get behind. Pick the lowest hanging fruit. The easiest thing to start with is to establish a recycling program or tangible projects that are easiest to benchmark success.
• Remember to set goals and strategies—identify your purpose, whether your goal is to cut costs or to be environmentally responsible, or both.   Create a timeline of how you would like to progress as well as set up future benchmarking activities to ensure that it is being implemented as planned.
• Celebrate success!  Communicate your success to internal and external stakeholders. Ride the momentum of your achievement and look for other pilot projects to expand eco awareness.  Training and educating others is a great way to keep others informed as well as invite them to participate in future sustainable business activities.

 
Once successful, build on that momentum to create more eco awareness in the workplace. 
 

• Lunch and learn sessions
• Monthly or quarterly all-hands meetings
• Daily huddles
• Mentorship programs
• Company intranet green section

 
Green teams help business capture the benefits of sustainable business: reduce business costs, improve business reputation, and attract and maintain top job candidates.  Get your green team started today!

Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily

The Car, 2.0

Communications4Good Blog

Is the world ready for a new generation of cars, particularly the electric kind?  There are at least 41 teams hard at work, and competing for $10 million, on the assumption that the world is not just ready, but that it’s in desperate need for Car 2.0.  Energy and transportation analysts as well as green media sites like Earth2Tech have begun using the Car 2.0 moniker and predicting a sizable market opportunity.  The new electric car infrastructure has implications beyond reducing the highly toxic impact that current fossil fuel transportation has on the environment.  Electric cars will link to the smart grid, making them efficient and connected communicating transportation.

FVT is just one of the remaining 41 car teams (from a beginning field of 121) betting on the electric car of the future by participating in the Automotive X Prize.  The goal of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is to inspire a new generation of viable, safe and super fuel-efficient vehicles.

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Posted via web from 3BL Media, CSR News, and Emily