Heinz Awards Honor Scientists Opposed By Chemical Industry

The assault by the petro-chemical industry on scientific integrity – and scientists with integrity – has been well documented.1 This year, three winners of the 16th Annual Heinz Awards are scientists who are distinguished “by their courageous willingness to communicate the implications of their work, often in the face of determined opposition” from the chemical industry. The three have led efforts to reduce the use and emissions of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, such as dioxin and phthalates, associated with PVC plastic, and BPA (bisphenol A) used in epoxy-based building products and as a liner in food and beverage cans.2

Professor Terry Collins of Carnegie Mellon University encountered industry opposition at Greenbuild 2006 while speaking before a capacity crowd on a panel of Green Chemistry experts. There, as he routinely does in his writings and presentations, Collins took aim at chlorine-based chemistry such as PVC plastic, as an “inescapable source” of persistent, bioaccumulative toxic pollution. As early as 2001, Collins had publicly criticized companies that “have sought to protect their profits by distorting scientific data to make dioxins appear to be less harmful to humans than they actually are,” and argued that “it is critical that chemistry that is not really green does not get sold as such, and that the public is not misled with false or insufficient safety information.”3 Similar remarks at Greenbuild earned him more than a few challenges from the floor, and uncharacteristically negative reviews charging “bias” in the official audience feedback provided to all speakers.

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Do You Know the Top Ten Things Sustainable Business Leaders Know?

Since the introduction of the concept of the triple bottom line, supporters and critics have debated the ability to link the environmental and social responsibility to business profitability.  Without a definitive financial incentive, companies have historically not been receptive to the idea of integrating sustainability concepts into core business practices.  However, recent trends tend to indicate that the business world may be changing their view.

 Business sustainability is not exclusively environmentally focused. Business sustainability programs offer measures to save money and grow profitable businesses.  Integrating sustainability concepts into core business functions enables businesses to become more nimble in a fast-changing world.   Customers want it, it increases the bottom line, improves employee morale, reduce risks, and… It is good for the environment.

  As evidenced in our business sustainability consulting, sustainable business leaders are evaluating new markets, new products, and are pursuing the most innovative people.  They are rethinking long-held strategic assumptions to challenge decades of conventional wisdom to drive organizational change  and innovation.  See if you know what they know about  business sustainability:

 •    Improve Business Reputation 
•    Create Brand Differentiation
•    Capture Industry Synergies with other Sustainable Businesses 
•    Reduce Business Cost
•    Improve Employee Satisfaction and Retention
•    Lead Your Industry in Best Practices
•    Improved Stakeholder Engagement
•    Respond to Consumer Eco-Preferences 
•    Proactive Measures regarding Environmental Legislation
•    They know to act now, or get left behind…

 At Taiga Company, our sustainability consulting practices assist clients to define business sustainability value drivers and integrate them into existing processes and evolving business models.

It’s a WO-Man’s World

You’ve come a long way baby. That was the message of Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and author of “When Everything Changed” at last weekend’s Omega Institute “Women & Power: Our Time To Lead” conference. Ms. Collins explained to the hundreds of women in attendance that back in 1960 women could not wear “slacks” in public. She reminds us that it was a man’s world in the most primitive sense a mere 50 years ago.

Yet the unmistakable message of the power packed Omega conference was that women in business and economy still have a long way to go. We earn 70% of what our male counterparts earn and head 24 of the Fortune 1000 companies. According to the Wall Street Journal we are fading fast from the financial industry as women “bore the brunt of the layoffs in the recent recession.” Jacki Zehner, one of the few women to climb to Goldman Sachs partnership level, reveals that only 4 women out of 30 executives sit on the management committee. She claims that GS is the gold standard for opportunities for women in finance despite a recent discrimination suit.

The indefatigable Pat Mitchell, CEO of the Paley Center for Media and former CEO of PBS, explained to the Omega crowd that she resigned from the Board of Directors at Bank of America when it became clear during the financial crisis that the bank adhered to old boy money and power practices. The inference is that women would never have created the financial crisis. She concluded after sitting in male-dominated board rooms and not being able to affect change, that women were “better suited by our talents and skills” to create a more “prosperous, peaceful and sustainable world.” Her take on the new shift in business? Create your own media company and change the news! Change the message by reporting what we as women think is important. Not a bad idea actually, especially for a gal like me who is already doing that.

A few months back, Sheelah Kolhatkar asked in New York Magazine, “What if Women Ran Wall Street?”   Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner responded with, “How, you might ask, could women not have done better?”

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If It Were Simple Everyone Could Do It

Transformative Governance

Insights on Nonprofit Board Service from Linda Crompton of BoardSource

Lately I have been thinking about the problem of “getting the right people on the bus” – or, rather, around the nonprofit board table. A number of articles on exactly this topic have crossed my desk lately, so I know this is on a lot of people’s minds.
 
One of these articles suggested that we currently make board recruitment more complicated than it needs to be – all that’s necessary is to sit current board members down, write out a job description for potential members, and then ask each other “who do we know?” And voilà, you have a high-performing board that is passionate about your organization’s mission and happy to raise all the money needed to achieve it.
 
But while this sounds seductively simple and therefore appealing, I fear the approach is more suited to the board of yesterday than the challenge of today’s environment.
 
The fact is, today’s nonprofit boardroom IS complicated. The work board members do there requires increasingly more sophisticated, not-simple skills. “Who you know” is not enough for successful board recruitment anymore, because if you’re like most people, the folks you know are, by and large, just like you! “Who you know” is likely to replicate the same set of views you already have around the table. Boards need the perspective that comes from a diversity of thought, experience, skill set, and profession.
 
I have expressed my view before that there is a kind of transformation going on in all of our institutions at the moment, including the nonprofit ones, and the group that is responsible with helping to chart an organization’s future is around the board table. Yes, you have to ensure your mission is still relevant; yes, you must ensure that board members, especially new ones, understand their responsibilities clearly; but the most critical factor is that you have different generations, life experiences, genders, professional training, and ethnicities around that table who are committed to bring their unique perspectives to bear on yes, very complicated and important issues. I wish it were simpler.

The 411 on Getting Retweeted – Top Tweets from Clinton Global Initiative

The Analysis (If you want to understand the science behind it all)

WE twendz pro culled the top 10 influencers retweeted (RT’d) by their followers, a calculation that is based solely on the number of times a person had their posts RT’d by others. You should know that this list is not impacted in any way by a person’s influence ranking, but simply how often they were RT’d.  WE manually pulled the most popular tweets by these top 10 users in order to identify the tweets that had the most traction.

While a large follower base does play a significant role in a user’s content being RT’d, it does not necessarily mean that person is influential (quantity vs. quality). Take for instance, singer Avril Lavigne, with 292,099 followers. She was counted as one of the top ten RT’d users according to WE twendz pro, however she was not identified to be among the top 10 influencers during CGI. This could be due to her lack of engagement with her followers, frequency of posts, inclusion of links, etc.

A common thread among the influential Tweeters who were most frequently RT’d was their active use of hashtags and links, sharing key statistics or quotes, and their engagement with other Tweeters on a consistent basis (quality vs. quantity).

How You Can become Twitter Popular

What made these tweets so popular?   There are a few key principles to keep in mind, especially, if you want to amp your own “re-tweet” worthy quotient:

• Follower base:  Fairly simple. More followers equals more eyes which increases the likelihood your content will get retweeted. Waggener Edstrom stands by the belief of quality vs. quantity with regard to influence, but there is no denying that a user with 10,000 followers has more chance of pickup than one with 50 followers.
• Links:  Actionable links are the lifeblood of Twitter. Provide a strong tie to the context you’re tweeting about and you’ll see much stronger likelihood for response.
• Stats & Quotes:  Especially when live-tweeting at events, Twitter users want to consume quick nuggets of digestible information. This helps paints a strong picture for those  unable to be physically present.
• Engagement:  If your tweet can tie to another influencer via an “@reply”, you’re establishing credibility around what you’re tweeting.
• Content – Is King. Of course. Timely, relevant content that also fits into a conversation stream via a hashtag will increase the chances of drawing more eyeballs.

Our next post will explore the most significant content and news that came from CGI. If you want to wrap your head around whether cook stoves or cancer was a major theme, check out Innovation Conversations tomorrow.

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Energy and Transportation: Fossil Fuel Free Film – and More

World Centric hosts a weekly series of films (many of them critically acclaimed and award winning) & speakers to increase our awareness of the many issues confronting our planet – issues of globalization, environmental destruction, economic and social justice, peace, consumption, biodiversity, sustainable alternatives etc.

  October 1 – Fossil Fuel Free Film – and More – Follow the adventures of filmmaker Matt Harnack as he tries to live life without fossil fuels. “I set out to make a film without burning any petroleum. I was determined to break my addiction to oil. I did the only thing I knew how to do. I made a movie.” Plus other short films to entertain and inform.

  Free Friday Night Film Series at World Centric, 7:30 – 9:30 P.M.

  World Centric Community Space Wheelchair Accessible
2121 Staunton Court, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Sustainability: You Have to Play to Win

Is your company waiting to see how the market responds before taking action?  Is management afraid to over commit resources and capital to a yet to be defined direction?  Are you stuck in a business sustainability ‘holding’ pattern?  Well, chances are the company may be actually increasing business stakeholder risk and directly affecting the competitive position of the organization.

 As Jackson Brown said, “Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor.” Is your business on the dance floor or sitting in the bleachers?  Our sustainability consulting finds the key to long-term business sustainability is often a willingness to take motivated action.  By proactively reevaluating your organization’s internal processes and business strategies, you are taking a step in the direction of organizational directed change.  If left to respond to the actions of other businesses or in response to external circumstances, you may be unknowingly be falling behind the competition.

 In, Why Investors Should Consider Sustainability Risk Management, author Daniel Goleman explains the new risks businesses are facing.  While regulatory and economic risks have been on the radar for a long time, the business world must now evaluate business sustainability from a new perspective. 

  Leading businesses are taking the opportunity to rework traditional business practices and models to position themselves in a more favorable position for the future.  These businesses are now including environmental and social impacts in the profitability equation.  Putting on their ‘green’ glasses, today’s leaders are addressing some basic business sustainability questions:

 •    What are the current and future dynamics in the market that could affect long-term business profitability?

 •    What business risk might the company be incurring by not taking action?

 •    What opportunities might the company missing out on now and in the future?

 Taking proactive steps to anticipate change in the business world can not only create an opportunity to capture immediate value but can position and organization favorably in the future. Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”   How prepared is your business?

Green Revolution Gives Students Careers for the Future

Green Revolution Gives Students Careers for the Future
By Fast Company Expert Blogger Glenn Croston

While the Great Recession has been declared officially over, the economic wreckage is still with us and will take years to repair. Unemployment is stuck near 10% and according to the OECD it will be 2013 or later until unemployment falls to pre-recession levels. The problem is particularly bad for young people, with unemployment over 50% for those between ages 16 and 24 during the summer, a historic high (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Tired of waiting for someone else to give them a job, many young people are turning to green consulting with companies like Green Revolution to create their own jobs.
 
After investing the time, effort and money to get a college education, waiting for jobs that never arrive can be a devastating blow. “There is a danger of a frustrated generation,” said the Secretary General of the OECD. It’s easy to get discouraged in an environment like this, but an increasing number of young people are taking matters into their own hands. Rather than looking for jobs they are making their own. They are finding a need and finding a way to fill it, and one of the best places to do this is with green businesses, finding their own way to make money and make a difference.
 
College students are a large, educated and motivate pool of workers eager to make a difference in the world, and the training and experience that young people receive by getting involved in sustainability now can translate into a lifetime of opportunities later. Josetta McLaughlin, Professor of Management at Roosevelt University in Chicago, said that corporations “are looking for people who understand the sustainability revolution that’s taking place.”
 
Building on these trends, Green Revolution has started the Green Consultant Program. This program represents a great opportunity for young professionals to gain free practical training and work experience for the future, while earning flexible part time income in a job they can be proud of.
 
Training is an important part of getting going as a green consultant, and Green Revolution has that base covered as well, with simple straightforward materials that are free for their consultants to use. “The training is completely free, which means Green Revolution’s interests are aligned with the consultant’s completely,” said Jonathan Friedman, CEO of Green Revolutions. “We only succeed if they succeed with helping the environment and making money, which is how we are meeting our goal of empowering everyone to make a difference.”
 
Having lowered the barrier to entry into the green industry, which includes high training costs and unnecessary technical training, Green Revolution intends to fulfill its slogan of Sustainable Solutions For All. Get in touch with them to see how you can be a part of it. The more that they succeed, the more that we all do.
 
Glenn Croston is the author of “75 Green Businesses” and “Starting Green”, and the founder of Starting Up Green, helping green businesses to make money and make a difference.

Is Your Business Taking the Next Step in Business Sustainability?

Driven today largely by cost savings opportunities or risk mitigation, the business world is gradually moving forward on the sustainability continuum.  The feel good efforts of the past have been replaced with real bottom line business sustainability impacts.  Looking into the future, the next step-change will come when stand-alone project implementations become cohesive business sustainability programs across companies, industries, and business as a whole. 

Our sustainability consulting finds many companies are already exploring the larger and more impactful value aspects of business sustainability.  While this is a huge step forward from the very recent past, a much larger prize in your company may come from connecting these stand-alone projects under a singular corporate business sustainability program and overall business mindset change.

Working with both small and large organizations, we stress the value in creating an overarching business case for sustainability as a framework to drive internal cohesion.  Bringing unity to company’s resources and efforts, this aligned understanding will define and communicate the basic questions:

•    What are the business value drivers (cost, revenue, shareholder return)?
•    Are those drivers aligned with a sustainable direction of the company?
•    What are the current and future pressure points that could affect business sustainability?
•    Are we prepared and what are we collectively doing to determine our success?

Companies slow to take action to respond to change or take continuous steps towards improvement often find themselves out-of-touch with both their internal and external stakeholders.  However, making a step-change in the organization is not that difficult.  By simply determining the criteria that will move the company forward along the business sustainability continuum, your organization can have a clear map towards success.

Fighting Hunger With a Little Help from Our Friends

Would you ‘lift a finger’ to help the one in eight Americans who does not have enough food to eat? That was the question we asked ourselves – and customers of The Conference Center at NorthPointe (Ohio) and the Phoenix Conference Centers (Arizona), offering to donate a meal to the local food bank for every person who clicked the ‘like’ button on our Facebook page.

More than 300 people including employees, relatives, friends, customers – and even our customers’ customers joined up, resulting in a donation of more than 400 meals to the Mid-Ohio Food bank and St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance.

The conversations we “overheard” on Facebook told us a bunch…

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