CSR Minute: 11/27/2009 – Timberland’s Help Haiti’s Climate Campaign; American Cancer Society Award

Corporate Social Responsibility News: Timberland’s Climate and Haiti Help Campaigns; American Cancer Society’s Corporate Impact Awards

Moody’s Mega Math Challenge: Wall Street’s Strategic Philanthropy

“Want to know if the stimulus act will work or whether ethanol is the right choice for U.S. energy independence? Need advice on how to beat Wall Street?” So asked the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) at the annual Moody’s Mega Math Challenge. For the past three years, Moody’s has awarded college scholarships and summer internships to the high school students with the best answers to these questions. In 2010, Moody’s is increasing to $100,000 of scholarships.

What drives a Wall Street firm to such generosity, especially now when every dollar they spend is accounted for to shareholders and the board? I have been working with corporate leaders for the past several years to help them shift their philanthropy and their service programs in order to advance the companies’ own purposes while also benefiting the community. This is the only way that corporate social responsibility will actually be effective and sustainable.

And as I reported from the Clinton Global Initiative in

2008

and

2009

here in my posts, the tide has turned.

See continuation here…http://bit.ly/3NvtsR

via 3blmedia.com

 

Equator Estate Coffees: America’s 2010 Roaster of the Year

Today Equator Estate Coffees and Teas (www.EquatorCoffees.com) was named America’s 2010 Roaster of the Year in Roast Magazine’s highly competitive challenge, triumphing over 40 of the country’s best coffee roasters for Equator’s special blend of quality, sustainability, and business innovation.

Equator proudly joins the ranks of the very top US-based roasters, including previous winners Intelligentsia, Stumptown and Counter Culture. Competing against industry heavy-weights, Equator was picked as the best roaster in America as much for its long-term commitment to quality, as for its cutting-edge sustainability practices and business innovations including the purchase of a small coffee farm in Panama.

The final round of the Roaster of the Year competition pitted Equator against two other finalists in a blind cupping of their coffees by industry professionals. Equator submitted three coffees: Panama Esmeralda Geisha, Ethiopia Amaro Gayo Organic and Moka Java, winning this round and clinching the Roaster of the Year award.

Like America’s Top Chef and the James Beard Award, Roaster of the Year is considered a top award in the $13.65 billion U.S. specialty coffee market.

Among the achievements for which Equator was honored in this year’s Roaster of the Year competition were:

• Equator has a proven track-record of coffee quality, regularly winning awards and attracting some of the industry’s most celebrated chefs.
• Equator was a pioneer in adopting the ultra-efficient Loring Smart Roaster, which reduces carbon emissions by 80%.
• Equator’s biofuel and hybrid vehicles make all deliveries; and the company composts 100 percent of its coffee chaff and burlap bags.
• Equator has provided micro-loans to coffee partners around the world for quality related investments.
• Equator has spearheaded social and environmental sustainability projects that benefit food challenged communities in coffee growing regions around the world.
• Equator recently purchased its own farm in Panama, where they are in the process of growing ultra-boutique, sustainable coffee alongside a team of Panamanians with generations of experience in coffee cultivation.

“Equator Estate Coffees & Teas encompasses the core of a true artisan coffee-roaster,” says Connie Blumhardt, Publisher of Roast Magazine. “Roast chose Equator Estate Coffees as our 2010 Macro Roaster of the Year because of their commitment to sustainability, desire to educate their employees and customers as well their continual drive to push the boundaries of what it means to be a coffee roaster. Equator Coffees has a true passion for creating and selling amazing coffee.”

Equator was an early champion of fair trade practices that address economic, environmental, and social issues in coffee growing communities. Equator has instituted micro-loan programs in coffee growing countries, and recently partnered with ZERI Foundation and a young Zimbabwean woman named Chido Govero in an innovative “pulp to protein” program that increases food security for people in coffee growing regions.

“The Roaster of the Year award is a tremendous honor. This peer-level recognition validates our efforts to promote sustainability both at home and in the global coffee growing communities with whom we collaborate so closely,” said Helen Russell, CEO and co-founder of Equator Coffees. “Equator relentlessly seeks to improve our quality, sustainability and innovation; we are grateful to our employees, customers and farmer-partners whose sincere commitment to our work has made this possible.”

About Equator Coffees

A women-owned green business co-founded by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell in 1995, San Rafael, CA-based Equator Coffees & Teas is a specialty coffee roaster, tea purveyor and coffee farm owner. Equator sources and grows boutique-grade Estate, Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees around the globe. Over the years Equator has built a vast network of suppliers rooted in quality and sustainability. Its experimental geisha varietal coffee farm in Volcan, Panama is under development and is expected to produce its first harvest in 2012. Equator’s tea line includes rare Chinese and Japanese offerings, as well as boxed tea under the label Rare Cargo. Bay Area customers include the French Laundry, Bouchon Restaurants and Bakeries, Citizen Cake, La Boulange and Whole Foods Markets. Equator has won numerous awards including the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Business (2008 & 2009), National Association of Women Business Owners – Trail Blazer Award (2009), San Francisco’s Business Times Top 100 Fastest Growing Woman Owned Businesses (7 years in a row), the Specialty Coffee Association’s annual Roasters Choice Award (2009) and the Women’s Initiative: “Woman Owned Business of the Year” (2009). For more information: www.EquatorCoffees.com, www.facebook.com/EquatorCoffees and Twitter: @EquatorCoffees.

via 3blmedia.com

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Awarded Environmental “Captain Planet” Grant

Captain Planet cartoon, is proud to announce that Colorado Rocky Mountain School has recently been awarded an educational grant of $2,500. These funds will be used towards the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Organic Garden Learning Center project.

“We are thrilled to present this award to Colorado Rocky Mountain School,” says Taryn Murphy, Programs Director. “We receive thousands of submissions each year, and therefore have to be very selective to whom we award funding. We feel that this project deserves exploration and attention and wish Colorado Rocky Mountain School the best of luck. It is our hope that our combined efforts will educate, empower, involve and invest today’s youth to cultivate a better tomorrow.”

The Colorado Rocky Mountain School Organic Garden Learning Center is a great asset to not only the school and our students, but the community as well. CRMS is committed to teaching our students and other community members how to grow and harvest organic foods in a sustainable, and energy and water efficient manner. “We are thrilled that a national foundation is partnering with us on this project,“ says Linda Halloran, Director of the CRMS Organic Garden Learning Center.

The CRMS Organic Garden Learning Center expansion project will allow the school to double the amount of food produced to 40% of the produce consumed on campus (30,000 pounds annually), while decreasing the school’s carbon footprint. The project also includes a remodel of the recycling center and the Recycling Program.

About CRMS

Colorado Rocky Mountain School, located in Carbondale, is an independent high school founded in 1953. The school combines college preparatory academics, outdoor and work experiences, arts, community service and campus life in a comprehensive educational approach that develops strong students who are engaged global citizens. For more information visit www.crms.org

About The Captain Planet Foundation

Captain Planet Foundation is located at 133 Luckie Street NW in Atlanta, Ga. They can be reached by phone at 404.522.4270. Founded in 1991, The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) was created to support hands-on, environmental projects for youth. CPF is committed to making a global impact with projects throughout the United States and around the world. In 2007, CPF funded 138 hands-on, environmental education projects spanning across 38 states and internationally in Canada, England and Costa Rica. We have done projects in all 50 United States. For more information visit www.captainplanetfdn.org.

via 3blmedia.com

CSR Minute: October 5, 2009 : Philips’ LED Bulb + Dep’t of Energy’s $10M Prize; Topaz’s CSR AWARD from Chamber Ireland; ACORE’s Forum

Corporate Social Responsible News: Philips’ LED Bulb + Dep’t of Energy’s $10M Prize; Topaz’s CSR AWARD from Chamber Ireland President’s Award; ACORE’s Finance Forum

Five Inspiring Finalists Selected For the “S Contest”

The top five finalists have been selected in SDialogue’s $10,000 “S Contest,” and voting has now begun.  Over 40 entries were received and narrowed down to the list of five finalists.  Perry Goldschein, partner at SDialogue stated:  “It was a tough job choosing finalists due to the high quality of the responses, and moving stories. Our main criterion was the amount of positive, ongoing impact on society and/or the environment that entrants can have.”

Voting for the winner is open to the public at www.sDialogue.com/contest.  The five finalists are as follows:

·         icouldbe.org
icouldbe.org is a pioneer in the emerging online mentoring industry reaching young people who do not have access to quality educational resources, using a dynamic virtual learning environment to connect them to mentors who offer practical and individualized advice, information and expertise.

·         People Capital
People Capital is an early-stage, socially-responsible firm that aims to address the funding gap between higher education costs and federal loans and grants – a $113 billion market.

·         National Association of Mothers’ Centers
The NAMC has a 35 year history of life-changing mother-to-mother support and connections, addressing mothers’ unique needs and experiences within a unique culture of mutual respect. Our programs impact not just mothers, but children and families too.

·         Speak Shop
Speak Shop provides face-to-face Spanish tutoring via webcam with teachers in Guatemala and Nicaragua. Customers schedule lessons at their convenience and pay about $10 per one-hour lesson. Teachers gain business and technology skills while working at a fair wage as micro-entrepreneurs.

·         Sweetriot
Sweetriot is an activist candy company based in New York City and is creating a sweet movement to FIX the world! Sweetriot sources and produces our cacao directly in Latin America and uses recyclable, reusable packaging which features emerging artists.

Please visit www.sDialogue.com/contest for more information on each finalist and to cast your vote for one lucky winner.  Deadline for voting is midnight EST, Friday, October 16. The SDialogue team will announce the winner by no later than Friday, October 23, 2009.

via 3blmedia.com

October 1, 2009 – Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index; Palo Alto Software’s Award; SDialogue’s Report

Corporate Social Responsible News: Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index; Palo Alto Software’s Award; SDialogue’s Report