It’s been a while…

So you may have noticed I haven’t been updating this blog too often.  I’ve been writing semi-regularly at TriplePundit.com (which has much bettter traffic, and many amazing writers) and while I used to repost content here, I’ve since learned that’s terrible for search engine optimization (or something).  Google likes original content.  So, while I’m not going to abandon this blog, the conent will be a bit irregular.  I will post links to other content I write here.  And I will also post an occasional insight piece that doesn’t belong on TriplePundit.  For example, people are always asking me about events, so I may post a list of my favorites.

In the meantime, I was at BizTechDay last week, and published the following on TriplePundit that you may enjoy checking out:

• Tips to Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners from BizTechDay

• How to Tweet Like Tim Ferriss

• From BizTechDay: Seven Things Small Business Owners Need to Know to Succeed

• BizTechDay: Helping Start-ups Succeed

Oh, and I have a new kitten – that’s her in the photo!

 

Socap09 Lays out the Roadmap to a Social Capital Marketplace

Social capital lies “at the intersection of money and meaning” according to Kevin Jones and Gary Bolles, founders of the Social Capital Markets Conference (Socap). Socap08 was about mapping the landscape of the social capital marketplace (also the topic of my first ever TriplePundit post). Two hundred attendees were expected, 600 came.

“Last year we wanted to validate the asset class – prove that social capital is real, large and resilient. Social capital was hurt less than other sectors. It didn’t participate in the bubble and it didn’t cause the bust and has since out performed the traditional capital market. This is partly because so many more risks are factored in, in terms of externalities,” Kevin Jones said.

Socap09 (coming up Sept 1-3, 2009) outlines the roadmap to a new economy, focusing on three themes:

1. The new administration and its focus on social innovation and social enterprise
2. An increasing acceptance of social venture funds and impact investing
3. The impact of disruptive technology

“This market is evolving. Pieces of infrastructure are starting to get filled in. Two years ago it was about discovery and finding our way. Now there is a roadmap. It doesn’t mean it’s a smooth highway. It’s extremely tough,” Jones explained.

The space is becoming more sophisticated, more business savvy as well. Jones described what he sees as the second generation of social entrepreneurs. “The first generation of visionary, heroic social entrepreneurs were pioneers. They provided a solution without a market. The second generation can grow the ventures beyond themselves,” Jones explained. They have a firmer grasp on their customers and their needs, which enables them to scale more effectively.

“We’ve seen that post-economic collapse and with the new administration in place…people have a stronger sense that social capital is a full asset class that is moving our economy and administration towards a brighter and more stable future,” noted Amy Benziger, Associate Producer of Socap09.

The same team behind Socap09 is bringing The Hub, a coworking space for social and environmental innovators, to the Bay Area.

“Good Capital was looking to invest in The Hub and following the success of Socap08 we realized we had the network to make that happen – to house the partnerships, collaborations, and discussions that happened in Socap08…The Socap conference is one time global event, and The Hub is where ideas are carried out on a daily basis,” Benziger explained. Jones, co-founder of the conference and also a partner at Good Capital noted their intent to raise a $3M “Hubcap” fund to invest in high impact, early stage start-ups.

Continue reading on TriplePundit.

 

Congress Sends The Earth A Valentine

Last year, when Henry Waxman defeated John Dingell for an obscure* Congressional chairmanship, I crowed that it was ”like the green movement just won the lottery.”

True… that may have been an overstatement. If it was really just like the green movement had won the lottery,  then alternative energy people would have received life-changing amounts of money, of course! In other words, it would be more like the final version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is going to pass this week. Grist has a rundown of its green provisions–which are truly substantial:

The bill contains at least $62.2 billion in direct spending on green initiatives and $20 billion in green tax incentives, while funding for nuclear and coal projects was dropped from the final version. Here’s the breakdown:

Energy transmission and alternative energy research:

• $11 billion for smart grid
• $7.5 billion for renewable energy and transmission-line construction
• $400 million for the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency for Energy for the development of alternative energy sources and efficiency

Efficiency:

• $4.5 billion for energy-efficiency improvements to federal buildings
• $6.3 billion for local government energy-efficiency grants
• $2.25 billion for energy-efficiency retrofits for low-income housing
• $2.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partners Program to retrofit community low-income housing
• $5 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program for efficiency in low-income households
• $510 million for energy-efficiency retrofits for Native American housing programs
• $420 million for energy-efficiency improvements at the Department of Defense
• $300 million for Department of Defense research on energy efficiency at military installations
• $300 million for the appliance rebate program for Energy Star products

Mass transit and advanced automobiles:

• $8.4 billion for transit capital assistance programs
• $8 billion for Amtrak and intercity passenger rail
• $300 million for the purchase of more alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles for the federal fleet
• $300 million in grants and loans for technologies that reduce diesel emissions

Green jobs training:

• $500 million for green jobs programs through the Workforce Investment Act

The Senate version of the bill had contained $4.6 billion for the research and development of carbon-capture-and-sequestration technologies for coal-fired power plants and $50 billion in loan guarantees for the nuclear industry, but that funding appears to have been dropped entirely, to the delight of enviros.

Looks like all that time spent bashing Republican candidates was worth it after all. Next up: convincing China to cut its emissions…

–Barron YoungSmith

*(Okay, it wasn’t that obscure, but I’m over-correcting for my D.C. goggles.)

 

Phil Angelides Speaks to Full Circle Fund at Environment Circle Meeting

Phil Angelides, Board Chairman of the Apollo Alliance and Former California Treasurer, spoke at Full Circle Fund’s recent Environment circle meeting. Founded in 2003, the Apollo Alliance is a “coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution in America to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, cut the carbon emissions that are destabilizing our climate, and expand opportunities for American businesses and workers.” Angelides addressed a full and attentive room at the Morrison & Foerster offices in downtown San Francisco. His message was one of cautious optimism and “we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

What struck me as unique about the Apollo Alliance is the broad coalition of labor, business, policy and non-profit interests and minds working together for a greener, cleaner future. These diverse interests rarely speak and organize as one. But we need all of their input and insight to move forward into the new economy. Angelides remarked that he is often asked “Isn’t this space too crowded? There are all these fragmented groups working different angles; aren’t there enough of you already?” To which, Angelides responds that the problem has not been solved, so it must not be enough. The way he sees it, his organization and his peers are all figuring out which issue area they’ll address, and together they will each solve a piece of the complex puzzle.

Angelides noted that for the past thirty years the progressive movement has been “playing defense.” Be it defending womens’ rights or gay marriage, progressives have been forced to defend themselves from attackers and haven’t had a single message to get behind. At last the movement is seeming to coalesce and together aim towards real progress. With the burgeoning clean energy revolution we are seeing a shift from reactive to proactive organizing.

The Apollo Alliance chose to headquarter in San Francisco rather than Washington DC so that they can be in the heart of the action, rather than in the center of the lobbies, Angelides pointed out. The Apollo Alliance is working with Green For All and other organizations to create, train, nurture and promote green collar jobs. They are using Oakland as a testing groups and blueprint for the rest of the country to learn from. Not only must the workforce be trained in green collar work, but green collar jobs must be created, and they must be good jobs.

On several occasions, Angelides stressed the importance of establishing the US as an environmental leader. We must step up to the plate before we get to Copenhagen at the end of the year. He harped on cap and trade as forthcoming and critical. He also advised that we bring the manufacturing of the clean energy economy back home. A good portion of our renewable energy component parts are currently produced abroad and imported. This needs to be reversed.

It is great to hear such optimism, but we will all need to work together. What can you do? Angelides encouraged all to get involved in whatever way we can, be it through Full Circle Fund, the Apollo Alliance or the many other organizations working to reverse climate change. Additionally, a good first step is increasing awareness, to which he suggests we all sign up for the Apollo Alliance’s daily and weekly news and blog updates, which cover breaking news and relevant developments in and outside the Apollo Alliance.

 

Green in the news (Nov 17 – 30)

Top stories:

Brita teams up with Preserve to take back and recycle used Brita filters. (Clorox Company Press Release)

California Bay Area mayors team up with Better Place to make the area electric vehicle capital of the US by building infrastructure for electric vehicles by 2012, an estimated $1B project. (Green Tech Media)

Other noteworthy news:

James Murdoch persuasively advocates for carbon disclosure. (Financial Times)

Sun Microsystems launched OpenEco 2.0, an online resource to help companies measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions. (Environmental Leader)

One of my favorite companies, RecycleBank, which incentivizes recycling for consumers (read my interview here), is expanding its operations west into the country. (Environmental Leader)

Montreal bike sharing program, Bixi (for Bike Taxi), wins award; offers locally made, RFID equipped and rugged bikes for use in the city for a fee. (TreeHugger)

Apparently companies with longer CSR reports tend to win more awards for “sustainability.” (Environmental Leader)  Is it just me, or does this sound dreadfully off? – I think CSR reports should be more accessible, not necessarily longer.

A recent Yahoo Green study has segmented the green consumer market into four categories – deeply comitted (23%), trendy (24%), practical (13%), and passive (17%) – the remaining 23% was found not to care. (Environmental Leader)

 

How can we disentangle consumerism and celebration?

Reflecting on Halloween, I wonder, why do American festivities involve an abundance of unnecessary and increasingly disposable stuff?

A few examples:

• Take Halloween: More and more people buy ready-made costumes, many of which have been manufactured and shipped from China.  Those who make their own costumes tend to buy materials for the occasion – cardboard, swaths of fabric, face-paint, wigs, fake blood etc – that will likely be used only once and sit in a costume basket thereafter.  God forbid you wear the same costume two years in a row.  And each household will traditionally buy several Halloween-sized bags of individually-plastic-wrapped candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters.  And then there are decorations.  I think you can imagine the scope of the waste and nearly useless junk that is purchased and then tossed into a closet or trashcan.
• Now let’s consider Christmas: Depending on a family’s traditions, the exact formulation will vary, but most households I’ve encountered adopt a form of holiday consumerism that involves each of us buying gifts for each family member and friend.  And then wrapping each gift in pretty paper.  And often mailing the whole thing in a box with a card. And all too often the gift is something the recipient didn’t want or need, so it may not get used.  Or the gift will ultimately be exchanged for something else, spurring a trip to the store which opens up the door to more shopping.  And there are also loads of decorations.
• Don’t forget Mardi Gras: Up to my ankles and even calves in a rainbow ocean of plastic beaded jewelry, throughout New Orleans’ parade routes.  Enough said.
• Even elections: I personally received at least 100 fliers in the mail enticing me to vote no on prop K, yes on prop 11, replace Pelosi with Sheehan and so much more.  Not to mention that the voter guide, an arguably essential trapping of democracy, is a tome distributed to all registered voters, and this year’s San Francisco ballot itself was comprised of 4 pieces of cardstock paper and a large envelope.  And don’t forget the myriad lawn signs and candidate collateral and paraphernalia – all seen as essential.

The roots of these celebrations and events did not involve so many things, if any.  Yet somehow most events come along with a consumerism that renders the event unrecognizable.  It’s a chicken and egg conundrum which I don’t dare unpack – have we developed to be such a consumerist society because consumers demanded more and so companies supplied it, or did companies overproduce and then push products onto consumers with heightened marketing and sales.  Likely some of both.

More importantly than answering “whose fault is this?” – what can we do about this?  I think the central problem is that our capitalist economy thrives on buying and selling more and more stuff, and we have bought into it, myself included.  While I understand our economy runs on selling holiday junk (holiday sales are vitally important in retail), I also think there is something better out there for us in the way of a shift from a product to a service-based economy.  Think bringing a repairman to your home to fix or upgrade your electronics rather than buying new and tossing the old.  And with the clean energy revolution at hand, services like sustainability consulting, home energy upgrades and renewable energy installations will be increasingly in demand.

This kind of shift will take time.  And to get there both corporate America and consumerist America will need to take action.

Corporate solutions fall in the category of cradle to cradle design.  Consumer solutions involve restraint, frugality, inventiveness and dropping the disposable habit.  One example of a step in the right direction was when my family rewrote the Christmas rules a few years back.  We used to celebrate by exchanging gifts with each family member.  Thanks to my father’s anti-consumerist sentiment, our holidays are now modest and simple.  Each person buys one $50 gift for one pre-selected person and that’s it for gifts.   Additionally, we all make a modest donation to a thoughtfully-chosen charity in the name of one family member.   So at the end of they day, we’ve each spent under $100, likely not wasted too much time and we walk away with one gift and one charitable donation in our name.  At first I despised this change, though I’ve since come to see the wisdom behind it.  In any case, this is just one step, just one example of a way to cut down on holiday consumerism.

[Originally posted to Just Means]

 

Ecofrenzy In The News

You saw it here first! Check out my call for a Date Local movement in Slate–originally based on this ecofrenzy post.

–Barron YoungSmith

 

5 easy things we can do at home to waste less

This falls into the category of basic, common sense advice – but these are things that I think many people don’t even think to do that can have a significant impact on curbing household waste, energy use and water use.

1. Put recycle bins beside every trash can, especially in the bathroom: Seriously,  think about what you throw out in the bathroom – cardboard, bottles, tissues, all recyclable!  And in every room of the house, most trash produced is recyclable and most people (myself included at times) are not apt to walk to another room to recycle.  A simple paper bag will suffice to collect recyclables across your home.
2. Unplug your stuff: If you’ve never heard about vampire power use, wikipedia gives a good review.  But it is basically the power that our electronic devices suck up when we are not using them.  Scarily, every cell phone or laptop charger, every electric toothbrush along with the many other electronic devices that lack an off button suck up 8 to 13% of our total household energy use, depending on the estimate.  In any case, there is a lot to be saved by using a power strip and turning if off when not in use, or unplugging individual devices between use.  It’s a hassle, yes, but it’s worth it.
3. Install aerators on all sinks: According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission “Installing aerators on bathroom and kitchen sinks can reduce indoor water use by about 4%.”  If you are a San Francisco resident, the SFPUC provides free faucet aerators. Pickup in person at 1155 Market Street, San Francisco, Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.   If you live elsewhere, look into similar programs in your area.  If they don’t exist, suggest them!
4. Compost!!!: If you live in San Francisco or another area that collects food scraps and yard waste, you have absolutely no excuse.  In San Francisco, if you don’t have a green bin, call your garbage man and request one – likely Sunset Scavenger or Golden Gate Disposal.  If you don’t live in an area with city composting, request it and if you can, do it on your own.  I’m not an expert here but there are very affordable and simple ways to set up your own back yard compost pile or worm bin.  HowToCompost.org is a great resource to get started.
5. Replace with green products: Whenever something needs to be replaced in the house, a light bulb, a washing machine, any consumer electronic, a window, the carpet or when you need to do a paint job – take advantage of the opportunity to choose a greener replacement.  For electronics look for Energy Star.  With carpet, Interface is a great brand of environmentally minded carpets.  With light bulbs, look for CFL’s or LED’s.  With house paint, go for no VOC.  Again, I’m not an expert but there are a plethora of online sources with advice on which device, appliance or home furnishing is greenest.  It doesn’t usually make sense to throw things out to get greener alternatives, so I recommend waiting for things to come to the end of their lifecycle and then seizing the opportunity to upgrade.

 

Upcoming Event: Clothing Swap Tues Sept 16th 7-10pm Sugar Cafe, SF

If your wardrobe is at all dreary, I highly recommend attending this Tuesday’s Clothing Swap. I was at last month’s swap, and you can see my review here.   A great way to get rid of old clothes, which will either be taken home by fellow swappers or donated to charity at the end of the night, as well as take your pick of the clothing other swappers no longer want.  I scored a pair of expensive jeans with the tag still on.  It’s a great way to get rid of excess stuff you no longer need and put it to better use.

When: Tuesday Septeber 16th 7pm – 10pm

Where: Sugar Cafe, 679 Sutter St at Taylor/Mason, San Francisco

How much: $30 pre-register, $40 at the door and well worth it for new clothes

 

Sustainability in the news (Sept 10th and 11th)

Office Depot announces program to allow consumers to “turn trash into cash” through trade in program that will provide gift cards in exchange for used electronics. (Office Depot, Environmental Leader)

1000 US schools have met or are seeking LEED certification; going green can save a school an average of $100K per year. (GreenerBuildings News)

NYC Mayor Bloomberg signed legislation requiring stores to keep doors shut when AC is on. (Environmental Leader)

Last of Berkeley tree-sitters descend from redwood tree; tree promptly cut down. (SF Chronicle)

Packaging companies join forces to enahnce sustainability, aiming to cut plastic used in traditional clamshell and blister packaging. (Environmental Leader)

Apple makes newest ipod Nano “clean” and “toxic free.”  (Grist)

White roofs can apparently cut a building’s energy use by 20% and offset 44 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. (Grist, Environmental Leader)