Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit

What to Report on? How Two CSR Leaders Decide

2009-11-21T19:56:06Z

We’ve all seen them. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports weighing it at nearly 100 pages, crammed with charts and graphs, and gray with type. There’s valuable information in there, but unearthing commentary on issues of strategic importance can be daunting. That’s why I was especially curious to hear CSR managers from two industry leaders, FedEx and [...]

EcoFactor and the Truly Smart Grid

2009-11-21T19:42:52Z

Technology works best when it’s least intrusive and does the heavy lifting for you. Apple understands this. And so, it seems, does EcoFactor, the winner of the recent Clean Tech Open. What it does behind the scenes is fairly complex, but for the user, easy and out of the way: It keeps your home at an [...]

Sustainability and Employee Engagement: Anything Goes

2009-11-20T23:23:35Z

Engaging employees through sustainability is not a one size fits all approach. From Walmart’s Personal Sustainability Project to Sodexo’s Corporate Citizenship Program to Intel’s intranet to FMYI’s online collaboration, the variety is endless. Each of the four members of the Net Impact Conference 2009 panel on Sustainable Innovation Through Employee Engagement, had differing approaches on [...]

Doing a World of Good for Fair Trade Artisans

2009-11-21T01:01:15Z

The term “fair trade handicrafts” summons images of wicker baskets and hand-dyed sarongs. But the business side of the fair trade marketplace is getting a little less old-world, thanks to World of Good, an organization that connects artisans in developing countries with mainstream retailers (including eBay and Whole Foods). The organization—comprised of a wholesale business, an [...]

SABA Motors Vision: an Exotic Electric Sports Car for the Masses

2009-11-20T22:45:15Z

Ever since I was a kid, when my father used give me Matchbox cars he bought on his way home from work, I’ve been crazy about cars. So I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to speak with Simon Saba of Saba Motors, whose EV vision is something any gearhead can get jazzed about: [...]

Innovators Honored for Applying Technology To Brighten People’s Lives

2009-11-21T20:01:19Z

Boats outfitted with solar panels have become “floating classrooms” for children in the low-lying regions of Bangladesh, where floods have destroyed crops, schools, roads and infrastructure. They are among the more than 20 million people who became displaced last year due to climate change. In the past decade, Bangladesh has experienced 70 climate-related natural disasters. [...]

Chrysler Pulling Plug on EV Development? Maybe Not

2009-11-20T17:00:34Z

It wasn’t all that long ago that Chrysler Corp. pocketed more than $12.5 billion in government bailout funds to avoid a bankruptcy filing, promising on the way to the bank to build more fuel efficient cars and produce electric vehicles by 2011. About three years later the U.S. carmaker has launched no hybrids – although plans [...]

Paul Hawken on the State of the Markets

2009-11-20T18:52:19Z

Sustainable Industries continues to impress me. Yesterday’s SI Economic Forum featured Paul Hawken, well-known author (Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism, Blessed Unrest) and sustainability guru (the mind behind Wiser Earth and a variety of other startups). And while Mr. Hawken is a big draw, the discussion panel that followed also included some real movers and [...]

Live Near a Waterway? HydroVolts Can Power Your Home

2009-11-20T17:15:18Z

At Tuesday’s Academy Awards of Cleantech (The Cleantech Open), attendees were all abuzz about Seattle-based HydroVolts, winner of the $20,000 Cleantech Open sustainability prize. HydroVolts has created a floating in-stream hydrokinetic turbine that generates distributed renewable energy anywhere around the world. Hydrovolts’ vision is to provide renewable energy to millions of people around the [...]

h.u.m.a.n. Reinvents Vending with Eco-friendly Machines and Healthy Snacks

2009-11-20T08:03:03Z

h.u.m.a.n. Healthy Vending is on a mission to change the world–one snack at a time. The Los Angeles -based company is turning the $30 billion/year vending industry on its ear by using state-of-the-art, energy efficient machines filled only with healthy foods and drinks. In addition, h.u.m.a.n. (short for “helping unite man and nutrition”) donates 10 percent of [...]

It’s a Wrap: Amazon Launches Frustration-Free Packaging Certification Program

2009-11-20T17:18:30Z

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to remove a newly purchased item from its super-strong packaging. You pull and you tug, you rip and you cut, but no matter how hard you try, the packaging just won’t budge! Whether it’s a brand new DVD, a new electronic gadget, a child’s toy or a box of [...]

Self Reporting Doesn’t Cut it: Why We Need a National GHG Measurement System

2009-11-20T22:52:10Z

Say you’re the Mayor of San Francisco. You’re spending million of dollars every year to increase energy efficiency, install solar panels and encourage the use of electric cars — all in an effort to lower your city’s greenhouse gas emissions, in line with (hypothetical) newly-enacted Federal greenhouse gas reduction guidelines. Meanwhile, the (hypothetical) Mayor of Sacramento, [...]

Ecofactor Smart Thermostat System Wins Cleantech Open

2009-11-20T08:09:57Z

A maker of thermostat data systems that claims to be able to reduce heating and cooling costs for buildings by 20-30 percent won Grand Prize at this year’s Cleantech Open, one of the leading environmental technology competitions in the country. Ecofactor makes integrated systems that calibrate a residential or commercial thermostat for maximum energy efficiency without [...]

The Ultimate in “Clean” Tech: Sludge?

2009-11-20T07:24:46Z

Pop quiz: what does our municipal sewage waste that gets processed at wastewater treatment plants, and the great Pacific garbage patch, have in common? Well, not much…yet. A clean tech startup by the name of Micromidas may change all that, and in the process, change the game for plastic packaging. Micromidas won the EPA’s 3P (People, Prosperity, Planet) [...]