Green Marketing 2.0| SEO SEM Social Media Consulting - Lorna Li» Sustainability

The Story of Stuff – Great Social Marketing Through Social Media

lorna li — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:29:10 +0000

My buddies at Free Range Studios created this fantastic viral video that was featured at Bioneers last October. While lambasted in the mainstream media, the Story of Stuff has been a fave of left-leaning environmental activists and educators.

Why? Because it makes you think about where our stuff comes from and where it is going, and the part we all play in this consumption oriented system.

What makes the Story of Stuff successful?

In a similar style to CommonCraft’s In Plain English video series, the Story of Stuff uses simple animations to illustrate complex concepts. Video animation is a great medium to tell a complex story in a simple, yet compelling way. The message is easily digestible by kids as well as adults.

Imagine trying to explain the Story of Stuff in text, with, maybe a few diagrams. The message would probably be lost. The relationships between consumers, government, and corporations a little too complex to grok in words. The text version of the Story of Stuff would never go viral.

The Story of Stuff is a must see for anyone wanting to create an education campaign using social media, in order to raise awareness of sustainability issues.

Saving The Orangutans Of Borneo

lorna li — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:11:56 +0000

Borneo, located in Southeast Asia, is the world’s third largest island. Borneo is also divided into three different nations, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The island of Borneo is rich in biodiversity; Borneo’s rainforests are the home to world’s largest flower, the world’s largest carnivorous plants, the world’s largest orchid, and the world’s last orangutans. Not long ago, Borneo had an extensive rainforest that covered the majority of the island. However, the ever increasing demand for timber in the international markets, coupled with government corruption, has turned the green lungs of Asia into the world’s biggest exporter of tropical timber. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of environmental destruction in Borneo is now faster than in the Amazon Basin.

In the early 1990s, a surge in the demand for palm oil as an ingredient in processed foods, as well as for biofuel production, was seen as an economic opportunity in the region. Oil palm became much more lucrative traditional crops, like bananas, and resulted in the decimation of 86% of Malaysia’s rainforests for the development of oil palm plantations. In fact, environmentalists have been alarmed at the rate in which oil palm plantations have been replacing tropical rainforests. But the numbers are hard to beat. Compared to soybeans and corn, which yield only 446 and 172 liters of crude oil per hectare, a hectare of oil palm may yield nearly 6,000 liters of crude oil.

While the palm oil devastation is far reaching, reforestation efforts by the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation are promising. Their Samboja Lestari Reforestation project demonstrated that it was indeed possible to transform a 2000 hectare wasteland into a thriving forest with 1800 native species of plants in only a few short years. The end result was the return of hundreds of species of wildlife, from butterflies and beetles to hornbills and gibbons. Furthermore, with its high concentration of fruiting trees, Samboja Lestari is a sanctuary for the rehabilitation of rescued orangutans.

BOS is currently looking after more than 1000 displaced young and adult orangutans, and are looking for ways to release them into safe forests.
The EcoPreservation Society is partnerring with BOS on land acquisition, for the purposes of reforestation and orangutan rehabilitation. Check out their Borneo Reforestation Project for more information.

What Is Sustainable Rainforest Management?

lorna li — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:17:26 +0000

Sustainable rainforest management is based on the principles of sustainable forestry, a practice where trees are harvested in a manner that minimizes damage to the surrounding ecosystem. Trees are selectively cut, rather than clearcut, and often felled close to the end of their natural life cycle. Sustainable rainforest management seeks to capitalize on the economic value of rainforests without depleting its natural resources. Reforestation combined with selective extraction can ensure that forest cover remains more or less the same.

Due to uncontrolled and illegal logging, rainforests all over the world, especially in the Amazon region, Indonesia and Malaysia, have been decimated and countless plant and animal species have been lost. In Indonesia and Malaysia an estimated 42% of tropical rainforest is lost to logging each year due to the absence of proper rainforest management and laxity on the part of rainforest officials.

The loss of rainforests across the world presents several environmental challenges, global warming being the most ominous. Rainforests are huge CO2 sinks – trees absorb CO2 and mitigate the buildup of greenhouse gases. Slash and burn agriculture in tropical areas releases CO2 into the atmosphere, in addition to eliminating the trees that would otherwise absorb it.

There is a direct relationship between deforestation and drought. Because trees also absorb and create precipitation, loss of forested land impacts rainfall, locally and globally. The Amazon alone creates 50-80 percent of its own rainfall through transpiration. Loss of rainforests has resulted in decreased rainfall in tropical regions, which has disastrous consequences on local agriculture. Deforestation can also have far reaching consequences. Loss of rainforests alters the reflectivity of the earth’s surface, which, in turn, impacts climate change due to shifting wind and ocean current patterns, which also affects rainfall distribution. As deforestation continues, expect extreme weather conditions to occur with greater frequency.

Deforestation brings other woes, such flooding and soil erosion. Tropical regions receive heavy rainfall; when the forests are dense and vegetation is lush, much of this water can be absorbed without much consequence. When the dense vegetation is removed, surface runoff is increased and catastrophic flooding can occur.

Approximately 80% of the soils in the humid tropics are acidic and infertile. Without trees to hold the soil in place, the soil becomes prone to erosion. Rainfall can then easily wash away remaining nutrients, so that what is left behind is impoverishment and a barren wasteland. Because the land can no longer be cultivated, inhabitants move on and clear more land, only to repeat the cycle of destruction.

Strict regulation and vigilance of logging activities, sustainable rainforest management and reforestation programs are urgently needed in order to slow the rate of rainforest and species loss across the globe. Several nations have passed stricter regulations on logging and have started reforestation programs. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, many reforestation programs today, however, are merely focused on planting new trees and not on actual reforestation.

Restoration of the native rainforest is what is needed to reverse the environmental consequences of deforestation. While raising a plantation of new trees on deforested land that become cattle pasture might relieve some of the pressure on forested areas, a crop of new trees is not the same as a new forest.

The Sustainably Managed Permanent Rainforest Habitat initiative approaches reforestation in a way that is distinct from most tree planting projects. Often, tree planting programs, while well meaning, are not particularly effective. Organizations may not have control of the lands where the trees are planted, and, in most cases the trees are planted in areas that have a history of deforestation. Many programs also take place on ranches and farmlands. Ask yourself: What do farmers do for a living? They plant things, they grow things, and they cut them down and sell them.

The Sustainably Managed Permanent Rainforest Habitat aims to use a mix of techniques to encourage complete reforestation, such as analog (sustainable) forestry, wildlife habitat enhancement, biomass carbon negative energy production, BioChar soil augmentation and edible forest gardens (Permaculture).

Visit Replanting the Rainforests to learn more about reforestation programs in rainforest regions around the world.

Powerful Images of the Amazon Rainforest by Photographer Daniel Beltrá

lorna li — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:36:24 +0000

Award winning photographer Daniel Beltrá takes powerful new images of the Amazon rainforest. Here you can see that some of the first images taken on The Prince’s Rainforest Project and Sony assignment show the rainforests’ glory and destruction.

Daniel Beltrá, this year’s winner of The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP) Award at the Sony World Photography Awards has released some initial photographs taken on the first leg of his prize - a fully-funded assignment to document the three major rainforest regions of the world.

The Spanish photographer, now based in Seattle, beat off stiff competition from some of the world’s finest environmental photographers to win the assignment on behalf of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony Europe.

‘Travelling to the Amazon has been an incredible experience and I have been able to capture some powerful images that show the many different elements of the rainforest ‘ the beauty, the wildlife, the local people and also the destruction’, says Daniel. ‘It is has been an eye-opening journey so far and I’m looking forward to photographing the Central African and South East Asian rainforests on the next parts of my trip. I hope the photos I produce will make a strongly persuasive argument for emergency action to preserve the world’s tropical rainforests’.

The PRP, founded by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, recognises that every year, destruction of the Earth’s rainforests releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the world’s cars, planes and ships put together and aims to achieve consensus about how the rate of deforestation might be slowed. The PRP is working with governments, businesses and non-profit organisations around the world to find solutions to deforestation – and to find them fast – with the ambition of ‘making the trees worth more alive than dead’. The project has also launched a global awareness campaign, asking people to sign up at www.rainforestSOS.org to put rainforests at the heart of the climate change debate.

Environmental responsibility has been a significant part of the Sony ethos for many years and the PRP partnership is just one of Sony’s many environmental initiatives. Sony Chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer recently filmed a video with the PRP animated frog in support of the partnership which can be seen on the PRP website.

Sony and the PRP are delivering a stunning interactive exhibition that will combine Daniel’s new photographs with Sony technology to allow people to experience the glory of the rainforests and understand their plight. The exhibition will open at Kew Gardens, London on October 3rd 2009.

About Daniel Beltrá

Beltrá is the winner of numerous awards. Last year, he won awards in the NPPA Best of Photojournalism and the International Photography/Lucie contests. He is a fellow of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). His Amazon work was awarded in the China International Press Photo contest in 2006 and the World Press Photo in 2006 and 2007. That same year, along with Sir David Attenborough, he received a Special Nomination from The International Forum on the Drought in Seville (Spain) for his dedication to the environment.

The Prince’s Rainforests Project

The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP) was established in October 2007 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and aims to achieve consensus as to how the rate of deforestation might be slowed and stopped. The PRP intend to leverage the convening power of HRH The Prince of Wales and work alongside governments, international businesses, non-profit organisations and the rainforests nations themselves to find a solution to mass deforestation and degradation of the rainforests, and make the trees worth more alive than they are dead.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the PRP or to register your support to combat climate change through halting deforestation, please log-on to: www.princesrainforestsproject.org

About Sony

Sony manufactures audio, video, communications and information technology products for the global consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be one of the world’s leading digital entertainment brands. Sony recorded consolidated global annual sales of EUR 54.4billion (yen 7,730 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, based on an average market exchange rate for the same period of yen 142.0 to the EUR. It employs approximately 171,300 people worldwide. In Europe, the Sony Group recorded consolidated annual sales of EUR 14.0 billion (yen 1,987.7 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009.

For more information about Sony’s environmental initiatives go to www.sony.eu/eco

Saving the Jaguars of Belize

lorna li — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:35:42 +0000

Image Source: Prospero973

When one thinks of Belize, images of coral reefs, white sand beaches, and lush green jungles teeming with wildlife come to mind. Unfortunately, Belize’s tropical rainforests are under siege, as logging companies from China, Indonesia and Japan continue to clear cut vast swaths of forested land in order to supply valuable timber to international markets.

Even more rainforest territory is being destroyed to make way for cattle ranches and plantations. Many of these properties are then sold off to unsuspecting American and European retirees with the promise of huge returns. While ranch owners might initially reap rewards in the first couple years of ownership, eventually, many of these ranches and plantations fail, due to the poor soil quality upon which they were founded, thereby resulting in bankruptcies or huge losses for the owners.

Rainforest soil is ill suited to agriculture. The soil underneath the dense rainforest canopy is fragile and thin; without the protective cover of trees and the wide network of roots, the thin layer of soil erodes quickly with the rain and wind, which wash away what little nutrients there are. Because the soil is low in nutrition, it cannot support healthy pasture for cattle or intense agriculture for much more than two years. In the southwestern parts of Belize, especially in the mountainous Cayo district, which was once covered by dense rainforests and home to jaguars, most of these ranches are now up for sale. Owners that have experienced the sudden economic collapse of their ranches are now looking to sell of their properties for whatever price that they can get.

The desperation of ranch owners to sell to sell off their properties has resulted in plummeting real estate prices, making it an opportune time to purchase land for reforestation and jaguar conservation. Jaguars are the largest wild cats that currently roam in the jungles of Belize. Uncontrolled logging has severely reduced the size of the jaguars’ natural habitat and decreased their food supply. Due to increased scarcity of their natural prey, jaguars come into conflict with humans and prey on the cattle that now occupy their former habitat. In a bid to protect their property and cattle, ranchers attack and kill the jaguars. While nobody knows how many jaguars have been killed, some conservative estimates claim that more than 15000 jaguars have died due to their conflict with humans.

The Rainforest Trust and the Eco-Preservation Society are currently raising funds for to buy out bankrupt ranches for the purposes of reforestation. Cattle ranches are great locations to begin reforestation, as they already possess the basic infrastructure necessary for these kinds of projects. The houses provide good quality shelter for the volunteers, as well as for the local Mayan people participating in the conservation program. Furthermore, by acquiring these ranches, conservation dollars would be spent primarily on jaguar conservation and not on constructing houses for the volunteers.

You can help support jaguar conservation through your donation to Eco-Preservation Society’s Belize Reforestation Project.

Peruvian Police Cover Up Deaths of Indigenous Protestors

lorna li — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:12:18 +0000

Bagua, Peru (June 8, 2009) – In the aftermath of Friday’s bloody raid on a peaceful indigenous road blockade near Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon, numerous eyewitnesses are reporting that the Special Forces of the Peruvian Police have been disposing of the bodies of indigenous protesters who were killed.

“Today I spoke to many eyewitnesses in Bagua reporting that they saw police throw the bodies of the dead into the Marañon River from a helicopter in an apparent attempt by the Government to underreport the number of indigenous people killed by police,” said Gregor MacLennan, spokesperson for Amazon Watch.

“Hospital workers in Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande corroborated that the police took bodies of the dead from their premises to an undisclosed location. I spoke to several people who reported that there are bodies lying at the bottom of a deep crevasse up in the hills, about 2 kilometers from the incident site. When the Church and local leaders went to investigate, the police stopped them from approaching the area,” reported MacLennan.

Police and government officials have been consistently underreporting the number of indigenous people killed by police gunfire. Indigenous organizations place the number of protesters killed at least at 40, while Government officials claiming that only a handful of indigenous people were killed. Also the Garcia Government claims that 22 police officers were killed and several still missing.

“Witnesses say that it was the police who opened fire last Friday on the protesters from helicopters,” MacLennan said. “Now the government appears to be destroying the bodies of slain protesters and giving very low estimates of the casualty. Given that the demonstrators were unarmed or carrying only wooden spears and the police were firing automatic weapons, the actual number of indigenous people killed is likely to be much higher.”

“Another eyewitness reported seeing the bodies of five indigenous people that had been burned beyond identification at the morgue. I have listened to testimony of people in tears talking about witnessing the police burning bodies,” continued MacLennan.

At least 150 people from the demonstration on Friday are still being detained. Eye-witness reports also confirm that police forcibly removed some of the wounded indigenous protesters from hospitals, taking them to unknown destinations. Their families expressed concern for their well being while in detention. There are many people still reported missing and access to medical attention in the region is horribly inadequate.

The Organizing Committee for the Indigenous Peoples of Alto Amazonas Province issued this statement: “It is appalling that political powers have acted in such a cruel and inhuman manner against Amazonian Peoples, failing to recognize the fundamental rights and protections guaranteed to us by the Constitution. We express deep grief over the death of our indigenous brothers, of civilians and the officers of the National Police.”

The government expanded the State of Emergency and established a curfew on all traffic in the region from 3 pm to 6 am. Indigenous and international human rights organizations are worried about plans of another National Police raid on a blockade in Yurimaguas close to the town of Tarapoto where thousands are blocking a road.
President Alan Garcia is being widely criticized for fomenting a climate of fear mongering against indigenous peoples by drawing parallels to the brutal Shinning Path guerrilla movement of the 1980s and early 1990s, and by vaguely referring to external and anti-democratic threats to the country.

The Amazonian indigenous peoples’ mobilizations have been peaceful, locally coordinated, and extremely well organized for nearly two months. Yet Garcia insists on calling them terrorist acts and anti-democratic. Garcia has even gone so far as to describe the indigenous mobilizations as “savage and barbaric.” Garcia has made his discrimination explicit, saying directly that the Amazonian indigenous people are not first-class citizens.

“These people don’t have crowns,” Garcia said about the protesters. “These people aren’t first-class citizens who can say – 400,000 natives to 28 million Peruvians – ‘You don’t have the right to be here.’ No way. That is a huge error.”

Ironically, Peru was the country that introduced the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the floor of the General Assembly when it was adopted in September 2007.
A coalition of indigenous and human rights organizations will protest in front of the Peruvian Embassy in Washington D.C. on Monday, June 8 at 12:30 pm.

Indigenous peoples have vowed to continue protests until the Peruvian Congress revokes the “free trade” decrees issued by President Garcia under special powers granted by Congress in the context of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Among the outpouring of statements condemning the violence in Peru were those from Peru’s Ombudsman’s office, the chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a coalition of 45 international human rights organizations, Indigenous organizations from throughout the Americas, and the Conference of Bishops of Peru. Also famous personalities including Q’orianka Kilcher, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt, and Daryl Hannah and Bianca Jagger called on the Peruvian Government to cease the violence and seek peaceful resolution to the conflict.

AIDESEP, the national indigenous organization of Peru has called for a nationwide general strike starting June 11th.

Amazon Watch is continually updating photographs, audio testimony, and video footage from Bagua on www.amazonwatch.org.

Starbucks Green Idea – Consumers Vote to Make Starbucks More Environmentally-Friendly

lorna li — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:41:16 +0000

Starbucks Ideas has been live for about 2 weeks and already customers have had plenty to say about what they expect from the world’s largest chain of coffee shops.

The move to launch a website that allows anyone to post ideas about how Starbucks can improve its service offering is part of an increasing trend by companies to use social networking applications to better improve communication with their customers. This move may be the best way for the struggling coffee maker to quickly turn its business around.

Starbucks Ideas is not a true social network play, rather is an an interactive forum where people can vet their best ideas in a manner much like Digg. Starbucks Ideas is powered by Salesforce.com and is the same social platform that powers Dell’s Ideastorm which won PR Innovation of the Year 2008.

Already, Starbucks has moved to implement the top two customer requests: free coffee for frequent buyers and universal free wi-fi, which is finally (woot, woot!) coming soon in Spring 2008. The thought that a multinational global corporation like Starbucks would be so responsive to the voice of its customers is encouraging indeed.

Can Customers Make Starbucks Become More Environmentally Responsible?

As I surfed through several pages of Starbucks Ideas I was struck by the number of requests for a Greener Starbucks. Below is a list of suggestions and comments that would Starbucks make a better environmental citizen, all of which I voted on:

Stop Trashing Empty Cards

We don’t need any more plastic in the trash. Rather than suggesting trashing an empty starbucks card, give people a 25 cent credit…for refilling it. To make it affordable, how about….

Re-fill your card…at $20 level…get $20.25 on the card.

Re fill at the $50 level…get $51.00 on the card.

Re fill at the $100 level…get $103.oo on the card, or get the $100…and your current single drink order free.

More on the plastic…less plastic in the trash.

Sell Reusable Sleeves

I have recently had customers who come in with their own rubber sleeves for their cups. They tell me they purchased them from Bed Bath and Beyond. They prefer to use them as the grip is more secure and they are helping preserve the trees. Starbucks should have these manufatured with the company logo and sell them for a really reasonable price point so we could also help save the trees etc

Recycle!

Recycle! Become greener!

Recycle In Stores

It concerns me that we do not have recycle bins in our stores. In Seattle, and in most large cities the opportunity to help the environment by recycling is readily available in our homes and many business. I would like to see Starbucks stores embrace this as well by providing Glass, plastice and compost waste in containers in all stores.

Recycle the Waste in the Back of Your Stores

I don’t think Starbucks has shown a real connection between environmental health and human health. Here is why: My local Starbucks produces a tremendous amount of garbage everyday and nearly none of it is recycled. Nearly all the store waste is thrown out and put in the garbage and taken to the landfill. Recycle the waste in the back end of ALL your stores. It goes beyond the polish of the front end and sales. Make it a real effort to connect environmental health and human health. Thank you.

Reusable Cups

I use my Starbucks reusable travel mug almost every time I order and this is what I often see:

- 99% of the time I don’t get the mug discount,

- some baristas have no real clue what to do with it,

- they stick a disposable cup inside it to take down the order and then throw the disposable cup away (I’ve seen stickers but they seem to be out of them a lot).

We need more people to use the mugs and reduce the number of disposable cups used. Push the sale of them (make them cheaper – why not just $5?) and then train staff on how to handle the cups!

Locally sourced (organic) baked goods

Offer locally sourced (organic or not) high quality baked goods similar to some of the baked goods Whole Foods offers, instead of the nationally consistent scones, cookies, pastries, cakes, and breads offered now. This sacrifices some of the national consistency now in place (though there is some variance already) but brings better quality, better tasting food to Starbucks, supports the local community, and elevates Starbucks above other coffee outlets (national outlets now also serving coffee) by cranking up the quality level and local community/local business tie ins. As a result, Starbucks will feel more like a local coffee store again rather than some big national chain.

Biodegradable drink and food containers – Yeah!

Replace plastic containers for cold drinks, straws, salads etc. with those made of biodegradable polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA). These are readily available and currently in use by forward-thinking entities like Paul Newman’s “Newman’s Own” products.

Fair Trade Coffee

I think that Starbucks should switch to only selling and brewing coffee, lattes … with only fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee costs the consumer no more than regular coffee and still gives the coffee grower a fair price for their coffee. In return these coffee growers use organic means to grow their coffee making it environmentally friendly. That is why I would like to see Starbucks switch to only selling fair trade coffee.

Real Fruit Smoothies

real fruit smoothies

Porcelain Cups

When I first started going to Starbucks, they used to ask here or to go, and if “here” you’d get a porcelain mug of various sizes. Would that be cheaper than buying all those paper cups. Too much washing dishes?

Corporate Social Responsibility at Starbucks

I’ve seen Starbucks come a long way. Since 1999, when it was assailed by numerous activist groups upset with the company’s fair-trade policies, labor relations, and environmental impact during the WTO talks in Seattle, Starbucks has evolved with a commendable corporate social responsibility program.

The mission of Starbucks’ CSR program is to work daily with partners (employees), suppliers and farmers to help create a more sustainable approach to high-quality coffee production, to help build stronger local communities, to minimize their environmental footprint and to be responsive to customers health and wellness needs.

In 2005, Starbucks received The World Environment Center’s 21st Annual Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development, where it was recognized for its leadership in sustainable development within the specialty coffee industry.

In particular, WEC commends the company’s development of Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, a set of environmentally, socially and economically responsible coffee buying guidelines created in conjunction with Conservation International that are designed to contribute positively to the livelihoods of coffee farmers while placing an emphasis on environmental conservation and supply chain transparency.

According to Calvert Funds’ December 2007 edition of Socially Responsible Investing News, in “Calvert’s view, Starbucks Corp. remains an industry leader with significant and progressive programs on renewable energy and the environment as well as workplace diversity and safety.”

While many love to hate Starbucks, I would point out that, over the past decade, Starbucks has proved to be more socially responsible than many other multinational corporations of equal reach and caliber. My Starbucks Idea is simply another way in which the company has demonstrated a willingness to address public opinion, even if its primary motivation is maintaining competitive advantage.

The power of social media for social innovation is evident. If consumers are vocal enough about Starbucks’ environmental impact, Starbucks Ideas may indeed be the catalyst to a Greener, more earth-friendly Starbucks.

[tags]starbucks, starbucks ideas, web 2.0, salesforce.com, corporate social responsibility, csr, social innovation, social media, social networking, green business, environmental sustainability, lorna li[/tags]

I’m Back!

lorna li — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:37:52 +0000

I haven’t blogged for a long, long while,’coz life got real hectic for me at the start of the year. For one, I changed jobs. I have been hired by Salesforce.com to help them with search optimization of their content, social media marketing, building social networks, and scoping out new technologies for acquisition.

After that was all squared away, I took off to Honduras for a couple of weeks, where I spent one week doing a raw food, eco-yoga retreat in the rainforest just outside of La Ceiba. Every morning, I practiced Mysore-style Ashtanga yoga. In the afternoons, I went hiking. I did a lot of skinny dipping in waterfalls (not featured)

After a week of living a yogic lifestyle, eating only raw fruits and vegetables, I ended my retreat with a yummy meal of coconut shrimp & rice, apple pie, and an Irish coffee at the jungle eco-lodge up the road. Then it was off to Roatan for a week of scuba diving.Â There I balanced out my raw food regimen with the shrimp, king crab and lobster diet.

The highlight of my stay on Roatan island was a swim with a group of ocean-faring bottle-nose dolphins intent on out-swimming our dive boat, the Bad Boy.

Now I’m back in S.F., 5 shades darker, a lot more relaxed, ready to begin the rat race again!

No related posts.

We Won’t Be Doing Much Business On A Dead Planet

lorna li — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:03:29 +0000

by Christophe Poizat

This article was submitted to me by Christophe Poizat, the founder of the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs, who, using the social web and guerrilla marketing tactics, has single-handedly created the word’s largest Web 2.0 network of social entrepreneurs.

We Won’t Be Doing Much Business On A Dead Planet

It is a sad but true fact: we won’t be doing much business on a dead planet. The pristine beauty of our planet is at risk of being destroyed. What has taken hundreds of millions of years to elaborate could be forever gone within a few decades because of the negative impact of the human species has on planet Earth.

Because we have been cumulatively oblivious in responding appropriately to the harsh impact our way of living has had on our environments, we now find ourselves in the middle of a crisis where our survival is at stake. Never before has the planet been in greater danger. Never before has an immediate remediation been so critically needed and so vital for our future.

All the global issues we are facing must be immediately and collectively addressed. Even if it costs a few points of economic growth, we ought to find new ways of producing goods, new ways of consuming goods, new ways of conceiving and conducting our business activities and new ways of recycling waste in larger quantities. We must act together, as one family! If we don’t act now, we will soon face the risk of extinction. It is not being pessimistic, it is simply being realistic.

Fortunately, there has been a shift of consciousness in the last few years and many people now realize something must be done to urgently address all the global issues we are facing. We know we must eliminate extreme poverty. We know we must provide education on a larger scale. We know we must use natural resources more wisely. We know we must reduce our carbon footprint. We know we must work together in our everyday lives toward building a more sustainable model. We must act on the largest possible scale and in the shortest amount of time for maximum efficiency.

Today is the day! We must act now!

The world is in dire need of a new paradigm to bring more happiness to the largest possible number of people. We need to find and make more peace within ourselves before the world will be at peace. We must stop admiring values that are vacuous and people that propound and profit from them. Enough of those false values that lead to the delusion and destruction of entire generations. We must restore a community of shared values.

We don’t need to invent anything, only rediscover and rejuvenate what assured the survival of our ancestors, what provided a true, shared joy. We must evolve spiritually. We can’t afford to stagnate at this stage of the evolutionary process much longer. Sainthood for a handful of people is not what we are after. What we are after is a global shift of consciousness. It will happen when more people awaken and unite their hearts and spirits.

It will happen when people regardless of creed, color, religion walk hand-in-hand knowing that we are one family – the human family. It will happen when more people realize that when something negative happens on the planet or to a community or in our daily life we all suffer from the consequences. It will happen when we consciously reconnect with the core of our human nature and exercise our birth rights which makes us co-creators of our destiny.

191 countries, members of the United Nations, signed the UN Millennium Resolution in 2002 which aims to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. However, there is still an incredible amount of money spent on war around the world. Today is the time to transcend our differences and unite our energies to solve our many challenging issues.

Does it really matter to become the number one company in any given market at the expense of our common wealth and the well-being of the world?

Every day, more than 1,000 children die because they didn’t get a 15-cent measles vaccine. Almost 3 billion people around the world live on less than $2 per day. This is not acceptable. Have we really tried our very best? Governments play their myopic power games while millions of people die of malnutrition, curable diseases, lack of water and the consequences of greed, avarice and ignorance.

The solutions will not come and have not come from governments alone (if at all). The solutions will come from entrepreneurs – social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change that is sustainable and for the highest good of humanity. (adapted from Wikipediaâ€™s definition).

Social entrepreneurs have the collective power to make a real difference in today’s world and can have a decisive impact for generations to come. Social entrepreneurs have the collective responsibility to take on – one by one – all the challenges humanity faces.

When the performance of traditional entrepreneurs is measured in terms of profitability, the performance of social entrepreneurs is measured in terms of the positive impact they have on society. Social entrepreneurs measure their success in terms of the contribution made toward resolving all the global issues currently threatening the planet and humanity as a whole – one by one.

It is imperative to encourage social entrepreneurship and to inspire younger generations by instilling the spirit of social entrepreneurship worldwide. As long as we keep measuring our progress in terms of financial and geographic profitability alone, we will continue to miss our essential imperatives. We will continue to fail collectively with consequences that are seriously threatening the survival of our planet and the future of humanity.

Social Entrepreneurship can change the world and can provide a better world for generations to come. Today is the day! We are one – one family, the human family. Now is the time to join in and do good works. Not convinced? Always remember, we won’t be doing much business on a dead planet.

About Christophe Poizat

Christophe Poizat is a professional dreamer, a social entrepreneur, guerrilla marketer, mentor, business coach, speaker, author with 20+ years of international consulting experience who has lived on four continents; for more details, visit: http://christophepoizat.com

Christophe is also the founder and administrator of the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs, a global Web 2.0 community for Social Entrepreneurs to connect, share, collaborate and promote social entrepreneurship worldwide. For more details, visit: http://inse.collectivex.com

[tags]christophe poizat, international network for social entrepreneurs, inse, social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, sustainability, web 2.0[/tags]

Do Tech Companies Care About Global Warming?

lorna li — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:29:02 +0000

In California we do.

As geeks and new tech enthusiasts, we depend on computer infrastructure and use a lot of greenhouse gas-emitting electricity to grok our world. Deep down inside, we hope the same breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation that make us Twitter with excitement can also help us restore our balance with Nature.

In and around the SF Bay Area, Internet companies are tackling climate change with what they know best – technology innovation and the crowdsourcing powers of the social web.

Google is probably the company with the most ambitious global warming corporate action plan on Earth. Fortunately, it has the budget to do so. Google has long indicated a commitment to addressing climate change, from both the Foundation perspective and from the standpoint of business operations. Google’s commitment to lightening its ecological footprint can result in some pretty nice employee perks such as free, mostly organic food for its 10,000 employees, and utensils made out of biodegradable corn-based plastic that can be turned into dirt in its very own composting facilities.

Google currently partially powers their huge data centers with solar power, installing 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their headquarters in Mountain View. The search engine not only invests in renewable energy and greener technologies, it has made a commitment to reducing its behemoth carbon footprint to zero. That’s a lot of clicks to make carbon neutral.

Not to be outdone, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Green an excellent Green information portal that aggregates top climate change and environmental news, in addition to a section dedicated to Y! Answers about the Environment. Other Yahoo! Green sections include Global Warming, tips on how to live a Green Lifestyle, a Carbon Footprint Calculator, a Green Gift Guide, and a section where users can pledge to Take Action. Two search engines, two different approaches to being Green. As Michael Arrington pondered, Google vs. Yahoo, who cares most about the environment?

Green websites are hot, with TreeHugger snapped up by the Discovery Channel, and Zaadz, a LOHAS social networking site, purchased by Gaiam earlier this year. Even TechCrunch’s arch-rival, GigaOm launched Earth2Tech this year, a site devoted to the business of clean technologies, its innovations and everything else.

WiserEarth, a nonprofit venture launched by Paul Hawken, founder of the Natural Capital Institute, is compelling community directory and networking forum created on a structured wiki platform. The site maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more.

Whether for profit or nonprofit, California clearly likes to fight global warming with technology. The state has become the nation’s biggest hub for green tech companies, attracting hundreds of $ millions in investment. In 2006, California’s green tech businesses soaked up $884 million, 36 percent of all the money venture capitalists spent on the industry within the United States.

For decades, California has led the nation with its clean and green policies. But population growth and increasing energy consumption, coupled with aggressive greenhouse-gas reduction laws mean the next stage of environmental progress will need to be stronger, faster and more innovative than in the past.

Can a handful of pioneering, VC-funded, bleeding-edge tech companies come up with solutions that will help turn the tide of global warming? I hope so.

[tags]google, yahoo green, earth2tech, treehugger, zaadz, gaiam, green tech, california green tech, greentech, wiser earth, paul hawken, natural capital institute[/tags]