Sappi's grants program helps realize print design projects that advance the social good
(3BL Media/Justmeans) -- Better design, better world. It’s a simple concept, with infinite variety.Â
Consider "Citizen Forester," a workshop and collateral designed by Gwen O’Brien of design studio Plenty that supports the work of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks toward increasing community engagement around parks and public spaces in Grand Rapids...
With more companies and communities diverting waste from landfills, incinerators and waterways, could a zero-waste planet be possible someday?
(3BL Media/Justmeans) -- Last weekend, the New York City Department of Sanitation held an indoor composting workshop to teach residents how to turn their kitchen scraps into rich organic fertilizer while reducing their carbon footprints, with the help of worms. (Worm bins were for sale for $44. Kids in particular were keen on the idea.)
In 1993, the year that New York City launched the NYC Compost Project to provide compost education and outreach, the idea of "zero waste" wasn't...
What happens when 800 social innovators get together to share ideas?
I recently attended the 2013 Social Innovation Summit, a two-day conference held in New York at JPMorgan and the General Assembly of the United Nations. This biannual conference launched in 2010 by Landmark Ventures, a New York-based strategic and financial advisory firm, the summit brings together venture capitalists, social entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 executives,...
"Their suffering is intense, widespread, expanding, systematic and socially sanctioned. And the victims are unable to organize in defence of their own interests." -- Henry Spira, founder, Animal Rights International
Imagine being strapped to an airplane seat for your entire life. That's how renowned animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, Ph.D., a doctor of animal science and professor at Colorado State University, describes a breeding pig's experience on a factory farm. These poor...
No longer the "sick man of Asia," the Philippines proved to be economically resilient through the global financial crisis, emerging as a good place to do business. But will increased foreign direct investment inflows support the nation's sustainable development goals?
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, after it was forced into semi-colonial status through a series of unequal treaties negotiated by the Great Powers, China was known as "the sick man of Asia."
In more recent times, however, that...
From heating buildings to consuming water to keeping supply chains running, businesses are extremely resource intensive. But with so many different metrics to measure the various resources, making decisions to benefit both the environment and the bottom line ends up being well-intentioned guesswork. Physicist and entrepreneur Dr. Ory Zik wants to change all that with his latest venture, Energy Points. By analyzing big data and putting it through rigorous mathematical...
Now anyone in the world with an Internet connection and $25 can help fund loans to support small business entrepreneurs in America's capital
When you think about Washington, DC, you probably think about the things that make it America's seat of power: The Capitol Building, the Pentagon, the White House. But part of what keeps the city running are the some 60,000 small businesses that help grow the fourth-largest metropolitan economy in the US.{1}{2} And while the federal government accounts for around 29 percent of the capital's...
Cigarettes are a multi-billion-dollar business that kills people and the planet. Lawmakers and socially responsible investors are taking a stand
As a former smoker, I am sometimes envious when I watch people enjoying a long drag after a delicious meal. For the initiated, it is a well-known and singular delight. But I don't envy the health risk or the ever-increasing price of a pack of cigarettes. The most recent increase in New York, where I live, came in 2010, when the state raised the cigarette tax by $1.60 to $4.35, the highest in any state....
America's wind energy sector is breathing a sigh of relief after the on-again, off-again Production Tax Credit was extended. But the nation still lacks a long-term renewable energy policy
Like many other renewable energy advocates over the past few years, I sent letters to my senators urging them to support the extension of the renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), one of the primary finance policy vehicles for the wind energy industry. So I was relieved when the PTC was given a one-year extension at the last minute as...
