One of my business hats is business development for Earth.org.
We've launched a new initiative with carbonfund.org called Sponsor & Plant... Here's a short deck with the info... It's an early draft so not 100% pretty nor fully revealing in the detail... As they say though... Release often, release early ;)
If you or any of your network are interested to know more then please get in touch, thanks
Although world leaders fail to reach a binding climate agreement this year in Copenhagen, there is still hope and action at the grassroots level. Expert web hosting service, Site5, is doing their part. Site5 has partnered with mokugift to plant a tree for every new hosting account.
“Tree-planting with new accounts is a natural extension of Site5’s existing environmental philosophy. Site5’s business was designed around a remote workforce which is the greenest possible option for a company. None of Site5’s employees drive to work. Virtually all of Site5’s operations is waste free, excluding the last few vendors and partners that haven’t gone paperless yet.” explained Ben Welch-Bolen, CEO of Site5.
The vast majority of the impact Site5 has on the environment is through the electricity our servers and related equipment use. Luckily for Site5, with today's energy prices, being green and being cost effective can go hand in hand. Site5 is constantly working to reduce costs and environmental impact by leveraging new technologies to lower power consumption, using natural DC cooling technology, and using virtualization software to scale efficiently.
Site5 takes a pragmatic approach of eliminating impact where it can and working with environmental organizations such as Mokugift to counter impact areas that are unavoidable.
Mokugift’s enables progressive, fast-moving companies, like Site5, to plant a real tree as a gift for customers at $1 apiece. Mokugift trees are planted by farmers practicing environmentally sustainable forestry and agricultural methods in tropical zones in Central America, Africa and Asia. The plantings not only restock, with native trees, existing forests that have been depleted, but also contribute to more diverse, productive and economically sustainable land-use systems.
An official partner of UNEP, mokugift not only empowers corporations and individuals to participate in the Billion Tree Campaign, it also provides the tools to inspire others to participate. Tree planting is an easy first step towards more environmentally responsible choices, and Mokugift enables every company and individual concerned about climate change to make a difference and inspire others to do likewise. It is grass roots action like Site5’s environmental programs that will show world leaders that the citizens and corporate citizens of our planet demand an environmentally sustainable future.
About Site5
Site5, founded in 1999, provides quality web hosting to individuals, small businesses, and enterprise clients. Our customer service team is 100% in house and we provide guarantees on our uptime and quality of support. Our current hosting philosophy is based on guaranteed performance. While other hosts may try to cram as many accounts as possible on shared servers, we have used our years of experience and the technical analysis performed by our technical gurus to determine exactly how many accounts we should be putting on any given server. In addition, we are continually upgrading our hardware platforms to be among the best in the industry.
We are so confident you will love our web hosting and customer service that we offer a free 30 day trial. Just use the coupon code "FREETRIAL" to try us today!
About UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign
Launched in November 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the objective of encouraging the planting of at least one billion trees worldwide each year, “Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign” is now recognized as one of the UN’s most successful environmental campaigns. To date, UNEP has tracked the planting of more than three billion trees in 166 countries. Now in its second stage, the campaign, which stresses the power of partnerships, has set a new goal of seven billion trees planted before the end of 2009—roughly one tree for every living person on the planet. Every tree counts, and UNEP counts every tree.
For more information on the UNEP’s billion tree campaign, please visit http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/
About mokugift
A social venture focused on customer experience and tangible, positive benefit to the environment and society, Mokugift makes it easy and rewarding to plant trees, for $1 apiece, through online “gifting.” Giving a mokugift tree is similar to sending an e-card, and recipients can proudly display their trees online at Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo!, and 50 other popular Web sites.
An official partner of the United Nations Environment Programme's Billion Tree Campaign, mokugift collaborates with award-winning nonprofit agroforestry organizations such as Trees For The Future and Sustainable Harvest International to plant trees in twelve countries: Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Burundi, Senegal, Zambia, India, the Philippines and Haiti. Using environmentally sustainable methods, farmers in these countries plant mokugift trees to restock existing forests and enable more diverse, productive and economically sustainable land-use systems.
For more information on mokugift, please visit http://www.mokugift.com
Corporate Social Responsible News: GE Partners with China; BOS College Center for Corporate Citizenship on Web Advice
We are at an interesting crossroads in consumer culture. Where luxury purchases used to be the ultimate sign of affluence or, at least, aspiring affluence, more consumers now may be driven to make conspicuously conscious purchases. According to research co-authored by Aronte Bennett and mentioned in her MediaPost article, corporate social responsibility (CSR) seems to be becoming a strong motivator influencing consumers today – even in these bad economic times. As she put it:
In a variety of experiments, our research found that consumers like CSR-associated products for two distinct reasons.
First, the fact that these products send out highly visible, social signals to their friends, family and co-workers regarding their kindness and charitable nature.
Second, they like the more private, self-signaling potential associated with the purchases of these products, even when a strong public social signal is absent to others.
These consumers like the visibility of what they are doing and they also gain in self-regard. This is sounding familiar, like a whole other market – luxury.
continue reading.
Andrea Learned is a marketing dot-connector with a focus on gender and a longterm view on coming trends. Andrea's broad, colorful commentary can be found regularly on her blog, Learned on Women.
via guardian.co.ukEXCERPT:
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientist at the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs, said a decade of inaction on climate change meant it was now virtually impossible to limit global temperature rise to 2C. He said the delay meant the world would now do well to stabilise warming between 3C and 4C.
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I'm really excited that our insights paper on China's position on climate change is now out!Thanks to all the people who contributed time and valuable insights to this project, and furthered our understanding of this complex and critical issue.
China’s position on climate change has been widely debated within the international community in the lead-up to COP15. Much of this debate is often based on misinterpretations of the domestic drivers are behind this issue. With any significant outcome from COP15 remaining far from certain, what are the issues and concerns that underpin China’s position on climate change, and consequently its negotiating stance in December?
In this insights paper, we explore the whys and wherefores behind China’s perceptions of climate change, and what it believes China’s role should be in climate change action. Please feel free to share with those who may be interested, especially your clients who would like to engage China on climate change and sustainability issues.
I hope that you find it interesting and (as always) @PerrineB and myself would love to hear your comments and thoughts?
Adam Werbach, Global CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi S., talks about integrating sustainability into business practice
