Logo Design Competition for the UN Documentary Film Festival

Call for Entries:

Design the official logo for “Stories from the Field: The United Nations Documentary Film Festival,” a film festival to showcase documentaries which reflect one or more of the points contained in the Millennium Development Goals.

Prize: $5000

Deadline: November 26, 2007

Click here for more information.

Men Produce More Carbon Emissions Than Women

Men's lifestyles create more carbon emissions and contribute more to climate change than women's lifestlyes. This is the conclusion of a study presented at the UN Commission for Sustainable Development in May 2007. The study, "A study on gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable development," was conducted by Gerd Johnsson-Latham.

"The purpose of the study is to bring out often-neglected facts concerning dissimilarities in the lifestyles and consumption patterns of women and men, and thus in their environmental impact, by describing how men, primarily through their greater mobility and more extensive travel, account for more carbon dioxide (COB2B) emissions than women, in both rich and poor countries. The study points to how a changed behavior among men – notably rich men who are decision-makers - can be crucial in addressing climate change and in enhancing the opportunities of all human beings to enjoy sustainable development."

You can read the full paper here.

Upcoming Webinars on Sustainability & Related Topics

Next week will be a busy one for online webinars on sustainabililty and related topics. Here are webinars offered by a variety of companies next week (a full list is maintained on our site):

• How to Achieve the Highest Levels of LEED Certification (November 13)
• Decision Making Using Life Cycle Analysis (November 13)
• Sustainability Consulting 101 (November 14)
• Emerging Trends in Green Building Products (November 14)
• Green Purchasing (November 15)
• Climate Change and Health Care (November 16)

Study Says Stock Prices Rise and Fall with Protest Coverage

From the Columbia Journalism Review: Media coverage of protests against publicly traded corporations affects stock prices. The more coverage, the more the price declines. This is the conclusion of two sociologists, anyway, in a paper to appear in the upcoming issue of Administrative Science Quarterly.

The paper, titled “Social Movements as Extra-institutional Entrepreneurs: The Effect of Protests on Stock Price Returns,” examines New York Times coverage of protests against public corporations, from 1962 to 1990. Co-authors Brayden G. King, of Brigham Young University, and Sarah A. Soule, of Cornell University, observed that stories on protests caused a stock price to fall between 0.4 and 1.0 percent, on average. Longer stories resulted in greater declines. Most of the drop happened the day of the protest and the day after it.

The size of the protest appeared not to matter. Neither did the use of boycotts. “What really matters,” King said in a telephone interview, “is that you’re able to gain media coverage.”

Read the full story here.

Hollywood Goes Green

"A NEW GENERATION OF HOLLYWOOD: PROMOTING CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND EARTH-FRIENDLY WORK AND LIFESTYLE CHOICES."

The entertainment industry is continuing the move toward sustainable business practices. The Hollywood Goes Green conference will be held December 11 & 12 in Hollywood, CA. Keynote speakers include Ed Bagley, Jr. (Living With Ed), Kevin Wall (Live Earth), Lauren Zalaznick (NBC Universal Green Council), and others as well as speakers from MTV, U.S. Green Building Council, Warner Music, Capitol Music, and more.

"Today, green is becoming a way of life within global entertainment business operations with industry icons Richard Branson and Rupert Murdoch committing their vast empires to the cause." According to the conference brochure, this is "the only summit on how the entertainment industry can implement corporate environmental strategies, make eco-sensitive choices, stay competitive... and set the green standard for companies everywhere."

The conference is hosted by iHollywood, which is organizing other related conferences:
January 5, Las Vegas, Tech Goes Green Breakfast
March 3-4, San Jose, Business Goes Green
April 2008, NYC, Business Goes Green
June 2008, Las Vegas, Tech Goes Green

Prahalad Named World's Most Influential Management Guru

CK Prahalad has been named the world's most influential living management guru. The Times Online has published The Thinkers 50, their biennial poll of the world's top 50 business thinkers. Prahalad is most recently known (along with Stuart Hart) for co-developing base of the pyramid strategies in their seminal 2002 article and for his best-selling book on the topic.

Of note on this year's list:

• Bill Gates is #2 on the list
• Alan Greenspan is #3 on the list
• Michael Porter, strategist, dropped to #4
• strategists are on the rise, capturing ten of the top 50 slots and accounting for four of the top ten
• there is also a rise of Indian thinkers
• Al Gore is #41 on the list
• there are only three women in the top 50, down from four last time

You can read the article here and see the list here.

Whole Foods Restricts Top Officials' Online Activities

According to the Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods Market Inc.'s board amended the company's code of business conduct last week to sharply restrict online activities by the grocer's officials. This was done in response to Founder & CEO, John Mackey's, online postings (under the psuedonym Rahodeb) about competitor and merger target Wild Oats (read the CNNMoney story).

The new code bars top executives and directors from posting messages about Whole Foods, its competitors or vendors on Internet forums that aren't sponsored by the natural-foods chain.

Studies Offer Insight Into Conscious Consumers' Purchases & Investments

Two studies have recently been released that may be of interest to readers: the "BBMG Conscious Consumer Report" (a national survey on purchasing behavior and social values) and "Carbon Beta© and Equity Performance: Moving From Disclosure to Performance" (a study that evaluates the relationship between a companies' climate change plan and their financial performance).

Among the key findings of the BBMG Conscious Consumer Report (by BBMG):

• Health and Safety is Most Important. Consumers’ most important issues are their personal health and safety, such as safe drinking water (90%), clean air (86%) and finding cures for diseases like cancer, AIDS and Alzheimers (84%). By comparison, only 63% describe global warming as the most or a very important issue.
• Greater than Green. Americans readily self-identify as “conscious consumers” (88% well, 37% very well), “socially responsible” (88% well, 39%very well) and “environmentally-friendly” (86% well, 34% very well). Fewer respondents self-identify as “green” (65% well, 18% very well), which is viewed as more exclusive.
• Beyond Convenience. When making purchases, convenience (34% very important) has been edged out by more socially relevant attributes: where a product is made (44% very important), how energy efficient it is (41% very important) and its health benefits (36% very important).
• Most Socially Responsible Companies? Whole Foods Market (22%) tops the list of the survey’s most socially responsible companies, followed byNewman’s Own (19%), Wal-Mart (18%), Burt’s Bees (17%) and General Electric, Johnson & Johnson and Ben & Jerry’s (all 16%).

Another interesting report just released is "Carbon Beta© and Equity Performance: Moving From Disclosure to Performance" (by Innovest).

Among the study’s key findings:

• Companies’ risk exposures to climate change varies widely, both between and even within different industry sectors and geographic regions
• Companies with the most robust risk management architecture and ability to seize competitive opportunities on the upside have tended to out-perform their same-sector peers financially over the past three years
• The “Carbon Beta© premium” for leading companies appears to be growing larger over time, as regulatory regimes tighten around the world
• Non-verified, company-provided information provides an extremely poor and limited basis for actual investment decisions. More in-depth company research is clearly required

DOE Seeks Entrepreneurs to Help Commercialize Clean Tech

The Department of Energy has announced their Entrepreneur in Residence program to work in one of three National Laboratories side-by-side with their researchers with the intent to help commercialize energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

"Selected entrepreneurs would conduct technology assessments, evaluate market opportunities, formulate preliminary business cases, and propose business structures for start-up enterprises, as well as recommend policy and business practice modifications to the National Laboratories to refine their approaches to moving technology into the commercial sector."

Deadline for applications is December 21, 2007.

Target Corp. to Further Reduce PVC Usage

According to the Wall Street Journal, Target Corporation has announced they will further reduce PVC usage in packaging and products. "PVC is made with vinyl chloride, which the Environmental Protection Agency has classified as a human carcinogen." The company's plan is "to identify PVC alternatives, efforts to make the company's place mat and table linen categories nearly phthalate-free by spring, and efforts to find PVC alternatives in most toy categories for fall 2008. The company said all children's lunch boxes and utensils in Target's own brands are now PVC-free."

For more information on PVC, check out this site by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice and the "Sam Suds" animated video.

November 10: Green Gatherings for Obama

This Saturday, November 10th, "supporters across the country will host Green Gatherings for Obama. The goal of the events will be to sign up new supporters while participating in an environmentally focused activity."

Hillary Clinton Releases Energy & Climate Plan

Hillary Clinton has released her plan to address the energy and climate crisis. Here is the Grist commentary: "It is thoughtful, comprehensive, and though disappointingly conventional in a few areas, inspiringly bold in others. With the release of Clinton's plan, all three Democratic frontrunners for the presidency now have visionary, far-reaching energy plans that would fundamentally reorient the country away from carbon-intensive energy and toward energy efficiency and renewables. It is difficult to think of a another policy issue on which the ground has shifted so far, so fast, and difficult to think of another policy issue on which the gulf between the two political parties is so vast and striking." Read the full review here.

In a previous post, I mentioned the list compiled by League of Conservation Voters on the "green" position of each of the presidential hopefuls. Grist has also published their own review of each of the candidates.

EDUN - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

"EDUN is a socially conscious company launched by Ali Hewson and Bono with New York clothing designer Rogan Gregory. Our mission is to create beautiful clothing while fostering sustainable employment in developing areas of the world. EDUN is at the forefront of ethical fashion and organic clothing."

"In an effort to create a truly sustainable global community, EDUN has established the Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI). The Initiative will work towards improving the livelihoods of communities in Africa by promoting greater investment in sustainable and ethical production of conservation-friendly agricultural products. CCI will focus in particular on cotton grown organically or through methods that are part of a transition from conventional to organic production. Another focus of CCI is to incorporate sustainable conservation agricultural practices and the protection of wildlife. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) currently works on sustainable conservation farming with farmers in Madagascar, Uganda and Zambia."

In addition to the EDUN retail collection, "edun LIVE is a B2B solution for anyone who wants ethically produced t-shirt blanks. Launched by Ali Hewson and Bono, our mission is to drive sustainable employment in sub-Saharan Africa through high-volume sales of blank t-shirts." As part of edun LIVE, they have created edun LIVE on campus, a partnership with Miami University of Ohio, to sell t-shirt blanks to campus organizations with the goal to eventually expand to additional campuses.

EDUN and edun LIVE products are currently produced in India, Peru, Tunisia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar. They work with Verite for third-party monitoring and reporting of socially responsible business practices.

Use One Paper Towel - Help Reduce Waste Up To 80%

Did you think you needed a lesson on how to dry your hands? Well, CoolPeopleCare.org thinks you do! Did you know most people use 3-5 paper towels when drying their hands? If each of us could use just ONE paper towel to dry our hands, we could reduce waste by up to 80%. One towel...a better idea than one square.

Professionalizing the Sustainability Field

The field of sustainability is still in its infancy, it is growing rapidly, and it is still highly fragmented. Recognizing this, some folks are trying to bring a sense of community, professionalism, and standardization to the field. One group is the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, which is attempting to create a professional society for sustainability professionals, and another is the Balaton Group. Also, Alan AtKisson is working on a professional code of ethics and seeks your feedback on A DRAFT Professional Code of Ethics for Sustainability Professionals.