Archive for April, 2010
Elon Musk of Tesla: one of the Time 100
Elon Musk makes the Time 100. Gives me pride to be a Penn alum.
America is back!
Amazingly, I found some intelligent reading at the gym yesterday. Not that I’m too good for People magazine, mind you. Still, this was a rare find — Newsweek. It was the April 19 issue with the cover story by Daniel Gross on America as “The Comeback Country.”
I was glad for the shot of optimism, considering the divisions playing out in Washington and the media. “Bleak is the new black,” as Gross put it. (I really thought that should have been a pull-out quote.) Anyway, there’s terrific historical context in this article and scholarly input on America’s knack for coming back. In particular, there is talk of the game-changing opportunities in the automotive industry. “The rollout of electric and plug-in hybrids also has the potential to create its own ecosystem—dealers, charging stations, accessories, software applications,” Gross writes. He then quotes Henrik Fisker, who says: “The development of this industry will influence how we make electricity in this country.”
Check out the story here. It’s well worth reading.
Looking back on Friday… the Nature Conservancy and Honest Tea
I just had to share some pics from the Georgia chapter of the Nature Conservancy’s fund raiser here. I’m not even going to refer to the event’s actual name as it makes me feel impolite. In any case, it was a beautiful party.
The tablecloths alone were spectacular in hues as rich as nature itself.
The stunning scene at the annual fund raiser for the Georgia chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
And don’t even get me started on those pralines. If the party only offered pralines and nothing else — if, literally, everyone showed up to stand around the praline-making station, there would have been enough joy to go around.
Check it out:
Magic in the making: the praline station at the Nature Conservancy party.
I volunteered there with my friend, Abi, an eco-leader with Park Pride, who earlier in the day got to hear Seth Goldman, president and “TeaEO” of Honest Tea deliver the keynote address at EarthShare of Georgia’s Earth Day 2010 Leadership Breakfast at the Georgia Aquarium. I hear Goldman gave a terrific talk, with one of the highlights a video challenging the “Honest Tea” of Wall Street that coincided with President Obama’s visit there.
The brilliant campaign featured a stand with Honest Teas for sale on the honor system. An unmanned jug for collecting $1 bills was surrounded by signs with such messages as: “Who says there’s no Honest Tea on Wall St.?”
The verdict: 89 percent Honesty on Wall Street. But check out the video on YouTube:
Business and Civil Society: A Mixed Marriage
The Times has a story today on the commodification of Earth Day, how companies are exploiting the marketing potential of the day to the chagrin of some of the movement’s founders.
Here’s the article: http://tinyurl.com/2d66xx5
Well, I say the purists are missing the forests for the trees. Hey, it’s Earth day — the cliche works. In other words, everyone can capitalize on the renewed interest in things green to restore both environmental and economic health. It’s really a flaw in the thinking of some crusaders that money sullies the cause. Yes, it’s true, that money means power, and those who hold the pursestrings can dictate the course of action. But life is all about negotiation. Nothing is 100 percent. We work with what we have!
This morning, I heard a talk by Michael Edwards, a writer who argues against the trend of “social entrepreneurship” — the idea of using business practices to further the goals of social change espoused by the nonprofit sector. Well, Edwards feels that you can’t apply widgets and streamlined efficiencies to the messy world of nonprofit work, which relies on flexibility. He cited Dr. King’s civil rights movement as an example. I think the theory has quite a few holes, not least of which is the comparison of nonprofits to corporate culture as opposed to that of startups, which seems like a better comparison.
But I can’t help but feel that Edwards was coming from a similar perspective. This all-or-nothing, no-compromise framework, which is just, forgive me, ridiculous and unrealistic. You take a bit of the “social enterprise” ideas where they work and mix them with traditional nonprofit management where that works, and tada!
Dr. King himself would remind us of the transformative power in diversity.
Citizen Studio mentioned in PINK Magazine!
Our client, Citizen Studio, was featured in today’s Little Pink Book, a sort of “Daily Candy” of fabulous tips for the working woman with a circulation upwards of 700,000 people across North America.
Today’s “LPB” focused on Earth Day, of course, and linked to a Q&A on sustainable marketing strategies with Linda Doherty, partner of Citizen Studio and Sustainability Chair of the Atlanta chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts.
We feel honored to represent Citizen Studio, an enormous local talent as driven to craft good design as green design and guided by the so-called “triple bottom line” of people, planet and profit.
Here’s a link to the full article:
And while we’re at it, check out the gorgeous Earth Day gift we received today from Citizen Studio: Green Roses! Chartreuse to be exact — sustainably grown and beautifully packaged from Organic Style.
Eco-friendly roses! Our Earth Day gift from Citizen Studio.
