The Good Times

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-12-31T14:51:00.004+01:00

The Good Times wishes you optimism and more positive news in 2012!

gelukkige nuwejaar / voorspoedige nuwejaar / ilufio ètussé / Gëzuar vitin e ri / e glëckliches nëies / güets nëies johr / عام سعيد (aam saiid) / sana saiida / shnorhavor nor tari / amokitanone / yeni iliniz mubarek / aw ni san'kura / mbuee / urte berri on / З новым годам (Z novym hodam) / subho nababarsho / asgwas amegas / mbembe mbu / bonne année / sretna nova godina / bloavezh mat / bloavez mad / честита нова година (chestita nova godina) / hnit thit ku mingalar pa / sun lin fi lok / kung hé fat tsoi / bon any nou / xin nian kuai le / xin nian hao / pace e salute / sretna nova godina / šťastný nový rok / godt nytår / sale naw tabrik / mbu mwa bwam / gelukkig nieuwjaar / happy new year / feliĉan novan jaron / head uut aastat / eƒé bé dzogbenyui nami / mbembe mbu / gott nýggjár / onnellista uutta vuotta / gelukkig nieuwjaar / lokkich neijier / bon an / feliz aninovo / გილოცავთ ახალ წელს (gilocavt akhal tsels) / ein gutes neues Jahr / prost Neujahr / kali chronia / kali xronia / sal mubarak / nootan varshabhinandan / rogüerohory año nuévo-re / bònn ané / barka da sabuwar shekara / hauoli makahiki hou / שנה טובה (shana tova) / ombura ombe ombua / nav varsh ki subhkamna / nyob zoo xyoo tshiab / boldog új évet / gleðilegt nýtt ár / selamat tahun baru / ath bhliain faoi mhaise / felice anno nuovo / buon anno / sugeng warsa enggal / akemashite omedetô / asseggas ameggaz / hosa varshada shubhaashayagalu / nav reh mubarakh / zhana zhiliniz kutti bolsin / sur sdei chhnam thmei / ngethi cya mwaka mweru / umwaka mwiza / seh heh bok mani bat uh seyo / sala we ya nû pîroz be / sabai di pi mai / felix sit annus novus / laimīgu Jauno gadu / bón ànno nêuvo / bonana / mbula ya sika elamu na tonbeli yo / laimingų Naujųjų Metų / gelükkig nyjaar / e gudd neit Joër / Среќна Нова Година (srekna nova godina) / arahaba tratry ny taona / selamat tahun baru / nava varsha ashamshagal / is-sena t-tajba / kia porotu te ano ou / kia hari te tau hou / navin varshaachya hardik shubbheccha / kaoha nui tenei ehua hou / ose:rase / Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хvргэе (shine jiliin bayariin mend hurgeye) / wênd na kô-d yuum-songo / umyaka omucha omuhle / ngeu' shwi pong mbeo paghe / godt nyttår / bon annada / subha nababarsa / naba barsara hardika abhinandan / naya sar Mubarak / felis anja nobo / nawe kaalmo mobarak sha / سال نو مبارک (sâle no mobârak) / szczęśliwego nowego roku / feliz ano novo / ਨਵੇਂ ਸਾਲ ਦੀਆਂ ਵਧਾਈਆਂ (nave saal deeyan vadhaiyaan) / bun di bun onn / baxtalo nevo bersh / un an nou fericit / la mulţi ani / С Новым Годом (S novim godom) / ia manuia le tausaga fou / nzoni fini ngou / bonu annu nou / bliadhna mhath ur / srećna nova godina / Срећна нова година / mwaha mwema / goredzva rakanaka / nain saal joon wadhayoon / shubha aluth awuruddak weiwa / šťastný nový rok / srečno novo leto / dobir leto / sanad wanagsan / feliz año nuevo / wan bun nyun yari / mwaka mzuri / heri ya mwaka mpya / gott nytt år / es guets Nöis / manigong bagong taon / ia orana i te matahiti api / assugas amegaz / iniya puthandu nalVazhthukkal / yaña yıl belän / నూతన సంవత్శర శుభాకాంక్షలు (nuthana samvathsara subhakankshalu) / สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sawatdii pimaï) / tashi delek / losar tashi delek / sanat farah wa khare / tshidimu tshilenga / itumelele ngwaga o mosha / posa varshada shubashaya / yeni yılınız kutlu olsun / gluk in'n tuk / Vyľ Aren / Щасливого Нового Року / З Новим роком (Z novym rokom) / naya saal mubarik / yangi yilingiz qutlug' bo'lsin / Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới / Cung Chúc Tân Niên / Cung Chúc Tân Xuân / ene boune anéye, ene boune sintéye / blwyddyn newydd dda / bon lanné / dewenati / nyak'omtsha / a gut yohr / unyaka omusha omuhle

MassiveGood

2011-12-28T20:10:00.000+01:00

Check out MassiveGood, and fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and improve maternal and child health. How?

It's "the social network generation’s solution to put a stop to the millions of deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve maternal and child health in the developing world. If social media has revolutionized the way in which we interact, why can’t we harness its power to change the way we think about humanitarian aid? Is it possible to use the reputed “network effect” to raise awareness and increase funding for some of the most pressing global health issues in the 21st century? MASSIVEGOOD does both, by creating a worldwide community based on a simple and easy act—the 'micro-contribution'.”

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY

2011-12-24T16:00:00.004+01:00

Bicycles for Africa

2011-12-21T22:37:00.000+01:00

Got an old bicycle in your garage that you don't know what to do with? Send it to Bern, where it will be restored and shipped to Africa so people living in rural areas can cycle to work. That's what Paolo Richter does. His company, Gump-& Drahtesel hires unemployed individuals to recycle old bicycles for Africa, while helping them get back into the labor force in Switzerland.

Hundreds of jobless people work in Richter's bicycle and wood workshops, where they learn to be mechanics or sales people, and receive professional and personal training to reenter the job market. Over 7,000 repaired bikes are sent to Africa each year. Gump-& Drahtesel also makes lamps, jewellery and decorative items from spare bicycle parts, which are then sold in Bern to support the company's African project, while giving unemployed individuals work experience.

What a great idea: employing people who need work, training them in new skills while providing a product that offers greater mobility to people who need transportation to get to work.

Grocery Audits and Change Clubs

2011-12-18T15:20:00.000+01:00

Here's something worth knowing about. Women out there are actually conducting grocery audits, walking down store aisles scrutinizing the ingredients in food products and translating their findings into actions that provide communities with suggestions on how to be healthier. One idea to help parents in grocery stores identify healthy snacks for children quickly is adding labels next to those items on the shelves.

Groups of women in the United States in "Change Clubs" have been leading campaigns to do such things as analyze the food on shelves, wander through neighborhoods to make out what prevents the locals from walking and exercising more, and discover ways to help people become healthier.

Dr. Miriam Nelson, professor of Nutrition at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is the one who actually started the Change Clubs. Her idea is to use the power of women working together to increase health in communities. With 8 initial Change Club sites in the US, click here to form a Change Club, helping women support change and healthiness in your area.

Logistics Emergency Teams

2011-12-14T14:00:00.001+01:00

Here's a message from the Geneva-based World Economic Forum:

"In case of a major humanitarian disaster, the primary mechanism for coordinating humanitarian assistance is the Cluster system - unique cooperation involving key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners.

The Logistics Emergency Teams (LET) developed by the World Economic Forum and partner companies are the first example of a successful operational partnership between the private sector and the Cluster system. The Logistics Emergency Teams have deployed in support of emergency relief efforts in Mozambique, Philippines, Pakistan, Haiti, Indonesia, Myanmar, Chile, Japan and the Horn of Africa since 2008.

This week LET and the Forum hosted the global meeting of the Logistics Cluster [at Forum Headquarters] in Cologny - bringing together our partner companies with over 50 humanitarian logistics leads from the World Food Programme, World Health Organization, OXFAM, Save the Children, UN Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNICEF, and many others.

This meeting allowed a global sharing of best practices and lessons learned. It is an excellent example of multistakeholder cooperation to assist those in need. We will continue to support the further development of the Logistics Emergency Teams to improve preparedness for emergency response."

Chaka Chaka

2011-12-10T14:07:00.001+01:00

South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka empowers communities in the fight against diseases and poverty.

In addition to being UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador against malaria and an Ambassador for Roll-Back Malaria, a worldwide initiative to fight the disease sponsored by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization, among other institutions, Yvonne ceaselessly endeavors to raise money for the cause. In 2006 she created the Princess of Africa Foundation to further combat malaria and "to carry out community and social charity works."

As she herself says, "We want to raise awareness and take initiative to eradicate this needless disease. People need to know more about malaria because it kills almost one million Africans a year, most of them children."

Yvonne Chaka Chaka holds degrees in adult education and government administration, and has lectured on literacy. In addition to all that, she promotes the empowerment of African women as they battle disease, poverty and gender discrimination.

So do you suppose that's why she's called the Princess of Africa?

See her in action:

The Whale Song Project

2011-12-06T23:32:00.001+01:00

Help marine scientists identify whale "dialects," by listening to them online. Whale songs translate into a complex language that researchers are trying to decipher. You can help marine researchers understand what whales are saying simply by listening to their sounds and deciding which calls match, grouping them into categories.

The Whale Song Project aims to "understand how and why marine mammals respond to various sound stimuli. These studies are badly needed in order to establish regulations and guidelines to mitigate the impact of man-made sound on marine life."

Click here to hear the sounds and have fun helping science.

The Three Paradoxes that Obstruct Water Conservation, and How We Can Resolve Them through H2Ownership

2011-12-02T09:00:00.003+01:00

Here's part 4 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here.

James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, an online utility-based platform that unlocks equitable water and energy markets for cities using the system that has sustained the Kalahari’s indigenous people for 30,000 years.

IV. Resolving the 3 Paradoxes of Water Conservation:
Forget virtue, durable conservation must tap human vice

In April 2001, US Vice-President Dick Cheney famously trashed the idea of doing more with less: “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue,” he said, “but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”

It pains my liberal conscience to admit it, but ten years later it seems he’s right. To save water and energy and build deep-seated resilience from the grassroots level up, cities need to start tapping into a far deeper human instinct: avarice.

Yes, yes. I know that sounds rather crass, even for me, but hear me out.

We can agree that climate mitigation demands clean energy; likewise climate adaptation demands efficient water use. Building on that, we all know that water and energy conservation remains by far the fairest, fastest, cheapest and cleanest route to global security. It restores a resilient society, a stable climate, an autonomous foreign policy and a robust economy while avoiding political land mines of regulations, carbon taxes or cap-and-trade treaties.

The only drawback to conservation is that it requires sacrifice from the richest and most powerful citizens, businesses and political interest groups. Arguing for more virtue from these elites simply won’t do the trick, as we have seen for the past few decades (or for that matter, millennia).

The good news is that today, technology promises to deliver the same result based on a radical form of conservation that leverages their (and, yes, our own) inner greed.

Why? Because in any democracy, urban conservation must reach beyond Prius-hybdrid-carpooling-farmers'-market-hemp-bag-toting-vegan-cardigan-sweater-wearing pillars of society.

It needs at least 51 percent. That includes flawed people (including yours truly) who blast air-conditioning and take long hot showers.

This not-so-moral majority consumes more water and energy than it needs to. It feels vaguely guilty. Still, it could take comfort in a dirty little secret long known by insiders and now more widely recognized by the public: virtue-driven conservation is economically unsustainable.

Wait. As humans save resources, we lower bills, reduce effect and avoid sanctions, right? Not necessarily – thanks to the absolute natural monopoly that is our local water and energy utility.

But as we have seen in the case of urban water, it turns out utilities' conservation directors showcase conservation programs touting conservation rebates, but quietly pray like hell that no one will conserve.

Instead, like any enterprise, a utility's operating income depends on mass consumption. The more combined water and energy people waste, the more money utilities have to work with.

So if people cut consumption by half, monopoly utilities must unilaterally double rates per gallon or kilowatt-hour to balance operating costs. After a dip, monthly utility bills rise back, higher than ever.

Happily, new information technologies may lead us out of this destructive and dangerous spiral of perverse incentives. The Internet can unlock authentic, sustainable, comprehensive conservation policies that eluded Cheney. How? By borrowing from the Xaro system of the Bushmen; from successful “catch shares” programs in recovering fisheries; and from a national idea used back in the 1990s to cut acid rain causing sulfur dioxide emissions that were killing lakes and forests: tradable credits.

Here's how some say it could work to encourage real, meaningful conservation:

• First, encourage monopoly utilities to convert messy physical water or energy into cleanly defined virtual credits.
• Next allocate equal quantities of these online metered assets – say, 200 gallons or 20 kilowatt-hours per day, based on historical use thresholds – to every residential, commercial and industrial account.
• Then let us trade whatever we don't consume to those who want more.

These online platforms could unlock virtual urban water markets within natural monopolies, working to reward voluntary frugality, efficiency and innovation.

The trick is not trying to improve on human nature, or make everyone extra virtuous, but to leverage our innate sin. If one person consumed less, she could sell unused shares to another, to businesses or to the utility for a cash profit.

Under this defined rule of transparent governance, greed makes green. Pride in higher wealth and status would compel me to use even less just to keep up – a benevolent consequence of envy.

This approach unlocks a truly durable and sustainable path, and does so by going beyond virtue. Indeed, to unlock a robust water conservation policy, cities need only tap our inner vice.

The Value of Volunteering

2011-11-29T09:00:00.002+01:00

Globalteer is an "organisation independent of government, politics and religion with the objective to help projects and communities around the world." It is a non-profit charity that aims to help those in need.
According to Globalteer's website, the organization's mission includes:

• Support - To provide support to communities and projects in need.
• Awareness - To raise awareness in developed countries of the plight faced by poverty stricken countries.
• Education - Educate locals and volunteers about environmental issues and the need to protect wildlife.

Currently the charity has projects to help children in Cusco, Peru; Medellin, Colombia; and Siem Reap, Cambodia, as well as wildlife and conservation ventures in Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Globalteer says: "We send volunteers to schools to provide free education to children who are unable to pay fees to go to local schools. We work closely with centres that care for children providing support and funding to allow a safe and comfortable environment in the most important and vulnerable time in their lives. In developing countries the poorest people are often overlooked as there is little governmental funding available to provide support. We work with projects that help the most vulnerable children and communities. By providing an education and vocational training to children we give them an opportunity to break the relentless cycle of poverty and support their own families by becoming a useful and productive member of their society."

Want to help? Make a donation or volunteer!

The Three Paradoxes that Obstruct Water Conservation, and How We Can Resolve Them through H2Ownership

2011-11-25T08:00:00.002+01:00

Here's part 3 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here.

Last installment: next Friday!

James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, an online utility-based platform that unlocks equitable water and energy markets for cities using the system that has sustained the Kalahari’s indigenous people for 30,000 years.

III. The Third Paradox of Water Conservation: Monopoly
Why must solvent utilities encourage and reward waste?

Let me introduce you to my friend – a professional schizophrenic – who manages conservation programs at a local urban water utility in the US.

She’s hardly alone in her mental instability or the predicament that caused it. Using her name would jeopardize her career. But based on 53,000 American water utilities, I estimate at least 100,000 people like her suffer from split personality in the US alone. Her symptoms remain mild – a nervous twitch, sweaty palms and rolling eyes – but worsen as water scarcity puts competing stresses on her utility’s ageing system.

The roots of her disorder are simple. Nearly a decade ago she was hired, given a small staff, budget and discretionary funds to promote ambitious conservation programs and rebates throughout the service area of her water utility. It was the ideal job to match her ideals, a rare opportunity that pays you to do what you love. But there was, alas, a deep and hidden problem, which gave rise to psychological complications.

Perverse Priorities
It soon became clear that the more she succeeded at a noble cause while saving nature, the more she would wreak havoc on her institution’s foundation, destroy the revenue base of operations, and force herself and her team out on the streets and into the welfare lines. Conversely, if she utterly failed at her job, and proved hopelessly incompetent at the task defined, everyone wins and loves her. She would boost sales, generate high returns on almost no investment, and likely land herself a series of promotions, salary hikes, bigger team, and longer vacations until she ran the show.

The only problem with that route was that she would have to sacrifice her just, original soul, sense of pride, and drive endangered species to extinction.

What’s forcing this modern schizophrenia? It’s not a matter of “public” versus “private” water utilities. That’s a red herring. Whether investors or voters own a water district, it remains a natural monopoly. That monopoly needs more money each year just to operate – to pay its staff, invest in repairs, maintain the system, cover health care and pensions etc. Increased funds depend on increased revenues, higher sales, and thus escalating water use by all end users – residential, commercial, industrial or municipal.

In theory, a monopoly should be able to increase revenues by selling ever-less water at ever-higher rates. In reality, that’s politically impossible. Private and public utilities are regulated by officials elected to act on behalf of voters; voters rarely demand the right to pay more for less of something they depend on in every aspect of their lives, especially something many believe they should get for free.

Walking the Tightrope
Hence the fine monopolistic line my schizophrenic friend must walk, and the tightrope beneath her is beginning to fray. The current recession makes families and firms consume less water. That’s wonderful for nature, but horrible for her utility’s bottom line. She is, professionally, both pleased and tormented. Her job is to lock in more efficiencies but her boss visits daily with thinly veiled threats if she does. Unless she backs off on conservation, her position, team, and budget will be at risk of being eliminated first as part of austerity. If she saves more water, she slits her own throat. Then her skills become worthless in the marketplace; who hires someone good at eroding the bottom line?

This is the Third Paradox of Water: conserving water destroys revenues; a thriving monopoly must reward waste.

Frugal utilities have less room to negotiate. Those who encourage water saving today must punish it tomorrow with higher rates. These perversions remain true at the household level, the building level, the neighborhood, the municipal district and the river. Perversely, the existence of a water monopoly means that all people involved in it – from the person flushing the toilet to the State Water Board setting targets for water allocations – are left with no choice, no competition, and no incentives to conserve.

Indeed, the Third Paradox ensures that the most frugal, responsive, and equitable users and managers in the vertically integrated water monopoly can only succeed through subterfuge or martyrdom. As this paradox undercuts performance and customer relations, it is known throughout the water industry as “the death spiral.” After all, to paraphrase the US soldier hoping to justify his schizophrenic decision against a peaceful village in the Vietnam War, the paradox means we must destroy a monopoly’s water in order to save the utility.

The converse is that we find a way to unlock the monopoly in order to save both water and the utility.

[And that resolution to the Three Paradoxes of Water will come next Friday in the fourth and final blog post of this series.]

Impressions from India

2011-11-22T22:00:00.000+01:00

India Gate, Mumbai

Having just returned from a trip to India, visiting Mumbai and Kolkata, the good news to report is that India seems to be on the rise, with more and more people climbing out of abject poverty. There's been a huge increase in the size of the middle class. Sure there are still very young mothers in the streets dodging traffic while holding very young children in their arms as they beg for food, but there seem to be fewer than 5 years ago when I was last there. The colors are still fabulous, from the infinite shades and patterns of the sarees down to the multiple sparkling, multihued bracelets on the vagabonds' wrists as they ask for alms.

The animals are gone too. The holy cows, the monkeys, the goats, camels and horses that used to roam the streets are rare now. Only the dogs are still around, the others having been carted off to reserves outside of town.

The optimism is palpable. Mumbai seems less poor. The cars that clog the streets include more affluent Japanese and European brands than before. Indians, not just tourists, make up the clientele of the large, luxurious hotels. India's booming economy is on the way to achieving its milestone of 9% GDP. The current economic growth rates are projected at around 7.5%-8% for the financial year 2011-2012. And India's economy is the ninth largest in the world by nominal GDP.

Let's celebrate India's achievements. Before long the country's economic growth is predicted by Goldman Sachs to make it the third largest economy in the world by 2035, just after the US and China.

The Three Paradoxes that Obstruct Water Conservation, and How We Can Resolve Them through H2Ownership

2011-11-18T08:00:00.009+01:00

Here's part 2 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured on the right.

Next installment: next Friday!

James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting
professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, an online utility-based platform that unlocks equitable water and energy markets for cities using the system that has sustained the Kalahari’s indigenous people for 30,000 years.

II. The Second Paradox of Water Conservation: Efficiency
Why does your water-saving device increase our collective thirst?

The ghost of the late British economist William Stanley Jevons is disrupting our best efforts to tackle climate change.

Jevons’ specter first haunted hybrid vehicle owners. To get their extra mileage’s worth and display clean and fuel-efficient credentials, they began to drive faster, farther, more frequently than before. Jevons then haunted homes that installed compact fluorescent bulbs and “green” appliances, making people switch on more lights and gadgets, more often, and leave them on longer or even continuously.

In short, Jevons makes us frugal misers burn more of the energy we set out to save. And even if I’m disciplined enough to resist Jevons and still stamp down demand, my haunted neighbors offset my savings by using up my spare fuel and electricity.

Economists dismiss “spiritual” forces, and explain human behavior as rational self-interest. New devices create spare gas or electricity; the increased supply costs less; lower costs jack up demand and new consumers. In some cases this “rebound effect” is so potent that it erases earlier original gains from efficient technology.

This dynamic is bad news for climate mitigation and energy reduction; it is even worse news for climate adaptation and water security. Whether his influence is “natural” or “supernatural,” Jevons now haunts water conservation, where we lack real options.

Less Means More
In 1865 the (living) 29-year-old Jevons considered the effect of British steam engines, which improved the efficiency of coal, the finite, geopolitical, carbon-emitting economic resource of its day. Such cheap energy-efficient machines might actually speed up depletion, he wrote, since we then use them more. In “The Coal Question,” Jevons argued: “It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.”

Of course, coal has energy alternatives: nuclear, wind, oil, gas, solar, geothermal and so forth. But the steam engine generated energy by consuming another valuable element that Jevons hardly considered rare. Now scarce, water has no substitute.

In the face of global scarcity, water efficiency has become a growth industry, subsidized by governments. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up a WaterSense partnership that designates and labels certain qualifying technologies that claim to “protect the future of our nation's water supply by promoting water efficiency and enhancing the market for water-efficient products, programs, and practices.” Consider toilets, where Americans flush 4.8 billion gallons of water each day. Each year an average citizen flushes 230 gallons of human waste with 9,000 gallons of drinking water.

Efficiency Drive
In response to resource depletion, a relentless barrage of education, tips, incentives and technology transfers shifts water towards ever more efficient use. The roar of a five gallon flush is muted to dual-flush high-efficiency toilets. Shower nozzles blast less water at higher velocities. Dishwashers and front-door washing machines use less per load. Pool covers prevent evaporation. Lush lawns are replaced with xeriscaping (gardening for arid regions). The US EPA claims that in a few years, WaterSense has helped consumers save a cumulative 46 billion gallons of water and US$ 343 million in water and sewer bills. Perhaps.

And perhaps agricultural water efficiency takes place around the world: as dirt canals become pipes and flood irrigation is replaced by center pivot blast sprinklers, which in turn give rise to drip irrigation applied directly to the roots of plants at night.

Perhaps, given the undisputed wonders of widgets, we can make up the 40% shortfall between global demand and supply just by using water efficient technology.

Increased Demand
The ghost of Jevons moans: Don’t bet on it. There is scant evidence that conservation technology drives the overall reduction of water use, consumption and demand. In fact, empirical studies at the municipal, industrial, agricultural, state and federal levels suggest that, as with energy, water efficient technologies may extend supply, lower costs, and increase demand and opportunities to divert, pump, and use even more water.

Saving water in my dual flush toilet means my daughter takes longer showers. Uprooting my front lawn encourages my neighbor to install a pool in his back yard. Our water efficient neighborhood lets the city divert savings into a sprawling new development. Multinational corporations use efficiency technology to reduce the amounts of water per unit throughout the supply chain, but that can help them sell more overall products containing water. Likewise, river basin authorities in arid lands encourage their farmers to adopt drip irrigation, for “more crop per drop.” But from Texas cotton fields to the orchards of Israel, efficiency gains do not return to the Rio Grande or Jordan River, or West Bank Aquifer or, even, it seems, to Palestinians restricted from pumping water. Rather, efficiencies spread irrigation deeper and farther into ever more marginal lands, letting current farmers grow more water intense crops on more land at the exclusion of other natural and human communities competing for that water.

As interest groups grasp this dynamic, we find the odd situation of social advocates and environmentalists fighting attempts at water efficiency.

Such a perverse and undesired outcome defines the Second Paradox of Water: as long as we rent our resource, water-saving devices increase overall consumption. Water that you and I frugally conserve is lost through new and collective augmented demand.

Enter H2Ownership
One way we can all resolve this paradox is by adopting a new, and yet timeless, system of what might best be called “H2Ownership.”

If all stakeholders have clear dominion over an equal amount of water, then whatever we save from our share we can take out of the equation, to be later sold at a premium, donated to charity, or restored directly to nature.

From the Kalahari to Oman and Bali, this system has enabled traditional systems where people compete to conserve. Under a scaled up digital version of this virtuous cycle, urban efficiency gains could be locked in and improved on, helping us to transform water scarcity into natural abundance.

[That leaves just one last challenge to confront and overcome, in the next installment… The Third Paradox of Water: Monopoly. Continued next week!]

Saving the Florida Panther

2011-11-15T08:00:00.007+01:00

The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) had almost disappeared. Of this subspecies of puma – also known as cougar or mountain lion – only 20 were still alive at the end of the 20th century. Today 120 to 160 Florida panthers roam their habitat in the south-west of Florida.

In 1967 the Florida panther was added to the list of endangered species. But in 1989 natural park land was put aside for the animals, and in 1995 the US Fish and Wildlife Service established a plan to "genetically restore" the species. Eight Texas puma females (Puma concolor stanleyana), the closest subspecies to the panther, were brought to the park. Seven years later, when the conservationists deemed sufficient time had passed for the Florida panther population to be revived, they discovered three of the females had died but captured the other five to return them to Texas.

By 2003, the number of Florida panthers had tripled. Today the population is estimated at 120 to 160 panthers. What's more, in the 24 September 2010 issue of Science magazine in an article entitled, "Genetic Restoration of the Florida Panther", the authors note that the specific morphological characteristics of the species have been maintained, despite the introduction of new genes. A success story all around!

The Three Paradoxes that Obstruct Water Conservation, and How We Can Resolve Them through H2Ownership

2011-11-11T09:00:00.006+01:00

Here's the first of a four-part series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here.

Look for the next installments of this important story on Fridays.

James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting
professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the
Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC,
an online utility-based platform that unlocks equitable water and energy markets for cities using the system that has sustained the Kalahari’s indigenous people for 30,000 years.

I. The First Paradox of Water Conservation: Value
Why is water so "priceless" in use, yet so worthless in exchange?

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe chairs Nestlé, the world’s 44th largest company, which last year earned US$ 9.6 billion profits on US$ 100 billion in revenues. He is the consummate international businessman, bargaining hard, overseeing 280,000 employees, outflanking competitors, and at ease with heads of state. Yet he remains incapable of negotiating one simple and irreplaceable ingredient without which his company ceases to exist: water.

He hardly seems the quintessentially gloomy Malthusian, yet Brabeck foresees “limits to growth” because our global fresh water supply is both finite and being rapidly, stupidly, depleted. The world can sustainably use 4,200 cubic kilometers of water he notes, but it consumes 4,500 even as aquifers plummet and rivers run dry.

Another Inconvenient Truth
A few years back he called water scarcity “the other inconvenient truth,” one riskier than climate change, and predicted that the cost of staple cereals would rise as the world exhausted its water. Time proved him right. Grain prices spiked 90%, triggering widespread urban food riots like those from Tunisia and Yemen to Egypt and Libya.

Why is this happening? “Put bluntly,” he explains, “water has no price. When we see and treat water as a free good, we waste it.”

Brabeck is only the latest and perhaps most prominent victim of the oldest and First Paradox of Water: the matrix of life is both figuratively and literally “priceless.” In 1776 this paradox stumped Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations noted how diamonds are utterly worthless in use yet invaluable in exchange, while the converse was true for water. Without water humans can’t exist, yet our species devalues nature’s precious liquid asset into a vague liability.

The Great Unknown
This paradox troubles all water users whether they run a rural farm or urban factory, multinational firm or nuclear family.

Annual shareholder reports discount water as a negligible “cost” to be “managed.” Accountants consider it a line item to absorb into spreadsheets. Chief Financial Officers regard water as a material risk to avoid. Any country can quickly provide its exact mineral wealth, human resources, arable land, energy potential, gross domestic product, and federal monetary budget; none can tell you the annual water reserves that keep its economy alive. No official knows the full cost of providing water because no individual can know it; water’s value is subjective, varying by time, place, conditions, and seven billion water users, half of whom live in cities.

The First Paradox of Water ensures that what we each intuitively grasp as a priceless asset we must collectively debase into a liability that is inherently worthless.

Why does this paradox of value arise, and how can we resolve it?

The brilliant conservationist Aldo Leopold famously warned urban readers about “two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” As self-interested stewards we value only the natural assets we own. We ignore what we can’t.

Equal Opportunities
Since our food and energy trace their existence to water, our compound danger lies in not owning a well or creek. Instead, we suppose water comes from a faucet, toilet tank, or pipe. We lose interest in water throughout the urban supply chain. Unable to own or trade our share, we produce an urban, deeply tragic, commons.

A few “exchanges” of water occur between neighbors sharing a river or well, but these are rare, rural, informal (perhaps even illegal) and inequitable. For exceptions to become the rule, city dwellers must formally have an equal opportunity to own and trade water. It may seem a logistical nightmare for our urban world to literally “own” a real well and distribute the vital wet stuff. But thanks to the Internet and ubiquitous cell phones, such barriers don’t prevent ownership.

Frequent flier miles let us virtually “own” physical airline seats. Likewise, each of us can now transparently “own” a defined virtual share of water, distributed automatically, daily, digitally, and equally to all by the water monopoly that unites us. We may call this virtual share a right, credit or a privilege, but it now is ours to earn and accumulate, to use and exchange however we choose.

This kind of new, urban “H2Ownership” leads directly to dominion, investment and care. As we buy and sell our unused shares, water accrues real worth and allows a slum dweller or Nestlé executive to negotiate its relative local price. Thus together we can at last resolve this paradox of water, as its value in exchange can rise to the level of its value in use.

[Next we must confront and overcome The Second Paradox of Water: Efficiency.

Why does your water-saving device or practice increase our overall demand for more? Find out next week!]

A Commitment to Safeguard Children

2011-11-08T15:30:00.005+01:00

Who is building a world in which every child:

Is loved and respected regardless of race, religion or caste
Is fed and clothed and housed within a caring family environment
Has free access to quality education and training in line with his or her abilities
Has free access to quality health care
Has free access to recreation and leisure
Has a voice and can speak out without fear of the consequences
Is free from exploitation and abuse
Is free from the direct and indirect effects of armed conflict and communal violence?

Butterflies is. "Butterflies addresses the challenge of making the Convention on the Rights of the Child a reality, particularly of those children who are most vulnerable, neglected, abused and exploited. Butterflies is committed, within its mandate, to work towards solidarity among NGOs, Government and all Civil Society organizations for addressing the concerns of all children."

According to its website, "Butterflies is a registered voluntary organization working with street and working children in Delhi since 1989. We believe in the right of every child to have a full-fledged childhood where she/he has the right to protection, respect, opportunities and participation in his/her growth and development. Rights of street and working children are no exception. Butterflies is committed to a non-institutional approach, follows principle of democracy and promotes children's participation in decision making as part of its programme planning, monitoring and evaluation."

Its aim is "to empower street and working children with skills and knowledge to protect their rights and to develop them as respected and productive citizens. We use the Constitution of India, Laws related to Children and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a major tool for ensuring government and public accountability for all."

Help Butterflies and make a difference in the life of a child who needs care and protection.

The End of Polio Is Near

2011-11-06T08:00:00.003+01:00

"We are within grasp of declaring the end of polio worldwide," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said end October, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth. During that meeting, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Nigeria and Pakistan, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, pledged over $100 million in new funds to stamp out the last 1% of the disease that has not been eradicated yet.

Help put an end to this disease and save children's lives by contributing to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Also check out The End of Polio website: sign the petition!

We're Back!

2011-11-05T10:56:00.001+01:00

The Good Times is back. After a short absence, during which time it seemed there was no good news to report (the Euro crisis, the lack of world leadership, human rights abuses worldwide, crazy weather across the globe, just to mention a few), The Good Times has surfaced much that's good to profile. So stay tuned!

A Pioneer in the Field of Genetics

2011-09-09T20:28:00.005+02:00

Eric Engel had never been averse to adversity. As a young internist in Geneva, Switzerland, he soon realized he had little opportunity to achieve his ambitions at his hometown University Hospital. So in 1960 with his wife and three small children, none of whom spoke English, he accepted the position of research fellow at US Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and so moved to Boston. There he shifted his focus to the study of chromosomes and concentrated on investigating these structures that carry our genes, but in blood cultures rather than in fibroblast (skin) cells as was the norm. He also disengaged from the prevailing practice of predicting hereditary conditions through charting a family tree and calculating mathematical probability, to studying the chromosomes of individuals and their offspring based on clinical analysis and experience instead.

In 1963, leading endocrinologist, Grant Liddle, asked him to move to Nashville, Tennessee to start a Genetics Division at Vanderbilt University within the Department of Medicine. For 15 years he promoted the knowledge and development of genetics there, helping over time to advance the field of human and medical genetics from one few people had heard of to a topic regularly discussed and debated in the general public. His observance of chromosomal aberrations and their effects on health and disease over the years led in 1980 to a scientific article describing an unproven concept he called “uniparental disomy (UPD),” which in effect theorized a chromosomal occurrence that goes against the rules of traditional Mendelian inheritance. Indeed, normally half a person’s chromosomes are inherited from the mother and the other half from the father. But UPD arises when a person inherits both copies of a particular chromosome from one parent (with no copy from the other parent). This idea went against even Mendel’s laws of heredity, but he was convinced it existed and played a role in health and disease, and thus was determined to disseminate the idea.

Unfathomable and unconfirmable, his article on UPD proved difficult to publish. The reviewers were broadly against its appearance. But the editor of the American Journal of Medical Genetics, Dr. John Opitz, decided to publish the piece, a prescient decision, since 7-8 years later molecular laboratory studies began to validate the concept of UPD. Since the identification of the first case of uniparental disomy in 1987, many cases of UPD have been reported, and have contributed to the emerging area of “non-Mendelian inheritance.”

Having returned to Geneva in 1978 as Director of the University Institute of Medical Genetics, the adversity he faced was not in the acceptance of his ideas but of a different nature. Apparently more interested in making money than in advancing science, certain doctors and a private Genetics laboratory in Geneva countered his ability to provide genetic counseling at reduced cost to low-income individuals who had genetic illnesses in their family. Certain gynecologists even sent their patients to the private lab for testing rather than to the University Genetics Institute. Although he lost that battle, as the medical establishment proved fierce in its fight for profit, his patients, students and colleagues recognized him as the brilliant and compassionate medical geneticist that he was.

Over these past few months Eric Engel had been fighting a different war – the right to die. Today, at the age of 85, having received recognition and success in his field of Human Genetics but with setbacks and loss along the way, he died at Geneva University Hospital, struck down by lung cancer and brain metastases. The Good Times would like to recognize someone who served science and mankind above all, persisting in his vision of truth while defying norms and confronting difficulties along the way.

AppBridge.com: Empowering through Mobile Applications

2011-09-03T22:19:00.002+02:00

The AppBridge.com initiative aims to empower “the Bottom Billion” through the development, implementation and promotion of education and health-focused mobile applications.

Here in AppBridge's own words is an overview of the initiative: "Through collaboration and in partnership with others, we are developing an open source, cloud-based digital platform designed to connect talented mobile application developers with formal and informal education and health content providers, and co-create a powerful distribution channel to bridge the digital divide and educate young people in the bottom billion through their cellular phones. Each educational app will be submitted to The AppBridge platform, vetted, distributed to partner Telecom Operators and promoted in 'The AppBridge Zone', where it will be available to end-users. The AppBridge platform will track the download activity and usage of each distributed app, enabling 'real time' feedback and allowing for a dynamic, evolving virtual educational experience for users.

"With an estimated 3.8 billion mobile subscribers in the developing world, there is enormous opportunity to provide formal and informal educational tools to individuals who do not otherwise have access to basic math, literacy, and health information. The AppBridge is committed to co-creating an important 'blueprint' for how digital and information based solutions can be launched in a frictionless way in critical environments. This is a non-profit social enterprise."

Intended to distribute educational apps for young adults with limited access to education, this is definitely an idea to follow!

A Better Place

2011-08-27T11:57:00.001+02:00

Better Place is "accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation." Located in Palo Alto, California, the company aims to "turn the dream of mass-selling electric cars into reality." With Better Place, Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, who founded the company, endeavors "to reduce worldwide reliance on oil with a market-based model and infrastructure that could potentially spur widespread adoption of a new breed of electric vehicles."

It is possible: "Better Place delivers the network and services that make an electric car affordable to buy, easy to use, and amazing to own. Electric car drivers will have access to a network of charge spots, battery switch stations and systems that optimize the driving experience and minimize environmental impact and cost." Today, a 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery (about 200 kg/440 lbs) in a mid-sized sedan provides a range of about 160 kilometers (100 miles) on a single charge. At battery switch stations, an electric vehicle's depleted battery is exchanged for a fully charged one in less time than it takes to stop at a gas station to fill one's tank.

The good news is that, according to Better Place, "sustainable transportation for the mass market is just around the corner. Electric vehicles present the opportunity for energy independence, environmental restoration, and new sources of economic growth." Go to http://www.betterplace.com/ for more information on this sustainable tranportation opportunity.

Stemming World Hunger

2011-08-23T22:47:00.002+02:00

Karuturi Global is a genuine change agent, committed to sustainability. Its stated mission is: "To emerge as an integrated agri-products company servicing the world market through unmatched product, cost and quality advantages.” Today Karuturi Global is a large producer of cut roses, with an 8% share of the floriculture market. The company has businesses in Ethiopia, Kenya and India, producing around 555 million cut roses per year.

However Karuturi Global is now taking up agribusiness as its next ambition. It wishes to be recognized as a genuine change agent for global growth, prosperity, and cultural and economic transformation - to do whatever it can to help alleviate worldwide and African food shortages. Thus Karuturi was among the first foreign firms to acquire land from the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments – more than 300,000 hectares – to grow and produce maize, vegetables, grains, corn, palm oil, and sugarcane.

In Ethiopia, Karuturi Global's social welfare contributions have included distributing wool blankets to the poor and elderly in 2007 and 2008, contributing $75,000 towards the drinking water supply in Holetta and providing free food every week for two years to 100 needy people.

In Kenya, the company has provided healthcare services to locals, food to drought victims and infrastructure to the local police. Karuturi Global affirms that, "Our labour welfare measures in Kenya are having a positive impact on the lives of our Kenyan workers, their families and communities. Taking cue from the success of these measures, we are working on implementing the same in Ethiopia. We plan to provide schools, hospitals, housing and bus facilities to our workers in Ethiopia, along with our social welfare initiatives."

Karuturi also applies eco-friendly policies in its production chain, including using indigenous greenhouses, in-house power generation from biomass, rainwater harvesting, and environment-friendly fertilizers and chemicals.

According to Karuturi Global, "Every small change counts. ... We do our utmost to conserve the environment and to ensure that our people and our communities grow with us."

Thanks to a Deceptively Simple Product

2011-08-19T20:58:00.002+02:00

What company's products have been used in 140 countries? What company has had an effect on millions upon millions of children? What company's CEO has said he reaches more youngsters in the world "than Coca-Cola or Pepsi could ever hope to reach up to the age of ten"? Give up?

It's Serum Institute of India.

Serum Institute of India is a leader in the production of vaccines. The Insitute was founded in 1966, "with the aim of manufacturing life-saving immuno-biologicals, which were in shortage in the country and imported at high prices." It manufactures vaccines against Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis, as well as Measles, Mumps and Rubella. The company's reputation and reach is such that agencies like the World Health Organization, the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), and the US National Institutes of Health are working with it to develop vaccines against Meningococcal A, H1N1 Influenza, Rotavirus and other diseases.

Serum Institute's mission is "to develop quality vaccines and offer them at inexpensive prices." Learn more about Serum Institute's high quality standards and modern production means on the company website.

Simple as ABCD...

2011-08-15T22:18:00.000+02:00

John ‘Jody’ Kretzmann and John McKnight are the directors of Assets Based Community Development Institute (ABCD Institute) at Northwestern University in the US. ABCD mobilizes struggling communities using resources already at hand and shows them how to work toward positive change.

"Challenging the traditional approach to solving urban problems, which focuses service providers and funding agencies on the needs and deficiencies of neighborhoods, Kretzmann and McKnight have demonstrated that community assets are key building blocks in sustainable urban and rural community revitalization efforts. These community assets include:

-the skills of local residents

-the power of local associations

-the resources of public, private and non-profit institutions

-the physical infrastructure and space in a community

-the economic resources and potential of local places

-the local history and culture of a neighborhood."

Such is ABCD Institute's description of the positive features they employ to facilitate successful "inside out" local community development.

Two examples of ABCD capacity building:

"Jody Kretzmann partnered with Coady International Institute to help facilitate a week of discussions by community development leaders from Brazil, Ecuador, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Vietnam, Philippines, India, as well as Canada and the US, describing and analyzing their successful community building efforts and sharing strategies and perspectives. These discussions led to the publication of a volume of case studies, From Clients to Citizens: Communities Changing the Course of their own Development."

Faculty member "Deborah Puntenney worked with Greater Lyons Township, Illinois on their Aging Well initiative for which she designed and implemented an asset-based citizen-engagement project emphasizing healthy aging."

Visit the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy for more information on doing asset-based community development work.

Good News on a New Health Blog

2011-08-11T11:46:00.002+02:00

High-Tech Volunteer Emergency Medical Services Group Speeds Care in Israel: ground-breaking volunteer rescue scheme serves as the subject of Bill Hinchberger's debut as a health blogger. Hinchberger is a Paris-based writer who is on the lookout for story ideas for the new blog. Leave your suggestions and tips as comments here.

KaBOOM!

2011-08-08T10:00:00.002+02:00

Many of you in the US will no doubt have heard about KaBOOM! Elsewhere, though, little is known about this non-profit organization, "dedicated to saving play for America’s children." What is KaBOOM!? In their own words, "We are peppy, purple-adorned people who passionately promote the power of play!"

It's clear that children are more sendentary than in the past, back when there were fewer TVs, video games and computers. According to KaBOOM!, "Our children are playing less than any previous generation, and this lack of play is causing them profound physical, intellectual, social, and emotional harm. The Play Deficit is an important problem, and it is imperative that we solve it to ensure our children have long, healthy, and happy lives."

Created officially in April 1996 by Darell Hammond, according to their website, so far "KaBOOM! has built over 2,000 playgrounds, saving play for over 5.5 million children." You can help them build one too: click here for KaBOOM!'s detailed Project Planner that provides all the information you will need to build a playground in just one day!

Or click here to find out how to make your community more playful. One simple idea: sit on a bench near a park - it will make the play area safer, especially if you sit there regularly and take friends with you. Or take a picture of a playground near you and then upload that photo on the KaBOOM! Playspace Finder to help parents find nearby playspaces.

There are many ways to help this cause, which will help put smiles on children's faces and make them healthier at the same time! To find out more go to http://kaboom.org/ or read about the movement in Hammond's book.

Aiding the Delivery of Health Care in Africa

2011-08-04T22:04:00.000+02:00

Riders for Health is "working to make sure all health workers in Africa have access to reliable transportation so they can reach the most isolated people with regular and predictable health care." In its own words, the social enterprise's vision is "of a world in which the poor do not suffer and die for lack of access to health care and other vital services simply because they are isolated by distance or terrain."

Founded in the UK in 1988 by Andrea and Barry Coleman, current estimates reckon that 11 million Africans have access to health care due to Riders' programs. The organization manages over 1,000 vehicles to deliver health care services in Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia. According to Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011, "Riders for Health’s innovative transport systems incorporate driving skills training, daily maintenance procedures, fuelling supply-chain logistics for replacement parts, and interval preventative maintenance. By using a motorcycle, for example, health workers have increased their number of visits to remote communities by at least 300%."

Just one example: in Zimbabwe, health workers driving motocycles were able to deliver mosquito nets and drugs against malaria to secluded areas, decreasing the death rate from the disease there by 20%.

Since one of the main obstacles to health care provision in Africa is poor access and distribution of health products to rural areas, Riders for Health's initiative has proved fundamental to aiding people even in the most out-of-the-way places.

Helping Children Whose Rights Have Been Violated

2011-07-29T11:58:00.002+02:00

"Friends-International believes that together we can protect marginalized children and youth and give them exciting opportunities to build their futures." Friends-International's key principles include:

"-Breaking the stereotypic images of pity and charity and promote empowerment, hope and transformation

-Making sure everything we do has a direct, positive impact on children

-Creating innovative, responsive and flexible initiatives to respond to issues facing marginalized children and youth

-Encouraging the participation of children and communities in all projects

-Creating international standards for the quality of services for children

-Being financially transparent and accountable

-Working with communities and families to help them to provide a safe, secure environment for children

-Supporting children and communities to become sustainable and reduce dependency"

This Cambodian child welfare organization began helping street children in 1994. It is a social enterprise that aims to "build their futures by:

-Protecting urban children and youth from all forms of abuse within the scope of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child

-Reintegrating marginalized urban children and youth so they become actively involved in the development of their society

-Preventing marginalized urban children and youth from engaging in risky behavior and/or dangerous situations that compromise their futures

-Improving the way organizations work by promoting innovative and effective approaches with the active participation of the children and youth

-Influencing all tiers of society to provide supportive environments and adopt positive behavior changes"

For more information on this important effort to help vulnerable youth through projects in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Honduras, Mexico, Egypt and Myanmar go to Friends-International's website.

Every Little Bit Helps!

2011-07-25T23:29:00.000+02:00

We've all heard the news about the worst drought in decades in the Horn of Africa and the ensuing famine. According to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), "The impact of the drought has been exacerbated by high local cereal prices, excess livestock mortality, conflict and restricted humanitarian access in some areas."

Rather than passively hearing about the catastrophe, each and every one of us can act to offer a little bit of relief to the victims of this crisis. Please consider making a difference by making a donation to Médecins Sans Frontières. The organization states it relies on public support for 2 important reasons:

-"To ensure the freedom to provide humanitarian assistance whenever and wherever it is needed.

- To remain independent from political, religious and economic interests."

80% of funds received by Doctors Without Borders go to program activities, 16% to fundraising and 4% for administration.

Another effort, run by Swiss Solidarity partner-organizations, is carrying out emergency relief aid on the ground. Yet Swiss Solidarity states on its website that, "The needs of the famine victims are overwhelming." Click here to donate online. Every little bit helps.

Safeguarding Biodiversity and Quality Foods

2011-07-22T17:30:00.002+02:00

Slow Food is an international non-profit, member-supported association that originated in Italy in 1989. It aims to combine good eating with sustainable food production. According to the organization, Slow Food was founded "to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."

Currently, Slow Food has over 100,000 members in 153 countries and 1,300 local chapters, and a network of 2,000 food communities that practise small-scale and sustainable production of quality foods.

The association's vision is: "a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet." Its mission is: "promoting good, clean and fair food for all."

Indeed, Slow Food's "approach to agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on a concept of food quality defined by three interconnected principles: Good - Clean - Fair

GOOD a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture;
CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;

FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers."

"Slow Food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature."
Carlo Petrini, Slow Food Founder and President

The Olevolos Project: Developing Young Leaders in Tanzania

2011-07-19T18:36:00.000+02:00

Dory Gannes is director of the Olevolos Project, which helps orphans and disadvantaged children in Tanzania. The Project's website states that, founded in 2007, it seeks "to create educational opportunities for disadvantaged children from the Olevolos Village in Tanzania, Africa. Our mission is to develop young leaders through formal schooling, tutoring programs, and extra-curricular activities. Because we aim to improve access and equality to education, we pay for all the expenses for students who are unable. Given that many of these kids lack proper nutritional meals, we have developed a school-feeding program. ...

"Engagement with the local community is a defining part of our project. Understanding the importance of this engagement, we work closely with the District Commissioner, Village Council, and village people to leverage goals and maximize impact in the community. Because of this, they are incorporated into every aspect of our programming. Villagers volunteer at the site, join us in parent meetings, and sit on our advisory board. We believe the ultimate success of the project lies in the hands of the Olevolos people."

Go to the Olevolos Project's website to glimpse the novel ways others have contributed and to get good ideas on how you can help this non-profit achieve its mission.

Basic Sanitation for All

2011-07-16T23:46:00.000+02:00

Jack Sim is a visionary. He founded the non-profit World Toilet Organization (WTO) in 2001, "dedicated to improving the conditions of toilets and sanitation worldwide." It aims to do something about the 2.6 billion people without access to proper sanitation (40% of global population!) and the 1.5 million children who die of diarrhea each year.

According to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011, the World Toilet Organization "envisages itself as a de facto global body that champions better toilet environments. It is one of the few organizations to focus on toilets instead of water issues, which often receive more attention on the international development agenda.

"WTO was created as a global network and service platform to address the world sanitation crisis. WTO currently has 235 member oganizations in 58 countries working towards eliminating the toilet taboo and delivering sustainable sanitation. Its SaniShop franchise trains the poor to become entrepreneurs and sales agents, creating sustainable and scalable solutions to distribute proper sanitation.

"WTO is the organizer of the World Toilet Summits and World Toilet Expo and Forums. Each summit addresses critical issues of toilet and sanitation, including technologies, development, funding, maintenance, social entrepreneurship, capacity building and research."

According to the WTO, its SaniShop concept is "a social franchise model where WTO provides a quality brand free of charge to entrepreneurial thinking people on the ground.
"The SaniShop model has two primary objectives:
1.to alleviate the poverty cycle by providing business opportunities and employment for locals. Whole communities benefit from increased household income; and
2.to drive down the cost of toilets to an affordable price – less than US$33, giving households access to proper sanitation which improves their health and quality of life.

"WTO engages suppliers to supply materials for our toilet units and we also source manufacturers to make the moulds and deliver free of charge to customers.

"We provide training to sales agents, suppliers and manufacturers to assist them to become franchisees. Our Cambodian team has programs in place to support, develop and enhance their professional skill sets and improve their business.

"We collaborate with product designers and sanitation technology experts around the world to ensure modern and efficient products and proper installation is available through SaniShop."

A Milestone in the Fight Against Polio!

2011-07-12T21:58:00.001+02:00

July 12, 2011 is an incredible date in the fight against polio. July 12 marks the first time ever that 6 months have gone by without one single case of polio being reported in India. With 172 million children under the age of 5 in India, this means as close to 100% of children as possible were vaccinated. Every kid was found and immunized!

This great news is a result of a massive immunization campaign in India over the past 10 years. Eight campaigns per year were organized, each utilizing 1 million vaccinators! This huge effort was led by the government of India with the World Health Organization. Rotary and UNICEF have also been instrumental in achieving this tremendous goal.

For more on the eradication of polio, listen to Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General for Polio at the WHO, who heads the polio eradication programme there, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

Good News: A Genuine Anti-Aging Cream?

2011-07-10T18:29:00.001+02:00

Let's hope this is not just another scam! An anti-aging serum is being sold in France as a new skin treatment that effectively reduces the depth of wrinkles and combats shriveling. At the very least, what's good about this new cream is that profits from its sale go to help research on what causes aging. In fact, the researchers in Marseilles, France who developed this product devised it from the active ingredients used in medication to alleviate the rare condition Progeria that causes children to become prematurely old.

In any case, NeoSTEM, as the cream is called, is perfume free, and it does not contain any paraben, phenoxyethanol, silicone or phthalates.

Time affects our skin, but as far as this cream's efficacy goes, only time will tell!

A World Champion Shows What Elders Can Do

2011-07-06T23:00:00.006+02:00

Olga Kotelko is 91 years old. At the age of 77 she decided to start track and field sports. Today Olga is a gold medal winner in several disciplines, including sprinting, jumping and hammar throwing, having won 600 gold medals in her age category since she started competing internationally. She's also a multi world record breaker.

Other athletes are defying age. Check out this video called "Images of positive aging". It's amazing!

Belu Water = Clean Water

2011-07-03T23:04:00.000+02:00

Founded in the United Kingdom in 2002, the mission of bottled water company Belu is: "With the Earth running out of many of its natural resources, the great challenge of our generation is to create a sustainable balance between the needs of people and the resources of the planet. Belu Water was launched as a social enterprise to demonstrate the potential for businesses to take a leading role in developing such a sustainable future.

Belu has done this by creating the UK’s most eco-friendly brand of bottled water and thereby setting a new benchmark for the performance of the entire drinks industry.

Belu’s environmental and charitable efforts include:
- Creating the world’s first carbon neutral bottled water
- Using caps that are "PVC free," for safety we want to avoid phthalates getting into our water
- Committing all our profits to clean water projects through The Belu Foundation (Registered Charity: 1136687)
- Choosing not to import or export our water, this way we further reduce our environmental impact
- Developing a 500ml bottle made from 50% recycled plastic that is 100% recyclable, a new UK first !"

Indeed, Belu uses "bio-bottles" made from corn, which look like ordinary plastic bottles but are compostable. What's more, the company minimizes its environmental footprint by using clean electricity and locally sourced water, reducing waste and promoting PVC-free packaging. A non-profit organization, Belu donates every penny of its profits to fund clean water projects. For instance, it built a 12-meter long waste collector that removes one tonne of waste from the River Thames each week.

According to Belu, every bottle of Belu bought in the UK provides clean water for one person for one month.

Preparing Afghanistan's Future Civic Leaders

2011-06-29T12:30:00.001+02:00

Recently the Boston Globe profiled the work of Qiamuddin Amiry, President and co-founder of non-profit organization, the Afghan Scholars Initiative, which enables students from Afghanistan to attend American high schools and universities.

Raised in Kabul, having himself won a scholarship to a high school in Hong Kong, Amiry decided to find a way to bring higher education to other Afghans. He and fellow student at Colby College, John Campbell, therefore founded Afghan Scholars Initiative (ASI). The project's website promotes Peace through Education. It states: "The key to the rebuilding of Afghanistan is in the education, training, and dedication of its next generation of leaders. In a country with too much poverty, too many guns and too few roads, hospitals and schools, Afghans must struggle against the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, a culture of corruption and a booming drug trade.

"By giving Afghanistan’s brightest and hardest-working students a chance to learn at the best schools in the world and work with the most influential non-profits and companies in the world, ASI promotes the human development and cultural understanding Afghanistan needs to move forward."

You can help ASI get additional Afghans into schools by learning more about the initiative and sharing information on what it's doing or by making an online donation.

Story Telling for a Cause

2011-06-26T23:29:00.000+02:00

Tim Fitzhigham is a "multi-award winning comedian, explorer, quadruple world record holder, historian, archaeologist and author." According to a short biography from Tim himself, he is also "a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Freeman of the City of London. Knighted by a foreign monarchy, he has entertained audiences world-wide with his fascinating, hilarious, moving tales of dreamy impacticalness - navigating the Channel in a Thomas Crapper bathtub, rowing a paper boat up the River Thames from source to Tower Bridge [160 miles], running across deserts in armour, playing hopscotch up active volcanoes, or long distance Morris Dancing" [an English folk dance].

Tim is indeed extremely entertaining, and he has charisma enough for two. But he is also an incredible story teller, who uses story telling to raise awareness for environmental issues, among others. He believes that because stories convey emotions and make people feel, they can persuade listeners and even draw people towards a particular opinion better than facts can.

Tim's website is full of information on this unique and multi-faceted character.

A Taj Mahal, of Sorts

2011-06-22T09:08:00.005+02:00

A symbol of eternal love, the Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Today another monument stands testiment to a man's love. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has housed his collection of some 66,000 works of art in a new building, named Museo Soumaya, after his wife Soumaya Domit de Slim.

The museum holds works by many famous European artists from the 15th to the 20th century, including Tintoretto, Dali, Picasso, Renoir, van Gogh and Monet. It contains 380 works by sculptor August Rodin.

Particularly good news is that the museum is open to the public free of charge. Mr. Slim's mission is to allow the general Mexican public to view an important collection of great masters in Mexico, so without expensive travel to Europe.

Foods that Fight Cancer

2011-06-18T19:20:00.003+02:00

What do green tea, citrus fruits, berries, tomatoes, garlic, cabbage (and vegetables from the cabbage family, including broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts), ginger, turmeric, mint, flaxseed, shiitake mushrooms, seaweed and dark chocolate have in common? They are all foods that fight cancer! Indeed, they are all foods with diverse cancer-fighting properties.

Diet is an important factor in the prevention of cancer. So say Drs. Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras in their practical book, Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer. The authors asked a group of chefs to devise recipes that not only are delicious but that include the fruits, vegetables and spices identified as containing anti-cancer molecules.

Backed by scientific research, the authors explain that green tea has one of the highest proportions of anti-cancer molecules, and raspberries, strawberries and blueberries have molecules that block tumor development. Eating cooked tomates increases blood lycopene levels, which interferes with the growth of precancerous cells in the prostate. Regularly consuming garlic lowers the risk of developing specific types of cancers, particularly esophagus, stomach and colon cancers. It seems garlic's smelly molecules when crushed enable the elimination of toxic carcinogenic substances from the body. Crucifers and vegetables belonging to the cabbage family when eaten regularly significantly decease the risk of developing certain cancers, by stimulating our natural defence mechanisms. Ginger and turmeric are powerful spices due to their anti-inflammatory activity. Mint, thyme, marjoram, oregano, basil and rosemary, all plants from the lamiaceae family, contain terpenes that block the development of cancer. In general, herbs and spices help prevent tumors from growing. Several kinds of mushrooms, such as shiitake, enokitake, maitake and boletes, have anti-cancer molecules that slow down the growth of tumors. Algae including seaweed counteract the the development of certain microtumors. Dark chocolate, which is chocolate made of 70% cocoa mass, has important health-promoting properties; although more studies are needed, results so far show that eating a small amount of dark chocolate regularly slows down the growth of some cancers.

So help your body fight cancer by integrating these ingredients into your diet. Doing so will allow you to eat well while protecting your health.

Cement That Takes CO2 Out of the Air

2011-06-13T22:07:00.000+02:00

Calera Corporation aims to stop global warming and ocean acidification by pulling greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere. Essentially, the company is developing a technology capable of converting CO2 into building materials. The company is drawing carbon dioxide from its surroundings during the manufacturing of cement. Normally cement making generates massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, by some estimates as much as 2.5 billion tons in carbon dioxide per year. But Calera is designing a new type of cement and process that would remove 1 ton of CO2 from the air per ton of cement. One of the company's goals is to have 100 plants producing up to 1 billion tons of the new cement by 2015. On Calera's website, Founder Brent Constantz states that: "Calera plants can be co-located and operated at scale with many carbon dioxide sources because the robust nature of the technology allows it to be broadly adapted to specific circumstances, providing large and long-term profitable and sustainable new business."

Calera Corporation is a privately owned company funded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures. It is based in Los Gatos, California.

The company on its website also states: "We understand that some people may have doubts about a technology capable of converting CO2 (a bad thing) into building materials (a good thing). However, Calera’s MAP [Mineralization via Aqueous Precipitation] technology works and we have proven it in our pilot plant, and at our demonstration plant. After reviewing our technology in depth under confidentiality agreements, many independent scientists, researchers and industry experts agree with our conclusion. Also, we have filed over 170 patents around the world with over 3,500 claims and now have patents actually granted, demonstrating novelty. Over time, as more patents are granted and the details become public, the skeptics will learn more and more about what we actually do in our process."

You Too Can Help Protect the Orangutan from Extinction

2011-06-09T22:50:00.003+02:00

Primatologist Biruté Galdikas' efforts show how one person can make a difference. A world expert on orangutans, Dr. Galdikas and colleagues established Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) in 1986. According toOFI's website, "As a result of poaching and habitat destruction, viable orangutan populations are on the edge of extinction and could be gone within the next 10 years. Understanding is the first step to action. As President of OFI, Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas has studied orangutans longer than any other person in human history and has worked ceaselessly to save orangutans and forests, and to bring orangutans and their plight to the attention of the world."

The Good Times first heard about Dr. Galdikas and the OFI from journalist Jake Stevens, who wrote an article for Vanguard on a novel fundraising event to help raise money for endangered orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra.

You too can help protect these animals from extinction by, for example, donating to OFI, fostering an orphan orangutan, volunteering some of your time to OFI, or shopping online at the OFI store. Find out more on how to contribute to this effort from the "Get Involved" page of OFI's website.

The Good Times Contest Runner-Up

2011-06-05T08:00:00.006+02:00

Shy Prince with a Huge Heart

These may be the worst of times for Japan.
They are the best of times for Ryo Ishikawa.

Ishikawa is the 19-year-old golf sensation who has captured the minds and imaginations of his Japanese homeland. He is a big-time newsmaker at a very tender age. At a time when most teenagers are looking for an identity, Ishikawa has already made his way in the world and has done the extraordinary.

His concern for his nation and its people has driven him to make an incredible decision. He is donating all of his golf course earnings this season to the earthquake and tsunami relief efforts that will help his country rebound from these horrible disasters.

Last year he made nearly $2 million. He's a cinch to do better than that this year. As if that's not enough, he's also going to donate $1,200 for each birdie he makes this season. He made 341 last year, so that will be a hefty amount in and of itself.

The obvious question is, how can one so young be so wise, so profound in his caring?

One of the reasons that young Ishikawa is already one of the world's most accomplished golfers is not only his skill with his clubs, but the measure of his heart. He plays the game with courage, with determination.

His latest effort puts him beyond a role model. He is a shining example for young people everywhere. He's just one young man but he's out to prove that he can help make a difference, help put back the pieces of broken dreams and broken lives of a nation that feels enormous pain.

"I am playing for the people of Japan. I feel like I will be playing with a greater purpose this year," Ishikawa said after making his major decision.

In this day and age, where many young professional athletes are the poster-children for greed and bad behavior, Ishikawa has put himself in a category all his own. He knows what it's like to be in a virtual media fishbowl. His every move, wherever he goes, is scrutinized by a press corps of 50-60 assorted writers, photographers and television cameramen.

The attention has never phased him. He has been true to his course, and those who follow the game closely feel he will emerge as one of golf's brightest stars over the next decade.

Men like Ryo Ishikawa are a rare breed. Sports superstars at his age are even rarer; it is a very short list. But to find a 19-year-old with the heart, national pride and genuine caring for his countrymen is a supreme challenge.

What Ryo Ishikawa has done is simple. He has put his mind and his money where his heart says he should.

And that's a great thing, isn't it?

Tom Edrington

The Good Times Contest Winner

2011-06-01T22:49:00.003+02:00

Marie Trempe: Devoted Mother, Autism Education Trailblazer

Tony Attwood, author of The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome, believed that individuals with Asperger’s represent “bright threads on the rich tapestry of life.” Applying these bright threads to tapestries can result in works of art that stand out from the rest; however, properly applying these threads is not an easy task, and failure to stitch these threads effectively can result in tapestries that are either unfinished or lack the artistic creativity to stand out.

When a bright thread presented itself to Marie Trempe, a married mother of two from LaCrosse, Florida, she not only found a way to create a rich tapestry, but found a way to share her secrets with others.

When I first met Marie, I was a master’s student at the University of Florida pursuing my degree in Mass Communications. She posted a message on Craigslist requesting volunteers to assist with her son, Narottam’s, recovery from autism using the Son-Rise program. Barry and Samahira Kaufman started this program as a way to help their son, Raun, recover from his autism diagnosis; it encourages its practitioners to focus on interaction with the children rather than their disability.

However, as I soon observed, the Son-Rise program only provided a skeleton for Marie’s mission; other parts to Narottam’s developmental program came from a deft mixture of parental devotion and fierce persistence.

These qualities were immediately apparent when Marie and I met at Starbucks to discuss my volunteering responsibilities. I was immediately bombarded with questions that focused less on my actual qualifications and more on my innate qualities, such as how I acted around children and how patient I considered myself. It was also at this moment that I grasped the complete picture and learned about the obstacles that she had to overcome in dealing with Narottam’s development.

In addition to being autistic, Narottam had developed Opsoclonus myoclonus syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that caused his immune system to attack his tumor and then his brain. This would result in Narottam losing his speech and motor skills. It is not a well-known syndrome in the medical community; in fact, it affects fewer than 1 in 10,000,000 people per year. This rare disorder made it especially difficult for Marie to locate a suitable medical specialist to care for her son, and it led her to realize that she would have to take the lead concerning her son’s health. Therefore, she initiated her own program, which included eating gluten free/casein free foods, ingesting ayuervedic herbs and adopting crainosacral therapy to help with his digestion.

Marie also took the lead when applying Narottam’s Son-Rise program; she did this by setting up volunteer interviews and appointments as well as setting up scheduled goals for Narottam’s development. Monthly meetings would then occur at her house to analyze and discuss these goals. In addition, Marie also made sure that volunteers tracked their time with Narottam through Relate to Autism, an organization dedicated to the development and success of autistic children.

“You really are on your own in this process,” she said. “However, I am lucky in that I live in a supportive community. Also, I am the type of mother that never takes no for an answer.”

This persistence resulted in a calmer, more flexible child, one that is more willing to engage with his environment. This emboldened Marie with a new understanding of the learning potential in autistic children.

Her desire to see this potential realized in other kids, coupled with her latent determination and persistence, led to her starting a school for autistic children, known as Autism Oasis for Kids. This school, established in March 2010, is located in High Springs, Florida. It adopts the same approaches with its students that Marie applies to her son: a methodology that focuses on the needs of the children rather than their limitations.

Parents of students attending Autism Oasis for Kids have praised its role in helping their children develop. Anisha and Al Jackson from Alachua County, Florida, observed their son Alonzo has increased willingness to sing, dance and communicate. Anisha adds that he even calls her “mommy” and calls his grandmother “gwamma,” interactions that previously had been impossible.

As the school nears its first year of existence, Marie is hoping for Autism Oasis for Kids to expand, adding other programs such as a petting zoo, gardens and horses for hippotherapy. She also wants to include facilities that will help parents of autistic children, such as education and training on the nuances of autism.

“If you want to help a child with autism, help the parents. Forget them, and you forget the whole picture,” Marie said.

Autism Oasis for Kids is a testament of Marie’s willingness to share the secrets of her rich tapestry with others. When reflecting on her proudest moments with the school, she refers to her success in allowing children with autism to participate on a journey free of judgment from others and limitations placed on their abilities.

A journey that would not have been possible had it not been for the brave steps that she took forward for her son.

Jason Townsend-Rogers

Help Paul Nicklen Protect Our Environment

2011-05-28T23:35:00.003+02:00

Photographer Paul Nicklen wants to connect people to the environment. His photos tell people what's happening in the Arctic and Antarctic. For instance, sea ice is disappearing, affecting polar bears, microorganisms and a host of other creatures and their food chain. With it, an entire ecosystem is disappearing. Yet one picture of a bear dying of starvation can change our perception of the effects of climate change and connect us to the problem, and the issues.

See Paul's amazing photos on his website and hear him talk on TED:

Learning from the Floods

2011-05-23T23:00:00.003+02:00

As the Mississippi River's waters rise to levels unseen since the 1930s, and floodgates are opened to relieve pressure from the swollen river, scientists hope to turn these dire circumstances into an opportunity to study how the river behaves.

Researchers at Louisiana State University are looking at where the river will deposit sediment, the silt and sand in the water, and how the land around the river can be built up. In fact Louisiana has been losing about a football field of land per hour due to the fact that the Mississippi River has been engineered to prevent floods, and consequently it no longer drops sediment on the land, which is how the Mississippi River delta, including Louisiana and its cities, was formed. The absence of sediment also means the valuable wetlands are being lost, causing the loss of protection against hurricanes and storm surges from the sea.

Although devastating for many residents along the river, the terrible floods will allow scientists to determine how to stop the problem of land erosion. Observing how the silt is deposited and where it goes will reveal how to direct the silt to certain areas of land that can be built up. Then the flood waters could be directed to the areas that need the silt.

Go to the BBC's Science in Action programme of May 19 to hear more on this study.

Helping to Protect the Amazon

2011-05-19T21:31:00.002+02:00

No one will argue hard against preserving the Amazon. The region is acknowledged as comprising the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. Yet deforestation and environmental damage are extensive, due to farming practices, livestock pasture clearing and settlements. Many efforts have been put into place to save the Amazon rainforest, but much remains to be done.

Martin von Hildebrand and his Gaia Amazonas Foundation are steadily working to establish protected areas, managed by indigenous communities. Hildebrand recognizes the ability and value of indigenous populations to preserve their own environment.

Hildebrand first moved to the Amazon of Colombia in the 1970s to do research for his PhD in ethnology. There he witnessed the effects of environmental devastation from rubber extraction, gold mining and the processing of cocoa. In the 1980s he worked to obtain land rights for indigenous groups, and in 1994 he established Gaia Amazonas to help "these communities gain control of their territories, livelihoods and development based on their traditional knowledge and cultural values," according to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurhip. Since then Gaia Amazonas has secured 24 million hectares of Colombian Amazon for the 60,000 indigenous people who live there. It has also "set up 16 local indigenous organizations, with legal status and exercising local governance; 84 indigenous community schools; 9 indigenous health programs based on traditional medicine; and official spaces for negotiatons between indigenous organizations and goverment, which has led to the decentralization of state programmes and joint policy decisions."

Get involved in the Gaia Foundation and help preserve our global ecosystem. Click here to find out how.

Creating Passion for the Value of Science

2011-05-15T09:29:00.000+02:00

Daria Lopez-Alegria is an astrophysicist with a passion for stimulating dialogue about science and its impact on society. She is an entrepreneur and policy strategist whose out-of-the-box thinking associated with her work building connections among various global communities—scientists, academics, business executives and civic leaders—has spread the word, and helped the corporate and public worlds reach a common understanding of the tangled issues of technology innovation, sustainability and prosperity.
Daria is the founder of the S3 Initiative (space, science, society), a series of “learning exchanges” built to advance knowledge by demystifying science and turning new perspectives into opportunities by building connections and shared experience among the people who make policy, development and investment decisions that take into account the long-term benefit of society.

Through her S3 communiqués, called “Scientifically Yours”, Daria puts science on everyone’s doorstep. “Science impacts us every day, everywhere—yet a poverty of understanding or a fear of complexity holds us back. Are we fully informed when we cast our referendum votes to authorize use of new energy technologies or approve economic development with environmental impact? Can we converse about the intersection of science and faith? Or help a child understand what ‘carbon footprint’ means?” she asks.

Through the S3 Initiative and her consultancies, Space Bridges and Science Bridges, Daria inspires passion for discovery. She shares the joy of science, highlighting festivals, fairs, exhibits, conferences and lectures worldwide so more people can experience science and space first hand, and also organizes and produces some special events to that end. Through all of these she “builds the case for investing in science education to train our children and future generations in the rigorous and creative processes of exploration,” she says.

This once local, now international community aims to expand the exchange by sharing even more information and making ever-more connections worldwide. Daria believes wholeheartedly that: “By creating opportunities for exchange, we can expand perspective and create passion for the value of science.”

THE 99 - Superheroes from 99 Countries

2011-05-12T21:58:00.000+02:00

With a view to providing positive role models for children in the Islamic world, Naif Al Mutawa created the Teshkeel Media Group and THE 99, comic book heroes working together to improve the world. The idea behind these children's adventures is to "tell universally relevant stories" that promote "diversity, multiculturalism, personal responsibility and personal accountability", as quoted in Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011. THE 99 comics have so far been translated into 8 languages, with editions in Bangladesh, France, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Teshkeel Media Group states that by "Drawing upon our own history, culture and traditions, we aim to provide positive and inspirational images for children by creating properties that they can relate to." It's also good to remind the world that Islam's global values are shared by most humans everywhere, including honesty, peace, knowledge and tolerance.

For more on this useful initiative, here is the TED video with Naif Al Mutawa:

Peace Police

2011-05-08T19:31:00.002+02:00

Is there ever any good news from slums? Yes! In Rio's famed favelas, law enforcement efforts are cleaning out the drug gangs, police officers occasionally take part in the outdoor activities of residents and children play in the streets in what used to be extremely dangerous neighborhoods. It's been two and a half years since "police pacification units" have been introduced in Rio's most treacherous slums, including in one almost everyone has heard of, City of God. The aim is to establish these units in 160 communities. And Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff wants to introduce the program to other cities.

Although drug dealing, violence, fear and suspicion have not disappeared from Rio's favelas, the large police presence has improved conditions there for thousands of residents; more kids are going to school, garbage is being collected, crime has fallen and police officers are offering language and music lessons and even free karate classes.

It will take a long time before Brazil's slums are normal neighborhoods, but slowly but surely a "force for good" is transforming them into safer places where little by little the inhabitants are learning to trust each other and the police, and to understand drug trafficking and violence are not the only options available to them.

See The New York Times article and video, Taming the City of God, for more on this tremendous effort.

Paint that Doesn't Get Dirty

2011-05-04T22:31:00.001+02:00

Learn about a paint that is self-cleaning -- it simply doesn't get dirty. It's a biomimicry product, meaning its design is inspired by nature. In this case it is based on the phenomenon of water beading on a lotus leaf. The water turns into beads that slide down the leaf walls, which reduces the spread of algae, bacteria, fungus and other organisms that proliferate in dirty conditions. The plant in essence cleans itself. The paint, called StoLotusan Color, which imitates this effect, has been developed by Sto Corp. The company prides itself in "ensuring that the world in which we live is designed and built in line with environmental requirements and our needs as human beings." Sto's motto is "building with a conscience". This is good news indeed!

"A Lie of the Mind"

2011-04-30T18:00:00.003+02:00

Quite a bit has been written about this young lady in the past few weeks, but she's definitely worth mentioning again, for her positive attitude. Samantha Kittle has a brain tumor and she has decided to tell the world about the experience in her blog, www.alieofthemind.com/
As described in the Guardian on 26 April, "Moving, graphic, darkly funny, Samantha Kittle's blog is the story, not of an illness, but of a woman who refuses to be defined by one." Check it out; there's nothing like a sense of humor and a positive attitude to remind us of how precious life is.

Fighting the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Girls in America

2011-04-27T22:55:00.000+02:00

Rachel Lloyd is most certainly an inspiration, as described by Nicholas D. Kristof in his International Herald Tribune article of 25 April entitled, "American girls on the streets." Her book, Girls Like Us, is a first-hand account of her life as a teenage prostitute, the object of human traffickers and a victim of the sex trade. Finally able to escape this life, Rachel went on to establish GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services), whose stated mission is "to empower girls and young women, ages 12-24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS is committed to ending commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children by changing individual lives, transforming public perception, and revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact sexually exploited youth."

Read this brave and forceful book and join the GEMS Council of Daughters network or simply spread the word about Rachel Lloyd's efforts to end the commercial exploitation and trafficking of girls.

Job Factory: Providing Jobs for Unemployed Youth

2011-04-23T13:00:00.006+02:00

Job Factory provides job training to unemployed teenagers and young people in Basel, Switzerland and helps them find work, giving them hope and a second chance. No matter why the youths are jobless, so they do not begin their career on welfare, Job Factory offers six-month internships to approximately 300 young adults each year, in such areas as cooking and restaurant management, administration, housekeeping, printing, information technology, manufacturing, hairdressing, handicrafts and recycling. Job Factory also provides coaching through its Job Training Foundation, helping the youth recognize their talents and develop their capabilities while tackling their weaknesses and deficiencies.

Since Job Factory was established by Robert Roth in 2000, over 2,000 youths have taken part in Job Factory's training program. To date, 80% of Job Factory's trainees have successfully completed their internships and gone on to find an apprenticeship or job, or have gone back to school.

Job Factory is in fact Robert Roth's second endeavor to provide employment to young people in Switzerland. In 1976 he created Weizenkorn, a business that employs youths with psychological problems. That experience taught him that not just young people with psychological problems or physical disabilities were having trouble finding jobs. Others were also losing hope, so he founded Job Factory. Meanwhile, Weizenkorn has become the largest employer of people with psychological disorders in Switzerland.

Empowering Women and Children from Devastating Backgrounds

2011-04-19T06:30:00.001+02:00

According to Hagar International's website, this social business's purpose is, "singular; we restore broken lives. We welcome the toughest of human conditions. We stay focused on the individual. And we do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to restore life in all its fullness."

Hagar International's areas of impact are Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. There, Hagar works for the recovery, empowerment and reintegration of women and children who have been abused, exploited or abandoned.

Hagar International was founded in Cambodia by Pierre Tami. According to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship's publication Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011, which features Pierre Tami's work: "Nearly three decades after Cambodia emerged from the reign of the Khmer Rouge, it remains one of the 50 poorest countries of the world. A majority of the population still lives in desperate poverty and struggles to meet the most basic needs of food and clean water. Cambodia is also a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. Many children are trafficked to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam while within Cambodia children are forced into both prostitution and labor. Tricked by promises of well-paid work, many find themselves sold into Phnom Penh's brothels or reduced to begging or working in slave-like conditions."

It was after seeing women and children in these circumstances in the early 1990s in Cambodia that Tami originally set up a shelter for women there, an endeavor that has evolved into "an organization offering a range of social and market-oriented initiatives to break the cycle of poverty among vulnerable mothers and children." Recognizing that these people are often the victims of a lack of opportunity and prospects, Hagar offers them reintegration work in his commercial enterprises and through his partners, so the women can lead independent and productive lives. As stated on their website: "At Hagar, social programs meet social business. This approach, including recovery shelters, education, vocational training, and employment, has enabled hundreds of women and children to reintegrate into community again."

Wanda Landowska, Harpsichordist and Extraordinary Woman

2011-04-16T11:53:00.003+02:00

Wanda Landowska (1879-1959) was a Polish musician who restored the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century. As a child in Poland, Wanda excelled at the piano, which she studied at the Warsaw Conservatory. She also studied composition in Berlin and later taught in Paris.

In 1925 Wanda Landowska set up the École de Musique Ancienne near Paris. Her home outside the city became a center for the performance and study of ancient music. But of Jewish origin, Wanda was forced to leave France during World War II, escaping to New York in 1941. She later moved to Connecticut and re-established herself as a performer and teacher in the USA, touring extensively. An important person in Wanda Landowska's life, Denise Restout was editor and translator of her writings on music,which include Musique ancienne and Landowska on Music.

These videos give you a glimpse of this interesting and inspiring personality.

Keeping Stock For Disasters

2011-04-12T22:25:00.001+02:00

"Access to information, light and basic energy in a humanitarian crisis can be just as essential as food, water, medical supplies and shelter." Thus starts Social Entrepreneur Kristine Pearson's blog post on the World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship blog. Kristine is Chief Executive of Lifeline Energy, whose mission is to improve "the quality of the lives of vulnerable populations through dependable and environmentally friendly technologies. We are committed to providing renewable energy alternatives to those most in need."

Read about how Lifeline Energy provides lights and radios to populations displaced by such disasters as the Mozambique floods of 2000, the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, the Pakistan floods and more recently the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Kristine needs help to fund a stockpile of devices that provide immediate power and light, and radios for information on aid distribution, the whereabouts of loved ones and weather reports.

Help this important effort now by donating a Lifeline radio or light: click here.

Cancer One Day At A Time

2011-04-08T12:08:00.009+02:00

This news comes from Diane at Wings for Injured Athletes. It's an amazing effort:

Guardian angels often appear most when and where least expected, but most often when they are needed most. They remind us that life is good and there are those out there who care. It was with those sentiments in mind that non-profit Wings for Injured Athletes, Inc. was started and spread its wings in 2011 with the creation of a “Cancer, One Day At A Time,” inspirational book.

All of us could use a little motivation at some point in our lives, and cancer survivors are extremely adept at providing that inspiration. The “Cancer, One Day At A Time” book includes insightful, thought provoking and stimulating quotes from cancer survivors, cancer patients and cancer caregivers from all over the United States and as far away as Australia, Mexico and north of the border in Canada. The passages are humorous, entertaining, educational and heartfelt.

The book brings awareness to all forms of cancer, and it is a great resource. A portion of the funds raised will be donated to a variety of cancer causes and charities. It also allows those who have experienced cancer firsthand to share their struggles, successes, losses and thoughts. There is a great deal of therapy in sharing and power in words. When that distribution is in print, it is enduring.

It is true that angels come to us disguised. Wings for Injured Athletes, Inc. hopes that with its Caring for Cancer book, it is one angel that many will recognize.

Go to Wings for Injured Athletes for more information or contact Diane E. Alter

One Job for America

2011-04-04T08:30:00.000+02:00

Here's a great idea from America. Join the University of Kansas, Specialized Bicycle Components, Texas Connected, Real Robotics, Illinois Glove Company, Adobe, Christie's and other companies in pledging a job. And then read about the initiative from Carla Emil, the originator of this idea.

Bushmen and Sumerians

2011-03-31T14:30:00.004+02:00

By Bill Hinchberger

Bushmen and Sumerians. The First People and the first civilization akin to anything we might remotely recognize today. Their stories demonstrate how human beings have coped, and failed to cope, with localized water scarcity. As our planet enters “the coming age of permanent drought,” as author James G. Workman puts it in the subtitle of his book about the Bushmen, their experiences offer clues about how we might address our impending global water crisis. Not, as we shall see, that this will make it any easier for democratic politicians.

Sumerians

In her book Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map, Cleo Paskal examines sundry ways that geopolitics may be affected by climate change and resource scarcity. Nowhere is her book more poignant than where it compares our water problems today with those of the people who inhabited what is now southeastern Iraq, between the Tigres and Euphrates rivers, starting around the mid-fourth millennium B.C.

Calling them “exceptional hydraulic engineers,” Paskal describes how the Sumerians controlled floods and embarked on irrigation, ensuring food surpluses that freed up people for specialization that led to advances in pottery wheels, writing and legal systems. By the second millennium B.C., their farms and city-states extended from Morocco to Kazakhstan. With extra food and improved sanitation, the population grew and things “became a bit crowded.” Specialization continued to encompass weaving, metalwork, masonry and leatherwork – not to mention fighting. Professional soldiers began do battle over water resources. (The word “rival” comes from the Latin for “on the same river,” Paskal informs us.)

“Some of the farming techniques turned huge areas sterile, and with temperamental rains, the water supply situation could become desperate,” Paskal writes. “The core of the problem was too many people, too little food and water, and too few places to secure more supplies. This relative over-population led to cycles of inflation, over-taxation, unemployment, famine, revolts, war, anarchy, and disease.” Following a few “millennia of dramatic ups and downs, the whole system collapsed and the population crashed.” In 800 A.D., the population of what is now Iraq was 30 million; at the beginning of the 20^th century, before the current boom, it stood at just five billion.

Paskal draws a parallel to the 21^st century: “In many places, as happened with the Sumerians, we are already pushing the environmental limits through relative over-population and ill-advised development models. When erratic precipitation and extreme events are added, areas that are barely holding on may find themselves slipping over the brink.” In her final chapter, Paskal notes: “Ever since the days of the Sumerians there has been an assumption that great powers could buy their way out of problems by shoring up domestic deficiencies with imported supplies and political alliances.”

Bushmen

Workman’s Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought recounts the contemporary saga of the natives of Africa’s Kalahari Desert who “according to geneticists, linguists, and ecological scientists… constituted the remnants of the world’s oldest and most successful civilization.” In the style of Moby Dick, alternating the exposition of facts with the tragic narrative of tribal matriarch Qoroxloo and her cohorts, Heart of Darkness tells the story of how the Bushmen relied on traditional knowledge and practices to survive severe water-scarcity and resist the government of Botswana’s efforts to relocate them “for their own good.” Officials could destroy their borehole but not their spirit.

Workman’s book is a tribute to old-school independent journalism in an era increasingly dominated by Fox vs. HuffPo advocacy reporting. With evidence and without malice, Workman goes beyond the usual targets (diamond miners) to diss everyone from the “visionary” president of Botswana to conservationists and ecotourism advocates (“water for elephants only”). Self-appointed international do-gooders get their comeuppance as well: “Liberals were demanding that governments like Botswana must protect people like Qoroxloo from privatization contracts, but at that precise moment Qoroxloo’s band sought a privatization contract to protect themselves from Botswana’s government.” Such a book would never find backing from a foundation looking to push its particular version of the truth.

Despite outing all those bad guys and a tragic story, Workman is an optimist. He concludes that we can learn from the Bushmen’s behavior to adapt to a world of water scarcity. The best summary of that point of view might be the seven-step program to Climate-Proof Your Business that he published in Business Week magazine.

I would love to join Workman in his optimism, but I am afraid that he left out one thing – or, rather, he mentioned it in passing and then forgot about it. In his description of Botswana’s efforts to force the Bushmen into camps designed to help them assimilate into modern society, Workman notes, “Ironically, the government’s clean and brutal forced departure had brought one unintended silver lining: It relieved ecological pressure on those who remained.” The Bushmen’s traditional practices would not have worked if all those people had stayed in the desert after soldiers destroyed their borehole.

Politicians and Population

My concern isn’t so much that Workman abandoned the population issue: it is that such forgetfulness predominates global thinking. Paskal is more explicit about the role of over-population in the decline and fall of the Sumerians, but she ignores population control in her chapter of policy recommendations. At international conferences, boosters from India tout their country’s population growth as a “demographic dividend” while the country’s groundwater is depleted at alarming rates. Further north, Russia seemed to have solved the problem without really trying – for 15 years the country experienced a natural decline in population. Instead of rejoicing, leaders encouraged people to have more children. Posters depicted a young woman with three babies with the caption, "Love for your nation starts with love for family." In 2009 the downward trend was reversed. Many countries, including the United States with its chronic overconsumption, offer tax write-offs for children.

Democratic politicians know where their votes come from, so maybe we’re all doomed. But just in case somebody should send them copies of Paskal and Workman’s books.

Bill Hinchberger is a freelance writer and the principal of Hinchberger Consulting, with offices in France and Brazil. He is also the founding editor of BrazilMax.com, an online travel guide about South America’s largest country, and the host of BrazilMax Radio, an online radio program. Previously he worked as a foreign correspondent for The Financial Times and Business Week, as a contributing editor for Institutional Investor, and as director of communications and external relations for the World Water Council. He served four years as president of the São Paulo Foreign Correspondents Association and has contributed to a broad range of publications, including ARTnews, Architectural Record, Metropolis, National Wildlife, Science, The Lancet and The Nation. Hinchberger Consulting offers services to meet the communications and editorial needs of international organizations, NGOs and companies. These include conference reporting, production of case studies of success, media strategy development and training. Since 2009 assignments have taken Hinchberger beyond Brazil and France to Argentina, Belgium, Dubai, India, Kenya, Morocco, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Latin American Studies, both from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a participant in National Geographic's Destination Stewardship Survey and a member of the editorial board of Mercado Ético (Ethical Markets), a multimedia project about sustainable development in Brazil.

Do Something!

2011-03-28T14:00:00.001+02:00

DoSomething calls itself the "largest org in the US for teens and social change." The organization further describes itself as: "A driving force in creating a culture of volunteerism, DoSomething.org is on track to activate two million young people in 2011. By leveraging the web, television, mobile, and pop culture, DoSomething.org inspires, empowers and celebrates a generation of doers: teenagers who recognize the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action." Indeed, DoSomething's causes include helping with disaster response and relief, addressing and finding solutions to teen violence and bullying, bringing attention to human trafficking and child labor among other international human rights issues, and offering information and action ideas on animal welfare.

One project being highlighted currently is "Rainbow Caps." Eleven-year-old Mahima Aggarwal is making crochet caps for kids with cancer in India. Contact her at rainbowcaps.com, send her yarn and hooks, or help her make the caps.

Another project is the "Battle for the Bands." This campaign aims to promote music education. Then there's an effort to provide jeans to homeless youths.

So if you have a cause that needs funding, if you want to start a club, if you want to contribute to a cause, then do so with DoSomething!

1+3: Partnering for China

2011-03-24T23:08:00.000+01:00

It has been three years since the China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD) launched its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) “1+3” project. The CBCSD has worked together with BASF and 14 other member companies and their “1+3” teams, actively exploring and promoting both a local and international approach to social responsibility in China.

The CBCSD is a coalition of 75 leading Chinese and foreign enterprises in China. Officially established in 2003, the CBCSD recognizes the importance of sustainable development and aims to nurture closer cooperation, dialogue and exchange between business, government and other likeminded organizations.

Under the CSR “1+3” initiative, member companies are expected to train three or more of their partners from their supply chain, based on their own experiences with CSR. Issues addressed include environmental protection, labor issues and human rights protection. Thirty-six companies joined the first phase of the program under the guidance of 11 multinationals, including BASF, and several Chinese multinationals, including Sinopec and COSCO.

The CBCSD is continuing the in-depth development of the project’s first round and launching the second round, expanding its influence, organizing “1+3” project partner enterprises to take part in energy and climate change projects and other key activities, and further deepening the implementation of CSR practices in member companies.

The CSR “1+3” project has achieved remarkable results at home and abroad with its implementation in nearly 120 domestic enterprises, with coverage and recognition by over 100 domestic media.

“The project helps BASF to gain an additional platform for mutual exchange with its business partners, reducing risk and strengthening long-term strategic partnerships,” said Dr. Zheng Daqing from BASF Greater China.

This innovative approach to integrating CSR into business operations has supported the rapid development of small- and medium-sized Chinese enterprises. To date, the CSR “1+3” project has reached 120 domestic companies, and was regarded as the best CSR practice case by the United Nations Global Compact.

The CBCSD is also active in other areas of the sustainability agenda. On energy and climate, the CBCSD’s Corporate Energy Conservation and Climate Change Project aims to bring together government and business to exchange information and develop cooperation around greenhouse gas and other emissions. The CBCSD is also actively developing and disseminating various frameworks, calculation methods and guidelines around CO2 and other emissions, as well as on health, safety and environmental issues.

This article was first published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain magazine by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

LifeGate: People, Planet, Profit

2011-03-20T22:35:00.003+01:00

LifeGate puts the environment at the center of doing business. One of its projects, Impatto Zero (Zero Impact), which lowers carbon emissions through reforestation, has created over 20 million square meters of new forests since the Italian company was founded in 2000 by entrepreneur Marco Roveda. Another LifeGate activity is LifeGate Engineering, which advises residences, businesses and public services on renewable energy systems, while LifeGate Renewable Energy distributes the clean energy. Another business, LifeGate Ecojeans, makes organic cotton jeans.

LifeGate founder and president Marco Roveda started and then sold two companies at a young age, bringing him wealth, but he soon realized he was less interested in making money than in promoting quality-of-life principles and non-materialistic values. Thus he created LifeGate, which "offers a unique model for a new economy, where business has a conscience and people are aware of their actions, and how they affect others and the environment." LifeGate's website includes thousands of articles on health, the environment, natural foods, electric cars and a myriad of other subjects endorsing social and environmental awareness, and challenging readers to think about how their actions and acquisitions impact others and the planet.

From Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

SCALEAfrica: Transforming Lives

2011-03-16T02:38:00.006+01:00

This is the story of an architect who, having traveled to a school in Zambia and seen the often limited conditions in which the primary schools operate there, decided to devote some of her spare time to fund-raising and designing affordable and sustainable schools and housing in Africa. Erinn McGurn's side project has turned into her life mission. In 2006 she created SCALEAfrica to work on multiphased projects that include school renovation, improved sanitation, the design and construction of classrooms that use local labor and building materials, passive solar techniques and natural ventilation, as well as the provision of basic educational materials and furniture. To ensure community buy-in and respect for the local culture, Erinn works with governmental and tribal officials and the Ministry of Education. She has now left the architectural firm where she worked in New York on residential design to concentrate full time on SCALEAfrica, which is funded entirely by private donations. Erinn's stated aim is to devise a scalable, sustainable design model that can be replicated in various places.

SCALEAfrica is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that, in its own words, is "dedicated to the improvement of rural schools in sub-Saharan Africa through the use of sustainable building techniques and active community participation. The model of sustainable design is intended to allow communities to build in ways that can be supported and maintained by their existing resources, with a focus on improving public health and education. SCALEAfrica aims to meld principles of sustainability with practical and cost effective local solutions." Do consider a donation or other support so SCALEAfrica can keep up its tremendous work!

Empowering Women in the Workforce

2011-03-12T23:01:00.000+01:00

Founded in 1991, Phulki demonstrates how investing in on-site daycare services at the workplace, be it in factories, companies or government offices, can benefit working mothers as well as their employers. The organization was started in Bangladesh by Suraiya Haque as a way to allow disadvantaged mothers to breastfeed their infants while at work and gain access to childcare during the day. Today Phulki operates 130 childcare facilities, which the company either manages for a fee or runs with the help of the employers whose company personnel are trained in daycare management by Phulki. Business owners in Bangladesh who have worked with Phulki concur that Phulki's daycare services lead to employees who are more productive at work, happier and absent less often. Haque's efforts have also helped women stay in jobs, allowing them greater economic security and independence as well as increased gender balance and empowerment.

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Driving Sustainable Production and Consumption

2011-03-07T07:45:00.006+01:00

The green economy, and balancing economic and environmental development, is an increasingly important topic in China. Global companies must demonstrate leadership in incorporating sustainability issues in their own operations and product offering. China is one of Nokia’s largest markets, and Nokia has had a substantial presence in the country for 25 years. Like in all Nokia’s local operations, sustainability issues in Nokia China are managed according to global policies and standards, including local production and supply chain management, as well as raising consumer awareness of take-back and recycling programs.

Based on a visionary goal created a decade ago, Nokia has set up a mobile industry value chain in the Xingwang Industrial Park in Beijing that “clusters” Nokia and its key suppliers to produce mobile phones under stringent environmental standards with regard to manufacturing, distribution, sales and recycling. Commissioned by Nokia in 2009, research at the Xingwang Industrial Park shows how well environmental protection and business goals can go hand in hand, achieving considerable cost reduction for the companies located in the area by reducing energy consumption, optimizing material use, and reducing both logistics and inventory costs. It has been called “one of the largest and most complete industry value chains in the world.”

Proximity with key strategic suppliers offers a number of financial and environmental advantages, including a decrease in energy consumption equivalent to nearly 45,000 metric tons of standard coal, reduction of CO2 emissions by nearly 88,000 metric tons, water conservation by half a million metric tons, as well as a reduction in packaging, equivalent to the volume of sustainable logging of more than 1,500 hectares of Chinese red pine forests. The direct economic benefits of energy conservation alone are RMB 672 million (close to US$ 100 million). The industrial park was developed with the support of both the Beijing Municipal Government and the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area.

The three Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – are the cornerstone of China’s environmental policy and, to meet these goals, Nokia launched the first mobile device take-back scheme in China in cooperation with China Mobile and Motorola in 2005. During the first year, 1,500 recycling bins were placed in retail shops and repair centers in 40 cities, and the campaign was promoted through TV, radio, newspaper and digital channels. Incentives were used to encourage consumers to return their used devices, such as free airtime for mobile subscribers from China Mobile. Six additional manufacturers have joined the campaign, and coverage of recycling bins has been extended to smaller cities. So far Green Box has collected about 150 metric tons of e-waste. The campaign has received much media attention and has contributed to raising awareness of the importance of recycling in China, and the fact that everyone can make a difference with their own behavior.

As a leader in the telecommunications industry with over 1.2 billion people holding a Nokia phone, the company has a lot of responsibility – but also the power to drive sustainable choices.

This article was first published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain magazine by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Wild Animal Sanctuary Steps It Up a Notch!

2011-03-03T16:47:00.001+01:00

Last August I wrote a post about the amazing work of the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado. The Sanctuary is "the oldest and largest nonprofit Sanctuary in the US dedicated exclusively to rescuing captive exotic and endangered large carnivores, providing them with a wonderful life for as long as they live, and educating about the tragic plight faced by an estimated 30,000 such animals in America today.”

A couple of weeks ago, the Sanctuary took its efforts a step further when it rescued 25 lions from small traveling circuses in Bolivia. The organization worked with Animal Defenders International (ADI) in a campaign called Operation Lion Ark.

ADI championed the legislation that made circus animals illegal in Bolivia, the reason why so many lions needed to be rescued. As is typical with animals in a circus, the lions apparently spend most of their lives in small cages on the backs of trucks. The wide-open spaces of the Wild Animal Sanctuary are sure to make a big difference in the lives of these carnivores.

ADI president Jan Creamer said: "This has been a dream for so long for us, to empty a whole country of its circus animals. The lions are going into a life that they have never dreamed of. We wanted a place where we could bring all the lions together; we didn't want them split up."

According to a 17 February article in the Denver Post by Jeffrey Leib, "Bob Barker, the former host of 'The Price is Right' game show and a longtime animal-rights activist, contributed $2 million to ADI for its animal-rescue work, and his funding helped construct the new fabric-covered lion house that covers nearly 10 acres at the sanctuary. 'My only hope is that this will open the door to putting circuses out of business, as far as animals are concerned, in other countries,' Barker said."

The picture above, taken from the Wild Animal Sanctuary website, shows one of the lions in his new home. I can't bear the pictures of them in the tiny trailers, uncomfortable cages and other makeshift homes in which they used to live.

The Sanctuary has eight enclosures where the lions will live until they are used to the sometimes harsh Colorado climate. This summer, I hope to take my children to see the lions after they are released into the habitats surrounding the lion house.

Art Replacing the Media

2011-02-26T15:55:00.005+01:00

Using various forms of art and expression, artists are addressing today's atrocities. Helen Doyle's film, Les Messagers (The Messengers), is one movie with a mission: it is a 2003 documentary that follows six artists whose work denounces war and barbarity. Produced by InformAction, the film is about the Muslim experience in the siege of Sarajevo.

Founded in 1971, InformAction is a Canadian company that produces documentaries on such powerful and disturbing subjects as rape, madness and war. It thus promotes art that carries strong social or political messages. Film in particular is an influential art form that can replace the media by communicating factual information or new perspectives on current events.

For a glimpse of the varied social and other issues skillfully addressed in film, see InformAction's website here.

Helping Fight Malnutrition Among Children in Mexico

2011-02-22T04:22:00.015+01:00

The aim of Un Kilo de Ayuda (One Kilo of Help) is to eradicate child undernourishment in Mexico. Founded in 1984 by entrepreneur Jose Ignacio Avalos Hernandez, Un Kilo de Ayuda is helping to cut the rate of malnutrition in hundreds of communities throughout Mexico. The non-profit social business provides nutritional surveillance, anaemia detection, nutritional education, nutritional package distribution, neurodevelopment and early stimulation evaluation as well as safe water to 50,000 children under the age of 5 in rural Mexico every two weeks. For them, the program has achieved annual weight increases of 5-8% and decreases of 1.5-3% in moderate and severe malnutrition.

Un Kilo de Ayuda also tracks progress and makes recommendations for interventions via a digital database developed with Microsoft. It has accomplished strong community support with personnel that is mainly comprised of volunteers.

Check out the Un Kilo de Ayuda website here.

From Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2011, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Free Education For All - "The First Grader"

2011-02-19T13:00:00.002+01:00

"The First Grader" is a film infused with inspirational messages, advocating tolerance, tenacity and determination. It forcefully argues that education is a right and shows one fight for the right to a free education. "The First Grader" also communicates messages about the possibility of changing and growing at any age, and about the healing power of children. In a world where baby boomers are retiring and where many countries have huge populations of young people, this film also inspires us to think about the opportunities afforded by combining nurseries with old-folks homes or giving grandparents and seniors greater opportunity to care for grandchildren and youth. Here's a glimpse of this movie, based on a true story:

GoldcrestFilms
Writer: Anne Peacock (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Director: Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl, Bleak House)
Producers: David M. Thompson, Sam Feuer, Richard Harding
Cast: Naomie Harris, Oliver Litondo

Global Changemakers

2011-02-16T02:00:00.002+01:00

Since the community was founded in 2007, the British Council Global Changemakers have grown into a group of over 600 teenagers from 110 countries whose stated mission is "to empower youth to catalyse positive social change." They call themselves activists, volunteers and social entrepreneurs, and run their program around three pillars: learning, doing and advocacy.

Take changemaker Dan Cullum from New Zealand, for example. His goal is to prompt young people to make a difference simply by wearing a certain tee-shirt for a year. His says, "I am Dan." Interested in the plight of the underprivileged near his home, Dan has been working with Maori and Pacific Island minors in South Auckland who have become involved in drugs, alcohol abuse and violence, engaging them in local camps and sports activities.

Trevor Dougherty from the US is an "online activist" who uses social media such as YouTube and Facebook to effect social change. He is already one of CNN's top citizen journalists. His goal is to promote Internet access as a right for all youth everywhere, rather than a privilege for some, and to turn the "me" online community attitude to the "we" online spirit.

Mai Shbeta from Israel has a Palestinian Muslim father and a Jewish mother and lives in the only village in Israel where Palestinians and Jews reside together. As her background and experience have proved to her that peace between the two peoples is possible, her goal is to foster peace in the Middle East by bringing Palestinian and Israeli youth together through peace camps.

If you wish to join the network of Global Changemakers, register here.

Sustainable Steel Production

2011-02-13T04:30:00.003+01:00

China produces nearly half a billion tons of steel annually. The resulting steel slag production, the partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal from the rest, amounts to some 40 million tons. Decreasing iron ore resources, coupled with increasing energy costs, have led Shanghai-based Baosteel to find ways to process the steel very efficiently while protecting the environment.

Baosteel’s sustainable development efforts are focused on integrating green management into the steel-making process. This covers procurement, research and development through to production, in order to build environmentally-friendly and harmonious communities.

A key concern for the company is the reuse of industrial solid secondary resources, because producing steel is highly energy-intensive. Ten years ago, the company started developing a technology to process steel slag in its molten condition. The core technology, which cools, breaks down and separates slag from iron with multiple media in a tightly-closed vessel, is highly efficient, clean, safe and resource-saving. Furthermore, many years of large-scale industrial application have proved that this technology makes it easy to conduct magnetic finished product slag separation.

Baosteel, the largest and most modern steel complex with the widest geographical reach in China, has also launched a green procurement initiative for purchasing materials, goods and equipment. The company always uses refined materials to reduce natural resource consumption, and reduces energy consumption and slag generation in the smelting process.

The company is also developing environmentally friendly technology, and improving the effectiveness of its green management capacities through key energy conservation and environmental protection technologies. These include: blast furnace gas dry-process dedusting, converter gas dry-process dedusting, and blast furnace coal injection, among others.

Another key activity is end-of-pipe treatment where Baosteel has developed a full package of water treatment technologies, ranging from Yangtze River water intake to water use controls in production and wastewater discharge. The company is also active in reducing air pollution, including flue gas desulfurization at its coal-fired power plants.

Established in 2007, its automatic monitoring system allows on-line automatic environmental monitoring, on-line information inquiry and reporting, etc.

Baosteel has always supported the construction and development of sites where it runs its businesses, strengthening the development of the regional economy and participating in community activities.

This article was first published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain magazine by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Campaigning through Painting

2011-02-09T11:00:00.003+01:00

Frogs, white lions, sharks are going extinct, while the mining of Coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo is destroying the mountain gorilla's natural habitat.

Activist and artist Anjali Chandrashekar is bringing these points to the public's attention, using painting for environmental conservation. Art is inspirational and can make people pay attention to certain issues. Visual art teaches people to look, with intensity. Thus Anjali, a 17-year old artist from India, is using her talent to highlight important environmental problems and health issues and to inspire action. One example, the painting above, is simply called "Gorilla."

Anjali writes that her life goal is, "to share my love for art and the world and spread a good message with my brush." She is doing this successfully, selling her artwork to raise awareness and funds for a number of national and international organizations. She writes: "Art is a very powerful form of expression and through this medium I seek to reach out to the masses both educated as well as illiterate. ... Some of the causes for which I have worked are -- anti-whaling, the conservation of endangered species of animals like Westland gorillas, tigers, Olive Ridleys [sea turtles] and many more. Conservation of marine bio-diversity is another issue that I have devoted my efforts on." Read more about Anjali Chandrashekar, her art and her accomplishments here.

Inspired by an Example

2011-02-06T13:00:00.000+01:00

Nick Vujicic is an inspiration. He is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Life Without Limbs, a non-profit faith-based organization. He also has Attitude Is Altitude, an organization that "aims to help people meet life's challenges with purpose, perspective, principles and perseverance." Plus he's a motivational speaker, evangelist, author, music and video producer and director, and an entrepreneur.

"Everyone has a story," Nick said recently during one of his many speaking engagements. His is that he was born without arms or legs, but has decided to make the best of it, and inspire by example. "Make every day count," he adds. "What if you only had one day left to live. You would set your priorities. Mine are: 1) Make sure your family knows you love them; 2) Phone someone you've been meaning to call to say 'thank you'; 3) Tell someone you love them." One of his inspirational messages is: "Even when you're at your lowest, you can still give -- you can give hope to someone else. You can always give."

Today Nick's mission as he travels the world is "to motivate people from all walks of life in every circumstance; to gain perspective; to find their purpose; to live the big dream." As stated on his website: "Nick Vujicic's life demonstrates that all things are possible."

Investing in Senior Care

2011-02-02T13:00:00.002+01:00

Paul R. Hogan is Chairman and Founder of Home Instead Senior Care. Home Instead is the largest privately-held senior care business of its kind in the world with operations in 15 countries: the United States, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Puerto Rico. It operates more than 900 offices providing 40 million hours of care annually to 60,000 elderly citizens while employing 65,000 caregivers. It was the first company to apply a franchise model to home care, creating a new business segment.

Specifically, Home Instead Senior Care offers companionship, not just care. CAREGivers, paid individuals who are carefully trained and screened, provide mostly non-medical services such as helping with walking, reminding to take medication, monitoring diet and eating, stimulating mental awareness, playing cards and games, writing letters and correspondence, mailing bills, visiting friends, and many other activities. CAREGivers also help with home duties: helping with laundry, changing linens, dusting, assisting with pets, shopping for groceries, running errands or escorting for shopping, etc. They also provide assistance with personal services such as eating, grooming, dressing, bathing and mobility.

Home Instead Senior Care's mission is "to enable seniors to live happy, healthy and independent lives in their homes." Caregiving is tailored to the needs of the senior, whether it lasts a few hours or 24 hours per day. No experience or medical skills are needed to become a Home Instead CAREGiver, and the job is most fulfilling. Many CAREGivers are retirees! It's a win-win situation - people helping people.

For more information on this brilliant way of balancing the care of others with the satisfaction of giving and the pleasure of forming relationships, or to find home care for someone you love, contact: Home Instead Senior Care Office Contact Information: Omaha, 13323 California St., Omaha, NE 68154, Phone: 888 484 5759 http://www.homeinstead.com/

Eating with a Spiritual Compass

2011-01-29T14:00:00.005+01:00

Chef Marcus Samuelsson, owner in Harlem, New York of a restaurant called the Red Rooster, has lots to say about the impact of food on popular culture and values. Born in Ethiopia but raised in Sweden, Samuelsson's background is as diverse as his cuisine. He promotes "eating with a spiritual compass, with spirituality in mind". He explains: we need to think harder about what's in our plates, where it came from and how what we eat affects us and our planet. Is it tomato or corn season when you eat it or has it been shipped from who knows
where? Remember when a few decades ago Sunday lunch in the US and other countries used to be the main, leisurely and big meal of the week? How about only eating meat once a week? Or a day of fasting periodically? Or going without butter for a few days? Another way of eating with a spiritual mind is learning to cook with leftovers and wasting less food. An important added benefit: eating with a spiritual compass leads to better health.

Samuelsson also maintains that food can create inclusion and conversation. It's the easiest way, he says, to start a conversation and learn about people, customs, norms. Gathering together for food also allows more conversation, when that discussion takes place over a meal. "It's all about sharing." Or as he states in his book, New American Table, "Our food experiences may be diverse, but they all establish a common ground and give us a reference point from which to share in each other's life."

Good food is diverse food. A good meal is not just made up of natural ingredients, if at all possible; it must also be an experience, what you think and feel as you eat the food. That diversity is also what Samuelsson aims to bring to his restaurants, both in the foodstuffs and flavors he uses, and in the staff he hires. His NY restaurant employs 50 people from Harlem. There he teaches them not just how to cook and work, but how to present themselves, write a resume, shine their shoes for an interview. He employs locals and celebrates area farmers while engaging the community, offering people something good, something different, novelty and openness, yet based in the cuisine they are familiar with.

According to Samuelsson, there's a Harlem that's ripe for revitalization in every city. Food in these places can be used to convey the standards that a community needs to thrive. Why give candy bars to children as snacks, or potato chips rather than fruit? Because they are cheaper than the natural products? Samuelsson points out the irony: progress in an Ethiopian town is the appearance of a grocery store that stocks packaged food, while progress in an American suburb is a new farmers' market. Revitalization means making ripe, seasonal, healthy produce available and affordable to the general public in stores everywhere and to youngsters in schools. At the same time it means introducing creativity and a melding of cuisines, ideas and customs.

Reducing Emissions and Benefitting the Environment

2011-01-26T07:35:00.000+01:00

Lafarge Shui On Cement is actively reducing the environmental footprint of its cement production and contributing to social development in China. One of the company’s first steps has been to close down 38 high-energy consumption, obsolete vertical kilns and wet kiln production lines. To do so, it invested some US$ 900 million in technology upgrades and in new dry lines from 2005-2009.

Dust, NOx and SO2 emissions have been cut by 90%, 49% and 78% respectively per metric ton of clinker produced in the cement plants, and CO2 emissions have been reduced by 29% per metric ton of cement produced between 1990 and 2009. Lafarge Shui On Cement is continuing to explore further low-carbon energy solutions, including projects focusing on sludge usage, soil remediation and quarry rehabilitation.

In local communities throughout China, Lafarge Shui On Cement is actively engaging its stakeholders, sharing its experiences and providing the general public with a safe, comfortable and high-quality living environment. During a June 2009 CEO roundtable for the country’s leading cement companies organized by Lafarge Group and the China Cement Association, all participating cement companies signed a sustainable development declaration, the first common plan and commitment to sustainable development shared by China’s top cement enterprises.

As another major achievement of this meeting, five top Chinese cement companies joined the Cement Sustainable Initiative (CSI). It has been regarded as a milestone in China’s cement history as they are the first Chinese cement companies to join.

In September 2009, Lafarge Shui On Cement signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government to accelerate the city’s sustainable development. This strategic partnership covers all of Lafarge’s business operations in China, from cement to ready-mixed concrete to aggregates and plasterboard. Lafarge has already operated several successful modules in the city, including a waste heat recovery project, a sludge usage project, soil remediation via sustainable cement kiln practices, and a project centered on the use of flue gas desulfurization gypsum (a waste material produced through the desulfurization of flue gases in power stations and heating plants in high amounts that has a good potential for application in building structures).

These projects explore new solutions for the harmless treatment and use of local waste and have presented good results. For example, the sludge usage project in Chongqing could help the city treat over 30,000 metric tons of sludge per year, which not only reduces the amounts of sludge occupying land, but also precludes the need for investment in incineration, and significantly reduces coal consumption, dioxin pollution and CO2 emissions.

This article was first published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain magazine by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

One Woman against the Odds in Somalia

2011-01-22T02:00:00.002+01:00

Although gunmen raided her hospital in Somalia destroying equipment and records, Dr. Hawa Abdi's compound continues to offer a refuge to thousands. The clinic, school and feeding program she built on her property over three decades help an estimated 100,000 people find relative safety from the fighting and poverty in Somalia, not far from Mogadishu. Today Dr. Adbi's persistence and humanitarianism has resulted in a two-story 400-bed hospital with free medical care, 3 operating theaters, 6 doctors, 43 nurses, a school with 800 students and a center for women where they learn nutrition and sewing. What's more, Dr. Abdi's work will continue despite her 63 years of age and an operation to remove a tumor in her brain; her two daughters will ensure the haven of healing she built continues. Read more about this amazing woman in an IHT article.

Microbes that Might Cure Us

2011-01-18T15:00:00.001+01:00

A huge number of microbes live in and on us. They're in our lungs, mouths and intestines, and on our skin. Scientists know they help us digest, breaking down what we eat, but they are discovering that each individual's microbiome, the collection of microbes in their body, helps protect them. For example, bacteria in the nose produce antibiotics that attack viruses we breathe in. They have also been found to cure infections in the digestive tract and elsewhere and to help the immune system. Yet researchers still don't know exactly how microbes operate on our health, or why studies disclose that diseases are often associated with major changes in our bacterial ecosystems. For example, people who suffer from asthma have a different set of microbes from people without the condition. And obese people have species not found in normal-weight people. So scientists are investigating the huge number of microbes in our bodies and their DNA to find out more about how they help keep us healthy. That knowledge will help discover how the microbiome can be used to fight disease. Read Carl Zimmer's article How Microbes Defend and Define Us for more details.

Driving Sustainable Development in China

2011-01-15T02:00:00.000+01:00

ITT, a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company, operates on all seven continents, but is currently seeing its fastest and largest growth in China – where ITT’s water and wastewater pump systems play an increasingly prominent role in that country's expanding infrastructure development. By investing and establishing a presence in China over the past century, ITT has built credibility and a reputation for reliability among the Chinese people and government officials.

ITT has demonstrated its commitment to promoting sustainable development in China through the installation of energy- and water-efficient products and technologies in small- and large-scale projects, thus tackling China’s water access and quality issues.

Frequently, ITT’s customers in China are cities and project-based corporations working on major government infrastructure projects such as Three Gorges Dam, the South-North Water Diversion Project, the Suzhou Subway and the country’s numerous wastewater initiatives in Beijing, Shenyang and Kunming. Most recently, ITT committed to helping China’s Chongqing Water Group construct the sustainable water transport networks that are necessary to improve the quality and supply of freshwater in Chongqing, the largest city in Western China.

Internally, ITT’s manufacturing plants in Shenyang and Nanjing incorporate "green" practices, such as water treatment technologies that enable almost total water reuse and zero wastewater discharge – with the Nanjing plant conserving over 18,000 liters of water and wastewater each day.

To address the country’s water access and quality issues, ITT collaborated with the Center for Rural Drinking Water Safety, part of China’s Ministry of Water Resources, to complete two water treatment plants in China as part of a pilot project to find sustainable solutions for rural drinking water issues. The two plants supply more than 15,000 local residents with purified water that meets or surpasses national standards.

ITT also promotes sustainable development in China through its philanthropic efforts in the region. ITT Watermark, ITT’s signature corporate citizenship program, partnered with the China Women’s Development Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and children, to provide eight rural schools with safe drinking water, new sanitation facilities, and education on water safety and hygiene. ITT also deployed its technology to address water distress following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, providing safe drinking water to more than 200,000 earthquake survivors.

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes of Your Time to View Progress

2011-01-11T13:00:00.000+01:00

Watch this short video to see Swedish medical doctor and statistician Hans Rosling point out the amazing reality of global development since 1810. The visualization really brings the data to life and shows the great progress made.

Offering a Jumpstart in Life

2011-01-07T02:00:00.020+01:00

The Leapfrog Scholarship was established in 2010 by Maya Grodman and her family, as an extension of the Maya Library project started in 2004. Only 13 years old at the time, Maya wanted to make a difference in the world. So she collected used books she donated monthly to the Charis Center, an orphanage and primary school in Uganda. Her idea was to promote reading for the orphans aged 4 to 14. Since that first book project, the initiative has grown to include the Leapfrog Scholarship, which provides funds for Charis graduates to continue their studies in secondary school. The Charis Center is an orphanage sponsored by Children's Hunger Relief Fund. The first Leapfrog Scholarship winner is 14-year old Lovisa, pictured here. Lovisa's father died of AIDS and her mother is suffering from the disease, but Lovisa is AIDS free.

The Leapfrog Scholarship will allow her to attend high school for the 3 years of secondary education in Uganda.

More information on the scholarship is available at the Leapfrog Scholarship website. Or, if you wish to contribute pocket change (every little bit helps) or donate a fixed amount of money each month (even just a few dollars), write to

LeapfrogScholarship@gmail.com or HGrodman@hotmail.com

Sustainability through Collaboration

2011-01-03T08:30:00.007+01:00

Environmental protection and sustainable development are high on the agenda and the world is seeing initiatives at all levels by international and national bodies, governments and businesses to address the challenges ahead.

For many years, Alstom Power has recognized the importance of the environment in the power generation business and has positioned itself as a clean power provider. Alstom Power is pursuing a global sustainability strategy based on three pillars: management of the ecological, social and economic impact of offices and sites the company owns and operates; Alstom Power’s product footprint and the management of the ecological, social and economic impact of its products from “cradle to grave” (use of raw material, transport, erection, services and end of life of products); and customers’ efforts to produce clean power.

Providing clean power solutions to China
Alstom Power’s global strategy is then applied locally in line with individual national requirements. For instance, in planning the country’s economic and social development, the Chinese government has prioritized cutting carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 (from 2005 levels).

Alstom Power is contributing to this goal by providing clean solutions in power generation and bringing the most advanced technologies to China. In the area of hydro, the company has fully localized its engineering and manufacturing capabilities over the last 15 years and transferred knowledge and technology to China. Around 28% of the hydro plants in China are now equipped with their technology. In nuclear, Alstom Power is working with partner Dongfang in that direction. With regard to coal, the company is developing Wuhan Boiler Company Ltd., one of the largest and most modern manufacturing sites in the world for efficient utility boilers. And Alstom Power is currently implementing a cooperation agreement with Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), the leading university in China on R&D in carbon capture and storage (CCS), for one of the most promising “new” technologies in the area of CCS. This new agreement builds upon already established agreements with HUST, to provide financial support to outstanding students and teachers.

Fighting climate change through energy efficiency
Energy efficiency in buildings is another means of reaching the Chinese government’s ambitious target. Amongst Alstom Power’s various industrial sites in China, Wuhan Boiler Company Ltd. stands out on a global level in terms of energy efficiency. The decision to construct a new manufacturing facility (210,000 m2) and a five-floor office building (15,000 m2) at Wuhan, allowing more than 1,100 persons on site at any time, provided a perfect opportunity for Alstom Power to reduce its environmental footprint. Various technical initiatives were taken to reduce the environmental impact of the site: detectors, solar-powered water heaters, etc.; system, recyclable wooden insulation panels, recyclable flooring and geothermal heat exchangers that use the earth’s constant subterranean temperature to warm or cool the air, etc.

It is expected that 6,000 tons of CO2 per year will be avoided as a direct result of these innovations.

Acting as a good corporate citizen
Naturally, Alstom Power is also emphasizing its service to the local communities. In support of the Chinese government’s decision to ban the distribution of free plastic bags, employees are actively involved in a project sponsored by the Alstom Foundation to raise environmental awareness by encouraging people to use eco-friendly green bags. The project has supported the manufacture of more than 43,000 durable cloth shopping bags. The Foundation also supports the Meili Mountains National Park Project to preserve the biodiversity of mountains at Yunnan Province. In addition, Alstom Power encourages employees to launch individual initiatives.

Alstom Power is proud of its achievements so far and is committed to continue supporting its customers, employees and the local communities in their sustainable development ambitions.

First published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain magazine by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Health and Happiness in 2011

2011-01-01T10:28:00.004+01:00

May you be blessed with good health in 2011, and not take all that is positive in life for granted. There is much in the world to be happy about, there is much goodness that must be recognized. So share your achievements and positive stories with us all! Happy New Year.

Live Well Below Your Means

2010-12-29T06:00:00.002+01:00

Thrift pays. Buying less and living under one's means not only saves money but helps fight pollution (less to throw away) and makes us think consciously about consuming responsibly.

Here are some tips from author Jeff Yeager on living below one's means:
- live green: buy and consume less
- use old-fashioned cleaning products: baking soda and vinegar can be used to wash most anything in your house
- drive less: carpool when possible, use public transport, walk or bicycle
- eat lower on the food chain: eat more fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, poultry (eat less red meat and fewer dairy products)
- reduce the size of your lawn: mulch it over or replace it with ground cover (pachysandra or creeping thyme, for example)
- use things up and wear things out: then replace them
- spend less on clothes/make them last longer: launder less often, use cold water only, line dry clothing, keep shoes dry (dry them completely before wearing them again), turn clothing inside out before laundering, use baking soda instead of bleach
- save energy: insulate the attic, turn down your hot water heater, caulk gaps around the windows and doors

Jeff Yeager is the author of The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches and The Cheapskate Next Door. His website is http://www.ultimatecheapskate.com/

TEMA Foundation: Attentive to Turkey's Biodiversity

2010-12-26T13:00:00.003+01:00

Founded in 1992 by Nihat Gokyigit, "TEMA has pioneered a multistakeholder approach to tackling the problem of soil erosion in Turkey." According to the Foundation's website, TEMA's "mission is to raise public awareness of environmental problems, specifically soil erosion, deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change."

"Nihat Gokyigit was a successful business entrepreneur, presiding over one of Turkey's largest conglomerates (Tekfen Holdings) when he decided to start TEMA with renowned environmentalist Hayrettin Karaca. Having grown up in Artvin, a secluded and pristine part of Turkey, he wanted to identify livelihoods through which Turkey's people could preserve their nation's rich biodiversity rather than destroy it. His private foundation operates Turkey's most prominent botanical garden, which complements TEMA's work through botanic education and research."

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

When a Child Is Born

2010-12-24T12:50:00.000+01:00

A ray of hope flickers in the sky,
A tiny star lights up way up high,
All across the land dawns a brand new morn -
This comes to pass when a child is born.

A silent wish sails the seven seas,
The winds of change whisper in the trees,
And the walls of doubt crumble, tossed and torn -
This comes to pass when a child is born.

A rosy hue settles all around,
You get the feeling you're on solid ground,
For a spell or two no one seems forlorn -
This comes to pass when a child is born.

All of this happens because the world is waiting,
Waiting for one child. Black, white, yellow? No one knows.
But a child that will grow up and turn tears to laughter,
Hate to love, war to peace and everyone to everyone's neighbor,
And misery and suffering will be words to be forgotten forever.

It's all a dream, an illusion now.
It must come true sometime soon, somehow.
All across the land dawns a brand new morn -
This comes to pass when a child is born.
When a Child is Born (Soleado, 1972 melody by Ciro Dammicco/Zacar)

The Way Home

2010-12-20T22:05:00.006+01:00

Founded in 1996 by Sergey Kostin, The Way Home "provides medical and psychological rehabilitation and social reintegration programs to homeless people, street children and drug users living on the streets in Ukraine."

"Sergey Kostin is a geologist by training. Shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became involved in the restoration of Odessa's major architectural treasures. To get help with his project, he set up a series of small workshops to teach carpentry, sewing and icon painting. In attempting to rescue the old buildings of Odessa, he rescued instead the exponentially growing numbers of homeless people, prostitutes, street children and drug addicts who roamed its streets. Kostin began The Way Home by offering a series of workshops similar to the ones he had run during his restoration work, seeking to build the skill base of those who had fallen on hard times. However, he soon discovered that the socially disenfranchised needed more than workshops. Thus, The Way Home rapidly expanded its programs and geographic scope to address this growing need across the Ukraine."

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

Alleviating Poverty by Investing in Women and Girls

2010-12-16T02:00:00.002+01:00

Founded in 1976, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) describes itself as "thought leaders driven by a passion to alleviate poverty and rectify injustice in the world." The Center "reduces global poverty by investing in the lives of women and girls." In particular, ICRW works with girls and boys in their communities to delay marriages in areas where child marriage is an established tradition. In addition it educates policymakers on the adverse consequences of the practice for girls.

The ICRW also focuses on gender equality in agriculture. Time and again, the work of women farmers goes unrecognized. Not only are they often not paid for their farming, but many are not allowed to own land. Yet research demonstrates that women are instrumental in alleviating poverty and hunger when given access to land, equipment and credit as in most cases they are the ones who ensure food gets to their family.

The Center aims to improve the status of women, help protect their rights, ensure their access to reproductive information and healthcare, and increase their opportunities to be educated, hold jobs and own property. It is doing a great deal in these areas in more than 30 countries, as well as in fighting violence against women. Help the International Center for Research on Women in a variety of ways: for example, make a donation, sign up for their newsletter, or join their community.

Growing with the Chinese Mainland Sustainably

2010-12-12T15:00:00.008+01:00

Many of the communities that the company CLP serves are in urgent need of power to support their economic and social development. Bringing affordable energy on a long-term and sustainable basis means that CLP must work with coal as it is the dominant fuel of choice in the Asia-Pacific region, but the company intends to do so responsibly. CLP also works with cleaner sources of energy such as gas, renewables and nuclear when it is practical to do so.

Founded in Hong Kong over a century ago, CLP is a leading power company in the Asia-Pacific region. CLP is committed to providing energy solutions in a financially, socially and environmentally responsible manner.

CLP’s investments on the mainland epitomize its approach to powering Asia responsibly. Supporting the Chinese government’s goal of reducing the carbon intensity of its economy, CLP has been actively pursuing clean energy opportunities on the mainland. From a small hydro project in Guangdong province started in 1997, the company’s portfolio today includes wind, nuclear, hydro and biomass. Where CLP works with coal, it uses more efficient and cleaner technology. The company’s goal is to maintain a balanced portfolio that allows it to produce power in an affordable manner, while meeting the promise of decarbonizing its generation portfolio by 75% by 2050.

In addition to commercial investments, community investments also play a role in supporting sustainable growth on the mainland. Recognizing the importance of preparing the next generation of leaders for complex challenges, CLP has been supporting a number of education initiatives in China.

In November 2009, the company established the CLP-Tsinghua University Clean Energy Education Fund to support students with financial difficulties at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University and to support research programs on clean energy. Through these efforts, the Fund aims to contribute to the mainland’s electricity sector by developing a pool of experts in clean energy.

At the basic-education level, CLP also runs a Young Power Program to promote environmental awareness and social responsibility through activity-based thematic learning, and has been contributing to the establishment of 11 Hope Schools with the goal of raising the literacy level and improving the learning conditions for rural children in Guizhou and Sichuan.

CLP recognizes that sustainable growth requires collective action and will continue to raise awareness about the importance of sustainability and to exchange information so that a low-carbon future becomes a reality in China.

Article originally published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain, the magazine of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Anti-Corruption Awareness Day

2010-12-09T02:00:00.003+01:00

9 December was International Anti-Corruption Day. More awareness is needed of the widespread problem of corruption, and what is being done to fight it. One effort is the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which entered into force on 14 December 2005. So far 140 countries have signed the Convention. In January 2004, the World Economic Forum also launched an initiative to combat corruption, the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI). See also the UN's Global Compact and Transparency International's Global Coalition against Corruption.
Add your voice to the global battle by supporting the "Say No to Corruption" campaign on Facebook. It's everybody's business.

Saving the Tiger

2010-12-06T15:30:00.002+01:00

Shekar Dattatri is a film-maker from India, who has produced documentaries on his country's wildlife to bring certain issues to the attention of the public, including a recent film on tiger conservation. "The Truth about Tigers" is about the tiger's alarming rate of decline, but it offers solutions to the problem. At the same time, it is a non-profit, non-commercial film available for free screenings. Want to know how you can contribute to saving the tiger? Watch the film here. And to get involved in this particular cause, go to www.truthabouttigers.org/home

Powering the Use of Alternative Fuels in China

2010-12-02T13:26:00.011+01:00

As the world turns its attention towards the climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, it is important to remember that sustainable energy solutions already exist. Here is one example from China.

Sustainable development and social responsibility are at the core of the Chinese government’s current 5-year plan, and Holcim expects that they will be even more prominently represented in next year’s 5-year plan. Holcim, together with its Chinese partner Huaxin, also places great importance on these issues.

Huaxin’s environmental protection business unit contributes to the circular economy by converting certain industrial and municipal wastes into fuels and raw materials for cement production. In this way, Huaxin is able to substitute part of its coal consumption and can therefore preserve precious natural resources. Holcim is involved with the Chinese government in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate task force, and engages with international organizations to help China develop environmentally-sound and safe practices.

Efforts to this end include following strict guidelines and policies on the use of waste materials in the clinker manufacturing process. Huaxin and Holcim are playing a key role in assisting governments to develop national and international guidelines and standards for co-processing. In China, Holcim has provided a great deal of input into the ‘Guidelines for Co-processing of Hazardous Wastes in Cement Kilns.’ This Sino-Norwegian project is under the responsibility of the Chinese Research Academy for Environmental Sciences and aims to regulate large-scale, environmentally sound management of hazardous waste disposal in cement kilns in order to strengthen the Chinese implementation of the Stockholm Convention and Basel Convention. Holcim’s and Huaxin’s work doesn’t stop there.

China is the world’s largest producer of pesticides, and the disposal of obsolete pesticides and their packaging constitutes a potential risk for people and the environment. Under the umbrella of the Sino-German project on ‘Management of obsolete pesticides,’ GTZ, Holcim and Huaxin formed a public-private partnership. Huaxin provides a waste management service through co-processing of obsolete pesticides in modern cement kilns.

High temperatures and long residence times ensure the complete and safe destruction of toxic chemicals. Thanks to its vast experience in the treatment of (sometimes hazardous) waste, Holcim is able to ensure that the disposal of this waste is carried out in an environmentally sound manner, and that relevant occupational health and safety issues are properly considered and managed. In total, Huaxin has disposed of around 1,500 metric tons of obsolete pesticides without compromising either the safety of workers and local communities or the quality of the clinker produced.

Article originally published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain, the magazine of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Child-Driven Education

2010-11-28T14:38:00.005+01:00

Sugata Mitra is an educational scientist who has done a great deal of research on the social context of learning and technology. He makes clear that the social context where children are working together yields great benefits. One of his simple, optimistic messages is that, "If children have interest, then education happens." Mitra's research is powerful, as you'll hear in this video.

Cures from the Ocean

2010-11-25T10:00:00.000+01:00

"Jewels in the Mud" is an encouraging story about how marine biomedicine can fight drug resistance and disease. A microbe found on seaweed by William Fenical and his team at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography has led to the drug Plinabulin, which blocks blood vessels in tumors from getting the nourishment they need, leading to their death, while leaving the healthy cells alone.

Professor Fenical is Director of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine (CMBB) at Scripps. His group "conducts research relevant to defining the roles and biomedical applications of the unique organic molecules produced by marine life. Programs are integrated to isolate and define chemical compounds which function as chemical defenses and molecules used for communication, and to assess the potential of these same compounds in the treatment of human and animal diseases. In drug discovery, a major focus is upon cancer, inflammatory diseases and in the discovery of new anti-infectives." Dr Fenical receives financial support for his research from the National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, the National Sea Grant Program, the California BioStar Program and from a number of pharmaceutical companies.

The Bridgebuilder

2010-11-21T13:54:00.006+01:00

He is indeed an inspiring hero. Toni Ruttimann, who is in Burma right now, is as usual helping the needy build a bridge from materials he secures free of charge from companies. He's been doing this since 1987 when he left his native Switzerland for Ecuador upon hearing about the earthquake that had just struck there. On the spot one of the most immediate needs in the disaster area was building a bridge. So he began what would become his mission, helping local people build or rebuild suspension bridges after natural disasters, war or simply to avoid lengthy or tortuous crossings.

Toni does this without payment. He obtains steel rope, pipes, cement and the needed building materials and freight transport from Swiss cablecar builders and other companies, all free of charge. So far he has helped build almost 500 bridges in Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma.

Actively engaged in promoting human welfare and social reform, "Toni the Swiss" is truly an unsung hero and humanitarian.

Enabling a Low-carbon Expo 2010 in Shanghai

2010-11-18T09:00:00.004+01:00

Large-scale events are often a catalyst for sustainable urban development, improved infrastructure and increased investment. There is no better example than Expo 2010 in Shanghai. For the first time in the Expo’s history, the Shanghai edition was low-carbon, applying successful experiences in city development by using innovative "green" technologies in areas including building, transportation, energy supply and waste treatment. Sustainable companies like Siemens are a major driver behind this improvement.

Siemens is supplying more than 1 billion Euros worth of infrastructure for both the Expo and Shanghai. More than 40 Expo projects were built using Siemens technologies that improve energy efficiency without reducing quality or comfort. For example, Siemens technologies powered the "China Red" of the China Pavilion, not only creating a marvelous impression, but also reducing energy consumption by 50%. The Expo’s five permanent constructions featured the latest in Siemens building technology, thereby reducing energy consumption by 25% compared with conventional buildings. To ensure continuous and efficient power supply, especially during the peak summer season, Siemens installed energy-saving power distribution equipment.

In the "We Are the World" Pavilion, Siemens partnered with the Expo Bureau to bring visitors a vision of life in a low-carbon future. Visitors experienced innovative technologies, such as a facial recognition system used for easy home access, e-cars enabled by smart grids, a virtual workshop that helps achieve work-life balance, a tailored menu proposed by an intelligent home refrigerator, and remote diagnostic technologies showing easy healthcare solutions, just to name a few. Most of the technologies displayed are in the company’s R&D pipeline or are prototype applications.

About 90% of the total Expo-relevant business related to environmentally friendly products and solutions that aim to upgrade city infrastructure while bringing down carbon emissions. A highly efficient power plant using Siemens technology covers 30% of Shanghai’s energy demand, but uses more than 1 million tons less coal per year. One hundred environmentally friendly highspeed trains that use key Siemens components will ultimately transport passengers from Beijing to Shanghai in less than five hours. The terminal of the high-speed line in Shanghai serves as part of the Hongqiao Transportation Hub, where Siemens installed China’s largest parking management system.

By 2018, Siemens will supply infrastructure to more than 20 other major event host cities worldwide, including infrastructure for stable power grids, public mass transit and healthcare. Along with creating and preserving jobs, those projects will also improve visitors’ experiences and the quality of life in the cities in which they take place.

Article originally published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain, the magazine of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

End Corruption Now

2010-11-15T22:10:00.008+01:00

Support the United Nations Global Compact, Transparency International and the World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative in sending the message to end corruption, by joining the End Corruption Now! Facebook Community page. It aims to promote greater global participation to fight corruption. The launch of this page sends "a strong message to the world at large that corruption is not just a matter for a few business people and public officials to be concerned about but rather an issue that affects people at all levels of society like you and me -- and that it is an issue that the wider general public cares about." To send a powerful message on December 9, 2010, International Anti-Corruption Day, to leaders of business, government and civil society, the goal of 5,000 fans joining the page is needed. So sign up and learn more about the fight against corruption in Thailand, the UK, India, Malawi and elsewhere.

Good News from Burma

2010-11-13T17:44:00.003+01:00

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been released. Finally some good news from Myanmar. It's being reported worldwide so read all about it.

Biofuels Power China

2010-11-11T14:00:00.000+01:00

In a major step forward for its carbon dioxide-cutting program, Unilever has launched a manufacturing process at its Hefei factory in China based on second-generation biofuels. Unlike the first-generation biofuels, the second generation uses non-edible plant residues and therefore does not compete with crops for food supply.

First active in China some 80 years ago, Unilever set up its manufacturing base for home and personal care products in Hefei in 2003, making it one of the biggest manufacturing sites for Unilever globally.

The business is now using straw as a source of fuel to produce laundry powder, reducing CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons annually (32% of total site emissions) at a considerably reduced cost to the business. The move further benefits the environment because it is no longer necessary to burn straw to produce a source of mineral replenishment for soil, which caused severe air pollution. Fortunately, the ash produced in the Hefei plant can also be used to replenish the soil – without the damage to air quality caused by burning.

"China clearly faces serious environmental challenges, making our new biofuel-based process even more meaningful, in addition to helping our local farming community to find a new commercial outlet for their waste. A win-win for all,” says David Ingram, VP, Supply Chain, Greater China Group. China is not alone in implementing biofuels programs. In Sri Lanka, the business has unveiled a new biofuel-powered boiler that uses agricultural residues such as coconut shells and sawdust to generate steam for manufacturing processes.

In India, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has been using biofuels in its Chiplun plant, in the Ratnagiri district, since 2006. Factories in Maharashtra and Pondicherry followed suit in 2007 and 2008 respectively – using biomass as fuel to generate steam. Plants in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa are also now using biofuels in their manufacturing processes.

As they do not compromise food supplies, second-generation biofuels are a prime example of Unilever’s commitment to renewable energies that deliver social and environmental benefits in the way they are sourced as well as in their eventual use. They will help Unilever boost its use of renewable energy, which currently stands at 17% of overall energy consumption.

Article originally published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain, the magazine of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.