A Greener Christmas

http://bit.ly/8GKkrq - Green in more than one way (!) Christmas wrapping in style! Happy Christmas!

The End Of The Developing World?

http://bit.ly/8K6gAC - It's the end of the world as we know it. Do you feel fine? Way beyond the rockin REM song!

Business Ecology & 4 Customer Currencies

http://bit.ly/7Aqjq1 - What is your business ecology and what are the four customer currencies?

Recycling and your bottom line results.

http://bit.ly/5WxCCE - Advanced insights into recycling and your bottom line results.

The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make A Difference For The Environment

http://bit.ly/8qti3g - The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make A Difference For The Environment -- Free Webinar; BE THERE!

Hot, Flat & Crowded -- & Yet...Hope?!

Can you afford not to watch this brief video? Are you sure? http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/

Where's Your Mushroom Soup?

The other night I was at Trader Joe's picking up a few items, when I overheard a woman talking to one of the grocery staff, who I'll call "Steve." The store was about an hour away from closing.

"Where are the mushrooms? I don't see the mushrooms!" she said, rather urgently to Steve.
"This is all we have left," he said, pointing to a few remnants in one of the produce bins.
The woman looked at the bin in horror, as if she were identifying the body of a deceased loved one on "Law and Order."
"You don't understand," she said. "I can't make my mushroom soup. I was going to make my mushroom soup tonight."

Steven stood there, not knowing what to say. He seemed to feel badly, but knew there was no way he could suddenly produce mushrooms if there weren't any left. I had my own thoughts while listening in from the checkout line:

How about planning ahead, I thought to myself. Or trying another supermarket. Or maybe making your soup another night. Or maybe making another kind of soup.

But when I saw the woman's face, so let down, so disappointed, and saw how clearly at odds she was with this situation, I understood. It was truly a soup crisis. There were no other mushrooms to be had then the ones from Trader Joe's, and certainly there would be no soup in her home tonight. No soup for you!

On the way home, thinking about how life leaves us little lessons tucked inside these incidents, I realized that the soup was a very good analogy for our business plans and signature projects, such as e-books, courses, presentations, and even blog posts. Basically, we have to plan for our soup. We have to get our ingredients in order ahead of time, know the recipe or at least enough to improvise on it and get it out there, and be flexible. We need to know why we are making one kind of soup as opposed to any other, and reasonably assess that the time it takes to do it will be worth it. We may not always have exactly what we need, so we need to learn to work with what we have. And if for some reason we can't make our soup they way we intended, we need to get real and make -- or do -- something else. And if our soup doesn't come out right for whatever reason, we may have to make it again and again and again, until we get it right.

So I had my lightbulb - or rather - my mushroom, moment. This blog post is my mushroom soup for the night. How about you? Where's your mushroom soup?

Sustainability is YOUR Bottom Line

http://bit.ly/SustainabilityKPIs and your triple bottom line

Green Confidence Index

http://bit.ly/GreenConfidenceIndex

Inside The Sustainability Consortium: What You Need To Know

http://bit.ly/sustainabilityconsortium - Inside The "SC" : What You Need To Know.

Where no domain has gone before...

http://bit.ly/doteco - Exponentially green and bottom line important -- and coming to you in the not-too-distant future.

Getting From Dangerous Here To Exponentially Greener There In The Real World

http://bit.ly/2Yeb6w

Getting from dangerous here to exponentially greener there -- in the real world.

Healthy CoOptition?

http://bit.ly/13UIDC

Healthy CoOptition?

Newsweek's New Corporate Sustainability Rankings

The green business journey is insightful and beneficial, as much as the uncertain destination? Newsweek gets cudos for trying...please consider this Weblink to your long-term benefit.

Wal-Mart & Your Exponentially Green Game-Changer

We have predicted the future (dating back to at least 2007 at Sunrise Advisors, and well before that individually and together) -- and your future is now.

From today's important update of the homepage of our Sunrise Advisors Website:

As of Summer, 2009, in the worst American and global economic, investment, and unemployment conditions in some 70 years, the major sustainability sourcing announcement by Wal-Mart, one of the world's largest retailers, that it now requires suppliers of all sizes to achieve new degrees of transparency and compliance that tangibly impact environmental labeling, other marketing and communications, and reporting is already having substantial (positive or negative for you?...your choice, as we at Sunrise Advisors have been saying individually and together to you and others since at least 2007) bottom line results on not only those businesses of all sizes, even those who do not do business with Wal-Mart today, but entire community and non-profit (non-governmental organization/NGO) support service infrastructures more than ever in this economy relying on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and/or (marketing and selling) earned income generation financial and other support essential now for your survival.

Whatever you or others might think or feel about Wal-Mart, the scale of this powerful corporation's financial, political, and (potentially) exponentially green impacts in communities in the United States, China, Mexico, and well beyond frankly cannot be ignored. Click here to learn more from the Cambridge and Boston area from one of the leading Harvard Business School professors on globalization, and specifically local impacts and empowerment since at least the 1990s, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor of strategy, innovation, and advanced leadership -- who writes very clearly to your benefit on what she describes as "Wal-Mart's Environmental Game-Changer." Professor Kanter has been named to The Times of London list of the 50 most powerful women in the world.

Click here for further details from a blog entry from "The TerraPass Footprint" from a leading carbon offsets company of how businesses of all sizes, non-profits, and communities will (in our consistently integrated view at Sunrise Advisors) have increasingly powerful financial bottom line and other incentives to integrate their operations and specific practices with doing well on -- and through -- the "Wal-Mart Sustainability Index." A highlight of this blog entry focuses on:

Wal-Mart engaged some 20 universities, a handful of environmental activist groups, associations like Business for Social Responsibility, many of (Wal-Mart's) key suppliers, and a small army of consultants. (The clothing and outdoor lifestyle products company) Patagonia's iconoclastic founder, Yvon Chouinard, has played a role. (Wal-Mart has) gone through a great deal of thinking and more than a few iterations. This was not some slap-dash (or exclusively public relations spin) effort...the most important question regarding...future impact is really just how committed Wal-Mart is to developing, refining, and publicizing the information they gather. At the moment, they seem quite serious about expanding their ruthless pursuit of supplier efficiency to encompass greener (definitely including more profitable) goals.

As a special section of the international business publication The Economist reports, a future of effectively communicating and achieving shared success is not just nice, but increasingly essential for your bottom line financial results. Click here.

INSEAD, another of the world's leading business schools (located in Fontainebleau, near Paris) has also made a compelling case for this timely thinking and business approach through its online "Knowledge." Click here.

Specifically, Renato J. Orsato, Senior Research Fellow at INSEAD, has written "Sustainability Strategies: When does it pay to be green?" as a practical guide to help companies obtain a competitive advantage out of their environmental investments; or in other words: How can (you) go about making green investments profitable? Because of the barrage of eco-investments ranging from ISO 14001 certification, reduction of CO2 emissions, to eco-branding that can easily (overwhelm) managers (and owners), Orsato says it is important that the right choices be made. In his words:

You need to be very specific in which type of eco-investment you want to invest (in your business or NGO/non-profit organization) and (know clearly) why. And the why depends very much on the kind of pressure you're having...it's not enough to be eco-efficient; it's not enough to reduce your impact, you have to show (that you are ever-deeper, exponentially green)."

As an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) reports (based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley where we at Sunrise Advisors are based; however, we serve America and the world), it is especially essential for your survival and success to get green-inclined consumers, purchasers, donors, and/or supporters to actually spend money (vote with their pocketbooks) and take further action(s) that benefit the environment through you, helping consumers to overcome contradictions between their words and those actions. Click here.

A highlight of this SSIR publication from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Center for Social Innovation focuses on:

...(increased revenues through removing) five barriers -- namely lack of awareness, negative perceptions, distrust, high prices, and low availability. In other words, (you) must increase (green) awareness, improve (green) perceptions of quality, strengthen trust, lower the prices, and increase (green) availability.

Real World & Measurable Green Solutions To Climate Change & Job Losses In A G-Local World

From a recent Tweet on Friday, July 10, 2009 at http://www.twitter.com/etpickett -- Greener monetization of data, and measurable outcomes helping the planet AND economy G-Locally, please seriously review http://tr.im/rLTd

American reGeneration this July 4th, 2009 and beyond!

Happy Independence Day America, July 4th, 2009!

We are learning of so much that is going on in Portland, Oregon that is hopeful in these very tough times there (Here is yet another example, with inspirational practicality, of "the we, not just the me." Cudos to Spencer Beebe, Ecotrust & the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center.) -- and for so many across our country facing serious challenges, for our planet and for the animals really suffering here (near and on the California coast) and beyond in unprecedented ways. Frankly, not because it's "just nice," but because it's in our interests, we need to more than ever "hang together," or surely we shall "hang separately." Get it?!

The Power of Green (please watch the embedded video in the front page of the article) is now essential to the survival of your family, your community, your planet, and oh yeah...you!

From your young, hopeful British cousin, "see" what is possible now! This is YOUR call to action!

The Red, White & Blue must become very Green!

Road Map To Shared Green Business Success

This Weblink provides insightful information how businesses and organizations can now collaborate (even as they sometimes compete, though often they are in different industries) in lowering costs, improving overhead -- sometimes even profits from new products and services, and "exponentially" or "multiply" green-ing both their daily and strategic operations.

There was a movie that popularized a phrase very evident in recent years in society: Greed is good. We disagree, and tangibly, measurably, provably are all about demonstrating for the bottom lines of businesses and organizations that: Green is good (for you!).

Take Action For Frogs: Your Inconvenient Truth

At this moment of planetary potential pandemic flu hitting the United States, and watching how all of humans' and Earth's man-made challenges are directly, shockingly, and (shouldn't be so) surprisingly inter-related, a potential, sensible, scalable solution can be found in a reset of how we treat ourselves in harmony with nature, not in some type of sick lose-lose competition -- especially again and again, from the accurately foretelling movie An Inconvenient Truth to this more recent article, regarding -- IF we will have the will to change -- our green friends the frogs. There is a powerful, even tangibly edu-taining scene in the movie showing an animated frog who senses a hot flash and jumps away, BUT if the heat is increased gradually, is lulled into false confidence, laziness, or whatever inertia until it is too late for survival -- and then the only hope is that an outside force for good would have to rapidly intervene to rescue the frog and snap it into action elsewhere. Sound too familiar, people?

For your own personal survival, if not for a higher calling, take action, now, on the we, not just the me (so to speak). Ribbitt! And seriously, thanks. When scientists almost universally agree that there is a CO2 in the atmosphere exponentially-rising emergency, but mass communications are manipulated so that more than half the public relations issued questions the legitimacy of the climate change crisis, even if you are skeptical (hopefully not) about the severity of global warming, the literal bottom line in business and more broadly, personal and family survival, is trust your gut, your inner voice that whatever the specific triggers, it is beyond doubt now that mass selfishness on the part of more and more humans mis-using limited resources is definitely setting in motion flus and other events that cannot be restrained if we together do not rethink the whats of life -- and definitely the hows.

This is a time for unity, for caring, for hope through faith. This can also be, around those enduring values, a time of real sustainable income-generating, doing well by doing good, exponentially green business and job opportunities. As the great New York Yankees baseball legend Yogi Berra said, "When there is a fork in the road, take it." Literally, let us pray for answers the only way they will work, going forward -- together.

Earth Day 2009 and beyond: YOUR CALL TO ACTION

No longer is the alignment of environmental protection and business development merely nice, or about global warming publicity or green consumerism, and renewable energy alone. Devastation in economic empowerment and employment (lost jobs) -- and public health -- from abusing our planet for too long, and its many "neighborhoods," including yours (!), is no longer isolated, or someone else's problem. This cannot be ignored yet again for one more day.

Whether it's the local Bay Area news reporting dangerous drugs and untreated sewage being illegally dumped in the San Francisco Bay, or this accurate, yet shocking in its accuracy (its cold, "dead zone" facts), Frontline television report on the equally substantial US East Coast Chesapeake Bay genuine crisis, please take this very seriously as your CALL TO ACTION, personally and for your families and our communities (not some distant, abstract ideas) before it is literally too late. Not being alarmist, but keeping it very real, this Earth Day 2009 must be only the moment in your life personally and ours when there is no turning back.

The environmental and economic interrelated "cancer" upon each and all of us is worse than the truly terrible Dust Bowl situation in the 1930's Great Depression years -- and yet today, as then, there might be survival IF we really stop sticking our heads in the sand, so to speak, and move as Americans beyond greed to exponentially green new opportunities to "profit the planet." Thank you.

The Year We Make Contact? A Space Odyssey Indeed.

We often believe when there is a disconnect between nice ideas and real world priorities, we see opportunities to "bridge the gaps."

Fact: In every aspect of our desires in our project, business concierge, and coaching work with "exponentially green" nonprofits and creative community enterprises, it is now possible to add value together -- to survive in tough times through thriving into the future...increasingly, which must be, for all of us, "now."

Here are brief Weblinks well worth your time. "This" is no longer "science fiction."

sustainableindustries.com/breakingnews/43036587.html

youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w

We hope to be helpful in the development of shared, sustainable income in these challenging times for so many...yet "tomorrow" tangibly will not wait.

Are you ready?

enterprisesunrise.com / nonprofitsunrise.com

Carrie's Coverage of Biodiesel Fuel Conference Featured in Bay Area Business Woman

My article highlighting the 6th Annual Biodiesel Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Feb 1-4, is now published in the February 2009 Bay Area Business Woman. See my web site under the Portfolio link, also linked to the article image at left.
Did you know?...

*Biodiesel fuels are half as toxic as petroleum based fuels
*Boeing recently launched experimental flights using plant derivatives instead of traditional petroleum, and not only were they successful, they proved more fuel efficient
*Melissa Etheridge is a spokesperson for biofuels, and traded in her "fancy cars" for a biodiesel van

Other important links of interest:

• National Biodiesel Board
• BQ-9000
• BioTrucker.com
• AskBen.info
• National Biodiesel Foundation
• AllThingsBiodiesel.com

Highlights from Biodiesel Fuel Conference

I was invited to cover one day of the 6th Annual Biodiesel Conference at the Moscone Center on Tuesday, Feb 3, for a local newspaper. It was truly a great day...at the Opening Session, the highlights included songs by Melissa Etheridge, who traded in her luxury vehicles for biodiesel, which she now uses on her tour buses as well. Daryl Hannah also provided commentary.

"You know, I used to think that biodiesel was a kind of a gas," she stated. "Now, I know that it is."

Over 4,000 attended the conference, which also featured a packed exhibit hall and many programs and sessions.

Another highlight was a press tour I got to go on, a sightseeing tour around San Francisco Bay given by the Red and White Fleet, powered entirely by biodiesel. I can vouch for the fact that it did not smell at all, the way these tour boats sometimes do, and kuddos to this company for getting it right. See videos below for highlights, and for my interview with Tom Escher, owner of Red and White.

The National Biodiesel Board honored Mayor Gavin Newsom with the "Eye on Biodiesel Award" for Initiative. The annual awards recognize champions of environmentally friendly biodiesel fuel in five categories: influence, inspiration, initiative, industry, and innovation. In 2006, Mayor Newsom issued an Executive Directive designed to increase the pace of municipal use of biodiesel. Today, virtually all of the City's 1,500 diesel vehicles run on B20.

Female rock icon and Grammy and Academy Award winner Melissa Etheridge tours around the world, powered by biodiesel when she can. Etheridge, another biodiesel "influencer" award winner, said she liked using biodiesel in her tour vehicles so much that she sold her personal cars to buy a diesel SUV, which she calls the "Bio-Beast." "Biodiesel inspires me and I believe it will inspire others, especially once they get that you don't have to make any changes to the engine to use it," said Etheridge. "I think America is going to come back as an energy leader through renewable, sustainable fuels like biodiesel."

Economist Article Highlights the Ocean's Troubles

An online story in the Dec. 30th economist highlights the latest damages to our oceans, which have serious ramifications for now and the immediate future. They include:

• an increase in carbon dioxide on the ocean's surface, which harms marine life and can destabilize the entire marine system
• increased carbon dioxide also causing global warming, and with it melting glaciers and rising water levels that can threaten entire countries
• masses of discarded plastic that swirl in 2 distinct areas in the Pacific
• red tides and the deterioration of marine life

This is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The articles states:

"Each of these changes is a catastrophe. Together they make for something much worse. Moreover, they are happening alarmingly fast—in decades, rather than the eons needed for fish and plants to adapt. Many are irreversible. It will take tens of thousands of years for ocean chemistry to return to a condition similar to its pre-industrial state of 200 years ago, says Britain’s most eminent body of scientists, the Royal Society. Many also fear that some changes are reaching thresholds after which further changes may accelerate uncontrollably. No one fully understands why the cod have not returned to the Grand Banks off Canada, even after 16 years of no fishing. No one quite knows why glaciers and ice shelves are melting so fast, or how a meltwater lake on the Greenland ice sheet covering six square kilometres could drain away in 24 hours, as it did in 2006. Such unexpected events make scientists nervous."

What about solutions? The article is weak on this, suggesting only abolishing fishing subsidies, for example, and establishing international fishing agreements. Little is addressed regarding the pollution issue, only highlighting the seriousness of the situation, and the fact that it will take another Hurricane Katrina and other events to shake politicians up.

So the question remains: what are we going to do about our oceans?

Eco-Organizing Your Office/Workspace

January is a great time to reorganize and refresh your workspace, whether it is a home office, or your office away from home. Sometimes, being away from the space and then coming back to it gives you fresh ideas for organizing. You might not have even realized how much clutter you had accumulated during the year, or how much trouble you have finding even the most basic items...where is that stapler again?

I'm a firm believe in clutter removal, and that we are all much more productive when we have our supplies, in-box, resource materials, and to do lists organized. So I recently reorganized to make sure that:
1. my supplies were close at hand
2. all my TO DO projects were in one folder, and that I had another folder for more long-term or future tasks
3. I posted items I needed to refer to often, like phone numbers and other reference info, on a small bulletin board I keep by my desk

I have also enjoyed reusing common household items that would otherwise be disgarded. For example:
1. Hold onto egg cartons! As pictured in the photo above, 2-3 cartons can be assembled and strung together to make a handy bulletin board. (Thank you to Thriftyfun.com for this cool idea.) I find them handy for storing and separating coins, and also for small office supplies like paper clips and rubber bands. This also works well with plastic egg cartons, but try to buy the paper ones.
2. I noticed that my replacement printer cartridges kept disappearing. Well, not really, but I kept them in a supply drawer and they got lost with other items. So I held onto an Oregon Chai tea box I had gotten over the holidays and found the cartridges fit perfectly, and now I always have them handy on my shelf.
3. I always enjoy fresh flowers for decoration, but of course they only last a few weeks and have to be tended to. So I found some great paper flower arrangements at a consignment shop recently, that were only a few dollars each, and I arranged them on my shelves to break up the space nicely and add color.
4. Who has extra books and not much room? Me! Instead of buying extra shelves for the books, I used the books themselves to hold other items for display, such as photos, notebooks, cd's, and other items.
5. One last tip- hold onto any pill containers you might have on hand from past medications you are done with. Just take the label off, clean and rinse, and they make great containers for smaller items like staples and stamps. You can also use them in the kitchen for spices, or sugar and salt refills.

Have any great re-use ideas? Let me know and I'll publish them here!