Gort Cloud - New book: building businesses through the network....

Here's the highlights from the book's website:

Looks interesting!

"Brand expert Richard Seireeni interviewed over two dozen "ecopreneurs" from a broad range of industries - home improvement, transportation, household products, food and beverage, energy, real estate, finance, and fashion. The collective experience of leaders such as Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm, Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation, and the grandsons of Dr. Bronner, as well as other green experts, are a rich source of wisdom for green businesses getting off the ground or for any business aiming to improve its environmental performance."

"The result of these interviews is the discovery of "The Gort Cloud" - a term coined by the author that describes the vast and largely invisible network of NGOs, trendspotters, advocacy groups, social networks, business alliances, certifying organizations, and other members of the green community that have the power to make or break new green brands."

"Integrating The Gort Cloud into brand development and marketing strategies is critical to the success of any aspiring green brand. This "green community" can supply technical assistance, venture capital, the first line of core customers, and tremendous "echo effect" in getting the word out quickly and inexpensively."

"Creating a cause, building credibility, developing a simple and compelling message, identifying core customers and sales channels, deftly playing the green alternative media, and fending off second-to-market competitors are all required to build a green brand. How these skills are put into practice will vary for each business, but Seireeni's research points toward a set of shared characteristics and basic tenets that every business can use to build a credible and successful green brand."

Image from website as well.

Corporate Responsibility as Innovation Engine

CSR is increasingly driving corporations to change - and innovate!

I found it of interest that Stanford Social Innovation Review posted this on their site.

A letter to Obama... from a visionary.

I couldn't agree more!

From a visionary and true supporter of brilliance - wherever it lives...Duke Stump:

"Dear Mr. President

Kudos!

Your emergence as President of the US has given new meaning for living the extraordinary. Stoked you made it. Now the hard part - igniting a nation to focus on what could be versus what is.

I know your busy, but I simply wanted to offer up five quick thoughts for you to consider as you continue to build out your green team:

1. Call it Team Humanity and awaken us to the real essence of the green movement

2. Adopt Life’s Principles to inform your strategy

* Build from the bottom up
* Self-assemble
* Optimize rather than maximize
* Use free energy, cross-pollinate
* Embrace diversity
* Adapt and evolve
* Use life-friendly materials and processes
* Engage in symbiotic relationships
* Enhance the bio-sphere

3. Develop a Northstar (i.e. vision) for 2020 in a way that we are incredibly inspired and greatly empowered because we see our place and our contribution in the journey.

4. Break the rules that bind. Add an Anthropologist, Biologist, Humanist and representation from Gen Y (affectionately referred to as Generation WE) to the team.

5. Cite Buckminster Fuller frequently and often so that his teachings and principles will be optimized.

Good luck!

Live, love & laugh,

Duke

PS. I think it would be great if you built a local CSA farm on the White House lawn. Cool?"

Social Investment Forum's recommendations for Obama

The trade association of which I am a member "Social Investment Forum" has made a list of recommendations for the Obama administration as to corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing.

The recommendations are part of a larger document and the basic points are here:
"The socially responsible investment community urges the Obama Administration to:

• Establish clear parameters and effective regulations for the financial system and
stimulate transparent assessment of financial as well as environmental, social, and good governance factors;
• Enhance access to the corporate proxy ballot so that long-term shareholders have a say in the nomination of corporate directors and in protecting shareholder value;
• Support corporate responsibility or sustainability reporting by public companies;
• Restate the consensus view that fiduciary duty may compel fiduciaries to consider
environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors;
• Assert global leadership in combating climate change, including through tax incentives and significant public investments in clean energy technology, energy efficiency, and green collar jobs and training;
• Take a critical look at lending policies and create more accountability in the lending marketplace;
• Create more opportunities for financially struggling homeowners to restructure their mortgages, helping them stay in their homes and out of foreclosure;
• Endorse legislation that provides for socially responsible investing options in the federal government’s retirement plan;
• Create an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility to enhance and
coordinate interagency CSR activities, allowing the federal government to become a
state-of-the-art leader in CSR across its vast domestic and international arenas of
influence."

Resilient Cities...

This an excellent presentation full of information for the renewing of our cities in teh face of peak oil, climate change, economic crisis.

Obama!

Terra TRC - A white paper on a very sophisticated alternative currency

This White Paper is right on track - as it is the essence of the vision of Terra TRC developed by Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne, who are some of the visionaries behind this innovative currency.

Here's what they write on their website to articulate the essence of their Terra TRC strategy:

"The Trade Reference Currency (TRC) TM is a new currency privately issued by the TRC Alliance, with a built-in circulation incentive that could play a significant role in getting the world out of recession. Its unit of account is the Terra. It would systematically stabilize the effects on the business cycle and re-align financial interests with long-term sustainability."

"Without the Terra

"The experience for Business in particular is:

"More expensive and riskier international activities
Deeper and longer recessions worldwide
Non-standardized and expensive counter-trade deals
Irresolvable conflict between the short-term financial demands of their shareholders and long-term sustainability
Massive losses of jobs"

Top Ten Greenwashes of 2008

Here are the top 10 greenwashes of 2008 according to Green Home.

Secrets of Collaborative Leadership - an article by Andy Manle

My friend Andy Manle wrote this piece on Arcwire.com based on an event that I attended.

Sustainable Consumption report

Since a majority of our economy is driven by the consumer - how do we maintain economic growth in the old paradigm and not consume our planet's resources to nothing?

Hmmm... something to consider.
Download this report which discusses the issues of "Sustainable Consumption - Facts and Trends"

Los Angeles: The History of the Future = from the visionary behind Ithaca Hours

Many people may not be aware that years ago in the eighties the Paul Glover - the creator of the well known complementary currency, Ithaca Hours and Ithaca Hours Online, was an activist in Los Angeles!

He was instrumental in creating "Citizen Planners of Los Angeles." It looks like he was very much ahead of his time with his vision "Los Angeles: A history of the Future"


His website states:

"Los Angeles has four awesome powers:

- There is such potent soil under the pavement that this county was the greatest garden in the United States, the top food producer of all counties, between 1910 and 1950.
- The sun shines on this place 290 days yearly. A growing season 350 days long permits continuous harvest.
- Our ten million people can work together. Skins all shades of night and smoke, of soil and wood, of fire, seashells and sand cluster and mix on the plain. We resent and love and hurt and help each other. We are magnificent.
- Water under this desert gives half the amount now used countywide. The ocean desalted is an endless supply.

How do we begin to employ these strengths to create a fruitful, self-reliant city, a sensual city worthy of excellent people and land? How do we prove the region's resources can sustain us?

The first work of citizen planners would be to redesign Los Angeles as boldly as government and industry do: to plan transformations with solar technology and orchards like commerce plans with highways and realty. We would plan broadly enough to coordinate regional use of our resources and flexibly enough to rely on initiatives by individuals and neighborhoods."


I agree!