White House and Obama on climate change

I often frequent the White House blog to be kept apprised of what is happening in our nation's capital. Last week, the blog had a post on climate change and what Obama is doing to tackle climate change. Here is an excerpt from the article,

"Some exciting announcements today from the White House on our efforts to combat climate change and lay the foundation for a clean energy economy! The President will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) next month, and he will take with him an emissions reduction target to drive progress toward a comprehensive and operational Copenhagen accord.Over the last 10 months, the Administration, under the President’s active leadership, has made remarkable progress in addressing climate change and accelerating a clean energy renaissance domestically and abroad (see a list of accomplishments below). These aggressive initiatives have laid the foundation for a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen and longer term for a new, sustainable and prosperous clean energy future."

The article goes on to say that 192 nations will participate in the talks in Copenhagen this month and over 15,000 people will be in attendance. As well as highlighting the areas where The Administration has demonstrated domestic leadership such as the Recovery Act, Efficiency Standard for automobiles, Appliance Efficiency standard, advancing energy legislation and offshore energy development.

Here is the rest of the article

Final recalculated EF

If everyone lived my lifestyle, we would need 3.78 earths! My footprint in global acres is 146.84. Its funny i just noticed that my foottprint is a lower than the country average in all areas asked in the quiz. What reduced the most from my last recalculations of my ecological footprint is my carbon footprint. I think its because I have started to recycle more, a lot more. I went home for thanksgiving and went to my favorite coffee shop with the fam and they had no option to recycle! Regrettably I threw away my plastic water bottle that I got from doing the turkey trot downtown Gig Harbor. They handed out 2000 of these to all the race participants... Is there a bettter and different way of hydrating race runners... please tell me there is. One thing that frustrates me with this quiz is the lack specificity of it, granted its easy for the average person to take it because there are a lot of common sense questions but there no climate to describe the Pacific Northwest as well as some other questions they could get alot more specific on. I think after this class is over I will mainly focus on keeping up my recycling habits and work on energy saving like turning off the lights and using less water and shutting the refrigerator door. Here are my survey results

B corporations... What are they?

I am learning through this class that there are a lot of people that think the same way that I do. Being in business doesn't mean you have to reach maximum profits while kicking ass and taking names while you are at it. I came along a certification system or standard that certifies corporations and their efforts of being more sustainable. It is called B Corporation. It is kind of like the Global Reporting Initiative.

B Corporations "use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Corporations are unlike traditional responsible businesses because they:

• Meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards.
• Institutionalize stakeholder interests.
• Build collective voice through the power of a unifying brand."

This is according to their website.

The website and certification is then a basis for community for the corporations that are striving seek the best possible solutions and find support from other entrepreneurs who are trying to solve society's problems as well. Right now there are over 220 B corporations. To be honest it would be cool to be certified as a B corporation but no one barely knows about this network and certification standard, its almost like being certified organic... Anyways, check out their website at www.bcorporation.net and see their video below:

Nuru International

I was talking with a friend of mine who attends Stanford University's graduate school of engineering and we were discussing sustainable design and ending poverty. A friend of his, Jake Harriman, the CEO and founder of Nuru International argues and advocates that in order to end extreme terrorism, you must end extreme poverty. Something that was also mentioned by former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Check out their story and how they got started. The nonprofit started last year focuses on 5 areas of development: Agrilculture, Water and Sanitation, Health Care, Community Economic Development and Education. Their approach is not about giving handouts but being sustainable and "teaching them how to fish" instead of just giving them a fish.

How Nuru Works from Nuru International on Vimeo.

An update on how I am doing with my EF

Alright! I have some success to share with you! I have been working on my new goal (as previously mentioned) on conserving water while washing dishes. I have started washing dishes only when they pile up to conserve water. However, only eating beef once a week or not at all has been somewhat difficult because beef has been a staple item in my diet each week but probably once or twice a week. The problem is that I forget how many times I had beef that week...

Causecast.org... Check it out.

So on my quest to find sustainable companies doing their part to make the world more sustainable in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability, there is one website that I am so stoked about! It has all of that in one central location! It is causecast.org.

It is one website where organizations, users, activists, sponsors can come together and share media, ideas and discuss a variety of causes. Organizations create profiles for members to browse their content and donate to their favorite causes. It's like a Facebook for philanthropies. You can learn about all these different causes ranging from environmental issues to social justice without having to go to each separate website. The website is its beta version but I hope blog posts like this will increase its popularity and the causes represented on the site.

Yet another sustainable company...

So it has been a week or so since I last blogged about highlighting companies that are attempting at being sustainable. In poking around on the internet, I discovered eBay's sustainable retail store and to be honest I was quite impressed with how well it is put together. It is called worldofgood.ebay.com and there are four ways you can shop on the website.

1. People Positive- This promotes economic empowerment, quality of life and preserving tradition.

2. Eco-Positive- Energy and Environment conservation, Eco-friendly production

3. Animal Friendly- animal welfare and preservation of species

4. Supports a Cause- Shop, sell or donate to a cause.

I like what eBay is doing with this website. They are providing a central hub for conscientious consumers to look around and shop for products that benefit the environment while also allow the consumer to express themselves. The site features organically made clothes, fair trade scarves, recycled jewelry, wooden USB drives and musical instruments.