February 2 Links: Green Buildings and Remodeling

Green Eggs & Planet reviews the 10 Greenest Buildings in the World, including the Robert Redford Building, home of the National Resources Defense Council, an awesome urban remodeling achievement. The link reminds me that I was recently proud about a huge Northwest Ohio company's achievement- Owens-Illinois' new headquarters in Perrysburg achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification, although not as sad I am that the company moved out of downtown Toledo and massive glass tower and into the 'burbs.

Now we're getting somewhere! Aptera, a Carlsbad, CA, company who's developmental electronic vehicle looks as futuristic as we all secretly hope the next generation of automobiles will be.


Interesting Discovery Channel article on GreenMobile, a Mississsippi State University effort to develop a sustainable alternative in rural housing. Pre-fabricated, eco-conscious and therefore not a far off cousin from higher-profile green housing start-ups, GreenMobile is blatantly aimed at a different market, and not afraid of the word "Mobile." Also interesting how simple some of the innovations are, like which direction the house faces as a way of controlling the temperature.

Green Eggs has some other nice posts recently, including a Top 10 list of (relatively obscure) home-cleaning products.

Quick video excerpt from "Nubian Cheetah" on Eden Campus, "Africa's First Green Business School."

Earth Friendly Moving, a Costa Mesa start-up that is reinventing moving with Recopack, a system of reusable plastic containers (instead of one-and-done cardboard boxes!)

A fascinating "Web Trend Map" produced by FormForce (Japan). I love the random, disconnected offshoot at the top of the subway-style map that contains a bunch of random webtrends, like Netflix, Sendspace and bunch of other media-sharing services.

Link to SCSI, a Massachusetts company that does green residential remodeling projects. Why is there not an all-out scrum among contractors in higher-end markets to become THE green remodeler in each market.

(There must be progress in some markets: Vivavi's directory of Green Remodelers...3 and counting! One's in New York, of course, but the other two are in Humboldt, CA and DeForest, WI.)

Press release about MaestroReading.com winning the Business Development Bank's Enterprize 2007 biz plan competition in Montreal, and $15,000. The start-up is working on elementary literacy tools and curriculum. I believe there is huge room for improvement in the student literacy arena...more to come on that!

John Doerr, Ben Godhirsh, Gaiam and Change

ZDNet leads us off with some coverage of one of our favorite social entrepreneurs, Steve Glenn of LivingHomes, who literally introduced this Optimist to the phrase "Profit and Purpose" during a chat at Pepperdine University two years ago. The author dwells on the apparent lack of privacy in a LivingHome, given the demo's (and Glenn's home's) many windows. Dwell-caliber design critique it's not, but all coverage is good, I suppose, with Glenn's goal of hundreds of homes over the next few years.

Silly author above, though, links us to a bit on summer 2007's Solar Decathlon, in which 20 universities competed in a Department of Energy contest to create a village of off-the-grid homes on the National Mall. Champion: Germany's Technische Universitat Darmstadt. University of Maryland was runner-up.

Inhabitat shows us this Taiwanese solar-powered car (don't look at it if you're predisposed to believing that "good" vehicles are "ugly") out of a university project.

Meanwhile this LA-based company, Venture Vehicles, led by Rick Balsiger, has a great-looking site, and a much more attractive three-wheeler.

Nice Motley Fool follow-up on legendary VC John Doerr's continued commitment to cleantech; he has previously called environmentally-friendly technologies the Biggest Economic Opportunity of this Century. (Needless to say, this is one investor to take cues from). The Fool's spin this time is on which large industrials (BP, DuPont) will jump on Doerr's bandwagon to reduce greenhouse gas 25% by 2010.

From the LA Times archives: a 2006 profile of young social entrepreneur and philanthropist Ben Goldhirsh, founder of Good Magazine and Reason Pictures

The Daily Green reports on the continued growth of $70M Boulder-based Gaiam, the "mother of all green product marketers," with 10,000 offerings.

Here's the blog of workplace revolutionaries Cali and Jodi, authors of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It and pioneers of ROWE (the Results-Only Work Environment.

Today's post on Change in the above blog made me think of how difficult Change is, and I recalled a 2005 Fast Company by article called Change or Die on that topic. This article is one of the two or three most stimulating things I've ever read.

Fantastic web home of The Good Store, a beautiful and simple Australian purveyor of stuff that is good. Not Good, good, in the sense that we normally discuss it here. Just...good, as in gifts, mostly, from a Bialetti Moka Express to a Hohner Harmonica.

Social Entrepreneur points to non-profit Conscious Lifestyle's Ventures program, which (with Youth Ventures) awards $1000 seed prizes to social innovators. Deadline: Feb. 15.

Detroit: Green Envy and Not Going To Take It Anymore

If you don't have time to read this whole BusinessWeek article on U.S. Automaker's "Green Fear and Loathing" at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, here are your key takeaways:

• A phenomenal headline: Fear and Loathing and Green Tech in Detroit
• Toyota is kicking U.S. automaker arse in the "green vehicle" race, with the Prius becoming the 9th best-selling car in the U.S. in 2007!
• Ford, with its gas-turbocharged direct injection hybrid technology, and GM are apparently scrambling to close the gap (the sleeping giants have awoken!)
• Oil barrels cost over $100 each now (with oil in them; a few bucks if they're empty, I'm guessing)...will this be the breaking point, and thus 2008, that we collectively say "Enough!"?
• All improvements are still incremental to this point, I am required to say, and fuel efficiency progress is embarrassing compared to, say, microprocessors (duh, but still)

I remember going to the Detroit show up at Cobo about 15 years ago, a care-free pre-teen, with my longtime pal Brad (who lives not far from Detroit and works on some of the coolest ad campaigns for some of the region's best vehicles, including Jeep). We were young and carefree, mesmerized by the shiny metallic Lamborghinis. Hummers and other 9 mpg beasts were nary a thought on our minds- heck, the minivan heydey had yet to yield to the SUV craze.

Imagine how far we've gone in 15 years...I mean, it's 2008 and we're talking about how this might even be the year that possibly we could maybe start to think about how U.S. automakers might consider preparing to compete with mass-market, cutting edge alternative technologies of their own!

P.S. With Subtle Disclaimer: Just so as not to appear entirely cynical, the 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid (younger and more eco-friendly nephew to my 2001 unhybrid Explorer) is a seriously good looking vehicle.

Thursday Links

Links early on a Thursday...

Wall Street Journal breaks the hope and promise of a New Year with the report of a Harvard study and its stimulating conclusion that businesses "doing good works" or pursuing "societal benefit" are only weakly correlated to reap shareholder benefit. (Save yourself the click- that's basically all it says.) The discouraging suggestion is that cash contributions to charities are a better indicator of a company's financial success than community projects, for example...or responsible corporate policies! Expect nothing less from Harvard and WSJ then the stunning philosophy of "Make your money first, and then give it away."

Admittedly my first reaction to news of Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff's book was skeptical; after all, I figured it was easy enough for a celebrity chief exec to cajole all of his/her buddies into writing an essay and throw them together and have them published. On second glance I decided I'd give this one a try, not for my dayjob allegiance to Benioff's web-based software, but for the diversity and star-studdedness of his essayist lineup.

This week's TreeHugger Carnival of the Green is a best-of-the-best of the green web by EBikeBlog.org, leading off with a link to a GreenLivingOnline.com story about "Pedelecs" on college campuses. I've never been a big fan of "motorized bikes" and any time I see one here in moderately temperate Southern Cal, I can't help thinking, "Why don't you just pedal yourself?" Of course the few times I have pedaled the 8 miles to work, I'm covered in sweat by the time I arrive; maybe that's an argument.

Double the wheels, but only multiply the cost of your average bike x 10, and you get the world's first $2,500 car, by Tata of India. It's actually closer to $3k at the moment- and I am fine that we continue to refer to Optimist innovations by their target price, whether it's achievable yet or not. Admittedly the "$100 Laptop" has a lot more cache than the "Buy Two $100 Laptops for $400" that the production economies currently allow...

Great local story from the Indianpolis Star about some Indiana farmers who began using roduce from there all-natural farms to create food products back in 2002 and have since grown Local Folks Foods 20x into a nice-sized (we don't know how nice) specialty foods company.

Another quick local story, this one from the Bismarck Tribune, about 2008 Marketplace Entrepreneurs of the Year winner SolarBee, a North Dakota company whose floating, solar-powered water circulator improves water quality in lakes, reservoirs, and water storage facilities. Another great story about local entrepreneurship with universal applicability- and yet another great (and, not that I could have thought it up, relatively simple-sounding) product marketed toward better water quality.

And finally, on Monday I was absolutely enlightened to absorb this perspective on why my all-time favorite lunch- the All-American Classic Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (I am very particular about mine and make with Jif Reduced Fat Crunchy Peanut Butter and Smuckers Strawberry Preservers, both marketed by the JM Smuckers Company of Orrville Ohio, on whoe wheat bread with some tortillas inserted for added crunch)- is also far better for the environment than your average lunch! Check out the PB&J Campaign.

New Year's, 2008: Links and Resolutions

Welcome to 2008. New Year's Resolution: Post more than our recent rolling average of about four times monthly.

To get us started, some links from the web of Good Business:

BusinessWeek prognosticates 2008, with the lead prediction being a green backlash. Although I wouldn't forecast a "crisis," I do think this is the year that the green movement moves beyond the early adopters into the mainstream, savvy consumers (and unsavvy ones) begin to look under the hood a little more beyond just trusting a loud GREEN label, and posers/imposters are exposed, ignored, or called out on it. Which will be a good thing, because when we collectively move beyond the "Any green press is good" to a higher quality of green consciousness, that's progress.

(PS: Always one step ahead of BW, we forecasted a green backlash in October!)

Quick story from Digital Media Wire on FreeRice.com and "philanthropic casual games." My thought: There's only room for a few such gimmicks in the public appetite, so let's hope the few that can muster an audience are good ones (this one is cute.)

Must-read Inc. article on Entrepreneur of the Year Elon Musk, who not only helped build (and cashed in on) PayPal, but now has THREE irons in the fire: Tesla Motors (high-end electric cars), SolarCity (looking to bring solar installation and service to the masses) and Space X, where he appears to spend most of his time, and whose mission is nothing short of spreading life to Mars. My favorite part of the Elon Musk story is his recognition of the idea of blowing conventional "alternative vehicle" pricing out of the water and creating a must have, $100k electric sports car that any sports car enthusiast may want...not just the tree-hugging variety.

PartnerUp lists 2007 Web/Technology Mergers and Acquisitions. Aside from the directly Good Business acquisitions- TreeHugger's $10M pickup by Discovery is testament to the passion of some real Green enthusiasts and the marketed they created for their distinctive content- the list is inspirational in that what's good for business must also be good for Good Business. In other words, hot M&A activity, plus increased investment in Clean Tech, is a good omen.

Cal Poly- Orfala College of Business Professor Chris Carr, upon returning from an annual b-school trip to China, on the "intellectual laziness" of students returning from the bursting-at-the-seams nation only to marvel at how big, messy and environmentally-unfriendly it is- without offering a business solution. Great take, especially his example of un-MBA Jill Buck and her Go Green Initiative. Carr may be ranting a bit when he drops the "All We Do Is Bitch" mentality, but in his arena of inspiring students to come up with entrepreneurial solutions, he's right onw.

Santa Clarita, CA Council Candidate Maria Gutzeit gives her Green SCV (Santa Clarita Valley) Wishlist for 2008. Interesting perspective from a local political candidate telling her local government to put their money where their mouths are. I especially like her stumping for including solar power as an option in new homes, an incremental cost that, if included in a 30 year mortgage, can be as low as the electricity savings are high.

Morganton, NC News Herald's Julie Chang on town entrepreneurs Bryan and Stephanie Cates, who launched (as of yesterday) Simply Green, a subscription curbside recycling pickup. I clearly don't understand the economics of enticing residents to pay $4 monthly to pick up recyclables, so let's hope they've done some solid analysis of charging for the service (and likely getting fewer "customers") vs. picking up for free and just cashing in on the materials (if there is such a thing in NC.) Nonetheless, if $4 monthly is the cost of good conscience for Morganton residents, that's a promising sign.

I always love the annual report on how many new magazines launched in the last year. 636, Folio reports, for 2007. Good Magazine is my favorite, if not for it's compelling content than for it's stimulating business model (the $20 subscription goes to the sponsored charity of your choice.) If circulation and subscription numbers are a loosely governed metric in the publishing world anyway, then why not make the fee really meaningful? My money went to Room to Read.

And finally, some thoughts on the mortgage bail-out, which was underdiscussed over the holidays.

BusinessWeek's Jane Sasseen asks whether the plan will go far enough, citing analysts who think that "broad criteria" aren't applicable and that mortgages (and ability to pay them) truly need to be looked at case-by-case. But I think one of her other points- the idea that only two narrowly defined groups- those with enough equity or income to refinance and those who meet certain standards before the freeze goes into effect- are to benefit is the saving grace. The plan essentially pre-qualifies qualified borrowers for an extension on their introductory rate. It's not bailing those who are already in trouble or weren't making their payments even when they were low. No one seems to know exactly how many home"owners" will benefit- most estimates are in the low six figures for both refinancing and rate freezing.

As a footnote I disagree with CNN/Money Joe Light's statement that subprime borrowers who will benefit from the rate freeze "are still being "punished" for reckless behavior in the past..." by being asked to continue paying their intro rates, which were typically higher than "prime" borrowers' in the first place. My thought: that's not new "punishment" in light of the freeze. That was already their "punishment" for having bad or no credit...per his logic (not mine!)

CSRWire, Callaway and Furniture Row

CSRWire is what it is: a venue for inherently self-promotional companies to tout their corporate responsibility achievements. Which also makes it a great place to find news on companies large and small and their involvement in philanthropy, research, and all other things Optimist.

How hard is it to come up with good, simple premises for your business, or one of your products, in support of a worthy effort, even if it does have a basic marketing component to it?

A recent batch of good news via CSRWire:

Callaway's Limited Edition Driver supports the company's Women's Cancer Initiative

Furniture Row sets aside $20 of each sofa for homeless children in Mexico via World Vision

Newly launched Ethisphere magazine follows up its first annual World's Most Ethical Companies issue with a webcast explaining their methodology and a call for nominations for next year's edition.

One other interesting tale via the Wire: Biota water, purveyors of water in corn-based bottles that biodegrade in only 80 days, takes to an aggressive PR campaign against UPS Capital (arm of UPS), railing against UPS Capital's financing tactics and explicitly (in a press release that reads like a lawsuit) pitting itself as David against Goliath.

Welcome to The Good Business Optimist Company.

The Optimist Company is about an increasingly prevalent approach to business that can be labeled many things: Doing Well By Doing Good. Profit and Purpose. The Triple Bottom Line. As much as we like how those sound, we like The Optimist, too. It suggests an attitude that businesses can contribute to their community, however they define it, while also making money.
Optimists are businesses that are ethical, innovative, socially entrepreneurial. Those that show how to be corporate citizens, activists, philanthropists, and humanitarians. Those that strive beyond short-term financial performance to actually drive change in their neighborhood, industry, country or world. Those whose very business models are entrepreneurial approaches to issues from global health to poverty to education to natural resources.

Since business is about people, Optimists are also people who are conscious of their impact on the world around them- from the environment to their neighbors. They tread lightly. They give back. The teach. They leave the environment as they found it, or better. They Go Green. They Seek Sustainable. They are LOHAS types; Considerate Consumers. A company's Optimists can be its employees, who work hard and often make some sacrifices to represent a company that shares their attitude; its customers, who often think a little more about what they're buying; its leaders, who ultimately determine what priority will go beyond profit.

There's plenty of bad news in business and life, and we can't avoid occasionally shining a little light on the ugly side of commerce. But mostly we're here to to tell the stories of Optimists: the companies, business leaders, start-ups, and entrepreneurs who are doing business in an inspiring new way. Our real goal is to get our hands dirty with several related Optimist projects- but more on that to come.

The Optimist Company believes that there is a big market for good businesses. That by doing good things for a community (however you define it) in addition to just making money, a business is better off. That not only can businesses do good; they should!