Category Archives: awareness

Santa’s View

Yes, I believe in Santa. And I never thought of him as a toy maker but a distributor. One who spreads joy and goodwill, connecting us all. So today I watched one of my favorite videos, The Known Universe, I added to the EarthSayers.tv collection this last year. It was created and then published on YouTube by the American Museum of Natural History. It was part of the exhibit, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, held at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan in 2010.

I thought about Santa when I first saw it, so see our Universe from his perspective.

VP of Social and Environmental Sustainability

Meet Michael Kobori. He is VP of Social and Environmental Sustainability at Levi Strauss and Company.

He is the person I had in mind when in March of 2011 I wrote a blog post comparing sustainability to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and noted “Up to now the C-level sustainability officer is generally focused on environmental concerns, water and energy being high priorities, and cost reductions. At the social and environmental sustainability intersection is where companies can begin to examine their role in externalizing risks and costs, a practice and mind set that has greatly harmed the environment and all living beings.”

So look at how Levi’s represents sustainability on their Website.

Follow the leader.

Listen to a video interview of Michael by 3BL Media at the BSR 2012 conference on EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, November 12, 2012, Portland Oregon

Putting Feet On Your Press Release

It’s time to wed the traditional press release with the Web, particularly social media, and to do so in a way that makes it easy for your audience – the press, supporters, partners, sponsors – to spread the word. In a presentation I have prepared, Putting Feet On Your Press Release, using the new storytelling tool, Prezi, the following is detailed and an example provided:

1. How many of the PR releases you receive are dense with copy;

2. Offer no easy method for referring people to a copy of the press release; and

3. Provide no copy to be used in a twitter, expecting your audience to boil down dense copy to 140 characters.

We use a recent press release of our own as an example in the presentation.

Start the fall off with putting feet on your press release, especially, if you are using them to announce sustainability-related issues, events, and programs. Our objective is to increase sustainability awareness and the press release is an important tool so we want to see it used more effectively.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Portland, Oregon, August 31, 2012.

P.S. The tool, Prezi, takes a couple of minutes to get used to but basically you use arrows to follow a path I have created, so there is not much work involved once you get familiar with the buttons. There is always the option of giving you the presentation over the phone or in person, so if you want help, call me (415-377-1835).

The (event) Afterlife

The afterlife of an event featuring sustainability leaders isn’t being given much thought. Where is the afterlife? On the Web and successfully so when video is used to extend the reach of the unfiltered voices of the leaders brought together, often at great expense, by event sponsors. Here are some recommendations to discuss among your colleagues who incorrectly perceive video as an added expense, rather than as an investment.

1. Live stream and/or provide video “on-demand” covering the main presenters, panels and or teaching circles. Engage partners in sponsoring the live stream and on-demand “product” much as they have done so in the past for the conference itself or for lunches, receptions, and workshops.

Case in Point: We are providing sixteen hours of streaming content for our client, The Seed Institute, for their upcoming conference, WISDOM FROM THE ORIGINS: The Mayan Calendar and Other Prophecies on the Future of Humanity this September 13-17, 2012, in Albuquerque, NM. There are over thirty presenters ranging from the best selling authors, Marianne Williamson and James O’Dea to wisdom keepers representing fifteen indigenous tribes. We will be reporting back in late fall on this experience as a model the non-profits, especially associations and educational organizations.

2. Interview thought leaders at the conference, both presenters and attendees and pepper the Web with them.

Case in point: Take a look at how 3BL Media has worked with event organizers to interview their leadership, now positioned as sustainability thought leaders on EarthSayers.tv.

3. Maximize visibility by using a search strategy identifying keywords/phrases when posting content and always include the big picture phrases, not only sustainability, but those specific to the event such as responsible investing along with names of leaders.

Case in point: We interviewed Julia Anastasio, Director of Sustainability for the American Public Works Association (APWA) at a meeting on Sustainability by the APWA. This content now contributes to her visibility as Director of Sustainability; as a subject expert in 3(e)BL; and as a sustainability thought leader in the category of transforming our economy. Here are the results:

Searching on the subject 3(e)TBL and we see this content is well seeded with Julia in the top listing:

Finally on a category search, Transforming Our Economy, the special collection on EarthSayers with Julia’s presentation in this collection, comes up in the top three rankings. This positions Julia as a sustainability thought leader and by extension her organization.

4. Post content, in whole or part, and in order of importance to search strategy on your (1) YouTube, (2) Vimeo and (3) Blip.tv channels.

Leave a trail of something other than carbon emissions. As cited in a recent article, “Air travel is incredibly destructive to our environment. Just one round-trip flight from New York City to San Francisco, CA is nearly 15% of the annual carbon emissions for the average American.” This quote is from an excellent article, “How to Lesson Air Travel’s Damage to our World,” in case you missed it. AND at the same time, reduce emissions while extending the reach and impact of our sustainability leaders.

Leverage your events to help our citizens find the voices of sustainability to be educated, inspired and motivated.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Portland, Oregon, 97201, 415-377-1835.

Playing on the Edges? Move to the Center of Sustainability

The MIT/Sloan Management Review article, How to Become A Sustainable Company, addresses playing at the edges in one clear statement:

Currently, organizations that exhibit a broad- based commitment to sustainability on the basis of

their original corporate DNA are few and far between.

I was reminded of this statement listening to Canadian sustainability pioneer, David Suzuki, being interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now yesterday on RIO+20 and the so-called green economy. Here is the interview.

There is one observation in particular that addresses a fundamental paradigm shift that needs to be made in our thinking, in our consciousness in order to survive beyond this century. It rests on our ability as leaders to “reassess everything.”

“And if we don’t see the that we are utterly imbedded in the natural world and dependent on nature, not technology, not economics, not science — we are dependent on Mother Nature for our very well being and survival. If we don’t see that, then our priorities will continue to be driven by man-made constructs like national borders, economies, corporations, markets. Those are all human created things. They shouldn’t dominate the way we live. It should be the biosphere. And the leaders in that should be the indigenous people who still have that sense, that the earth is truly are mother, that it gives birth to us.”

The indigenous people are our citizens who actually live in places of “extreme sources of energy” as referenced in David Suzuki’s comments and referred to by Erick Gonzalez, the founder and spiritual leader of Earth Peoples United, as the “last frontier.” Erick emphasizes the last frontier for extreme sources of energy are in the territories of the indigenous people. Give him a listen. It takes less than two and half minutes and is a move from the edges of sustainability to its center. Click here.

Next look more closely at Tar Sands as a place and what it means for the biosphere by listening to the indigenous people living there such as Clayton Thomas-Muller and Alanna Hurley and then listen to the Canadian artists, such as Garth Lenz and Edward Burtynsky present their photography as they capture in pictures what is meant by “extreme sources of energy.” Move your attention to the center, but hurry, as “Our Scarcest Resource is Time,” as emphasized by Sustainability Pioneers David Suzuki, Lester Brown, Maurice Strong, Rajendra Pachauri, Bill Ford, Sha Zukang, and Jonathan Porritt in a video of the same title. It is part of the Ray Anderson Memorial Video Series by The Regeneration Project an initiative of the think tank, Sustainability and the research company, GlobeScan and sponsored by SC Johnson and the BMW Group.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Portland, Oregon on June 27, 2012.

The Arts and Sustainability Advocacy

I always like to do something special on my birthday hoping I can look back and remember what I did to celebrate a milestone, heavy as they can be. I remember my 4oth and 50th for example but not much in between and my all time favorite remains my 16th. So for this birthday which is an even numbered one and let’s leave it at that, I want to call out the sustainability advocates I have added recently to our collection, Artist & Musicians on EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability. These men and women join business and civic leaders, teachers, consultants, experts, and citizens from all professions as sustainability advocates.

Find some time in your busy schedule to see and hear what they have to say and think about tapping into our great wealth of creative performers and artists to increase sustainability awareness. To warm up, Save Planet Earth by Tokyo Rose Band. If you are at work, put in your ear buds.

Picture this.

Interview of Canadian landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky. He talks about the focus of his latest exhibition, Oil, composed of 55 color landscapes made over the last decade. Here is a where to view his art exhibited by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and here is a trailer of the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes.

The True Cost of Oil: Tar Sands by Garth Lenz in his speech before the TEDxVictoria audience. For almost twenty years, Garth’s photography of threatened wilderness regions, devastation, and the impacts on indigenous peoples, has appeared in the world’s leading publications. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation Photographers.

Picturing Excess by the artist, Chris Jordan‘s work addresses the unconscious behaviors that add up to catastrophic consequences which no one intended. He explores the phenomenon of American consumerism. The photo used in this blog is of his book, Ushirikiano: Building a Sustainable Future in Kenya’s Northern Rangelands
(teNeues Publishing Group, 2011).

What’s That Sound?

The band Vocal Trash’s primary goal is to teach children to use their imaginations in a meaningful and perennial regard. Recycling awareness is the secondary goal obtained through creative and inspirational performance utilizing distinguishable items that might normally end up in a Landfill, (metals, plastics, etc).

Along the same lines, percusionista, Fellé Vega is devoted to finding “the sound of life” and experiments with recyclable materials and everyday objects that have percussive possibilities, such as pails, lids and pots, which he then turns into musical instruments. His performance filmed as part of TEDxSantoDomingo.

Hymn to the Rainforest by Sarah Brightman invited by The Prince’s Rainforests Project to sing at an event they hosted to engage the financial community in the task of finding a solution to the problem of making rainforests worth more alive than dead. This is the film that accompanied her singing. The music is Nella Fantasia – used in the soundtrack of the movie – The Mission, and often called a Hymn To the Rainforest. For more information go here.

Our Generation sung by John Legend and The Roots performing Ernie Hines’ 1970 classic at Terminal 5 in New York City, September 23, 2010.

Speak Out!

What Can I do for social and ecological justice? Spoken word poet and activist Drew Dellinger says that one of the deepest questions a person can face is, What can I do?, and describes the quest to answer it as a spiritual challenge.

Our True Nature, a riff on our true nature by spoken word artist, Steve Connell.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, May 25, 2012 from Portland, Oregon.

Helping You Make Smarter Sustainability-related Choices

I regularly read the blog, From Me to We, by Kare Anderson. I thought the title reflected a basic tenet of sustainability and of life in general. As I read her posts I find she delivers on this theme with often very insightful advice as was the case today in her post, Two Ways to Make Smarter Choices Next Time.

1. Don’t Get Anchored Down (and remain open-minded)

“When considering a decision, the mind gives disproportionate weight to the first information it receives. Initial impressions, estimates, or other data anchor subsequent thoughts and judgments…Because anchors influence how others see a situation, savvy negotiators use them to influence how someone feels about a political issue or options for taking sides.”

Do you ever give too much weight to past performance?

“In business, one of the most frequent “anchors” is a past event or trend. A marketer in attempting to project sales of a product for the coming year often begins by looking at the sales volumes for past years. This approach tends to put too much weight on past history and not enough weight on other factors.”

2. When to Stop Digging (move on, start fresh)

“Each time you move, speak and demonstrate what you mean, you deepen your belief, get more articulate about it and are more likely to tell others…(therefore) Seek out and listen to people who were uninvolved with the earlier decisions. Examine why admitting to an earlier mistake distresses you, if it does.”

My experience with these two aspects of decision-making are manifested in the Website, EarthSayers.tv. It emphasizes many points of view around the big social, environmental, and economic challenges. These challenges are being addressed by a wide range of citizens who are experts, teachers, activists, business and civic leaders, artists, employees, entrepreneurs, and citizens from all walks of life. Some of the voices you may have heard of, but most of the voices will be new and fresh to you.

So, there it is. I really can’t make people change their decision-making habits, but for those seeking to be more open-minded and exposed to fresh ideas, I helped create EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability. Here’s our special collection on Transforming Our Economy. Give Alan AtKisson a listen. He describes the History of GDP which believe it or not makes for interesting discussions not only in the classroom, but at home and work.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, April 9, 2011.

EarthSayers.tv, an advertising-free and public digital library, features over 1,000 voices of sustainability. We are looking to maintain EarthSayers.tv by customizing the look and feel of the collection with content as an information service to organizations with a shared objective of increasing sustainability awareness and a desire to educate and motivate their audience. The collection will continue to grow by aggregation and by our branded partners adding their original content and that of their stakeholders.

Sustainability and Food Production Challenges

All types of organizations are producing animation, slide shows, documentary style videos, feature films, commercials, and the expert-interview to communicate their perspectives on food – big challenges of agricultural reform and rising food prices; food supply and demand; sourcing; and food safety.

The following curated selection reflects the complexity of the sustainability category of food production and farming and points out the opportunity for us to make more capable decisions about the food we buy and eat as well as move us beyond the more common conversations around organic products and nutrition, especially dieting. Hopefully at least several of the eight will be conversation starters for you around the dinner table, at work, and in community meetings.

1. Big Picture, Agricultural Reform, University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, How to Feed People without Destroying our Environment? 3:02 – 35,396 views on YouTube. 2. Paradigm Shift, Agriculture, Sophia joanes, Fresh (trailer), 2:54 – 144,000 views on YouTube.

3. Big Issue, Food Prices & Poverty, The World Bank, Rising Food Prices and Hunger, 2:50 – 206,843 views on YouTube.

4. Supply & Demand, Local Farming, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Back to the Start, 2:20 – 6,043,001 views on YouTube. 5. Factory Farming, Sustainable Table , Meatrix and the Lie We tell Ourselves, 3:46 – 135,687 views on YouTube.

6. Sourcing, McDonald’s lettuce supplier, Top Quality from Field to Fork, 1:54 – 213,730 views on YouTube. 7. IBM commercial, Tracking Food through the Supply Chain, 0:31 – 18,073 views on YouTube.

8. Food Safety, Richard Linton, Ohio State University, Food Safety, 2:05 – 170 views on YouTube.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, March 28, 2012, San Francisco, California 415-377-1835

What is Sustainability?

The 1.2M citizens per month* searching Google on the term, sustainability, very often ask, as we do here, What is Sustainability? It shows we have some work to do to raise awareness by starting with the basics. The definition I use most frequently comes from the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations:

Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground – the unborn of the future Nation.

Here are thirteen other voices, some you may recognize, others, until you listen, are strangers, but all are sustainability advocates. We begin with Dr. Stuart Hall of Cornell University, Sustainability Has Many Definitions, 1:37

Larry Merculieff (Aleut), Alaska Native Science Commission, Use of the Term Sustainability 4:52. This is one interview of a series conducted by Dr. David Hall on Native Perspectives of Sustainability.

Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt of The Natural Step, Defining Sustainability:Business Insights, 1:39 and The Responsibility of Civic and Business Leaders, A Personal View 5:56. No better source for sustainability than Dr. Robèrt.

Dassault Systemes, Definition of Sustainable Innovation, Elementary Style, animation, 2:50

Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism Solutions, What is Sustainability? A Nest of Issues 9:26

RealEyes, Definition of Sustainability, animated feature 2:02. More videos on their YouTube channel such as Sustainability in Turkish.

Dr. Albert Bartlett, Sustainability 101: Exponential Growth, 59:12 Even the first 3 minutes is worth the listen especially about percent growth rate, but this is really stuff we should have all learned in arithmetic.

Chris Farrell, Being Frugal: The Original Sustainability, 5:34 He makes a good point.

Christoph Lueneburger of Egon Zehnder, Definition of Sustainability by Corporations, 3:01. Biggest barrier is just starting with the definition.

People 4 Earth, Consumer Awareness of Sustainability, animation, 2:50. More of this kind of education and we further consumer and sustainability awareness.

Allison and Bud McGrath, R&K McGrath & Associates, What Is Sustainability? (audio only) and a father-daughter team.

Professor Julian Agyeman, Tufts University, What is Just Sustainability? 38:11. This is Julian’s keynote speech before the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

Professor Nikos Avionas, What is Your Vision for Sustainability, 4:56

These voices of sustainability on EarthSayers.tv will give you more to talk about, new people to reference, and great quotes when the topic of sustainability comes up as it does often. We hope you will be inspired to do your own definition and “broadcast yourself.” When you do post it to YouTube to let us know about it and we will add it to our special collection, What Is Sustainability? If you want to do more online video around sustainability to increase sustainability awareness for you and your business, call us. With over 1,000 voices now in our collection, all curated for relevancy and quality, we have learned a bit about sustainability and online video.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, March 12, 2012, Portland, Oregon, 415-377-1835.

Note: *This is about the same number for those searching on corporate social responsibility and those wanting to know the price of an iPhone.

Real Estate Transaction as Social Responsibility Action

Investing In Communities (IIC) is a young nonprofit empowering real estate professionals, like the founders and social entrepreneurs Michael Pink and Sharon Porter, to generate unrestricted revenue for non-profits through real estate transactions whether the client is an individual or company. Think of IIC as a client-directed, broker-funded social responsibility program.

It puts CSR into the real estate transaction to benefit communities.

IIC is an innovative program that corporations can launch as part of their CSR and sustainability initiatives for their real estate transactions as well as for those of their employees, enhancing the reputation of all and increasing the visibility of the broker, the employee, and the leaders of the company and the non-profit. Everybody wins.

Real estate brokers, as members of IIC, commit 10% of their commission from IIC-related transactions to the non-profits of the clients’ choice. The membership fee is nominal at $150.00 per year. A recent Cone study reported “Anywhere from 87 percent to 96 percent of consumers in all countries expect companies to be doing something to support causes” ranging from economic development, environmental and human rights to health, education and poverty.

As part of increasing the visibility of these brokers, organizations, and their employees we here at EarthSayers are teaming up with IIC to feature online videos of their participants in an IIC special collection on our all video site, EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability. Now over 1,000 voices strong EarthSayers.tv gives our citizens easy Web access to the largest collection of thought leaders on sustainability in the world.

As the curator of the IIC special collection, I have been scanning the Web for videos of thought leaders around these two phrases, investing in communities and impact investing. The first step in creating a special collection starts with definitions.

So to get us started, here is a short interview (video) with the author, Jed Emerson in which he defines impact investing; gives good examples; and distinguishes it from socially responsible investing. He is co-author of the book, Impact Investing. Click on the image to order from Amazon.com.

There will be more to come.

Investing In Communities® enables individuals and businesses to fund non-profits through brokered real estate transactions. Anyone can use IIC – individuals, business or organizations – for any commercial or residential real estate transaction using any broker they choose to give their assignment to.

CSR staff can leverage the real estate transactions of their company and employees to enhance corporate giving without touching the bottom line while significantly increasing brand awareness and reputation with the IIC program. It starts with creating an account here. It’s that simple.

EarthSayers.tv is the only thought leadership platform that highlights business and civic leaders, experts, teachers, students, and citizens from all walks of life who are addressing one or more of the twenty-eight sustainability categories under the elements of planet, people, and prosperity. With nearly 1,000 videos we have created special collections around environmental, social, and economic challenges ranging from climate change to human rights to social entrepreneurship and investment. We include interviews from events such as those produced by 3BL Media for the Ceres Conference 2011.

Sustainability Advocate is by Ruth Ann Barrett, Founder and CEO of EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability, Portland, Oregon, February 29, 2012.