Green Options

I bought a pack of gum a few months ago. I paid with a credit card. I signed my paper receipt, was handed my duplicate paper copy of the transaction, expressed my gratitude for the exchange and walked outside. I unwrapped the plastic packaging surrounding the paper box containing the aforementioned gum. I opened the lid, unwrapped the tin foil around the packets of individually wrapped goodness. Then I carefully selected my piece, unwrapped it and set to chewing. As I chewed, I looked at the green gum package blankly when something caught my eye. In between the main paper packaging, the secondary foil packaging, and the shelves that held the remaining individually wrapped pieces, there was a small picture. It was a picture of a stick figure throwing the accumulated ball of waste into a garbage pail, with words underneath that read “Do your Part.”

“Do my part”, I repeated. I chomped my gum a few more times, chewing on my orders. It seemed simple enough. I am not great with directions, but I felt that I could handle that. The picture made it look easy. I was just to throw away the ball of accumulated spent packaging, which was made up of trees that took years to grow, plastics derived from petroleum, and aluminum extracted with great effort all with the sole purpose of being wrapped around something destined to be unwrapped, thrown away, and reburied in a hole or better yet, burned to make room for more people to “do their part.”

Biofuels Digest reports that a group of Chinese investors are showing interest in palm oil-based biodiesel production in North Sumatra.  The investment group has sent an exploration team and is investigating the financing of construction projects that would commence in 2009. 

Berita Sore points out that crude palm oil and other animal/phyto oil exports in the January-October 2008 period were valued at [...]

If President Elect Barack Obama stays true to his campaign promises, federal cap and trade legislation may soon become a reality.  In light of this, companies are competing to become the EPA ‘feeder’ greenhouse gas registries of choice.  One company of note is the non-profit, American Carbon Registry.  With 25 million registered offsets and stamps of approval from both Fortune 500 companies like Nike and mission-driven institutions like the World Bank, the American Carbon Registry enters the pre-compliance market as a leading domestic registry.
 
“American Carbon Registry is an imprimatur for low risk and high quality. We add value by helping our members position themselves to earn early-action credit towards future federal and international GHG regulatory programs,” says Wiley Barbour – Founder and Chief Technical Officer.

Under Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) of the U.S. Treasury, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs received $25 billion each and Bank of America received $10 billion in federal bailout funds.  It has been argued that much of the the global economic meltdown was brought on by the country’s largest financial institutions.  In response to the recent bailouts, Harrington Investments, Inc., a socially responsible investment (SRI) advisory firm, announced that they have submitted binding bylaw amendments at Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs that would create Board Committees on U.S. Economic Security.

The bylaw states that the board should consider the impact of bank policies on U.S. economic security as part of their fiduciary duty:

U.S. Economic Security’ impacted by bank policy may include, among other things 1) the long term health of the economy of the U.S., 2) the economic well-being of U.S. citizens, as reflected in indicators such as levels of employment, wages, consumer installment debt and home ownership, 3) levels of domestic and foreign control, and holdings of securities and debt, of companies incorporated or headquartered in the U.S. and 4) the extent to which our company holds securities of foreign companies or has employees or representatives holding positions on the boards of directors of foreign companies.

The shareholder statement argues that taxpayer efforts to stabilize the U.S. economic system were precipitated by “years of irresponsible lending and business practices. Unregulated trading in speculative derivatives and a general lack of management and board oversight at major U.S. financial institutions has brought the global economy to the brink of disaster.”

If you are from Colorado and have made the drive along I-25 over the last five years from Denver to Fort Collins or Denver to Colorado Springs, you have undoubtedly noticed it.  The irony of vast corn fields and pastures surrounded by construction sites and tract housing.  Productive pastures once grazed by livestock replaced by bulldozers clearing the way for development and progress in the form of roads, houses, and malls.  As one farmer put it, “we’ve gone from growin’ corn to growin’ houses.”  Colorado is not the only state facing this issue, consider these facts from the American Farmland Trust,
 

Congrats to our friends at Ecopreneurist, recently named by Green Eco Services as one of the “Top 20 Green Business Blogs”

Photo Credit: By Photo Credit: aknacer via Flickr’s Media Commons

The BBC reports that fresh fighting has occurred between rebels and government troops in DR Congo as African leaders, and the UN’s Ban Ki-Moon began crisis talks.  Click here to read the full article and learn more about the conflict.

Photo Credit: By Photo Credit: Julien Harneis via Flickr’s Media Commons

In case you missed it or want to read it again, here is the full text of the speech as prepared for delivery Tuesday night in Chicago by President-elect Barack Obama:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

When you visit the Khosla Ventures website, you are greeted with a quote that articulates the spirit of the movement that we are trying to capture at the Inspired Economist.  It reads, “Innovative bottom up methods will solve problems that now seem intractable- from energy to poverty to disease. Science and technology, powered by the fuel of entrepreneurial energy, are the largest multipliers of resources we have to solve our many social problems.”  Brilliant words from a VC firm that is helping to finance many of the companies of the New Economy.  Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures, and was also the keynote speaker at the 2008 Algae Biomass Summit held last week in Seattle, WA.

The economy is in crisis, unemployment is on the rise, and there is a general feeling of fear in the market.  Where some see despair, Warren Buffett sees opportunity. 

In a recent Op-Piece in the New York Times, Mr. Buffett explains his reasons for investing in US Equities and urges others to do the same.  He encourages investors to “be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when [...]