Green Options

On November 5th and 9th a gathering of great CSR minds is happening virtually. And while there are many interesting forums and conferences happening every day, this global summit is somewhat unique because its coming to a PC near you.

I’m especially happy its happening virtually because my favorite CEO, Jeff Schwartz of Timberland, is giving the keynote. If you, like me are out of town, you do not to have to miss it.

It makes sense that a summit on new models of social responsibility should take place making use of a new model of communications. And the event is environmentally friendly as well. By utilizing web conferencing technology, the live summit’s carbon footprint is minimized (because large events can have significant environmental impacts).  According to the organizers:

This is a ground-breaking summit that is using the latest communications technology to reach everyone who can help add to the knowledge necessary to to make social responsibility the way all organizations conduct business.

The summit has all the makings of a must-attend event:

Timberland has announced a new policy agreement with Greenpeace to ensure that leather used in new boots and shoes won’t contribute to deforestation in the Amazon.

The policy will issue a moratorium on purchasing any cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Amazon Rainforest, and it will force all of its suppliers to do the same.

A new organization, starting off in South London, but open to working in other areas as well, is making links in the green world on the grassroots level and is getting some serious attention.

Need another reason to spend time on Facebook? Or, just getting tired of Mafia Wars, Kidnap!, or even Willy’s Sweet Shop? Today, Timberland and changents officially launch yet another excuse for playing on FB rather than getting your work done: Earthkeepers Hero: Mission Possible.

I’ve played around with the app for a couple of days now, and, yes, I see how it could get addictive. Playing off the spy thriller motif, you’re presented with “missions” that revolve around an action/activism scenario, and give you a green trivia question to answer. There’s a definite social media aspect to it: you can recruit “backers” from your Facebook friends (which you’ll need for higher-level missions), and even get clues from real Timberland Earthkeeper Heroes such as Christopher Swain, Cate Trotter, Sami Nerenberg, and Nate Bastien.

Five leading companies joined Ceres today to announce a business coalition demanding stronger U.S. climate and energy legislation as early as 2009.

Editor’s note: We all know shoes leave a footprint, but probably haven’t given much thought to the environmental footprint created by shoe manufacturing. Travis Brown, a student in Professor Simran Sethi’s Media and the Environment course at the University of Kansas, takes a look at the impact of what we put on our feet. This post was originally published to the course blog on Monday, March 10, 2008, and on Triplepundit on Thursday, March 13, 2008.

America has a shoe problem.

2,286,472,000 shoes were purchased in the U.S. in 2005 according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association. There were 297,821,175 Americans alive at the end of 2005. That’s 7.67 shoes per person. Now I realize that I am a man and therefore do not understand the true glory of shoes, but this seems a little absurd. Think of all the different materials that go into making shoes and their packaging. Think of all the different places that those materials come from. Then think of where the shoes are made and how far they travel. In 2005, only 1.4% of consumed shoes were manufactured in America. 84.2% of American bought shoes that were made in China.

Just take a gander at this trend throughout the past few decades.