Citizen Brand

It's the Earth, stupid

With apologies to James Carville who helped Bill Clinton win an election in 1992 by making sure his candidate and the campaign stayed focused on the economy with a similar admonition.  Wouldn't it be refreshing if a candidate or candidates running for President in 2008 put the same emphasis on the environment.  Voters will always care about the economy - that is a given.  But it would seem that there is a growing consensus among the vox populi that we had better start paying attention to Mother Earth.  If this is true, the candidates will not be far behind.

Today is Blog Action Day.  More than 15,000 blogs are focusing attention on a single issue - the environment.  My two cents worth is that unless we do begin to take all actions large and small to impact the future of our planet in a positive way, nothing else will matter someday.  Most especially the economy.

 

Andrea is already in the mix today with a simple message from a young man who understands that each one of us can make a difference with our actions.  Another action bloggers can take is to join up with others of us over at Razoo.com and make a difference every day in ways both large and small.  Check it out.  And Alicia and Brady always know of good links when it comes to the environment (and of course fair trade.)  Alicia recommends The Accidental Environmentalist as a place to get good ideas and fresh thinking about taking care of our planet.

So tonight, make sure you turn the lights off when you leave a room; try to use a little less water in the house but make sure your flowers and trees have enough to drink; and, take one less trip in the car each week.  These seem like little things, but they are all doable.  It takes 21 days to form new habits.  Today is a good day to start some for all of us.

Happy National Park Week

Did you know this past week has been National Park Week?  Neither did I until Kurt pointed it out to us.  As he accurately points out, we should not limit ourselves to one week to celebrate our 300 plus incredible public spaces that preserve some of the most beautiful and unique scenery on this earth.  It's the end of a long week and seems like a good time just to sit back and look at some of that scenery.  Put a favorite song on and enjoy the journey.

Redwood National Park - California

Glacier National Park - Montana

Guadalupe Mountains National Park - Texas

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve - Kansas

Cumberland Gap - Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia

Denali National Park - Alaska

Acadia National Park - Maine

  Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

Channel Islands National Park - California

Hope you enjoyed the journey. 

Chicago Green Festival

Brady and Alicia of Two Hands Worldshop (aka - my son and daughter-in-law) spent Earth Day weekend at the Chicago Green Festival.  Visit the THW blog for their first person reports from the Windy City.

If you missed Chicago, there will be two more Green Festivals this year in Washington D.C. in October and San Francisco in November.

Mounting Evidence

The rest of the world is waking up to the facts.  We are doing harm to this planet that we live on.  The question is have we gone beyond a tipping point of no return.

Audeamus points us to a report released today by the British government written by a respected economist.  It states the cost of beginning the process to turn the tide of global warming now underway will be one percent of global wealth - if we begin today.

The cost of waiting, according to Sir Nicholas Stern - formerly the chief economist at the World Bank - will be anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of all global wealth.  Read this article at Forbes.com.

Global warming is a sad example of an issue that has been clouded by political rhetoric instead of being made clear through reasoned research and science.  This is not a partisan political issue.  But it is clearly a vital economic issue that is already having an impact.  And as this report points out, the worst is on the horizon unless we put our best minds to work to solve it.

The technology exists.  The ideas are abundant.  The question now is do we have the will to put politics on the shelf and apply ourselves to identifying the extent of this problem and developing a plan to fix it.

We all can make small contributions toward a solution.  Let's all make an effort.  It is going to require the world working together to solve this one.  Can we do it?

The Cause Generation

If you are between the ages of 18 and 30, then it is likely you are part of the generation that will tip the balance in moving cause and corporate social responsibility from a nice to have in business to business as usual.

Proof of this comes from the 5th Annual College Explorer Study sponsored by Alloy Media + Marketing and conducted by Harris Interactive.

Calling all brands.  Are you paying attention?

Goldman Sachs Goes Green

Fast Company tells us that Goldman Sachs is taking a strong stand for the environment.

Arguably the world's most prestigious investment banking firm, Goldman recently adopted an environmental policy that calls for "world governments to tighten restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions, commits to investing $1 billion in renewable energy, and proposes a Center for Environmental Markets, a research partnership that will explore how the free-market system can solve environmental problems."

This is the kind of leadership that companies need to emulate quickly.  Green issues are only going to grow and the employees of the future want to work for companies that are truly trying to make a difference. 

This move will only solidify Goldman's position as a global leader and puts them well on the road to becoming a real Citizen Brand.