The company`s compromise rests on five pillars:

• Become carbon neutral
• Send no waste to be dumped in landfills
• Extend sustainable sourcing
• Help improve the lives of people in their supply chain
• Help customers and employees lead a healthier life-style

They have already achieved some results: a   70% reduction  in the use of plastic bags in their stores by charging the customers 5 p. for each bag.

Here you can see a video about Plan A:

Our review:

• Too many flashy images everywhere. I prefer sites that keep it simpler!
• Few participation opportunities and no social media features.

Via: TED | TEDBlog: Nature vs. humans (and what I’m doing about it): Paul MacCready on TED.com

“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.” - Terry Tempest Williams

Besides, they achieved the goal of placing three computers in one shipping box:

I was also surprised to read a critic on Wal-Mart abusive use of plastic bags. Here in Argentina, they have developed the use of a 100% biodegradable plastic bag.

The Story of stuff is an example on how some messages spread through the web much like a virus. And most importantly, this hard information, which is the downside of our patterns of production and consumption , can be explained in a simple, amusing way.

Here is the first episode:

You can see the complete 20 minutes version here:

The Story of Stuff

Nothing is lost, everything is accounted for and utilized to generate and maintain life. There is no scrap, no waste. Under their shadow, and from their fruits, the cycle of life continues for other species as well as their own.

Recently and thanks to the effort of Greenpeace, more 1,500,000 people committed to get the attention of the Government in focusing on a law against the depredation of native forests.

The country took conscience of the situation of our trees: In Argentina the annual deforestation is close to 600,000 acres, probably in line with the worldwide expansion of agriculture that has cut down 80% of all native forests and keeps a pace of 2,000 trees per minute in the Amazon.

It seems that the old bequest of planting a tree, having a child and writing a book no longer suffices.  Preserving a tree has become an important necessity in order for our children to create their “own worlds” and enjoy our current one.

Carolina, my granny, used to ask me to go with her to the grocery store. We lived in a province city and those were different times.

So, go tho the grocery store meant buying vegetables, meat, bread and different kinds of food from different places, going from one place to another. We stayed a while in each place: my granny chose the apples, she smelt them, she spoke to the shopkeeper (that always had something nice to say to her) and just then, she paid and we moved on.
The same happened in the drugstore, the bakery and so on.
Nobody, in any store, gave plastic bags to us. It was not an ordinary thing. It was not a habit.
I carried her fabric, colored bag. To me, it was a show of strength and feminine vigor, no matter that I weighed 35 kilos and was pure fringe and bones.
Things have changed.
Now I go shopping to the grocery store on my own and anywhere I go, no matter what I buy (aspirins, candies or lemons), everybody takes its own plastic bag.
In the streets, people carry their plastic bags that will later go to the trashcan or will join owners as they walk their dogs.
Each of those plastic bags takes a hundred years to decompose into tiny little toxic pieces. Many are hooked in trees. Many others fall into the rivers, lakes and seas, and keep floating like abandoned ships.
Here at Odiseo we believe there are habits we can change. And those habits that raise awareness are very contagious.
That’s why we want to invite our friends and readers to join the No Uso Bolsas Plásticas (I Don’t Use Plastic Bags) campaign. In this way, we will all help reduce the use of plastic bags and stamp them out our lives.
The Official No Uso Bolsas Plásticas website is alredy online. And there is a cause in Facebook, with 779 active members and a fotolog too.
Finally, for those who want to take the campaign everywhere, El Viaje de Odiseo has launched its own bags. These bags were manufactured by La Alameda cooperative, and stamped with non-toxic water inks.

We can all help to build a cleaner city, and a safer world.

Do you join us?

Muhamad Yunus. Founder of the Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Laureate.

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“Inclusive business” is a hype expression used to define a new concept of economic activities that go beyond fair trade. It is about carrying out new profitable business projects, which foster ecological and social responsibility and, at the same time, uses the mechanisms of the market to improve the standard of living of low-income people.

The “Inclusive Bussiness.org” has originated from the alliance between the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and SNV Netherlands Development Organization. Inclusive Business.org aims to spread news and promote cases that show this trend.
According to a brochure published by this organization, the low-income segments of the society participate in inclusive business in two ways:
1. Members of the production chain: as suppliers of raw materials, distributors and parts of the workforce.

2. Consumers: in those initiatives that make goods and services affordable for low-income communities.

The good news is that, first and foremost, inclusive business represents a great opportunity for many social actors. Our own experiences in our consulting firm with the project “I don’t use plastic bags poverty, creating their own opportunities to work in a decent “, in which cooperative La Alameda takes part, and our alliance with the cooperative El Ceibo to recycle, have showed us the value in this kind of organizations. They consist of people with a vision, that have madeofenvironment.

Conversely, the other form that inclusive business has taken reveals some aspects that stir some controversy. It holds the belief that the poor of Latin America and other emergent markets should become consumers. This is actually an old idea, first promoted by Henry Ford at the beginning of the XX century. In more recent years, we have witnessed the negative results of this economic model, which has proved to be ecologically unsustainable. Tackling poverty in our century involves more profound changes in the ways we produce and consume.

Another issue that deserves serious consideration is what we really mean in terms of goods and services when we discuss the possibility of including the low-income segments of the society in the market as consumers. I became aware of this on reading an article in The Guardian :“Latin America’s poor provide rich pickings”, which was quoted in the web site of Inclusivebusiness.org. The article cites the case of Ignia, a mexican company that sells health care to poor people in that country as a “best practice”. Something similar happens in my country. Since public hospitals are overcrowded and people must wait weeks to get a medical appointment, they end up paying for private doctors.
Taking advantage of this problem, companies that offer pre-pay clinic service at affordable prices have appeared. They are quite profitable but they represent only a patch. The actual fact is that the state is neglecting one of its basic obligations.
The appearance of these private companies that profit from the skinny pockets of the poorest (also called business at the bottom of the pyramid), making them pay for something they should by law receive for free is anything but good news. The society, the companies and the social entrepreneurs owe themselves a profound debate on which course of action ought to be taken to tackle poverty and define the roles of the private and the public sectors to achieve this.

]]> http://www.ernestovanpeborgh.com/lights-and-shadows-of-the-so-called-inclusive-business/feed/ http://www.ernestovanpeborgh.com/lighten-up/ http://www.ernestovanpeborgh.com/lighten-up/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:55:59 +0000 andresa http://www.ernestovanpeborgh.com/?p=10 The work from the Commoncraft crew is a classic for all of us who are trying to understand what the web 2.0 is all about. In the series of videos “In Plain English”, Commoncratf explains to us, in a very simple way, the concepts, tools and philosophy of all things 2.0.

But recently, this super creative team has decided to expand the reach of its work to include other concepts, such as sustainability, explaining with its unique style the positive impact produced by the replacement of incandescent light bulbs for CFL bulbs, or Compact Fluorescent Bulbs.

What are you waiting for? Lighten up!