New Year's Resolution: Save Your ... Trash??

I read a fascinating article in the SF Chronicle this morning about a guy in Berkeley, California who saved all of the trash he accumulated throughout 2007.

What?! Yes, that's correct: Ari Derfel retained 96 cubic feet of trash he had generated this year. SF Chronicle reporter Kelly Zito reports:

The project called "Save Your Trash" started out as an experiment - to see just how much waste one person generates in a year. But as the months rolled by and Derfel's refuse overflowed from his kitchen pantry and into bins in the living room, the project grew from novelty into an environmental statement, a source of much discussion and debate, and a three-dimensional diary of Derfel's consumption habits (not to mention a source of many, many jokes).

This extraordinary experiment, known as "Project Trash Retention" (ha!) really makes one think about where exactly our trash goes. Derfel observes:

When we throw something 'away', what does 'away' mean? There's no such thing as 'away'.

SF Chronicle reporter Kelly Zito discovered in her research on this topic that "Americans generate about 250 million tons of solid waste a year (including recyclables and yard waste), according to the Environmental Protection Agency."

One example that drives home the idea of making more conscious purchasing decisions includes Derfel's reference to his consumption of Soy Dream ice cream pints - which happen to be one of my favorite indulgences.

During the course of his trash saving project, Derfel admits that each purchase of a packaged product forced him to think about whether consumption of the given product was worth having to make space for the container after the contents had been consumed.

These thoughts resulted in Derfel's decision to skip the soy ice cream (among other things), and instead buy locally grown and unpackaged products. As a substitute for reducing stress, Derfel opted for a hard work-out in lieu of soy ice cream consumption.

Nice!

We hear a million times about the pressing need to "save the planet", "recycle", and "reduce our carbon footprint". To me, Derfel's activism through his trash retention project drives home the message like nothing else.

Derfel's inspiration has already made me start to rethink my purchase decisions as well. Amazing how one article about one person can change the way you do things. I had a good test yesterday when I made a grocery store run. I passed by the soy ice cream aisle - thought about Derfel's trash retention project, imagined myself retaining my trash for a year as well, and walked by the aisle without adding a pint of the soy ice cream to my cart. Touche!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
US Anthropologist, Author

Learn more about this extraordinary project and about Ari Derfel by visiting his blog, "Save Your Trash".

The Davos Question

Hi Friends, Happy Holidays! Check out this cool YouTube opportunity to take part in the World Economic Forum conversations ...

Every year, many of the world's top leaders attend the World Economic Forum to discuss how to make the world a better place. The Forum takes place in Davos, Switzerland.

This year, consider joining in the Davos conversations. All you have to do submit a video by January 21, 2007 to YouTube that answers The Davos Question:

"What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

Then, starting January 1st, watch and rank others' ideas.

The highest-rated videos will be screened in Davos, January 23-27th. World leaders will watch your videos and make responses of their own.

Your idea could be the start of something big.

To learn more about the World Economic Forum, click here.

ShareIdeas.org

I recently read a great blog post by Christine at MobileActive.org that calls to attention a report released by telecom industry analyst Informa Telecoms & Media (ITM). In this report, ITM reveals that worldwide mobile phone penetration has hit 50 percent - or around 3.3 billion subscriptions. Given that the first cellular network was launched just 26 years ago, this is a huge deal. The report highlights the following interesting statistics regarding current mobile usage in developed and developing countries:

Although global mobile penetration - the number of mobile subscriptions worldwide - has reached 50 percent, this does not mean that half of the 6.6 billion or so people in the world now have a mobile phone.

A large number of more mature markets worldwide already have in excess of 100 per cent mobile penetration, as users increasingly sign up for more than one subscription, while emerging markets increasingly provide the bulk of new additions.

As of the end of September, 59 countries had mobile penetration of over 100 percent, while almost half that figure, 27, had penetration under 10 per cent.

Although mobile usage in developing countries has a long way to go before it catches up with usage in developed countries, it is clear that mobile communication is the future for modern society. Mobile technology offers an unprecedented opportunity for developing countries to acquire knowledge that will help accelerate development.

How can social entrepreneurs, educators, and others who are interested in social change collaborate and share ideas regarding the nuts and bolts of using mobile communications for social and environmental projects?

Well, there's a fantastic online community and wiki called ShareIdeas.org that aims to do exactly this: share experiences in using mobile communication for social benefit. This site offers a host of helpful resources and information. It's amazing!

The idea for ShareIdeas.org came from Ndidi Nwuneli, founder and CEO of LEAP Africa, a Nigerian NGO dedicated to nurturing a new generation of African leaders.

"Groups like ours would really benefit from a resource that shows us how to use mobile technology to carry out our work more effectively," said Ndidi at a Nokia stakeholder event of NGO and corporate leaders.

ShareIdeas.org was created in response to Ndidi’s request, (with support by Nokia and Vodaphone).

One of my favorite features of the ShareIdeas.org site is the "how to" section. Here, you can find information and practical examples from NGOs worldwide about ways to use mobile technology in your daily work. There are a bunch of case studies with great ideas, best practices, and lessons learned. There is also an educational section. Fantastic!

Although many in the world are not yet connected to the mobile network, the pace for connectivity is accelerating. Hopefully the connections and knowledge we share with one another today - through communities such as ShareIdeas.org - will help all of us, including our neighbors in developing countries, to ramp up more quickly.

For inspiring ideas on how you can start using mobile communications to bolster your own projects and endeavors, check out our what our friends have to say at ShareIdeas.org

FlipVideo Spotlight Program for Non-profits

Imagine the impact that video would make if every nonprofit organization had a camcorder to tell the world about problems that need to be solved, opportunities that need to be seized, abuses that need to be corrected, and people who need to be extolled.

Pure Digital Technologies

It's December 2007! And I'm excited to share news about a very cool company called Pure Digital Technologies that plans to use video to help non-profits make the world a better place. So, if you are a 501 (c)(3) organization registered in the United States, listen up!

Initially announced at the annual Clinton Global Initiative in September 2007, Pure Digital officially launched their Flip Video Spotlight Program this month. Through this program, the company aims to deliver one million Flip Video camcorders to qualified nonprofit organizations over the next 5 years. Imagine the ways you could broadcast your message to the world...

Flip Video is an easy-to-use, lightweight, compact device that produces high-quality video at the touch of a button. The Flip Video Spotlight Program provides non-profits with a Spotlight Kit that contains two 60 minute Flip Video Ultra camcorders with built-in video editing and publishing software, instructions for easily uploading video to a website or to popular video sharing sites (e.g. YouTube), tutorials, and other training materials. This product can be used by staff and constituents not trained in videography. Awesome!

What's the catch? Is this Spotlight Program a free deal? Well okay, not exactly. The Program provides Flip Video camcorders to qualifying non-profits for the at-cost price of $150 per unit. So, Pure Digital is not making a profit on the sales.

Great news though! There are are some ways to receive a Spotlight Kit with the help of a donor or sponsor. Qualifying non-profits can register requests for Flip Video Spotlight Kits with giving networks like NetworkforGood.org, JustGive.org, and TechSoup Stock.

To learn more about the Flip Video Spotlight Program for non-profits, please visit the Program's site.

Zero-sum Games and Non-profits: Why this makes no sense

"In game theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). It is so named because when the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero. A good example of a zer0-sum game is Chess: it is impossible for both players to win."

Wikipedia

Tonight I attended the monthly meeting for Net Tuesday, a meet-up group hosted by TechSoup on the first Tuesday of each month. Net Tuesday events bring together social changemakers and web innovators to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community. The group is mainly targeted at those of us interested in the conversion between non-profit projects and technology.

When I arrived tonight, the conversation was focused on planning strategies for the upcoming NetSquared Conference which is scheduled to take place, May 27th - 28th, 2008, in San Francisco, California. Participants in the conversation were discussing things like "how can TechSoup raise awareness of its services among Bay area non-profits", "how to disseminate best practices", and "how to solicit volunteer business and engineering consultants to help with the Conference".

These seem like thoughtful, relatively harmless questions. Indeed, some interesting comments emerged. What surprised me tonight, however, was the strong opinion voiced by a few attendees that in their experience the non-profit industry is one of rather fierce competition. I was then rather disheartened to learn of the strategies that these non-profits undertake to deal with this "competition".

One woman in the group, for example, mentioned that through her international non-profit work, she has come to believe that "we live in a world of scarcity, in which non-profits compete for donor dollars and foundation support." She continued by saying that non-profits do not collaborate or even speak to one another - even when they are at the same event. She explained that there is no incentive to share best practices, because to do so may result in receiving less of the "pie" of monetary support from donors.

Wow. Now, I'll admit that I come from the for-profit world. So, I'll take this gal's perspective at face value. But indeed, her comments are rather unsettling, and definitely a sad commentary on the state of mind of some non-profits. I mean, think about it:

An individual who is drawn to the non-profit sector, must at the core, have a rather strong philanthropic drive. Otherwise, why would they ever want to work for or start a non-profit? Afterall, we know that non-profits are not well-known for their competitive monetary compensation.

There has to be another incentive. For many, I would guess that this incentive is the "mission" of the organization - and the opportunity to contribute to something more "meaningful" than monetary objectives alone.

So, if individuals choose to work on non-profit projects for the purpose of achieving a noble goal - let's say "to end hunger", for example - then doesn't it make sense for them to make friends with other people who share the same passion and to find a way to join efforts or to in some other way support them in working toward the same goals? To not collaborate suggests that one group alone can create great social change without the help of anyone else.

I often find that best practices are a lot easier to find when looking at the for-profit world. I understand that there are differences between for-profits and non-profits. Still, in many cases, best practices in business are very applicable to non-profits as well.

Some great examples in the business world demonstrate how synergies between people can produce some amazing products and services. Think - Google, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ebay, YouTube. All of these successful companies emerged from what started as a founding team of two people, not one.

And these companies have grown, and grown BIG - through mergers and acquisitions of promising, yet smaller, organizations. Google's acquisition of YouTube, Microsoft's acquisition of Visio, and Ebay's acquisition of PayPal, are a few cases in point.

I imagine that many small non-profits do not see any benefit to merging with a larger, more well-endowed organization that shares the same objective. Heck, we see from tonight's meeting that some non-profits do not even want to help one another.

At times like this it is all the more important to remember the original purpose that led to the non-profit's creation in the first place. Hopefully the purpose was the "mission" of the organization, and not the founding member's desire to be able to tell their friends that they are "founder of XYZ.org".

From my perspective, what it comes down to is this: if you want to achieve something for the greater good of humanity, then you have to actively engage humanity to realize your goal. That means, you have to talk with people, reach out, and think about win-win ways in which you can collaborate to make both your and the other organization stronger. You have to be a leader by doing things differently, which includes taking bold action and perhaps - dare I suggest - teaming up with your "competition". We are talking non-profits afterall. Shouldn't the mission, the "cause", be the driver?

Zero-sum games may work if you are playing Chess - and you are the winner. But it certainly is not a successful strategy to pursue if you want to create social change. Through our connections and conversations with others, we learn, and grow. With the right teams of people, non-profits may even surprise themselves and find that by working together they are having a lot more fun to boot.

Building a World of Good

"If you could change a life while you shop ... would you add it to your shopping list?"

When I first heard about World of Good this past summer, the idea struck me as nothing short of brilliant. With the holiday season upon us, it seems like a perfect new venture to keep in mind as we engage in the festivities of giving, receiving, reflecting, and planning for the new year.

Okay, so what is World of Good? And why is it a big deal?

For 5,580 artisans and their families from 34 countries around the globe, World of Good, Inc. provides a bridge to the U.S. retail market, thereby providing an opportunity for these artisans to share their best work, while at the same time gaining access to fair wages, safe working conditions and long-term economic sustainability.

Since 2004, women in the United States have purchased more than one million Fair Trade products from World of Good. That translates into one million choices of empowerment instead of exploitation. World of Good, Inc. is creating, well ... a - world - of good.

E-commerce is one of the main channels used by World of Good to distribute the artisan products it sources from developing countries around the world. While e-commerce has been around for over a decade, with companies like Amazon and Netflix now enjoying household name status in many U.S. homes, World of Good's spin on e-commerce is a fresh, perhaps cutting edge, model that provides a glimpse of the direction that many companies are bound to follow as the trend in sustainability and equitable, fair trade commerce goes mainstream.

The great news is that World of Good's socially responsible business practices turn out to be good for the bottom line as well. With a presence in over 1,000 retail locations, as well as an online presence, World of Good reported sales growth of 300% in 2006.

The impact is significant in artisan communities: sixty to seventy percent of the artisans providing fair trade handcrafted products are women, and often these women are mothers and the sole wage earners in the home. According to World of Good ...

"Through Fair Trade craft production, women improve the lives of their families, as well as their own lives, and report that their work has given them self esteem and the opportunity to participate in decision making in their communities.

Studies show that when the earning power of women increases to more than $2 per day, there are many quantifiable social impacts such as decreased infant mortality, longer life expectancy, and lower health care costs."

As if all this was not "good" enough, World of Good, Inc. further helps to improve the lives of its artisans by re-investing 10% of profits in the artisan communities through its non-profit partner, the World of Good: Development Organization, a 501(c)(3) focused on strengthening international fair trade industry standards and implementing commmunity development projects.

So, with each purchase of one of World of Good's beautiful handicraft items, consumers can contribute to the economic and social improvement of artisan communities around the world.

Fair Trade products are a bridge to economic freedom. In the things we buy, Fair Trade is the ability to shape the lives of people in a respectful, humanitarian manner. It is a way of doing business in which everyone in the supply chain can benefit.

Priya Haji, Co-Founder and CEO, World of Good, Inc.