Biz magazines spotlight the sustainability revolution | By John Elkington, Mark Lee | Grist | Full Disclosure | 27 Mar 2007

"If the business press is any indication, sustainability issues have risen up the corporate ladder and are now seen as a central challenge for companies in the coming decades.

Fortune

In its first-ever green issue, Fortune commends '10 Green Giants' -- corporations that are making impressive environmental gains. The editors decided to bypass GE and Wal-Mart, whose eco-endeavors have been heavily publicized, and instead highlight companies whose sustainability efforts have been less high-profile recently -- among them, Hewlett-Packard, Continental Airlines, S.C. Johnson, Suncor, and Alcan. While its list focused on big, mainline corporations, its cover went to an idealistic maverick who runs a 350-employee, uber-eco outdoor-gear company -- Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.

Fortune's Marc Gunther writes in an intro to the green package that environmentalism in corporate America has gone beyond mere compliance and efficiency: 'Now we're at the threshold of a different era, one in which smart companies are trying to figure out how to profit by solving the world's big environmental problems.'

Fast Company would seem to agree. Its latest annual "Fast 50" edition -- which spotlights trendsetting companies and leaders -- features California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on the cover and lauds him for "focusing the power of the free market on major problems" like climate change and dependence on foreign oil. In fact, this year the "Fast 50" is wholly focused on companies aiming to be green or socially responsible, from NativeEnergy to EcoFish to Home Depot, which now boasts that 95 percent of its wood products come from sustainably managed forests. The issue's lead essay argues that we have to shift to Business 3.0 -- a new, socially and environmentally sustainable set of economic and business models that acknowledge "we can't continue indefinitely to cannibalize our life-support systems for spare parts.""

Paris Embraces Plan to Become City of Bikes - washingtonpost.com

Someone is getting smart out there... lol...

"On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.

By the end of the year, organizers and city officials say, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1,450 stations -- or about one station every 250 yards across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere -- particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city, which launched a similar system two years ago -- regular users of the bikes will ride them almost for free.

"It has completely transformed the landscape of Lyon -- everywhere you see people on the bikes," said Jean-Louis Touraine, the city's deputy mayor. The program was meant "not just to modify the equilibrium between the modes of transportation and reduce air pollution, but also to modify the image of the city and to have a city where humans occupy a larger space."

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano?, has the same aim, said his aide, Jean-Luc Dumesnil: "We think it could change Paris's image -- make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life."

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Dr. Sigmund Freud, Dr. Wilhelm Reich

Freud is the founder of the modern study of Psychology. His main theory is that sexual frustration leads to mental and emotional illness, which manifests primarily as Frustration- Aggression Syndrome, Transferral of Guilt onto innocent others, and simple hateful jealousy against those better than ourselves.

This all carried over into Reich's works, such as: "The Murder of Christ...The Emotional Plague", which is about how we destroy those superior than ourselves, thus ending their vital ministries to mankind. Also: "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", in which the ass-kissing cowardly populace knowingly conforms to an erroneous norm, sacrificing the brave and courageous, in order to save their cowardly, dishonorable selves.

Like I always said: "They will sacrifice any Truth, no matter how sacred, on the altar of selfish and cowardly conformity. To put it into perspective: They have rejected their own Salvation, in order to protect themselves from the "puta", which is really their own irrational fear and the government to which it gave rise. I always said: Get rid of the bitch and the horse it rode in on." Because of what all of you are, I fear for the life of the world and its multitude of living creatures

Ending Corruption: Honesty Instituted | Changemakers

What It Is: A Changemakers competition awarded to the best idea for a socially entrepreneurial project could help battle corruption.

Why it Matters: Because corruption is a major global problem, making more difficult solutions to all the other problems we face, and while some great proposed solutions exist -- from spreading tools for transparency to paying leaders to eschew corrupt practices -- we need new and better solutions for rooting it out.

Particularly worth a look is this mosiac of innovative solutions, which describes some of the barriers to ending corruption (cynicism and apathy, lack of accountability, few vehicles for participation) and a few of the existing projects which aim to overcome those barriers in various ways (empower citizens, shame and prosecute corrupt leaders, etc.).

Operative Quote: "However you define or experience it, corruption is a disease that infects and impoverishes society. From the "lubricating" corruption of everyday bribe seekers among traffic police, hospital caregivers, permit administrators, customs agents, or prison guards—little by little grinding down those who need their services and approvals—to the 'venal' corruption of self-interested political 'kleptocrats' emptying entire national coffers, corruption is a poison that eats away at communities and institutions to devastating effect. 'Business as usual' is all too often replete with access for some, dead ends for many, and tortuous alleys of shady dealing that affect us all. ... The World Bank estimates that the cost of corruption represents about seven percent of the annual world economy, roughly $2.3 trillion. This is a staggering amount ... a figure that is larger than the entire federal budget of the United States government ($2.2 trillion)."

"Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms"

Submitted by Roberto Wohlgemuth on March 16, 2007 - 12:57.

The United Nations Global Compact was created as a multilateral initiative supporting corporate social responsibility. It was launched by the Secretary-General of the United Nations at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos. It comprises ten principles derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

On 24 June 2004, during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit it was announced that the UN Global Compact includes a tenth principle against corruption: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."

How is this principle implemented? What is the level of response from the business sector? What social innovations are promoting corporate social responsibility, including the work of businesses against corruption?

Roberto Wohlgemuth
Changemakers: an Ashoka Initiative

LiveScience.com - Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater

"Healthier Tomatoes Grown in Seawater
By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 22 March 2007
08:41 am ET


Tomatoes irrigated with diluted seawater grow with significantly higher levels of healthy antioxidant compounds, new research shows.



'It'd be interesting to see if this might be a more general phenomenon, where a little salt induces antioxidants in lots of crops,' said botanist Edward Glenn at the University of Arizona, who did not participate in the new study. 'There could be a consumer wave toward salt-tolerant crops based on their nutritional properties.'



The option to use salty water on crops might help farmers deal with growing irrigation woes. Irrigation water, as well as drinking water, is growing scarce and deteriorating in quality around the world.



Nearly 70 percent of all available freshwater is used for agriculture. Use of water for irrigation has increased globally by more than 60 percent since 1960, according to United Nation statistics. At the same time, poor irrigation and drainage practices have led to salt buildup in roughly one-eighth of all irrigated land.

The researchers investigated tomatoes, which are grown worldwide and are moderately salinity tolerant. They grew various types of tomatoes, including those commonly used for salads, under different levels of salinity and investigated the fruit for nutrients.

The researchers found that growing tomatoes in 10 percent seawater improved antioxidant levels significantly, findings they detailed in the April 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Glenn noted the water that percolates out from normally irrigated soil, technically known as irrigation return flow, is often as salty as 10 percent seawater. "About a third of irrigation water becomes irrigation return flow, so there's a huge amount of this brackish water, and this research now suggests this could get reused for crops," Glenn told LiveScience.

For decades, research has shown that seawater can irrigate crops, "but there's an impression (that) the crops seawater can irrigate are low value," Glenn said. "Farmers want a good return for their investment and time, and tomatoes are really high value. Also, crops like tomatoes are sold based on consumer appeal, and if you have an extra going for you like high antioxidant levels, this could be quite valuable."

Protect Your Health! Act Now!

THE RATH OF GOD ON THE DISEASE BUSINESS ORIGINAL TITLE: "NO AMNESTY FOR THE MAKERS OF DEADLY DRUGS" Protect Your Health! Act Now!
by Matthias Rath, M.D.

Largely unbeknownst to the American people, there is a war going on that has claimed victims in every family.This war is escalating and threatens every human life. It is a war being waged in the interests of the multibillion- dollar pharmaceutical industry, which is not a Health industry, but rather an investment business built upon the continuation and expansion of global diseases. Your health - and the health of every person in America - is threatened in several ways:

1. The "business with disease" as the basis of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar investment business that has orchestrated the largest fraud in human history; it promises health, but in fact thrives on the continuation of diseases.This fraud scheme is easily unmasked: Most pharmaceutical drugs are designed to merely cover disease symptoms, but are not intended to cure or eradicate diseases. As a direct result of this multibillion-dollar fraud business, no cure has been found for cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or any other chronic disease. On the contrary, these diseases continue in epidemic proportions, killing about 5,000 - five thousand - Americans EACH DAY. This compares to the annihilation of a city the size of San Francisco - EACH YEAR!

2. The epidemic of dangerous side effects caused by pharmaceutical drugs. The dangerous side effects of Vioxx, Celebrex, Lipitor and Prozac are not the exception - they are the rule. Due to their synthetic nature, most pharmaceutical drugs are toxic to our bodies, causing organ damage and other serious side effects. According to the American Medical Association, one million Americans sufferdisabilities from taking pharmaceutical drugs and more than 100,000 of them die as a result of this - EACH YEAR!

3. Legislation that protects the expansion of the deadly "business with disease." For decades, drug companies have used their giant profits to manipulate the public and influence legislation, including that from the U.S. Congress and the White House. Now that the deadly consequences of the pharmaceutical fraud business have been unmasked, the survival of this industry depends on protectionist laws. The current push of the Bush administration for so-called "Medical Liability Reform" is not about protecting gynecologists and medical doctors from liability lawsuits. The centerpiece of the proposed medical liability legislation is to prohibit punitive damage awards in liability lawsuits brought by injured patients against drug companies!

This medical liability legislation is being used as a cover to grant amnesty to drug manufacturers, protecting them from having to compensate millions of patients for the harm their drugs have caused. It is payback for the pharmaceutical industry, which was the largest corporate sponsor of the Bush election campaign. The people of America and their political representatives have to realize that the proposed medical liability legislation is a "Trojan Horse"; passing it means granting immunity to the drug makers, allowing them the unrestricted expansion of their deadly "business with disease" at the expense of patients. As the direct consequence of this law, tens of millions of Americans will suffer disability and die from preventable diseases within the next decades.

4. Withholding lifesaving information about the health benefits of vitamins and natural therapies. A precondition for this "business with disease" based on patentable synthetic drugs is the suppression of effective and safe - but non-patentable and, therefore, less profitable - natural therapies. For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has strategically expanded its influence on medical education with devastating results; it has deliberately blocked any information about the essential role of vitamins and other micronutrients in maintaining health - contained in every textbook of biology, biochemistry and natural science - from entering medical school teaching and medical practice. Through their strategic influence, the pharmaceutical industry has established a globalmonopoly on medicine. As a direct result, generations of medical doctors have not received adequate training in nutritional and other natural therapies. Doctors and patients alike have become victims ofthe pharmaceutical industry's efforts to monopolize human health. As a result, tens of millions of Americans have died unnecessarily over the past decades because this lifesaving health information has not been available to them.

5. Suppressing effective natural health therapies by law. Effective, safe and non-patentable natural therapies threaten the very basis of the pharmaceutical investment business.They target and correct the underlying cellular deficiencies of today's most common diseases, thereby preventing and eventually eradicating them. The elimination of any disease inevitably destroys a multibillion-dollar drug market for the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, the pharmaceutical industry has launched a global campaign to protect its patent-based "business with disease" by outlawing natural, non-patentable therapies at the national and international level.This is the background for the Bush administration's attack on the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the key legislation protecting the rights of the American people for free access to natural therapies and to freedom of health choice. If this fundamental human right to natural health is taken away, the health of billions of people will be compromised and tens of millions of them will pay the ultimate price for generations to come.

Marketing Education Review - The Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching in Marketing Education

Marketing Education Review - The Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching in Marketing Education: "The Capstone “Integrated Business Applications” Course: Addressing the Need for Cross-Functional MBA Education

Greg W. Marshall, Steven E. Bolten and Paul J. Solomon
V10, Fall 2000, 63-75.
The College of Business at the University of South Florida has implemented a new track-driven MBA program that culminates in an innovative two-semester capstone Integrated Business Applications (IBA) course. The goal is to address the call by industry for more cross-functional training of MBA students. This article describes the IBA course, including issues of pedagogy and evaluation of student performance, outlines key categories of knowledge and skill application imbedded within the course experience, and provides a summary of key operational challenges encountered as well as approaches to assessing program success."