Robbie Vitrano, Co-Founder, NakedPizza, and Eric Quick, SVP Operations, Revolution Foods, presented at the 2010 Sustainable Brands Conference in June, not only bringing attention to the growing harmful consequences of fast food, but also providing innovative and real solutions.
The idea sounds simple enough. Create a team of volunteers from existing employees. Have them focus on ways to green the business and culture. In turn, create cost savings, attract top talent due to an improvement in brand recognition, and increase market share from the newfound brand image, possibly even innovative product and services. The idea and the goal sound simple, while the execution and plan of attack seem a bit more complex. How can an individual or company go about implementing this team of sustainability focused volunteers? Resources and guides may be abundant and abound. The report, “Green Teams: Engaging Employees in Sustainability,” released by GreenBiz.com and Green Impact, provides a good starting point that captures the business case for these green teams, how to get started, four key areas behind best practices, and a breakdown of 10 best practices in developing green teams.
The Draper Richards Foundation provides selected social entrepreneurs with funding of $100,000 annually for three years. The funds are specifically and solely for entrepreneurs starting new non-profit organizations. The Draper Richards Fellowships are highly selective. We only award six fellowships per year so we can fully engage with our portfolio of grantee organizations.
It used to be that “going green” meant simple recycling, reusing, and reducing. It was a series of actions, a checklist of to-dos. Complete steps 1, 2, and 3, and congratulations, you’ve gone green! With the advent of technology and development in options and resources, possibilities have come about due to more of a shift in lifestyle and mentality, going deeper than just a mere checklist. The act of going green now calls for a more comprehensive understanding of your actions and consequences of those actions. No longer the simple task of recycling, the process of becoming more green and sustainable has broadened to a shift in mentality in the choices we make for our businesses and lifestyles.
The Social Venture Network is looking for the next generation of innovative, socially responsible business leaders and nonprofit entrepreneurs. And so, they’ve created the Innovation Awards program, dedicated to recognizing the leaders of emerging enterprises. Once these figures have been recognized, they will be immersed into the SVN community, providing them access to a network of 500 successful socially responsible business and nonprofit leaders, investors, and other resources and connections that can help them achieve success with their own enterprise.
Job creation. Innovation. U.S. competitiveness. In the eyes of the top CEOs in the U.S., before these goals become reality, the foundation of policies and comprehensive climate and energy legislation needs to be laid by those who reside in Washington D.C. As such, more than 80 CEOs from U.S. businesses, from eBay to PG&E to Virgin America, have sent a letter to President Obama and members of Congress asking them to create the impetus to achieve these goals by enacting climate and energy legislation.
