Social Entrepreneurship
Bicycle-Through: Cycling mom Twitters, gets burger chain to change policy
Published August 21, 2009 @ 01:35PM PT
They call it "drive-through" for a reason -- or so "family bicycling evangelist" Sarah Gilbert learned on August 12, when she was refused service at a fast-food restaurant for being on a bicycle in the drive-through lane.
But she didn't just get mad; she got online, and prompted the company to change its drive-through lane policy for the better.
As the self-selected moniker of "evangelist" might suggest, Sarah Gilbert doesn't simply not own a car; she's affirmatively chosen to not own a car. Gilbert instead transports her three sons, ages 2, 4 and 7, around Portland, Ore. on a custom-built stretch bicycle, which is adorned with the bumper sticker "One Less Minivan." And she'd been served just a few weeks earlier at the very same Burgerville restaurant that was now turning down her order for four cheeseburgers.
So when she got home, Gilbert took action: She posted an exasperated criticism of the restaurant on Twitter -- "burgerville on 26th/powell turned me on my bike away from drivethrough, and not nicely at all, tho i've biked thru before. #bikeunfriendly?" -- wrote the company a letter, and posted the letter on her blog.
One twist to the story is that Burgerville, a regional fast-food chain, wears its eco-conscious heart on its sleeve. The company buys all its power green; uses regional ingredients in season (oh, how I miss those Oregon-grown-blackberry shakes and Walla Walla onion rings since I moved back east); and recycles its cooking oil into biodiesel.
Within hours, Burgerville Twittered back to Gilbert: "Hi Sarah, We noticed your concerns and will be contacting you shortly via direct message. Thank you."
Two days later, Burgerville announced its plan to formally allow people on bicycles to order and pick up food in each and every one of the chain's 39 drive-through lanes.
On its own, this is a small-impact change on the larger canvas of sustainability (making it easier and more practical to live without a car) -- until you multiply your Sarah Gilberts by hundreds or thousands of American cities, and the thousands of businesses they can have an impact on.
"It is not even that I believe I, as a cyclist or mama of three or cute redhead or denizen of Southeast Portland, have an entitlement to fast food ordered through a speaker, paid for and delivered through a window," writes Gilbert. "But it is a symbol: of bike-friendliness. Of responsiveness. Of the power of words. Of rationality. Of a local company whose chief cultural officer is obviously not just a cute title.
"I don't really enjoy the world the way it is. I want the windows opened, the barriers taken down, people to get around more slowly and to talk more. I want it to be easier to smile at someone else. I want it to be harder not to know your neighbor. I want it to be safer, lovelier, more ordinary to ride your bike."
(Hat tip to JM)
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Image via Sarah Gilbert's blog entry of March 10, 2009
Do-It-Yourself Enviro, Ag, Science "Afrigadget" Makers Gather in Accra
Published August 10, 2009 @ 08:45AM PT
Above: The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days...Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand is watered twice daily, and the lidded inner pot is cooled by evaporation. More info at the end of this post.
The first-ever Maker Faire Africa, happening this week in Accra, Ghana, will put a heavy emphasis on what activist-entrepreneur Emeka Okafor calls bottom-up indigenous industrialization. It's a challenge to the top-down style of international aid and development programs, which typically focus on bringing "First World" technologies and agriculture methods into poorer nations, whether or not they really suit local conditions. (Worse, these are often technologies and food production methods that contribute to worsening global warming.)
In contrast, bottom-up indigenous industrialization offers solutions that are based on local knowledge, materials, and infrastructure. The emphasis is on smaller-scale, local economic development, rather than projects that generate food and goods for export to Europe and North America.
The event in Accra looks like it will feature more pragmatic inventions and innovations and get them into mass distribution; tech that's locally designed, with the potential to help people pull themselves out of poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation (while steering firmly away from digital information and communication technologies, or ICT):
Maker Faire Africa asks the question, “What happens when you put the drivers of ingenious concepts from Mali with those from Ghana and Kenya, and add resources to the mix?”
Maker Faire Africa will engage on-the-ground breakthrough organizations like Ashesi University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to sharpen focus on locally-generated, bottom-up prototypes of technologies that solve immediate challenges to development. Specifically, Maker Faire Africa will take an approach that will achieve three principal aims:
- Brighten the light on local examples of the “fabrication” ethos
- Provide mechanisms to incubate these innovators and their products to a point where they can be taken to market
- Connect refined plans to disseminate innovations with venture finance
The aim is to identify, spur and support local innovation. At the same time, Maker Faire Africa would seek to imbue creative types in science and technology with an appreciation of fabrication and by default manufacturing. The long-term interest here is to cultivate an endogenous manufacturing base that supplies innovative products in response to market needs.
That's not to say everything must be serious. Maker Faire Africa is being programmed on four tracks, according to the event's first press release, which factor in art, craft and Lego blocks along with the bio-energy sources:
- Robotics – Lead by Afrobotics in the ROBOlab, this track host lectures as well as a LEGO robotics workshop and competition.
- Agriculture & Environment – takes a new look at sustainability, green technologies and innovations such as biofuel and architecture.
- Science and Engineering - this track will highlight new innovations from the 3rd annual International Development Design Summit (IDDS) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) (a joint project with MIT and MacArthur “Genius Grant” award winner Amy Smith, who has focused on fostering indigenous technological development).
- Arts & Crafts – held at an outdoor art center, this track will showcase everything from sculptures to toys to textiles
Maker-type events I've been to in the US typically feature a lot of whimsical gadgetry, some hacked energy conservation-related tools, and a smattering of works with loftier artistic goals. They're fun, sometimes thought-provoking, and often more than a little anti-corporate. The fundamental organizing principle is that you can make something yourself instead of buying it at the store -- reflecting both our high level of prosperity as a nation, and a major challenge of American-style late stage capitalism: transforming ourselves back into citizens who shop as necessary in order to live, instead of consumers who live to shop.
Understandably, Maker Faire Africa's gadgets and gizmos are likely to be more down-to-earth. We've got our problems, and they've got theirs.
I'd love to be in Accra this week to enjoy Maker Faire Africa firsthand. (Hello, assigning editors!) Ah well: If you won't be making it to Ghana, either, I'd recommend keeping an eye on the following blogs and tags for first-hand reports from the scene:
Maker Faire Africa blog
Maker Faire Africa on Twitter
#mfa09 on Twitter
Emeka Okafor, at Timbuktu Chronicles
I'll add more links if and as I encounter them...please add yours to the comments!
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Image: "The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days. It is of staggeringly simple design: Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand is watered twice daily, and the inner pot, which is lidded, is cooled by evaporation. It's interesting to note that, although the technology to manufacture the zeer pot has existed literally since the dawn of civilization, it is not known to have been produced until recently. Who would have thought there was a profound invention remaining to be discovered using only clay and sand?" Via Make Magazine Blog
Across the Change-i-verse
Published August 09, 2009 @ 07:12PM PT
Just a small sampling of what's been going on this past week on Change.org's blogs:
Friday Futures: Food: How might the combination of population growth, monocrop agriculture, and overfishing affect the future of food. Sustainable Food blog editor Alanna Shaikh isn't optimistic: "We'll continue to grow enough food in aggregate to support the weight of the world's population. In terms of the variety of our food, however, we're on the verge of a major contraction. Variety will shrink, and prices of food will go up enough that the even the middle class will see their food options substantially limited by price."
Also at Sustainable Food, editor Natasha Chart covers one of the major underreported natural resource stories, the growing shortage of phosphorous for fertilizer.
Twitter, Facebook Shut Down in Attempt to Silence Activist: "On Thursday and Friday millions of social media users found themselves frustrated and without access to services like Twitter and Facebook," writes Social Entrepreneurship editor Nathaniel Whittemore. "News reports soon came in that the outages were being caused by an ongoing and coordinated hacker attack. Just today, the story got even more interesting, with the New York Times reporting that the target of the attack appears to have been a single person, a 34 year old economics professor and refugee activist from the Republic of Georgia."
Fear, Sex, and Pandemic - Horrible Outcomes Don't Change Behavior: Global health equivalent of global warming's To Scare or Not To Scare? "Only a small percentage of the public will respond to the ‘useful parts' of the message and change habits," says Global Health guest blogger Carol Dunn, "All ‘call to action' messages that trigger our fear response-are not sustainable, healthy, or useful..." and several more interesting points.
Does "Cash for Clunkers" Hurt the Homeless? "In addition to stimulating the economy and promoting fuel efficiency, the "Cash for Clunkers" program may be having another unintentional effect: hurting the poor and homeless," suggests End Homelessness editor Shannon Moriarty. Vehicle donation programs, such as Mission Solano in Fairfield, California, rely on vehicle donations (in return for a tax write-off) to raise funds to serve the area's homeless."
Friday Food: Fresh and Light Pastas, Zucchini Love, Filled Pancakes, and More: Another great roundup of vegan recipes from Animal Rights editor Stephanie Ernst. And Because Sometimes We All Need a Little Bit of Adorable, she posted this cheering video as well.
Find My Happy Place (Or, Music for a Bad Day): We certainly don't have the corner on bad news here at Stop Global Warming. But it's important to re-energize. Genocide blog editor, Michelle shares a selection of music to cheer up by from her personal "Find My Happy Place" i-Pod playlist.
Stop Global Warming, or the Coffee Gets It
Published August 05, 2009 @ 05:49PM PT
Need another reason to put the brakes on global warming? And get serious about the adaptation we won't be able to avoid? Here's one that's close to my heart, and maybe yours: preserving our morning cup of coffee.
Coffee is the world's most valuable tropical export crop, produced by around 20 million small-scale farmers, writes Peter Baker on SciDev.net, but no one is preparing to manage the probable disruptions to coffee agriculture. Hotter temperatures, longer dry spells punctuated with more intense, heavy rainfall and floods: these conditions (already noticeable in some coffee-growing regions) will spread in coming decades, as the Earth's surface temperature continues to warm:
Coffee grows well within a limited climatic range. As temperatures rise, so will coffee — to higher altitudes and latitudes. But space is limited and there will be competition with other crops...
Climate change already seems to be affecting coffee production. It is difficult to attribute direct causality, but the changes we are seeing are entirely consistent with climate modellers' predictions.
Sometimes the effects are slow. For example, 50 years ago, nearly three-quarters of Indian coffee production was the premium bean, arabica; now it is less than half, with robusta coffee (a species that withstands hotter conditions) filling the gap.
And sometimes the effects are abrupt. Mexico is still recovering from Hurricane Stan in 2005: "The land is very tired; it has faced hurricanes, winds, natural deterioration. Everyone here has a smaller harvest, less maintenance and less investment," Ingrid Hoffman, a coffee farmer in Chiapas, told Reuters in 2009. "I think one day we will be able to recover."
Coffee grows well within a limited climatic range. As temperatures rise, so will coffee — to higher altitudes and latitudes. But space is limited and there will be competition with other crops. Coffee farmers will experience climate change through greater unpredictability, with more droughts and floods — the last thing any farmer wants.
Climate change already seems to be affecting coffee production. It is difficult to attribute direct causality, but the changes we are seeing are entirely consistent with climate modellers' predictions.
Sometimes the effects are slow. For example, 50 years ago, nearly three-quarters of Indian coffee production was the premium bean, arabica; now it is less than half, with robusta coffee (a species that withstands hotter conditions) filling the gap.
And sometimes the effects are abrupt. Mexico is still recovering from Hurricane Stan in 2005: "The land is very tired; it has faced hurricanes, winds, natural deterioration. Everyone here has a smaller harvest, less maintenance and less investment," Ingrid Hoffman, a coffee farmer in Chiapas, told Reuters in 2009. "I think one day we will be able to recover."
This outlook is typical. Local organisations and governments are making brave efforts to recoup losses and return to the way things were, and attribute their problems to acts of God.
But are they right to think like this? Climate models suggest that things will get worse — but few stakeholders, including governments, international organisations, farmers, traders, companies or standards setters seem to be thinking ahead, trusting the science, making strategic plans, zoning the land, adapting or diversifying.
Science should be guiding their decision-making. And the problem is not just with coffee — many countries face a similar crisis in agriculture and land-use resource planning and implementation.
Singer makes an argument that will be anathema to some: The fair trade market mechanisms that have been used to promote a reformed global coffee trade, in which the growers can sustain their land, protect vital wildlife habitat, and get a living income from their crops, is perfectly unsuited to the global warming challenge. Only centralized planning and management, most likely coming from national governments, will help keep the world's caffeine fix flowing as the climate continues to destabilize.
"More adaptive, participatory research is needed to find out how best to help farmers, and there should be a greater emphasis on long-term research to develop crop varieties more resistant to climate extremes, pests and diseases. Neither NGOs nor private companies can hope to manage many such activities," Baker writes. "And there is an unresolved paradox: sustainability is about imposing order and stability, whereas climate change is about adapting and transforming."
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Image: Via Roasting Plant, one of my favorite artisanal coffee joints in NYC
Green Economy Rising: Navajo Nation Votes 'Yes' for Green Jobs
Published July 21, 2009 @ 03:32PM PT
Above: Green jobs advocates walk to today's summer meeting of the Navajo Nation Council.
The Navajo Nation Council voted 62 to 1 to establish the "Navajo Green Economy Commission" at its meeting today in Winslow Rock, Arizona. "According to Enei Begaye, who spearheaded a coalition to create the legislation, it is the first tribal government initiative to create green jobs policy and structure. Undoubtedly ambitious -- combining traditional culture, web-based marketing and cutting-edge green technologies -- the plan could transform the Navajo Nation and serve as a model for other tribes," reports Marty Durlin of High Country News.
The legislation will establish a commission to implement projects in seven areas: renewable energy (large-scale and small), green manufacturing (focused on traditional crafts such as rug-weaving, combined with sophisticated marketing and PR campaigns), sustainable agriculture, weatherizing and making energy-efficient traditional and nontraditional homes, green workforce training, management training, and a small business initiative.
A series of 10 pilot projects will launch the program, along with research on current job opportunities and a needs assessment. The legislation will also create “green teams” which will support community initiatives and help with business plans.
The fund will pursue federal grants that have been earmarked for green collar job development, and channel them into small-scale, community development projects within the Navajo Nation.
Wahleah Johns, who helped organize the Navajo Green Economy Coalition, told the Farmington, New Mexico Daily Times that green jobs can help Navajo preserve traditional ways of life, while also bringing much needed revitalization to the reservation economy. "This will help small-scale green projects revitalize sustainable life," Johns told reporter Alysa Landry. "For example, there are a lot of sheep on the reservation, and there are ways to use sheep in a green fashion. We need to make that more marketable." The group expects that the new fund will create hundreds of jobs on the 27,000-square-mile reservation.
Native communities are often on the front lines of the nation's unsettled energy policy -- in part because the federal Department of the Interior represents both Indian tribes and resource extraction agencies like the Office of Surface Mining. OSM exists pretty much to assist energy companies in mining on public lands.
Per the Black Mesa Water Coalition (which also supports the green jobs measure), the Bush administration executed a midnight maneuver in January, giving coal giant Peabody Energy a lease to reopen a controversial, enormous coal mine on Black Mesa, in Arizona, and consolidate it with the nearby Kayenta coal mine. Peabody's operations on Black Mesa use the same groundwater supply that Hopi and Navajo communities in the area rely on for drinking water.
Across the Change-i-verse
Published July 12, 2009 @ 06:24PM PT
14-year-old Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs Global Warming
Highlights of the past week's blogging by the smart, talented, and good looking editors at Change.org:
Youth Taking Action: Kids vs. Global Warming: The Social Entrepreneurship blog chats with Ashoka Youth Venturer Alec Loorz, 14, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming. On positive ways to make change, Alec says, "Even though the actions we need to take might seem small in comparison to the enormity of the problem, every thing we do brings us one step closer to making the shift that we, as a whole society, need to make," says this remarkable peer organier. "It's also true that we can recycle and ride bikes all day long and we still won't be making a huge dent in the problem. Our whole world needs to get serious and make big changes. We need to be involved in the changes that governments and businesses need to make too."
Is Oil Ever NOT Connected to War? On the occasion of Sudan joining the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA), Stop Genocide editor Michelle notes that the membership is composed of nations with striking histories of civil war and human rights abuses. "And to Energy Gluttons elsewhere in the world: How often do you stop to think about the human cost of your weekly fill-up?"
Climate Change, People and Poverty: Humanitarian Relief editor Michael Kleinman has put together a good resource page on the Humanitarian Impact of Climate Change.
The Slave Behind Your Bargain: Another example of just how interlinked human rights abuses and environmental pollution have become: "[H]ave you ever wondered why that bookshelf or tennis ball or t-shirt is so cheap? Have you ever wondered if a slave is paying the cost of your bargain?", writes End Human Trafficking editor Amanda Kloer. "The Human Trafficking Project writes about the prevalence of slave-made consumer goods on the market...They also share some hopeful ideas, like whole towns committing to selling only fair trade goods. However, the fact is that slave-made goods are in every part of our lives, and in many cases they are bringing us the bargains we so love."
Amada frequently highlights Fair Trade products on the HT blog in her "Red Light Specials." This week it was Cocoa Minty Lip Balm.
A caricature-buster, via Dave Bennion at the Immigrat Rights blog: GOP Voters Support Path to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants
Immigration Restrictionists Make Bad Environmentalists: Dave also makes a great catch on the real motivations of immigration reform opponents who make an environmental case for their arguments: "[T]he members of Congress that NumbersUSA, [an anti-immigration John Tanton-organized] outfit, rates most highly on immigration policy voted against the recent Waxman-Markey climate change bill by a margin of more than 5 to 1."
Dave's Open Letter to John Tanton on Global Warming asks, "Will you ask Congress to support ACES and other environmentally-friendly legislation? Or will you continue to assert that policies that limit immigration, rather than those that limit carbon emissions, are the key to slowing climate change?
Obama's Nominee for FWS: No Friend to Endangered Species: According to Animal Rights editor Stephanie Ernst, "Obama has nominated, to enforce the Endangered Species Act as head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sam Hamilton: the FWS official with 'by far the weakest record on Endangered Species Act enforcement of any comparable official in the country'...Obama is no animal rights advocate, but surely he can do better--and the animals deserve better--than Sam Hamilton."
Suggest a story to Stop Global Warming
Published July 10, 2009 @ 08:01AM PT
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