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Ford Motor Company touts its environmental initiatives. The iconic car company is proud of its work to increase the fuel economy of its U.S. car and truck fleet and reducing carbon emissions from its European vehicles. It should be proud of those accomplishments. Ford also claims it supports climate change action. But Ford funds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that promotes an anti-environment agenda, including climate change denial. While its programs and initiatives back up its claims, Ford's funding of ALEC says otherwise.

A Ford spokesperson, Christin Baker confirmed the company's grant to ALEC. Speaking to the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch, Baker denied that the funding was intended to be used by ALEC to stop climate change action. “Ford participates in a broad range of organizations that support our business needs, but no organization speaks for Ford on every issue. We do not engage with ALEC on climate change,” said Baker.

If Ford doesn’t intend for its donation to fund ALEC’s anti-climate change agenda, what’s the big deal? A look at ALEC’s model climate change legislation will answer that question. The Interstate Research Commission on Climatic Change Act is ALEC’s model legislation that is “designed to address scientific and economic aspects of the issue of climatic change through the development of a multistate research commission.” It is meant to for state legislatures, and ALEC wants them to find and declare that “human activity has and will continue to alter the atmosphere of the planet.” However, the activity “may lead to deleterious, neutral, or possibly beneficial climatic changes.”

The model legislation also states that “a great deal of scientific uncertainty surrounds the nature of these prospective changes, and the cost of regulation to inhibit such changes may lead to great economic dislocation.” In other words, it is climate change denial in the form of legislation. And that legislation includes forming a commission who will “support basic research and applied research on climatic change by academic and private organizations.” The Commission will create a “series of guidelines concerning the type of research that will be supported," including research “on the costs and likely success of mitigation of climatic change.” The intention is to cast doubt on whether it is even worth it to mitigate climate change.

ALEC is also opposed to the Obama administration’s regulations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under the Clean Air Act the EPA has developed and finalized rules on GHG emissions. ALEC claims the rules will “dramatically increase energy costs, cause enormous negative impacts to jobs and the economy, irreparably damage the competitiveness of American business, and trample on state sovereignty in the process.”

“Neither Ford nor the auto industry can achieve climate stabilization alone,” Ford proclaims on its website. Reducing GHG emissions requires “an integrated approach--a partnership of all stakeholders, including the automotive industry, the fuel industry, government and consumers.” Given the company’s stated commitment to reducing GHG emissions, it seems crazy for it to fund ALEC. And many major corporations are leaving ALEC over its anti-climate change agenda. Since 2011, over 100 corporations have left ALEC, including BP, Occidental, Yahoo, Visa, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Walmart, and McDonalds.

Meanwhile, the world is nearly halfway to the 2 degrees Celsius global temperature rise that scientists warn we shouldn’t go beyond if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The U.K.’s Met Office released data this week that revealed the global mean temperature at the earth’s surface is set to reach 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. At the end of this month, world leaders will meet in Paris for climate talks to hammer out an agreement to keep the temperature rise to 2 degrees.

Given the gravity of the situation, and the increasing temperature rise caused by GHG emissions, it is time for companies like Ford to support climate change action with their deeds and their money. 

Image credit: Beth, Flickr

Think about it: No initiative or ground-breaking research in recent years has done more to advance the conversation on whether climate change exists than the records of an oil company that for years, has denied the existence of global warming.

The United Nations Climate Change conferences and the International Panel of Climate Change have done their part to bring governments together on this issue. But none has done as much to lend credibility to the fact that extractive industry emissions have the potential to transform the climate as we know it, than the unintended release of a single email by an Exxon researcher.

For decades, the world has fought over this issue of climate risk. Government elections have been won or lost on the accusation of conjecture. We've debated the data, haggled over the implications and committed vast resources to proving (or disproving) the existence of a climate phenomena still in the making. Global panels have been constructed and deconstructed to address this controversy. Governments continue to argue to this day over whether a global initiative to cut emissions, while necessary, is legally binding.

And the reason, interestingly, has little to do with scientific knowledge. The fact that Exxon first realized that there was a suspicious, but unclear connection between fossil fuel development and dying ecology in the 1980s means little to today's efforts to decrease emissions and find more compatible energy sources. Nor really, does it have anything to do with whether the corporation supported lobbies that promoted the interests of the extractive industry.

The reason that Exxon is front and center in the news and the subject of several potential investigations, is honesty, or lack thereof.

It's become a new focus for state and federal lawmakers these days: the concept of "buyer be ware" versus the expectation of common honesty by companies that hold the cards in misleading information. New York's famous "blue sky" legislation, the Martin Act, has gone after securities and financial fraud since its passage in 1921. Its been used to launch investigations the New York Port Authority, AIG, Earnst & Young and JP Morgan, with the coined motto of prosecuting fraudulent acts that "have no more basis than so many feet of 'blue sky.'" And its effectiveness lies in a clear distinction between its expectations and those of similar federal legislation. The proof of intent is not required. Rather, prosecutors are compelled to show omission or misrepresentation occurred, what the law suggests are the defining aspects of "common honesty."

Volkswagen has also come under the scrutiny of law makers for allegedly misleading consumers. While New York's attorney office hasn't announced any plans to investigate the car maker, it has become the subject of numerous federal, state and international probes. The latest was launched last week by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to determine whether the corporation is guilty of "unfair or deceptive acts or practices."

So often honesty is summed up as a matter of consumer interest, and that businesses aren't really responsible for liabilities that can't clearly be tied to an intentional act or aren't vetted before purchase. Clearly that is no longer the current definition of honest practices. But it's worth noting that both Exxon and VW have histories that right or wrong, have drawn them into uncomfortable spotlights. Criticism of Exxon's handling of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, the Baton Rouge benzene leak in 2012 and the Mayflower Ark. oil spill in 2013 haven't helped the corporation's image in recent years as an environmental steward. VW's earlier debacle with warning lights and a 2013 recall, although much smaller than Exxon's problems, was raised this fall as the company raced to address the diesel scandal.

No matter the public's cynicism when it comes to large corporations, the truth is we put our most successful companies on a pedestal when it comes to honoring our expectations for honesty. And laws like the Martin Act, which possesses an unfettered power to assess injury without intent were created with that realization in mind. Among other things, it reminds corporations that today's business decisions can have powerful implications for future generations, the climate and the credibility and success of the company, as well.

Image: NOAA's National Ocean Service/Flickr

 

 

 

Kate Emery believes that social entrepreneurs must rein in their desire for financial profit. "The folks we work with have different values than mainstream business people do," she says. "People often suggest that we push to give social enterprises some kind of tax advantage. But saving money on taxes is the wrong reason for doing this."

Emery is the CEO of reSET, The Social Enterprise Trust, a Connecticut not-for-profit that works with entrepreneurs, and also the sole owner of The Walker Group, a technology consulting firm based in Farmington, Connecticut. She went to great lengths to protect her own social enterprise.

The Walker Group was growing rapidly in 2007, and Emery wanted to ensure that its profits would be divided equally between its owner, employees, and social mission. Building a company with a social mission was her life's work, and she wanted it to be her legacy. But Connecticut laws did not allow benefit corporations in 2007, so there was nothing to prevent a new owner from switching the firm back to business as usual.

Emery started The Social Enterprise Trust and gave it a "golden share" that has voting rights to prevent The Walker Group from changing its structure. Then she used one-third of Walker's profits to grow the Trust into a statewide organization for social entrepreneurs. Lobbying the state legislature for a benefit corporation law was one of its main goals.

A year ago, Connecticut became the 25th state to adopt a law allowing benefit corporations. Now 31 states have such laws, and five more are working on them. Emery proudly says that Connecticut's law is the most comprehensive.

Benefit corporations write their social missions into their charters, so investors, employees, and customers know what they're getting into. State laws differ, but almost all require the company to pursue a dual mission and release annual reports on both financial and social performance.

Connecticut's benefit corporation law is the only one with a "legacy preservation provision." This clause allows Connecticut benefit corporations to protect their status in perpetuity after they have been chartered for two years. If a benefit corporation dissolves after adopting the legacy provision, its assets must be distributed to a not-for-profit organization or to another benefit corporation that also has a legacy clause.

Not everybody thinks the legacy provision is a good idea. "Ninety-nine out of 100 lawyers would advise against taking this step," says Emery, "because it ties the hands of future boards." But Emery says that social entrepreneurs have what she calls "intentionality." They are like donors to a land trust who voluntarily give up the development rights to their land in order to preserve its natural integrity forever.

Emery worked with the Connecticut Bar Association and B Lab, the national not-for-profit that runs a rigorous social auditing program and promotes the idea of benefit corporations. "Initially, I think there was some concern about deviating from the model benefit corporation legislation that had been passed in other states," she said. "But we were able to work together to come to a consensus that some experimentation and innovation could be beneficial. “

Emery doesn't know many Connecticut benefit corporations will make their status permanent when the law allows it in October 2016. "It might not be too many," she says. "But I want Connecticut to be the social enterprise state. This gives us an opportunity to tell social entrepreneurs that if this is your intention, this is what you need to do. Come to Connecticut and flip the switch."

 

By Lauren Palumbo

Earlier this year, I attended the Global Sustainability Summit in Denver, Colorado which focused on food waste and sustainability. These causes resonate closely with me both personally and professionally as COO of Lovin’ Spoonfuls, a Boston-based food rescue organization. This conference was groundbreaking due in large part to the attendees. Big names such as Walmart, Pepsi Co. and Unified Grocers attended the summit to discuss the growing problem of food waste, and steps they were taking to overcome it. Food waste is no longer a small scale issue recognized by few, but a growing problem the food industry at every level has identified and is taking steps to solve. Now that is progress.

Finding alternative channels for upcycling food has become increasingly important as lawmakers take a stance on reducing food waste. In 2014, Massachusetts passed the Commercial Food Waste Disposal Ban, which regulates the amount of food businesses and institutions across the state can dispose of in a given week. Furthermore, the USDA and EPA recently set an initiative for a 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030, the first national food waste reduction effort. Partnering with a food rescue organization is a valuable outlet for the businesses and institutions affected by food waste, as it reduces costs associated with disposal fees, earns tax breaks, and benefits both the environment and community.

 

Forty Percent of Our Food Goes to Waste 
On a daily basis, I am faced with America’s food waste and food insecurity crisis. 49 million people in the United States are food insecure, yet our country wastes 165 billion pounds of food each year, which is 40 percent of the food we produce. In my home state of Massachusetts, more than 375,500 households are food insecure, meaning they do not know when and where their next meal will come. And the face of hunger is changing. It now includes our neighbors, family members and friends with full time jobs who still struggle financially. They must decide whether to heat their homes or buy food for their next meal.

A Replicable Solution
The good news is that most food waste is preventable and can be overcome by responsibly connecting resources with need. That’s where food rescue organizations come in. We provide a solution to hunger by connecting community resources and linking grocery stores, produce wholesalers, and farms to local meal programs and social service entities serving those in need.

With a mission to reduce avoidable food waste, Lovin’ Spoonfuls crafted a replicable solution to rescue nearly expired or imperfect food that would otherwise be discarded. The perishable food is distributed daily via refrigerated trucks and utilized immediately, providing greatly needed healthy meals for food insecure families and individuals. Since 2010, Lovin’ Spoonfuls has rescued more than 3.2 million pounds of food, feeding one million individuals in need. But the work doesn’t stop there. Our team provides our beneficiaries and those they serve with the education, tools and know-how they need to store, prepare and further utilize the food that we deliver to them.

Partnerships
Food date labels may not have much to do with safety, but they certainly have an effect on sales. The Natural Resource Defense Council reports that the average supermarket throws out an estimated $2,300 worth of perfectly decent food every day because of expiration dates. The department also estimates that $15 billion worth of perfectly edible fruits and vegetables are tossed every year.

Today, we work with more than 30 supermarkets to fill our trucks with healthy, nutritious food. One of our most valuable partnerships is with Whole Foods Market, a company already dedicated to crafting a sustainable future through education and accountability. Whole Foods Market donates food every day to food rescue organizations that may be cosmetically blemished or dented, but still edible and nutritious.

“The mission of Lovin’ Spoonfuls aligns so closely with that of Whole Foods Market. We are proud to be able to support our communities in a manner that not only provides nourishment, but also works to minimize waste and promote our green mission. Lovin’ Spoonfuls is working to improve the lives of our neighbors and we are proud to be a partner in that endeavor,” says Karen Franczyk, Whole Foods Market.

In 2015, together we have rescued and distributed more than 500,000 pounds of food, feeding more than 150,000 people in need.

Next Steps
With large corporations and lawmakers taking a stance on food waste, it’s time for us as individuals to understand the consequences and do our part to spread awareness and action. So what can we do at home? We can look more closely at how we grocery shop and what we prepare for ourselves and for our families. We can start to truly value what we’re growing, eating and buying. We could mobilize a community wide food rescue effort through every town and every state in the country. Working together, communities, corporations and individuals, can solve food waste; protecting our environment and feeding those in need.

 

Lauren Palumbo is chief operating officer of Lovin’ Spoonfuls. Since 2010, the organization has been breaking new ground in the food rescue movement working with retailers like Wegmans, Hannaford Supermarkets and Whole Foods Market, to rescue 25,000 pounds of fresh, healthy food per week from more than 50 locations. Lovin’ Spoonfuls utilizes a direct distribution system where its refrigerated trucks pick up fresh, healthy, perishables foods from donors and deliver it directly to meal centers within the same day.

Image credits: Lovin' Spoonfuls

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is aiming to bring further clarity to the complex world of palm oil production through the launch of its expanded Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit (SPOTT), which has now grown to encompass half of all land under oil palm cultivation globally.

ZSL’s established SPOTT platform is a free, interactive website designed to help investors, researchers and commodity buyers manage environmental risks in the palm oil sector. The site assesses, scores and ranks 50 of the world’s largest palm oil producers using publicly available information about the sustainability of their operations, helping stakeholders make more informed decisions.

SPOTT features a regularly-updated scorecard that provides quarterly assessments of 50 oil palm growing companies – double the number in 2014 – against a framework of over 50 indicators.

Framed as direct questions about best practice and its disclosure, the indicators cover areas including environmental management, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving supply chain traceability, and reporting to the industry’s largest certification scheme, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Users can compare and contrast company performance via trend-tracking graphs, as well as monitoring the media for company-specific stories on issues including fires, haze, deforestation and wildlife conflict.

Leonie Lawrence, Global Palm Oil Manager at ZSL, commented: “SPOTT supports growers to improve reporting and transparency. With double the number of companies and half of all land under oil palm development now covered by our platform, we want to engage with companies to improve their scores and urge the financial sector to use the information to better understand and address their environmental impacts.”
 

By Rachel Peace

Upon reading a post on TriplePundit by Louise Twining-Ward, the CEO of Sustainable Travel International, I began to consider what sustainable travel truly means. Beyond a green leaders certification on Trip Advisor, or a sign in the bathroom that suggests that guests reuse towels, I wondered: What properties are consciously making significant strides to better their community through sustainable travel initiatives?

Beyond that, I considered if properties could go a step beyond sustainability and also inspire travelers on their journeys. I sought destinations that would allow business travelers, in particular, to become absorbed in another culture and landscape.

Why focus on business travelers, as opposed to leisure travelers? Well, employees in our highly-connected world are burnt out, plain and simple.

There is also an unfortunate phenomenon of increasingly unused vacation days, especially in the high-stress, fast-paced U.S. work environment, as determined in recent studies by the U.S. Travel Association's Project Time Off.

Our workforce is consistently foregoing vacations, working for 35 percent of their waking life and, as a result, growing disheartened. Another TriplePundit post cites Gallup research indicating a mere 13 percent of employees are truly engaged in their jobs. They define engaged as “involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace.”

The article continued on to highlight a discouraging fact related to travel, namely: “Out of every $100 spent on vacation by a tourist from a developed country, only $5 stays in the destination’s economy.”

Employers looking to re-engage their employees would enjoy the beneficial outcome of reduced turnover rate and loyalty if they provided and encouraged paid vacations to sustainable worldwide destinations. In this way, they would also implement a new, travel-focused, corporate social responsibility initiative, by giving back to the economy, environment or quality of life for inhabitants of a focused community or region.

To narrow down a list of candidates perfect for sustainable, paid vacations sponsored by corporations and businesses, I conducted further research and landed upon an article on NomadIsBeautiful.com, in which a number of green-oriented travel writers provided lesser-known ways to travel sustainably.

Drawing from their wealth of knowledge, I’ve determined a number of properties and destinations around the world, relevant in today’s evolving and conscious society, which focus on sustainability and authentic, inspirational travel.

Disclaimer: Some of the below may not exemplify every desirable aspect of sustainable travel, as there is almost always room for growth. I’ve chosen, instead, to highlight a sustainable facet of each property, so that companies and business travelers of varying interests can determine for themselves the causes and destinations they are most interested in supporting.

Community partnerships: Hotel Arts Barcelona

Hotel Arts Barcelona, a luxury Ritz Carlton property in Spain, is well known for its unmatched onsite gastronomy, its breathtaking spa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and its stunning, penthouse apartments, among other amenities.

It is less well known for its ongoing efforts to give back to the community, through its Community Footprints initiatives. Community Footprints is a Ritz Carlton program, which is taken up in different manners by each Ritz Carlton Hotel, to give back locally.

Hotel Arts consistently raises funds for Make A Wish Spain, with employees participating in a yearly triathlon to grant the wishes of a terminally ill community member. In addition, the hotel partners with UNICEF, (such as in its 2014 landmark event, which brought together 20 Michelin-starred chefs and donated proceeds to the globally recognized organization.) Lastly, travelers can participate in community cleanup initiatives on the Costa Brava through programs organized by the hotel.

Monument adoption: Uncharted Africa Safari Co.

Founded in 1993 by Catherine Raphaely and Ralph Bousfield, Uncharted Africa captures the spirit of Ralph’s legendary father and pioneering African adventurer Jack Bousfield.  Uncharted Africa realizes Jack’s vision of bringing travelers to the otherworldly Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in Botswana.

Among countless other sustainability initiatives, such as partnership with Raptors Botswana and its research and conservation efforts for Lappet-faced vultures in the environment, Uncharted Africa Safari recently become the proud custodians of Chapman's Baobab, the largest and oldest tree in the world, as well as Green's Baobab, through the Adopt a Monument Campaign.

The effort supports the iconic landmarks, promoting sustainability and conservation of Botswana's rich culture and stunning landscape.

 

 

Historical preservation: YTL Hotel Group

The YTL Hotel Group considers sustainability one of its core concepts to carry out at properties around the world.

Of interest is its first property in the U.K., the Gainsborough Bath Spa, which respects the honor of exclusive access to the famed thermal springs of Bath, which contain a wealth of mineral-rich waters. Originally built in the 1800s, the Gainsborough Bath Spa occupies two buildings with distinguished Georgian and Victorian façades in the heart of the World Heritage Site.

Rainforest preservation: Sumaq Machu Picchu

Since its opening in 2007, Sumaq Machu Picchu Hotel has continually received Rainforest Alliance Verified status as a result of its continuous efforts in sustainability.

In addition to green practices at the hotel to preserve the local environment, the company honors and preserves traditional Andean philosophies, by offering cultural activities to guests, such as a Payment to the Earth Ritual, a typical Andean wedding, Pachamanca cooking classes, and more.

As a part of the Rainforest Alliance, Sumaq’s involvement in sustainable management also includes: hiring local staff, purchasing products from local providers, and participating in community events in Aguas Calientes.

Eco–friendly practices: Draycott Hotel

A romantic townhouse hotel just around the corner from Chelsea's Sloane Square and Kensington, the Draycott has launched an initiative to become London's most eco-friendly boutique hotel. The "Keen to be Green" program is a unique, CO2-free way to explore London, exclusively accessible to guests and staff of the Draycott.

The program maps out handpicked routes to explore London via walking, cycling or use of public transportation. Green tours at the Draycott Hotel feature guided walking organizations such as Ramblers, Blue Badge Guides and London's award-winning signature walking tour company, London Walks. Hotel staff members are also strongly encouraged to take part in CO2-free travel by participating in the Barclays Cycle Superhighways Workplace scheme, which promotes safe use of bicycles and raises awareness of sustainable business practices.

Community and conservation: Singita

Singita’s luxury safari properties are renowned for their conservation and community efforts in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The hotel chain goes above and beyond the constant conservation efforts of land rehabilitation, maintenance, wildlife monitoring and fencing security, to initiating effective and innovative anti-poaching methods, research, wildlife re-introduction, preserving invaluable San Rock Art sites, and training and placing local youth in culinary arts and positions through the Singita School of Cooking.

Local education/conservation: Finch Hattons

Finch Hattons in Kenya encourages local development and places emphasis on maintaining the cultural ties to the land, to find synergetic means of profitability and ecological conservation.

The property employs both local Maasai and Kamba peoples, in key roles in camp management and as safari guides, providing continuing education in the process. They also plan to work in conjunction with the local community to promote grassroots conservation projects, which engage the community in long-term ecological and cultural stability, and ultimately profitability.

Destination Focused: Ellerman House

This former Cape Edwardian Mansion turned luxurious getaway in Cape Town, is entirely focused on promoting South African products, showcasing South African art (largest private gallery of SA art), featuring solely South African wines in their gallery, planting only South African flora in their award winning gardens, serving South African ingredients and hiring locals. If your company is interested in aligning spending with the value of giving back to a community, it would seem there’s no better property than this one.

Locally-sourced food: Tschuggen Hotel Group

At its stunning and diverse Swiss properties, the Tchuggen Hotel Group endeavors to give back to the community by locally sourcing food. The inspirational views of the Alps are also unmatched, as you can see below.

 

Luxury's Impact: Jacada Travel

Whether traveling with a marine biologist to learn conservation efforts in Raja Ampat, or observing the Maasai in Kenya, founder of Jacada Travel, Alex Malcolm states “luxury tourism, when done correctly, has the most amazing potential to protect the last wildernesses of the planet.” Not only do they use and promote responsible travel with itineraries and experiences such as those here Jacada work closely with Ralph Bousfield and Uncharted Africa Safari Co., most recently teaming up with Rhinos Without Borders supporting the relocation of rhinos to Botswana and protection against poaching.

In conclusion, businesses and corporations can enact real change through implementing external and internal social responsibility initiatives. This is aligned with mindfulness of employee needs and mindfulness of the needs of communities, environments, wildlife and cultures worldwide.

Does your company already practice something similar? If not, would you as an employee suggest it to management or HR, armed with this article? Let us know in the comments below!

All images used with expressed permission. See captions for credits. 

Rachel Peace is an account executive for Imagine Communications.

For additional information, please contact rachel@imagine-team.com

The average one-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area will set a renter back a whopping $2,965. To maintain an apartment at this rate, an individual working minimum wage in San Francisco at $12.25 per hour would need to work over 60 hours per week just to cover the monthly rent -- not including having enough cash left over for utilities, food, transportation or any other basic needs.

As one of the most brutal and highly-competitive rental markets in the country, it comes as no surprise that lack of affordable housing is a growing issue in the Bay Area. The impact is felt by both adorned tech employees and a struggling class of individuals living on the edge of homelessness in the world’s most populous innovation and opportunity hub.

A recent study published by the Economic Roundtable, a nonprofit public policy research organization, revealed that 104,206 residents in Santa Clara County (roughly 5 percent of the county’s population of 1.826 million people) were identified as having experienced homelessness at some point between 2007 and 2012 when the study was conducted.

On the other side of the economic extreme, funding for Silicon Valley’s most recent tech startups often start in the millions. Last month, DIY culinary subscription company Blue Apron received a $135 million round of funding at a $2 billion valuation.

While companies like Google and Facebook do not disclose the financial numbers of their employee perks program, both tech companies provide daily meals to all employees at a price point estimated to equate to roughly $72 million per year. The estimated cost to provide permanent-supportive housing to a homeless person in the valley is $19,767 per year -- a savings of $42,706 compared to the cost of services for individuals living on the street. If tech companies traded in their gourmet lunches, 3,642 homeless individuals could have permanent supportive housing each year.

Presently $520 million per year was spent providing public services for homeless individuals in Santa Clara County in the form of health care, rehabilitation services or through the criminal justice penal system.

“We have a unique storm of circumstances that other cities leveraging techniques to end homelessness simply don’t have to manage,” says Jennifer Loving, executive director of Destination: Home. The organization is a program of the Health Trust, a public-private partnership, which works collectively with city agencies, community partners and governmental bodies to end homelessness in Santa Clara County.

One solution prevalent in cities across the country is Section 8 vouchers, but in the expensive Silicon Valley rental market, subsidies barely scratch at the surface of providing long-term housing without challenge. And rental prices aren’t getting any cheaper. The maximum subsidy provided by the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara is just $1,560 for a one-bedroom apartment. With average rent hovering above $2,000, there is still a gap that reduces an individual’s ability to maintain sustainable housing long-term. That means that there is barely any room for margin. And the risk of homelessness is once again a threat for those already on the edge.

Profile of a homeless person in Silicon Valley

Loving asserts that ending homelessness hasn’t become a widely-adopted priority simply because there’s a lack of relatability and a long-standing mythology about what it means to be homeless in the land of plenty.

“Homelessness is not a shiny issue like STEM. We’ve been conditioned [as a society] to believe that [homelessness] is a thing that is supposed to be here. There’s not a massive amount of innovation, and a series of tents and tiny houses are not going to solve the problem at scale.”

Housing affordability is only one side of the issue. Organizations are working constantly to solve a complex issue with many moving parts. Addressing homelessness also means managing services for individuals with developmental disabilities, drug and substance abuse problems, and mental illness.

Housing first: House the most vulnerable, no strings attached

In 2013, Destination:Home called for a disruptive model to solve the crisis, commissioning the Community Plan to End Homelessness with distinct strategies to humanize services to individuals dealing with chronic homelessness, develop efficiencies through private-sector partnerships, and transform the way that local government responds to homelessness by enforcing rapid housing.

The study identified a cohort of 2,800 people who are persistently homeless and the most frequent users of public support services. If these high-use individuals were to be housed permanently, at an average retention rate of 75 percent, the city would reduce the high cost of public services from $83,000 to just over $13,000.

While there may not be an app to end homelessness, policy makers and collective impact agencies are pulling to stamp out the problem with one novel idea: Provide housing to people without one by 2020.

This September, officials in Santa Clara County and San Jose approved a $13 million budget to buy and renovate motels and hotels to be repurposed as temporary and long-term housing -- a move that will provide shelter for up to 585 homeless Silicon Valley residents.

Geoffrey Morgan, executive director of First Community Housing in San Jose, is a developer behind the production of two affordable housing complexes slated to be completed by the end of the year. As a developer, Morgan cites barriers to the development of a more robust production of affordable housing as a result of a slow permitting process.

“City leadership is beginning to align to understand the needs of homelessness. However, the approval processes for projects is lengthy -- not helpful for getting the homeless into rapid housing.”

Tech as a focused solution to humanizing homelessness

Addressing the disparity in Silicon Valley’s homelessness crisis with tech-based tools could prove to be attractive opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs wanting to move beyond philanthropy and into new market solutions.

Take for instance early-stage equity fund Impact America Fund (IAF), which invests in technology-based solutions that scale systemic change to enhance the quality of life for all Americans.

“As tech investors, we understand you can’t just throw tech at every problem. Homelessness shouldn’t be an issue in a great economy like America. We know that there is $55 billion in charitable donations each year, and how those resources are distributed and allocated are the biggest issue,” Stefanie E. Thomas, senior investment associate at Impact America Fund, told Triple Pundit.

IAF recently invested $200,000 into San Francisco-based company, HandUP -- a direct donation platform that allows individual donors to directly impact the lives of their homeless neighbors.

According to Thomas, the platform is humanizing the stories of homeless people while also calling on local community members to pitch in:

“HandUp connects these populations to case workers at some of the most well-respected social service organizations in the nation for further assistance. With resources and words of support, our community of donors also strengthen safety nets that our members can call upon in times of need.”

Since its launch in 2013, HandUP has facilitated direct-giving to 1,200 individuals in San Francisco, facilitating over $950,000 in support of individuals experiencing homelessness.

Julianne was five months pregnant when her fiance Seth was laid off from his job as a design engineer at a tech company in San Francisco. With no more than $1,000 left to live on, the couple turned to the Homeless Prenatal Program for housing and assistance while they sorted out their next steps and welcomed their daughter in August 2013. The family has since secured permanent housing and has used HandUP to help cover expenses such as food, incidentals for their daughter and tuition toward Julianne's accounting degree.

“We see ourselves as providing a toolbox of solutions to help end homelessness,” says Sammie Rayner, co-founder of HandUP. “People in these communities want to know how they can support their neighbors and often don’t know how. We saw how tech was able to solve problems, but didn’t see tech focus on homelessness and human services.”

By cultivating an ecosystem of nonprofits, the HandUP platform helps organizations cut through their own internal bureaucracy and/or funding challenges to fill a gap when resources are scarce, needs aren’t able to be met quickly, or the resources simply aren’t available.

How the tech industry can become a champion for change

Insofar, Silicon Valley has both the tools and the talent to become much more part of the solution to ending homelessness. Private dollars and resources can be allocated to expanding housing options, and greater efficiencies among resource allocation to individuals in need could be developed to disrupt a dire market need.

“We need champions in the private sector. We have all the problems with the largest population of homelessness, but we have all of the solutions too. Other cities can’t say the same thing,” Loving said.

Correction: This article was updated to correct the number of people who can be housed by the $13 million motel remodel from 6,500 to 585. We regret the error.

Image credit: Destination: Home via Facebook

Indonesia's fires – driven by deforestation and 100 percent human-caused – are, without a doubt, the biggest environmental disaster of 2015 -- emitting a massive amount of CO2 into the atmosphere and decimating one of the world's top three most dense, biodiverse tropical forest regions. Now, Greenpeace Indonesia drones found that land burned in the past few weeks is already being turned into palm oil plantations on the island of Borneo.

“These fires are one of the worst disasters ever to hit this country. It is unthinkable that anyone should be allowed to profit from such a crisis," said Annisa Rahmawati, Indonesia forests campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, in a statement. "Someone is already trying to exploit this fire by establishing an oil palm plantation."

Sadly, this comes as no surprise. It was clear from the get-go that the fires were directly connected to Indonesia's palm oil industry, which, for years, has been using fire as a tool to clear land to turn into plantations.

Why palm oil? To meet massive demand for cooking oils and biofuels from overseas, including here in the U.S.

Remember all the uproar about hydrogenated oils a few years ago? For a whole host of good reasons, companies began to replace these overly-processed, potentially dangerous ingredients from processed foods. What did they choose to replace it with? Palm oil, the cheapest non-hydrogenated oil on the market, with the vast majority of it coming from Southeast Asia.

Even today, when the fires and haze are making headlines across the globe, and the habitat for endangered species such as orangutans is shrinking, numerous international corporations are refusing to put into place common-sense, sustainable palm oil sourcing requirements. One of the most egregious violators is PepsiCo, which, according to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), is far from ensuring its palm oil isn't coming from recently illegally-deforested land or plantations that exploit workers.

"PepsiCo has failed to set a deadline for breaking the links between its products and companies that are destroying rainforests and peatlands, and abusing human and labor rights," said Gemma Tillack, agribusiness campaign director for RAN.

Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, took a bold step earlier this week, announcing that he would no longer allow for any planting on peatlands, the most flammable and unsustainable regions to put palm. But Greenpeace noted that any government commitment needs the backing of companies to make any meaningful difference.

“President Jokowi’s landmark decision to ban peatland development is a first step toward a cleaner, brighter future for Indonesia’s people and environment," said Yuyun Indradi, forests political campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia. "It sets the bar for meaningful commitments from world leaders to tackle the root causes of climate change at the Paris climate summit. Companies must work together with the Indonesian government to implement these decrees and ensure they stop doing business with any company that continues forest and peatland destruction.”

It is time for the palm oil industry – and the companies that use palm oil in their products – to change their priorities. As we head toward the Paris climate talks, the role of companies in helping promote the global change we need to build a sustainable future is clear. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is often cited as a strong, first step we can take to quickly reduce global carbon. Indonesia's fires are the top source of those emissions, and we need to see companies leading the way on this.

The last thing we need is palm oil from freshly-burned lands in products from PepsiCo, Nissin, and other companies with lacking supply chain policies. Enough is enough.

Image credit: Glen Hurowitz via Flickr

Concern has been growing of late about the role that money plays in American politics. The battle to overturn the Citizens United ruling may well be a battle for the survival of American democracy, not to mention the broader implications for the planet.

But aside from the enormous role of campaign contributions in tilting the power-balance toward corporate and moneyed interests, there is another, perhaps less well-known but equally threatening, mechanism that has done and continues to do great harm.

That is the two-way revolving door between government regulatory agencies and the industries that they were established to regulate. Let’s make it clear at the outset that government regulations designed to protect the public and the environment can have enormous financial impacts. For a company, especially a large company, whose product is considered unsafe, it could be far more expedient to change the regulation than the product.

With the revolving door, industry veterans are often appointed to senior posts in these agencies, with the hope that by working with industry, the government can develop sensible regulations that won’t be unnecessarily burdensome to those industries. While that intention might be a good one, far too often it tips the scales too far in favor of industry interests. While having open communication with industry is important, giving decision-making authority to advocates has clearly gone too far. Appointments to these posts should be screened and selections made to favor those who will commit to remaining impartial.

The second way that this revolving door works is that, as relationships develop between agency staff and the companies they regulate, promises of lucrative job offers, either explicit or otherwise, are made to the staff for when their government service is over. Of course those offers will only be extended to those who remain within the good graces of the company. Suffice it to say, this puts considerable pressure on the objectivity of any regulator.

Signs of these subtle instances of corruption are widespread though often difficult to prove. Still, the influence is pervasive. A recent story in the Atlantic questions whether the USDA is silencing scientists for espousing inconvenient truths. It tells a tale of how Jonathan Lundgren, an 11-year veteran entomologist with the USDA, was treated after publishing data showing that a popular insecticide was harmful to monarch butterflies. Earlier research identified concerns associated with the use of genetically modified crops.

The agency followed up with a series of career-crushing reprisals, which it claims had nothing to do with the content of his research, but rather stemmed from administrative issues. For example, after accepting an invitation to address the National Academy of Sciences on the environmental impacts of GMO crops, he was admonished for handing in paperwork late and made to pocket travel costs himself.

He was also told to remove his name as co-author from an article on corn production in the journal Environmental Science and Policy. In a footnote to the paper, co-author Scott Fausti wrote, “I believe this action raises a serious question concerning policy neutrality toward scientific inquiry.”  Lundgren, a 2011 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, was suspended from his post for 30 days, which was later reduced to 14. Corn production in this country last year had a market value of $56.8 billion.

Lundgren’s case has been taken up by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which filed a whistleblower lawsuit on his behalf last year.

PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais told the Washington Post: “Having research published in prestigious journals and being invited to present before the National Academy of Sciences should be sources of official pride, not punishment. Politics inside USDA have made entomology into a most dangerous discipline.”

A spokesman for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Christopher Bentley, had the following comment on the case: “As one of the world’s leading promoters of agriculture and natural resources science and research, USDA has implemented a strong scientific integrity policy to promote a culture of excellence and transparency. That includes procedures for staff to report any perceived interference with their work, seek resolution and receive protection from recourse for doing so.”

The complaint Lundgren filed addressed his superiors, concerning violations of that scientific integrity policy. Lundgren describes “five months of a wide-ranging and needlessly disruptive ‘investigation,’” of what he characterizes as petty bureaucratic infractions.  What followed was an ordeal of “utter hell for me and my laboratory group. The process overlooked both USDA-ARS and Federal Policies and Procedures, coerced and intimidated me and my laboratory group, led to their physical, mental and emotional illness, disrupted research plans, and derailed my career trajectory.”

Lundgren assesses these actions, which sound like they got their playbook from the Congressional Benghazi investigation, as follows. “Given the timing and unspecific but insistent nature of this investigation, it is clear that the motivation for it is associated with my talking to the press about pesticide risks.”

While direct linkage or evidence of revolving door relationships are not evident in this case, the research division of USDA that Lundgren is associated with certainly is involved with pesticides and GMOs and likely has considerable contact the companies that produce them. The track record of revolving door relationship at USDA, particularly with Monsanto, is well-documented. The chart on this page lists 15 individuals with ties on both ends of this relationship.

In another example, Tom Philpott tells the story of Elsa Murano, who retired as head of a USDA food safety division, only to step into a post on the board of pork giant Hormel. Four whistleblowers raised serious concerns about a new pilot inspection procedure called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points-based Inspection Models Project, or HIMP, that would speed up pork processing time and improve productivity for the company. The complaints allege that safety is being compromised.

To date, the pilot procedures have not been discontinued. Philpott does not specifically connect the dots back to Murano, though he tacitly acknowledges that having friends in high places can’t hurt. Since Murano’s departure, two other high-level administrators from USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) have left to take positions in the meat industry.

Says Philpott, in closing: “Given the tasty meat industry opportunities that evidently await the USDA's food safety administrators, I take FSIS's defense of the HIMP program in the face of these sworn statements with about as much salt as you might find in a slice of Hormel's signature product, Spam.”

Image credit: Fishhawk: Flickr Creative Commons

By Matthew Young

The first aptly-titled SolaRoad made its debut last November in the Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam. The road itself is a unique foray in pollution-free solar energy. Nearly one year later, the SolaRoad’s designers say the high-tech bike path is performing better than they expected.

In the first six months since it was installed, the SolaRoad has generated over 3,000 kilowatt-hours — or roughly the equivalent required for a single-person household for one calendar year.

Experts reckon that up to 20 percent of the Netherlands' roadways —140,000 kilometers or 87,000 miles — could accommodate the solar threading for a wider reach on a limitless solar draw.

How it works

The SolaRoad is a unique platform just 70 meters long — for now — that consists of several synthetic layers topped by 3-millimeter, glass-covered solar panels engineered to convert sunrays into energy — even on a perfectly cloudy day. Each transparent panel links into a network that optimizes absorbed solar radiation and redirects it into the local energy grid — to power street lamps, for example.

The engineers spent five years creating the system to be durable. The skid-resistant panels themselves are an innovation of concrete, rubberized silicon and the aforementioned glass. The end result is a stratified sandwich strong enough to sustain the systemic pressure dealt by a 12-ton load — like a fully-stocked fire truck. The panel material is non-adhesive, and the path itself is mounted at a slight tilt to allow for hassle-free rain runoff, washing and sweeping.

The longevity gauge for the lifespan of the SolaRoad’s panels with fully estimated wear-and-tear points to around two decades. Over 200,000 cyclists so far have gone the length of the SolaRoad. In this time, one flaw did manifest itself. A small yet pertinent section of the topside laminate experienced a degradation of integrity. The engineers intend to correct that.

Global extension

The trick is to continue to extend the SolaRoad in, through and beyond its launching pad of the village of Krommenie. The initial projection is to generate the aforementioned measure of power for every 70-meter extension. The primary goal was to perfect the road’s durability and functionality, which has been accomplished. Damage sustained by a single panel will affect that panel only: Each has an independent switch-off in the event of a functional compromise like a crack, soil coverage or overwhelming shade.

The umbrella concept of the SolaRoad is staggering to say the least. A nerve-net of sustainable green energy-focused routes will not solve the world’s collective energy crises. However, if enough of them are built, that could take a good chunk of the workload off the grid itself. Sten de Wit, spokesman for SolaRoad, the group behind the venture, told Al Jazeera that the annual yield of the project is expected to reach more than 70 kilowatt-hours per square meter.

A road as an energy source need not be a purely functional concept, either. Aesthetics have already been configured. It’s a matter of ingenuity and application. In 2014, a Dutch design studio installed a SolaRoad-type route: The energy it stored during daylight hours was transferred into a night-time LED cycle-guide display inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Starry Night.”

Coming to America

The next step is to globalize the SolaRoad. Various factions in various nations and provinces are planning on and negotiating for the implementation of similar energy-centric roadways. Not surprisingly, California — an American state renowned for its sunny warmth and relatively mild weather patterns — is the first state to enter into a formal agreement with Holland. Expect a variation of the SolaRoad somewhere in the state within the next five or 10 years.

A proposed carless travel path called the CV Link is still in the planning stage for the low desert region west of Coachella through Palm Springs. It would be only natural to install a solar road parallel or inside the Link. Once it becomes a reality, momentum for further stateside applications will increase.

Additionally, two engineers in Idaho have developed a solar panel for roadway use. Now a decade old, their innovation — secured under the banner of Solar Roadways — was formally contracted by the Federal Highway Administration.

The prototype has yet to connect to soil, but time spent on fine-tuning the project will net a finely-tuned model to work from.

Solar Roadways’ website claims that greenhouse gases would be cut up to one-quarter of current emission output while energy production would increase three-fold should every American travel route — be it highway, freeway, surface street — somehow convert to a SolaRoad-type application. The company launched an IndieGogo campaign in 2014 to fund the first baby steps of its venture.

Future outlook

What would you do if you had the resources to adapt American roads to store power during the day and redirect it by night? Would you stop at roads or incorporate the technology elsewhere — bridges, towers, sides of office buildings? How long in terms of years, decades or centuries could such a concept require to vastly cut down domestic energy overuse?

Image credits: 1)-4) SolaRoad, used with permission 5) and 6) Solar Roadways 

Matthew Young is a freelance automotive journalist and blogger hailing from Boston. He is passionate about everything on 4 wheels and new, emerging tech in the industry. When Matthew is not busy writing about cars or awesome new technology, he usually spends time fiddling with his camera and learning a thing or two about photography. You can reach Matthew @mattbeardyoung.