Airbnb has finally gotten a break. After years of increasing scrutiny by cities like New York -- which has contended that the sharing economy business has, in some cases, been operating illegally within the metropolitan area -- Airbnb can finally chalk one up on its side.

The coup may not help its legal woes in New York, but it’s bound to make San Francisco home-sharing advocates a bit happier. On Oct. 7, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to legalize home rentals of 30 days or less for the city’s permanent residents.

Residents were previously restricted from renting out their homes for periods of less than 30 days, according to a law that the city said protected housing rates and helped to regulate property rentals. The new law allows residents who live in the city for a minimum of nine months of the year to rent out rooms or residences for short stays for up to 90 days of business per year.

Sharing economy advocates fought hard for the change, arguing that the rentals helped cash-strapped homeowners make their mortgages. As of next February, residents who register with the city, agree to pay hotel tax on their rentals and carry a minimum of $500,000 liability insurance can now legally rent out their digs.

It’s yet to be seen how much profit the landlords will have left over to apply to their costs once they're done paying the extra taxes and insurance. Or what those codicils will do to the rental rates that everyone has been eager not to upset in the country’s most expensive city. Will increased short-term rentals, with new earnings for the city as well as insurance companies, raise or lower the rates? And by the same token, what will they do to hotel rates? Can business travelers and short-stay vacationers expect a better option on Expedia or Hotels.com?

One sector of the tourism industry that is liable to lose out on this new vote is the vacation home business, which has a modest footing in the San Francisco area. The online service Home Away, owned by VRBO, isn’t happy with the new ruling because it does not take into account homeowners who don’t live in the city.

On Friday, Home Away’s co-founder Carl Shepherd deflected the impact of the law, which forces non-residents to adhere to the older mandate of renting out residences for 30 days or more.

“Home Away will weather the challenge of the new law,” said Shepherd, who also serves as the development officer for the Austin, Texas-based company.  But he acknowledged in an interview with SFGate that the law didn't exactly reinforce the rights of the vacation home sector.

"This is very much a law written for Airbnb," Shepherd said, acknowledging that the two tourism services are completely different in their advantages and needs. Airbnb serves as an intermediary service, promoting the listings of small, short-term rental options. The vacation rental company charges flat fees for well-appointed, complete residences and often cater to the needs of transitioning business travelers.

The new regulations give more breathing space for resident homeowners to make just a bit more money from rentals, but it means more restrictive rental options for those who aren't full-time residents and have for years rented out their homes during peak summer months. That may mean more hassle, not less, for renters who already find it hard to obtain temporary housing for relocations, conferences, medical trips and such.

Shepherd also questioned whether the new law will actually do what city supes are hoping to accomplish.

The legislation, he said, was “easily subvertible” and encourages homeowners to try to find a way around the restrictions. “A person has to declare that it’s their permanent residence, and anyone can say that about any place [and] this invites people to do all sort of things and then say 'come catch me,’” he told SFGate.

The Board of Supervisors maintains it will enforce the ruling and fine those who violate the restrictions. Penalties can start at $1,000 a day, and don't include court costs if they are sued by the city. And the city has apparently gone after vacation rental businesses in the past, demonstrating that it does follow through with enforcement.

Still, Shepherd’s point does have some historical ring to it. In New York, where apartment rentals are strictly regulated, thousands of residents signed up for Airbnb services -- defying the city’s rental laws and causing legal headaches for the city, the state attorney office and, of course, Airbnb. While the city went after Airbnb, the message that seems to have been overlooked is that people will look for ways around regulations when they feel laws are either exclusionary or don’t make sense to their current economic situation.

And while Home Away/VRBO vows that it will work with the current restrictions, the law leaves plenty to ponder when it comes to its impact on San Francisco’s tourism sector where a business’ bottom line often depends on its ability to be sensitive to the needs, whims and time constraints of the seasonal travel industry.

Image credit: David Ohmer

This post is part of Triple Pundit’s ongoing coverage of the SXSW Eco conference. For the rest, please visit our SXSW Eco page here.

Living Progress is HP’s vision of creating a better future for everyone through innovation and technology. Chris Librie, senior director of strategy and communications for HP, shared some of the strategies and projects the company is involved in around the world on the last day of the SXSW Eco conference.

First, Librie dove into the immense realities of HP’s scope and impacts: It is virtually impossible to go a day without interacting with some kind of HP technology, whether it is by a credit transaction or social media activity. Today, more data is created in 12 hours than was created in all of human history up to 2003, and HP’s Public Cloud uses more energy than all of Japan. If lined up side-by-side, the 8 to 10 million additional servers needed to store this data over the next 3 years will require the space of Manhattan.

These realities not only drive the necessity to think holistically, but also demonstrate the high degree of responsibility that HP has to lead us all in a more sustainable direction. Recognizing these impacts has motivated the company to consider the triple bottom line, Librie continued, because its team knows business-as-usual is not sustainable. 

HP recognized the need to redesign its servers to not only be more energy efficient, but space efficient as well. With these constraints in mind, the company was able to create the HP Moonshot Server, which is 89 percent more energy efficient and is a small fraction of the size of a standard server.

In 2013, HP conducted its first comprehensive carbon footprint assessment and found that, in terms of total greenhouse gas emissions, supply chain activities account for 34 percent of its footprint, operations account for 5 percent, and the remaining 61 percent is due to the company's products. By 2020, HP aims to reduce supply chain and operations emissions by 20 percent each and product emissions by 40 percent. Librie notes that these daunting decreases may seem like barriers to some, but HP views the reductions as opportunities for innovation and competitive advantages.

Outside of its own products and services, HP has found creative ways to work with other organizations. As Librie explains, information technology is about making a difference, and collaboration is the tool to make these positive changes happen on a global scale. He dove into their partnership with the nonprofit organization Conservation International (CI), beginning with the shocking reality that the world’s rainforests are declining at a rate of 5 million hectares per year, which is roughly the size of Spain. CI started a project that uses cameras to capture data on animal species and vegetation in order to measure climate and habitat change in 16 different countries. This is an extremely data-heavy project, as CI produces 3 terabytes of data per year. This is where HP was able to lend its expertise, and together the organizations created the HP Earth Insights program. The Earth Insights program is essentially an early warning system for endangered species that builds in calls to action to intervene in species decline.

Another project that HP is involved in with CI is the Nature is Speaking film series, featuring different earth ecosystems with narrating voices of well-known actors such as Edward Norton and Harrison Ford. In order to get the word out and start the conversation around this project, HP intends to donate $1 per use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking (up to $1 million) to Conservation International.

At the end of the discussion, Librie stressed the need for big companies to not only work with NGOs, but also take sustainability efforts even broader by cultivating synergistic relationships between companies, other organizations and communities by creating shared value. He confesses that HP has even partnered with a known competitor, Dell, in order to set up electronic waste operations in Kenya. He believes that fostering shared value between entities is ultimately a greater sustainability tool than pure philanthropy, in that it creates more lasting and long-term drivers towards resilient companies and, ultimately, a more sustainable world.

Image courtesy of HP Living Progress

I only got 10 likes in the last five minutes
Do you think I should take it down?
Let me take another selfie. . .

--“#Selfie,” by the Chainsmokers

Most of us who live on social media know that companies such as Instagram allow you to use their services on the condition that they can use your services, royalty-free, without any notification.

That was one reason why I avoided using Instagram at first, although almost 6,500 photos later, I got over those privacy concerns pretty quickly. Not that anyone would want to use photos of my dog, my dome smooshed into a bike helmet, or me doing a yoga backbend in front of the Taj Mahal. Maybe. But I also do not pose for selfies brandishing my middle finger, with my tongue wagging out, or passed out buried in a pile of empty Corona bottles (I only drink local or organic brews). Triple Pundit doesn’t need the embarrassment, nor do any of my business clients. But for those of you that love to post pics of your shopping expeditions or favorite junk foods, be aware: Your selfie could very well be dissected and analyzed by the digital marketing startup Ditto.

And why wouldn’t any company use Ditto from a business perspective? The world of advertising and marketing has become murkier as more of us watch television at our convenience, not the networks’. That is, if you even watch television, chances are you spend more time flipping through YouTube videos or catching Netflix on the tablet. Why even contact a company over an issue, big or small, by snail mail or even an email when you can call them out on Twitter or Instagram? Gauging consumers’ thoughts of a brand, from the Boston Red Sox to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, is becoming a tougher task. And so in comes Ditto with its online tools, which are creepy and brilliant at the same time.

The way Ditto works is not that complicated — it generates one of the forehead-slapping moments that make you think, “Why didn’t I think of that and score a few million bucks in venture capital funds?” Ditto uses an image recognition technology in order to evaluate how a product or brand is resonating with consumers — therefore going beyond those hashtags and text searches. And in a move that may excite or terrify you depending on your desire for privacy, the service even identifies potential “brand ambassadors.”

For those of you curious who is “hot or not” today, check out Ditto’s live stream. Not surprisingly, yesterday’s brand champs were Adidas and Barcelona FC. Apparently, those misspelled names on Starbucks’ cups made the coffee champ a weak performer. And hilariously, Twitter and Instagram were laying the biggest branding eggs. JuicyCouture must have a new product out, because its selfie performance was off the charts; Chanel, however, was tanking. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ditto can recognize as many as 3,000 logos — as well as smiles, weather, and objects from beer bottles to skis — allowing Ditto’s platform to analyze how and when a brand is being enjoyed or consumed.

Ditto’s technology may alarm those who resent the fact they may be a walking laboratory for brands. Critics say companies such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr are not doing enough to advise their users on how their content is being used. But my response to that howling is that there is always an interesting correlation between those who criticize social media companies the most — and those who in turn live on those channels with the most frequency. The reality is: Do not count on any government agency clamping down on these usage policies anytime soon. The best solutions are to jump off these channels, be careful about what you post, or as in my case with Facebook, be coy about what you like. Based on my “likes,” Facebook always shows me testimonials related to tampons, the NRA and the Tea Party. Enough said.

Image credit: Leon Kaye

After a year in the Middle East and Latin America, Leon Kaye is based in California again. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.

This is the tenth in a weekly series of excerpts from the new book The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 13, 2014). Click here to read the rest of the series.

By Ryan Honeyman

Welcome to a six-week, turbocharged Quick Start Guide to becoming a Certified B Corporation.

The size and complexity of your company will affect how quickly you can move through the steps to B Corp certification. For example, smaller companies — especially service companies or companies without outside investors — should be able to move through the Quick Start Guide in less than six weeks. Larger companies with a sizable number of employees and/or departments will probably need the full six weeks or more.

In my experience, you will have the best chance of successfully completing the certification process if:

• You have the ability to see that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” If you try to be perfect on the B Impact Assessment, you run the risk of getting bogged down and never finishing. Aim for good enough and continue to improve your score in the future.

• You or someone else in your company “owns” the project. If many people are working on a project, it often means that no one is actually responsible for moving it forward. Make sure that someone (whether it is you, an external consultant or another employee) has taken ownership of the project and will dedicate the time and energy necessary to see it through to completion.

• You have access to financial, worker, supplier, community and environmental data. If you don’t personally have access to this data, you need access to the people who are responsible for this data (e.g., the facility manager for energy usage or the human resources manager for employee metrics).

One of the more welcome trends in recent years is the increase in partnerships between NGOs and businesses to work on sustainability challenges. The nonprofit has the expertise and capacity to work on issues from water to land rights; companies in turn have the funds, technology or brand recognition that can help raise awareness and scale these programs. One of the latest high-profile partnerships is between Unilever and the World Resources Institute (WRI), which have worked together to further a much needed agenda: increase transparency in agricultural supply chains to stall the pace of deforestation.

WRI has long included deforestation within its body of work, which makes it a natural fit to partner with a company such as Unilever, which uses palm oil in many of its products. And the growing demand for palm oil over the past decade is one of the major factors behind global deforestation. Despite growing awareness about deforestation’s catastrophic effects, the felling of trees, mostly to create farms and pastureland, continues. In fact, University of Maryland study suggests the rate of forests lost between 2010 and 2012 was the equivalent about 50 soccer fields every minute of every day — over a span of 12 years. Last month’s Climate Summit in New York resulted in a pledge to restore 350 million hectares of forest worldwide by 2030, a massive undertaking considering that landmass is about the size of India. So, can the Unilever-WRI alliance help?

According to both organizations, their joint effort, the Global Forest Watch Commodities Platform, can help companies analyze the effects commodities have on forests. Working with additional organizations including Google, ESRI and ScanEx, Global Forest Watch uses “big data” to allow a company to fine tune its supply chain through the use of satellite maps and other information. Companies can locate areas where palm oil production has contributed to forest loss — and in turn locate credible sustainable palm oil producers. Data is also available that can help companies evaluate the effects other commodities, including soy, beef, and pulp and paper, have on global forests. And considering the risks drought and fires have had on global supply chains, a new tool that monitors fires (for now monitoring only southeast Asia) should prove useful as well.

So whether a company is finally responding to stakeholder pressure to clean up their global operations, or are assessing global risks for a sustainability report, tools such as the Global Forest Watch platform are a step towards nudging companies to clean up their act worldwide. After all, protecting forests is more than preserving wildlife and the environment; they are the world’s lungs, provide livelihoods for as many as 1.6 billion people and are an integral part of the global economy — but will not be for long if they continue to be mismanaged. And just as important, such tools as the Global Forest Watch will keep corporations accountable. The old excuse of “we had no idea our suppliers were doing this” no longer applies — information on what is happening to our planet is out there, it’s readily available, and can be tracked by anyone.

Image credit: WRI

After a year in the Middle East and Latin America, Leon Kaye is based in California again. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.

This post is part of Triple Pundit’s ongoing coverage of the SXSW Eco conference. For the rest, please visit our SXSW Eco page here.

We've been following Masdar Institute for some time on 3p, which meant I was particularly pleased to talk to Dr. Alejandro Rios last week at SXSW Eco.  Specifically, we talked about a new project called ISEAS, which stands for "Integrated Seawater, Energy and Aquaculture System."  The concept is every bit as interesting as the acronym suggests.  Take the challenges of feeding people, producing clean energy and dealing with scarce fresh water, and engineer a solution for all three.  It may be a tall order, but the ISEAS project proposes to do exactly that.

In a nutshell, Masdar Institute is attempting to use halophytes (plants that grow in seawater) to produce biofuels while at the same time filtering the pollutants associated with growing fish or shrimp in aquaculture ponds. The benefits are potentially huge:

• The process uses only salt water, which is plentiful -- even in Abu Dhabi -- thus eliminating any debate about whether it wastes water.


• The halophytes will also eliminate waste from the aquaculture -- a major problem in traditional shrimp farming operations.


• Useful biofuel will be produces when plants are harvested -- possibly even jet fuel.


• The whole thing is a carbon sink with a negative carbon footprint.

Granted, it's all just an experiment at this point, but in the video below, Dr. Rios explains the basics...

Lego recently announced that it will not renew its contract with Shell when it ends in 2016. “We want to clarify that as things currently stand we will not renew the co-promotion contract with Shell when the present contract ends,” the company said in a statement released last week. The announcement comes after a three-month-long campaign by the environmental group, Greenpeace. The group set its sights on Lego, demanding that the toy company drop its partnership with Shell.

The company made it clear that it did not like the campaign by Greenpeace. Instead of a campaign targeting the company, Greenpeace should have had “direct conversation with Shell,” Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, president and CEO of the Lego Group, said in a statement by the company. Knudstorp added that Lego does not “want to be part of Greenpeace’s campaign, and we will not comment any further on the campaign.”

Greenpeace's public request to Lego shows just how viral a campaign can go these days when most folks have Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts. The environmental group created a petition titled Cut Ties With Shell. The petition stated that Shell is “mobilizing giant oil rigs” in the Arctic to drill for oil and that would put the lives of native wildlife such as polar bears and beluga whales at risk. It asked Lego to “take a stand against Arctic destruction” and not let its “good name be used to legitimize what cannot be legitimized.”

But the Greenpeace campaign consisted of more than just an online petition, as a blog post by the group shows. Here are other parts of the campaign:

1. The most viral video by Greenpeace in its history. The video depicts an Arctic oil spill using Lego toys and a sad rendition of a popular song. The end of the video features a link to the petition.


2. Giant Arctic animals built by children from Lego toys on the front of Shell’s London headquarters to protest Lego’s partnership with Shell.


3. Protests by activists using miniature Lego people, called Lego-lution.


4. At a Shell gas station in Legoland in Billund, Denmark, activists used tiny Lego climbers to hold a protest.


5. Over a million people globally emailed Lego and asked the company to end its partnership with Shell.

Back in July, Shell responded to the Greenpeace campaign with a statement by Knudstorp that stated: “Shell lives up to their responsibilities wherever they operate and take appropriate action to any potential claims should this not be the case.” Greenpeace responded in a blog post to the statement, countering that “there is ample evidence that Shell is not able to operate legally, or safely, in the Arctic.” The blog post cited “crashed oil rigs, blazing drill ships, crushed-like-a-beer-can emergency equipment, Alaskan tax dodges and ignored safety warnings.” Greenpeace also pointed out in the post that associating with Shell is “contrary to the very high environmental standards at the heart of who Lego are.”

If companies can learn one thing from the campaign it's that just releasing a statement condemning the campaign won't work. Groups like Greenpeace have a global reach that, combined with social media, make campaigns go viral very quickly. Many people are concerned about the environment and will decide to take part in a campaign. Opening dialogue with the environmental group goes a long way and would only strengthen a company's sustainability program.

Image courtesy of Greenpeace Lego-lution

In a major boost for the onshore wind power industry, Britain’s green energy company Ecotricity and global construction and development firm Skanska are forming a joint venture – called Skylark – to build wind farm projects in Britain.

Skylark will draw on the expertise of Ecotricity in developing green energy projects through planning, while Skanska will utilise their expertise in construction and engineering.

The joint venture will aim to put 350MW of new green energy projects into planning system in the first 5 years, which would represent a potential investment of £500m should the projects be consented, supplying green electricity to 200,000 homes.

Three development sites have already been identified for Skylark’s first round of investment, representing around 100MW of generating capacity, with the target of delivering new renewable energy capacity for Britain as early as 2018.

Skylark will also create a range of new jobs, from planning experts through to scientific, technical, construction and maintenance roles.

Ecotricity is a ‘not-for-dividend’ enterprise that operates a ‘bills into mills’ business model – that uses customers’ energy bills to fund the building of new sources of green energy.

The Renewable Energy Association (REA) and Solar Trade Association (STA) are to go their separate ways, ending their formal four-year affiliation.

The two associations became affiliated in March 2011, when the STA merged with the REA's Solar Power Group and relaunched with representation of both the solar heating and solar power industries.

Next year the two associations will become independent once again, allowing them both to focus on their core strengths.

REA Chairman Martin Wright explained: “Solar heating and solar power are vitally important technologies, with the potential to reduce energy costs for UK households and businesses. Our members want us to strengthen our offer for these important technologies. This is what we're going to do, by building on the excellent capacity in our existing On-site and Renewable Power sector groups. We will continue to apply our unparalleled policy expertise and strong relations with Government to the goal of securing a bright future for UK solar energy.

STA Chairman Jan Sisson added: “Solar power has come from nowhere at the start of this Parliament to providing nearly 10% of all renewable power over the last quarter. As long as we can secure a more stable policy framework, subsidy-free solar is now on the horizon.”
 

Editor's Note: Triple Pundit's RP Siegel visited Kenya to learn more about the LifeStraw Follow the Liters campaign. This is the second post from his trip. In case you missed it, you can read the first post here.

Last week, I described a school visit, in which the team introduced a number of LifeStraw Community Filters -- provided by the Follow the Liters Campaign that just kicked off this week. The program will provide clean water to 125,000 school children in western Kenya.

On Friday, I made a number of home visits with Steve Otieno, Vestergaard's country director for climate & water in Kenya. Steve manages the Follow the Liters campaign here. He also managed the Carbon for Water program, which, funded by carbon credits that were administered by Climate Care, provided nearly 900,000 LifeStraw family filters back in 2011. The company maintains a staff in the area, who, assisted by a large volunteer force, makes regular home visits to ensure that the families are using the filters properly and are having no issues with them.

The company had hoped that after the pilot was completed, the program would continue to expand across Kenya. But the carbon market, which drives the program, has not kept pace. Now they are looking into other funding sources including local governments.

At the opening ceremony on Monday, Steve said, "We have been a family, but now we are a community." Over these past few days I have come to see the meaning behind these words.

The first home we visited belonged to Demaris Saswani, who lives with two children and six grandchildren all enrolled in school. The house was built by her late husband who worked for the power company. She said that since they received the filter three years ago, none of them have been sick. Before that time, they had to boil the water and if they didn't, they got sick. The children do not have a filter at school, so she makes sure that they each carry a bottle of clean water with them.

Next, we visited Canary Omusinde, who lives with her husband and baby. They have also had very good results and no problems with the filter. She says that she typically makes three trips to the river with a 20-liter gerry can, though on wash days, she might take five trips. Fortunately, the river is only five minutes away. Like many in this area, the kitchen is outside to avoid the pollution. They get whatever food they don't grow themselves from the local market. I asked Canary if she knew what she was named after. When she said no, I showed her a picture of the bird in a book I had with me, which brought a smile to her face. "Now I know where my name comes from," she said.

Siprose Osore has a family of five. Her husband is a farmer. She fetches 10 liters a day from a spring 500 meters away. Three years ago, before they received the filter, several family members contracted typhoid. The only problem she has had with the filter has been occasional blockage, but volunteers, who visit her weekly, help her to resolve it.
We later stopped at Ebushibungo Primary School and chatted with Headmaster Judith Asubwa. Her school also had a typhoid outbreak three years ago that badly impacted attendance. They are very happy to have the filters. Now, the children, some of whom have to walk more than 2 miles each way, can carry empty water bottles instead of full ones, which makes life easier for them.

All the gravity-fed LifeStraw filter models are based on the use of a "membrane," which is actually a bundle of very fine, tapered tubes. The narrow end, which is at the bottom, has an opening of only 0.20 microns (even smaller on some models). Therefore it is important that the filters be backwashed regularly to avoid clogging. This is done by means of a red handle, which is pulled down gently. This forces water back up through the filter and through a separate channel, where it drains out into a red waste bottle that is dumped out.

It's hard to overstate the need for this technology. One of the other teams went out to a school that had been getting their water by collecting rainfall into a cistern. Though the water was muddy and opaque, they felt it must be safe. When the filters were installed, not only were the children amazed to see crystal clear water coming out of the spigots, the team was shocked to see dozens of tiny red worms caught in the pre-filter stage in each of the five filters they had installed. The water had been so dirty, no one could tell that the worms were there.

So, what are the takeaways from a day like this and from seeing programs like this? For one thing, it's hard to even talk about things like sustainability when basic survival needs like health, water and sanitation are not being met. For another thing, what does it take to successfully pull off programs like this, at this level of scale and effectiveness?

For the next and final installment in this series, we'll look at what it is about Vestergaard that makes it so uniquely successful in this difficult but desperately needed field of endeavor.

Image credit: RP Siegel

RP Siegel, PE, is an author, inventor and consultant. He has written for numerous publications ranging from Huffington Post to Mechanical Engineering. He and Roger Saillant co-wrote the successful eco-thriller Vapor Trails. RP, who is a regular contributor to Triple Pundit and Justmeans, sees it as his mission to help articulate and clarify the problems and challenges confronting our planet at this time, as well as the steadily emerging list of proposed solutions. His uniquely combined engineering and humanities background help to bring both global perspective and analytical detail to bear on the questions at hand.

Follow RP Siegel on Twitter.

Editor's Note: Travel expenses for the author and Triple Pundit were provided by Vestergaard.