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Submitted by Megan Wild

The issue of water pollution and contamination has made headlines often in recent months. With the disaster of Flint, Michigan and the controversy surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, it’s obvious there is a great deal of work to be done reducing and eliminating the amount of wastewater and pollutants that companies both large and small produce.

That being said, there are some companies that are getting it right — and being economically successful at the same time. Surprisingly, though, the leaders committed to green business and clean water are in fact smaller companies and corporations. A 2014 poll found that the largest advocates and supporters for stricter water regulations were small businesses — some 80% of those surveyed favored the new EPA regulations increasing protection on water supplies.

Here are four companies that illustrate how easy and profitable it can be to be committed to sustainable business and protecting our resources:

1. TOMS

One of the leading social enterprises in the United States, TOMS began its mission by providing one pair of shoes to those in need for each pair purchased. The success was exponential, and they have since expanded into other areas, including accessibility to clean drinking water.

All you simply have to do is purchase a bag of their ethically grown coffee, and you provide a week’s worth of safe drinking water — which is a huge issue around the globe — to someone in need.

The company concept is truly a beautiful one, and not to mention the shoes are some of the most comfortable you can own. It’s a win-win.

2. Nolan Painting

A Philadelphia-based business, Nolan Painting is committed to sustainable business practices, such as donating leftover supplies to schools and other organizations as well as using renewable energy sources.

They are also advocates for environmentally-friendly paint disposal, encouraging others to make sure paint and other substances with toxic chemicals don’t end up in the area’s rivers. Advocacy is probably one of the fundamental methods in growing awareness and use of sustainable business practices.

3. Falcon Waterfree Technologies

Clean water isn’t just about pollution, either. It’s also about cutting down on water use, especially in lieu of recent water shortages in California and the Southeast states. It is easy to forget that fresh water is not an endless resource, but in the coming decades, technologies that cut down on water use and increase efficiency will be vital in making sure there is accessible drinking water to all.

This company produces a waterless urinal that has a cartridge to capture the sewer gases, and they boast that their product has helped save some 20 billion gallons of water over the course of their existence.

4. New Belgium Brewing

Who doesn’t love a good craft beer? Most people do, and this company takes their brewing practices in relationship to sustainability very seriously.

They are committed to transparency in the material acquisition and processes, and they constantly monitor all of their energy emissions and waste production — most of which is composted, recycled and filtered. It’s pretty inspiring and could be a useful blueprint for some of those larger corporations to think about implementing.

What Can Larger Corporations Learn From Smaller Companies?

It is a bit difficult to understand why larger corporations with more resources don’t jump on the latest sustainability technologies and practices. GE, for example, is still owning up to decades of pollution of the Hudson River, and they now face the task of working through a seven-year dredging campaign to fix the damage that was done.

Skeptics doubt their efforts, but if they take cues from companies devoted to zero waste like New Belgium Brewing, for instance, the possibility to reverse the damage is attainable.

However, perhaps one of the most surprising organizations in the United States to not be practicing sustainability the Department of Defense. This government-run agency accounts for 10% of all superfund sites — 141 to be exact. These are areas of land in the United States that are allowed to use special clean-up grants from the government.

Of all entities, the government should step in and become an example and an advocate much like the companies discussed above have done — rather than being a contributor to the world’s pollution.

Going Green Is Profitable

The most interesting aspect from this perspective is that responsible business practice is profitable. Time and time again, research has found that the method of doing green business is more profitable that non-sustainable operations, and it’s better for people and the environment. The businesses have a greater longevity, and they encourage synergistic relationships with the planet and local society.

The bottom line doesn’t always have to come down to the dollar bill, either. In fact, if more companies took cues from the smaller ones that are already integrating sustainable practices into their operations, they would likely see greater profits on multiple fronts, from employee satisfaction to public image — and at the same time, they’d be securing a healthier planet for the next generation.

In a way, it almost seems like a no-brainer — and one these larger companies will hopefully see soon, joining the smaller champions committed to clean water and a more sustainable planet.

India’s garment industry is a $100 billion powerhouse, with $40 billion worth of textiles and garments exported annually. It is the country’s second largest sector after agriculture, employing at least 45 million workers directly, it and contributes to the economic livelihood of at least another 60 million Indians.

And as is the case of much of the global garment industry, the sector in India is a complicated one with a tangled supply chain. Small factories and shops, many of them family-run, serve as subcontractors to larger textile and garment suppliers, which in turn churn out clothing for some of the world’s most recognized brands.

The result is that bonded labor has become common across India, as suppliers seek to keep costs down in a hyper-competitive industry. And what may come across to many families as at first a benign way to secure a daughter’s future and pay for her marriage dowry has become part of a corrupt system entrapping as many as 120,000 young women and girls annually.

One large driver of bonded labor in India, especially in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is the Sumangali system, in which girls as young as 13 are hired on contract for as long as five years.

Many of them work in spinning mills, which for decades relied on full-time adult male workers along with some married women hired on a temporary contract basis. But since the late 1980s, more spinning mills have relied on these young girls and women, who are often promised a clean place to live, plenty of social activities, onsite health care and a generous lump sum after they complete their contract. According to the NGO Anti-Slavery International, girls and their families are promised as much as 60,000 rupees ($882) in a lump-sum payment at the end of the typical three-year contract.

The reality, however, is often starkly different, as outlined in Anti-Slavery’s 2012 landmark report. Working conditions are often dangerous; living quarters are often squalid; these young women and girls are often kept confined to the mills, even if they become seriously ill; and deductions for healthcare costs or mistakes made on the shop floor can reduce their final payment, already a pittance, to almost nothing.

The Fair Wear Foundation, which has long investigated this practice, says some aspects of the Sumangali system need to be understood in the context of India’s social system and Hindu culture. Nevertheless, the way Sumangali (which means “married woman” in Tamil) has been conducted in India in most cases is illegal, according to a report the organization released in 2010.

These labor rights abuses have been ongoing despite the fact that India has banned all forms of forced or slave labor. "India's labor laws are actually quite clear, and bonded labor has been illegal in the country for a long time," Jakub Sobik, an Anti-Slavery spokesperson, told TriplePundit. “But these violations of human rights continue because of weak implementation across the country."

The lack of any enforcement, and local authorities’ preference to look the other way, has the most devastating impact on the children of India’s marginalized communities. Especially vulnerable are those who are traditionally from India’s lower social castes, local tribal populations and migrant families across Tamil Nadu.

Another NGO dedicated to ceasing human trafficking and slavery, Switzerland-based Terre des Hommes, says its work has raised awareness somewhat, but that its organization’s efforts are often frustrated by local government officials’ reluctance to acknowledge that such problems exist.

“There is often no direct response, as most of the time there is a ‘I will look into it,’ and sometimes, even a total denial,” said Antje Ruhmann, a child rights officer for Terre des Hommes. “Occasionally, the government institutes an inquiry on their own to find out the actual situation on the ground.”

Ms. Ruhmann said some trade groups, such as the Southern India Mills’ Association, said they have tightened hiring guidelines for their members, but implementation and regular monitoring are not rigorous enough to stop these abuses.

The international garment industry says it is doing more to crack down on suppliers who profit from labor rights abuses such as the Sumangali system. But evidence of continued human suffering suggests companies can do far more.

"The garment companies say they are regularly undergoing third-party audits, but it’s not a secret anymore that audits rarely work properly,” said Mr. Sobik of Anti-Slavery. “Businesses need to do far more to ensure that their suppliers, and those suppliers' subcontractors, are following the law to ensure that bonded labor in any form is not tied to their global supply chains."

Terre des Hommes’ Ms. Ruhmann is also dubious about social audits as a mechanism to clean up India’s garment industry. Wages promised by the Sumangali system are low in part because of the rather loose interpretations of India’s apprentice system, which dates back to sweeping labor legislation passed at the time of the country gaining its independence in 1946. Nevertheless, Terre de Hommes and Anti-Slavery insist that their interpretations of what “apprenticeship” means is one excuse for suppliers to pay extremely low wages – not to mention the deplorable conditions in which these workers often find themselves.

Ms. Rumhann says both auditors and labor enforcement officers need to hold these businesses accountable. “Hostels should be registered with government departments. No apprenticeship should be allowed beyond six months. And all social audits should include local people on the ground, particularly local civil society organizations,” she said.

So, are the efforts of NGOs including Terre des Hommes and Anti-Slavery making a difference? Awareness is indeed increasing, with exposés, such as last year’s investigative reporting by Reuters, shining light on these abuses. The Guardian has also dedicated resources to revealing bonded and slave labor in India and other nations that contribute to the garment industry's global supply chain.

Rumhann points to the results of Terre des Hommes’ impact from four years of the organization’s interventions: psychological counseling for almost 6,000 girls, over 1,000 benefiting from skills training and over 1,800 young women who found better paying employment. But she also infers that there is a long road ahead before bonded labor is eradicated from the garment industry’s global supply chain.

“Due to our regular awareness building meeting with our stakeholders, a handful of companies have reduced recruiting child laborers, as in girls,” she said. “However, for the other girls who have been working in these conditions, the situation has not changed much.”

Mr. Sobik also agreed that we are far from the day when a consumer can purchase an item of clothing with total confidence that it's free of slavery from thread to store shelf. "There has been some increase in awareness, in part because of the work of media outlets such as the Guardian," he said, "but we are far from the systematic change needed to eliminate slavery, including bonded labor schemes such as Sumangali in India."

Image credit: Deepak Malik, UNDP India; Flickr

The Intertubes are buzzing with news of the futuristic, zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell truck launched by the startup Nikola Motor Co. last week. However, in corporate responsibility terms, a good chunk of the story belongs to Ryder, a U.S. truck company with deep roots and a broad reach.

Ryder is partnering with Nikola for nationwide distribution and maintenance of the new Nikola One truck. The new relationship provides a good demonstration of how older, legacy companies can turbo-boost their way into the low-carbon business model of the future by seeking out opportunities to adopt new technologies.

Ryder meets Nikola

Ryder got its start back in 1933 as a concrete hauling firm with one truck, a Ford Model A. The company's interest in new technology dates back to at least 1952, when it became one of the first transportation companies to deploy a computer to keep track of accounts.

The company issued its first sustainability report in 2009, and in 2011 it signed on to the Obama administration's Clean Fleets pollution initiative.

Ryders's carbon-reducing efforts include an emphasis on fuel efficiency and compressed natural gas. Both of those angles can result in strong progress within a relatively short period of time in terms of reducing tailpipe emissions. However, both of them continue dependency on fossil fuels. That leaves Ryder exposed to supply chain issues, like those recently underscored by the Dakota Access pipeline protests and the earthquake swarms in Oklahoma.

In that context, the Nikola partnership represents a real game-changer for Ryder.

Nikola One is an all-electric drive vehicle powered by a lithium-ion battery pack via a fuel cell, for a range of up to 1,200 miles per fill-up. In addition to ditching diesel fuel, the electric drive provides an almost noiseless ride and  delivers far more torque, all with a weight savings of 2,000 pounds on the chassis.

Aside from contributing to fuel efficiency, the vehicle's regenerative braking system also enables faster stopping. That's an important safety improvement over conventional brakes.

Another important safety feature is the truck's lower center of gravity, a direct result of removing the diesel engine, transmission and emissions equipment and replacing them with batteries, electric motors and a fuel cell.

Ryder's new solar connection

Ryder will also get to share the credit for accelerating the adoption of renewable hydrogen. The Nikola business plan includes splitting hydrogen from water, using an electrical current powered by solar energy:

"Nikola is in the process of developing multiple 100-megawatt solar farms to create hydrogen from electrolysis," the company says. "Nikola will convert solar energy to hydrogen on-site using only energy and water, making it the only fuel that is zero emission from production to consumption."

Solar powered water-splitting relieves Nikola and its partners from reliance on fossil natural gas, which is still the primary source for hydrogen.

Though Nikola is clear on its intent to build solar farms for renewable hydrogen, the future could also bring other forms of renewable energy for water-splitting into play, such as wind power or tidal power. Renewable hydrogen can also be sourced from biomass.

Where to find hydrogen fuel

The Nikola launch included another critical element that has nationwide implications for zero-emissions transportation.

Auto manufacturers face a chicken-and-egg dilemma regarding hydrogen fuel cell EVs. Few people want to buy them, partly because there are very few places to fuel them up. Meanwhile, hydrogen fuel stations are not being built because practically nobody is driving a fuel cell vehicle.

As part of its launch, Nikola released plans to build 364 hydrogen fuel stations around the U.S. and Canada in an initial round of construction, with "many more to come," the company said. The Nikola One truck lease package includes free hydrogen for the first million miles of operation. All 364 stations would also be available to the general public.

That's a colossal leap forward for hydrogen fuel stations in the U.S. The Energy Department has been working in California and three Northeastern states to kickstart the hydrogen fuel infrastructure through the public-private H2USA partnership. So far only a handful of fueling stations are open to the public, and only a few dozen are in the planning stages.

Nikola anticipates that it will begin building fuel stations in 2018. If and when these 364-and-counting fuel stations come about, Ryder can take partial credit for unblocking the hydrogen bottleneck and helping the U.S. to accelerate its transition out of fossil fuels.

"Thousands" of new green jobs

Some industry observers are skeptical that Nikola can pull off this ambitious plan, but the Ryder partnership gives the startup solid cred.

The bottom line is that fleet owners are already lined up to place their orders for Nikola One. Nikola says it has received reservations for almost $3 billion in future orders. The company expects trucks to start rolling off the assembly line in 2020.

The plan is for the experienced truck builder Fitzgerald Glider Kits to assemble the first 5,000 vehicles according to Nikola's specs, with all-Nikola parts.

As for where that assembly line might be, Nikola is not saying yet, but the company has ambitious plans for that as well:

"Nikola will build a world-class advanced manufacturing facility which will create thousands of new jobs,” said Nikola Founder and CEO Trevor Milton. "Nikola is currently in discussions with several states to decide who to partner with in its effort to reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels, advance green energy and revolutionize the trucking industry."

Hmmm ... if you're guessing Indiana, you might be on to something. Nikola expects to announce the lucky state within the next six months, so stay tuned.

Image: via Nikola Motor Company.

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Palm oil is in at least half of the world’s food and personal care products. It's a cheap source of fat that lengthens shelf life and improves the consistency of everything from cookies to moisturizer. But increased global production has exacted a toll on the environments and communities in which palm oil is produced.

The palm oil industry says it is working on standards to mitigate its impact on people and the planet. But according to a lengthy report released last week by Amnesty International, many companies still haven't gotten the memo about cleaning up their palm oil supply chains.

The result is an ongoing “disgrace” as deforestation continues, the group said. As lands are cleared for plantations, workers -- some younger than teenagers -- are pushed to the brink while receiving grossly unfair wages.

The largest offender by far, insists Amnesty, is the Indonesian palm oil giant Wilmar International. The company, which reportedly controls over 40 percent of the world’s palm oil trade, claims its products are sourced and produced “in a responsible and sustainable manner.”

But Amnesty International, which interviewed 120 workers – including children -- for its report, says Wilmar is guilty of numerous violations including forced labor, child labor, gender discrimination and worker exploitation. These were not one-off instances that could occur in any complicated global supply chain. Such abuses are “systematic business practices” endemic within the company, its subsidiaries and Wilmar’s suppliers, the London-based human rights group asserted.

The result is that whether a consumer is nibbling on a chocolate bar, brushing their teeth or lathering their hair with shampoo, the odds are high that child labor contributed to that product, Amnesty International said.

The underlying problems in Indonesia’s palm oil industry, the group concludes, is the lax enforcement of the nation’s worker protection laws, along with the informal labor system on which the sector hugely profits. The most brutal work on palm oil plantations is often done by children, who frequently accompany their parents so the family can meet the near impossible quotas set by Wilmar’s suppliers.

It is the stories of these children, many of whom dropped out of school and perform backbreaking work to help their families make ends meet, that Amnesty wants consumers to consider when they shop. As one 14-year-old boy told an Amnesty researcher:

“I have helped my father every day for about two years [since he was 12 years old]. I studied til sixth grade in school. I left school to help my father because he couldn’t do the work anymore. He was sick. I am concerned that I haven’t finished school. … I would like to go back to school, [but] I left because my father was sick and I had to help.”

These ongoing problems do not end with Wilmar. Amnesty accused companies such as the agribusiness multinational ADM of purchasing palm oil with direct ties to child labor. That palm oil, in turn, is sold to food and consumer packaged goods companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg and Nestlé. And companies taking a lead on palm oil such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble should not rest easy, either: Amnesty concluded that it is “highly likely” these companies have purchased palm oil tainted by labor and human rights abuses.

Amnesty’s suggestions to stop the ongoing human rights crises due to palm oil are not unreasonable and are a small price to pay considering the massive revenues these companies generate.

To the Indonesian government, a good start would be to introduce an offense of forced labor to the country’s criminal code, Amnesty argued. Wilmar’s customers, such as ADM and Unilever, can use their purchasing power to lean on Wilmar to compensate employees with a fair wage and improve their working conditions – and ensure its suppliers does the same.

And to Wilmar and its competitors, Amnesty called for an end to abusive quotas and piece rates, which often ensnare laborers in work that pays below the country’s minimum wage.

“Something is wrong when nine companies turning over a combined revenue of $325 billion in 2015 are unable to do something about the atrocious treatment of palm oil workers earning a pittance,” concluded Meghna Abraham, an Amnesty business and human rights senior investigator.

In Amnesty’s view, until these changes are made, much of the world’s food and CPG industries are uniformly guilty of one thing: turning a blind eye to the widespread human rights violations in the palm oil sector. Amnesty claimed these revelations are new – but the abuses should have been known to all the players in this lucrative yet destructive business.

Image credit: Craig Morey

By Mark Brownlie

I went to a presentation on the business case for corporate sustainability the other day. I have to admit, I’ve made very similar presentations. I saw the typical slides expounding the benefits of cost avoidance, resource efficiency and staff optimization. But when the lights came up, I wondered: Are we taking the right approach when we focus solely on the business case? Should we inject a bit more balance and humanity into our arguments by stating a strong moral case too?

The business case adds credibility

As sustainability professionals making pitches to senior management to adopt more sustainable practices company wide, we’re told to avoid soft qualitative rationale and speak in the language of business – numbers, usually dollars. We’re told that company decision-makers care much about dollars and much less about the “doing the right thing.” Since many decision makers at big companies have financial or engineering backgrounds, the focus on numbers is understandable.

Of course a company shouldn’t undertake a new initiative if it doesn’t pay off. Companies should be financially prudent and spend money on activities that generate a good return on investment. But that return isn’t always in immediately measurable dollars; for example, an improved reputation is priceless. We can’t monetize everything.

The perils of relying solely on the business case

Making decisions is complicated. When we rely solely on the business case for influencing decisions, we miss other considerations.

The business case involves different drivers for different people, so it’s difficult to appeal to all in the audience. The product manager likes reduced operating costs. The marketing manager likes expanded product offerings. The procurement manager likes a more efficient supply chain. But it’s highly likely that they all value fairness, robust communities, a clean environment, and leaving our children a better world. Unlike the business case, the moral case has more universal appeal.

Business case reasoning often leads to incremental improvements, not transformational changes. It takes a bold CEO to propel a company in a new direction. No doubt, companies conduct comprehensive financial analyses of the impact of major changes. But for companies like pharmacy giant CVS Health to quit selling cigarettes, or for Tesla to make its patents open to the public the moral case was a big part of their decisions. CVS said “the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose – helping people on their path to better health.” Tesla explained their move as a way to encourage further development of the electric vehicle. Neither of these significant actions seems precipitated solely by the business case.

Even a rock solid business case might not be enough to get a new program adopted and implemented. I’ve seen a compelling business case ignored as summarily as an amber traffic light.

If what a company is trying to achieve by implementing a sustainability initiative can be measured solely by dollars, then making the business case makes sense. However, if a company is trying to achieve results that aren’t only measured by dollars (e.g., customer, shareholder and employee loyalty), then a non-financial and/or moral case could be helpful. Relationships are difficult to factor into a strict business case.

Customers are increasingly expecting companies to have a purpose beyond profit and to act with high principles. Most new employees state something other than the company’s strong financials as their reason for joining. Business success isn’t only measured by financial factors, why should our arguments for sustainability activities be limited to such factors?

Emotions are Influential

Although we are led to believe that business decisions are based on cold hard facts, we’ve probably all witnessed a business leader making a deal or following a business strategy primarily based on gut instinct or raw emotion.

A 2014 study by creative agency gyro and The Fortune Knowledge Group found that “nearly two-thirds (65%) of executives say subjective factors that can’t be quantified (including company culture and corporate values) increasingly make a difference when evaluating competing proposals. Only 16% disagree.”

The pillars of the business community are real people too. They have feelings. We shouldn’t be afraid to appeal to their emotions.

In our personal lives we don’t use only a business case to make our housing, purchasing, and employment decisions. Financial considerations certainly loom large, but so too do less tangible factors. Does the house have character? Do these pants make me feel good about myself? Will I feel challenged at my new workplace? Why should we limit ourselves to just dollars when making corporate decisions?

Making the case

Yes, we need to use the language of cost avoidance and profit maximization when making the case for sustainability, but let’s not shy away from talking about feelings like compassion, fairness, and pride. I’m not suggesting that we go to the other extreme and simply tout that a project is the right thing to do. Emotional appeals should be backed up, but not replaced, by data.

Some sustainability initiatives are moral imperatives. Do we need to make a business case for avoiding workplace fatalities, abolishing child labour, behaving ethically, protecting the Amazon forest? For issues like reducing greenhouse gases or achieving equal pay for women, shouldn’t the moral case be just as strong as the business case?

Image credit: Pixabay

Mark Brownlie is Founder and Principal of Responsibility Matters Inc., a Calgary, Canada based firm that has developed sustainability strategies and communications since 2002 for more than 40 corporate and non-profit clients worldwide.

Your health and job may be at risk if fake news influences the American economy like it has our recent elections. I'm talking, of course, about the purposeful sharing of unsubstantiated claims to create an emotional connection. Fake news shaped, some would say defined, Election 2016. Now fake news is poised to reshape our economy, environment and lives.

As a consumer or business, are you ready for the fake news economy?

Two Americas

Election 2016 surfaced two Americas. The 47 percent of voters who chose President-elect Donald Trump have been defined as Heartland America. The 53 percent of voters who did not vote for President-elect Trump can be defined as Information Age cohorts.

Heartland America President-elect Trump won 3,084 out of America’s 3,141 counties by an overwhelming 7.5 million votes. These Heartland America counties have the following demographics:

• They are exposed to manufacturing job loss.


• A majority of voters do not have a four-year college degree.


• Their jobs are tied to 20th-century technologies.


• These counties represents only a third of America’s annual economic activity.

Information Age cohorts
The 53 percent of voters who did not vote for President-elect Trump can be described as Information Age cohorts. Most live in 57 counties. Their key demographics include:

• Living in cities like New York, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Seattle and Portland. They can also be found in urban communities across America, including Indianapolis, Tulsa, Salt Lake City and other Heartland America cities that are being rejuvenated by urban millennials.


• The 57 counties where most Information Age cohorts live generate approximately two-thirds of our country’s economic activity.


• Information Age Americans start businesses or hold jobs that design, build, maintain, finance, sell or manage 21st-century technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), social media, connectivity, smart manufacturing, renewable energy, batteries and medical smart tech.


• Demographically, Information Age Americans have greater diversity and a higher percentage of college education.

An America divided by fake news

Election 2016 surfaced another way of defining our divided America. Heartland America embraced fake news. In fake news, Heartland America found an emotional connection with their view of an America diminished by immigration, global trade, government regulations, diversity and crime.

Information Age Americans associate fake news with disinformation and propaganda. Fake news postings refute their view that the world is at risk from climate change and unhealthy food mass marketing. Fake news frustrates them over a focus on preserving 20th-century technology jobs rather than winning economic growth through the adoption of smart/clean technologies.

The fake news economy

Our free market economy is based on informed consumers making prudent decisions that serve their best interests. Fake news threatens this by influencing consumers to make decisions on unsubstantiated claims that enflame emotions. Here are just a few examples of how fake news could reshape our economy, environment and lives:

Climate change. A widely circulated fake news piece just claimed that global warming is an El Nino weather effect and that temperatures will begin to cool. Science (and mathematics) documents a hotter earth due to manmade emissions with temperature variations around this higher average temperature. Based on research done by the Department of Defense and NASA, if American consumers accept global warming fake news, the result will be lower economic growth and higher risk of war.

Human health. Fake news stories often promote an American right to consume what we want. This consumption “manifest destiny” is great news for the sale of Big Macs and Coca Cola. The associated costs is a national weight crisis that threatens to bankrupt our country and maim human health.

Jobs. Fake new stories often promote the saving of jobs through jaw boning companies to keep manufacturing plants in the U.S. plus better negotiating trade deals. The technology reality is that the world is on the cusp of an AI and IoT revolution. Around the world, manual labor will be displaced by smart robotics and autonomous vehicles connected to an intelligent supply chain.

Smart manufacturing holds these three implications for Heartland America:

1. Increased economic growth from the location of smart manufacturing plants


2. Increased job opportunities for work associates trained to work in smart factories


3. Massive manual labor job loss.

Heartland America faces a real threat to its future if it relies on fake news’ focus on preserving 20th-century manual labor jobs. Look no further than Mississippi’s Golden Triangle for how Heartland America can achieve economic growth by focusing on 21st-century technologies rather than preserving 20th-century jobs.

Education gap. Fake news also ignores the education gap underlying Heartland America’s economic challenges. America, most especially among manual labor Americans, has an educational disadvantage. America is mid-pack among countries on math and science educations. The damage from this educational gap will only increase as the 21st century embraces smart/clean tech.

By 2020, two-thirds of jobs are predicted to require a postsecondary education. Fake news may align with Heartland America’s emotions, but it is their education in science, math, business, finance, economics, human health sciences, engineering, coding and sustainability that will determine their economic potential.

Fake news is no free lunch

The fake news economy cannot escape the economic truism that there are no free lunches. A fake news economy may align with Heartland America’s emotions. But it will fail to achieve sustained economic success by focusing on saving jobs that are based on 20th-century technology.

The 21st century’s economic future is based on Information Age technologies like connectivity, big data, AI, IoT and smart/clean tech. Fake news may ignore this reality or even attempt to block it. Doing so will make real news as Heartland America suffers a diminished economic future from losing competitive advantage in a world embracing 21st-century technologies to achieve lower costs, reduced emissions and sustainable jobs.

Image credit: Flickr/Dimitris Kalogeropoylos

By Scott Huntington

History shows what’s said on the campaign trail often isn’t the best predictor of what actually happens when a president is in office. Priorities change, new situations arise and promises are broken. That historical truth makes predicting what Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency means for oil a difficult task.

However, the future isn’t completely shrouded in mystery. Here’s what we know about Trump’s positions and the impact they can have on oil production and prices.

Higher production

A point president-elect Trump mentioned often on the campaign trail is his desire to make the U.S. energy independent and no longer reliant on foreign oil. That’s a lofty goal that’s not easy to attain. However, what’s more feasible is his plan to limit regulations in order to encourage more oil production in the U.S.

That desire to create jobs in the U.S. by making it easy to drill and create pipelines seems to have resonated with voters. It also resonated with Wall Street, as stock prices for oil companies rose at the news of his election.

The problem for U.S. producers, say some experts, isn’t so much the regulations but the ongoing low prices for oil. Drilling doesn’t make much economic sense when the price of oil hovers at a low $50 per barrel. It’s those low prices that benefited people at the pumps but rocked the oil industry with layoffs, company closures and low share prices.

However, there are factors beyond the presidency to consider.

The OPEC factor

The Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an international cartel of countries, is often blamed — or credited, depending on your point of view — for the steep drop in oil prices over the last several years. Up until recently, OPEC made few efforts to cut production in order to prop up oil prices. There are theories floating around that it did this to hurt non-member countries.

Reports state that OPEC is bracing for continued low prices in light of the Trump presidency. If that’s the case, then it might take action in an effort to prop up prices.

The good and the bad

Lots of factors go into determining the price of oil, but increased production both in the U.S. and worldwide means prices will remain low. That’s excellent news for commuters and travelers, but bad news for the oil industry.

It’s also bad news for proponents of renewable energy, as low gas prices tend to stifle the desire to develop new technologies. Trump's support for renewable energy seems limited at this time, which is good for oil producers and not so good for sustainability advocates.

Still, it’s too early to tell what sort of impact a Trump presidency will have on oil. He has yet to be sworn in, and global conditions can sometimes be a bigger contributing factor to oil than even the American president.

As it stands, it looks like low prices will stick around for a while. That would have likely been the case regardless of the election, but it seems like Trump will have an impact on making those low prices last even longer -- for better or for worse.

Image credit: Flickr/Soliven Melindo

Interest in composting continues to surge as municipalities run out of landfill space and people increasingly care about how their food is grown. Four years ago, San Francisco became the first large American city to require composting. Since then, other cities across the country have joined the bandwagon, citing the need to boost waste diversion efforts and mitigate long-term climate change risks.

And considering the growing population, the fact that as much as 40 percent of food ends up wasted in the U.S., and the long hauls often required to dispose of trash, there are plenty of reasons to scale up composting. But is industrial composting the solution? After all, the evidence suggests the composting process has its own climate change impact: All that waste often travels long distances, and consumers may still carry on with wasteful habits if they know unused food will soon be out of sight and out of mind.

More community-based composting, however, could help municipalities cope with the pesky problem of food scraps and yard clippings. TriplePundit spoke with two community composting organizations: One is based on the West Coast and relatively new; another is located in New England and has been operating since 2002.

Michael Martinez is the founder and executive director of LA Compost. Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, he learned the importance of gardening and growing food on his own. His career path took him to Miami, where he became a 5th grade teacher – and it was then that he witnessed the impact diet could have on students.

Martinez eventually scored some funds to start an edible garden at his school, and it was then that his passion for composting become unstoppable. “The transformation was really incredible, as my students really had no understanding of food other than what they would see at the supermarket,” he told us. “Seeing the incredible impact that a garden could have really inspired me, as I saw the students wanting to be a part something bigger than their individual selves.”

In 2012, Martinez moved back to Los Angeles. Interested in implementing compost programs on a wider level, he wanted to focus on process in order to bring local businesses, restaurants and, of course, residents on board. “The missing link was that there has long been little conversation as far as where food goes after the table,” Martinez explained.

LA Compost started in 2013. At first, volunteers collected food waste (often referred to as "organics") via bicycles. Food scraps were collected from businesses such as restaurants and juice bars, and in turn was composted at community supporters’ homes. The end product was sold or donated at local farmers’ markets, with funds benefiting school gardens.

Interest surged, and the LA Compost team decided they had to find ways to scale up to cope with the demand. “We didn’t account for how huge Los Angeles is,” Martinez told us, “as managing compost collections by bicycle was a nice dream, but not the reality.”

Having a patchwork of backyards was also difficult to manage, so in 2014, LA Compost decided to launch local compost hubs. Eight of these community compost hubs now operate across the Los Angeles area in locations as diverse as museums, schools and community gardens. Each hub keeps the organics within the local community, and also offers a shared space where residents can learn more about the composting process. The organization has a waiting list for at least 25 to 30 more hubs. Grants from local foundations and businesses such as Patagonia helped LA Compost expand their reach.

Now there is potential for compost to be an economic generator as zero-waste efforts in Los Angeles are growing. The Don’t Waste LA campaign, a multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to ramp up the city’s composting and recycling efforts, has in part resulted in a new city-wide waste hauling contract. City leaders say this new agreement will help reduce waste, but the big questions include how the city will deal with organic waste from yard clippings and food waste – and this is where LA Compost hopes to step in and have an even more pivotal role in Los Angeles. “There are a lot of opportunities for future collaboration with haulers and community groups,” Martinez said, “so we’re excited about 2017.”

In Northampton, Massachusetts, Pedal People has been hauling trash, recyclables and organics for 14 years. Founded by Ruthy Woodring and Alex Jarret in this town of 28,000, the worker-owned cooperative employs 17 active workers. Most of the waste is picked up by bicycle trailers and pedaled by the cooperative’s workers who on average make $20 an hour.

Shortly after its founding, local interest convinced Pedal People to accept compostables along with other household waste. At first the workers composted the materials at home. Eventually, the cooperative composted at a farm in Northampton; for the last several years, the organics have been delivered to either a city- or privately-owned transfer station; from there they are trucked to commercial composting facilities in western Massachusetts, which at most are 20 miles away.

Environmental awareness drives much of the local interest in composting, Woodring said. Northampton’s landfill ran out of capacity and closed six years ago. Now the town’s trash is hauled 280 miles away to a landfill near Seneca Falls, New York. Hence the awareness that the local landfill is no longer an option, and the importance of keeping organics local resonated all the more with more residents.

But in addition to the environmental impacts, Woodring says Pedal People’s worker-owned structure contributes to the organization’s continued growth. “I think worker ownership is an important part of our success, because no one is telling anyone else what to do,” Woodring told us. “No one is sitting in an office making up someone else's route, telling them to ride a bike in 35-degree sleet and pick up compost. People take ownership in seeing the business succeed. And we love what we do.”

In sum, similar to much of the sharing economy, the more someone works at Pedal People, the more they get paid.

It is clear that community composting can help spark more interest in how food is grown and where it comes from; the process can encourage local gardening, as seen in Los Angeles; and keeping waste more local can help raise awareness about environmental challenges, particularly in a town like Northampton where options for dumping trash are limited. But can it become the foundation of a robust social enterprise?

Michael Martinez of LA Compost described this movement succinctly. “Chase the results; don’t chase the money,” he said as he concluded his interview with TriplePundit. “For us, it’s about as much as working with people as it is about working with soil. After all, without soil, there’s no food, nor healthy people.”

These examples show that turning waste into a resource can help augment one’s income – which is still impressive as these organizations are turning what many see as worthless into cash and, perhaps even more importantly, food. But the learning opportunities and community building that composting and community gardening generate offer by far the most value – and that benefit cannot be quantified. Considering the results, such an outcome is not necessarily a bad thing.

Image credit: Michael Martinez and LA Compost

Today, C&A Foundation, Remake, Freedom Fund, and TriplePundit came together to delve into the conversation of forced labor – an issue that still plagues supply chains around the world.

During the #ForcedFashion chat, we discussed the following and much more!

• different types of bonded and forced labor


• industries where this practice is still occurring


• how brands, specifically in fashion, are combating forced labor

• Anindit Roy Chowdhury (@CandAFund) - Programme Manager Gender Justice & Human Rights C&A Foundation


• Ayesha Barenblat (@remakeourworld) - Founder of Remake


• Ginny Baumann (@Freedom_Fund) - Senior Program Officer, The Freedom Fund

About C&A Foundation

C&A Foundation is the corporate foundation affiliated with global clothing retailer C&A. They are working to transform the fashion industry by providing partners with financial support, expertise and access to networks in order to drive change. C&A Foundation’s work focuses on four areas that they believe will have the biggest impact for people: accelerating sustainable cotton, improving working conditions, eradicating forced and child labour and strengthening local communities.

Image credits: Norwood Themes and Sara Kurfeß via Unsplash