By Katie Kross
When it comes to sustainability careers, one of the things that makes job-searching so tough is that the field is so incredibly diverse. If you’re a job-seeker hoping to make an impact, chances are you’re already looking at roles in corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability departments at major companies. You may also think of working as a program manager or officer at a nonprofit or social entrepreneurship organization, or maybe a social impact or sustainability consulting firm.
But have you considered some of the other ways to make an impact? Here are six impact-oriented careers that you might not have considered yet.
Many mission-driven companies are too small to have dedicated sustainability roles, but large enough to have marketing teams. To target these companies, make a list of the companies that interest you (a quick stroll through the aisles of Whole Foods or one of the national Green Festivals can help spark ideas) and set up job search agents on their websites. The B Corp job board also posts some of these roles.
If this sounds appealing, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has a weekly email bulletin that is a great place to look for campus sustainability job openings.
The USSIF and Eurosif job boards are good places to look for these roles. GIIN’s Job Board posts impact investing opportunities as well as ESG roles.
If you like creative storytelling and account management, you might want to check out the social impact work at firms like Edelman, Ketchum, Cone, IDEO, Fenton and others.
If you’re interested in NGO work, don’t assume 'intern' is synonymous with 'student.' These roles might be worth another look.
Foundations also often have roles in finance and communications, so you might also consider them if you have one of these functional skill-sets to tout. The Council on Foundations’ job board and Philanthropy News Digest job board are good places to start looking.
There is no one single career path in the sustainability space. The takeaway? If you want to change the world for the better, don’t be afraid to look outside the box.
Image credit: Pixabay
Katie Kross is Managing Director of the Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (EDGE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and the author of the book Profession and Purpose. Follow her on Twitter for job openings and career advice: @Katie_Kross.
With previous sponsors and supporters like Mercedes-Benz, Natwest and Carillion, the 2016 National CSR Awards will celebrate business excellence and innovation in corporate social responsibility on 12 May 2016 at The Crystal in London. The Awards focus on the disciplines of leadership, sustainability, community development, worker rights, education, circular economy and clean energy.
Karen Sutton is the CEO of the National CSR Awards, and the Director of Limelight Design and Marketing as well as the Founder and Chair of Business@Brooklands. After spending three years as a Formula One photographer, she created Limelight Design & Marketing, an agency in the heart of the Brooklands Business Park on the perimeter of London. Sutton recognised opportunities to unite local businesses to work together towards their individual goals and CSR Policies. Out of a local idea came the drive and enthusiasm to transform the initiative into a national event. She spoke to Kelly Eisenhardt.
What was your call-to-action in building the National CSR Awards in the UK?
The National CSR Awards started as a locally based idea to award organizations in my own business park for their accomplishments and efforts in the community.
However, I’m not known for doing things on a small scale, so I quickly realised that ‘National’ made sense, considering my natural passion for philanthropy. I researched other awards in the UK, but didn't find one that rewarded all aspects of CSR—they all concentrate on one area, such as sustainability, green or community.
Building a nationally recognized award system would also help us to promote sustainability amongst international companies who had headquarters or have offices in the UK.
Tell us more about the mission and vision for the programme.
These Awards were created to recognize businesses that creatively approached sustainability, and reward those who are creating new standards, committing their organisation to make social responsibility an integral part of their business.
We see ourselves as helping push the boundaries of what companies can do. The standards we hold them to are stringent and are judged by a panel of high-profile CSR experts. Company size varies from major corporations to small and medium businesses, some just getting started.
By encouraging companies to increase their sustainability efforts and then manage and report the results, we’re hoping that the greater impact will be measurable.
The Awards also consist of three international categories. Can you tell us more about the categories and how that fits in with a national award programme?
Sure. In our first year, we received many enquiries from overseas, asking us if they could participate as well.
After some consultation we decided to open up three additional categories for international participants. Of course, with our new partnership with 3BL Media, that now makes perfect sense, and gives us international exposure. We eventually hope to take the National CSR Awards model to other countries in the future. The categories added are: Best International Sustainability Community, International Conservation Project and Global Sustainable Transportation. If you check out the website and click on categories, you can see the details of all of the categories available.
I would like to share a story about a project that inspired my decision to add the International Sustainability Community category. Kenco, a popular coffee brand in the UK, has done a brilliant job of working in preventing gang violence in Honduras. They have a program called ‘Coffee vs Gangs’. In Honduras, being initiated into a gang is a way of life. There are few options for kids on the street and teens becoming adults. The Coffee vs. Gangs program enables adolescents to get trained as coffee farmers. They gain skills they can use to make a living and become business owners. All the while, providing hope and opportunity so that kids don’t turn to gangs. We consider this to be a perfect example of an entry for this category!
The National CSR Awards are a new endeavour. How are you getting the word out about your organisations and your important mission?
It’s not as hard as it sounds. Many companies focused on sustainability are looking for the awards that best fit the projects they are working on and I feel, combined with our strong brand (I run a design agency after all!), much of the feedback received has told us that companies find our Awards a great platform to showcase their good work.
We’ve made it easy to apply. If your company is interested, follow this link to our entry page and submit your application.
Success is usually enabled by partnering with those who want to help and who are seen as leaders in the field. Who are some of the partners involved in the awards?
You’re so right. Partnering with key and relevant organisations is important to us and we realise that it contributes to the expansion and success of the awards.
Our sponsors and partners are an integral part of the process. We are delighted to be supported by some of the UK's biggest charities, leading business institutions and local organisations. The full list of partners is available on our website. Of course, we’re excited that 3BL and Ethical Performance support our work through their media channels.
One of the key organisations that have partnered with us is WWF. They are working on the International Conservation category, identifying corporate partners and suitable projects for recognition.
In addition to helping find companies eligible for the Awards, we also have partners who help with the facilities work necessary to carry off a big awards ceremony. For example, The Crystal, a Sustainable Cities initiative by Siemens, will host our Awards Ceremony this year.
We’ve also partnered with the Institute of Business Ethics, the Radisson-Edwardian Hotels and we have some other big global names to announce in the coming days!
What are you hoping the National CSR Awards achieves, and how will you know when the initiative is successful?
I can tell you that long before I knew the definition of social responsibility, I was already doing it. Very early on in my adult life I was committed to aspects of the CSR without even realizing it: mainly philanthropy and a general concern for the environment. Now, I’m re-modelling my career so will be doing something I love!
The success of the Awards will eventually be demonstrated by the scale and scope of the event with the intention of expanding the programme globally. Every organisation has to have a CSR strategy now, and I’d like to see lots more of them sharing their successes, demonstrating where they have ‘raised the bar’ in sustainability. I’ll know the National CSR Awards are successful when we have the capability to begin building several national programmes into one International CSR Awards.
Sounds fantastic. How can companies learn more and get involved?
First, decide what role is best for your company. Are you a future sponsor/partner or are you a future recipient based on the great sustainability work your company is doing? Would you like to be a judge? All the information is on the website and can direct you appropriately.
If you’re a potential award recipient, review the categories and determine which best fits the project you’d like to submit. You can then register to apply and download the form. The application process is very easy to follow, but we’re always on the phone or email if anyone needs any help.
You can apply online—entries close on 12th March. However, we are offering a 20% Early Bird Discount for those applying by 29th January 2016
People can also support our Thunderclap before 15 January Just click on this link, login with your Twitter details and you’ll be spreading the word about the Awards at exactly the same time as hundreds of other twitter users and taking part in a trend! It only takes 60 seconds.
Finally, please take a moment to watch this video from the UK's Secretary of State Phillip Hammond MP supporting the National CSR Awards. We’re excited to have his endorsement!
Sumak Travel, the UK based social enterprise that specialises in Latin American ecotourism, has partnered with the Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation (CPF) to launch a range of Fair Trade Adventures in Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru.
Four new small group tours will give travellers a rare opportunity to meet farmers and artisans behind popular fair trade products such as coffee, chocolate and handicrafts, while also visiting some of Latin America’s most iconic sights and natural wonders.
"As one of the best-loved fair trade brands, many people will already be familiar with Cafédirect. But now, for the first time, they will have the opportunity to meet some of the coffee and cocoa growing communities behind the brand," said Felipe Zalamea, director at Sumak Travel.
"Homestays, and opportunities to get hands-on with everything from fishing for their own lunch to mixing Peru's infamous Pisco sours, mean that travellers will really immerse themselves in the local culture and feel like a special guest of their host community, rather than a tourist."
Download the brochure here.
"For us responsible travel isn't just about minimising the negative impacts of tourism, it's about creating rewarding travel experiences that have a positive impact for local people and the environment," added Sumak Travel's Zalamea.
"As well as creating unforgettable trips for our customers, we've designed the Fair Trade Adventures to be small-scale and low impact, so that the farmers, artisans, indigenous peoples, social entrepreneurs and others who act as our hosts, can continue to enjoy their traditional way of life while earning a complementary income."
Top picture: Lake Titicaca, Peru - Harry Dowdney
Thanks to the influx of large tech companies, the San Francisco Bay Area has ballooned in both wealth and population over the past two decades. But the picture isn't always as pretty as those postcards of the Golden Gate Bridge.
As companies continue to pressure Bay Area communities to build new office parks, they often fail to lobby for housing and transportation options to go along with them, placing a strain on local infrastructure. Additionally, more highly-paid residents means more shops, restaurants and trendy coffee bars — all staffed by employees who are quickly being priced out of the area.
This perfect storm creates a heap of problems for Bay Area residents — as well as significant opportunities for government and the private sector to collaborate on solutions. In a recent series, TriplePundit took a closer look at living, working and commuting in the Bay Area, how tech companies impact residents, and what these firms can do to ensure the long-term sustainability of the region.
The region's population has grown by 200,000 since 2010, and another 2 million are expected by 2040. But its transport systems – highways, buses, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Caltrain – are already reaching peak capacity. As highways slow to a standstill during rush hour, more public transit is needed to pick up the slack. But the fact that public transportation systems are operated by an astounding 27 different transit agencies across the nine counties that make up the Bay Area makes a growth plan difficult to devise, experts told TriplePundit.
“When you have 27 separate transit agencies, it is impossible to get coherent transportation planning that will operate on a complete Bay Area basis,” Gerry Tierney, an urban mobility expert at Perkins + Will’s San Francisco office, told 3p's Nithin Coca. “We have a 19th-century political structure trying to address 21st-century problems.”
Tech employees who choose city life over their far-flung office parks can hitch a ride to work on company-provided shuttles (commonly dubbed 'Google buses,' although other big tech firms like Facebook, Apple and Yahoo use them, too). Communities argued that this wasn't enough to ease the burden on highways and public transit, and the fact that tech shuttles utilize public bus stops did little to ease the tension -- spawning protests and lawsuits across the region, 3p correspondent Nayelli Gonzalez reported.
Fortunately, after years of outcry, big tech companies are beginning to rise to the occasion. Facebook has said it will put in $1 million to fund a Caltrain extension to the Dumbarton bridge, which would put a station closer to its headquarters in Menlo Park. Google is working with Mountain View to build more housing, including low-income housing, around its Mountain View campus. And LinkedIn has said it will implement a plan to reduce single-occupancy vehicles at its headquarters, pushing more of its employees to either take transit or carpool to work. But, as 3p correspondent Nithin Coca pointed out, this is only the beginning of what will likely be a long road ahead.
Housing prices are hitting peak insanity across the Bay Area. The average one-bedroom apartment 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," wrote 3p correspondent Sherrell Dorsey.
And, as 3p Editor-in-Chief Jen Boynton pointed out in a recent op/ed: Even high-income earners like lawyers, engineers and nonprofit directors can basically forget about owning a home unless they want to go work for a big tech firm: The median home value right now in Mountain View -- a safe-but-boring suburb -- is $1.4 million.
This leaves many residents doubling or tripling up with other families in small apartments to make ends meet. For some, even this is not an option, as evident by the rise in chronic homelessness. Local agencies are finally beginning to move on increasing affordable housing, but they are often met with resistance. “There’s not enough political will to build,” Sonya Trauss, founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Renters Federation, told 3p's Jan Lee. “Suburbs have the idea that housing doesn’t pay.”
If you ask local advocates, tech companies -- which are the main draw for hundreds of thousands moving into the Bay Area -- could do much more to ensure there's enough housing to go around. “They should engage positively with local government and advocates to find shared solutions, rather than just finding ways to work around local ordinances or throwing tons of money at ballot measures they don’t like,” Gloria Bruce, executive director for the East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), which advocates for improved housing options in places like Oakland, told Lee.
The burgeoning ‘gig economy,’ comprised of companies such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, TaskRabbit and Handy, connects people with 'gigs' -- or on-demand, flexible, freelance employment -- that can help them earn extra cash or, in many cases, provide the sole means of employment for someone looking for work. The gig economy isn't unique to the Bay Area, but as a tech startup hub home to millions who are just scraping by, gig employment is obviously a highly popular option.
But gig economy employers have come under scrutiny for not offering benefits or forming concrete policies that ensure worker security, and the jury is still out on whether the concept is good for workers. In the end, it's unlikely that the gig economy will provide the silver bullet the Bay Area needs to keep low- to middle-income residents afloat. As former gig economy darling HomeJoy shut its doors and analysts fear many of its peers may be overvalued, the sector itself could very well be on life support. It's time to start looking at alternatives.
The Bay Area has its fair share of local issues clamoring for attention. But the same macro issues at play in the rest of the world -- such as climate change and racial inequality -- are also coming to the fore in the City by the Bay.
Some of the region's wealthiest neighborhoods are threatened with property loss due to sea-level rise, leaving many to wonder what role local business has to play. Within their own walls, large tech firms in the Bay Area must acknowledge a glaring lack of workplace diversity and devise solutions for how to move forward.
Although both macro and micro issues present significant problems for tech companies looking to operate responsibly, a sustainable way forward is possible, as 3p correspondent Nayelli Gonzalez summarized in the final post in our series, What it Means to be a Responsible Tech Company.
Did you miss any of the stories in our Tech Titans series? You can read them all here.
Image credit: Flickr/Patrick Nouhailler
This week TransCanada announced that it will seek damages against the Obama administration under the North American Free Trade Agreement for blocking the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. This raises a crucial question: Does a nation (and its constituency for that matter) have the right to decide whether to block industry from crossing its border to do something that will appreciably increase the country's carbon emissions?
And, just as importantly, does a federal agency have the right to change its policies with international business interests based on evolving climate change research?
On Wednesday, Canada's leading energy company said it planned to file two lawsuits against the Obama administration. Under NAFTA, it would seek $15 billion in damages for what it called "arbitrary unjustified" actions that it alleges were based on political motives.
It also filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court in Houston alleging that the administration overstepped its constitutional powers when it denied TransCanada's application to construct its pipeline on U.S. soil.
The Calgary-based corporation says it has lost billions from the federal government's rejection of Keystone XL, and expects see losses in the fourth quarter specifically due to the rejection of the project.
“TransCanada has invested billions of dollars in assets that have now been rendered useless for the intended purpose, specifically the transportation of Canadian and American oil,” the company said.
According to a company statement regarding the lawsuits, the U.S. State Department "acknowledged" in its decision that "the denial was not based on the merits of the project." The company asserts that the decision was, instead, a "symbolic gesture based on speculation about the perceptions of the international community regarding the administration's leadership on climate change and the president's assertion of unprecedented, independent powers."
The loss of the Keystone project, however, isn't the only financial woe the corporation has experienced in recent years. A Globe and Mail article published in September 2015 (prior to the U.S. administration's formal announcement of its plan to reject the pipeline's construction) notes that TransCanada was already feeling the pinch from slowing oil and gas markets.
Reporter Allison McNeeley noted that the energy company's investment-grade bond was trading at that time "in line with companies rated in the lowest portion of junk, which usually signals that credit raters are expecting a default." By September investors were already backing away from fossil fuel energy investments, concerned "that oil and gas companies may not be able to shore up their balance sheets any time soon," McNeeley wrote.
The question that will likely be tested in U.S. federal court and under the strictures of NAFTA, however, is what bearing decisions such as those that emerged from COP21 should, and do, have on a nation's right to respond to its constituents' calls for climate action. Should a government that supports and is attempting to encourage clean energy have the right to act on research that shows that oil sands production is significantly contributing to climate change? And now that we can better measure the environmental impacts of unexpected oil leaks, should the federal government be able to act on those concerns?
With slumping oil prices and debates over quarterly losses, the question that really should be asked is whether federal governments, such as those of Canada and the U.S., should incentivize industry leaders to transition to more financially and climate-sound strategies. TransCanada's admission that it is feeling the effects of declining investments and, yes, government policies should herald not more lawsuits, but rather new strategies that will meet tomorrow's sustainable energy needs and low-carbon goals.
Images: Fibonacci Blue; Shannonpatrick17
California and Oklahoma are about as different as two states can be, but in recent times they have both experienced the unintended consequences of underground fossil fuel industry activities, and they share some key similarities. In both cases -- the California methane leak and the Oklahoma earthquake swarms -- the main factors are a lack of knowledge, preparation, and safety planning for fossil fuel operations located in or near populated areas.
The nation's oil and gas infrastructure is aging, even as the industry has expanded its territory with the rise of fracking technology and constructed (or sought permits for) new pipelines and storage facilities. So, now would be a good time to bump up safety and monitoring requirements. However, as demonstrated by both California and Oklahoma, getting the industry to respond is more complicated than it may seem.
Since then, schools have closed and thousands of residents have fled their homes with a variety of health problems. The consensus is that the main culprit is not the gas itself, but an added chemical that provides the otherwise odorless gas with its distinctive smell. Somewhat ironically, the odorant is a safety precaution that enables anyone with a functioning sense of smell to detect even a very small gas leak, without the need for any special training or equipment.
The odorants commonly in use are the chemicals tert-butyl mercaptan and tetrahydrothiophenethe, and that is where the lack of knowledge and preparedness come in. According to the available detection equipment the odorants are not present in dangerous levels, but nevertheless people are getting sick -- so sick that on Thursday California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency and set up a public website to bump up the flow of information, which could potentially lead to additional evacuations. (So far, news accounts indicate about 2,000 people were evacuated before the declaration, but some reports anticipate that the entire Porter Ranch population of 30,000 will be relocated.)
Regardless of the numbers, the root problem is that little is known about the effects of long-term exposure to natural gas odorants. Miriam Rotkind-Ellman, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, explored that issue in detail in an article about the California methane leak. Do read the full article, but here are some snippets:
"... The existing monitoring is not really set up to evaluate medium- to longer-term exposures. Continuous monitoring, rather than grab samples, that can reliably measure low levels, will be needed to paint an accurate picture of what's going on and make sure we aren't left with data gaps that limit our ability to assess health risks ...
" ... Current monitoring is not using sensitive enough testing techniques and this makes it difficult to understand what types of exposures are occurring. Some of the current testing is only able to detect levels of the tert-butyl mercaptan 50 times higher than the level where you expect to have health impacts from odors. We need more information that is able to narrow this gap."
The U.S. Geological Survey pinned some of the blame for an increase in earthquakes in the U.S. in general, and Oklahoma in particular, on the practice of injecting massive quantities of wastewater from oil and gas drilling operations underground.
As with the California methane leak, firmly establishing cause and effect has been a difficult task due to relaxed reporting requirements, lack of data, and the lack of adequate staff to investigate a meaningful fraction of the incidents.
However, evidence has been accumulating that links injection wells (and, in rare cases, fracking itself) with earthquakes in populated areas, once again calling into question whether the oil and gas industry -- a mature industry with generations of experience and research under its belt -- is sufficiently prepared to safely expand its operations.
To its credit, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), which exercises the state's authority over oil and gas operations, seems to have adopted the U.S. Geological Survey's approach to assessing earthquake risk hazards. Rather than sitting back and waiting for more evidence, the agency has called for more pressure testing of injection wells, and in some cases a temporary suspension of operations.
Also to its credit, the fracking waste disposal industry has cooperated with the commission's requests -- with one notable exception.
Oklahoma City-based Sand-Ridge Energy refused to modify its operations, providing this explanation:
"We look forward to addressing this issue through OCC's established rules and procedures, which will ensure decisions are based on scientific analysis."The Wall Street Journal has more detail indicating that the company's small size and failure to diversify its operations have boxed it into a position where it simply can't afford to take steps to address a clear threat to public safety. In any case, it would seem that a scientific risk analysis is the kind of thing that should have been done beforehand.
Speaking of risk analysis, just last week fellow TriplePundit author Jan Lee pointed out a connection between the California methane leak and the dire situation in Flint, Michigan, where a series of horrifyingly irresponsible decisions about the city's water supply has apparently resulted in a massive -- and entirely avoidable -- case of lead poisoning.
Cementing Lee's point, on practically the same day that California's governor declared a state of emergency over the methane leak, Michigan Gov. Rick "Re-Inventing Michigan" Snyder declared a state of emergency for Flint and the surrounding Genesee County.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is meeting with seismologists, and she has been increasingly supportive of the OCC's efforts to mitigate earthquake risks in her state. The next step for OCC is legal action against Sand-Ridge, so hopefully Gov. Fallin will not be forced to add a third state of emergency to the list.
Image credits: 1) Flickr/Earthworks 2) (screenshot): via U.S. Geological Survey.
Whether it is due to better reporting or economic distress, the fact remains that human trafficking in the U.S. has been on the rise the past several years. According to the Polaris Project, an NGO focused on fighting human trafficking, this tragedy has increased five-fold since 2008. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center, one of Polaris Project’s initiatives, fielded approximately 24,000 complaints involving such crimes in 2014 — a 26 percent increase over the previous year.
Growing awareness has led to more legislation enacted by Congress over the past decade. And most states have laws on the books that in the Polaris Project’s view go beyond fighting trafficking and punish traffickers while assisting survivors. Of course, more can always be done to take on such human rights violations. To that end, Florida last year passed a law that makes the fight against human trafficking much more public.
As of Jan. 1, signs that intend to raise awareness of human trafficking are now required to be displayed at many public places and even some businesses across the Sunshine State. Florida H.B. 369, passed last April, has led to the distribution of signs that will list resources for human trafficking victims and numbers to report any suspicious activity.
Much of this work will be the responsibility of state agencies. Florida’s Department of Transportation will have to display this signs in facilities that the agency manages, including rest stops and welcome centers. Airports, truck stops, bus stations and light rail stations will also have to find wall space to display these signs. The health care industry is obligated under this new law as well: emergency rooms and urgent care centers will show these signs in public areas. Schools and libraries also are included in this new legislation.
Furthermore, these signs will now be a requirement at businesses where there is a likely chance human trafficking victims could be found. Massage parlors, strip clubs and “any establishment found to be a nuisance for prostitution” under other Florida statutes must post such notices, 8 ½ by 11 inches in size, in a “conspicuous location.” And in a nod to the fact that agriculture plays a significant role in human trafficking, any farm labor contractor within Florida must show these signs, too. Establishments that violate the law will be fined $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for each additional violation.
Will this make a difference? This problem is still often taboo here in the U.S., and for decades, laws have treated human trafficking victims as criminals instead of people who need support and assistance. Nevertheless, this law in Florida could help boost the public’s knowledge about this scourge that has ruined far too many lives before in fairness, they had even begun.
Image credit: Florida Attorney General’s office
With New Year's resolutions aplenty, you can bet there are millions of people looking to get in shape and shed a few pounds, and they are no doubt turning to one diet plan or another to reach their goals.
Maybe it’s a low-carb diet, or a low-fat one; perhaps they are counting calories or following in the footsteps of the caveman and giving the paleo diet a shot. Some might prefer going cold turkey and stop eating altogether for periods at a time by giving one of those fasting plans a go. They’ll probably all see some good results at first, and then … well, you know how the story typically ends.
Fellow TriplePundit contributor Bill Roth tried many diets a few years ago, and they didn’t work. So, he set out on his own path -- devising a plan from his perspective as a professional economist. He’s not a doctor or nutritionist, but he’s lost 30 pounds and has had a great time in the process. His new book tells you how you can do the same.
Roth’s book, “The Boomer Generation Diet,” is targeted at his own demographic. But as he tells us in his Triple Pundit article this week, much of the inspiration for eating healthier comes from his own millennial-generation kids -- a generation are more likely to walk than drive, eat more sustainably and, as power-users of social media, more inclined to peer-research consumer choices rather than respond to the branding onslaught.
Boomers, on the other hand, were the first generation to grow up with advent of fast foods, be bombarded with a saturation of TV commercial advertising, and were sold on convenience living and convenience eating. Consequently, they are the generation that has ingested the most industrial foods of any -- scarfing down products loaded with salt, fat, sugar and a whole host of chemicals that encourage you to binge more. Just add 40 years and you have a generation that is, according to Roth’s research, statistically the most overweight of any generation ever.
Roth’s humorously personal account of his lifestyle course-correction, as he grappled with decoupling himself from industrial foods, is grounded in careful analysis and systems thinking -- which informed his path to successful weight control.
He tells us that the problem with most diets is that they all tend to disappear down the same rabbit hole: Life should be fun, but diets are boring, restrictive and stressful. Stress actually contributes to making you fat, and when the diet becomes unsustainable because you’re denying yourself foods you like, ultimately the whole thing is doomed to unravel.
The book, then, is careful not to be a diet prescription or another “silver bullet” solution. It’s not rigid or a one-size-fits-all approach. Roth won’t tell you what you can and can’t eat [okay, one caveat: nothing good comes from fast food and soda], and gratifyingly, he won’t insist you walk around hungry -- something Bill absolutely refuses to do himself.
It gets better: His plan will neither make you count calories, lambaste you for poor portion control, or have you maniacally weighing yourself every five minutes. In fact, and here’s the real “icing on the cake,” if you will: He wants you to cheat! Go ahead and have that dessert from time to time, or that pizza or, indeed, the cake; that’s what he does; and on more than one occasion, Roth explains that happy hour and hosting parties are too important to him to be negotiable. As he tells us, social isolation and denial are not fun!
But, I should pause, as I think I’m almost making this sound too good to be true. It’s not, in fact, open season to eat any old junk you fancy whenever you like; there is a framework.
The essence of his plan is a list of 10 best practices that constitutes both an eating and lifestyle road map. It’s not a lose-weight-quick system, as it’s designed to be something, after all, that addresses the problems of most diets -- you need to be able to stick with it.
So, allow me to highlight some examples of the trade-offs. Drink tap water, not sodas. Understand that the type of calories matter -- 750 calories of broccoli are better than 750 calories of soda (not that he’s counting). Make sure you walk 20 minutes a day, and -- really -- you do need to cut out that fast food! Figure out what healthy foods you do like, and make those your staples.
You’ll have to read the book -- and I encourage you to do so -- to get the full framework for success and see how all the 10 best practices fit together. But the point is that by respecting the 10 best practices as your basic modus operandi, you’ll be able to let yourself off the hook now and again. Roth's recurring mantra throughout the book is, after all, “Have fun, while losing weight.”
Into the bargain, you’ll be living more sustainably, too. Roth devotes a chapter on the link between healthy eating and sustainably-produced organic foods, which holds the key to his plan for healthier future generations, as well as forming the essence of the course-correction for his own.
Eating sustainably-produced foods will avoid the industrial and unhealthy crud he feels boomers have subsisted on for too long. And though the book is aimed at the boomers out there, it’s a sensible guide for anyone that wants to live a healthy life for themselves, and for the health of the planet.
Image credit: Pixabay
By Carol Cone and The Purpose Collaborative
Purpose as a powerful strategy to conduct business from the inside out has gained substantial ground in 2015 and will only have more impact in 2016. Here is what we see, with contributions from the 21-member Purpose Collaborative.
Purpose as a description has eclipsed corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, shared value and other definitions, because when strategically executed it integrates the entire enterprise, powering it boldly from the inside out. Purpose driven vision and execution knits organizational culture and behavior, product sourcing and supply chain, employee recruitment and inspiration, company citizenship, engaging storytelling and stakeholder relations and understanding key to the enterprise’s success.
Key areas of purpose impact include: hiring “purposeful” employees; engaging a vast and new type of social-purpose inspired consumers called Aspirationals; developing urgent and empathetic initiatives; and breakthrough ways of giving and collaborations to attack complex and far-reaching social and environmental challenges.
Here is what we are seeing:
1. Our national workforce becomes more purpose-driven and individually empowered
More and more workers want purpose in their jobs or feel empowered to choose their own adventure by starting a company or freelancing. Until recently though, purpose in the workplace felt “soft” and esoteric without real data behind it. But that’s changed.
Imperative, a member of the Purpose Collaborative, recently released their 2015 Purpose Workforce Index that put data and ROI at the heart of why and how to build purpose into the workplace. The report identified the attributes of “purpose” workers finding them more intrinsically driven, developing more meaningful relationships at work, gaining higher rates of productivity and fulfillment.
If companies wish to remain competitive in 2016 and beyond, their HR teams should formulate, build and rebuild their workforce to be filled with people excited to do challenging and meaningful work. These types of employees are more likely to be leaders, have higher retention rates, and instantly hit the ground running accelerating an organizations innovation and overall growth. And it goes back to the M-word – millennials -- changing the face of work. They desire to work at companies who demonstrate their values in action, embracing social missions within their business models, and some are even willing to decline higher salaries to work for these types of organizations.
A company’s purpose is no longer restricted to a brand or mission statement and can now be at the heart of an organization’s hiring policies, engagement strategies and embedded into every employee’s role.
To attract purpose-driven workers, companies should adopt new HR methods and policies to identify, understand and empower purpose-driven workers to be more creative, energetic and collaborative. Apple and west elm are designing specific job functions to evolve traditional retail jobs (a sector that has the lowest percentage (16 percent) of purpose-driven workers) to screen hires and attract more engaged talent. West elm now has its managers optimize interviews processes, performance reviews and job descriptions to prioritize relationship building, and personal growth. While this minority percentile is high in demand, organizations have many opportunities to populate their internal teams with purpose-driven workers and it begins with attracting, hiring and onboarding extraordinary talent. Learn more how you can “unleash your organization’s potential” with Imperative’s innovative HR insights.
2. The 'aspirational' consumer redefines purchasing behavior
Global branding and innovation consultancy BBMG defined a new, rising market segment known as the 'aspirationals.' Representing 39 percent of global consumers, this group is represented across every culture, age, geography and income, yet shares key core values – they’re optimistic about the future, love to shop, identify closely with their style, aspire to consume responsibly, and take pride in being influencers.
Based on research from more than 22,000 respondents across 22 international markets, the Aspirational generation is defined by the desire for their actions to meet their needs, have a positive impact on others and connect them with an ideal or community that’s bigger than themselves. With the largest presence among Millennials and growing strength in emerging markets, Aspirationals are connecting the right thing to do with the cool thing to do, creating new possibilities for brands, business and society.
Aspirationals matter because they are the first to unite materialism, sustainability values and cultural currency, making them an essential audience to build markets, influence cultural norms and shape behavior change at scale.
By understanding the aspirationals, in 2016 brand leaders will be able to think more creatively, design more holistically and act more purposefully for a world where we can all thrive together.
3. Purpose-driven brands will act with greater practical urgency and empathy.
In a world over-saturated with content, bombarded with stimulation and filled with nanosecond attention spans, how does a company/brand become a “signal” in the noise? Brands will adopt “practical urgency” around pressing social issues and take actions to build empathy with their audiences.
While most major retailers opened their doors on Black Friday with glee, REI took a radically different approach and launched its “Opt Outside” campaign. The iconic outdoor retailer shunned Black Friday closing all 143 locations and while paying its 12,000+ employees – encouraging staff and customers to spend the day outdoors instead. The results were dramatic. REI put their values in action, strengthening their relationship with employees, customers and their wider community (including the press!) This action humanized the REI brand as the company sacrificed significant sales on one of the highest-volume sales days of the year staying true to its mission.
Even tech monoliths like Google can elicit humanity by designing with empathy. With more than 1 billion people in the world with a disability, Google is incorporating empathy into its user experience by being cognizant of color blindness, taking special care to label everything carefully for the visually impaired and encouraging developers to widely incorporate screen readers for blind people. The company hosts regular workshops with its apps team to demonstrate how handicapped users interact with their designs.
In 2016, customers are going to demand that companies operate from a more empathetic and human lens as opposed to decisions made on a pure financial basis. Today’s best brands will adopt empathy and urgency when connecting with their audiences.
4. Video content becomes more immersive and raw, putting the viewer inside the story
Some businesses are spending huge budgets on highly scripted corporate videos that are (unfortunately) barely seen. But viewers want authenticity and “access”, not predictable and passive communications.
Today’s top brands understand this, and they’re taking bigger risks to engage their fans. Leading the way for 2016 will be immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences alongside uncut live stream content and more documentary-style video production.
Media giants Al Jazeera and the New York Times have both used VR to put their viewers in the middle of our world’s refugee crises, building empathy and greater readership in the process.
Apps like Meerkat and Periscope – and social media superstar Casey Neistat’s startup Beme – are live-streaming apps that give their audiences a more in-the-moment, uncut feel. Some early adopters include Red Bull who live streamed their “Guest House” events at Miami Music Week and GE’s behind-the-scenes interview with Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
2016 will be the year we see less teleprompted CEO interviews, and more raw and uncut experiences via virtual reality and live-stream.
5. Breakthroughs in social impact include business leaders pledging to long-term commitments, effective giving and the transformation of traditional business models
Josh Tetrick of Hampton Creek, Ross Bailey of Appear Here, Sarah Wood of Unruly and over 100 other founders of the world’s most successful tech companies have recently become members of the The Founder's Pledge, an initiative with the mission to catalyze the next generation of philanthropists, inspiring business leaders to give now, instead of later. The premise is based on founders’ pledging between 2-21% of their personal profit towards a charitable cause of their choice before their exit. The Founder’s Pledge also emphasizes sharing best practices in philanthropic giving as well as providing a support system to startups that lack the time and resources to effectively donate.
Effective Altruism is a movement aimed towards individuals and encourages giving that’s driven by data and reason as well as compassion. Instead of donating to any charity, Effective Altruism urges its participants to consider the scale, tractability and uniqueness of a cause to maximize the impact of each donation. The movement has pledged over $350 million to global poverty interventions through its Giving What We Can campaign.
This type of long-term commitment is not limited to philanthropy. Even beyond Mark Zuckerberg’s Breakthrough Energy Coalition – Howard Buffet, grandson of Warren Buffet, recently launched i(x) Investments – a for-profit venture that closes the funding gap of companies working on global issues like clean energy, sustainable agriculture and water scarcity.
These examples turn Wall Street’s antiquated “learn, earn, return” model on its head. No longer are people waiting until their retirement to give back and reinvest in future generations. Rather a new generation of business leaders are deciding to create social impact and grow their ventures at the same time with exciting new ways to concurrently execute business and societal impact.
6. Coalitions and collaboration key to solving complex social and environmental challenges
How can we solve the complexities of climate change, poverty, disaster relief, gender equity and youth economic opportunity working on our own? Businesses, NGOs, governments and civil society are no longer content working in silos. The rise of cross-functional and cross industry partnerships is growing, with likely and unlikely working groups forming to share solutions, resources and commitments.
Prior to COP21, a collective of forward-thinking businesses and investors known as We Mean Business Coalition connected to place increased urgency on global leaders to gain a global climate agreement. Spearheaded by Richard Branson, The B Team is another global initiative for leaders with the mission to redefine business as a force for economic, social and environmental benefit. The team is packed with a diverse set of influencers including Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce), Paul Polman (Unilever) Kathy Calvin (President of the UN Foundation), Ratan Tata (Chairman Emeritus Tata) David Crane (former CEO of NRG), Arianna Huffington and many more.
Impact 2030 is a business led collaboration and is mobilizing private sector, employee volunteers to further advance, measure and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Founding partners of Impact 2030 include some of the world’s most notable companies like Google, Pfizer, IBM, Chevron and UPS.
In the spirit of common allies and goals, the Purpose Collaborative was founded in 2015 to continue to move purpose towards the center of business and brand strategy. It joins the collective passion, ethos, and knowledge of 21 companies, 226 individuals in 11 cities to invigorate purpose into brands, people and the world.
Image credit: Used with permission via Jeff Djevdet
Carol is internationally recognized for her work in Purpose and CSR. Her recently launched firm, Carol Cone ON PURPOSE, is her return to her life's passion: to educate, inspire and accelerate purpose programs and impacts for organizations, nonprofits and individuals around the globe.
By Emma Bailey
The Internet has grown to become a defining force of modernity as well as an indispensable part of the world economy. As more people become connected, the Internet's appetite for energy increases as well. This is no trivial matter: Greenpeace has reported that if the World Wide Web were a country, its energy consumption would rank sixth in the world. Thus, any investments made by Internet companies to "green" up their act are of major consequence to the entire international community and the planet itself.
The Internet's carbon footprint is estimated to exceed that of air travel, adding up to over 830 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Data centers demand the most power, but they also waste a lot of energy -- belying popular notions of the cloud as some benign, ethereal entity. And beyond personal data, applications, email servers and the like, there's one specific area that occupies a rapidly growing share of online bandwidth: streaming audio and video.
In recent years, people have steadily turned away from over-the-air television and analog cable while usage of on-demand streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Spotify has soared. When we consider that data (streaming and otherwise) is being served to a proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, it's easy to see why the Internet consumes such a large share of the planet's energy production. As more people gain access to the benefits of online participation, particularly in developing countries, the tech sector's transition to renewable sources of power becomes more crucial than ever before.
Some large Internet companies have already taken measures to improve their commitment to clean energy. Google has invested $2.5 billion in the pursuit of workable green energy solutions, including solar photovoltaic and wind turbine technology. Now the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world, the company also buys electricity directly from wind farms near its data centers. Setting the bar high for others in the industry, Google's dedication to a greener economy will have a lasting impact, particularly if it inspires more companies to do the same.
Apple, meanwhile, boasts that all of its data centers, offices and retail locations in the United States run exclusively on renewable energy. These two massive Internet companies, along with social media powerhouse Facebook, have been praised by Greenpeace in its Click Clean report, which evaluated and ranked 110 of the world's largest websites and their publishers on their overall and renewable energy use, reporting, disclosure and advocacy.
On the other hand, the case surrounding Amazon illustrates the difficulty of determining a company's progress in switching to clean energy. Although the online retailer and owner of immense cloud resources has pledged to use 100 percent renewables as power sources, there's a lack of transparency about its efforts. Consumers are therefore left unable to gauge whether or not Amazon is successfully meeting its targets, at least until it opens up its records a bit more.
However, while they may be armed with the best of intentions, it's impossible for Internet companies to fully separate themselves from the "dirty energy" grid. Unless they own all of their own energy infrastructure, they must continue to source a large percentage of their electrical power from traditional energy suppliers. While some of these power-generating enterprises have embraced renewable sources of energy, plenty more of are wedded to fossil fuel industry, and are therefore part of the overall problem.
In addition to creating close to 23 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year from the burning of fossil fuels, Dominion Power recently reported that the energy sector is responsible for nearly 40 percent of all man-made CO2 emissions. Using the atmosphere as our personal garbage dump has already had noticeable effects on global temperatures; if we do nothing, business as usual could be the end of us. But because of their power in the marketplace, today's tech giants have the unique opportunity to lobby for more stringent regulations and laws regarding these utility companies -- many of which are publicly-owned monopolies or benefit from government subsidies.
Tech leaders have already shown their ability to disrupt and transform our daily lives in almost every possible way. Now the planet needs them to turn their attentions to perhaps the greatest threat the world has ever seen: climate change. The Internet sector has the potential to act as a beacon for other industries to emulate, and a focus on green energy in the right quarters could have a beneficial spillover effect as others seek to match their performance.
Image credit: Shardayyy
Emma Bailey is a freelance writer and blogger from the Midwest. After going to college in Florida she relocated to Chicago, where she now lives with a roommate and two rabbits. She primarily covers entertainment topics and issues pertaining to the environment. Find her on Twitter @Emma_Bailey90