Finding Innovative Ways to Engage

Without a doubt, finding ways to effectively engage people is becoming harder to do.  Yet, there are moments where a program is able to separate itself and engage using simple ideas.  Ideas that don't force engagement, but are done in a manner that engagement is as easy as walking across the street. The recent BDD / China Environmental Protection Foundation did that, literally, and through its…

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Turning Sustainability Into a Game Every Employee Will Love

I'm convinced that the only way that we can move towards a true measure of sustainability is to find ways to embed it within the threads of our daily actions, and in a way that are not readily apparent to anyone.  And in reading the recent article on Fast Company  What sustainability efforts could learn from Angry Birds, I thought that they hit the mark in many ways. The list was: 1. Align emp…

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Responsibly Engaging China’s Mobile Masses

On average, every 6 minutes China's 190 million smart phone users will log on to check in. It is a population that has grown exponentially over the last 5 years, and with the speed by which this crowd moves, it is bringing about on of the greatest disruptions in how firms interact with stakeholders.  Gone are the day where firms push content through static channels (billboards, press releases,…

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Have You Ever Wandered Lonely Through the Woods?

From Brandi Carlile “Have you ever”: have you ever wandered lonely through the wood? and everything it feels just as it should you’re part of the life there, part of something good if you’ve ever wandered lonely through the woods How many urban dwellers would say no, that they have never wandered through the woods, and what does that mean for increasing awareness of sustainability? T…

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Embracing Your Inner Tempered Radical

While doing a bit of research on effective change agents, I came across an interview of Debra Meyerson who wrote Tempered Radicals How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work where she is quoted as saying the following: Effective agents of change at the grassroots level know who they are and what they are trying to accomplish. Effective tempered radicals hold on to their deepest goals, wh…

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5 Steps Towards Better Corporate Philanthropy

5 Steps to Developing a Successful Corporate Philanthropy Program Through my work, working with firms looking to develop "CSR" programs in China, more often than not the conversations I have revolved around donating money. For many firms, even those experienced in philanthropy, China can be a difficult place. The groups who are able to accept 50,000+ USD are more likely to be GONGOs (Government…

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Enough with the Band-Aids. It’s Time for Solutions!

If the goal is to solve (or avert) the problems of business as usual, then it is going to take more than band-aids to do it. That is a simple lesson that I teach my students every semester, and one that requires them to go through a series of exercises to identify the root factors causing the problems that emit the byproiducts we are seeing, who the stakeholders are of the key factors, and then…

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Empowering IT Departments to Create Responsible Computer Systems

The morning while havinga  coffee with the CSR manager of a large retailer, he mentioned the fact that on a semi-frequent basis he would find himself going around the office shutting off computers.  After working hours. That while his firm, in his opinion, had done a good job of developing and communicating a framework for sustainabilty, there were still some (large) gaps. One of them be…

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Getting One Person to Take One Step

Last night, while speaking at the Wokai Drinks for a Better World event, I chose to highlight the tangibility of the impact that one person taking a single step can have on the environmental, economic, societal, and community issues we face. In doing so, I went through my personal journey to establish and support organization that were working in the above areas. It was an attempt to in part in…

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