Dowser » conscious consumerism

End Malaria: Michael Stanier on publishing, impact and the possibility virus

Dowser — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:23:34 +0000

It’s sometimes a stretch to see how buying a product can solve a cause, but with his new book End Malaria: Bold Innovation, Limitless Generosity, and the Opportunity to Save a Life Michael Bungay Stanier is looking to make that link as clear as possible. The book is packed with business advice and advice on meaningful work from a range of thought leaders, and $20 from each book goes to fund mosquito nets for African families through the organization “Malaria No More.” Below Dowser talks with Stanier about his model for book to end malaria and about how a business book can involve the 99%. #

Dowser: How did the idea for this book emerge and how has it evolved?
Stanier: About a year-and-a-half ago I published a book called Do More Great Work. My professional philosophy is to help people do more of the truly great stuff and less of all the other stuff. In that book I suggest that people truly select a great work project to care about and focus their energies on. After the book came out it occurred to me that I should have a great work project of my own. I sat down and I had a look at the assets that I had – both intangible and tangible assets – and saw that I had a desire to do more work outside of my work in corporations – which I love – but I wanted to do something outside of it.
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Why turn that energy toward a book?
I asked myself, what do I know about? I know how to write a book and get a book out into the world. I know quite a lot of what you’d call business or thought leaders because for five years or so I’ve been doing a podcast series with many of them. I did some research to figure out what was the smallest unit of money that could make a real difference, and I decide it was $10 – the cost of a mosquito net. I decided I’d write a book in which proceeds would go to nets. I struggled to make the concept work for while, but in February of 2011 Seth Godin started a new publishing company that publishes only through Amazon.com, which makes the financial model of how a book gets published much cleaner and easier to translate directly into those proceeds.

Why malaria?
I have no personal connection to malaria as an issue - this really was me asking where can I have the most impact? I am drawn to trying to find ways to get lots of people to give a little rather than a few people give a lot – and these nets seemed to access that possibility.

How did you get connected to Malaria No More?
I tried to find the best nonprofit organization to work with that also had financial standards that could work with the way money was transferred, because we need to give $5 out of the $25 cost of the book to Amazon.com. Malaria No More was highly rated, had a very strong social media presence, and had a strong presence in the US, Canada and the UK, which areas where I work.

What compels you about the model of many people giving a little instead of a few giving a lot?
My personal mission is to infect a billion people with the possibility virus. In all of my work I try to help people see how much possibility there is in the world and to pick the best possibility for them. A billion people is a lot of people and I hope 'the possibility virus' spreads through me affecting one person and them affecting others. In today’s language, I’m more interested in the 99% rather than the 1% - I don’t particularly have connections to the 1% and there are so many more people to involve in the 99%.

Why a book? Why not another type of campaign in another media, which you’ve also done?
The purpose of the book was not just to spread news about malaria being countered but to raise money about it by creating something that people are willing to trade their money for. People buy books because it connects them to a moment or an idea. If was also that I’d done books before - if you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail, so this looked like a book project to me, and it looked like a book was the easiest bridge to get to what I wanted.

How did you gather the writers in this book?
I hunted them down like dogs! Some of these people I know a little bit from previous work. With many of the people it’s a question of being bold enough to ask them for their help – to have a clear offer about how they will contribute to something bigger. I reached out to people who I could get connected to, who I thought had interesting things to say, had who a platform for influence.

Who do you most want to be reading this book?
The book is positioned as a business book. That’s what Seth publishes and that’s what I do. Truly, though, the information in the book is something that anybody can use if they’re interested in making choices about having a bolder, courageous more meaningful life.

What’s your unique approach to creating links between the business and social justice worlds?
I think corporations are extraordinarily powerful. They’re where a lot of people spend their time and they control a lot of the wealth of the world. In a lot of ways, business is broken – not in terms of being profit-driven, but in terms of the experience people have working for big companies. That experience is often mediocre. At the heart of my business is our tagline about helping people 'do less good work and more great work.' That’s my driver. My life is richer by bringing in an ability to contribute and by finding some small ways to help others connect with contributing.

What are you working on next?
I’m primarily working on catching up on my sleep! We’re doing another little push of the book in about three weeks time. Truly I’m trying not to actually rush into what’s the next project. I’m trying to let this one sink in and give myself a bit of slack time to lets see what pops up. Part of the essence of creativity is knowing when to broaden rather than narrow your vision. This time now is to dabble and play and see what percolates.

What practical advice would you offer someone who working with business and social impact?
I’d give three pieces of advice. First, people’s advice is often next to useless. Second, if it’s about trying to raise money get really clear about what the business model is – where’s the money going to come from and what’s the exchange for. Lastly, be bold about getting the most awesome people involved that you can. The way I got awesome people involved was I asked them for their help. The worst thing that can happen is they say no, and I keep asking until I get a no. Being persistent about asking for helping and getting people involved will lead you through.
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This interview has been edited and condensed.

Photo courtesy of Michael Bungay Stanier #

Are we outgrowing how we grow?

Dowser — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:30:50 +0000

Could we have outgrown modern agriculture? Dr. E Ann Clark thinks “agriculture was never designed to be sustainable,” and argues in recent research that we need to re-vision our food production systems entirely for today’s needs. #

We do not have a whole-scale sustainable organic food system today, Clark argues, because agriculture as designed in the North American colonies had the central goal of exporting raw commodities to mother countries. This “design driver” of agriculture, as Clark terms it, did not create a food system intended to be sustainable for its producers. This system is dependent on cheap oil and society’s willingness to bear costs “externalized by seemingly efficient mega-scale production and processing.” This second design driver enables and encourages producers to produce large amounts of homogenous products. We can’t expect agriculture to move towards sustainability, she says, unless we re-design its base to be more in line with today’s needs.

What are the needs that should be driving today’s agriculture? Today’s central “design driver,” Clark says, will be relying on current rather than stored (fossil fuel) energy. Organic practices will become mainstream in a future food system because they require less manufacturing of products used in farming and because organic practices internalize costs of production. Clark predicts that “ecologically sound agriculture…will necessarily rely less on annuals and more on perennials- with a central role for grass-fed livestock.” This does not mean less vegetables, she says, but rather less large-seeded annual grains which occupy the majority of arable lands, require bare soil, and have various other requirements less compatible with most of US farm land than perennials. #

Current research, education and activism on agricultural sustainability focus on how to make the current system less bad, Clark writes, but a more useful way at framing today’s agriculture is through today’s distinct “design drivers.” Food systems not relying on oil will favor smaller, organic, seasonally-oriented and local food. The more policymakers frame agriculture “post-oil realities,” Clark says, the more we can design a food system that is both driven and aided by today’s needs and the land we’re using. What do you think are today’s particular drivers, and how can the way we receive food promote them? #

Opposing child labor with consumer demand: Nina Smith of GoodWeave

Dowser — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:00:26 +0000

April 16th marks the anniversary of the death of Pakistani rug-slave-turned-activist Iqbal Massih who championed work against child labor and inspired the work of GoodWeave, a market-based solution to child labor in South Asia’s textile industry. The GoodWeave label on rugs assures consumers that no children were employed in its making and that the product was certified by GoodWeave’s rigorous licensing process. GoodWeave-certified producers comply with an extensive certification standard and undergo monitoring of their facilities. Importers of GoodWeave textiles pay a small royalty fee that GoodWeave and partner organizations use to educate and rehabilitate former child weavers. Below, Dowser talks with GoodWeave executive director Nina Smith about the organization’s holistic approach and how it seeks to honor Iqbal’s memory.

Dowser: What role did Iqbal’s story have in inspiring you to work against child labor?
Smith: I had a background in international news media and early on in that career took an extensive trip through Latin America, where I had some personal experiences with low income indigenous women weavers who were desperate to sell their work. A light bulb went off for me that something was wrong with the system if people like me might pay far less to someone than it should really cost for them to be paid fairly. That led me into thinking about a business to link producers of goods to the end users who buy them, and to try to tell the stories of people who make products to consumers to help them make equitable choices. At that point in the early 1990s the fair trade movement was just getting started, and I got involved with them. I was offered a job to work in India with Tibetan refugee producers in India making crafts. After about a year there I came back and got further involved with the fair trade organization to figure out what my role could best be. #

I read the story of Iqbal in a Vanity Fair article in 1994 right after his murder and we were just getting launched under the name of Rugmark, and it reminded me that there are serious labor rights and human rights abuses in supply chains. I thought the model being developed here was really perfect because it’s working against a focused issue (child labor) in a focused marketplace (carpets and textiles) with consumers you can easily communicate with. #

How has GoodWeave evolved as an organization?
Our recent re-brand is a physical manifestation of our evolution toward a holistic antipoverty model. In the early days no one was doing what we did and we were developing and improving a model, but as time went on we could work more on bringing transparency and rigor to the work on the ground we do, and how to make this work owned by all stakeholders. We couldn’t just work on child labor in a void – it’s so intertwined with other labor issues so forced labor, wage issues, health and safety issues, and even environmental issues. We’ve developed a new certification standard that looks at six other issues beyond and intertwined with child labor. #

What do you think are the primary drivers of child labor common in the areas where you work? Which of those drivers can GoodWeave work against and which are more difficult to change?
Many issues are intertwined and changing within child labor and we have to – and do - work with all of them. The key drivers are poverty – because parents can’t afford to put food on the table or educate children they do things out of desperation, like taking a loan against their child –, lack of access to education, and political unrest and the bigger issues it drives. The global economy effects labor in so many ways. Right now in Nepal people are so desperate for sustaining jobs that make workers are going overseas to the Middle East and Nepal itself is actually lacking in skilled weavers, which makes them more likely to take on children. Consumers in the United States are buying cheaper products and countries that have always produced higher end products are losing market share. The key thing that we do is we decidedly remove demand for products made by child labor, and issues can be solved when we remove demand.

How does changing consumer demand alter labor conditions?
In many ways. A company may stop buying rugs unless they are child-labor free. Consumers drive their demands for fair labor practices back onto the market. The more we can license companies into our system, the more certified products there are to sell, and the more funds we can generate for our rescuing and education programs for former child workers which streamline children into local school initiatives and ideally deter them from the sector. #

What do you mean when you say you rescue a child from child labor?
When a company licenses the GoodWeave certification they agree to operate under our random inspections – three strikes against them and they lose the certification.. Most of the children we rescue are identified when a company first joins us. When child labor is found in any of our locations the children are removed and provided with opportunities and choices so that they can go right into rehabilitation programs which are run by local partner NGOs.

I understand that child labor in the handmade rug industry is down 75% since you began your work. What are your metrics for GoodWeave's success and how have you measured them thus far?
First we measure success in the marketplace by the uptake of our certification in the business community. 15-20% market share of the total industry would mean success to us, and we’re measuring our market growth year to year. We also look at the kind of actors that are adopting us. It used to be smaller high end rug companies but it’s changing. We’re launching publicly at Macy’s in a few months, which feels like a huge success for us.

Do the changes in your partner companies reflect your goals and reflect an interest in this kind of certification?
The initial companies to sign on with us were those predisposed to social responsibility, and we did feel that going for companies at the high end of the market was very important because it was the products people saw as the highest quality. Over time we’ve watched larger, more complicated companies sign up. Those take longer and need a stronger business case to come on board. We’ve gotten to the point where we can demonstrate a clear business case for GoodWeave and show evidence that it helps sales and at minimum it doesn’t hurt. We’re moving into a space where we’re getting companies that are motivated much more purely for business reasons; for risk mitigation factors, because all their competitors are doing it, or because consumers actively want it.

What are the biggest obstacles you face in your work and how do you work to overcome them?
We want to grow but a scaling plan always needs to be focused on insuring integrity and quality. We’re about to receive some funds to go into Afghanistan, which is an important rug producing country that could use the work that we do. This will be a real value-add for the products coming from Afghanistan. Still, working there is going to be a challenge to keep it to the same standard as other places where we work. #

There are still a lot of big players out there in the textile industry that aren’t getting involved in this work, and if they did it would make it a lot easier. One other challenge is that there’s so much need in the communities that we work in that we can’t fulfill. We think that if we can shift the demand to child-labor-free products we can eventually change individual lives, but at the same time we’re working one-on-one with children in tough situations who are, aging out of our system. We’re looking to partner and improve on how we can help them move on to college or the next thing.

What does remembering Iqbal on April 16^th mean to you?
Iqbal’s story moved me to the point of wanting to work on this and prevent other children from being in bondage as child labor. He escaped child labor and started becoming an activist for other children still on the looms. He won the Reebok human rights award in the early 1990s and murdered for his activism when he returned to Pakistan. He’s a true martyr for this cause. Telling his story reconnects me emotionally to this cause and helps me remind other people why this work that we do is so important. There are about 250,000 children working today the way that Iqbal did. Faces and stories and names are what really connect people to issues, and remembering Iqbal reminds me why I do what I do.

This interview has been edited and condensed. #

Images: Robin Romano 2007 www.RomanoPhotography.com #

Smaller isn’t always greener: why aren’t American homes more efficient?

Dowser — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:00:13 +0000

Average American homes today are using essentially the same amount of energy per year as they were in 1970s – which seems odd, given the improvement of heating systems and household appliances, and a heightened emphasis on energy conservation. So how are we still using so much?

A new Energy Information Administration (EIA) survey gives several answers -- we have more access to air conditioners and homes are larger across the board. The study also shows that consumer electronics detract from attempts to make homes energy-efficient, and detract from efficiency gains of major appliances. Almost half of American homes have at least one computer, 88% of American homes have two or more televisions, and nearly every home has 1-3 rechargeable electronic devices. Even if our appliances are increasingly energy efficient, we own enough of them to offset that efficiency. #

Having smaller or more efficient devices does not that mean we are going to automatically be more energy efficient – though it may feel that way. Newer technology does not always mean more green – the study notes, for example, that DVR players, which use more energy per unit than DVD or VCR players, are currently used by over 40% of those surveyed and are replacing the use of those lower-energy using players. Attempts to go green are often hampered by advances in quality of life and access to resources. Should we be inhibiting this kind of access to save energy? That’s neither feasible or desirable. What we can do is see our energy usage as a balancing act. #

The EIA survey shows clearly how much energy efficiency is in the hand of consumer choices. Even if more and more efficient electronics and appliances are developed, consumers are the only ones who can consider if their cell-phones are beating out their three-pane windows. #

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. #

A sun-powered collective

Dowser — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:00:21 +0000

Anya Schoolman, co-founder of the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative

At first blush, installing solar panels on your roof may seem like a great deal, both for your wallet and the environment. But as many homeowners have learned, residential solar power can be extraordinarily complicated. Professional installers give contradictory price estimates, government requirements are written in an impenetrable jargon, you have to deal with an electric utility that may not be too friendly to partially-off-the-grid-customers, and, of course, don’t forget you’ll want to navigate the myriad, confusing tax incentives (maybe) available to you. # #

The Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative tries to make things a little easier for its members. The co-op, whose members live in Mt. Pleasant, a leafy neighborhood in northwest Washington, DC, got started with a group of neighbors who wanted to work together to bring solar power to their homes. Co-founder Anya Schoolman talks about how their model works, and how it’s being replicated across the city. #

Dowser: Could you tell me about the services that the co-op provides?
Schoolman: We help people through the process of going solar: finding an installer, evaluating the installer, selecting an installer, understanding the tax incentives, the rebates from the city, things like that. We have forged a path to make that easier and more standardized for people. #

What I always tell people is going solar is the beginning of the process, not the end of the process. So then we do advocacy. People have a lot of trouble with their meters and their billing with their utility. #

What do people need from the co-op that they can’t get on their own?
You can certainly go solar on your own right now. We think that our members are much better educated in terms of what’s the right technology, what’s the right size, what’s the right price to expect. #

There are lot of people who were promised rebates from the city [for the installation of solar panels] and they didn’t get them. And to be one person that got messed over by the city government, you’re pretty much on your own. But to be part of an organized group -- we’ve had this function all the way through. #

How do you coordinate so much voluntary effort?
We use a lot of online tools, and there are a lot of volunteers and a couple pretty dedicated people. We have a listserv, and one of our members basically built our website for us and pays for it. We have two pro bono law firms, which makes a huge difference, especially on the regulatory stuff. And we have a lot of enthusiasm. #

What accounts for the enthusiasm?
People really love the idea of doing something tangible and concrete. They’re motivated by different things. Some of our members are really motivated by concern about climate change. And some of our members are motivated because they hate the utility or because they really want a feeling of self-reliance, or they want to cut down their energy bills. By going solar you’ve actually done something that you can see and feel and experience, and that’s really empowering to people. #

The co-op has helped push solar-friendly legislation through DC’s local government. How did you familiarize yourself with such complex policy, and what can policy novices do to be successful like you?
There are great resources on this. In states where there is no solar going on right now, see if there are any solar installers anywhere in your state. They’re the ones that have to make the numbers work, and they understand the financing -- not all of them, but that was our first source of real help. There’s also a national organization called Vote Solar, and they provide policy advice for passing local regulations that make solar possible.The other thing is this group I’m setting up, which is the Community Power Network, a national network of groups that help each other do this. #

What’s the crux of your policy success?
The real crux of this is having members who are real, active members of their community. Our members are head of the PTA, head of the neighborhood association. They are the kind of people who are very mainstream and who are very active in the community, and their local representative knows them. #

How do you deal with the technical side of all of this if you’re a novice?
I didn’t know any of this stuff four years ago when we started. I knew none of it. But by starting with just the practical goal, like, I want to put solar on my church, then you start looking: Why can’t I? Then you address the problems in order. And each time you have a new problem you just look around on the Internet, call people. You don’t need to have a master plan before you start. #

If you went back to the co-op’s founding, what do you wish you could have known?
I think I would have thought through the communications mechanism more. That’s been a steep learning curve. Information management, data management of coordinating these people. #

What’s your greatest success so far?
Two things. We’ve helped about 85 [households] go solar in Mount Pleasant, and that’s really exciting because we now have this critical mass --- we have almost ten percent of the neighborhood on solar. My other greatest success is that people have looked at this and been so excited about it that we’ve been asked to help twelve other neighborhood co-ops start in DC. And so now we have a co-op in every ward in DC, and the co-ops are working together in a group called DC SUN. That’s really exciting to me because it’s showing that the idea is scalable and equitable. #

Interview has been edited and condensed. #

Photo: Gabe Rivin #

Can advertising be green?

Dowser — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:00:42 +0000

Can consumerism and environmentalism go hand in hand? Paul Polizzotto, Founder of EcoMedia, is out to prove that they can not only work together, but truly benefit one another. Polizzotto started EcoMedia in 2002 with what he calls a “sustainable media” model, seeking to “harness the resource of advertising for our consumers and our environment’s good.” This year, EcoMedia has partnered with the network CBS on EcoAd, a project in which a portion of the money spent on every ad is donated to environmental and clean energy projects. #

EcoMedia identifies “stuck” community environmental projects that have 90% of their funding but need just a little bit more to be pushed through, Polizzotto said. EcoMedia donates a portion of the advertiser's payments to the projects and selects them based on job creation, saved taxpayer costs and emission reduction. The little green leaf on advertisements funding these projects is meant to “show the consumer that their time matters – that the thirty seconds they spend watching this ad is actually doing good,” said Polizzotto. He emphasizes that the EcoAd symbol does not signify anything about the product advertised (“consumers need to do their own homework," he said) but does indicate that the purchasing of this advertisement was useful to an environmental cause. #

Is EcoAd just another instance of “greenwashing” in which a product is associated with environmentalism simply to sell it more? Polizzotto argues that companies would be spending this advertising money anyway, so many have flocked to the chance to also associate themselves with funding environmental work and have thus provided the opportunity for projects to get done that would not otherwise. “I don’t think there is necessary anything green about media itself,” Polizzotto says, “but it can be harnessed to produce crucial projects.” #

What do you think? Can advertising be green? #

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Fair trade certification expands to the apparel industry

Dowser — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:01:07 +0000

In time for the gift-buying season, Fair Trade USA launched a new a fair trade certification for apparel. Their other certifications, like the ubiquitous fair trade coffee, enable consumers to vote with their dollars. But up to this point, the apparel industry, though littered with workers' rights violations, had no third party fair trade certification. To learn more about evaluating a garment from cotton plant to retail store, we spoke with Heather Franzese, Senior Category Manager for Apparels and Linens at Fair Trade USA. #

Dowser: What makes this certification unique?
Franzese: There’s certification for organic cotton but there’s actually not really any other ethical certification for clothing. Behind the scenes companies have been doing a lot of work to prove that they’re not sourcing in sweat shops, but there hasn’t been any communication directly to the consumer about this, or any way for the consumer, at the point of purchase, to choose a T-shirt that was made in an ethical manner over one that was made in a sweat shop. All we see in the clothes that we buy are those three little words: 'Made in China' or 'Made in Indonesia.' And that really doesn’t tell you anything about the working conditions. #

Our third party certification is the consumer’s assurance that fair labor standards were met and that farmers and workers actually earned more. The debate has been very focused on avoiding exploitation, and we think there are actually factories that are going well beyond avoiding exploitation, but actually providing decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods and thriving communities for their workers. We’re trying to recognize and reward those 'best in class' factories and reward 'best in class' cotton farmers for their sustainable productions and give consumers a way to support that. #

How does the certification process work?
In this first phase of our pilot, the certification is farm to finish. On every garment that is carrying the 'Fair Trade Certified' label it means that the cotton farmers and the factory workers met fair trade standards. #

We have a network of local partners in the field for all of our manufacturing and farming locations. Both the farm and the factory, as well as the middle chain suppliers, are audited against fair trade standards on a regular basis. At the factory level, we set up grievance and complaint channels so that workers can be our eyes and ears in the factory 365 day a year. We do worker training to train them on their rights and on fair trade standards and then tell them how to contact us if they think that their rights are not being upheld. #

How is your work funded?
In the early stages of development, Levi's Foundation funded some of the work, and we’ve had some other companies contribute as well as foundation donors. Eventually, licensing fees from the use of the label will fund the program. This is the model we use for all of our products -- initial R&D for new products is funded through external grant funding and then once the program is up and running, it’s funded through licensing fees. As an organization, about 30 percent of our funding comes from grants and about 70 percent from licensing fees. #

Who seeks certification from you and why?
Right now, those who are most enthusiastic are smaller, mission-driven companies that have really built their brands around social and environmental responsibility. Several organic pioneers who are kind of looking to go beyond organic -- companies like Maggie's Organics and Indigenous Design -- as well as new entrepreneurs. Certainly we are talking to the ethical leaders in the more mainstream market -- companies who have really shown leadership around social responsibility in clothing -- and some of them are taking a wait-and-see approach. We’ll see who is going to step up and be the first. #

What types of challenges are there in setting up something like this?
One of the challenges, compared to our other products, is the apparel development timeline -- it takes so long to get a product to market [sometimes] 12-18 months. Lining up those supply chains with their product development timelines is a challenge. If a company is not committed, it’s hard to make all the other things happen in the supply chain. #

Would you like to see policy replace certification? Or is certification the best solution?
Definitely would be amazing to one day have government standards for this because there’s a limit to what voluntary standards can do. [However], in coffee and some other products we’re seeing brands move from doing fair trade as a smaller percentage of their total business to making 100 percent commitments -- companies like Ben and Jerry’s making a commitment to certify 100 percent of ingredients as fair trade. That’s what I’d love to see one day for clothing as well. #

It seems like you make an effort to target the entire creation chain. Can you tell me about the life of a fair trade garment?
It’s a complex chain that most consumers don’t think about. For products with natural fibers, like cotton, it starts with the farmer. The cotton is grown and hand picked and sent to a ginner, which removes the seeds. Then it goes to a spinner to be spun into yarn, and then either to a weaver or a knitter to become fabric. Then it goes to the dye house or to the cut-and-sew operation, which is what we think about when we think about clothing -- sewing machine operators. And then they do the finishing and packaging and send it to retailers. Sometimes those steps happen in multiple countries. But in India, for example, there’s a lot of vertical operations, where they do the spinning, weaving and dying under one roof and you’ll have large facilities with as many as 5,000 workers doing all those different operations together. #

Do most consumers know about this issue? Do you spend a lot of time on outreach?
We think that consumers are looking for an extension of fair trade into other products. If they are already drinking fair trade coffee why not also buy fair trade clothes? We do an annual market research study with Globe Scan. And one of the questions we asked in the last round was what fair trade product category would you most like to see? There were about a dozen choices and the top pick was clothing and textiles. #

One of the areas that we’re trying to do outreach in is with students, [who] tend to be so passionate about these issues. We just did a student video contest, and we had students from across the country submitting videos about fair trade apparel. We provided them with footage and photos and then we posted the finalists on Facebook. #

What does the future look like for this certification?
We’ve seen our other fair trade products go mainstream. My vision is for a fair trade choice in every store, in terms of clothing. So it may not be the entirety of what a store offers, but at least the consumers have that choice. Right now the products are available online and I think it’s great because consumers are willing and interested to shop online because it's hassle free, you don’t even have to leave your house to buy fair trade clothing for the holiday season. #

When I first started working for Fair Trade in 2002, coffee was just about the only product that we certified, and some limited tea and cocoa. And it was a very small part of the market, and we said, 'It’s going to be mainstream one day!' And now we see it in outlets across the country. Fair trade products are available in over 60,000 retail locations across the country. I’m pretty confident that we can achieve that distribution for fair trade clothing one day, too. #

How did you get involved with this work?
I lived in Mali for a few years, as a Peace Corps volunteer. Living with subsistence farmers there, what I really saw, was that income is development. It’s not helpful, I think, for NGOs to come in and build a health center or build a school if the farmers there are not earning more. If they can earn more for their basic crops, then they can build their own health center. That’s how I first got into fair trade. Then I took a detour into manufacturing and did some work in the private sector, working for an apparel/sports wear company doing corporate social responsibility. I spend a lot of time in factories there because a lot of factory workers come from farming communities. So often in developing countries, farmers are moving to cities to try and get better jobs. So I was seeing this play out in factories and thinking about the opportunity to apply the fair trade model that has been so successful in agriculture further up the value chain to light manufacturing. #

Our theory is that factory workers can stand to benefit from fair trade, just as farmers have. I was recruited back early last year to launch this program. It’s very exciting. #

What do you like about the work you do?
I visit all the supply chains and the farms and factories that make the products, and what inspires me are the stories behind them. This certification is a mechanism to tell those stories to consumers -- and for consumers to make a connection to the people who make their clothes. #

We’re working with a factory in Liberia that is making T-shirts for Prana that will come out this spring. I visited that factory in May. Liberia had 13 years of civil war; they have 80 percent unemployment. And I was talking with the women who are sewing in that factory about their hopes for fair trade. They said: 'We want to have literacy classes, we want to take computer classes.' That’s what inspires me to come to work every day, knowing that we’re benefiting those farmers and workers. #

This interview has been edited and condensed. #

Photo: Fair Trade USA #

Twitter Roundup - October 29: Water pumps, toilet paper and BP oil

Dowser — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:52:05 +0000

Search for the hashtag #socent and you’ll find wide-ranging interest in social entrepreneurship on Twitter. Here’s a roundup of a few thought-provoking tweets from the last week: #

PopTech 2010 begins at 9:00 sharp at http://www.poptech.org/live. You don't want to miss it.

October 21, 2010 11:14 am via TweetDeck

@poptech

PopTech

This weekend, the massive PopTech (@PopTech) event in Camden, Maine featured talks and demos from dozens of speakers on the theme of “Brilliant Accidents, Necessary Failures, and Improbable Breakthroughs.” Many of the talks streamed live to the web, and many more are being uploaded now. If you weren’t glued to your computer watching it live, or up in Maine taking it all in, check out some the videos here. I especially recommend Jad Abumrad’s talk on sound. #

To Infinity And Beyond With Scott Tubeless Toilet Paper - http://tcrn.ch/9eRt1F

October 27, 2010 12:57 pm via WordTwit Plugin

@crunchgear

CrunchGear

You read that right. The team at Scott Naturals has finally done away with the tube inside the toilet paper roll, citing what they call a “special winding technique.” Scott promises that every piece of the paper will be usable, without any glue stuck to it. Most consumers throw away those tubes instead of recycling them, so by eliminating the tube, the company is chipping away at the 160 million pounds of trash produced annually. #

Water For People Launches New Open-Source Mobile Technology For Monitoring #Water and #Sanitation Projects called FLOW http://bit.ly/cqaVXG

October 21, 2010 1:10 pm via web

@waterforpeople

Water For People

Water for People (@WaterForPeople) has been coming up with innovative ways to bring clean and safe water to the developing world for years, but readily admits that its work is sometimes hard to check up on. That’s why it introduced an application called FLOW (Field Level Operations Watch) that keeps tabs on how all its installed pumps are functioning worldwide. You can check it out here. It’s available as a mobile app and built on an open-source framework, so hopefully more organizations will be adopting transparent checkups soon. #

Making lemonade out of lemons: BP’s oil used as ink for “OIL & WATER DO NOT MIX” posters. http://bit.ly/dnLXsq and http://bit.ly/9nXnYX

October 27, 2010 6:27 pm via TweetDeck

@konigi

Konigi

Finally, there’s a neat art project making its way around the Internet. Designer Anthony Burrill, in cooperation with Happiness Brussels, is using oil from the BP spill earlier this year to screen print posters that read “Oil & Water Do Not Mix.” What’s more, the proceeds all go to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) so the project comes full circle. Check the beautiful posters out here. #

Did you come across any other notable #socent tweets this week? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @dowserDOTorg. #

Interview: Kyle Berner of Feelgoodz on risks and flip-flops

Dowser — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:37:24 +0000

In our Risk-taking series, Tulane University and Ashoka U students Katie Smalley and Laura White shed light on the value of risk-taking. By interviewing social innovators about bold steps they’ve taken, they reveal that behavior that appears risky may be the most dependable way to produce innovation, ultimately leading to better solutions to social problems. #

Kyle Berner is the founder of Feelgoodz, a company that makes flip-flops out of 100% natural Thai rubber. Feelgoodz' model is truly triple bottom line – the rubber trees are grown sustainably, the flip-flops are 100% biodegradable, and the farmers are treated fairly. Berner won accolades for his innovative business model, and the bright flip-flops, sold from Hawaii to Japan, have even landed in the aisles of Whole Foods. However, Feelgoodz’ journey to success was dotted with setbacks and obstacles. Here, Berner talks about finding a market for Feelgoodz and trying to push flip-flops in November. #

Dowser: Social entrepreneurship inevitably involves some degree of risk-taking. What is the biggest risk that you took with Feelgoodz that paid off?
Berner: The flip-flop market is a crowded space – there are as many as twenty different brands on the market today. So when Feelgoodz was starting out, we had to ask ourselves, ‘Why does the market need another flip-flop brand?’ Although there were so many brands out there, I felt that there was an opening in the natural products market and that the consumers in the market would appreciate what we were trying to do – create an environmentally friendly flip-flop that would also promote social and economic growth in Thailand. This was the biggest risk that Feelgoodz has taken; we gambled that there was a niche for us in providing natural flip-flops, and that the customers served by this niche would respond to our goal of helping Thailand. #

What do you think is the biggest risk you took that did not pay off, or at least seemed that way at the time?
Our biggest 'flop' that comes to mind happened early in the life of Feelgoodz. We decided to set up a temporary booth at a mall during the biggest sales day of the year – Black Friday. Since so much retail is sold on Black Friday, we thought it would be a great time to sell flip-flops. Unfortunately, we did not think about the fact that it was late November, and that it was cold; people did not want to buy flip-flops at this time of year, and we ended up losing a lot of invested money and time. I think that the biggest lesson learned from this is that haste makes waste. We had to make a decision and we took a risk, but in that process, we did not think things through or get outside opinions. #

What do you think is the most important factor in taking intelligent risks in your social enterprise?
The most important thing that I found is to trust your business partner. It is also important that you both have the same vision for the organization, and that you both are passionate about the social problem you are confronting. And it’s helpful for both of you to anticipate and think through the worst things that could happen as a result of the decision you’re making. This way, you can both address how you might handle problems before they arise. #

This interview was edited and condensed. #

Photo: Courtesy of Kyle Berner #

Interview: Rachel Botsman on sharing cars, gardens and money—and the evolution of "collaborative consumption"

Dowser — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:49:23 +0000

Rachel Botsman is fascinated with our increasing desire to share, barter, and swap and our decreasing need for consumption of material goods. She began noticing these trends while working on brand-building, consumerism and social change at the Clinton Global Initiative, the United Nations and General Electric. In her new book, What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, Botsman looks at how these shifting modes of consumerism are affecting the future of big business as well as what’s happening in our own backyards. Botsman will be speaking about her work at the Feast Conference in New York City on October 15. And for a quick preview of her work, check out the video after the jump. #

Dowser: Can you spell out some specific examples that explain the concept of ‘collaborative consumption’?
Botsman: Collaborative Consumption is technology enabling old market behaviors so that village trading marketplaces are being reinvented in ways that were never possible before. It’s a fascination with the mechanics of consumerism, digital sharing and sharing culture that led to this idea. #

What’s happening is that old consumer behaviors like bartering, trading, and lending are being reinvented through the Facebook-age. Look at Zipcars, bike-sharing schemes like B-cycle or modern day cooperatives, whether it’s community supported agriculture or Etsy Labs, as well as eBay or Craigslist. #

Why do you think this is catching on now?
There is a massive resurgence of community, both in the virtual and real world. It’s a combination of the financial crisis and pressing environmental concerns, but also realizing that we need to turn to each other once again. Volunteering rates are through the roof, cooking and sewing classes are doing a roaring trade, parks are full, churches are reporting that people are coming back—all around, we are seeing people realize the importance of community. Linked to that is a torrent of social networks that create an infrastructure for us to share and collaborate in ways that have never been possible before. #

A lot of these ideas are very old. Car-pooling and car sharing have been around since the ‘50s in Switzerland. Can you imagine the logistics of organizing five cars? Now we can locate anything anyone, anywhere, anytime, from a small device in our hand. #

With people increasingly looking to lending, swapping, and car sharing, are you seeing less of an interest in amassing material goods?
People are starting to think about how they spend money, and think, ‘Do the experiences make me happier than buying stuff?’ I don’t think it’s necessarily around penny-pinching. It’s deeper than that. It is tied to identity and it’s also tied to dematerialization. #

We’re growing up with a generation that doesn’t want stuff; they want or need to experience how it feels. We don’t actually want a CD; we want the music it plays. We don’t want an answering machine; we want the message it says. #

Are there new tools or businesses you’re using that fall under this category and position the experience over the object?
When I first moved to Sydney [Australia], everyone said I had to buy a car. But we have five GoGet [car share stations] within two minutes walking distance from our house. So I think we save quite a lot of money and we save a lot of time because we don’t have any of the hassle of parking. #

I also started investing through social lending schemes like Zopa. I had £1000 sitting in my bank in the U.K., and I thought, this is crazy, I can get a return rate of 9.5% if I start doing social lending. There is also one in the U.S. called Lending Club. #

How do you see the movement around collaborative consumption unfolding? It seems like it has potential on a more localized level as well as on a larger scale.
A beautiful thing about collaborative consumption is that it can happen on a very hyper local level in neighborhoods and really impact change—anyone who wants to start their own bike sharing scheme, community garden, or toy lending library. They don’t need a lot to get it going, so I want to help them get the resources and share the best practices that I’ve seen. #

But for larger established companies, it can be a much more involved process.
I want to help everyone—from [assisting] start-ups that are becoming the darlings of the venture capital world to big corporations that are incorporating this into their business model. For example, why can’t Zappos become the ultimate shoe-swap trading platform or repair shoe service platform, or Bank of America have a peer-to-peer lending arm? I would like to help on the business level and also on the local changemaker level. #

With the numerous car sharing businesses and models that have emerged over the past few years, the automotive industry seems like a good place to see how they’re adapting to this changing mindset.
Bill Ford said, ‘We are no longer in the business of cars. We are in the business of mobility.’ Companies are saying, ‘Our model can no longer be about pushing and selling more and more stuff.’ Big companies are realizing that the way they define their sector and the way they’ve made money is actually becoming pretty obsolete. #

Daimler, and Peugeot, they’ve now launched car-sharing schemes. Daimler is going into ride sharing programs. Companies think, ‘If we can get the technology right for people to share a car, then can we actually become technology companies to share other products?’ It’s redefining the way they are thinking about their business. #

Are there any other examples of note that might not be on our radar?
One of my favorite examples is Landshare in the U.K.. There are some [similar organizations] in the U.S. called Shared Earth and Sharing Back Garden. Landshare is based on the idea that lots of people now want to grow their own food, but they don’t have space in their back garden. It functions like a garden dating agency, matching someone with a back garden with someone who wants to grow their own food. #

My dad started to do Landshare. For him, it is not about the food that he grows, but that all the kids and community members come around. He has lived in this neighborhood for 18 years and it is the first time he knows who lives on the street. #

So what does that do? My dad is a very classic baby boomer; it makes him now more open to sharing other things. By giving him something he’s comfortable with, and building that little web of relationships, he can now escalate up into different forms of collaborative consumption. #

Click here to view the embedded video.

This interview has been edited and condensed. # #

Dowser is a media partner of the Feast Conference. #

Picture: Courtesy of Rachel Botsman #