CA Companies Wait in Line to Become B- Corps

B-Corp law went into effect in California this week and a “a band of smiling millionaires, papers in hand, waiting to sign on the dotted line” stood outside the office of the CA Secretary of State, reports Alex Goodmark of GOOD.

Ventura-based Patagonia was the first of twelve companies to sign itself up as a B-Corp.  Considering that they played a critical role in lobbying for the bill, this move didn’t come as a surprise.  The other companies included DopeHut, Dharma Merchant Services, Give Something Back Office Supplies, Green Retirement Plans, Opticos Designs, Rimon Law, Scientific Certification Systems, Solar Works, Sun Light & Power, Terrassure Sustainable Land & Resource Development, and Thinkshift Communications.

Here’s what Yvon Chouinard, CEO of Patagonia had to say about B-Corps:

"Patagonia is trying to build a company that could last 100 years," Chouinard said. "Benefit corporation legislation creates the legal framework to enable mission-driven companies like Patagonia to stay mission-driven through succession, capital raises and even changes in ownership.  - LA Times

The Economist described the executive of this “slow company” as such:

He likes to do things differently. Yvon Chouinard changed his favourite sport, mountaineering, by introducing reusable pitons (the metal spikes you bang into the rock face and attach a rope to). Climbers often used to leave pitons in the cliff, which is environmentally messy, another of Mr Chouinard’s peeves.

Patagonia is thus far the most high-profile company to sign onto this new piece of legislation.

Bloomberg reports though that there is another legal framework, The Flexible Purpose Corporation, which is providing some contrast and competition to B-Corp, arguing that it could offer the better solution.

A conversation with Jay Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab fillsi n the gaps on what distinguishes b corps from other businesses.  Here the radio interview here.

Delhi Auto Expo - The New Rickshaw Comes with Doors

This week Delhi held its annual auto expo and while SUVs were on display as well as high end luxury cars to entice an affluent middle class, there was also a different type of “car” that made it’s debut.  Actually, it’s not a car and nor is it vying for the competitive car market in India. Instead, it’s vying for the approximately five million auto-rickshaws that grace India’s roads. The price of the RE60 by Bajaj Auto is $2,750, about 20 percent higher than the cost of a traditional auto-rickshaw ($2,200).

So, what does it look and what is intended for?  NYTimes India Ink blog reports (click for image):

Executives say they have no plans to market it to average consumers. Instead, they are aiming for drivers of rickshaws, which are powered by motorcycle engines and operate as short-distance taxis in India. The RE60 offers features not found on current rickshaw models, including seat belts, doors and a hard top. It will have windows, although ones that fold out rather than roll down. Plus, it’ll get 82 miles per gallon -- a necessity for rickshaw drivers crisscross widespread cities like Delhi everyday.

But a few complaints from the rickshaw drivers include, not just the higher price point, but also how hot cars tend to become in the summer months in Delhi.  One rickshaw driver told the NYTimes:

Suran Singh, 40, who has been driving a rickshaw for 26 years, said doors and a hard top would help keep out the cold during the winter, but would make him too hot in the scorching New Delhi summers.

“This is better to drive in hot weather because it’s cloth,” he said, pointing to the top of his green and yellow rickshaw. “In Delhi, it gets hot in the summer, and we’ll be sweating it out in a car.”

Coming months will tell if the RE60 can help rickshaw drivers escape the dust or not...

Weekend Reads:

Americans are more giving than we give ourselves credit for, according to TIME.

Think we don’t make anything anymore?  NYTimes suggests that in fact American manufacturing is back on the rise.

Social mobility in the US is not as easy as it seems, reports NYTimes.

BBC looks at the “warts and all” of the Gates Foundation.   Hear this 40 minute conversation/ essay on BBC iPlayer.

Fast Company profiles Kenyan company that is selling kilns to farmers that produce biochar - a sustainable fuel source and a key component of rich agricultural soil.

SSIR looks at why are we an entrepreneurial generation and what made us choose this path.

The city began the process in 2009 with a report analyzing bike-shares Velib’ in Paris, Bicing in Barcelona, SmartBike in Washington DC, Bixi in Montreal and Vélô Toulouse in Toulouse for clues about successful bike-share programs. It concluded that to truly be successful and financially viable, programs have to be large scale, and recommended that NYC plan a city-wide program. Financing is expected to come from membership fees, sponsorship and advertising, and will be shared between the program contractor and the city. Stations will be placed on streets, sidewalks and parks, and users will be able to take out bikes based on an as-yet-to-be-designed subscription system. Bikes could be returned and taken out from any station with membership.

There has been a huge boom in bike-share programs recently, and the programs are particularly useful in densely populated cities where commuter and travel distances are small. In other cities, bike-share programs have been low-cost and relatively easy to operate.

NYCDOT predicts that New York’s relatively flat layout and high density will make it an ideal bike-share city. The city hopes to make the large-scale program specific to New York by placing bike stations close together, utilizing existing public spaces, using bike-station designs that do not interfere with subways or road-work and starting the program in the city’s highest density areas. The ideal bikes-share would also target  transportation-needy areas, like areas of northwest Brooklyn and Queens where research indicates that insufficient transit results in many commuters driving to work who could easily bike instead.

Cycling itself in New York City is at an all-time reported high, and the NYCDOT reports that cycling accidents have reduced dramatically in recent years due to new facilities and lanes. NYC has over 620 miles of bike lanes. With this program NYCDOT hopes to make the best use of these lanes, and change the way that New Yorkers get around their home.

A City of Lights mechanic workshop at CARECEN

Bikes may be trendy, but they are also just a way to get around. How can people who use bikes in different ways be united for the good of the community? City of Lights started in 2009 in Los Angeles to make visible the large community of immigrant and day-laborer cyclists who cycle across the city and to raise awareness of their needs and rights. City of Lights has grown from giving out lights at a single day laborer center to a volunteer-driven collective for community advocacy. Here, Dowser talks with Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition Development and Urban Program Coordinator Allison Mannos about who uses bikes in L.A. and how City of Lights expands what we mean by a cycling community.

Dowser: What were the motivations for starting City of Lights? What needs does it fill?
Mannos: Back when I was an intern in 2008 with the L.A. County bicycle coalition, I was working on bringing bikes into equity related transit plans. I’m an L.A. native from the outskirts of the San Fernando Valley, and I remembered seeing all those immigrant cyclists riding toward the industrial parks of the Northeast Valley – people who are usually on the sidewalk, don’t have lights and don’t have helmets. As I started getting more into bike culture and seeing who it was attracting, I talked with our co-founder about how we could reach out to these people who were really not included in the biking world.

Why combine biking and social justice advocacy? How does that intersection work?
Both of the founders were interested in social justice issues and saw this large gap in a community. We started talking with Planet Bike and other bike shops about getting lights donated that we could give out to immigrant cyclists as a start. We sent staffers to farmer’s markets, day labor centers and transit hubs and tried to write down what people were experiencing as riders. Many people at the day labor center were receptive and had lots of questions about their legal rights and about bike infrastructure, and we realized there was a need for workshops that would educate and empower them through this form of transit. We wanted to approach this from an organizing-type background, and knew we would have to go beyond just giving out lights.

How does City of Lights deliver its services?
We started gathering people in our database with an interest in social justice issues to lead workshops, develop resource guides and give out resources. The bike advocacy movement in L.A. is not representative of the diversity of bikers so we needed to look outside of that world to find volunteers who were part of the immigrant community.

What are City of Lights’ central advocacy programs?
We lead safety workshops, put out resource guides and give out lights, maps, vests and bike patch kits. Our bike maintenance and rules and regulations classes are available for free at CARACEN [the Central American Resource Center in L.A.].

Why do you think that urban biking communities are often identified as upper-middle class white communities?
I think this is a problem in many cities, and is most dramatic here in L.A. because we have a particularly diverse population. The problem is that the people who started the bike advocacy scene here came from roadie backgrounds or are interested in recreational and competitive riding, and they bring in people who they are familiar with and know. There isn’t much awareness of other types of cyclists. Even if they wanted to approach this day-laborer cyclist group, they don’t know how to approach them or where to start. Fear of the unfamiliar is the biggest barrier.

Are you seeking to bring these two communities together, or more to bring equal rights and awareness to both?
These two groups often have pretty different needs. A lot of people who ride on paths are mostly concerned with paths and rides outside of the city. Day laborers who ride to get to work don’t see themselves as cyclists. However, when we have broader citywide initiatives, that’s where all these people can come together and all advocate for better bike lanes. It’s very important that recreational cyclists are aware of day-laborer cyclists who ride to work. People often misunderstand them - people will say, 'why are they on the sidewalk, it makes the community look bad,' when they really need to go deeper and see why are they riding on the sidewalk in the first place. It’s not randomly happening, it’s because they are from low-income industrial areas where it’s dangerous in the street.

Why is City of Lights particularly relevant and important in L.A. right now?
Until very recently transportation was not a very political thing in L.A. There would be a lot of labor groups and immigrant groups and other social justice causes, but they would focus on housing and wages with a more 'old school' focus. Recently a lot more people are starting to see transportation as about justice and access, and neighborhood improvement projects include bike improvements. This is not just about building multimillion dollar paths, but building a really useful network to get around in the city. It’s about informing people that they can’t get pulled over for not wearing a helmet if they are over 18 [as per L.A. law] and that the police can’t use that as an excuse to check their immigration status.

What are your metrics for success and how have you measured them?
We try to keep track of our quantitative success in terms of how many items we give out and how many classes we give, but really the success is seeing our projects sustained. Our population is so varied - people don’t know when they are going to get work and a lot of our most active members in our bicycle collection live in a homeless shelter downtown. We’re looking to the long term to see people be empowered, and actually discuss their own ideas and run spaces themselves.

What are the biggest obstacles you have faced in your work?
The transient population is tough – it is hard to do community organizing with a population that moves and shifts so often. Also, people have a specific vision of how they think of bicycle advocacy – sometimes through the green movement, through certain forms of city planning, a policy perspective or bikes as workforce development – and because we are really making up something new, we have difficulty getting people to hear our niche. Lastly, it can be tough to advocate specifically for bike lanes in low income areas because often those areas tend be older with narrower streets. Planners are afraid of liability issues and taking up car capacity, and struggle more to reach out to those communities.

Where do you envision the work of City of Lights in 5 years?
We want to really expand our organizing focus so we are not necessarily just oriented to Latino immigrant day-labor cyclists – our intention was to start there and open up to other groups. We’d love to see Asian American and Black cyclist groups start to form, to provide nurturing for those and to keep raising awareness of the diversity of bikers, biking needs and uses of bikes.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Photo: Courtesy of City of Lights

As viewers do not know who precisely is commanding “Make This Better,” the anonymity and temporary nature of the work implies communal responsibility, rather than individual opinion. “We're hoping that Make This Better will initiate a dialogue about not only the places that we, as a community, could take on together, but about who exactly should make this better -- is it the responsibility of the city, the neighborhood, or even just one person?” Langlois asked.

“Make This Better” is part of an ongoing series of installations in needy areas of Windsor. Past work from Broken City Labs included the Fall 2009 screening of the giant word “WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER” on the Chrysler building in Windsor, where the message faced not only the city of Windsor but its neighboring city of Detroit. Broken City Labs has been called “an art therapy collective for a city in need of triage” and has been presenting work in Windsor since 2008.

“We don't work on behalf of the community, we work as community members,” Langlois stressed – community members who hope their (literally) large-scale work will bring other community members into a larger conversation.

RT @GreenBiz General Motors Turns Gulf Coast Oil Booms Into Chevy Volt Parts http://grn.bz/eHyqus

December 20, 2010 11:48 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ChevyVolt

Chevrolet Volt

Here’s a story that brings together lots of the hot topics of 2010: Chevrolet (@ChevyVolt) announced this week that their upcoming Volt electric car will include parts that are repurposed from the booms that helped clean up the BP oil spill. The plastic resin from the booms will be used to create air deflectors in the radiator in the entire first year’s run of the Volt production.

Have you pledged to support Yoxi's winner, The Udon Project? Help them reinvent #fastfood and we'll match up to $17,500! http://ow.ly/3sBw2

December 21, 2010 12:01 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@yoxi_play

Yoxi

Young startup Yoxi (@yoxi_play), which aims to find novel solutions to social issues through competitions, named the winner of its first contest this week. The competition hoped to reinvent fast food and involved three rounds. The winner is The Udon Project, which proposes a more friendly fast food restaurant that serves Pad Thai wraps and other healthy food on the go. Check out their final video.

House passes reform of food safety system http://on.msnbc.com/fXkwMR

December 22, 2010 9:55 am via msnbc.com feedsReplyRetweetFavorite

@msnbc_politics

msnbc.com - Politics

After a hiccup a few weeks ago, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act finally passed Congress this week, marking the first new food safety reform laws since the 1930s. Analysis at Change.org shows that the new laws will require much more frequent federal inspections of large farms and food producers and allow the FDA to issue mandatory food recalls for the first time. Food production has come a long way in 70 years, and it looks like our food laws are starting to catch up.

Better Food Pyramid Design Contest—Winner Unveiled! http://bit.ly/eiZW6T

December 20, 2010 3:44 pm via Su.prReplyRetweetFavorite

@GOOD

GOOD

In time for the weekend’s food-heavy holidays, GOOD (@GOOD) held a contest to find a better food pyramid, and this week, they named the winner. The winning design clearly lays out what we need to be eating more and less of, and integrates the issue of food production.

What’d we miss? Let us know in the comments or find us @dowserDOTorg.

The GE Energy Smart LED. Energy-efficient with a 22.8 year life. It's the world's first onmidirectional LED... http://fb.me/HUz8VSRN

December 7, 2010 10:46 am via FacebookReplyRetweetFavorite

@GELighting

GELighting

This week GE (@GE_Reports) released a new light bulb that promises to last a whopping 22.8 years. Called the “Energy Smart LED” it uses a 9-watt LED bulb and its makers promise it looks a lot like a traditional incandescent light when turned on. What’s the downside? It costs $50. But they estimate the energy savings over the life of the bulb is around $85.

Ford Focus Will Use Your Jeans: http://bit.ly/fNf1Z7

December 6, 2010 7:44 pm via CoTweetReplyRetweetFavorite

@alttransport

AltTransport

In an article on AltTransport (@alttransport) this week, we learned that the interior of each 2012 Ford Focus will include the recycled cotton from two pairs of blue jeans, used as sound absorption and carpet backing. Ford believes that recycling jeans is a way to keep potential waste out of landfills and make their cars more sustainable.

News [Reuters]: China says can make voluntary CO2 curbs "binding" ;http://reut.rs/dGmNDY #COP16, #Cancun

December 6, 2010 7:27 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@UN_ClimateTalks

UNFCCC

At the U.N. climate talks this week in Cancun, China made a new offer to make its extensive and ambitious carbon emissions targets a binding promise. Since the current round of Kyoto Protocol carbon caps expire in 2012, there has been a rush to find a new solution that will work for most countries. China’s move, according to some analysts, could put pressure on developed countries to extend the Kyoto Protocol again and bring down carbon emissions across the world. We’re looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Thanks for the nice blog post! @now_in_colour Save it as a WWF http://nowincolour.com/2010/12/save-it-as-a-wwf/

December 2, 2010 7:41 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@WWF

WWF

A team of developers in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund (@WWF) announced last week that they had released a new file format with the extension .wwf on the Internet. What does it do? It’s basically a PDF document, except without the option to print. “Save as WWF, Save a Tree” is the motto, and it’s available as free software for your computer. Most PDF reader programs can open the files, but it prevents printing across all platforms.

What’d we miss? Let us know in the comments or find us @dowserDOTorg.

Interesting experiment in trying to get ppl using <water & contributing to help ppl with little http://bit.ly/aTFzMv

November 3, 2010 2:31 pm via bitlyReplyRetweetFavorite

@CelebrateGreen

Lynn and Corey

The Twitter feed @CelebrateGreen alerted us to an interesting experiment this week: Workers at the design firm Teague created a meter to measure the amount of water that went down the office kitchen sink drain. Upon seeing that they used a whopping two gallons per hand wash, employees cut back until they were only using half a gallon each time. The company is now running a fundraising drive for mycharity: water that aims to earn $10,000 for water projects in developing nations. Watch the video that explains it all here.

The 10 Best Cities for Electric Cars: Plenty of research — from sources like GE and Deloitte, to name a few — has ... http://bit.ly/arzAlo

November 1, 2010 1:57 pm via twitterfeedReplyRetweetFavorite

@GE_Reports

GE reports

You might not expect corporate giant GE (@GE_Reports) to produce compelling research about conservation, but they’ve put a lot of effort into recent reports about world energy use. This week, they released the results of a feasibility study that names the 10 U.S. cities best suited for electric vehicles. The top five are Dallas, Houston, Detroit, St. Louis and Atlanta. Surprised? The report indicates that the current generation of electric cars would work best in cities with a lot of commuters and suburbs. You can read the whole report here.

S.F. supes take 'happy out of Happy Meals' http://sfg.ly/9jMh8W

November 3, 2010 6:20 pm via CoTweetReplyRetweetFavorite

@SFGate

SFGate.com

The San Francisco Chronicle (@SFGate) reported that the city's Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval this week to a restriction on including toys in fast food offerings like McDonald's Happy Meals. While the final vote takes place next week, the 8-3 vote this week is enough to overcome an expected veto from Mayor Gavin Newsom. If enacted, it could go into effect as early as December 2011. What do you think about governments determining when restaurants can use toys as enticements and when they can't? (San Francisco's litmus test: the food and drink have to add up to less than 600 calories and less than 35 percent of those calories can come from fat.)

Would you eat veggies and dip instead of popcorn and soda at the movies? http://bit.ly/dkHy6d

November 2, 2010 3:41 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@changeFood

Sustainable Food

According to this story at Change.org (@ChangeFood), food giant Del Monte is working on deals that would have their fruits and veggies sold alongside popcorn in movie theaters across the country. After a recent push to have produce sold alongside snack food in schools, this seems like the next natural move — read all about it here.

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

This is a series about solutions, or potential solutions, to real world problems.  It focuses on the line between failure and success, drawing on the stories of people who have crossed it.

Most of us tend to be better informed about problems than solutions.  This presents two challenges: if we rarely hear about success when it occurs, it’s hard to believe that problems can, in fact, be solved.  Also, knowledge about how to solve problems ends up being concentrated in too few hands.  It needs to circulate more broadly so that it can be applied where needed.

We are both journalists who have spent more than two decades reporting on social problems around the world, and where possible, exploring new models to address them.  Here, we’ll be looking at examples of success in fields such as health care, education, employment, political change and environmental protection.  The projects can be as specific as fixing motorcycles or as broad as improving the way we finance vaccines globally.  Examples will come from all over — the poorest parts of Africa and South Asia, but also middle-income countries like Mexico and Poland and rich ones like Canada and the United States.   In each case, we will look at what the people behind them did differently — what led to success in a world where plans so often end in disappointment.   And we will explore what we can learn from their experiences.

Today, we will examine one solution to a vexing problem:  many diseases that we know how to prevent and cure remain widespread.  For nearly all of human history, lives were short and miserable because there was little anyone could do about disease.   Now we know what to do.  The science is there.  The technology is there.  But we have a different problem ─ a happier one, but no less challenging:  how do we get these interventions to people everywhere?  And this problem doesn’t just apply to health care, it applies to almost every modern good or service, whether it’s education, energy, clean water or job opportunities. As the science fiction writer William Gibson has said, “The future is here ─ it’s just not evenly distributed.”

That’s why we’re beginning Fixes with the story of a health assistant named Tsepo Kotelo, whose job is to take care of people in remote mountain villages in the Maseru district of Lesotho.  Kotelo’s story shows the critical need for something not usually on the global to-do list for Third World health:  motorcycle maintenance.

Lesotho has some of the world’s highest rates of AIDS and tuberculosis, and much of Kotelo’s time is spent counseling and testing people for these diseases, giving talks about AIDS prevention, and helping people stick to their treatment plans and deal with side effects. He also checks the water supply, helps villagers improve sanitation, weighs and immunizes babies, examines pregnant women and treats basic diseases.

Until 2008 Kotelo could visit only three villages a week, because he had to reach them on foot, walking for miles and miles.  But in February of that year, Kotelo got a motorcycle ─ the best vehicle for reaching rural villages in Africa, most of which are nowhere near a real road.  Just as crucial, he was given the tools to keep the bike on the road:  he received a helmet and protective clothing, he was taught to ride and trained to start each day with a quick check of the bike.  His motorcycle is also tuned up monthly by a technician who comes to him.  Now, instead of spending his days walking to his job, he can do his job.  Instead of visiting three villages each week, he visits 20.  Where else can you find a low-tech investment in health care that increases patient coverage by nearly 600 percent?

The motorcycles come from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, but the maintenance comes from Riders for Health, a British-based organization founded by a husband and wife team, Barry and Andrea Coleman. The idea began in 1988, during a visit by the American motorcycle racing star Randy Mamola to Somalia. Mamola had given a sizeable donation to Save the Children, and had been invited to see its work in person.  He asked Andrea Coleman, who did public relations work for him and helped him raise money for charity, to come along.  She had young children and declined, but suggested Mamola take her husband, Barry, who wrote about motorcycle racing for The Guardian newspaper.

It was the first of several trips for Mamola and the Colemans.  In Somalia, they saw a woman in distressed labor being pushed towards the health clinic in a wheelbarrow.  They visited villages and heard that no one had ever come to vaccinate children.   Yet they also saw a graveyard of dead motorcycles and ambulances behind the clinic, some of them discarded for want of a $3 part and a little know-how.  “Some of them were relatively new,” said Andrea Coleman.  “This was crazy.  It’s been 100 years since the internal combustion engine was invented and nobody knew how to deal with these vehicles.  What a waste of money and lives.”  Today the Colemans run Riders.

There’s nothing new about donating vehicles for health care in Africa.  Many organizations do it.  But often these vehicles fall apart.  Barry Coleman says that unmanaged, a vehicle in Africa will usually have a major breakdown after 8 months of use and be junked entirely by 15 months.  This is a classic problem in development:  everybody wants to play the white knight coming to the rescue with the quick fix — the water pump, the $100 laptop, the motorcycle.  But the tougher challenge is developing a cost-effective system to keep things working.

In some countries, Riders provides vehicles ─ for example Gambia’s health system leases all its vehicles from Riders.  But what makes Riders different is that in all of the seven countries it works in, it focuses on keeping the vehicles running.  Riders charges a fixed cost of about 18 cents per kilometer for motorcycles, which includes fuel, and keeps vehicles in constant use for years with no breakdowns.  It trains and hires local technicians to do monthly tune-ups.  The predictable fees help governments and aid groups incorporate maintenance in their budget planning.  Riders currently manages about 1,200 motorcycles, ambulances and four-wheel drive vehicles used for health care in Africa.  The vast majority are motorcycles ─ even some ambulances are motorcycles with sidecars.

We’re not suggesting that motorcycles will solve Africa’s health problems ─ not even its health delivery problems.  The continent is facing a severe shortage of health care workers.  (Thousands are poached each year by wealthy countries; we’ll write about some fixes for this in future columns.)  But it’s within easy reach to multiply the scope and efficiency of the people who are already on the ground.

We already mentioned that Tsepo Kotelo’s motorcycle allows him to serve almost seven times as many villages as before.  Kotelo can also respond to emergencies, so he can provide better care as well as more of it.  And visiting villages more frequently, he can catch illnesses in their early stages or prevent them entirely.  A woman with a breach baby can make it to the hospital in time — by sidecar ambulance, no wheelbarrow necessary.  People now give sputum samples for TB diagnoses because they trust that their samples will actually reach the laboratory unspoiled.  All these changes save lives.

Dependable transport could revolutionize more than health care.  In poor countries, rural schools often lack teachers, who don’t want to live in villages.  If they could commute to work by motorcycle, more village children would be educated.  Additionally, water and electrification projects remain stalled across Africa because district government offices don’t even have one bike to make site visits.

Riders dramatizes the importance of paying attention to the scruffy and mundane parts of a system, especially delivery. Businesses understand this.  If Federal Express didn’t maintain its trucks, it would go bankrupt.  The same applies to social interventions.  It doesn’t matter how many billions have been spent on life-saving drugs or how well-trained the nurses are if a clogged fuel line prevents the treatments from reaching the patient.

Riders for Health’s focus on motorcycle maintenance is an example of the creative and practical ideas we look forward to debating with interested readers as this column develops.  We hope these ideas will also lead to discussions of the big questions about social change.

We look forward to your comments — and also hearing about the creative fixes you’ve come across.

This column was originally published in The New York Times. Fixes appears every Tuesday in the Times Opinionator section.

Photo captions/credits: 1. A peer mentor for H.I.V.-positive pregnant women and new mothers travels through Lesotho on a motorcycle maintained by Riders for Health. Credit: Tom Oldham/Riders for Health. 2. A health officer speaks with a mother and her child in Mucheni village, in the Binga district of Zimbabwe. Credit: Tom Oldham/Riders for Health

No more phonebooks in Seattle - if you don't want one. Council approves the first ever Opt Out ordinance against phonebook publishers.

October 11, 2010 7:58 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@LukeDuecy

Luke Duecy

This week the Seattle City Council voted to create a citywide “opt-out” ordinance for phonebook publishers, as reported here by local anchor Luke Duecy (@LukeDuecy). The new environmentally-friendly policy will save Seattle money—it costs the city $350,000 a year to recycle residents' unwanted phonebooks. Publishers will also be fined if they deliver phonebooks to consumers who have already opted out. You can read more about the move here.

CA holds on to No. 1 spot on #energyefficiency report for 4th year in a row. #energy http://bit.ly/adjpDl

October 13, 2010 10:01 am via SocialOomphReplyRetweetFavorite

@ACEEEdc

ACEEE

Independent research group American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (@ACEEEdc) released their yearly report on states' energy efficiency. The report, which examines utility policies, transportation efficiency, financial incentives, and climate change policies, ranks all fifty states in order of efficiency each year. California holds the number one spot for the fourth year running in 2010, followed by Massachusetts, Oregon, and New York. Check out the whole list (and the exhaustive reasoning behind it) at the ACEEE site, here.

Just announced a new program with @zipcar to provide car sharing for city employees & public use on nights and weekends http://bit.ly/cfnp1q

October 12, 2010 12:28 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MikeBloomberg

Mike Bloomberg

Hey, it’s just like we hoped! New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (@mikebloomberg) announced a car sharing program for city employees in conjunction with private car sharing service Zipcar (@zipcar) this week. Under the new plan, Department of Transportation employees will be able to reserve a special fleet of 25 Zipcars, most of which are hybrids, during work hours. On evenings and weekends, those Zipcars will be available for public use. This measure cuts down on city vehicle ownership, reducing congestion on the streets and pollution in the air.

Our investment in a transmission backbone project to accelerate offshore wind energy development in the Mid-Atlantic http://goo.gl/lVLM

October 12, 2010 12:28 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@google

A Googler

According to a piece in the New York Times this week, the Internet giant, Google (@google) is taking a 37.5% ownership stake in a brand-new “backbone” for offshore wind energy off the East Coast. The project, which creates an offshore connection to the existing national electrical grid, would eventually allow for huge wind farms, invisible from the shore, to help power cities along the eastern seaboard.  It could go into service by early 2016, according to one report. Read more here.

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

Khan Academy awarded $2m from Google as part of 10^100 project: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

September 24, 2010 12:08 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@khanacademy

Salman Khan

Just as we went to press with last week’s Twitter Roundup, Google (@google) announced the winners of their long-running Project 10¹⁰⁰, giving away a total of $10 million to five innovative companies that aim to change the world. The Khan Academy (@khanacademy), which provides an online library of teaching videos for free, received a $2 million grant to translate their library into the world’s most widely-used spoken languages. Read more about the other winners here.

Electric Vehicle Information Technology Systems:The second comeback of the electric vehicle (EV) in little more ... http://bit.ly/diJQGF

September 27, 2010 11:10 pm via twitterfeedReplyRetweetFavorite

@PikeResearch

Pike Research

A team of researchers at Pike Research (@PikeResearch), a firm specializing in clean technology market research, released some very compelling numbers this week that show a bright future for electric vehicles. They project that by 2015, there will be over 1 million electric vehicles sold per year. They also project the growth of a new multi-billion dollar industry in information technology to help govern the new hordes of electric vehicles. Read more here — looks like good news for the environment and the economy.

P&G CEO: “Our new vision will influence products we develop, how they are produced/distributed & social investment programs.” #pgnewvision

September 27, 2010 11:48 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@ProcterGamble

P&G Media Team

Consumer packaged goods giant Procter & Gamble (@PGNewsUS) announced an ambitious new set of sustainability guidelines for their operations this week, including a long-term goal of using 100% renewable and recycled materials for all their products and packaging. While that may sound ambitious, Procter & Gamble has committed to a series of incremental 10-year goals to help them reach total sustainability. Hopefully we’ll see more big companies follow suit.

Just announced: Meet the new MacArthur Fellows http://ow.ly/2FYtF

September 28, 2010 12:05 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@macfound

MacArthur Foundation

The MacArthur Foundation (@macfound) this week announced their 2010 fellows, popularly known as “genius grants.” 23 accomplished people received a surprising phone call informing them that they’d receive $500,000 over the next five years in support of their hard work. Among the new fellows are a high-school physics teacher who started an engineering academy, a language preservationist, and a music teacher who works with urban youth. Read about all of them here.

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