Member Blogs

This morning as I was walking down Boylston ST on my way to Office Nomads I saw a bunch of bedroom furniture sitting on the sidewalk. When I got nearer I realized it was the contents of someone’s bedroom. I overheard the three people that were moving the stuff from the apartment building to the street say, “well that’s most of it, all that’s left is some clothes that need to be bagged up.”

I just finished reading a report titled the “Seven Sins of Green Washing” authored by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. The report highlighted the significant increase in products that claim to be “Green” and use it as a marketing tool. One of the findings from the report was that, “Green advertising has increased almost tenfold in the last 20 years and has nearly tripled since 2006.”

As a consumer I want to do what is right. I want my hard earned dollars to have the greatest effect; I want to maximize the positive benefits of a particular purchasing decision. Marketers get this.

I have applied to Bainbridge Graduate Institute for their MBA in Sustainable Business program. Part of the application was to write an analytical essay on the following question. This is my answer. What’s your answer?

Van Jones, civil-rights lawyer and founder and Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, made the following statement: “The chief moral obligation of the 21st century is to build a green economy that is strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Those communities that were locked out of the last century's pollution-based economy must be locked into the new, clean and renewable economy. Our youth need green-collar jobs, not jails.” What changes need to be made to the current economic system in order for business to achieve this goal?

The discussion over this bill is roaring through the blogosphere like Niagara Falls. 1Sky is dedicating much of its content. It is frontpage news at Grist.org. But what is weird is that MSN, CNN, Bloomberg News, and the NYTimes are all eerily silent on this issue. That surprises me because this bill has been heralded by Al Gore as one of the most important pieces of legislation that our generation will see.