A recent study of over 1200 executives, over a quarter of whom were CEO's, concluded that companies "that have delivered strong share price growth over the past three years are more proactive on corporate sustainability issues than those that have seen their share price stagnate or decline."

While clearly sustainable practice cannot be deemed the cause of share price growth it demonstrates a correlation between responsible corporate stewardship and companies' actual performance performance.  read more »

When a man moves away from nature his heart becomes hard.
Lakota

Autumn may seem like an odd time of year to consider green landscaping and gardening practices but as tons of leaves are carted away from properties across the country is a reminder of all the dangerous and expensive fertilizers that will take their place. A reminder of the mind set, the culture of waste, that has evolved in the place of many of our ancestors' values.  read more »

Seek wisdom over knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future.
Lumbee

As our cultural trends yearn towards the ideals of "green," "sustainability" and "eco-consciousness," be it out of a sense of necessity or a sense of responsibility. It amuses me the see how much our goals seem to strive towards old wisdoms of the indigenous cultures. I believe, if nothing else, a basic re-introduction to the culture and beliefs of the Native Americans would provide strength to the journey and light to the path we take towards these trendy goals, hopefully helping them to endure.  read more »

Who says playing games at work is unproductive?

Mark Baldwin at McGill University of Montreal had employees at a call center play a game for 5 minutes before work. The game simply required them to find a smiling face among the images of frowning faces. Those who played had a 17% reduction in the stress hormone cortisol compared to those who did not play.  read more »

Beginning November 12 the One Laptop Per Child program will introduce its Give One Get One program where consumers can purchase one of the devices of $399 and a second will be sent to a child in a developing country.  read more »

For anyone who has felt and ambivalence about the idea of carbon offsetting or for anyone looking for a good analogy to describe their misgivings towrds it, here's a bit of fun I found by way of the Inspired Protagonist this weekend.

CheatNuetral

A simple alignment of goals among developers and a commitment to green building is all we would need to change the face of building construction during a time when construction is booming.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development released a survey last week which found that real estate and construction costs of green buildings are overestimated by 300%. The 1400 respondents also understated greenhouse gas emissions from building as 19% of the world's total while the actual number is 40%.  read more »

Pregnant mothers-to-be and those breastfeeding who eat junk food may also be passing a craving for junk foods and a tendency towards obesity to their children. Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in London published the findings in the British Journal of Nutrition showing the rats given access to junk foods when pregnant, and/or while breastfeeding had offspring that overate and favored junk foods such as donuts and potato chips.  read more »

The Forest Department of India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh, along with the help of farmers and students, planted 10.5 million trees in a single day.

"In fact, we have overshot the target," said state forestry chief V.N. Garg. "The sites can also be seen on Google Earth and the detailed reports (on plantation figures) are being sent to the office of the Guinness book of world records."  read more »

PCWorld.com released its list of the top ten greenest tech products today. The list included laptops, a solar powered charger for cell phones, cameras, IPods and other tech gadgets, and even a green web hosting company.

Nokia made the list with its N95 cell phone which handles WiFi, GPS, email, text-messaging, web browsing, plays video and music, has a 5 megapixel camera that also takes video. The company will even recycle the phone for free. Nokia recently topped Greenpeace's June 2007 Guide to Greener Electronics.  read more »