Category — Coaching

Just a few months ago we all became aware that the toys we gave to our kids were potentially poisoned by lead and other toxic substances. People protested and asked the government to institute better controls and more oversight.

Some people said we should go back to the old days when toys were made by hand and from wood. Though that is a nice dream, most of us would probably not be able to afford these toys.

During my travel to Germany I was lucky enough to come through the city of Nuernberg, where the worlds largest exhibition for toys is being held every few years. On the first page of the exhibition magazine, a new development was announced. I was surprised and excited, and am happy to bring the good news to you today.

As I am involved in the preparations for the event management of Earth Day 2009 through my cooperation with Social Traffic Inc. (http://www.socialtraffic.biz) and the associated events portal at http://www.eventslisted.com I am always on the lookout for interesting developments in the eco-conscious field. When I find them I publish them in many places including here as AEM.EDBD

Let’s look at some of the details about this amazing new material directly from the source of the inventions at the Toy Expo 2009: Most plastics are based on petroleum. A bio-plastic that consists of one hundred percent renewable raw materials would help to conserve this resource. Researchers have now optimized a renewable plastic in such a way that it is even suitable for products such as Nativity figurines and toys for babies and toddlers.

Toys have to put up with a lot of rough treatment: They are sucked by small children, bitten with milk teeth, dragged along behind bobby cars, and every now and then they have to survive a rainy night outdoors. Whatever happens, it is vital that the material does not release any chemical softeners or heavy metals that could endanger children.

Toys can be made of a new material called ‘liquid wood’ in the future. The advantage is that this bio-plastic, known as ARBOFORM, is made of one hundred percent renewable raw materials and is therefore not reliant on petroleum.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal and the Fraunhofer spin-off TECNARO GmbH have developed the material. But what exactly is liquid wood?

“The cellulose industry separates wood into its three main components – lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose,” explains ICT team leader Emilia Regina Inone-Kauffmann. “The lignin is not needed in papermaking. TECNARO mixes lignin with fine natural fibers made of wood, hemp, or flax, and natural additives such as wax. From this mixture, they produce plastic granulate that can be melted and injection-molded.” To separate the lignin from the cell fibers, the workers in the cellulose industry normally add sulfurous substances. However, children’s toys should not contain sulfur because it can smell very unpleasant, among other side effects.

“We were able to reduce the sulfur content in ARBOFORM by about 90 percent, and produced Nativity figurines in cooperation with Schleich GmbH. Other products are now in the planning stage,” says TECNARO’s managing director Helmut Nägele. This is a challenging task: Sulfur-free lignins are usually soluble in water – and therefore unsuitable for toys. Toys left out in the rain or humidity should not dissolve. The same would be undesirable when children suck on them. With the aid of suitable additives, the TECNARO scientists were able to modify the bio-plastic in such a way that it survives contact with water and saliva undamaged.

One of the other important questions was: Can the material be recycled? To find out, the company produced components, broke them up into small pieces, and re-processed the broken pieces – ten times in all. They couldn’t detect any change in the material properties of the low-sulfur bio-plastic, which means it can be recycled.

This new invention is a great development for concerned parents and all institutions and organizations providing services for small kids. At the same time it goes to show that we can find natural solutions in many places on Earth, if we put our minds to it.

Liquid Wood… - who would have guessed?

For the last two years we have all been witnesses to one of the largest collapses of a system mankind has created.

I am not talking about the environment, as I normally do; we have been at it on that issue for much longer than tow years. I am talking about the economic, financial, and judiciary system in the United States. The actual number sand consequences have become obvious for the public in the US and many places around the world more recently, but the collapse has been going on for a while. The reason it could happen in such a dramatic fashion is the neglect of the symptoms the administration in Washington was experiencing.

That reminds us about the neglect of any significant action or law making about the destruction of the environment in the last eight year, in light of symptoms like Hurricane Katrina, ever hotter years around the glob, disappearing ice at the poles, and many more

Now new hope comes with a new leader and his team. One of the big goals is the creation of millions of green jobs in industries and initiatives involving sustainable and environmentally conscious fields

Some people among us might think the United States were always late to the Green revolution. That is not really true. More than 40 years ago there was awareness in a grand scale that had disappeared until very recently. I am talking about Earth Day.

I am involved in the largest global virtual initiative to organize the celebration of Earth Day through the utilization of social networks and modern internet media. Its called Social Traffic Inc. and this is a contribution by AEM.EDBD. We are planning to make Earth Day 2009 the biggest celebration and party the online-community has ever seen or been part of. To learn where it all started, let’s go back and discover

“How the First Earth Day Came About

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day, himself:

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political “limelight” once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour.

I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation’s political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.

After President Kennedy’s tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called “teach-ins,” had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

“Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam…a national day of observance of environmental problems…is being planned for next spring…when a nationwide environmental ‘teach-in’…coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned….”

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.”

That was then. Now people have many things to do and don’t follow the traditional patters of energetic participation. The one place we can still find it is on the internet, especially in social networks. That’s where we will be and create a buzz and a movement to energize the celebration and motivate at least 20 million people, hopefully more.

If you are interested to join me, take a look at the designated event site at http://www.socialtraffic.biz or search for events and promotion opportunities at http://www.eventslisted.com

Axel Meierheofer, AEM.EDBD

Part 2: Your Schools, Colleges, Universities Eco-reputation

Ecological issue and eco-consciousness touches all parts of our lives. It’s not just how we behave and act, but also what our institutions on all levels do to create a better future for all of us and develop more awareness for those who will be the leaders in the future.

In August 2008, Dawson Rasouzzi showed one example about a college to demonstrate what can be done to improve the eco-reputation of a school and in the process develop a better awareness among its faculty and students. Dawson wrote:

Green Mountain College is hoping its incoming students’ first impressions at college are their long-lasting impressions during their years on the Poultney campus and long after graduating.

Freshman orientation — which, for many colleges, means burying students in paper handouts, flying in guest speakers and blanketing the campus with balloons and other non-recyclable goods — is getting a “green” makeover this year.

To lead by example in showing importance of sustainability, GMC has cut back the number of paper mailings that often fill mailboxes the summer before freshman year, and combined them into one package of information with suggestions to check the school’s Web site where the information is also posted.

The school will also be teaching incoming students’ about the effects actions have on the environment and how to reduce their carbon footprints at the orientation from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1.

“We’re adding workshops and public campaigns about sustainability to hit students over the head about it,” said Jesse Pyles, the college’s coordinator of service learning and sustainability. They will also calculate the amount of each student’s carbon emissions upon getting to the campus and the amount they will produce in their four years at GMC.

One night of orientation, the college is offering the opportunity for students to camp out on the campus around campfires and the college will read the meters from rooms that house students overnight to show how much electricity is used in an average dorm room.

Recycling Electrical Wire Rolls

“The idea is to show they don’t have to use that energy inside to have fun and hopefully they will see that.”

The college is also encouraging students to bring their own utensils and travel mugs for orientation to reduce the amount of energy and water the college uses to clean them, with stations set up on campus to hand wash them. They are also offering biodegradable utensils for orientation visitors.

“The fewer items that have to be washed by the institution (means) the more energy is saved and the more water is going to be saved,” Pyles said. “It’s just a matter of being really intentional and getting students into the habit of taking personal responsibility and to think about what they are using.”

The campus will be decorated with flowers grown on the college farm and with signs made from reusable sandwich boards instead of the previously used plastic, one-time-use signs that typically plaster college campuses.

For breakfast one day, students will dine on products from the college farm and local providers, saving the energy it takes to transport the goods to Vermont from out of state.

Logistically, it’s very difficult to provide only locally produced foods all the time, Pyles said, although the one meal demonstrates the college’s intensions and also supports local farmers.

All of the speakers at the college will be local during the orientation, including employees of the college, instead of bringing speakers in from far away.

The “green” thinking doesn’t end for students after classes begin on Sept. 2, but instead orientation is just the “green” kick-off.

“It’s something we want to focus on for all of our events, but it’s still a work in progress,” Pyles said.

Recycle Electrical Wire Rolls 2

The college with a “green” reputation has long tried to make its campus more sustainable and practiced earth-friendly initiatives.

Pyles said last school year the college focused on the “little things” like having more in-house presenters or experts from the area speak on campus.

“Those small actions really served as a spring board for these other actions,” Pyles said.

More to come…

AEM.EBDB

In a previous article we looked at the outcome of neglect when it comes to eco-consciousness. Examples like General Motors or Ford Motor Company come to mind. The reputation of a company as a measure or important factor for its success will be an important aspect of the economy in the 21st century.

At the same time the bottom line for any activity is people. What people do or do not do, what they stand for and what actions they take makes all the difference. That’s why it is important to take a look at your eco-reputation.

To start out I feel it is important to get a clear understanding what the term “reputation’ actually means. Here is a summary from references on the internet, in dictionaries and other public sources:

Reputation is the opinion of the public toward a person, a group of people, or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as education, business, online communities or social status.

Reputation is known to be an ever-present, spontaneous and highly efficient mechanism of social control in societies. It is a subject of study in social, management and technological sciences. Its influence ranges from competitive settings, like markets, to cooperative ones, like firms, organizations, institutions and communities.

Furthermore, reputation acts on different levels. At the individual level, it concerns groups, communities, collectives and abstract social entities (such as firms, corporations, organizations, countries, cultures and even civilizations). It affects phenomena of different scale, from everyday life to relationships between nations. Reputation is a fundamental instrument of social order.

These definitions don’t just apply to the work reputation, but also to eco-reputation. You have one, your company has one, your school, college, university, has one. Corporation receive one from the public, and even regions and countries have eco-reputations.

In the recent past, cases have been pound where the overall reputation of an entity is different than its eco-reputation. A good example would the country of China. It is known and has the reputation of being communist, almost dictatorial, controlling, and mainly interested in economic growth. Many media outlets and politicians have pointed out that China is adding a new coal power plant to its electric network every week.

Politically, economically, and environmentally, China has the reputation of being strict, ambitious, and willing to neglect the impact on climate. When you dig a little deeper you will find out that international organizations actually give China a pretty good eco-reputation – and rightfully so.

With the beginning of the year 2008, China has become the largest producer of solar and wind energy products, not just for export, but also for installation in their own country. What most people don’t know about their eco-reputation is that they pollute the climate with the equivalent of about 5 tons per person while the US is putting about 20 tons per person into the atmosphere every year. China is very strict about this and tried to reduce the amounts further with a top down policy and alternative energy initiatives.

You can see how the reputation of a country and the eco-reputation can be significantly different. How does this apply to you?

Well, in a similar way as you need to build your reputation for any other aspect of life. If you want to be seen as dependable, the only way to gain that reputation is by following through on your promises. When you take this premise and convert it to your eco-reputation, you gain dependability by actually acting on the eco-friendly issue dear to your heart. If you ask your friends, co-workers, and family members to separate recyclable items form non-recycle ones, you need to be the role model and do it all the time, especially when they can see it, both at work and at home.

If you want to improve your reputation from wasteful to conserving, you cut down on all the things not really necessary to achieve a goal. The same is true for your eco-reputation. To achieve the reputation as an eco-conserver, you collect your organic matter and use it as part of your compost. You buy organic products because you know that they are packaged in recyclable containers or offered without packaging. You also read most of what you need online or in emails, rather than printing everything, and you don’t through advertisements and other paper products into the trash can but collect them and get them back into the production process.

Even for management and leadership, you want to walk the talk to gain your eco-reputation. That doesn’t just mean that you point out all the things mentioned above, but you encourage your team members to look for ways to develop or improve products, production and services with savings and positive outcomes for nature in mind. That builds the bridge to the eco-reputation of your company, your schools, your region, and your country.

Most important, you need to take action. Some things are obvious and others might need a little push. The free Eco-Action Plan we have developed will help you build your eco-reputation and encourage others to follow your lead.

Your eco-reputation is very similar to a first impression. Someone once said: You can never redo a first impression. If your first impression is the one of a great eco-reputation, you will be well on your path to success. Just don’t forget what Peter Drucker once said: “It takes many people easily years, if not decades to build a good (eco-) reputation, and it only takes seconds or one foolish act to ruin it.”

Don’t let that happen to you and spend some time thinking about the steps you can take to build your eco-reputation. It will set you apart and .prime you to be at the forefront of the people needed to succeed in the new green economies and societies of the 21st century.

In the last few years we have all become more aware of the growing wave of eco-friendly products, eco-friendly initiatives, and claims by politicians of all backgrounds that alternative energy production is what they want to promote in the future.

As early as 10 years ago the US government and the politician running campaigns for election promised to become more eco-friendly. At the same time we saw that individuals who actually wanted to reduce pollution, protect animals or protested against behaviors of companies were painted as extremists with no knowledge of capital markets, technological solutions, and the need to keep the market going while new technologies were developed.

The US government decided to put more than $1 Billion (with a B) Dollars into additional research and development. That’s a number that sounds great on first glance, especially since nobody can really imagine how much money 1 Billion really is. When you realize that the largest oil companies received about 50 Billion in tax cuts and savings in the same time period, it becomes clear that we didn’t really had an eco-friendly environment.

While all this data is publicly available and you might have heard or read about it in the news, you might ask yourself why you should care?

Normally it’s not nice to answer a question with another question. Before I answer your questions, let me put some supporting questions in front of you:

Do you work in a company that could benefit from a ‘greener’, eco-friendly reputation?
Do you have a job that could be eliminated if competitors gain market share because they have a better eco-reputation?

When you purchase products and services in your private life, do you try to get the best value and balance between organic, eco-friendly origins and price?

When you think about it, the answer to your questions why you should care is that fact that the reputation your employer has impacts your livelihood directly.

When you wonder what happens if a company jeopardizes its eco-reputation, a good – or horrible example – depending how you look at it, is the auto industry.

There have been thousands of articles about the success of Toyota and the Prius hybrid car. The idea Toyota realized was the need to come up with new, more fuel efficient technologies to establish a vehicle on the global market. Mainly customers in Europe were craving for a vehicle in a modern appearance with low fuel consumption. In Japan, new technology was always of interest, and in the US it appeared enough eco-conscious individuals, especially along the West Coast would be buyers.

The technology was supported by massive marketing campaigns and for the first few years the sales were slow, the cost high, and profits nowhere to be seen. As oil prices kept increasing, the fuel efficiency of the Prius got more and more attention. Then it benefited form the exhaust regulations, favoring a vehicle that runs partially on electrical power.

Long story short, not only the Prius became an icon of eco-friendliness, but the Toyota brand assimilated this reputation as well. Even though the large majority of all vehicles sold by this Japanese manufacture are non-hybrid vehicles, the new reputation has been successfully established.

Do I hear you say again: “So what?”

Well, the economy and oil prices in 2008 didn’t help, but the brand with the best eco-reputation weathers the current storm much better than all other brands. While GM, Ford and Chrysler report almost monthly that they reduce the workforce by another couple thousand workers and close factories, Toyota has risen to become the largest car manufacturer on the globe.

At the end of October 2008, the representatives of the big three US car makers had this to say when releasing their quarterly results:

“We just released the worst sales numbers in the last 25 years. If you adjust for population growth, this is probably the worst industry sales month in the post-WWII era.” (Mark LaNeve, head of GM sales and marketing)

This is a sobering result of neglecting the signs of demand for eco-friendly vehicles for many many years.

What are you saying? Did I just hear: “Well, that’s the car industry. That’s an old industry anyway. They are connected with oil anyway”

Yes, you are right, but that is not the real reason. Eco-negligence is the real reason that can lead to enormous reductions, and in some cases elimination, form the market place.

I don’t think anybody will reject wind energy as one of the new, modern industries. Same for solar or geo-thermal. All these alternative energy producing methods and the companies that offer their products and services in these markets are considered as modern. What has eco-negligence done to them?

Look who are the world leaders to get a better idea:

o Nuclear power plants: Toshiba (Japan)
o Bio-Gas: Schmack (Germany)
o Wind Energy: Vestas (Denmark)

It’s not a matter of industry, length of time in business, or the technology applied. It’s all a matter of paying attention and avoiding eco-negligence. The green, eco-conscious revolution will not be stopped anymore. Now the questions becomes, how far are you in your life. To the same extent you want to explore how far your company is developed along the eco-developments and initiatives, or if eco-negligence is still the order of the day.

If so, you want to keep an eye out for our coming eco-action plan that will allow you to take practical steps in the right direction.

Don’t jeopardize all your hard work, your ambitions and your dreams through eco-negligence. Get ready, at work and at home, to take action and create a better, more modern and successful environment.

Axel Meierhoefer