Posted 05/01/08 by Ryan Morris
In a previous blog post I mentioned that Americans toss almost 38 billion water bottles in the trash every year. To combat this environmental waste, Brita (you know, the folks who make those cool water filtration products for your home) and Nalgene (check any college student's backpack for one of their fashionable water bottles) teamed up to create the FilterForGood campaign.
The success of the campaign is determined by the number of disposable water bottles saved from ending up in your local dump. The environmentally conscious endeavor requires participants to pledge to reduce bottled water waste by using a reusable water bottle (Nalgene, encouraged) or filtered water (this is where Brita's pitchers and faucet mount filters come in.)
I was very excited when I learned about the pledge, so naturally I signed it online and began taking steps to become an active participant. The FilterForGood folks were stoked too and sent us some reusable water bottles for the staff to use along with a few faucet-mount filtration systems to give away.
Get Free Stuff, Save the Planet
Leave a comment at the bottom of this entry describing ways you plan to get the word out about reducing disposable water bottle use. The top three comments will receive a Brita faucet-mount filtration system. Oh, if you're wondering who will be judging the comments, look no further than Razoo's celebrity panel of super heros and rock stars, of course. ;-)
To track the success of the campaign you can view how many water bottles have been saved by using an interactive map on the campaign Web site.
Links of Interest
Posted 04/22/08 by Ryan Morris
It is estimated that Americans toss almost 38 billion water bottles in the trash every year. To combat this environental waste, Brita and Nalgene teamed up to create the FilterForGood campaign.
Gauging it's success by the number of disposable water bottles saved from ending up in a landfill, the program requires participants to pledge to reduce bottled water waste by using a reusable water bottle (Nalgene, encouraged) or filtered water (this is where Brita's pitchers and faucet mount filters come in.)
I'm so excited about this campaign I signed the pledge and am in the process of making sure everyone in the office has a reusable water bottle. You can get involved by taking the pledge and joining the cause on Razoo today.
To see how many water bottles have been saved, you can view a really cool interactive map on the campaign Web site. So go on, take the pledge, help the planet and enjoy a greener, healthier earth.
Happy Earth Day!
Posted 10/18/07 by Rebecca Carpenter
Have you thanked a soldier lately?
There are lots of good folks serving on our behalf all around the world. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in our own lives and daily to-do lists, that we forget the sacrifice our soldiers and their families make every day. Here's an easy way to let them know that we haven't forgotten them -- that we recognize and appreciate what they do.
Xerox is sponsoring the Let's Say Thanks program. The program allows anyone to send a postcard (real, not virtual) to one of our servicemen or women serving abroad. Just choose from any of the many patriotic cards (designed by U.S. schoolkids), fill in your message, and Xerox will print the card and ship it in care packages via Give2TheTroops.
This is just one of the many ways our little actions can make a big difference.
Posted 10/15/07 by Mimi Ghez
As we write about occasionally, it's great to see so many companies getting on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) bandwagon. And while we know that often their motivation is more self-serving than altruistic, sometimes the end does justify the means.
One of those companies getting active is Marshalls, Inc. We came across their latest do-gooding through our October campaign focusing on human trafficking and slavery. Marshalls is teaming up with the Family Violence Prevention Fund , an organization that works to end violence against women and children.
Check it out:
From October 18-October 24, Marshalls, Inc. is sponsoring a week-long Shop Till It Stops campaign in more than 700 stores nationwide. For every pair of shoes purchased, $1 will be donated to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, up to $150,000, to support efforts to prevent violence against women and raise awareness about the harmful effects of abuse. Visit a store or shop at Marshalls online and get some shoes! It's that simple. Remember that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so here's a way to step out and take action.
Posted 10/11/07 by Ryan Morris
One of my favorite environment-focused blogs (Tree Hugger) posted some interesting facts about Wal-Mart's efforts to go green. I know -- sounds crazy, but the large, everything-under-one-roof-including-car-batteries-and-lettuce retailer has actually been taking steps to make a smaller carbon footprint on our little planet.
The author points out the "corporation’s efforts in green roofing, its purchases of green power, its sustainable fish targets, and its purchases of forest lands for conservation."
I really hope Wal-Mart is doing all of this out of a true desire to better our planet, rather than as just a PR stunt to entice ultra-liberal-birkenstock-wearing-organic-only customers into it's stores.
As I write this, there is a big conference going on right now that Wal-Mart is hosting in Arkansas. The retailer has invited almost 2,000 of it's suppliers to learn about what they can do to become more sustainable and green.
For the meanwhile, I'll still be an active member of the Wal-Mart Watch group on Razoo. I'm not convinced yet that everything is gravy with the large retail chain -- I'm still bummed some photos I took there to get developed were lost ...
Posted 09/28/07 by Rebecca Carpenter
We've been writing about water bottles for a while now, and our Razoo community is really fired up about the topic. So we were psyched to see the latest news about Nalgene and Brita's new partnership, Filter For Good.
The scoop from Filter For Good:
Last year, Americans threw away 38 billion plastic water bottles, about $1 billion worth of plastic. That's a huge waste, especially considering 1.5 million barrels of oil - enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year - were used to produce the bottles. And that's not even including the oil used for transportation.
You can make a difference by choosing to reduce your contribution to bottle water waste. Brita and Nalgene have partnered to create the FilterForGood pledge, a commitment to reduce your personal waste by giving up bottled water, even if it's just a few days each week.
If you purchase a FilterForGood refillable bottle, you'll also be supporting the Blue Planet Run Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to provide safe drinking water to 200 million people for the rest of their lives by 2027. For every FilterForGood refillable bottle purchased between August 10th and December 31st, 2007, a donation of $4, up to a maximum of $25,000, will be made to the Blue Planet Run Foundation.
Get involved:
Learn the facts about water bottles.
Take the Filter for Good pledge.
Get more information and learn how to get involved on Razoo.
Posted 09/13/07 by Rebecca Carpenter
Thanks to Triple Pundit for keeping me on top of the latest from a field near and dear to my heart: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Net Impact, a great organization of business school students and professionals committed to social responsibility, has just released its 2007 Business as UNusual Guide. In it, the the organization details the leading MBA programs and how they address social and environmental issues.
Like the recent shift towards annual CSR reports, the rating of b-schools with regard to social responsibility is a positive trend. It's nice to see that consumers (and in this case, prospective students) are driving institutional action by their demand for information and accountability. And with any luck (and a little more demand from folks like us), hopefully we'll see this trend continue to gain traction and become mainstream.
Posted 08/29/07 by Rebecca Carpenter
A while back we wrote about the trend towards annual Corpororate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting. The idea behind CSR reporting being a mechanism to measure and publicize a company's effectiveness in the areas of sustainability, social contribution, green practices, and the like.
As Hollywood taught us, nothing is official until it has an annual award attached to it... So by those standards, CSR reporting is now officially official. Yesterday, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced the launch of the GRI Readers' Choice Awards, which aims to spotlight the best and worst in CSR reports. "The award will draw attention to the fact that sustainability reporting complements traditional reporting by offering shareholders and stakeholders' insight into sustainability as one of the most burning issues of our times." Said Mervyn E. King, Chair of the GRI Board of Directors.
While traditional annual reports are about as interesting as the dictionary, perhaps attaching a Readers' Choice Award to CSR reports will encourage companies to make the content a bit more engaging. Regardless, it's a noble effort to generate interest in CSR. To cast your vote this October, check out the Global Reporting Initiative.
Posted 08/14/07 by Rebecca Carpenter
Ten years ago, my business school, Darden, was one of the only b-schools in the world to require all its students to take a full-year business ethics course. Today, you'll find ethics classes offered at most of the top schools, as questions of ethics in business make headlines daily in the major media outlets. Business ethics can take many forms, but lately the hottest topics are corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Green Business.
While many companies are starting to pay lipservice to their social responsiblity, a few companies are embracing CSR in a meaningful and authentic way. In addition to their traditional annual reports, Patagonia, Starbucks and WholeFoods produce annual Corporate Social Responsiblity reports, reporting on everything from their carbon emissions to employee volunteer contributions.
A few companies are going even a step further, and building CSR into their business models. Timberland and Green Maven are two such examples:
In his blog, Marc Gunther reports on Timberland's recent evaluation of its supply chain in developing countries. Interestingly, Timberland found that while they thought they were protecting foreign workers by imposing strict limits on maximum weekly work hours, it was quite the opposite -- migrants looking to earn as much money as possible in a short period of time wanted to work beyond the 60-hour limit. While this poses a new wrinkle in their CSR strategy, Timberland should be commended for actually talking to not just their own workers, but those of their suppliers as well. Read more here.
And in the magical world of Google, a new star has been annointed. Today Google announced that they recognize GreenMaven.com as "an exemplary search engine," primarly due to the engine's ability to sort through web clutter to return socially-conscious and/or green findings. "People want to go green, but they often don't know where to start or even what questions to ask," says Joey Shepp, founder of Green Maven. "Green Maven makes searching for all things green as easy as using Google. If you search for socks, you get organic socks. If you search for cars, you get hybrid cars. Our mission is to make it easy for mainstream to go green." Read more here.
Is your company or organization embracing CSR in a meaningful way? Tell us about it here...
Posted 07/12/07 by Robin Weekley
So, I'm sure you've heard the buzz: No More Bottled Water in San Francisco. That's only partially true, though. In an effort to significantly cut down on bottle water waste in San Francisco and surrounding counties, the mayor of the city has banned city institutions from buying any bottled water, including that in community water coolers. City employees will instead be guzzling municipal water throughout the day except in emergency or health-threatening circumstances.
After finding out that 25% of the bottled water we drink is simply tap water re-packaged, this seems like a pretty wise move on the part of San Francisco.
To get the whole story, check out this CNN article.
