professional human being

Live, Love, Eat Mountain

2010-11-21T23:26:00.004-06:00

Yours truly has co-hatched a much-needed event to celebrate and investigate sustainable living here in the Western Slope Rockies. Here's the FaceBook event page link.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114291198638065

I'm doing live music on the Wheeler Opera House stage, helped coordinate and plan the program as well as the poster design.

Looking forward to a stimulating roundtable discussion featuring fiery eco activist Randy Udall, the most wonderful Patagonia CEO Casey Sheahan, our own local alpine permaculture hero Jerome Ostenkowski, The City of Aspen's Canary Initiative Director Lauren McDonell and CORE CEO Randy Ratledge

hee hee hee

2010-08-24T20:56:00.000-05:00

Watch this film and this space....

2010-06-03T01:27:00.001-05:00

http://iamthemovie.net/

cooperative energy, heart energy, doing more with less, love,... what's not for a professional human being to adore? I loved this.

I like this. I really do.

2010-04-27T11:59:00.003-05:00

Please watch, spread this and let it inspire some cooperative action where you live.

http://www.fouryearsgo.org/

My latest Social Campaign-the first in my new town

2010-02-05T11:39:00.004-06:00

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/139098

Your comments, ideas and such are warmly embraced.

Economic Recovery

2010-01-04T23:37:00.004-06:00

Fishermen paddle off Kennedy Island in the remote Western Province of the Solomon IslandsPhoto: AFP

Can't help but notice all the shifts from ecological distress getting drowned out as usual to economic "recovery" hopes.

If we truly "recover" does this mean a "return" to indifference and head-down profit-raking?

Or can a new healthier economic climate built on greater global sensitivity come forward?

My other concern is how marketing (and our clients) will stop flirting with all things green but instead rear back to aspirational ascendency tactics. So far, I see little evidence of the recession's effects leading towards rethinking any old marketing values or suggesting radical cuts or true shifts. Most messaging seems more like hunkering down, hoisting the "sale" flags and waiting for the markets to rebound and no longer have to cut profits to stay alive.

This perhaps is the most worrying potential trend of all, that we aren't able to think beyond our pocket books when the economy shifts, no matter the carbon load in our atmosphere. So many people can't fathom the existence and plight of other people who live in areas of the planet where oceans, drinking water and food supplies are already at the brink.

And yes, I remain optimistic. I still offer solutions, answers and options to any who will consider them.

Future gazing.... (thank you John Grant)

2009-11-18T17:32:00.002-06:00

What if brands disappear completely?

What if all we have are actual and virtual communities?
Trading, sharing and more intimate connections?
Marketing will mean a complete tear down of the agency monoliths and we marketers will be like the old time knife sharpener on a wagon going from virtual street to street.

I kind of like that.

How Do You Stay Human In An Increasingly Digital World??

2009-11-17T16:26:00.002-06:00

I check my FB, Twitter, Gmail and more- incessantly.

I also watch the stars, find the moon, sit with trees, birds, the sky and actively seek out live flesh and blood to talk and be with.

The iphone will always be there, but I'm alert to overload connection. And I work to balance the connect with touching, feeling, being.

As long as the virtual connection spreads the idea, the information between us all, the body still needs light, air and to do, to make tangible action (yes and sometimes deep inaction) to serve and make a meaningful difference in this world.

Do you struggle? How do you balance it all?

Talking social media

2009-11-02T12:55:00.006-06:00

http://vod.grassrootstv.org/vodcontent/8580-1.wmv

If I can get a fast-forwardable version I'll replace this.

Last week in Aspen, a small group talked about twitter, facebook and other social communications issues.

As usual, I made the truly odd comments.

A Shining Example You Can Support–And Eat.

2009-09-23T18:03:00.003-05:00

Please watch this.

The COO/Founder of Nature's Path so eloquently captures the mission of the company that I love, support and whose many products I happily consume. Now, to find a way to work with them?

Share this if you like it even half as much as I do.

One Person Can Do Anything, Only Everybody Can Do Everything.

2009-08-26T16:08:00.003-05:00

Inspired by my friend John Grant's new book, I had a thought.
What do you think of this?
Each of us can only change ourselves, one person can surely inspire others, but only large groups united in a common aim seem be able to make massive changes in communities, nations and more.
What is the nature of a positive herd instinct?
What makes us want to join something positive and deeper than a gadget or fashion item?
What is there about joining a tangible face-to-face group versus a virtual online community?
How many people does it take to make a deep impact on sustainability, diet, transportation or media and political movements? What moves them-the idea or a related social/fashion buzz?
What are the new ideas that will spark change and organization on a large scale? Famine? Economic collapse? A song? A natural disaster? A politician?
You? Me?

Really, what do you think?

A Quick 1-2-3 (to try to set some things aright)

2009-08-11T14:09:00.003-05:00

1. Global Warming/Climate Change
It doesn't matter whether it's a natural cycle, or man-made or a combination of both.
It's happening and we had better deal with it as we're living through it and it's affecting more than our earth, but our wallets too. Take heed? Take action now. Reduce, reuse.

2. US Health Care Reform
Anything that keeps the US for-profit system in place will keep us far behind other countries in health. Plus, "socialized medicine" shouldn't be so scary when we already have socialized police, fire, roads, food inspection, schools, libraries and the military-just to name a few. HMOs and Pharma make money by keeping us sick, not by keeping us healthy. So check out HR 676 the real reform opportunity. Sorry Mr. President-- but you're not doing nearly enough. As long as Norway and France (and quite a few others) have systems that eclipse ours, we should demand more for our money. We should be #1, not #37.

3. Advertising and Marketing
Image is so dead, but creativity, entertainment, wit and fun are not. So social communities are not the answer-they are the current doorways to the answer. Content that is the highlight of someone's day is still the absolute need. Just don't stay stuck in the '90s with dreamy empty aspiration. Let third party folk, fans create the necessary enthusiasm -you just do what you say you do better than anyone else and get out of the way.

How Does An Old, Well-Known Brand Go Green?

2009-08-06T14:20:00.003-05:00

Would you have believed (in a million years) McDonald's and Wal-Mart are still making massive changes towards health and sustainability?
Well, they are. You don't find it on their home pages (but feel free to have a look) but those megaliths are continuing to make internal shifts in many ways that none of us could have predicted ten years ago.
But again, if they trumpeted it in ads, they would have grilled by treehuggers everywhere. Buy doing in a rather behind the scenes fashion, we can find out on our own and make a more substantial mind shift, which many are doing.
But this vegetarian, workers' rights champion still goes to neither.

Again, do the right thing and let others find out about it.. rarely if ever tell it yourself.

Nissan steps up to the outlet in a big way

2009-08-02T00:30:00.002-05:00

read all about it here

I'm actually quite thrilled about this.

Dennis Kucinich Lays Out Why He Voted Against Clean Energy Act

2009-06-28T19:48:00.001-05:00

NOTE: this is why I love this man. And why I sigh at the bill that passed the house.

Cleveland area Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) laid out the reasons he opposed and voted against H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The vast majority of fellow Democrats voted in favor of the measure which passed the House and is on the way to the Senate for a vote. Kucinich stated in a press release:

“I oppose H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The reason is simple. It won’t address the problem. In fact, it might make the problem worse.

“It sets targets that are too weak, especially in the short term, and sets about meeting those targets through Enron-style accounting methods. It gives new life to one of the primary sources of the problem that should be on its way out– coal – by giving it record subsidies. And it is rounded out with massive corporate giveaways at taxpayer expense. There is $60 billion for a single technology which may or may not work, but which enables coal power plants to keep warming the planet at least another 20 years.

“Worse, the bill locks us into a framework that will fail. Science tells us that immediately is not soon enough to begin repairing the planet. Waiting another decade or more will virtually guarantee catastrophic levels of warming. But the bill does not require any greenhouse gas reductions beyond current levels until 2030.

“Today’s bill is a fragile compromise, which leads some to claim that we cannot do better. I respectfully submit that not only can we do better; we have no choice but to do better. Indeed, if we pass a bill that only creates the illusion of addressing the problem, we walk away with only an illusion. The price for that illusion is the opportunity to take substantive action.

“There are several aspects of the bill that are problematic.

1. Overall targets are too weak. The bill is predicated on a target atmospheric concentration of 450 parts per million, a target that is arguably justified in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but which is already out of date. Recent science suggests 350 parts per million is necessary to help us avoid the worst effects of global warming.

2. The offsets undercut the emission reductions. Offsets allow polluters to keep polluting; they are rife with fraudulent claims of emissions reduction; they create environmental, social, and economic unintended adverse consequences; and they codify and endorse the idea that polluters do not have to make sacrifices to solve the problem.

3. It kicks the can down the road. By requiring the bulk of the emissions to be carried out in the long term and requiring few reductions in the short term, we are not only failing to take the action when it is needed to address rapid global warming, but we are assuming the long term targets will remain intact.

4. EPA’s authority to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the short- to medium-term is rescinded. It is our best defense against a new generation of coal power plants. There is no room for coal as a major energy source in a future with a stable climate.

5. Nuclear power is given a lifeline instead of phasing it out. Nuclear power is far more expensive, has major safety issues including a near release in my own home state in 2002, and there is still no resolution to the waste problem. A recent study by Dr. Mark Cooper showed that it would cost $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion more over the life of 100 new nuclear reactors than to generate the same amount of electricity from energy efficiency and renewables.

6. Dirty Coal is given a lifeline instead of phasing it out. Coal-based energy destroys entire mountains, kills and injures workers at higher rates than most other occupations, decimates ecologically sensitive wetlands and streams, creates ponds of ash that are so toxic the Department of Homeland Security will not disclose their locations for fear of their potential to become a terrorist weapon, and fouls the air and water with sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulates, mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and thousands of other toxic compounds that cause asthma, birth defects, learning disabilities, and pulmonary and cardiac problems for starters. In contrast, several times more jobs are yielded by renewable energy investments than comparable coal investments.

7. The $60 billion allocated for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is triple the amount of money for basic research and development in the bill. We should be pressuring China, India and Russia to slow and stop their power plants now instead of enabling their perpetuation. We cannot create that pressure while spending unprecedented amounts on a single technology that may or may not work. If it does not work on the necessary scale, we have then spent 10-20 years emitting more CO2, which we cannot afford to do. In addition, those who will profit from the technology will not be viable or able to stem any leaks from CCS facilities that may occur 50, 100, or 1000 years from now.

8. Carbon markets can and will be manipulated using the same Wall Street sleights of hand that brought us the financial crisis.

9. It is regressive. Free allocations doled out with the intent of blunting the effects on those of modest means will pale in comparison to the allocations that go to polluters and special interests. The financial benefits of offsets and unlimited banking also tend to accrue to large corporations. And of course, the trillion dollar carbon derivatives market will help Wall Street investors. Much of the benefits designed to assist consumers are passed through coal companies and other large corporations, on whom we will rely to pass on the savings.

10. The Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) is not an improvement. The 15% RES standard would be achieved even if we failed to act.

11. Dirty energy options qualify as “renewable”: The bill allows polluting industries to qualify as “renewable energy.” Trash incinerators not only emit greenhouse gases, but also emit highly toxic substances. These plants disproportionately expose communities of color and low-income to the toxics. Biomass burners that allow the use of trees as a fuel source are also defined as “renewable.” Under the bill, neither source of greenhouse gas emissions is counted as contributing to global warming.

12. It undermines our bargaining position in international negotiations in Copenhagen and beyond. As the biggest per capita polluter, we have a responsibility to take action that is disproportionately stronger than the actions of other countries. It is, in fact, the best way to preserve credibility in the international context.

13. International assistance is much less than demanded by developing countries. Given the level of climate change that is already in the pipeline, we are going to need to devote major resources toward adaptation. Developing countries will need it the most, which is why they are calling for much more resources for adaptation and technology transfer than is allocated in this bill. This will also undercut our position in Copenhagen.

“I offered eight amendments and cosponsored two more that collectively would have turned the bill into an acceptable starting point. All amendments were not allowed to be offered to the full House. Three amendments endeavored to minimize the damage that will be done by offsets, a method of achieving greenhouse gas reductions that has already racked up a history of failure to reduce emissions – increasing emissions in some cases – while displacing people in developing countries who rely on the land for their well being.

“Three other amendments would have made the federal government a force for change by requiring all federal energy to eventually come from renewable resources, by requiring the federal government to transition to electric and plug-in hybrid cars, and by requiring the installation of solar panels on government rooftops and parking lots. These provisions would accelerate the transition to a green economy.

“Another amendment would have moved up the year by which reductions of greenhouse gas emissions were required from 2030 to 2025. It would have encouraged the efficient use of allowances and would have reduced opportunities for speculation by reducing the emission value of an allowance by a third each year.

“The last amendment would have removed trash incineration from the definition of renewable energy. Trash incineration is one of the primary sources of environmental injustice in the country. It a primary source of compounds in the air known to cause cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases. These facilities are disproportionately sited in communities of color and communities of low income. Furthermore, incinerators emit more carbon dioxide per unit of electricity produced than coal-fired power plants.

“Passing a weak bill today gives us weak environmental policy tomorrow,” said Kucinich.

First, yes, I'm what is called a "dark green"...

2009-06-27T01:53:00.007-05:00

Many here in the USA are cheering the environmental bill that squeaked through The House in Congress today.

But many of us are pointing out the weaknesses that the extraction industry fought for and seemed to get via many representatives that fought any change tooth and nail.

Here's a Washington Post story about what I believe should have been remedied before passing:

Climate Change Activists Dismayed by Some of Bill's Provisions

By David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 26, 2009; 3:51 PM

Today ought to be a joyful day for environmental groups, with a first-ever bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions on the floor in the House of Representatives.
But instead, many green groups seem to be supporting the bill -- now stuffed with benefits for emitters such as utilities, manufacturers and farmers -- while holding their nose.

"We're not saying, 'Kill the bill,' " said Frank O'Donnell, of the group Clean Air Watch. "But we're saying it sure as heck ought to get better in the Senate, or it's going to be a sorry day."

Already today, at least two liberal House Democrats have criticized the bill for going too easy on polluters, raising the threat that party leaders might have to whip in votes from the left as well as the right.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) issued a statement saying he couldn't support the bill as written: "This energy bill's fine print betrays its laudable purpose. . . . It is too weak to greatly spur new technologies and green jobs."

And Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) said on the House floor that the bill remained too favorable to the coal industry, by providing legal room for new coal-burning plants to continue to be built. An aide said that Kucinich has not formally said how he will vote on the bill, which is expected to be voted on this afternoon.
Some environmental groups -- notably, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth -- have said they oppose the bill, calling it fatally weak.

Many other national groups have not given up their support for the bill's passage but still say it is too friendly to polluters.

Among their objections: The bill allows for widespread use of carbon "offsets," which are credits for either preventing emissions or using plants to take them out of the air. The bill would allow many offsets to be issued for credits overseas, and allow the U.S. Agriculture Department to supervise them on U.S. farms.

"Is a ton of [offsets from] a forest in Uzbekistan really going to be equal to [an offset from] a ton of emissions reductions from a dirty power plant here?" said Dave Hamilton of the Sierra Club.

But Hamilton summed up his organization's attitude this way: They are ambivalent about the bill as currently written, but unambiguous about the need to pass it in the House.

That way, Hamilton said, environmental groups could push the Senate to alter it to their liking.

"Do, at some point, we try to bank what the politics allows?" Hamilton said. "Our judgment in this case is that we're going to keep trying with the bill" in the Senate.

The need to find 60 votes in the Senate, though, might make it difficult to make the bill much stricter on polluters.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), one of the bill's sponsors, said he'd been answering questions about such concerns today while trying to drum up votes on the House floor. He said the bill's cap on greenhouse gas emissions -- calling for a 17 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2020 -- was strong and unchanged by the recent compromises.

He noted, "We have made it as strong as we can make it."

Good News Every Day-Right On This Blog

2009-06-20T15:41:00.002-05:00

If you ever feel that people, corporations, governments aren't quite doing enough good, check out my "News You'd Pick To Click" over there on your left. Good progress, news and ideas worth checking ou,t fed every minute to this humble page.

A "living" building....

2009-06-10T14:52:00.002-05:00

Read all about it right here.

The Path Towards Sustainability and Success as Marketers: Part Four: A Great Example

2009-06-01T23:30:00.004-05:00

A wonderful case study...
Nature's Path is a wonderful example of what appears to be a modest marketing budget spent well-using every inch of their product to tell a great simple story.
Check out their web site for another great example of content, facts and practically zero amounts of so-called "image."
Well done. I hope the folks at Nature's Path are seeing this. If not, I'll call soon.

They Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth

2009-06-01T23:23:00.001-05:00

By Deborah Fleischer - Matter Network

Sustainable Brands 2009 got off and running Sunday evening with an opening night packed full of speakers and networking. The conference is focused on giving attendees "a new perspective on the many factors driving opportunity for those building more sustainable brands," according to KoAnn Vikoren Skryniarz, Founder/President of Sustainable Life Media, the producer of the event.

During the opening session, some of the key messages included:

1. Do or die: Companies who stick their heads in the sand and ignore sustainability will not survive. If you are following, rather than being a market leader, your brand value is at risk. Jez Frampton of Interbrand stressed that if you are not leading your industry, you will get left behind.

2. Doing good: Owen Rogers of IDEO presented some key principles that make a brand sing, including passion, creating a point of view and expressing it honestly, integrating many voices and continuing to evolve. He proposed the idea that what sells and gets people's attention is the idea that if you buy a product, you are doing good and helping to make the world a better place.

3. Authenticity: A common thread was the reminder to walk the talk. If you are going to use sustainability as a product differentiator, be sure you have done all you can to be authentically green. This does not mean you have to be perfect. Consumers want honesty and transparency, not perfection. But with today's social media tools, it only takes a moment on Twitter for someone to accuse you of greenwashing.

4. Innovation: Sustainable brands are about evolution, innovation, movement and possibilities. The final speaker, Lauralee Alben of Alben Design, pushed the mainly corporate audience out of their comfort zone as she spoke about sea change moments-moments that have a deep, profound and lasting transformational impact on your brand. Perhaps it was the reception downstairs calling to folks, or her delivery and language (do they really use the word "sacred" now in the corporate world?), but the audience started to slowly dwindle during her presentation.

Sustainable brands influence behavior and choices, generate demand and increase brand value by integrating sustainability. They are about bringing people together, encouraging conversations and looking at issues in the broadest context possible. Speakers used a variety of companies to illustrate their points, ranging from Starbucks, IBM, Nokia, Patagonia and New Leaf Paper.

Soon.

2009-05-28T19:16:00.003-05:00

Abject apologies for a gap in my video posting.
I planned on part IV of my current series, but an extended business trip to produce TV/radio has swallowed up much of my usual blogging time.
Look for Part IV next week my friends.
Until... go outside and save some energy.

Why these are not 2-minute videos.

2009-05-12T00:43:00.003-05:00

I don't deal in simple formulas, or easy answers. You experience me live, unscripted, unrehearsed, real, flowing, organic. For good or bad. And such lovely still images that Blogger video captures of me! ha ha ha ; )

The Path Towards Sustainability and Success as Marketers: Part Three: Cooperation, Consensus, Interbeing

2009-05-11T19:15:00.005-05:00

In this third video, I talk about a critical key to Progressive 21st Century Marketing and Sustainability-the need for everyone to share an aim.
Cooperation, Consensus and Interbeing are the doorways to generating public enthusiasm for your brand, your company today and tomorrow.
You can become a leader and crate key partnerships along the way.
These principles are infectious, sharable, newsworthy and perfectly in tune with today's social media.
Next video: How to Put It All Together-with examples.

The Path Towards Sustainability and Success as Marketers: Part Two: Look In The Mirror

2009-05-11T17:03:00.004-05:00

In Part Two of this series, I go outside on a beautiful alpine spring day to talk about the need for an accurate, honest "snapshot"/analysis of your brand's systems, policies, networks, raw material usage and much more. I've done several such studies already and would be delighted to help you gain an important marketing edge by seeing what's really happening in your part of the world -right now.

If you don't do this work, I promise your prospects are finding out the truth on their own anyway.

In the next video, I'll talk about the need for consensus, cooperation-The Path To Interbeing.

The Path Towards Sustainability and Success as Marketers: Part One: How To Begin

2009-05-07T01:07:00.005-05:00

In this first video, I'm talking about the way to begin to communicate as a 21st Century brand where progressive, sustainable initiatives can bring you more market success than ever in these days of change.

Just Get On With It, Get Out Of The Way, Let The Public In.

More videos every week ...or less, or more.
Comment, argue or contact me as you wish.

I'll share some new ideas and tactics from ongoing client and partner projects in the future as I can.

Resistance: A Way Forward

2009-04-23T17:42:00.005-05:00

Every day it seems, I read someone's opinions (or even worse, I hear it in person) about their denial of climate change, about their rejection of humankind's effects on this beautiful earth, their refusal to make lifestyle changes for the planet, or in my field, even their resistance to changing the way they do marketing in this day of twittering, facebooking, digging and youtubing.

Usually, I quickly discover they don't read much, or watch only corporate-run TV. They don't travel much, talk to others who do, or read about the world far outside their own parcel of property.

Idea # 1: Isolation=resistance.

Next, sustainability progress needs to come (traditionally) in either a disaster/reaction phase, or as a fashion/sexy craze. A few mild attempts to make green initiatives Hollywood/sexy have fizzled in the masses, partly because of right-wing/giant corporation media messaging to kill progress that might threaten the old profit streams. Expertly, these messages make new ideas seem un-American, anti-patriotic, freedom-reducing, job/prosperity threatening.
Fascinating, as green industry jobs would potentially represent the biggest new job sector since the Industrial Age. The United States is falling behind the rest of the industrialized world in many ways, not as a population but on the federal/state level. Here in the USA, many ground-level, local initiatives are happening (I'm involved in a few), but the problem is that these small-scale operations require grants and subsidies because the changes are rather expensive to implement on such small scales.
True national commitment, from government or large-scale citizen or corporate demands seems to make these beneficial changes faster and create more jobs, benefits and financial positivism.
So, here in America, the sooner large corporations take bold, huge, public steps, with transparency and public/social involvement, the better for us all. P&G, are you reading this?

Idea #2: New Mindset: Green is Patriotic, Profitable and Possible

Lastly, for now, this thought.
The social sites seem to be the ripest for gaining traction for making environmental causes popular. Like everyone else, I tend to look for things I'm already interested in, so I find the eco sites, boards, FB groups and such with little difficulty.
So, invite your not-so eco , less than climate-change-aware friends to a site that gently (or not so gently) tells the story, like http://www.storyofstuff.com or, as I did recently to send friends to carrotmob that most brilliant new idea of all.
Keep doing what you do, make the change, click-by-click.
But do it today, please. I just have.

Idea #3: Doing Something Now Is Easy, And, Best Of All, You're Already Doing It.

Cheers.

Advertising No Longer Works On Me (So I'm Working On Advertising)

2009-04-07T21:10:00.003-05:00

as published on www.talentzoo.com:

Advertising Doesn't Work On Me Anymore
(So I'm Working On Advertising)

Aspirational, image-based advertising (what most of you are doing these days no matter the media) is dead, buried, rotted and is now fine maggot dust.
Why?
Because it was and always is a mere mask between the truth of a product or service experience and all of us.
I say us, because when we think we're "we" and they're "them" we are forever lost.

Agencies and marketers have always created and are still creating myths, masks and diversions, from licentious cigarette advertising to windswept autumnal roads in car ads, on and on and on.

So here are the sea changes I've noted and I think are most worth talking about and debating.

With thanks to John Grant for inspiring some of these statements and who always seems to be in lock-step or just ahead of me.

1) We are all performers now, there are no more audience members. From legion youtube uploaders to enthusiastic amazon reviewers, we are all active participants. Brands, take note. Agencies, get going. And keep reading. Fast forward ten years and guess what "ownership" of music, video and media files will mean.

2) Climate change. Like holocaust deniers, I just ignore naysayers about the changes in this planet and the need to do something-yesterday. We are faced with two choices, switch or cut. Switch products, habits, processes and behaviors. Or cut spending, travel, packaging, usage, output, energy, etc. This affects us, by not printing out e-mails, unplugging the computers each night and doing more iChat video conferencing than domestic flights as three easy examples. Marketers and agencies can be more responsible in ad creation and publishing, in the making and production of every tactic. We don't need "green" branding festivals where the amount of promotional material creates a landfill the size of a stadium in the name of capturing e-mail addresses. Use the web, make fewer but more powerful ideas and save so much waste.

3) Brands are no longer in control of their brands. Put my previous points together like this. On one hand, it is easier than ever to "look behind the label" and discover what a company is really all about-to expose greenwashing, outright lies or poor user experience and performance. And this discovery becomes instant publicity via twitter, digg, facebook and blogs. So as an example, http://www.skittles.com/ has realized most of my present points and chosen to let go of its control and surrender to user generated content but limit its liability via a serious release form on the home page. I think this is smart, because surrendering to the public can lead to increased trust and likability. In the near future, agencies will need internal or partnered legal online property and content managers to manage and direct this issue. For instance, at what point is a submitted online video a violation of copyright and trademarks, a liability for dangerous insinuations or activity; or a valuable free advertising tactic from the other side of the brand fence? See http://www.carrotmob.org for further radical inspiration.

4) Successful brands are simply companies that do what they say they do. And are seen doing it by enthusiasts. Cases in point: What is the brand image of EBay? It has none, it is simply a site for enthusiasts to buy and sell. No slogan or commercial can enhance the experience of an auction, a cunningly executed winning bid or the feeling of the biggest garage sale on the planet. And Amazon (though its name is surely most literal) is simply where book, music and other product enthusiasts contribute passionate reviews for free and buying takes place in this enthusiast's Xanadu, surrounded by ratings, reviews, suggestions and a community of experts on whatever you want to buy. Amazon simply makes it happen elegantly, reliably, cleanly as a friend. What's key is the actual experience, not an aspirational mask of image.

So, what is the way forward?
Creativity, innovation and beauty, same as ever. But from this day, innovate and create something worthwhile inside your clients and let the public in. Don't launch a sustainability scheme and ruin it by saying you're wonderful. Let NGOs and other groups discover the fact and let them sell or dissuade. Don't drop acid and create a Gatorade Holy G campaign to get people to accept high fructose corn syrup. Innovate the packaging towards sustainable, reusable solutions and sponsor elementary school athletics– save a sports program that's suffering due to tax revenue decreases, promote community and togetherness after a workout-support dropping the ear buds for real buds and a swig of the G as your muscles recover. Support keeping your car, mobile handset and computer longer and reward recyclers. Create messages of togetherness, social interaction vs isolation, promote cooperatives and neighborhood micro associations online. Be the brand (whatever it is) that unites people for a common good, not crowbarring a social site around your latest brand slogan.

Become and stay mobile, agile, global. Throw out the rules, connect to your birthright of creative passion. Forget that you're a marketing manager, creative director or intern. Remember you're a human being that has bills to pay, air to breathe, food to eat, a body to keep healthy and a mirror to look in. Then your work has a chance at being relevant and enormously effective in this day and age.

That's enough for now. If some of you follow my advice, then the effort is greatly beneficial. But no matter what, there is much to be done. I'm going back to it right now. More always on my blog. I feel the traction and momentum, do you?

This blog's google newsfeed makes its own sauce!

2009-03-30T00:21:00.003-05:00

PG going greener and greener?

If one forgets all that P&G has done for decades, this is wonderful and most appreciated.

May I help?

P&G (NYSE:PG) first outlined its sustainability goals in 2007. The newly revised goals include:

• Develop and market at least $50 billion in innovative and sustainable products, up from a goal of $20 billion.

• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, water usage and disposed waste by 20 percent, leading to a 50 percent reduction over the last 10 years.

• Increase use of rail transportation from 10 percent now to 30 percent by 2015.

• Increase the number of children benefiting from P&G's Safe Drinking Water Program to 300 million, up from the original goal of 250 million.

“P&G’s commitment to sustainability is strategic. It is how our company conducts business,”

said CEO A.G. Lafley in a news release. “By increasing sustainability

goals, we demonstrate our ongoing commitment to innovate continuously to improve results.”

Darkness-the new sexy?

2009-03-29T13:27:00.003-05:00

Darkness was so beautiful Saturday night for the global earth hour turn-off action.
The town got so quiet, the sky lit up with the silvery blue stars, footsteps were soft and I could sense the world listening. It may not have saved so much energy, but I sense many were more thoughtful afterwards.
Can we embrace some level of natural darkness in our lives rather than always lighting up the night as an enemy?
A beautiful beginning nonetheless.
What did you do? Any plans for expanding or continuing the idea?

Making a wireless company more sustainable?

2009-03-22T21:57:00.005-05:00

Flying to Cleveland Tuesday for a broadcast project for a wireless telecom client.
More information if the project becomes a regular account for me, but part of the vision I have for them is to reward no-contract customers who keep their phones longer than the national average.
A tremendously hard uphill battle perhaps, when the entire industry says "update, upgrade" like an endless fashion catwalk.
One idea thanks to John Grant would be to make the handsets more individualized, personal and keepsake-like.
But I feel very upbeat about the possibilities.

Get On With It.

2009-03-16T01:08:00.002-05:00

recycle ? reuse . reduce !

There's a justifiable negativity, a dark wrath about many environmental issues facing us.
Today, I heard concerns from our neighbors about the glut of plastic recyclables sitting on the West Coast that China is refusing due to lack of labor and buyers.
Then, we went to our town recycling center and saw the glut there and our own small additions.
I also heard that the recent powershift09 protest in Washington D.C. was overshadowed in the media by Rush Limbaugh's image problems. Rush vs the quality of our children's air and what power solutions will be sustainable?

There are head-in-the-sand denials in the U.S., there are glum, slouching through the days waiting for the worst types, there are panicked activists, there are tree-sitting meditators all in our midst.
I'm on the side of the British "just get on with it"s, wherever they are.
Every moment is an opportunity to reduce, cut our wasteful, damaging habits and to smile and love as well. To work on tough problems with grace and trust.
Today, I'm going to not throw a single thing "away" if I can. And unplug every single thing I can.
If I can learn a new OS, a new gadget, a new chord, song or lyric, I can learn new habits that will help us all right now.
And tomorrow.
Time to get on with it.

Another inspiring green video

2009-03-11T22:08:00.003-05:00

The easier it seems to make changes to old habits and make cuts to unhealthy practices the better.
The less obstacles, objections you create, the better.
I'm making this a salient point to all my clients these days.
There's a place for doom and gloom (see post below) but happy, easy always works better.
Let's be better.

Age Of Stupid

2009-03-09T21:17:00.001-05:00

I don't often like "doom and gloom" films, but this one...I think I like anyway.

Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution

2009-03-04T12:50:00.004-06:00

Aspen SkiCo's Auden Schendler has written an entertaining, yet very hard-hitting manifesto on why corporations and everyone needs to go sustainable–yesterday.
Well done. Most excellent.
Research and buy it here, in hardcover or the Google Kindle version.

But if you're like me and still enjoy paper in your hands, have your closest book store order it as part of their next bulk shipment, walk or bike to the store and carry it home without a bag. I do this. So can you.

Why is this not on the front page of every newspaper, magazine and web site?

2009-03-02T21:01:00.005-06:00

I'll make this very simple.

A car that runs on air.
Just cool air comes out of the tailpipe.
It actually cleans the outside air as it runs.
It can go fast.
It comes in several models.
It runs a long time.
It's safe.
It's not crazy expensive.
It can change EVERYTHING.
It's coming soon...

zeropollutionmotors

why oh why oh why?

I'm working on getting this "out there" right now.

It's Like Paris in 1968 (ne c'est-pas?)

2009-02-27T17:49:00.007-06:00

Young people on the streets to promote the truth about renewable energy-that coal is never clean and that sustainable is the sane way.

I'm with them in spirit. And now, in pixels.
http://www.powershift09.org/

And here's a clip from Paris 1968, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0_LMCmsm4I&feature=related
No matter what one thinks of our French brothers and sisters, they always know how to let the government know what's on their minds. And the government shakes and quakes.
Time for such a relationship in the US to get real movement and progress on climate change, energy and more.
Oui? Non?

Want to make sustainability fun hip and cool?

2009-02-23T12:23:00.003-06:00

Then one need look no further than this classic example.
Spread this send this act on this, today please.

Epicurus on Advertising and Happiness

2009-02-23T00:13:00.004-06:00

Epicurus' ideas about happiness and yes, advertising in a 3-part youtube video series you might find liberating, or highly annoying, depending on where you sit at the marketing table.
But if our work in marketing is to create happiness for our clients, by communicating our clients' work in creating happiness for their customers, then why not start at the beginning of what happiness might mean in society?
Learn a little about Epicurus here if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus
In this part, you see some work from my pals at St.Lukes in London.

Change your mind about electric cars with one little click.

2009-02-16T13:13:00.007-06:00

General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, VW, Honda, Nissan, BMW, et al..are you watching this?

The developer's last line sums up EXACTLY what I want to have happen in people's minds about ALL things green.

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/videos/view/56-Electric-Drag-Racing

The Moon IS in the seventh house....and Jupiter IS aligning with Mars...

2009-02-13T15:13:00.015-06:00

Saturday, February 14th at 7:25 greenwich/Universal time
a chance to send great energetic peace and harmony, wishes, prayers hopes and dreams.
Read a bit more here "http://www.judecurrivan.com/media-articles/articles/the-aquarian-alignment-14th-february-2009/"

Love, your humble Aquarius

I hereby predict a shift in global ownership...

2009-02-05T14:33:00.004-06:00

As technology and even moreso, pirate technology allows us to circumvent copyright and public access barriers, people will be able to not only "look behind the label" but to tear that label off and grab what they want more and more.

On-demand video from Netflix is a good example of further retention-as-convenience schemes that play to us lazy types who always choose the path of least resistance.
The DIYers customize their PCs and Macs, iPhones and Blackberries and go do what they want with only needing little nudges from the cult of "what's now possible."
As a charter member of that cult, I often see that the mass public is still quite slow to taking such forward DIY action and that ease of use, lack of resistance is still the major key.

But under our noses, the rules are changing and before we know it, we'll all adopt a new shift in ownership, from media content to the firms we invest, save and spend with to our own communities and governments. Not actively, but under our noses, the rules are shifting.

Marketers, take a lesson from this. "New" weighs less in real value than "easy". Advances are for the fleet and free. The sedentary of motion, thought and energy want it handed to them for an easy price and with no necessary instructions.

And even the masses will own--whether they notice it or not.

I'm digging the flicker, and I'm so very app-y...

2009-02-02T12:31:00.002-06:00

But as I add app after app after app to my Mac and my iPhone, I fear even trees will become an app someday.

To change Roberta Joan Anderson's lyrics:
"They took all the trees, put 'em in an iPhone app now
and they charged the people a dollar and half just to tap them."

Now, here's a step in a nice direction...

2009-02-02T11:30:00.003-06:00

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

The music video section is a tad annoying for me but this is the crystallization of where so many of us are now.
Scalable, enthusiastic, social, imitable, powerful.

I'm in. You?

It's Finally Happened...

2009-01-28T15:20:00.002-06:00

It's over. It's official.

Advertising doesn't move me anymore.
It's been such a long, long time since an ad motivated me one iota.
Products? Yes, especially when the marketing got neatly out of the way.
Ideas? Films, books, music?
Absolutely.
The image layer that agencies and marketers have placed between us and products and services has fully withered and dried up, fallen away and is now grey dust to me and many others.
Award books do nothing for me anymore. I'm still greatly inspired towards creativity, beauty and progressive ideas, but for me, it needs to be direct, first-hand and experiential, startling facts, news, policies, movements, cultural/social change, etc.

Time for serious new ideas.

And by the way, I have plenty. ; ) Just ask.

Doing Nothing As An Investment

2009-01-26T13:41:00.004-06:00

Preserving rainforests is a good thing.
Ending their wanton destruction is a good thing.
Learning of the myriad benefits to medicine is a good thing.

But the carbon emissions/credit trading world is getting a bit surreal.
Making money by preserving a rainforest (meaning, letting it do what it has always done without human activity) does not improve our planet as much as it keeps it from getting worse.

Financial giants and third world governments are both planning on huge investments.
Small nations are looking at windfalls.
Investors are looking to assuage guilt.
Who will make the money?
Who will benefit?

Will this reduce our global carbon footprint?
Is this just another new money-making scheme?

Or, more to the point, where are the ideas that create wealth, embrace global sustainability by cutting and switching our old habits, getting towards a 70% reduction?

But credits?

http://cnbceb.com/alternative-energy-environment/can-money-grow-on-trees/850/

What if?

2008-12-02T21:20:00.002-06:00

What if we had a stable economy model instead of a volatile growth economy model?
What if we had cars that only needed a pint of gas or a one hour charge to run on air for 300 miles at 55 mph?
What if? What if? What if?

Inspired Intelligence

2008-10-27T21:21:00.002-05:00

After relocating to Aspen, Colorado in winter 2008, I'm re-birthing http.//www.inspiredintelligence.com again with a view towards expanding the reach, breadth and offerings to the world.
Stay tuned. I may link the site's diary link to here.
Or maybe not.

Peace to you....

We begin

2005-06-17T16:02:00.000-05:00

Nothing.

Emptiness.

Silence.