Your Next United Flight Might Be Powered By Farm Waste

United Airlines Eco-Skies

Travelers from Los Angeles to San Francisco will have a lower carbon footprint this fall. Many other flights could soon follow. If you happen to get on a United flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco this fall, you might be traveling on leftovers from the farm. The airline will be the first in the country to start flying regular passenger flights on alternative jet fuel—in the case, made from a mix of non-edible oils and agricultural waste blended with traditional fuel. “We believe that one of our greatest opportunities to reduce the aviation industry’s environmental footprint is through sustainable alternative fuels,” says Angela Foster-Rice, United’s managing director for environmental affairs and sustainability. United flew the first biofuel test flight in the U.S. in 2009 (using algae), and the first commercial flight in 2011. The company signed an agreement with AltAir Fuels—the company supplying the new fuel to LAX—six years ago. But it’s only now that the biofuel industry is beginning to get to the point to supply regular flights. The challenges of scaling up have involved the cost alternative fuel feedstock and raising sufficient capital investments, Foster-Rice says. Over the next three years, United plans to buy 15 million […]

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Green is Not Just for Green Business Anymore

Green Is For Every Business

Oh Marketing Whiz Who is Always Hungry to Learn More! Back in 2013, The Santa Fe Reporter interviewed me and at the very end I was asked: “any final wisdom?” My last words were, “My hope is that someday we don’t even have to use the word ‘green’—it’s just the way it is.” It’s been 12 years now that my company, Mind Over Markets, has been dedicated to helping green and socially-focused companies, organizations, and entrepreneurs take their products and services to the next level. It’s what we believe in, what we are passionate about. When we put that stake in the ground, we never looked back (even though back then “green” was used with caution in marketing because of its tree-hugger status and political connotations). Well, those days are gone. This week, the Shelton Group released a study on the effectiveness of eco buzzwords like “green,” “eco-friendly,” “sustainable,” “recyclable,” “renewable,” “low carbon footprint,” and more. The results happily report that green has gone from “niche appeal” to “baseline expectation.” For instance, 65% of the 2,000 plus respondents said that “green was considered desirable.” And it really doesn’t matter what side of the fence you are on because 67% of them were Democrats and 62% […]

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Oh Quantum One!

Quantumizing Business

Because the quantum field, which is 99% energy, is where it all happens – your life, your health, your family, your work, your business, you name it. It all exists there and when you get that, you get IT – whatever that IT is you are going for.

I am exploring this in my business and personal life with gusto, and will be sharing it with you here over the next bunch of months — how YOU can create the business or project YOU WANT by learning and working with the quantum field. That’s what I call “Quantumizing Your Business”. Sound fun?

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Warrior Mom Con: We are warrior moms

Warrior Moms Conference

Postpartum Progress is a non-profit dedicated to helping all the at least 1 in 7 women – Warrior Moms- who will deal with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and those who love them. It has helped, and will continue to support many in our Mom 2 community. This past July 11th and 12th, the first Warrior Mom Conference took place in Boston.

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You Can Probably Guess Where the First All-Organic Public School Cafeteria Is

All-Organic Public School Cafeteria

Marin County’s school district is the first to make the shift—and it is largely low-income kids who will benefit. The public school cafeteria has become a political battleground in recent years, with students, lawmakers, parents, and First Lady Michelle Obama fighting over what can and cannot be served. The push to reform nutrition standards for students has made headway; thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schoolkids are served more whole grains, fewer calories, and less trans fat, saturated fat, and sodium. In Marin County, California, students in the Sausalito Marin City School District will find their first school lunch of the fall going far beyond that: The district will be the first in the nation to go 100 percent organic. After a two-year pilot program at Bayside MLK Jr. Academy in Marin City—where 95 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meal programs—the administration is expanding the all-organic lunches to Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito. Advertisement The district, which has just 500 students, may serve low-income students, but those kids and their families are the minority in Marin County. Marin City, where 156 students at Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy enjoy all-organic meals, has an average household […]

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Changing the Climate of Climate Talk

Climate Change Marchers

During a poetry reading in Missoula, MT, a Vietnam combat veteran reminded his audience that he and other veterans returned not to waves of gratitude, but to a line of protesters calling for peace. He spoke of being a child during the war as he introduced his poem, “I Think I Died In Vietnam.” By its nature, standing a line is combative. Any statement for something is also a statement against something. On the heels now of the largest climate march to date, 310,000 people gathered in the streets of New York City September 21, 2014, we begin a wave of actions with the potential to change the global course from disaster to harmony. Unless all of us work together, this wave will not continue to flow and disharmony will reveal itself as the prevailing chord. As I think of this Vietnam veteran and my own father who served as a surgeon in that war, I, too, consider men who have spent the majority of their lives building businesses in an air of cut-throat competition, my son’s paternal grandfather included. I want compassion for all of them. Man, each in his own way, has slaved to provide for many while protecting those […]

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Naja’s ‘Radically Different Underwear’ Offers Women Underwear For Hope

Cataline Girald, Naja and Underwear For Hope Founder

“When you educate a woman, everything changes.” With her platinum credentials as a former New York lawyer, Stanford School of Business MBA (class of 2006) and successful entrepreneur Catalina Girald doesn’t seem like a 21st century revolutionary. But her latest and second e-commerce company Naja finds the Colombian-born, San Francisco-based Girald championing women in ways that are ground-breaking and impactful, not to mention inspiring. Launched in December 2013, Naja manufactures and sells beautiful, distinctive lingerie — in their own parlance, “radically different lingerie” —  at comparatively reasonable rates. Its average bra price, for instance is $45 U.S., while lacy briefs are $14. A product pitch on the site under the heading “Meticulously Crafted. Fairly Priced” explains things thusly. “Naja products are characterized by unexpected attention to detail — the kind of detailing found only in luxury brands. From our memory foam cups, to our interior bra prints, to our ultrasonic sealed bra straps — we take pride in our artistry. But we don’t believe you should have to pay $80+ for a high quality bra.” The thrills don’t stop there. Naja (pronounced “nigh-ya”) lingerie is modeled on its site by women who look like women modeling lingerie for potential female […]

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Angel Investor: Only Funding Startups That Have Female Founders

women founders startup

One angel investor wants an investment portfolio full of women. Jonathan Sposato, a Seattle-based entrepreneur and the CEO of photo editing software PicMonkey, made a bold announcement last week at the Seattle Angel Conference that he’d only fund companies with one or more female founders. Women often have a more difficult time securing funding—numbers from CrunchBase show that companies with female founders only make up about 19% of seed and angel investments, and that number dwindles down as companies progress to each funding stage. But the good news is the number of female founders are on the upswing. According to that CrunchBase data, the percentage of startups with at least one female founder rose from 9.5% in 2009 to 18% in 2014. “Female entrepreneurs do have a harder time getting traction—whether that’s raising money, getting their concepts across, or even recruiting,” Sposato said in an interview with Mashable. “You can’t just take those issues and not do something about it. If you feel passionate about something, you have to be the catalyst.” Sposato says part of the problem comes from investors’ tendency to pattern match, or support startups that resemble other successful companies they funded that got off the ground. […]

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Going Green: More Than Shopping at Whole Foods and Driving a Prius?

We Stock The Hood Wi Good

As environmentalism goes mainstream, corporations are marketing the word “green” as a panacea for the world’s climate crisis. Today the word describes a set of prescribed, mostly consumerist actions: buy local, organic and fresh; go vegan; eat in season; skip the elevator, take the stairs. “Green” has come to mean shopping at Whole Foods and possessing a Prius.

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VC Firms To Obama: We Will Fund More Startups Led By Women, Minorities

Woman moving elephant

The most prominent venture capital firms in the tech industry have committed to promoting diversity in the VC space and funding more startups led by women and minorities. President Obama will make the news public during the inaugural White House Demo Day 2015.

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