Earth Day this year was officially Wednesday, April 22nd. Did you get your green on? Well, it’s not too late. I’ve seen in recent years Earth Day transform into Earth Week with green activities and events spread out over many days. Now if we can only get that kind of effort happening the remainder 51 weeks of the year, that would be progress!
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Sometimes the challenges of the planet seem too big, too complex. What can I do? What is my role to play? My late friend, John Armer, used to say, “Our job is to leave the sandbox cleaner than when we found it.” I have always liked this simple yet poignant saying.
I am a textile designer by trade. For years, I designed products for mass markets — Walmart, Target, etc. I loved my job. Creating patterns and designs is total joy for me. In 2004, I got a call from a competitor who wanted me to come work for them.However, I couldn’t do it. It didn’t feel right. It felt like a step sideways. It was a blessing though, because it got me thinking. What is the next step? What does it look like?
It was around this same time that I walked into a mass market store and found a sea of check-out stands, all filled with customers, all with baskets filled with stuff. All I saw was a glacial-size flow of landfill. Cheap stuff to be enjoyed briefly and then discarded. It was in that moment that it hit me—I was making pretty landfills for a living!
Determined to have my life’s work be something I could be proud of, it was on that day that I started down the road that would ultimately lead to the creation of Harmony Art Organic Design — an independent, printed organic fabric company. I am happy to report that six and a half y
ears later, colorful printed organic cotton is no longer an anomaly but a growing market segment.
It is my sincere belief that for the “sandbox” to get collectively cleaner (or remain dirty and continue to inherit more debris) there is a magic shovel. No, I can’t solve poverty, climate change, financial exploitation, or war. What I can do (and what everyone on the planet can do) is to look at my own life. What contribution am I making with my life’s work? What about your contribution? I made the decision to walk away from a steady paycheck to create a new, healthier fabric option for people and businesses. I don’t expect you to quit your job and start your own company — that’s extreme. But I do think if we each took a good hard look at the results of our life’s work, and simply focused on creating the best possible product (or outcome) for the world, the change would be explosive and powerful.
Continue reading... →I have attended many Clean Tech conferences in the southwest over the last six months. Frankly, I wish I saw more women in the room. So this post on EcoAid’s website really resonated with me, so I am sharing it with you. It’s a juicy topic. Please join in on the conversation by leaving your comments below. And if you are a woman working in clean tech now, what do you know now that you didn’t know before that could help other women wanting to enter the clean energy sector? — Carolyn
Women across the nation are preparing to play an integral role in the green economy, and the United States will need their help if we’re going to pull ourselves out of the recession and compete in the new economy on a global scale. CAP’s Jorge Madrid has the story in this repost.
It’s true that men have been hit the hardest in the recession as far an unemployment numbers go, but we will need to seize the opportunity to diversify the future workforce in a way that will incorporate all workers in all areas of the clean energy economy—including those where women have been traditionally underrepresented.
Women in Burlington, Vermont are training for careers in the fields of green construction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency as part of the Vermont Works for Women project. Women Going Green in Atlanta, Georgia is educating women in management and entrepreneurial opportunities in the clean energy economy. And young women in Los Angeles, California are receiving science, technology, engineering, and math education through the Infrastructure Academy, which will prepare them for high-paying, high-demand careers developing the next generation of clean energy technology.
Continue reading... →For Leila Janah Charyath, one of the world’s biggest problems is wasted talent, particularly in Africa, where unemployment rates for skilled workers can be above 60%. She has addressed this gap in the workforce by rethinking outsourcing to provide green jobs for women in poverty across the globe.
Continue reading... →Halla Tomasdotti is the co-founder and chairman of Audur Capital, an Investment firm focused on putting feminine values into finance. Halla was previously the Managing Director of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce. She was a key member of the foundation of Reykjavik University as a founder and director for executive education and women entrepreneurship as well as an assistant professor and board member.
Continue reading... →Green is to me something sensible. It implies that you care, and want to do something to ensure a prosperous future.
Continue reading... →I think that anyone who takes a moment to consider the impact of their day-to-day actions on the world around them and then takes action on that thought is green.
Continue reading... →Both women-owned businesses and sustainable businesses are fairly new trends in business. Neither had an impact until perhaps the past 20 years, and weren’t even a consideration during the Industrial Revolution when many of our business practices were established. Now, however, they are both positioned to significantly change the way we do business in the 21st century.
Continue reading... →Some of our most central business ideas were developed under vastly different circumstances than the ones in which we now find ourselves.
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