Keep warm without losing your cool. New Energy-saving Apps are here!

It seems like we can do just about anything from our smartphones these days, and monitoring home energy usage is one of them. Although we’ve been playing around with the concept for years, modern technology has gotten to the point where products are not only more intuitively designed, they’re also capable of learning on their own.

Some of the earlier concepts of real-time home energy use monitoring came in the form of Google PowerMeter and Microsoft Hohm in 2009. While both programs were designed to use data from homeowners’ utility companies and display their energy usage in real-time, the platforms were underutilized and Google PowerMeter was discontinued in June 2011, followed by Microsoft Hohm in May 2012.

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Don’t we know GMO?!

Earlier this week, Proposition 37 asked voting Californians to approve new legislation that would require food and beverage manufacturers to notify consumers about the use of genetically modified organisms on the product label.

While the proposition did not pass, it was close, with 46% for the initiative and 54% against. Why didn’t it win? While the issue is complex and polarizing, there are a few attitudes and beliefs discovered in NMI’s most recent Organic Study that shed light on the subject.

Here are a few of those beliefs that may have affected the outcome:

Some consumers say, “I don’t understand it, so I don’t care”
Some consumers fear labeling GMOs would increase the cost of food
Some consumers believe GMOs are necessary to feed the world population

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Give your bra a second life

How many of you have bras in your drawers that you are itching to toss out? Unfortunately, all of the pieces that make up a bra, such as hooks, underwire, and elastic, will never biodegrade. Wouldn’t it make you feel better to know that your bra was getting a second life instead? Believe it or not, bras are a sought-after item!

Over in Japan, women are encouraged to recycle their brassieres so that they can be converted into fuel. Meanwhile, Oxfam is working hard to upcycle bras in the UK with its Big Bra Hunt campaign.

Here in the U.S. of A, we have an Arizona-based organization called The Bra Recyclers. The organization buys and sell recycled bras, which are then redistributed to communities in need around the world. There are drop-off sites around the country through the Bra Recycling Ambassador program, or you can ship your donation directly to the organization.

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Is this the new normal?

This is a photo of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in NYC — FLOODING. New York Governor Cuomo calls this another 100 year flood that happens every two years now. Is this the new normal?

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Happy Halloween from all of us!

 

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Another inconvenient truth

From parabens to phthalates, according to this infographic the average woman puts on her body approximately 515 chemicals every day. What about you?

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Killer Corn. What are we going to do about this?

NEWSFLASH! Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller Roundup suffered tumours and multiple organ damage, according to a French study published on Wednesday.

 

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Want zip antibiotics in your meat? Enter your zip code here to find it.

We don’t want you to eat meat with antibiotics in it, you shouldn’t want to eat meat with antibiotics in it, and Robert Kenner, the director of the occasionally disturbing movie about the commercial food industry, Food, Inc., really does not want you to eat meat with antibiotics in it. Which is why he created this delightful crowd-sourced map that lets you enter your zip code to locate stores, farms, restaurants, and markets where you can get meat that won’t contribute to antibiotic-resistant superbugs that will kill us all.

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Free Money Day is September 15th

Sharon Ede who is part of our Women of Green community and co-founder of the Post Growth Institute, is rallying forces for “Free Money Day”. On Saturday, September 15th people around the world will participate in this event by handing out their own money to complete strangers and asking recipients to pass half on to someone else.

Free Money Day is a signal interruption to business-as-usual, and a way to spark conversations about the benefits of economies based on sharing, as well as a liberating experience that gets people thinking more critically and creatively about our relationships with money.

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The Responsible Entrepreneur: What archetype are you?


Four archetypes of entrepreneurship and how they contribute to a better world.
For four decades I have worked with small business entrepreneurs, helping them grow their businesses by keeping stakeholder success and consciousness of how they do business in the forefront of their minds. I have seen how, by developing the characteristics of what I call The Responsible Entrepreneur, anyone helping to bring new business into the world can fulfill the promise of entrepreneurship and contribute to the creation of a better world.

Every Responsible Entrepreneur represents one of four archetypes, each with a unique role to play in the entrepreneurial system. Cultural anthropologists have identified all four in every healthy culture, and all four are needed to ensure the health of our own evolving social system. Each takes on change differently in search of different outcomes. All four approaches can also be found inside established organizations, among intrapreneurs who lead change.

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