Parents and teachers who are searching for ways to engage kids with local environmental issues might look to their community parks or science museums for opportunities. But what about art? Environmental issues can often be overwhelming or disheartening for members of the public, and art offers an innovative way to promote interest that can lead to deeper engagement down the line. This approach presents a particular opportunity for younger audiences, combining activities they love – like coloring, building, and crafts – with the basics of environmental issues.
Continue reading... →Melbourne physiotherapist Lauren Dircks and her husband Andrew Casey began their ethical shopping journey when they had their first child nine years ago. The couple had already done a six-month course on sustainable living and saw an opportunity to make food choices that aligned their environmental principles with better health. “It was about making different choices and how you can take little steps to be a better global citizen,” Lauren says.
Continue reading... →Money can’t buy happiness, right? Well, some researchers beg to differ. They say it depends on how you spend it. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that when people spend money on time-saving services such as a house cleaner, lawn care or grocery delivery, it can make them feel a little happier. By comparison, money spent on material purchases — aka things — does not boost positive emotions the way we might expect.
Continue reading... →A brother-sister duo have teamed up to give shoppers on Auckland’s North Shore a taste of nostalgia. Andrea and Robert Watt have opened The Source Bulk Food in Milford, bringing unbranded, bulk food retail to the community in an effort to revitalize old-fashioned grocery shopping. The business stocks more than 400 products from as close to the source as possible, and is committed to being zero-waste, vetoing the use of plastic bags in favor of recyclable paper ones.
Continue reading... →In June, C&A, the international Dutch chain of retail clothing stores launched a line of T-shirts certified to the Cradle to Cradle standard, meaning that they were designed and manufactured in a way that is benign to the environment and human health, and whose materials can be recirculated safely back into industrial materials or composted into the soil. It represents, in no small measure, the future of product design and manufacturing. Creating a Cradle to Cradle (or C2C) T-shirt — at scale and at an affordable price to the consumer — was no small feat for C&A. It required a board-level commitment, close partnerships with contract manufacturers, an arduous search for replacements for problematic materials and some new messaging to customers.
Continue reading... →Many believe the fight to combat climate change hinges on the aligned interests of capital and state. Give the Elon Musks of the world enough time and resources and they will innovate us out of impending climate catastrophe. Get the G20 in a room and they will hammer out a deal and create regulations to enforce it. Or so the thinking in some circles goes. Yet throughout history, the interests of the state have slid into alignment with big oil and big profits rather than lining up with our rivers, our air, our wildlife and our people. But the first people of this land, who often live on the frontlines of our metastasizing climate disaster, remain resolute. It is our sacred responsibility to protect and preserve this planet for future generations.
Continue reading... →Back in January, millions of women marched en masse in the nation’s capital and beyond, one day after the inauguration of America’s 45th president, Donald Trump. Now, leaders behind the historic Women’s March have designated “Reclaiming Our Time” as the official theme of its forthcoming Women’s Convention next month in Detroit. The two-day confab, slated for October 27-29 at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit, is expected to bring together thousands of women, femmes and allies of all backgrounds. The weekend is being billed as one of strategy sessions, workshops, forums and intersectional movement building ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, organizers said.
Continue reading... →After I graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in engineering, I went to work for a local energy company. There, I had the good fortune of working for this person who ended up being a lifelong mentor of mine. He asked me one day, “Geisha, what are your long-term career aspirations?” And I said, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’d like to be a manager or a supervisor someday.” He said, “No. I mean long-term.” Well, I was thinking long-term. At that time, women like me didn’t run corporations. Latinas didn’t run corporations. Immigrants didn’t run corporations. But he looked at me and said, “Geisha, somebody has to run this company some day. Why not you?”
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