Climate Change, Carbon Footprint – all I hear is ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’

All over the news, blogs and just about as unavoidable as the healthcare debate, climate change talk is unavoidable.  You reduce the shouting to a dull roar, weed through the extreme thoughts, and find yourself at a place wondering, do I really need to worry about climate change?  I’m comfortable in my house with my central air and heat and don’t see any negative impact in my neighborhood.

I am excited to join bloggers around the world as we participate in Blog Action Day 2009, working together to raise awareness and spur action on global climate change.  But as I sat mulling over just what to write, the questions of the real need for action flooded my thoughts.  How do I explain to my friends, who view me as kind of nuts when it comes to this stuff, that this is really something that we should all be concerned about?

It boils down to a fundamental belief of mine that we are our brother’s keeper.  While some are motivated to save a variety of species great and small, the heart of my concern is for the least advantaged.  Those who walk miles for clean water.  Those who survive day-to-day in harsh environments.  These are the people who will be affected the most by us – cozy in (most likely) fossil fueled homes.

Is there a natural ebb and flow to water levels and temperature on the globe?  Yes, of course.  The complexities of our world are great.  What cannot be overlooked or ignored is the impact that we have on our environment.  Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should – when it comes to living with reckless impact on our environment.

Want to learn more or find easy and tangible next steps?  Check out these great resources:

• Taiga Company
• TreeHugger
• PlanetGreen

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING BLOG » Blog Archive » You say sustainability, I say social media! I say social media, you say sustainability!

Guest post by Meghan Nesta, who blogs at Meghan Nesta’s Musings. All views in the post are the author’s alone.

If you’re interested in guest posting on the Sustainable Marketing Blog, please read the guidelines, and let’s take it from there. Thanks!

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At first glance the pairing seems as divergent as camping in a tent and enjoying fine wine. However, they are more closely related and more complementary than you may think.

If you have spent time really engaging in social media, not just sitting on the side-lines and listening to everyone else, you have most likely noticed two interesting things:  The increasing force of the sustainability movement and a unique engagement of consumers with the brands they buy.  Perhaps you have heard a little bit about greenwashing or some commentary on personal sustainability choices. Maybe you were able to resolve an issue with your Comcast account on Twitter. Or, more likely if you have found your way to this blog, you have a peaked interest in sustainability and marketing, and you know a seismic shift is occurring.

Both sustainability and social media put tradition on its digital ear. Companies are being forced to become more transparent in both their stewardship of our earth and in their marketing practices.

In the social media business and marketing world, consumers are gaining unprecedented access into what once seemed only as the man behind the green curtain – the omnipresent corporate brand. The way in which brands do business has forever changed. While the platform will surely evolve, (It seems at least plausible that Twitter may fizzle out in a few years according to some recent studies, one of which cites “5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity“, the expectation of the consumer to have the ability to not only interact with but also garner a personal response will continue. Perhaps it is the marketing circle of life. The days of the family-owned community shoe store, thriving on downtown Main Street, where customer service was paramount to success, has now been replaced by the global brand (read: “Zappos“) which is thriving on those same fundamental principles – customer understanding and providing the service that this understanding demands.

Climate change and other eco-issues are becoming more prominent political topics, and the average Joe is becoming more aware of the impact of his decisions. A community of consumers is connecting and is compelled to act. News travels at mach speed: blogs and news bits encourage and require debate. In my case, they compel change.

Here at the intersection of sustainability and social media, real change is happening. Not just a political shift or some sort of cultural fad. Our expectations and the ways in which we communicate are evolving. It’s sure to be an exciting ride.

Come stop by my tent and enjoy a glass of organic wine.

Meghan Nesta is a student of sustainability and social media. You can follow her on Twitter.

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Image credit: wharman

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Le Fauxganic (The Greenwashing of Food): Processed Food

Below is a blog of mine featured on SocialYell’s blog.

If you tuned into SocialYell last week, you got a primer on fauxganics.  At its most basic level, organic foods, particularly whole foods (those that come right off the vine, branch, etc.), may not be as pure as you think.  Prepare to get even more befuddled.

Slide a few aisles down in the supermarket and hit processed foods – for the purposes of this post, anything that isn’t a whole food (see aforementioned definition).  From crackers to frozen meals and everything in between, there is a seemingly endless variety of organic foods.

There are many reputable organic food manufacturers out there.  Keep in mind it’s also a growing industry which forces competition… and adherence to rules, but perhaps only the specific rules laid out to attain organic certification (through myriad certifying entities).  So, your picture of what is organic may not be an entirely full picture.

Consider this, from an LA Times article, USDA Organics Label Comes Under Fire:

Grated organic cheese, for example, contains wood starch to prevent clumping. Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops.

True organics are better for you and the earth and are better tasting.  We need to vote with our forks and purchase foods that are sustainably produced.  Take few extra minutes to be sure what you are eating really is organic and not fauxganic.  How do you do that?  Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. READ – Flip the package over and take a quick scan of the ingredients.  You may be surprised at what is actually in those crackers you are about to buy.  The list starts of with organic ingredients, but there could be other (very hard to pronounce) ingredients as well.
2. GET IN THE KITCHEN – Start with organic whole foods that are locally grown.  Starting from fresh ingredients that you put together is the best way to ensure you are eating the freshest food.
3. BE EDUCATED – Take steps like you are right now, reading blog posts, articles, and books.  Spend some of the time that you might be educating yourself on the latest tech gadget, on what you are putting in your body.
4. CONNECT – Connect with local farmers.  Find a farmers market or buy into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Surrounding yourself with like minded individuals will help you understand the food you are buying and eating.
5. FIND - Sustainable farms on SocialYell.  If you know of a great, local organic farm, add it!

Meghan Nesta is a sustainability and social media nut residing in the Philadelphia, PA metro area and loves to connect with other greenies on twitter.

Le Fauxganic (The Greenwashing of Food): The Basics

Below is a blog of mine featured on SocialYell’s blog.

The truths about greenwashing are everywhere.  If you are just starting out on this journey of living a more sustainable lifestyle, along with the increasingly “green” product line on your local Walmart’s shelves, you’ll most likely notice a growing awareness that claims of greenness may not be 100% truthful.  So, OK, you check out SocialYell’s rankings, read news bits off your twitter stream and feel pretty confident on what to believe.

What you may not realize is that there is a greenwashing taking place in our food that, to the average consumer, may be even more difficult to decipher and understand.  Fauxganic (faux organic) food is becoming more prevalent and more difficult to really understand.

Organic means organic, right?  Well, kind of.  Like any industry, and yes Organic food is an industry of almost $23 billion a year (yes, that’s with a B), the bigger it is the more blurred the lines are.  Your organic strawberries may not be treated with pesticides, but truly sustainable farming practices are not being practiced at the farm they came from.  (For an in depth exploration of these topics, a must read is Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.)

Here’s an illustration on the more far reaching effects of sustainability in food: I was on vacation in Florida a few weeks back and went to buy some organic oranges.  I’m in Flordia, a citrus mecca of sorts, right?  When I turn the bag over, I’m shocked to find that these oranges are actually from California!  So, does the lack of pesticides compensate for the journey these little fruits took to the store?  It’s something to think about.

The origins of organics, I argue, take into account much more than just adhering to a non-pesticide rule.  It’s the whole picture, the whole approach to how we produce from start to finish.  Earth to plate.

Be educated!  Take a few minutes to flip over the package, read the fine print, and peruse the interwebs to see where your food really comes from.  It’s an eye opening experience.

Meghan Nesta is a sustainability and social media nut residing in the Philadelphia, PA metro area.

My “Climate Credit Card”

This week as the G-8 summit takes place in L’Aquila, Italy I have been watching.  Watching what our world leaders are willing to do to address climate change.  Watching and waiting… only to be, unsurprisingly, a bit disappointed with what seems to be the outcome.

I’ve really been chewing on the issue of climate change.  Isn’t it really and issue of us, in industrialized wealthy nations, living beyond our energy means?  In the United States our culture of living beyond our financial means has been years in the making and a bit more obvious because we have something tangible – all our stuff.

I took a quiz (it assumes you live in Australia but still very powerful) that assess how many planets we would need if everyone lived the same lifestyle as I did.  It was sobering.

I think the most convicting part of the reality of climate change is the notion that I’m racking up a balance on my “climate credit card” only to be gaining comfort at the expense of the poorest, least advantaged people in the world.

It’s time to put aside politics, accusations of fabrication of fact, and join together to do something meaningful.  Something with social equity in mind.  Our time on this planet is brief and should be beneficial and not detrimental to the future.

And THAT’s how they’ll make money

Like a light bulb above my head, marketing on twitter clicked.  Beyond the relationship building (which is uber important), a real and measurable and pretty cheap form of advertising is brewing.  Getting users to do the advertising for you.

Over the last month Squarespace and Moonfruit have been running promotions to win Apple gear.  It’s pretty interesting what twitter users will do to win something valuable.  At the risk of alienating and losing followers people are filling up their twitter stream with pleas for winning these prizes.  All the while keeping these companies at the tip of everyone’s digital tongue.

I really hope they will do some analytics and share it will the twitterverse.  Though the growth in their client list may not be explosive, their names are becoming a part of the digital vernacular like an iPod.  It’s advertising at it’s best – word of mouth.  Guaranteed, in someway, is a glimpse at the future of major advertising.

Sunshine on my roof top makes me happy

I have been caught in an eco-pity party several time lately.  A pity party thrown, of course, by myself.  Wallowing in what seems to be an eco-friendly void.  Here in Metro Philadelphia, PA it seems as though everyone on the West Coast, UK, or insert-far-off-place-here has abundant opportunity to live an eco-friendly lifestyle.  Where I am merely Sisyphus pushing an every growing carbon ball up a hill, only for it to roll down for me to start over again.

Well, turns out it’s not so bad here in Pennsylvania, and it might actually qualify as good!  Philadelphia is taking steps to be a prominent green city and has started implementing several tangible small steps.  And the casa de la Nesta is moving toward minimal dependence on the grid.  We are pursuing solar energy!  With Federal Tax incentives and an incredible state rebate program, there’s some easier green living in Pennsylvania.

To say I’m excited would be an understatement.  Over the next several months I’m hoping to highlight the journey (hopefully with an emphasis on a joyful road) of getting our system up and running and touting it’s benefits far and wide.  I’ve been amazed at how little information there seems to be out in the blogophere about more homes going down that road.

So, here I am.  My little urban house in the Northeast.  Doing my part to be more self-sufficient and hopefully helping others realize the benefits.

Stay tuned!

Mark Twain’s Twitter

The news of (Twitter’s) death has be greatly exaggerated. – Mark Twain (with creative licence)

The early adopters and social media gurus have spoken.  Twitter isn’t dying, it’s dead and it’s time to move on to find the next social media juggernaut.   Now that mainstream media is reporting about it and the entire digital universe isn’t using it, its power is gone.

I agree Twitter isn’t the one and only (SPOILER ALERT: I love twitter and think its usefulness has barely been realized) for effective social media marketing.  For an effective digital presence a brand needs to be active and relevant on several platforms.  Let’s face it, as a user there is no way you could be active on EVERY platform and still, well, sleep.  You concentrate your energy on a few platforms. 

A portion of a brand’s fan-base will be hanging out and finding community in different pockets of the digital sphere.  Just like a brand wouldn’t put all of its advertising dollars in banner ads, it shouldn’t be focused on just one platform.  To have the greatest impact a brand has to reside on many platforms to make the most impact.

A clear, concise message is key.  It will carry from one platform to another easily. 

The notion of twitter being dead as the only social media marketing tool that anyone cares about is true.  It is merely one of many tools that will evolve and help create they way we communicate with each other and brands.

When the lights go down in the ci-tay*

Living in a pretty urban area  I love to see how sustainability and eco-friendly practices are developed by creative minds.  For example, what is becoming (dare I say) common, photovoltaic (solar) systems installed on rooftops.  This week I came across two stories of creative ways to bring sustainability to the city.

 The answer is blowing in the wind

A recent article on Treehugger  New York City Building Water Towers Could be Turned into Wind Turbine highlighted the ability to perhaps use old water towers to support a series of wind turbines.

The roof, the roof, is full of food!

Another article that I came across today is a group that getting ready to put at Hydroponic farm on a roof top that will generate 30 tons of food annually! 

What may seems like small, pie-in-the-sky ideas will quickly become the pieces of the puzzle that make our world a little greener and a whole lot healthier.  I’m excited to see how creative minds will bring us more ways to slow the forces of climate change.

So, when the lights do go down in the city (years from now when we aren’t so dependant on fossil fuels to keep us going) they will come right back up again only brighter and cleaner than before.

* And you are welcome for getting Journey stuck in your head.

What’s that? I couldn’t hear you!

It’s getting pretty noisy out there in the twitterverse.  The twitter platform seems to have hit its stride for marketers – give something away and make your would-be winners tweet about it.  Every body is doing it.

I like to keep the number of people I follow small – those that I view as thought leaders in the social media or sustainability realms.  I don’t want to miss anything.  Now there seems to be a analog-TV-signal-white-fuzz over my twhirl app.  So many people are trying to win something and that, frankly, doesn’t benefit me.

Have I entered a few contest by tweeting a certain hashtag?  Yes.  But now I’m realizing that I’m tarnishing my personal brand, quickly.  I want those who take the time to pay attention to my tweets to get something meaningful.  Not be inundated with a lot of noise. 

Is that free iPhone loosing  followers?  Maybe.  But that’s for you to decide.  For me consistency of image is the key.  I’ve already forged connections through my personal brand that never would have happened if I allowed @mjnesta to be a stream of consciousness.  Those connections will have far greater returns than a shiny new iPhone. 

A little self control has already gone a long way.  I can’t loose focus now…