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Fish story: The potential of aquaponics
During my trip to Minneapolis for last month’s Net Impact conference, I found time to visit a fascinating little startup called Urban Organics (above) in nearby St. Paul. Located in an abandoned...
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The trouble with local food
I enjoy shopping at the farmers market in Bethesda, Md., where I live. It’s a pleasant way to pass time on a Sunday morning, and a chance to run into friends and neighbors. I feel good about...
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Business and human rights
I’m just back from a few days in Geneva, where I moderated a panel at the 3rd annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. I met some interesting people—Mo Ibrahim, the African telecom billionaire,...
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Some reason for optimism on climate change
Not since the ill-fated UN climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009 has there been as much optimism as there is now about curbing the risks of climate change. Government negotiators converged this week in...
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Sustainable business, from the bottom up
For the most part, corporate sustainability programs drive change from the top down. If Apple wants to improve safety at the factories where its products are made, or Walmart wants to reduce...
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Books I liked in 2014
For my last blog post of the year, I’d like to share with you some of the books that I enjoyed reading in 2014. I made a conscious effort this year to do less work-related reading, which isn’t always...
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Brainstorm Green, RIP
Bill Clinton at Brainstorm Green in 2009 In 2007, Andy Serwer, the managing editor of FORTUNE, where I was then a senior writer, asked me to work with the magazine’s conference division to create a...
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Healthy junk food? Hey, why not?
Let them eat kale is not a recipe for solving America’s obesity crisis. Trust me. I’ve tried kale. I like Indian food, Thai food, Vietnamese food, Mexican food. I like spinach. But kale? It ain’t...
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A modest proposal for big green NGOs
Here’s an idea for big environmental NGOs that work with corporate partners: Kindly recommend to those partners that they raise their voices in Washington in support of the EPA’s proposed coal plant...
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A rank ‘em and spank ‘em study on packaging
A Dunkin Donuts–with throwaway cups–opens in Beijing Twenty-five years after McDonald’s, working with the Environmental Defense Fund, agreed to get rid of foam clamshells for its burger–in what is now...
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Impact investing with The Nature Conservancy
Impact investing is said to be a growth business. Loosely defined, impact investing is the practice of putting money into a business or nonprofit, with the expectation of generating social or...
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Who lobbies for the outdoors?
Increasingly, I’m struck by the power of conservative business lobbies in Washington, including the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum...
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Green business, and its limits
Last week, Sierra Magazine, the magazine of the Sierra Club, published my story headlined The 100% Club, about the impressive commitments that a growing number of big companies are making around...
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Bug bites
In a comprehensive 2013 report, the UN’s FAO declared that the time has come to unlock “the huge potential that insects offer for enhancing food security.” The reaction was predictable. “Of course the...
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Google: Much more than an Internet company
It’s hard to imagine life without Google–not just the search engine, but Gmail, maps, calendar and cloud storage. I could give up Twitter, Facebook and (reluctantly) Amazon, but Google and Apple are...
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Nonprofit Chronicles: my new blog
Call me a contrarian. I read this just the other day about writing on the web: Blogging?—? I mean, honey, don’t even say the word. No one actually blogs anymore, except maybe undergrads on their first...
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Keeping a close eye on all the world’s forests
Deforestation in the Andes Corporate commitments to protect forests are numerous. Unilever says it is “determined to drive deforestation out of our supply chains.” The giant paper company Asia Pulp and...
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Sparking sustainable aquaculture
On a recent visit to Cambodia, I visited a poor fishing village not far from Siem Reap where thousands of tiny forage fish, pulled from a large freshwater lake called Tonle Sap, were left to dry in the...
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With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Back in January, I wrote a blog post headlined A modest proposal for big green NGOs that suggested, in what was intended to be a helpful way, that the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Wildlife...
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How “evil” Monsanto aims to protect the planet
Iowa cornfield shows signs of erosion and fertilizer runoff. Climate Corporation aims to help farmers use fertilizer more efficiently. Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP Monsanto has been called one of the...
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