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The business of rating business
Is Coca Cola a more sustainable company than PepsiCo? Which company is greener, Dell or Hewlett Packard? Both UPS and FedEx say they are environmental leaders—who’s right? Underwriters Laboratories (UL) — one of the world’s oldest and most...
The next debt crisis will be ecological
Anyone who paid attention learned a lot from the global financial crisis of 2008. Here are three lessons that were burned into my brain: 1. Live within your means. Debt creates risk. When homeowners, investors or banks take on lots of debt,...
Chef to the rich, advocate for the poor
Herbs at the Dupont Circle farmers market in Washington Can you think of a simple idea that would fight obesity, support local farmers and help the poor, all at once? Michel Nischan and Gus Schumacher did. Nischan is an award-winning chef,...
A food revolution?
Have you noticed? A food revolution has begun—with the goal of making our food and agriculture systems better for us, better for the environment, maybe even better for workers and democracy. So, at least, says Marion Nestle, the author, activist,...
The high cost of cheap food
“We have very, very expensive food in this country.” “It’s just that the prices are cheap.” So said Paul Hawken, the environmentalist, entrepreneur and author, in a speech that began Cooking for Solutions, a conference on food and the environment...
Walmart: Still the green giant
Walmart and GE are the superpowers of corporate sustainability. They have enormous impact (WMT) and influence (GE). Recently, I hosted a dinner about sustainability for Motorola where an executive named Bill Olson described how the company...
Make money. Save the planet, too.
Like most big problems, climate change will require big solutions. Governments and business will have to make massive investment in clean energy–$45 trillion between now and 2025, says the International Energy Agency. This could make some people...
For business, is health the new “green”?
A decade ago, few people would have thought that major banks, retailers or Internet companies would need environmental strategies. Yet today, they do–Bank of America has promised to invest $20 billion on sustainability initiatives over 10 years,...
Wind power gets high
Not far from where Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Rob Creighton and his partners at a start-up company called Windlift are testing a contraption designed to capture high-altitude wind energy and...
Fighting poverty and global warming in Africa
Tree planting in Tanzania Rarely do you find a business that attacks two big problems–global poverty and climate change–at the same time. This week, I came across two such ventures. As it happens, they have a lot in common: Both operate in East...
Earth Day at the mall
Somehow Americans manage to turn every holiday—from Christmas to Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the 4th of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, so-called President’s Day and the rest —into a shopping opportunity. Perversely,...
Nicholas Eisenberger: Signs of intelligent life on the smart grid
Today’s guest post comes from Nicholas Eisenberger, a senior strategist at Green Order, who joined us as a moderator at FORTUNE’s Brainstorm Green conference about business and the environment earlier this week. Here, he reports on a discussion he...
