Do Well and Do Good

Weekly News Roundup for Nov 30: Google Wants to Kill Coal (and Other Stories)

It’s been a busy bustling week in the world but I had to take some time to talk about everyone’s favorite internet company:

Google Sets Sights on Killing Coal for the Entire World: It seems like the folks at Google are so used to impacting the entire world with everything that they do that they figure why stop at software. Google announced this past week that it will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars through its “for-profit” philanthropic arm to help end the world’s reliance on coal. Google’s massive data centers use an enormous amount of energy, but it’s noteworthy that the company isn’t satisfied with only curtailing its own use of coal power. It’s a refreshing attitude. Google’s news is obviously hugely ambitious and one has to wonder if they will be as successful remaking the world of energy as they have been the online world. In some sense this is the latest in the continuing evolution of corporate attitudes toward doing good. Not only are companies now thinking about cleaning up their own house, they really are thinking about how they can use their resources to help clean up everyone else’s house too.

Weekly News Roundup for Nov. 2: General Motors, YUM Brands, and Net Impact

*GM to spend $250 million on alternative fuel center in China:Last year I got so used to reading awful headlines about GM that this one caught my eye. It seems that ‘the General’ is making this investment in response to growing concerns in China about pollution and the fact that sales of GM cars in China have helped the automaker even as U.S. sales have lagged. Clearly GM thinks it’s in its best economic interest to do this probably in part because of very heavy commitments from the Chinese government to help develop fuel alternatives. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the market for these cars isn’t likely to be huge due to increased cost, so it’s a nice example of what a commitment by governments can help achieve.

Weekly News Roundup for October 26th

MicroPlace.com Launched by EBay: I’ve often mentioned Kiva.com on this blog. Kiva is a website that lets you make a micro-loan (as little as 25$) to a specific entrepreneur in a developing country and that has established a system for the entrepreneur to pay you back. Well, it seems the online micro-lending world got a little more crowded this week and Kiva got itself a partner or competitor. Read on...

Weekly News Roundup for October 19th

This week: Al Gore's $100 million ad buy; World Bank’s “Doing Business 2008"; Gap between rich and poor keeps growing; Forbes releases list of America's greenest States.  Read on...

FNR: CSR, Vermont-Style; Dove Campaign Hypocritical?

* Marketwatch on CSR: Thomas Kostigen wrote a good piece this week on the changing tide of corporate and social responsibility. I posted a while back that corporations are, in essence, a collection of humans who have a responsibility to do what is right – it’s nice to see someone in the mainstream media espouse the same view. Kostigen laments the fact that, “many companies are short sighted” in their profit-seeking. I would add that, to their detriment, many companies also seek to appease the old-guard CSR-critics who refuse to acknowledge the new corporate and social environment.
MarketWatch: Doing the Right Thing

* The Ugly Side of Dove?: Beauty products maker Dove has reaped untold rewards with its “Campaign for Real Beauty” in which it fights the false images beauty companies foist upon women worldwide. But the ThirdWay blog brings up an interesting point:

FNR: Beware of “Pink Washing”; Private Planes to Sudan

* Think Before You Pink: From Associated Content.com, the organization Breast Cancer Action has launched a “Think Before You Pink” campaign to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The campaign was initiated to alert consumers to “pink washing” activities where companies exploit breast cancer to simply sell products. And in nice accompaniment, the blog “Live, Laugh, Love” lists some major companies, their breast cancer product offerings, and subsequent donations.
AssociatedContent: Think Before You Pink Campaign Emphasizes Company Accountability
Live, Laugh, Love: Buying Pink

FNR: Clinton's Global Meeting, Starbucks' Beesting

* Poverty in Museums: The Blog Get Rich Slowly posted an extensive review on microloan pioneer Muhammad Yunus’ new book Banker to the Poor. The review and the book are definitely worth the read. As Get Rich asserts, one of Yunus’ most striking statements is that “Poverty does not belong in a civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum.”
Get Rich Slowly: Banker to the Poor

* Clinton Global Initiative: Unless you've been living under a rock this week, the Clinton Global Initiative took place. Among attendees were Bill Gates,Laura Bush, Jacques Chirac, Rupert Murdoch, and Warren Buffett. The blog Buzz did a great job of covering the key developments of the momentous event.
Buzz: Clinton Global Initiative Archive

FNR: Coke’s Isdell on CSR; Journalist Knocks Non-Profit Innovation

* Reporter Rails Against Non-Profits: The blog Tactical Philanthropy covered a heated diatribe on non-profits delivered by a respected foundations journalist. The post also links to the podcast in which Cheryl Dahle says that save for a few exceptions, foundations and non-profits have been unaccountable, unimaginative and generally boring. I think that in terms of foundations, Dahle’s wake-up call is much needed – but I would say that some non-profits and social entrepreneurship ventures (Kiva, DonorsChoose, etc.) have innovated and changed the space for the better.
Tactical Philanthropy: Are Foundation Inept, Boring & Scared to Fail?

* An Unlikely CSR Backer: After my end of week post was filed last Friday, The Triple Bottom Line Blog pointed out an Economist piece which fired back at Robert Reich’s anti-CSR book in defense of corporate and social responsibility.
The Triple Bottom Line: The Economist on CSR
The Economist: CSR May Be in Trouble, but the Alternative is Worse

FNR: Mattel's CSR Head; Body Shop's Roddick Passes

* Blodget on Ethical Investing: Henry Blodget, best known for misleading investors who trusted him during the tech boom, has penned a piece on Socially Responsible Investing. Although I agree with some of his conclusions, it continues to amaze that Blodget gets paid to write on anything nearing the topic of ethics.
The Atlantic Monthly: The Conscientious Investor

* Corporate Responsibility Trailblazer Passes: Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick, largely responsible for showing the corporate world that they could turn “responsible” profits, passed away this week. The world has definitely lost both brainpower and  a big heart. Links to two good blog posts on Roddick are below.
Jack Yan on Vox: Excerpts from the Last Dame Anita Roddick Interview
Conversation Agent: The Body Shop did not Sell Only Lipstick

FNR: Big Mac Crashes Website; Tax Breaks for Billionaires

* China/India Resource Needs Worsening Hunger Crisis: From Reuters – “Food donations to the world's hungry have fallen to their lowest level since 1973 as surging grain and shipping prices outpace the aid budgets of rich nations.” This is one of those situations where you and I can step in and make a dent, however small. 
Reuters: Commodity Boom Eats Into Aid for the World’s Hungry
Action Against Hunger: Donate  

* BigMac vs. Global Warming: From the AFP – “A Japanese government website crashed Wednesday as people raced to take up an offer of a half-price McDonald's hamburger in exchange for pledging to fight global warming.”
AFP: Half-Price Big Mac to Fight Global Warming a Big Hit in Japan