13 days til Valentine’s Day!

Impress your sweetie this Valentine’s Day with a thoughtful, green gift from CarbonFree® Partner Soul Flower.  Soul Flower is a retail mail order and online store that focuses on clothing and eco-friendly goods for the entire family. A “lifestyle” store with an emphasis on products that are made from organic cotton or hemp, the clothing and goods that come from Soul Flower are primarily from Fair Trade^TM companies, made in cooperatives, or are from small independent businesses in the USA.  They have been a CarbonFree® Partner since 2006 and have worked with us during that time to offset the emissions related to their business operations by supporting our renewable energy projects.

Soul Flower offers everything from funky clothing for women and men to cool duds for little buds. My recommendation?  Go for one of their organic printed tees or hip hats.  For more great gift ideas, or to check out their goods for yourself, visit: www.soul-flower.com.

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Rather than your usual Ford Crown Victoria, their entire fleet is made up of Toyota Priuses getting an estimated 50 miles per gallon.  They also prove that going green doesn’t have to be expensive.  They have prices that are cheaper than the top three cab companies in Phoenix.

“We believe that going green isn’t something you do – it is something you are,” said Steve Lopez, Founder of Clean Air Cab.

In addition to taking care of the environment, Clean Air Cab has programs that protect their local community.  Arizona State University students can call Clean Air Cab’s Free Ride Back program to get a cab to take them home if they have been drinking and can’t drive themselves. In the morning, they call back and a cab will pick them up and take them back to their car for free.

People in the Phoenix, AZ metro area can book a Clean Air Cab taxi online at www.CleanAirCab.com or by calling 480-777-9777.

Check out Carbonfund.org’s CarbonFree® logo on the back of each Clean Air Cab!

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The CarbonFree^® Certified Label has already been used by leading brands, and provides a meaningful, transparent way for you to provide carbon neutral products to your customers. This webinar will provide a helpful overview of the process involved in obtaining our label and making your product carbon neutral.

Thursday, November 12th, 2pm ET

Speakers:

· Caterina Conti – Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of Anvil Knitwear, Inc., which certified & launched its AnvilRecycled™ apparel CarbonFree^®

· Christopher Kral – Senior consultant with WSP Environment & Energy on determining a product’s carbon footprint

· Emily Pugliese – Senior Climate Change Specialist, CarbonFree^® Product Certification Program of Carbonfund.org on the certification process

Join leading companies such as Motorola, Florida Crystals, and Anvil Knitwear which have certified and successfully launched products CarbonFree^®, using the label to impart their environmental commitment, differentiate their brands and help increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Our CarbonFree^® Business Program lets your business take charge of its carbon footprint and benefit from Carbonfund.org’s services for CarbonFree^® Partners. The program is an innovative and flexible way to help your business reduce and offset its carbon footprint.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2 pm ET

Speakers:

Karen Kiley – Vice President, Building Operations, Discovery Communications, parent of Discovery Channel, TLC, TreeHugger and other media brands

Eric Carlson – President, Carbonfund.org

From Fortune 500 companies to small & start-up businesses, the program comprises many of the most innovative, environmentally responsible companies.

Remember to sign up for your free product certification and/or business program webinar today.

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Virgin America is the Official Domestic Airline of the Governors’ Second Annual Climate Summit in Los Angeles from Sept. 30-Oct. 2.  Also, Virgin America released its first annual Climate Report today describing their unique sustainability efforts and emissions data for 2008.  When Virgin America launched in 2007 they took great care to incorporate sustainability into every aspect of their business.  They not only use more efficient aircraft, regulating cruising speed to reduce fuel burn, and encourage customers to offset the impact of their flight through Carbonfund.org, they even use organic hand soap in the airplane bathrooms!

Earlier this year, Virgin America became the first U.S. airline to join The Climate Registry and commit to reporting emissions according to The Climate Registry’s standards.  We are proud that our partner is an innovator and a leader in sustainability efforts for the airline industry.

Flying somewhere? Check out this page where you can offset your trip! If you’re reading this in-flight, remember you can offset your trip during flight on Virgin America’s RED™ in-flight entertainment system.

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The World Benefits is offsetting this event, in addition to their corporate footprint, through Carbonfund.org.  I actually attended a similar workshop several months ago in the same location.  It was very engaging and had interaction work sessions with other attendees.  With multiple speakers who I found incredibly insightful, oftentimes hilarious, and serious about making positive change, I left the workshop motivated to help Carbonfund.org.

We have implemented a change in Carbonfund.org’s daily work-life that was inspired by The World Benefits workshop.  We now have a Lunch Club of individuals who cook one day of the week for the rest of the group.  We all eat together, share amazing food, and only have to worry about lunch one day per week!  It’s a tiny slice of employee engagement that we can thank The World Benefits for inspiring.

If you want to stay ahead of the environmental curve, improve employee retention and morale, and benefit the world, email Jenny Harding at jenny@theworldbenefits.com or events@theworldbenefits.com to sign up, or register on their website www.theworldbenefits.com.

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In spite of the fact that climate change is an issue that will impact the bottom line of almost every major industry, 76.3% of the 2008 annual reports by companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) list did not mention climate change even one time in their reports. Only 5.5% of these reports identified a risk posed by climate change and fully articulated a strategy for addressing these risks.

While these numbers are disappointing as a whole, there is reason for encouragement in this report as the number of companies addressing climate change in their annual report is increasing. From 2007 to 2008, the number of companies that did address climate change increased from 13.3% to 23.7% and the number has increased every year since 1999. Much as we have seen an increase in the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility/CSR reporting in the past several years, we are starting to see more companies address the financial impact of climate change on their business. Here is to hoping that the number of companies reporting on this issue continues to grow in 2009.

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“We’re at a point where socially responsible investing is evolving beyond avoidance strategies—eliminating companies that are involved in tobacco, for example—to ones that take an integrated look at ESG. This is all part of the same movement to understand how to harness this information for better returns.” – Paul Hilton, Interim Director Social Investment Strategy at Calvert, a leading socially responsible investing firm.

Deborah Fleischer of Green Impact, which provides environmental consulting, wrote in GreenBiz on three compelling reasons why sustainability makes good business:

1. It will save you money: A global consumer packaged goods company reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 16 percent, even when increasing production by 76% — improved energy efficiency saved the company about $30 million in 2007.
2. It will provide better access to capital: Companies that are high on Dow Jones Sustainability Index may find that they have an easier time getting capital. Socially responsible investors typically won’t lend to companies that don’t have a sustainability policy.
3. It will drive top-line revenues: STMicroelectronics made a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2010 with a 40-fold increase in production. The process of figuring out how to achieve this ambitious goal was a catalyst for corporate innovation, increasing the company’s market share and saving millions of dollars in the process.

Companies who plan for the long term are the ones that will be ready to meet the demands of a more sustainable market. Even in these economic hard times, keeping your social and environmental indicators healthy are as important as the economic ones.

Image Courtesy: Time Inc.

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On global warming, Motorola’s Greg Brown, who is president and co-CEO, said, “We are fully committed to doing our part to tackle climate change. We are improving energy efficiency across our full range of products. Since 2005, we have reduced our carbon footprint by 20 percent, and we are working on using renewable energy to help power our products.”

To learn more about the company’s Report, view it here or take a look at this video.

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