Bits & Bops
Be Eco (and inspired) this Tuesday
September 21st, 2009 by Patrick Dominguez
If you are a green business owner, entrepreneur or someone who is even just toying with the idea of green business…
EcoTuesday is one of those unique and innovative networking events that I think has been a HUGE success at building a community of like-minded (i.e. sustainable-minded) green business people.
The next one is THIS Tuesday, September 22nd.
More info on EcoTuesday:
http://www.ecotuesday.com
For those of you who are unfamiliar, EcoTuesday events are held across the country the 4th Tuesday of every month.
Right now you can find their events in the following cities:
Denver / Detroit / Los Angeles / Minneapolis / San Francisco / Seattle / Silicon Valley
If you don’t see your city listed - why don’t you consider contacting EcoTuesday and launching one in your area?
FOR YOUR INSPIRATION
If you’re in San Francisco this Tuesday, you don’t want to miss EcoTuesday since there’s going to be amazing speaker - Marianne Williamson - speaking on the connection between sustainability and spirituality. I’m really excited to see her in person tomorrow.
If you can’t be there, then I’d like to share with you something that she wrote which has been an inspiration to me and many, many others.
For your inspiration, in life and in green business
- Patrick
=======================
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Marianne Williamson
=======================
Free Resources for Green Businesses
March 26th, 2009 by Patrick Dominguez
So, I’ve compiled some great resources that I think that can help green businesses and entrepreneurs.
Take some time, grab a coffee and check out a few of the ones I’ve listed below. I think they you’ll find them really useful
Do you have any great resources that would benefit others? Tell us about them! I’d love to hear what free tools have been useful for you.
Please add them to the comments area below.
• No Country for Old Ideas - Five Essential Tips for Managing Sustainability at Your Organization
Do you manage sustainability projects? Justine Burt, Chief Green Officer for Greenwala.com, will share five essential things you need to know to implement projects swiftly at your organization. Join her for a FREE 30 minute webinar on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at noon Pacific Daylight Time. Here’s how to join this online meeting.
1. Go to
http://tinyurl.com/ceqgjn
2. Enter your name and email address.
3. Enter the meeting password: Burt109
4. Click “Join Now”.
• “The Way of the Radical Business” from Tad Hargrave
This free, 195-page ebook combines marketing concepts you should definitely be thinking about with more advanced concepts and outside-the-box ideas
To get this ebook resource, go to Tad Hargrave’s web site and sign up on the left hand side.
• The State of Green Business 2009
This free report from GreenBiz.com provides an excellent overview of the environmental impacts of the business sector as a whole.
Or read highlights from the review on our blog.
• Green Drinks
Too many entrepreneurs try to build their business in isolation.
Check out GreenDrinks.org to find green groups in your area, and join forces with like-minded businesses. There are groups meeting in dozens of countries.
• National Green Pages, from Green America
People frequently ask me, “how can I find other green businesses in my area?”
Check out the green business directory from Green America.
It’s an excellent source of information about green businesses across the US.
An Old Company CAN Learn New Tricks
February 26th, 2009 by Bill Baren
Amazing customer experience every step of the process is becoming even more important in our current business environment. HEMA, a Dutch department store has taken this to the next level.
I’ve never seen anything like and have just emailed this out to all of my colleagues.
Take a look at HEMA’s product page. Make sure not to click on anything until the action begins on the page and turn up your computers speakers.
By the way, you don’t have to be a young company to be innovative. HEMA’s first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.
How can you create an experience for your potential customers that will have people talking about you?
Inspiring MLK Quote
January 20th, 2009 by Patrick DominguezIn honor of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, and the presidential inauguration today, I’d like to share words of wisdom from MLK I’ve found incredibly inspiring as I work on Green Business Innovators.
“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.
You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.
And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.
To Be a Liberal (Hilarious)
August 6th, 2008 by Bill BarenI loved this video from Roy Zimmerman. It reminded me not to take myself, the success of my business nor the green movement too seriously. Have fun!
Sustainable Brands Conference
June 1st, 2008 by Bill Baren
Patrick and I are off to the Sustainable Brands Conference. We are excited to be reporting from the event as one of the Conference’s content partners. We’ll be sharing stories and case studies on Sustainability & Success from companies and their leaders. And as always we will distill our take-aways in practical, immediately-implementable form.
What’s more, we’ll be canvassing the attendees to get the scoop on the latest emerging trends in the green marketplace. And best of all, we are making sure to have some fun in Monterey.
If you can’t make the conference yourself, we’ll bring the conference to you.
Our blog will be the place to dive deeper under the surface of inspirational stories, lessons learned, and emerging best practices on the road to building more sustainable products and brands.
And that’s just for starters… check back for daily updates here and at the Sustainable Brands Conference blog.
If you are coming to the conference, be sure to find us.