Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)

Here is my latest prezi about Socially Responsible Investment.
Its from a presentation i gave in my class yesterday.

enjoy!

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) on Prezi

My speaking notes:

Intro:

Have you heard about SRI?

Do you think SRI is important?

Did you, in the investment game, screen your stocks with SRI values?

Why?

Why not?

There is a wide believe out there, that SRI brings back lower returns, is more risky or less attractive for investors. I will try to prove the opposite.

Video

Def:

Socially responsible investing (SRI), also known as sustainable, socially conscious, green or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social good.

What are your personal values?

What do you believe in?

Do you believe in peace, abundance, community?

Or in war, scarcity and dictatorship?

What would you rather want your money to support?

Weapons solar panels

mass murder community

oil spills - nature

Creation myth:

Quakers:

Who knows these guys?

Quakers?

Quakers “invented” sRi in the 1758 cause a doctrine told them they where “prohibited members from participating in the slave trade–buying or selling humans.“

Modern:

In the 1960’s, due to the political climate, increasingly sought to address equality for women, civil rights, and labor issues.

Economic development projects started or managed by Dr. Martin Luther King, like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Operation Breadbasket Project] in Chicago, established the beginning model for socially responsible investing efforts

1950s and 1960s, trade unions started investing pension funds

SRI had an important role in causing ending the apartheid government in South Africa

Since the late 1990s, SRI has become increasingly defined as a means to promote environmentally sustainable development

GROWTH

Socially responsible investing is a booming market in both the US and Europe. Assets in socially screened portfolios climbed to $3.07 trillion at the start of 2010, a 34% increase since 2005

From 2007-2010 alone, SRI assets increased more than 13%, while professionally-managed assets overall increased less than 1%

So what does SRI do?

What are the approaches investors typically utilize in SRI?

Screening

evaluating investment portfolios or mutual funds based on social, environmental and good corporate governance criteria.

Screening may involve including strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) performers, avoiding poor performers, or otherwise incorporating CSR factors into the process of investment analysis and management. Generally, sutainable and responsible investors seek to own profitable companies that make positive contributions to society. "Buy" lists may include enterprises with, for example, good employer-employee relations, strong environmental practices, products that are safe and useful, and operations that respect human rights around the world.

Shareholder advocacy

sustainable and responsible investors who take an active role as the owners of corporate America.

These efforts include talking (or "dialoguing") with companies on issues of social, environmental or governance concerns. Shareholder advocacy also frequently involves filing, and co-filing shareholder resolutions on such topics as corporate governance, climate change, political contributions, gender/racial discrimination, pollution, problem labor practices and a host of other issues. Shareholder resolutions are then presented for a vote to all owners of a corporation.

Community Investing 

directs capital from investors and lenders to communities that are underserved by traditional financial services institutions.

Community investing provides access to credit, equity, capital, and basic banking products that these communities would otherwise lack. In the US and around the world, community investing makes it possible for local organizations to provide financial services to low-income individuals and to supply capital for small businesses and vital community services, such as affordable housing, child care, and healthcare

How many assets are involved in SRI?

US SIF's 2010 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends identified $3.07 trillion in total assets

How many SRI mutual funds are there?

 2010, there were 250 socially screened mutual fund products in the US

What is the fastest growing area of SRI?

Community investing

 Over the past three years, community investing has grown over 60-percent, from $25.0 billion to $41.7 billion in assets.

Performance and SRI Investment

FTSE KLD 400 with returns of 9.51

 8.66 percent for the S&P 500

domini 400:

1. Approximately 250 companies in the S&P 500
2. 100 companies not in the S&P 500, but providing sector diversification and exceeding pre-determined market cap limitations
3. 50 companies that have shown excellence in their social and environmental dealings

Coca Cola seeks "corporate green washer"

Since I'll be graduating soon, I've been browsing through jobs in the area of business and sustainability.
One of my favorites so far was Coca Cola's Job description for a "Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations Manager"

Sounds interesting - right?
Seems to me though, that this is a job only looking to "green wash" Coca Colas initiatives.

from: http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/
post/google_search_of_the_day_coca_cola_greenwashing

Here are some Highlights found in the Job description:

The SSR Communications Manager is responsible for ensuring that the planning, development and delivery of the CCR Sustainability story is told to key media, associates and stakeholders across the country. (so far so good)

* Community and Special Interest Groups: Knowledge of community and special interest groups (e.g., objectives, leadership, methods) that have the potential to impact the Company's business or operating environment. Includes ability to influence these groups on behalf of the Company.
(influencing communities on behalf of the company - well... that sounds genuine...)

* Government Relations: Knowledge of how government is structured and understanding of how public policy decisions are made and implemented. Includes ability to communicate effectively with politicians.
(communicate effectively with politicians... well... lobbying would be the better word)

* Crisis Management: Knowledge of procedures used and ability to rapidly mobilize and manage internal and external resources to deal with situations that have the potential for severe negative impact on the Company's reputation or business.

* Work with Product Supply, Region Teams and AHL PAC colleagues to provide early-warning system and internal/external communications strategy and messages for potential negative issues.

The hole description can be found here:

http://www.amightyriver.com/job-search/sustainability-and-stakeholder-relations-manager.5533147.html?from=SimplyHired&utm_source=SimplyHired&utm_medium=jobboard&utm_campaign=SimplyHired

interested?

good luck, and let me know how it turns out!!

Certified B Corps and Benefit Corporations

B Corp Certification

B corp on Prezi

About B-Corporations

What is a B Corp?

According to Inc. magazine, the B Corp movement started in 2007 and was founded by 81 companies that all looked for alternative ways to make business differently then the traditional for-profit model (Brown, 2011)#. [you may either footnote or use the in-line citation system; you should not use both at the same time.]
The Vision of the Certification is to find and certify corporations that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems
B-Corps are privately certified through the non-profit B-Labs, which certifies B Corporations according to the website if they meet requirements in three areas:

1. Meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards
2. Meet higher legal standards
3. Build business constituency for public policies that support sustainable business

As of now, there are about 500 certified B Corporations in 60 different areas of business. The impact of these companies can be seen through their publicly available B Impact Report with data about the social and environmental practices.

Who sets the standard?

B-Labs aims  to redefine the purpose of a business by creating business communities and market infrastructure where people can distinguish between businesses that are “good” and businesses that simply have good marketing (greenwashing?).

They emphasize empowering entrepreneurs and the stakeholders of their businesses so they can stand for something positive.

According to their website, there are three things they do for companies to systematically bring change and create a new business sector:

1. Build a community of Certified B Corporations to distinguish between good companies and good marketing

2. Use their GIIRS Ratings & Analytics to accelerate impact investing asset class growth

3. Promote legislation that creates a structure for higher business standards

(Source: http://www.bcorporation.net/The-Non-Profit-behind-B-Corps) 

Who is involved in developing or modifying the standard, and by what procedure is the standard developed or modified?

The certification is done partially by the business itself and partially by B-Labs staff members. They continuously improve their assessments with feedback and lessons learned through practice. (source:http://blog.southern-energy.com/index.php/sem-triple-bottom-line/b-corp-assessment-take-2/)

A three step process is needed for a business to get their B-Corp certification and is mentioned on the B-Labs website:

• The business needs to get a minimum of 80 points out of 200 on the B Impact assessment. This assessment will be reviewed by a B-Labs staff member
• The business must adopt the legal framework provided by B-Labs to align its values with other B Corporations.
• The business must sign a term sheet and a declaration of interdependence to make it official  

(source:http://www.bcorporation.net/Certification-Overview)

After receiving the certification, B-Labs will do an on-site evaluation on 20% of the certified B-Corps over a two year term.

Who are the evaluators and who accredits them?

Most of the evaluating is done in-house by B-Labs themselves, so the evaluators are B-Labs staff and [are accredited by other B-Labs accreditors] - [no, just say that they are trained by B-Labs. There is no accreditation process in the B-Corp system].

Training of Audit Staff and Consultants

The B Corp website lists a plethora of of consultants who are not trained by B-Labs for consulting but are B corp certified themselves.

[“certified” is the wrong word, because that applies to a corporation. In the text, I said “credentialed” to refer to what a person gets when they are trained to act as an auditor or consultant] Can you say more about the extent of training given to people in order to get a credential from B-Labs? Is there a name to that credential?

(source: http://www.bcorporation.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/serviceArea.detail?id=739f6273-bedf-43da-ad71-990aa02407df) Businesses can also ask for help from B-Labs at any point in the certification process.

Legislative Component

B-Lab, the company behind the B Corps, also works parallel with many states within the United States to lobby for a legal change, to create a legal “Benefit Corporation”.
Even though B Corps [? do you mean B-Lab rather than B Corps?] and Benefit Corporations have very much in common, they are essentially independent from each other. Certified B Corps are certified independently by the non profit B-Lab. (source:http://www.bcorporation.net/publicpolicy)
Benefit corporations are not certified but have legal requirements of corporate purpose, accountability, and transparency (B Lab)#. [you already said this]
Benefit Corporations legally meet higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability and transparency. According to the website, there are 3 main factors: [this too is repetitive]

1. Purpose: have a corporate purpose to create a material positive impact on society and the environment;
2. Accountability: expand fiduciary duty to require consideration of the interests of workers, community and the environment; and
3. Transparency: publicly report annually on overall social and environmental performance against a comprehensive, credible, independent, and transparent third party standard.

(source: http://www.bcorporation.net/publicpolicy )

Benefit Corporations are legally established in 7 states (California, Hawaii, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Vermont, and New Jersey) and pending in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Washington. (source: http://www.benefitcorp.net/state-by-state-legislative-status)
B Lab seems to be the driving force behind the legislative changes, and seems to be lobbying in all states in the USA to get Benefit Corporations legislation.

According to the website, the benefits of becoming a benefit corporations are:

• Provide clarity to directors and officers that their fiduciary duty includes creating a material positive impact on society and the environment, even in liquidity/sale scenarios;
• Offer legal protection to directors and officers to consider the non-financial interests of their workforce, community, and the environment when making decisions, even in liquidity/sale scenarios;
• Help maintain mission over time by 1) expanding shareholder rights to enforce this expanded definition of fiduciary duty and standard of consideration; and 2) requiring a 2/3 super-majority vote of shareholders to remove these higher standards; and 3) providing the opportunity to name and enforce pursuit of one or more specific public benefit purposes;
• Create a marketing opportunity to differentiate the business as a new class of corporation required by law to benefit society as well as shareholders.

[this is a very interesting part of your report. Can you say more about this. What does the state legislation say? Does it say that a company must be certified by B-Labs to get this protection, or does it say that a company must meet certain conditions (if so, what are they?) to qualify for the legal protection?

Corporate Sustainability – The holy grail of capitalism?

Here is another part of my academic career. This paper was for my "organizational change for sustainability" class. I am only posting the Intro, the first part of my paper and my personal notes, because the main part is only a summary of the book: Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability: A Guide for Leaders and Change Agents of the Future, by Dexter Dunphy, Andrew Griffiths, Suzanne Benn (http://www.amazon.com/Organizational-Change-Corporate-Sustainability-Understanding/dp/0415393299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329237665&sr=8-2)

have fun reading :)

Introduction:

Sustainability has become one of the biggest trends worldwide over the last 30 years. Waking up to the reality of our problems a lot of people demand “more sustainability” from corporations, government and society as a whole. Many corporations jumped on this train and started to look at how they could change and adapt their business practices to be more sustainable in their actions.

The Holy Grail, similar to sustainability now, plays a different role everywhere it appears. In most versions of the legend the hero must prove himself worthy to be in its presence. In the early tales, Percival's immaturity prevents him from fulfilling his destiny when he first encounters the Grail, and he must grow spiritually and mentally before he can locate it again. In a later telling the Grail is a symbol of God's grace, available to all but only fully realized by those who prepare themselves spiritually, like the saintly Galahad.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail)

The Sustainability Phase Model

In their introduction, Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn pose the question of whether corporations are evil. They argue that it would be simplistic and naïve to portray corporations as evil by nature, but that it is important to “exercise collective control over the way in which they operate”. Thus it is important to define their role within society, their social and environmental responsibility, and their accountability. They think that “the core of this debate can be summarized as the argument about whether the role of the corporation is simply to create financial wealth for its owners, or to contribute to the well-being of a wider range of stakeholders, including the community, the environment and future generations.”

(p. 7, 8)

The Authors present a phase model to make comparisons between organizations and their commitment and practice towards sustainability. The model also describes a set of steps that organizations take in progressing to sustainability.

These steps are:

·      Rejection

·      Non-responsiveness

·      Compliance

·      Efficiency

·      Strategic proactivity

·      The sustaining corporation

All phases are described in terms of their attitudes towards human sustainability and ecological sustainability. This gives the reader an idea of the journey an organization theoretically goes through, on its way to more sustainable practice.

Figure 1: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/0430230105001.png

1.     Rejection
Employees and subcontractors are regarded as a resource that can be exploited and the environment is regarded as a free good to be exploited. Pro environmental action is seen as a threat to the organization.

2.     Non-Responsiveness
Financial and technological factors dominate business strategies to the exclusion of most human resource management. The ecological environment is not considered to be a relevant factor in strategic or operational decisions. Environmental risks, costs, opportunities and imperatives are seen as irrelevant or are not perceived at all.

3.     Compliance
The emphasis is on compliance with legal requirements in industrial relations, safety, workplace standards, and so on. Financial and technological factors dominate business strategies, but the company seeks to comply with environmental laws to minimize the firm’ potential liabilities from actions that have adverse impact on the environment.

4.     Efficiency
There is a systematic attempt to integrate human resource functions into a coherent HR system to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Poor environmental practice is seen as an important source of avoidable costs.

5.     Strategic Proactivity
Skill mix and diversity are seen as integral and vitally important aspects for the business, and intellectual and social capital are used to develop strategic advantage through innovation. Proactive environmental strategies supporting ecological sustainability are seen as strategic business opportunities to provide competitive advantage. The organization seeks competitive leadership through spearheading environmentally friendly products and processes.

6.     The sustaining corporation
The organization accepts responsibility for contributing to the process of renewing and upgrading human knowledge and skill formation in the community and society as a whole and is a strong promoter of equal opportunity, workplace diversity and work-life balance as workplace principles. The organization becomes an active promoter of ecological sustainability values and seeks to influence key participants in the industry and society in general. Nature is valued for its own sake.
(p. 24-26)

.....

Personal Note

Writing this paper was extremely hard for me, for reasons that I cannot really explain. There is some kind of inner blockage that is hindering me to accept the reality the authors are creating. Even though their model seems to be logical and they obviously have enough experience to showcase their points, there is still something wrong for me. Something on an intuitive level is telling me that this is not working. Even though I am aware that this book is geared towards a specific market of corporate CEOs and change agents, and I fully recognize the good intentions behind it, I strongly believe that it is not going far enough.

It seems to me that their belief that the system can be changed in an incremental way, which is what their model seems to describe, does not work. It seems that the fundamental beliefs that build their logic will not hold up.  Their model still lies on the assumption of infinite growth, a basic and fundamental problem within the capitalist system. There is no such thing as infinite growth, and therefore every competitive system that is based on this assumption, whether it is integrating sustainability or not, is doomed to fail in the long term.

The second logical flaw is the assumption that at the heart of every business lays profit. The idea of profit has created a mousetrap in which our current system is trapping itself. By looking for profits, we forget to see what the original purpose of business is. The creation of value for the greater good is the real, original purpose for business. Looking back thousands of years, groups gathered together to create things of value that could not be created by one person alone, to generate more value for the greater good of everyone. If this seems altruistic, or unrealistic to you, imagine living in a tribe in the jungle, and creating a field to grow crops so that everyone in the tribe could eat and prosper. Now imagine the whole world being this tribe.

It might seem like a good idea to try and change the system. It might seem like its worth the time and energy to look at the existing model and see where you can change it, tweak it and adapt it. If you take a step back though, you will see that this system has brought itself to a point where little changes, and lofty visions are not enough anymore. The incremental path of change is over. This system needs drastic change, and that is what is missing in their book: The boldness to propose changes that are outside of what exists right now. In the words of Buckminster Fuller: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.  To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

We are at a point where we need a new model, one that is not based on the assumptions of infinite growth, exploitation of the environment and the generation of profit as the central motivation. A model that takes into account the inherent drive of humans for good, that acknowledges that we are all in this together, and that the biggest goals are to create a world worth living for everyone on this planet. This certainly is not going to happen by slowly transforming corporations into sustainable corporations, because the only thing they “sustain” is their inherent need for profit and exploitation.

It seems to me like we are in a very similar situation as it was in France at the time of the French revolution, where it was not enough to change and adopt the system. A new system needed to be created, to replace the old one. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from radical political groups, masses on the streets, and peasants in the countryside. Old ideas about tradition and hierarchy – of monarchy, aristocracy and religious authority - were abruptly overthrown by new Enlightenment principles of equality, citizenship and inalienable rights. This process went on for the next 50 years, going back and forth in a power struggle between democracy and monarchy, but finally ended in the establishment of the first modern democracy in Europe. Even thought this process caused a lot of pain, suffering and death, it liberated the world and caused the next level of evolution for mankind.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution)

I believe that we are at a very similar point of time. This society needs to reinvent itself and completely transform into something new; shed the old skin of corporate capitalism and be reborn in a new form.  We can see now the initiation of this shift, with economists predicting the break down of our current model, people demonstrating on streets and public spaces all over the world and scholars creating new models of existence. I don’t know how this model is going to look, but if we are to survive, it has to be radically different from what we currently have. The ideas range from global non-monetary, resource based economies to small community self-sufficiency, to spiritual enlightenment theories. It seems that, like Perceval, the corporate world, in its quest to find the holy grail of profit and sustainability, does not dare to ask the right question, and therefore is doomed to fail.

Social Justice in the light of Integral Theory and SpIral Dynamics

so, i have not published anything here in a long time, but now i've something new to share.
these are my notes of the presentation i gave in my social justice class about "Integral Theory, Spiral Dynamics, and Social Justice".
In this presentation i try to have a look at Racism from the point of few of Spiral Dynamics and Integral Theory.

So, here it is:

Suppose we took everything that all the various world cultures have to tell us about human potential and the world around us, about psychological, and social growth, about science, religion and spirituality.

What if we tried to identify the basic patterns that connect these pieces of knowledge? What If we tried to create a map that touches on all these important factors.

Before getting into this, I want to make sure: this is just a map. Its not the territory. Don’t confuse the map. Don’t think by looking at the map, you know the territory. But also, if you go on a road trip, you’d rather have a map with you, cause otherwise you might never get to where you want to get.

Integral theory is a framework that tries to integrate different ways of knowledge,  from ancient sages to modern science and put it in one model.

Integral theory sees that there is different states of consciousness that we are on (waking, dreaming, sleeping), it takes into account that there is different levels of development (example:preconventional = egocentric; conventional=ethnocentric; post conventional = worldcentric) that there is different lines of development (cognitive, interpersonal, emotional, moral, psychosexual), and that there is at least a masculine and a feminine aspect to everything.

One main framework that integral theory works with a 4-quadrant model.

Every mayor language has, what we call 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd person pronouns.

If I am speaking to you about my bike. There is the “I”, the you and the it.

You and I together form the “we”

So, you can look at every event from the point of view of “I” (how I personally feel about it)

From the “WE”, how not just I, but all of us see the event

And from the “IT” – the objective facts of events.

The 4 perspectives with which you can look at every occasion are:

I – top left- inside of individual – individual thoughts, feelings, sensations, (everything 1^st person)

It – top right - outside of individual – physical individual: my cells, organs, but also my physical behavior, the way I dress.

When inside is feelings, outside sees a limbic system, when inside has desires, the outside sees the neurocortex,

Inside is the subjective, outside the objective, and both of them are right according to integral approach.

We – bottom left -  inside of collective – group consciousness, our culture,

Its – bottom right - outside of collective – social dimension – how we manifest culture, the infrastructure we build, etc.

All 4 of these quadrants need to be included if you want to be as integral as possible, and all 4 of those show growth, development and evolution.

One model that is often used together with integral theory is a developmental model called “spiral dynamics”.

Spiral dynamics is a framework for understanding different value systems. First formulated by Dr. Clare Graves and put into a book by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.

It gives a way of understanding human differences without the invalid cathegories of race or class, and a language to describe differences that transcend superficial categories.

4 key points to his theory:

1.    Human nature is not static, nor is it finite. Human nature changes as the conditions of existence change.

2.    When a new system or level is activated, we change our psychology and rules for living to adapt to those new conditions.

3.    We live in a potentially open system of values with an infinite number of modes of living available to us. There is no final state to which we must all aspire.

4.    An individual, a company, or an entire society can respond positively only to those managerial principles, motivational appeals, educational formulas, and legal or ethical codes that are appropriate to the current level of human existence" (Beck and Cowan 1996).

So, what does all of this have to do with racism?

Purple: survival of family, tribe, clan, preserve our kind, stranger and outsider is feared, not trusted, gender and age roles are rigid and important.

Examples: urban gangs, KKK, white supremacy groups, Mafia

Red: centers on power, appearance, territorial and personal dominance, self serving, often violent, brutal, , focus on power, conquest, expression of power,

Examples: intra racial gang violence, inter ethnic conflicts, protest marches

Blue: racism as a social construct to maintain segregation, division. Uses polarized thinking (us/them), rigid cathegories, classes, crusades, traditions. Uses “holy books” and “the law” to justify unequal behavior. Rules for proper behavior, seeks to keep things as they are. Flags, hymns, etc

Examples: U.S before&during Civil rights movement until now, Apartheid before mandela, conservative groups

Orange: seeks competitive advantage, achievement, vies for economic niches, avoids racism and sexism, even plays down racial and ethnic heritage for success, focuses on strategies, free markets, status. Is only inclusive if benefits bottomline.

Examples: anti affirmative laws, corporate America

Green: at this level racism is reactionary, can be exclusive and intolerant, social action missionaries who use discrimination to enforce equality. Egalitarianism based on denial of differences. Focuses on equality, community, feelings, earthiness, consensus, and human harmony.

Examples: Politically Correct movement, Anti racism groups,

The article suggests that racism is only truly overcome in the second tier, because at that stage competence is overriding differences.

Read quote:

3 modes for change:

1.    Bureaucratic model (top down): addressing institutional structures of exclusion.
Primary way of success: work through institutions that perpetuate learning of racism: family, schools, church, workplace, government.

2.    Grassroots model (bottom up): create systems of greater equality, create contact between different groups, reducing socioeconomic competition, and status inequality, example: civil rights movement.

3.    Heart Model (inside out): focus on internal transformation through heart/mind/spirit: “finding, nurturing, and creating conditions that promote care” combined with internal transformation of value systems

Sources:
The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything by Ken Wilber (Aug 14, 2007)

THE MULTIPLE FUTURES OF RACISM—BEYOND THE MYTH OF RACE THROUGH A NEW PARADIGM FOR RESOLUTION IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM By Caleb Rosado, Ph.D. http://www.rosado.net/pdf/Futures_of_Racism.pdf

Ecofair feedback

here is another article that got written about EcoFair:
from: http://www.mum.edu/achievements/2011_04_29.html

Students mingle at the Job and Internship Fair A group of students plant fruit trees on campus Visitors enjoy a local food workshop Jens Butler demonstrates blacksmithing

11th Annual EcoFair Celebrates Sustainability The 11th Annual MUM EcoFair held on the weekend of April 15th, celebrated the successes and strategies that are making the world a greener place. The student-organized event, “Energize Metamorphosis to Sustainability,” included visiting speakers, workshops, vendors, and the EcoJam fashion show. New this year was the Green Job and Internship Fair, allowing employers in the area of sustainability to connect with students for employment and internships. The event opened with keynote speaker Julie Woods, social entrepreneur, corporate trainer, and executive director of Fun Money Good: FMG Magazine for a Global Tribe. Her interactive keynote speech “Bridges Not Battles: Sustainability Success in a World That Doesn’t Know It Cares… YET!” targeted nuts-and-bolts paradigms, tools, and techniques for furthering the reach of sustainability initiatives. Featured speeches included “Growing Green Jobs in a Green Economy” by Kevin Doyle, author of three books about environmental careers. In addition, Richard Kahn, core education faculty at Antioch University, Los Angeles, gave a talk titled “Ecopedagogy: Memory, Mind, Movement, Metamorphosis.” “It was a really great time,” said Dr. Kahn. “I wish I had more time to talk to everyone and learn more about the curriculum. MUM couldn't have been a better host and I will only have good things to report in my various travels.” Local speakers included Kim Strubell of Caritas Seeds, who spoke on "Sustainable Agriculture in Africa,” and Stuart Valentine, co-chair of the Sustainable Living Coalition, who led a panel discussion on green capital. MUM alumnus Robbie Gongwer showed his short documentary, titled "Sustain Angoon," about the introduction of sustainable energy technologies by MUM students, alumni, and faculty in a remote village in Alaska. In addition, several Maharishi School students presented their award-winning science fair projects in the area of sustainability. The EcoFair also offered a large number of workshops on topics such as tree planting, permaculture gardens, biodynamic farming, edible landscapes, blacksmithing, and controlling electrical pollution. “EcoFair this year was a great success,” said organizer Emanuel Schachinger. “We had the best turnout in the 11-year history of the event.” MUM has been a leader in sustainability education with its rapidly growing undergraduate program in Sustainable Living.

Ecofair 2011 - summary

Here is my short summary of Ecofair 2011, i had to write for my internship :)






Internship Summary:

Description:

During the 2 weeks of the internship I focused on the organization of the event "EcoFair". My position as a head organizer included the following responsibilities:

- group Leadership

- marketing

- budget

- action planning

- volunteer organization

- speaker organization

- debrief and set up for next year

Organization for EcoFair started in September 2010 with an initial visioning process that resulted in the main theme, the vision, the group agreements and the formation of a 15 person core team. This core team continued meeting weekly since September until the event started.

My position of head organizer included the leadership during these meetings, writing and following the agenda, upholding group agreements and supporting the team leaders in their efforts.

Group leadership:

during the whole year, a big part of my position was leadership within the group Taking and sharing responsibility, holding members and myself accountable for agreements and sometimes taking a strong position with the group where the most challenging parts for me.

Marketing:

during the 2 weeks of my internship, one of the most important parts was the short term marketing for the event. Since it was 3 weeks before the event, we focused on easy accomplishable strategies. Our media mix included online media (facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mumecofair, website: http://mumecofair.org/), newspaper (inlay in "the Source", articles in the "Fairfield legder", "the review", and other neswpapers), Radio (KRUU spots + interviews, KHOE interview, KMCD interview, http://www.exploreseiowa.com/pages/7361464.php, and others), Newsletter (information got sent out through: Bob Fergusons newsletter, The Chamber of Commerce, MUM newsletter, IA newsletter, Bill Pollacks newsletter, CVB newsletter, ASHII newsletter, and many others) as well as poster presence (3 types of posters put up on MUM campus, in fairfield, Ottumwa, Iowa City, Des Moines, etc) as well as flyer's in the fairfield area)

My job here was the organization of these efforts and the distribution of advertisement material.

Another important aspect of marketing was the networking aspect, which means being present at various meetings, inviting leadership members of the community to cooperate with us (Francis Thicky, Stuart Valentine, Bob Ferguson, Troy van Beek, Amy Greenfield, and many others)

Budget:

one main part for me, was to create a budget, make sure that it people stick to it, and to keep an overview of our income and expenses. A short version of the budget is attached. 

The biggest challenge with the budget was the insecurity of incomes and expenses. Since i did not have any experiences with events like this, it was very challenging for me to come up with a realistic budget. I used last years budget and adopted it to our needs and it turned out to be pretty accurate, even though our expenses where increasing and increasing and finally we end up with a small loss.

Action planning:

during the 2 weeks of my internship i spend a good amount of time organizing the more then 30 volunteers, we had 3 volunteer meetings where people could sign up for volunteer positions and get more info about where they could plug in. My head organizer for volunteers, Minca Borg, did a great job, and i supported her with all volunteer efforts. Further action planning included the creation of the final schedule, the reservation of all rooms, the planning for speaker needs and requirements, the coordination with the university and concrete planning of all needs for every event.

Volunteer organization:

as explained earlier, a big portion of the work went into organizing volunteers, and coordinating the efforts of everybody willing to help. To incentivize volunteering we cooperated with the local initiative "Hometown Hero Rewards Program" to distribute rewards to our volunteers, as well as we gave out free tickets and T-Shirts for volunteers.

Speaker Organization:

for all the out of town speakers I organized the booking, the contracting, the payment, the travel arrangements (booking flights, hotel rooms, organizing drivers for the weekend), as well as the check in, the presentation requirements, etc. This was the most expensive part of the event, since we payed about 6500 dollars for speakers, transportation and accommodation.

Debrief and set up:

since the event is over, we had 2 debriefing sessions with the team, where we went through the event, and looked at what had worked and what did not work. These notes will be handed over to next years organizing team, as well as booklet with the most important information from every team leader.

Furthermore we started planning the initial visioning process for next years EcoFair, which will be held in about 4 weeks and we hope that students and comunity leaders will participate and share their ideas for next years EcoFair.

Here you can find pictures of this years ecofair:

http://www.facebook.com/mumecofair?sk=photos

Here is a rather funny news clip about ecofair:

http://www.heartlandconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=606249