HOPE for Japan’s Economy

The BBC reports, “Japan joins France and Germany in terms of leading nations that are showing positive growth after a torrid year.” The BBC claimed that, Asia’s “largest economy is showing signs of recovery, which means increased Japanese demand for their products and greater trade between the nations.”

HOPE for the long-suffering Japanese economy has emerged from over $400bn in government stimulus programs over the past year. Japan did not experience the banking system failure of Europe’s near collapse and the U.S. and U.K. near total collapse. The Japanese stimulus has focused on supporting manufacturing and exporting of fuel-efficient vehicles and consumer electronics. One stimulus program offered Japanese consumers environmentally products at a discount. (Going Green Boosts Japanese Business)

While Japanese consumers and businesses continue to feel economic strain, the news of “exiting recession” boosted spirits and economies on the Asian continent.

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Shoes for Tots: One for One

“Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about.”

In 2006, Blake Mycoskie created TOMS, a shoe store with one important goal- Sell shoes in Order to Donate Shoes.  TOMS website claims, “For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about.”

On a trip to Argentina, Blake realized few children wore shoes, a basic commodity in most first-world countries.  He created TOMS and later that year came back to Argentina and donated 10,000 shoes.  While many people might think things like water, clothing, and food come first, owning a pair of shoes for children in developing nations means being able to walk more comfortably, not contract soil-transmitted parasites, and being able to attend school (schools require that children wear shoes). This year TOMS expects to donate more than 300,000 shoes.

What a concept. Capitalism that replaces exclusive self-interest with a new model: inclusive world-interest. You gain, I gain, and along the way we help a barefoot child.

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Buying Local: The Real Business Community

The May 2009 BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) conference in Denver, Colorado brought “together small business leaders, economic development professionals, government officials, social innovators, and community leaders to build local living economies.” BALLE’s website states it provides, “local, state, national, and international resources to this new model of economic development.”  BALLE

Green Blog Triple Pundit reports that locally-owned businesses are green by default and breeding grounds for positive change. Buying local goods keeps more money in the area, creates more jobs, and shortens “the supply chain of the products” in turn reducing the carbon footprint. Local businesses are more likely to invest in the community and donate to non-profits and local organizations. According to Triple Pundit, this is the “real business community.”

At the recent conference, 400 attendees showed strong support for the local business coalition by traveling from 40 states and Canada (some irony there) to inspire each other with new products and services that support local enterprises.

The initiative is strong and well-supported by businesses whose unified voice is now being heard by consumers and policy makers. Long lost in the shuffle behind Big Business Chain America, where ordinary stores are city blocks long and the clone stores can be found in every county in the nation, local independently-owned business is staging a come-back in a big way with BALLE.

But did locally-supported independent businesses ever disappear? Is the business model really “new” as professed on BALLE’s site? Or hasn’t local independent business been the heart of business for over four thousand years?

I recall on a trip to Rome, passing a rambling multi-storied stone ruin full of catacombs and compartments in the center of the city. I asked my guide what is that intriguing relic? “That is the oldest shopping mall in the world,” he said matter-of-factly. A shopping mall in Ancient Rome? Whoda thunk?  I wondered what the confessions of an Old World shopaholic would sound like. “I couldn’t resist this linen toga…”

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Patricia Aburdene, International Conscious Capitalism Leader, reports on her recent trip to Oslo Summit and Business for Peace Conference
From www.patriciaaburdene.com

June 2009: The Oslo Summit and Business for Peace Award  

I just got home from the Oslo Summit and Business for Peace Award conference. Talk about an international event! Honorees and speakers came from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe to Oslo City Hall, site of the Noble Peace Prize Awards, to a spectacular room covered in magnificent murals. I'll now describe the day's three parts, but fair warning: I've saved the best for last!

Part 1: The Business for Peace Foundation, our sponsors, wowed us with welcoming videos from Nobel Peace Prize winners Muhammad Yunus and Wangari Maathai (of course, we all wished they were there in person). They then lined up Jan Egeland, Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and negotiator the 1993 Oslo Agreement between Israel and the PLO, to moderate the day.

Mr. Egeland faced an ambitious morning in the debut of The Natural Resource Charter, a set of principles on how resource-rich, but comparatively poor countries can harness these assets for the benefit of their people. How enlightening to hear from President Festus Mogae, Botswana's recently retired head of state, describe the ins and outs of the diamond trade, including complex negotiations with De Beers and how Botswana set up a fund earmarked for future generations. Nigeria's Nuhu Ribadu, an outspoken crime buster, and UNIDO's Dr. Kandeh Yumkella rounded out the African perspective.

Next a team of resource experts headed by Stanford University Professor Michael Spence, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics, introduced the Charter, reviewed its guidelines and opening the floor for debate.

Part 2: The overall conference theme: "The World in Recession –- A Call for a More Ethically Aware Capitalism?" was certainly a perfect intro to Conscious Capitalism and I was thrilled to speak during Part 2, which began with a frank and enlightening keynote by China's top trade negotiator Mr. Long Youngtu, Secretary-General of Asia's Boao Forum (The Norwegians explained that Boao is a sort of Asian rival to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.) Mr. Long candidly reported that once China understood the potential of "win-win" negotiations – a foreign concept until recently - its trade relationships could really move forward.

In preparing my talk, I came across (well, actually, it was my researcher Joy Moloney) three green Norwegian initiatives that knocked my socks off and fit right into the Values-driven Consumer module. Here they are:

• Norway vowed to be carbon neutral by 2050, then changed it to 2030!
• 80 Oslo buses run on sewage & save half a Euro per liter. Emissions? Zero!
• Norway is testing less expensive, "floating" wind turbines, which will revolutionize the wind sector with turbines in deep ocean waters.

Norway, home of solar pioneer REC, might be the green capital of Europe.

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http://patriciaaburdene.com/megatrends

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 MONEY AND MEDICINE

“Indian entrepreneurs are channeling the country’s rich technological and medical talent towards frugal approaches that have much to teach the rich world’s bloated health-care systems.”

In effort to reduce high costs of medical care for patient, industry and nation, innovative doctors in Bangelore are creating safe and inexpensive alternatives to expensive and complex procedures in the U.S.

For example, heart bypass surgery is a serious and costly surgery that requires American surgeons to break the chest bone to reach the heart. The painful procedure requires general anesthesia and a three month long recovery program.

Dr. Vivek Jawali in India has invented a new bypass surgery called “awake surgery” that allows the patient much faster recovery and less physical stress during the operation.  Unlike wealthy nation medical care that depends on costly and complex equipment, India has a “patient-centric health system” that encourages doctors to innovate. Read more…

Lessons from a frugal innovator - Apr 16th 2009 | BANGALORE
From The Economist print edition
The rich world’s bloated health-care systems can learn from India’s entrepreneurs
 

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BIG BLUE REGAINS ITS COLORS

Ecomagination: It's Not Easy Being Green

IMAGINE THE UNIMAGINABLE: A Fortune 500 energy company becoming eco-conscious on its own without being forced to by litigation or regulation. Well, once upon a time in May 2005, General Electric (GE) launched its “Ecomagination” campaign to promote and create eco-friendly products. CEO Jeff Immelt claimed it was necessary for the energy giant to answer the needs of planet, people, and profits. Along with new products, GE boldly committed to significantly reducing its carbon footprint by 2010. Early on, GE began to take heat for what environmentalists call “greenwashing.” Claims that GE exaggerated the greening of its business initiatives cast doubt over GE’s environmental responsibility. As GE pursued Ecomagination, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2007 that GE was also pursuing coal and oil energy production.

Despite criticism, it is clear that Ecomagination is making some progress. Immelt claims GE will meet its 2010 target with sales for eco-products reaching $20,000,000. GE’s new planet saving products include hybrid electric vehicles, battery automobile technology, and Light Emitting Diode bulbs used in 500 Wal-Mart Stores. CEO Immelt states that green technology is no longer a “fringe” issue. Green has gone mainstream. At some point in the not-so-distant future, consumers will set the agenda for big business eco-products. They will not pay the green unless the product is truly green. GE is wise to see the trend on the horizon.

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A New Commodity Exchange: Trading Carbon

THE NEW COMMODITY EXCHANGE called Carbon Trading proves that global capital markets can make money while serving the planet. Climate exchanges are springing up around the globe to capitalize on the clean air, clean world boom. Sustainable business is not easy to maintain for some corporations who produce more than their “share” of environmentally damaging emissions. The resolution has evolved to buying carbon credits to offset carbon emissions. Where would a company buy “carbon credits” you may wonder? The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) bills itself as “the world’s first and North America’s only Greenhouse Gas Emissions Registry, Reduction, & Trading System. CCX was founded by economist Richard Sandor in 2003 as a “legally binding integrated trading system.” Named “father of carbon trading” in 2007, Sandor was also cited as “Hero of the Planet” by Time Magazine back in 2002.

The impressively long list of CCX trading members includes Dow Corning, DuPont, and Ford. Companies commit to reducing emissions by 1% per year in accordance to their emissions baseline. An independent auditor, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA, formerly NASD), sets the standards for voluntary legally binding emission control and reduction. Companies who successfully reduce emissions below their target can sell carbon credits to companies who have not yet reached their targets.

Evolutionary Markets (EM) based in White Plains, New York and London claims to be the “world's highest volume environmental broker, having facilitated more than $50 billion in trades of environmental commodities, including more trades of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) than any other broker.” EM claims to assist governments in designing effective carbon markets. EM brokered the first European Union’s International Emissions Trade under the Kyoto Protocol in 2003.

When the US (the world’s largest carbon producer) finally catches up to the EU by establishing legal standards for sustainable business, these markets and their brokers will become enormous. In the meantime, EM and CCX are profiting handsomely while answering the call to protect nature’s bounty.

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