Please join me and other business owners/leaders for the upcoming New Consciousness Entrepreneur ~ Telesummit December 7-11.

On December 7th Maggie Ostara, PhD of Soul Level Central, will be kicking off the New Consciousness Entrepreneurs Network Telesummit ~ Contribution, Spirituality, Sustainability, Prosperity. This will be a powerful five day event with seven speakers full of inspiring and valuable information for FREE.

On Thursday, December 10 at 5:00 pm, I will be talking with Maggie about:

• What is sustainability and how to apply it to your life and career
• How to integrate "The Triple Bottom Line" into your business model - some case studies
• Best practices to apply to your business to embrace this new paradigm
• The EcoTuesday Mission - its purpose and how you can get involved

   

She will talk with other inspiring entrepreneurs throughout the week, including: Julia Stege, MFA, of graphicgirlz.com, Marissa LaMagna of East Bay Green Tours, Pamela Bruner of Make Your Success Easy, Melanie Yost of Awakening Your Entrepreneur, and Paige Stapleton and Brian Stark of Authentic Marketing. These experts will share their knowledge and give you concrete, valuable information that you can use right away in your business and in your life. Topics include the energy of money, overcoming fears of public speaking, sustainable solutions in action, branding from the heart, embracing your Soul Signature, and several others. Click here for details about when each of these speakers will be talking with Maggie.

Maggie is passionate about helping entrepreneurs, small business owners, and helping professionals build successful, prosperous businesses that retool our economy in alignment with our highest values. For the FIRST time, she’s gathered experts in authentic marketing, spiritual growth, and green business to present aspects of a new paradigm for business that speaks to the most urgent and significant issues of our time. Together we can be the change we want to see in the world.

I'm really looking forward to sharing all of this information with you, and to hear all of the other interviews throughout the week! I hope that you can join us!

Click here to sign up for the telesummits!

EcoTuesday is a proud member of The Business Council on Climate Change (BC3).

Both companies believe that the climate crisis offers corporate leaders an unprecedented opportunity to shift practices to realize economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social well-being. We believe that climate stability requires cross-sector collaboration, and as business leaders, we look towards working with US government leaders in our quest for a more sustainable world.

Everyone involved with EcoTuesday is committed to take internal action to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase our energy efficiency, and share as much information about these important steps with as many leaders in the business community as possible.

While our emission reductions are important, averting global climate instability and associated disasters requires aggressive GHG reduction activities on a global level. Global leaders and people from all countries must work together on this issue and share solutions so that we have a future together.

As EcoTuesday invests resources to identify and reduce our carbon impact related to our operations, we urge United States government leaders to take a leadership role at the COP 15 conference in Copenhagen and support a binding global agreement with reduction targets consistent with the 2020 and 2050 IPCC recommendations.  Such an agreement can serve as the foundation for the development of policies that will propel the clean energy economy in the United States and create new jobs.  

Signed:
Nikki Pava

EcoTuesday

EcoTuesday: The vision of EcoTuesday is for business people to share ideas and collaborate so that companies develop products and services that have a positive impact on the marketplace and planet. The monthly event brings together sustainable business leaders on the 4th Tuesday of the month in cities across the country.
 

The Business Council on Climate Change (BC3) is a partnership of San Francisco Bay Area businesses committed to reducing their green house gas emissions. As a member-driven organization, BC3 companies of all sizes are actively committed to implementing our “5 Principles on Climate Leadership.”  BC3 members collaborate to share ideas and real-world case studies, identify valuable tools, participate in educational forums, and establish best practices.  As a result, BC3 members demonstrate leadership, as well as drive economic growth, environmental sustainability and social well-being in our community.  BC3 has a growing membership of over 100 companies.

We celebrated the last EcoTuesday of 2009 with a great group of people in San Francisco. About 75 people joined us at a new venue (THE BOX SF) to hear Gil Friend, Founder and CEO of Natural Logic, share his perspectives on the three key barriers to sustainability.

Gil started out by sharing some examples of how quickly times are changing: a few years ago, the Berlin Wall came down, a change that nobody could predict it a year before. Six years ago there was no Facebook. Five years ago there was no Twitter. He expanded on these examples and connected them to where we are today, "We're not only looking at technical change, but also we have opportunities to change the way we live to reinvent infrastructure to relearn our relationship to the living systems that support the economy. This is the opportunity that we're living in right now."

He discussed the content of his latest book, The Truth About Green Business. The book is designed to give busy executives (and business leaders/managers) clear, specific, bite-sized sustainability information to apply to business. It provides frameworks on how to think about your business, relationships and the trends that are presently occurring and ways to ground the information into your business model.

Gil shared a few "Truths" with the participants:

You don't have to choose between making money and making sense.

A lot of people assume that they must choose between making money and doing good in the world. Gil refuted that assumption. "There's no necessary conflict. If you put the two of them together, one serves the other." Focus on what works, what works with the earth and what works with the bottom line and design them together and have them serve each other."
 

There is no such thing as waste.

"It's not just a matter of recycling and producing waste, but it's about eliminating the whole notion of waste. There's no waste in living systems." (For example, when a chicken makes a chicken, where's the waste? The eggshells can be used for other purposes. Can we be as smart as a chicken?)
 

It's all about design.

"The conversation about sustainability is a conversation about design. Design is inventing: inventing to address the stated needs in the face of the stated constraints. What are the needs and what are the constraints? What do you take into account? The opportunity opens up to design not only better products, services and industrial processes, but better relationships inside organizations, different incentive programs, different policies, different models."

(These examples are all expanded upon in his book.)

Gil's presentation was lively and informative; it seemed that everyone walked away with a lot of important, useful information to share with people who weren't able to join us (we love when people share the info they learn at EcoTuesday!).

Marcine Perry, founder of Dynamedia SF (the incredible marketing agency that EcoTuesday works with) facilitated the Introduction Circle for Maura Fallon-McKnight, who wasn't able to join us. It is always wonderful to see all of the new faces each month, and I am always impressed by the diversity of the participants. We had business leaders from the organic food industry, architects, designers, environmental planners, technology experts (quite a few members of the CivicActions team joined us!). It was a great mix of people and everyone stayed late to continue their conversations.
 

Additionally, I learned a few examples about EcoTuesday "success stories" in terms of positive connections that were made by the participants in the past few months, which is always nice to hear.
 

It will be nice to take a break in December and prepare for a great year in 2010! See you in January!

This month's EcoTuesday in San Francisco features Gil Friend, founder of Natural Logic and the author of The Truth About Green Business.

Friend will discuss what's next for companies, strategy and policy now that green business is "in". What are the looming challenges businesses need to understand and master, and how will we overcome the three key barriers to building a sustainable economy?

This is the last EcoTuesday event of 2009 and we're happy to be gathering at THE BOX SF. This venue was opened only a few weeks ago - and it is absolutely beautiful! Come check it out (you can rent the space for large meetings). THE BOX SF is located at 1069 Howard Street, San Francisco, 94103.

RSVP for San Francisco today!

MORE ABOUT GIL:
The Truth About Green Business brings together 52 crucial facts and insights leaders must know to successfully “go green.” Friend is also the Founder and CEO of Natural Logic, a company that delivers strategic sustainability consulting to companies and communities. He is a founding board member of the Sustainable Business Alliance, Sustainable Berkeley, and the California Sustainable Business Council and serves on the executive board of OpenEco.org and the advisory boards of CleanFish, WattBot, Green World Campaign, and (past) San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Clean Tech Advisory Council. Friend served in the California Governor’s Office, developing early sustainability policies and programs, was a founding board member of Internet pioneer Institute for Global Communications, was founder and Executive Director of Foundation for the Arts of Peace, and was cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a leading urban ecology and economic development “think-and-do tank,” where he pioneered the current “green roof” trend more than 35 years ago.

Steve Newcomb held everyone's attention at the October EcoTuesday in San Francisco, and even had a large group of participants crowded around him until 45 minutes after the event officially ended. Newcomb is the CEO of Virgance and is also on the Board of Directors of the Presidio Graduate School, a leading business school focused on sustainable management located in San Francisco.

He started his discussion by sharing about the journey he's taken to get to sustainability, and then discussed his thoughts on "what's next for capitalism". During the Q and A, he explained some of the ways in which he and Virgance are making huge strides to change the current business and economic paradigm.

"I was born and bred to be a serial entrpreneur in SV. I was born to be a shark. Now I am an activist."

In the past, Newcomb's companies focused on models and structures that were only out to make money for the shareholders. He was quite successful in all of his tech endeavors.

A few years ago, he was leading a company called Powerset, a natural language search engine company. He attended a retreat (where a handful of people changing the world under 40 years of age meet with those over 40 years of age who are changing the world) and had a tranformative experience. While at the weekend he shared his ideas about Virgance and the thought of creating a social business incubator. Those who heard his presentation urged him to take action and make Virgance a reality.

Newcomb stated, "The gentleman that really struck me was a man who was 80 years old said, "when you're like me, and you're a grandfather and you stare at your granchildren, what are you goig to say to them when that grandchild asks you, when Obama took office and when everyone realized that humanity just needed to change in order to survive, what were you doing at that time, grandpa?""

Newcomb continued, "I don't want to say that I worked for a search engine company. I wanted to say that I jumped into the thick of it and I used every ounce of my soul and every bit of knowledge in my head to cause as much change as possible."

With that inspiration, he returned from the retreat, quit Powerset and launched Virgance (Powerset was sold to Microsoft).

Virgance bills itself as an "incubator that finds great ideas and turns them into companies that change the world". All companies within this umbrella are led by "macropreneurs" instead of entrepreneurs. "An entrepreneur builds a company." Newcomb said. "A macropreneur builds a new systemic model."

There are four projects within the Virgance umbrella:

• One Block Off the Grid - organizes big groups of people together who want to get solar energy, and gets them a discount
• GO Media - a community and network of blogs dedicated to helping you figure out what sustainability means to you.
• Carrotmob - a network of consumers who buy products in order to reward businesses who are making the most socially responsible decisions (watch this short video from a Carrotmob in March 2008)
• Lend Me Some Sugar - a FaceBook application that helps social activists and entrepreneurs compete for prizes
   

These endeavors are natural intersections between activism and a new form of capitalism and are greatly contributing to the new paradigm shift that business needs.

Newcomb ended his presentation by urging everyone to "be bold. Don't be afraid to challenge the status quo. Sustainabiltity is not a bubble. It is on par with the industrial revolution. This is what we're going to be doing for our life. This is a century's worth of work."

EcoTuesday looks forward to bringing more "macropreneurs" together each month. Thanks to all who joined us!

(Read last month's blog post about the October 2009 EcoTuesday in SF with Steve Newcomb.)

EcoTuesday is looking to expand to more cities in 2010. We are looking for support to make this happen!

We have the following volunteer/internship opportunities for you:

• Business Operations Volunteer/Intern
• Social Media Volunteer/Intern
• Publicity Volunteer/Intern

If you have the following characteristics...

• Authentic commitment to sustainable business practices
• Great personality and people skills
• Technical-savvy and aware of upcoming trends
• Sharp, professional demeanor
• Ambition, strong work ethic, high motivation and willingness to learn

...and would like to contribute to this growing business, please contact us! Feel free to pass this info to others who might be interested.

We are committed to creating high quality forums for sustainable business leaders in cities across the country to transform the way we do business.

In addition to the roles above, we are also looking for support with our marketing and public relations strategy. Please let us know if you and/or your company would like to contribute to these efforts.

Please click on the links above, read the descriptions, and then email opportunity at ecotuesday dotcom (please read descriptions thoroughly!).

Thank you, and take care,
Nikki

In just two days, thousands of people around the world will gather to create awareness for global climate change. People in large cities and small villages, on beaches and amongst skyscrapers, will demonstrate their creativity to send a message to politicians at the upcoming COP15 Conference that this issue is incredibly important to the future of our planet.

Over the past few months I've seen Steve Newcomb, CEO of Virgance, speak on different panels at events around the city. I have enjoyed his "matter of fact" style of business and how he operates his own businesses. I especially enjoyed a "debate" that he and Adam Werbach (of the Saatchi & Saatchi S/WalMart fame) had at West Coast Green on approaching business from "the top down or bottom up."

EcoTuesday will be represented at a panel discussion entitled, "Doing Well by Doing Good: Embracing Eco/Social Responsibility" at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, October 13, at 8:00 am.

I'll be talking about the Triple Bottom Line, the rise in awareness of sustainability, and how EcoTuesday is contributing to sustainable business in cities across the country and helping to change the way we do business.

I know it's early, but please come and join me and the other panelists! Info about the entire event is below. RSVP now!

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce

Boardroom

235 Montgomery St., 12th Floor

Embracing eco/social responsibility is not just a “nice thing to do,” it makes business sense. So how can your company make eco/social responsibility a cornerstone of your brand?

Join this PG&E sponsored panel of experts for a discussion on strategies to reduce your environmental impact, position your company as a socially responsible leader in your industry and incorporate environmental and social issues into your company’s “DNA” to gain competitive advantage while addressing some of the world’s most intractable problems.

Panelists for this presentation will include:

 
Nikki Pava, EcoTuesday. Founder of the ever-popular EcoTuesday, Nikki will provide case studies based on the work she has conducted with companies and organizations including Williams-Sonoma, Burning Man and Morrison and Foerster.
 
Steven Van Yoder, Get Slightly Famous. Steven will discuss strategies for integrating eco/social responsibility into your core business to enhance your company brand.

Deborah Hirsh, B Lab. Deborah is Co-Director of Business and Community Development at the San Francisco office of B Lab, the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps businesses measure and improve social and environmental performance through their B Ratings System.

Stephanie Bernstein of To-Go Warem founder of To-Go Ware and Eyes of the Forest, Inc. Stephanie will discuss how she’s grown To-Go Ware into a national company and provide strategies to profitably embrace a triple bottom line approach that embraces people, planet and profit in meaningful ways.

Jonathan Storper, Hanson Bridgett. Jonathan chairs the Corporate, Securities, Tax and Sustainable Business Practice Groups at Hanson Bridgett. He will be discussing the introduction of model legislation in California for a new corporate form with higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability and transparency.

Sponsored by:

PG&E 

Registration is $25 for Chamber members, $35 for prospective members by October 9th; $30 and $40 after. A light breakfast will be provided.

Cancellations must occur 48 hours in advance to receive a refund. For more information, contact Paula Zamudio at pzamudio@sfchamber.com or 415-352-8818.

This is the wonderful prayer that Marianne Williamson shared with us at the end of her presentation at EcoTuesday in San Francisco on September 22nd.

"Dear God (or by whatever name you call to God)...we give praise and thanks to all the souls who have lived on earth and brough humanity from darkness to light. We give thanks that we are here. We give thanks that we live in a culture, in a society, in a country, where although there are mistakes and defects, we are even safe to be in this room. In this moment we give up whatever tendency towards whining, whatever tendency toward thoughts of futility or hopelessness, and we ask that they be replaced by courage and joy.

We surrener all that we have and all that we are. We ask that we become the people God would have us be, that we might do what God would have us do: serve the forces of life, the forces of love, the forces of improvement, so that this precious jewel that is our country, the technology, the achievements, the science, the art, the culture of this country and every country. Of our people and every people. May the goodness and the decency and the love and the relationships and the hopes and the dreams and the visions of all humanity form the fuel, dear God, by which we rise up above our personal darkness and our personal weakness, into dimensions of strength we didn't even know we had, dimensions of power we didn't even know we had, dimensions of love we didn't even know we had, so that we individually and collectively might form a bridge to a world where the water is clean and the food is healthy, where the skies are unpolluted, as is the heart and the mind of all humanity. Dear God, in whatever way love would direct, please use us. May we help.

And so it is."