Green Blog
Jonathan Cloud September 7th, 2007
Right now I’m working on what seems like a half-dozen “sustainability” initiatives – and finding an overwhelming amount of new information and initiatives that relate to these in some way. At times, this level of activity is almost overwhelming – there is already way more happening all over the world than any single human being can keep track of – and yet when you venture outside into any ordinary American neighborhood, you can’t yet see much of difference being made.
So although I’m already running a half-dozen web sites to support these initiatives (not to mention 30 or 40 others, for clients, political groups, my neighborhood – and for many of my other innovative ideas, some of which are necessarily “on the shelf”), it seems to me that there is still room for a way of keeping a record of some of the more interesting and useful ideas, sites, and opportunities I am finding along the way.
Here are some of the things I’m already working on:
- The Sustainable Business Incubator
- The Sustainable Resource Network
- Cooling America through Local Leadership
- Sustainability Assessments (possibly to be showcased at ConservationTechnologies.net)
- Making It in the New Green Economy (under wraps)
- Somerset Hills Business and Somerset Hills Online
Here are some interesting discoveries along the way:
Shaklee has reinvented itself as a completely green company. It is still using all the old MLM techniques, and signing up distributors to promote it both as a product company and as a business opportunity, but the pitch has some unique angles, and the company seems to be serious about being “the first certified climate neutral company in the world” (in 2002).
I don’t know if it’s kosher to link to the video that is at the heart of its current promo campaign, but I’m going to do so anyway – until someone tells me not to – and if you’re interested in getting connected to the operation I’ll refer you to someone else, until and unless we decide to use and promote these products ourselves. We’ve had such bad experiences with MLM lately, however, that even this pitch may not be enough to get us to buy into another one – even though we like the products, we find they’re costly and the business opportunity is, if not entirely illusory, so onerous and time-consuming as to be uneconomic….
http://www.mygreensuccess.com (- enter code 15725282 in the left or center boxes)
It’s the message in the video – past the segment from Oprah – that, much more than the marketing hype, is what’s interesting.