7gen Bloc

The truth is that even though I was a vegetarian for 13 years, some years ago I lapsed in my commitment and returned to eating meat. Recently as part of my passion to reduce my own CO2 emissions, I read that on average eliminating the consumption of meat will save as much CO2 as switching the car you drive to a Prius. For most of us driving and eating meat account for about half of our total emissions. (The calculation is based on the energy used to grow the feed for a cow including the fertilizer, the methane emitted by the cow, the transportation of the meat, ect.)

As Jeffrey has noted, here in Vermont these days the roof of our world is dyed deep blue and the sunlight falls through air that’s almost primevally fresh and clear. You could say they’re perfect skies, but they might be a whole lot less so soon. Turns out we’ve got a bit of a potentially unhappy atmospheric situation looming over our home turf. And we need everyone out here in Blogland to lend a quick helping hand. Please read on and come to our aid…

Monday, September 11th, 2006, Charlotte, Vermont I spent yesterday looking out the windows of planes. Looking down on a world I could barely see, feel or touch. For the better part of twelve hours I made the trip from Cortes Island, to Seattle, on to Washington, DC, and then home to Burlington, walking into the door of my home at the stroke of midnight.

The expansive time and space of the long Labor Day weekend has faded, almost as if it never happened. Where does the past actually go other than taking up some space somewhere in my mind?

I got to spend some time during the week hanging out with Andy Stern, the visionary President of the Service Employees International Union, the biggest, fastest-growing union in North America. I have often joked that “unions” are like a bad brand. Either someone needs to reinvent them or they will continue to die. Well Andy Stern is the man.

On a mostly sunny late afternoon last week, Peter Senge and I crossed paths at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, where he was vacationing with his family, and I was attending a management retreat. As frequent readers of the Inspired Protagonist know, I’m a huge fan of Peter’s. During the conversation he shared two thoughts on strategic planning that resonated with me since that’s what I was in Stowe trying to do.

Here's a guest post from Hunter, our summer intern from Stanford Business School... So I’d heard of Seventh Generation, and I’d used some of the products, but when I saw their summer internship posted on the Net Impact website, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me. Luckily the powers that be agreed, and at the end of an interview that was more of a comedy routine by Duke, Courtney and Chrystie, they offered me the internship, and I accepted.

(Note: I wrote this over the Labor Day weekend, and I've been debating about whether to post it until just now. Please let me know what you think.)

This Labor Day weekend Bill McKibben with the help of Greenpeace, Middlebury College, and Vermont activists organized a five-day walk from Robert Frost's old writing cabin in Ripton, Vermont to the Burlington waterfront. John Murphy (our senior sales sage) and I joined the event Sunday evening at Shelburne Farms, where we camped for the night before walking the last eight miles into Burlington yesterday.

Here are some more reflections from students from our July ChangeIt program with Greenpeace. There is the montage v-log, and the written piece below. --WR From Laura Noll: