7gen Bloc

For several years, I have wanted to install a wind turbine to do even more to mitigate my impact on global warming. For the past 18 months, I've waited patiently for our local alternative energy company, Earth Turbines, to ready their product for market. Faced with ongoing delays while they perfect their technology I decided to go instead with a 10 kilowatt Bergey wind turbine. ...

There was no easing into the job. We just ended a 16-hour journey over two days focused on strategic planning. I sat next to my new CEO, Chuck Maniscalco, while he jumped into the multiplicity of challenges and opportunities we face. ...

Today, after 20 years at the helm, I am handing the day-to-day operations of my company over to a new CEO. This begins a new chapter in my story and in the story of Seventh Generation, and I’ve written a post about how I came to the decision to switch to the role of Executive Chairperson and why I think it’s one of the best moves I’ve ever made. ...

Thomas Geoghegan, writing in a recent issue of Harper's Magazine, puts forth a theory that at first glance seems almost too silly to voice, let alone take seriously. He argues that it was not derivatives, hedge funds, gambling insurance companies, or excessively paid financial executives that destroyed our economy, but crippling interest rates levied on the poor and middle class. ...

As we near an agreement that will begin to curb our country's CO2 emissions, much of the debate centers on how the auctioning of emissions will impact various industries. Largely out of view is the massive impact on human health that lies ahead and the fact that the most devastating effects will fall upon those who are already the most vulnerable. ...

As the financial crisis continues to unfold, headlines increasingly focus on the pain and hardship ordinary Americans are suffering. Let us not forget that the wealth accumulated by a small handful of Americans, often at the expense of others, was obscene and remains largely intact. ...

Legislative progress on climate change is moving forward, but it won't be easy. Though we read about legislative committee hearings, most of the action takes place out of sight and goes unreported in the media. The Multinational Monitor, a media outlet that tracks corporate activity around the world, recently reported on the intensity of the lobbying activity: ...

The BBC recently reported that British Petroleum, now known as BP, has given up on the idea that BP really stands for Beyond Petroleum. BP was widely recognized as the first oil company to acknowledge the real threat of climate change, and under the leadership of their former CEO, Lord Browne, they developed an in-house carbon trading program. ...

The MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT, SPRING 2009 Review asked more than 75 global leaders and sustainability thinkers the question, "What will organizations need to be good at in order to thrive in the emerging sustainability economy?" This is the beginning of a wider ranging study that will be published in the fall of 2009. ...

I've been on the road so much, I haven't had time to write. But since my travels have taken and will take me to some wonderful and unlikely places, I thought I'd let you in on what I'm up to. ...