Green Business Marketing Advice

 

Marketing is a key component of getting any business off the ground, especially a small green business, such as a green building or green roofing business, with a limited budget to spend on reaching an audience and growing a customer base. I talked with Sarah Bodnar of Social Media Sisters, who does a lot of work with environmentally-conscious companies, to get some tips and tricks on developing an integrated marketing strategy that will take full advantage of the tools at your disposal, and won’t break your pocketbook in the process.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

Young Social Entrepreneurs changing the World

Having spent an intense nine days in the company of 14 European social entrepreneurs, I have seen at first hand the potential of young people to change the world.

I was one of the judges for Ben & Jerry's Join Our Core competition, which included accompanying all the shortlisted candidates to Uganda to spend a week living with local farmers who supply the ice-cream maker with Fairtrade vanilla.

The easiest option in business is to take the path of least resistance, which in our current culture is to maximise profits and remain blinkered to the consequences of our actions.
It therefore takes determination and self-awareness to be able to create an enterprise that integrates doing good with doing well, or – on a deeper level – merging heart and mind.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

How door to door business can empower women

A little-noticed outcome of the microfinance movement has been the proliferation of rural sales networks in developing countries, where poor women earn an income by selling products door-to-door. Usually billed as entrepreneurship, these systems are typically assembled by outside parties such as banks offering microloans or social entrepreneurs selling products deemed prosocial, such as solar lanterns.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

Victory for Students in Quebec

After a year of revolt which became known as the "Maple Spring"—including massive street protests that received global attention—university students across Quebec were celebrating victory on Thursday night following the announcement from newly elected Premier Pauline Marois that the government was cancelling the proposed tuition hike that led to the student uprising and nullifying the contentious Bill 78 law which was introduced to curb the powerful protests.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

Valencia: A city without medicine

 

The Spanish regions are heavily in debt. People rely on them for free health and education, but they can no longer pay their bills - and they can't expect much help from central government, as it too struggles under a huge financial burden.

You always know if an interview is going to be fun if the interviewee has a sharp, diagonal fringe.
Paula, the pharmacist, has such a fringe, and a grin that suggests she not only understands English but could crack a few jokes in it. But she chooses to speak in Spanish. Because what is happening in Valencia is no fun.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

"Youth Making Change" by Bryant Terry

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

Sister Anne Montgomery: A life remembered

Anne Montgomery died on August 29th. This was in 2006, and Anne had waited three weeks for a visa to enter Iraq as a peace witness. Anne had crossed into zones of conflict more times than any other activist I’d known. During these weeks with us, she’d been meeting and working with Iraqi refugees, many of them undocumented and struggling to eke out a living in Jordan.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

From Kabul: International Peace Day

On this International Day of Peace I am sitting in Kabul, Afghanistan, with a handful of youth that want nothing but peaceful coexistence in their lives. Their entire lives have been surrounded by war, death, corruption, and struggle. Peace has been in short supply. For three years the Afghan Peace Volunteers have worked to develop friendships across ethnic lines in Kabul and various provinces throughout Afghanistan. The work has been difficult, trust is hard to come by in this war torn land, but they are adamant that nonviolence is the only way forward.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

Kiribati: A habitat worth saving!

You’ve probably heard of Kiribati by now. If you haven’t, then you know, it’s one of those Pacific Island atoll nations that are facing being wiped off the map by climate change. Well at least that’s what’s in store in the longer-term for them if we continue with business as usual. Here’s the deal: by 2030, sea level in Kiribati is projected to rise between 5-14cm, and by 2100 it’s likely to be at least 1 meter – which would be enough to swamp most of the islands.

Over the last 20 years, sea level has risen 1–4mm per year across Kiribati, which is below the global average of 2.8-3.6mm per year, but it is still significant enough to cause salt water intrusion into groundwater in places at king tides, and coastal erosion. How much of that sea level rise is due to climate change is not clear either – because phenomena like the El Nino-Southern Oscillation cause natural fluctuations in sea level that are hard to quantify. So relocation is on the horizon, but probably not for another decade or two at least.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org

Biker organization helps children and homeless

The Considered Bikers Association and Brotherhood against Totalitarian Enactments is a motorcycle rights organization focused on child abuse prevention, said coordinator Tim Smith.

“Connect, Commit to Change has given the CBA/ABATE a platform to get the word out about motorcycle safety and has also allowed for contacts to be given for the homeless shelter ride coming up in early December,” said Smith.

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To learn more about the Annual International Social Uprising Resistance and Grassroots Encouragement (S.U.R.G.E.!) Film Festival please visit:  www.WeSurge.org