3BL Media announced today it has completed the acquisition of Justmeans, an established CSR news distribution platform and online community of sustainable business practitioners.  The combination of these two services  will result in unrivaled distribution and syndication of CSR blogs, press releases, videos, reports and other content.  In conjunction with advanced CSR social media management and measurement tools and an influential network of sustainable business practitioners, the company will offer unparalleled exposure for CSR, sustainability and cause news and content. 

Founded in 2008, Justmeans’ early success came from having built the largest online community of sustainable business practitioners worldwide.  Its focus on technology development has resulted in a platform that enables the dissemination and sharing of a variety of CSR and sustainability messages with comprehensive analytics. 

Martin Smith, 3BL Media’s newly appointed Chairman stated, “As the CSR and sustainability market space is maturing, it is natural for consolidation to occur. This acquisition is one of a number of partnership and acquisitions that 3BL Media will be announcing.” Mr. Smith is also the Founder of StartingBloc, a social enterprise that educates and connects emerging leaders to drive social innovation across sectors. 

3BL Media, founded in 2009 by former executive management from press release distribution company CSRwire, provides a platform and service for organizations to better reach and engage with stakeholders.   

“The advent of social media and Web 2.0 provided new challenges to traditional distribution services.  3BL Media’s model of unlimited distribution of blogs, press releases, videos and other content, through both traditional and social media channels provides the best opportunity for impact, influence and reach,” says Greg Schneider, CEO of 3BL Media.   

Some highlights from the combined company include: 

• More than 200,000 email news subscribers

• Integration with affiliates, aggregators, research databases and news portals

• Social media management, distribution and measurement tools

• Comparative, quantitative, and influence analytics 

The increase in the number of organizations reporting about CSR and sustainability initiatives and performance has resulted in the rapid growth of CSR and sustainability-focused content.   The acquisition of Justmeans by 3BL Media will provide companies and organizations with the most advanced tools to strategically package, distribute and measure their CSR news and content.  

Follow 3BL Media on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin

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Participate in Causecast’s summer nonprofit membership drive! Refer a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to Causecast and you could be the lucky winner of an iPad 2 and $250 American Express gift card. Two runners up will receive $100 and $50 American Express gift cards.

Generate your personal referral link through Causecast's referral page and send out an email, tweet or post to your contacts. Once a nonprofit organization signs up via your link, you will be credited for this referral!

The sweepstakes has begun and ends on July 29th.

Enter the Sweepstakes Now! >>

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3BL Media, the leading distributor of corporate social responsibility, sustainability and cause marketing news and content and Triple Pundit (3P) the leading online conversation on sustainable business announced a new distribution service and partnership to provide greater exposure to CSR press releases, news and content.

Podium, created by Triple Pundit, provides organizations with an opportunity to bring exposure to their press releases, blogs, multimedia and other content through presentation to the Triple Pundit audience of over 160,000 sustainability decision makers on TriplePundit.com and through components of 3BL Media’s distribution network. The service is designed for organizations with periodic CSR messaging that are looking for an alternative to traditional press release distribution services. Existing and new 3BL Media and Triple Pundit users will also benefit from this partnership and additional exposure it provides.

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Filmmaker Robert Greenwald estimates that we're currently "wasting $2 billion a week on a senseless war' in Afghanistan. And that doesn't include the billions still being spent to maintain a "noncombatant' force in Iraq, or those million-dollar missiles we've been firing at targets in Libya.

Original Article: http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/Sustainable-Brands-2011-conference-Monterey-CA

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Corporate Social Responsibility News: Maclean's and Jantzi-Sustainalytics Present "50 Top Socially Responsible Corporations in Canada" List; Just Cause Awards Given Out at Promax BDA Summit.

This CSR Minute is brought to you by Media Impact. Empowering communities worldwide to inspire enduring change through creative storytelling. For more information visit: http://mediaimpact.org/

Watch this and other CSR Minute podcasts: http://3blmedia.com/3bltv

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Get your attention? I know it got mine.

Brian Malarkey, author of the “We spend 19% of our money on cars” quote, spent 400 seconds (6:40) making the case for a better approach to energy consumption. He feels that the future will require us to explore and support alternative transportation options, not just rely on cars.

Brian was among eight presenters who answered the question, “What does it mean to be a sustainable city?” as part of a themed Pechakucha (PK) event held in Herman Miller’s Houston showroom. From the built environment, to conserving the natural environment, to sustainability as a public-policy issue, everyone delivered a unique perspective on the theme

Sustainability is an important topic for Houston as it challenges itself to become a truly sustainable city. And for Herman Miller as well, as we move closer to our goal of zero waste by 2020.

Checkout Pechakucha’s website to find a PK near you, and for information on starting your own event.

Photo: Ian Johnston

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A group of us from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide are attending the Cause Marketing Forum’s annualconference this week in Chicago. This is my fifth year attending this fantastic conference and I am really excited to connect with friends, former colleagues and the many industry experts that are always in attendance. I will be representing the WE Social Innovation Practice and at 3pm CT on Thursday June 2^nd, my colleague, Suzanne Zurn and I will be hosting a session called “Cause Attention: Using Social Media to Identify, Influence and Engage.” Suzanne is a digital advocacy expert and has tons of awesome experience and best practices to share on how to engage audiences online to take action. If you are at the conference, we hope you will join us. If you can’t make it, we will be posting our presentation on the Waggener EdstromSlideshare channel after the session.

To get you excited about the content we are going to cover in our presentation, we want to share with you a sneak preview of the top ten Twitter influencers in the cause marketing landscape. The reason we are sharing this is because I am always aggressively looking for new people to follow on Twitter as I head to events. I want to find people who I can learn from who are connected to even more people I can learn from. That is one of the great powers of Twitter.

With a specific subject matter like Cause Marketing, however, people who write on the subject typically don’t have the mass following of a celebrity like Ashton Kutcher. On Twitter, I find time and time again, that the number of followers someone has collected does not always have a direct correlation to their ability to create thought provoking content (no offense to AshtonJ). For this reason, I turned to Waggener Edstrom’s proprietary Influence Ranking tool that helps organizations learn which media and individuals exert the greatest influence on their brand or cause. The tool rates Twitter handles against five important variables:

• Reach is an indicator of the size of the audience for a particular influencer, outlet or content producer. Measures of reach might include: circulation, unique visitors per month, followers, friends or views.
• Amplification measures the amount of sharing of an influencer or outlet’s content via social media channels. Measures might include: linking to blogs, Twitter or Facebook, retweets or presence on Digg, Reddit, Delicious or other social bookmarking tools.  
• The amount of dialogue with the audience is shown through the Engagement score. Measures for Engagement might include: on-site comments, comments on social bookmarking sites, and replies.
• The relevance of the influencer or outlet’s content is captured in Content Relevance. Measures might include: frequency of category or brand mentions, depth of category or brand mentions.
• The Audience score measures relevance to a list of target audiences for the particular brand or campaign. Primary research results or content analysis are used to rate audience relevance.

So…without further ado, we present to you the Top 10 Twitter handles in the Cause Marketing landscape you should be following to stay abreast of the latest industry news and best practices:

1. Beth Kanter - @kanter
2. Cindy Esposito – @CJ_Esposito
3. Causecast.org – @CAUSECAST
4. AOL 365 – @AOL365
5. Joe Waters – @joewaters
6. Noland Hoshino – @NolandHoshino
7. Kids in a Groove – @KidsGroove
8. David Hessekiel – @DaveCause
9. Seema Bhende – @seemabhende
10. CSIC at Georgetown – @GeorgetownCSIC  

     

I must confess that I was incredibly humbled to be a part of this amazing list of cause marketing influencers and made our Insight and Analytics team conduct the research two times to confirm the data was accurate! They were able to explain to me that my score was strong given the engagement, content relevance, and amplification of my tweets in cause marketing.

I look forward to seeing many of the folks on this list at the conference! And for those of you not attending, be sure to follow the handles above and #CMF11 to keep abreast of the dialogue from the event.

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Visit Volcom's New Future Blog at www.volcom.com/newfuture to learn more.

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I try to avoid hyperbole, but I truly believe music is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. It touches people on a deep, emotional level transcending differences in language, culture, political views and socio-economic status.

Even with his scientifically-focused mind, Albert Einstein understood and appreciated the value music brings to our lives when he observed, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I get most joy in life out of music.”

Throughout the ages, music has helped humankind express our passions, hopes and dreams. On occasion, music has even caused us to act on a particular issue, with those in the industry often leading the charge. Remember 1985’s “We Are the World?”

In the 1970s, we began to hear more songs about the environment like “Mercy, Mercy Me” by Marvin Gaye and “Don’t Go Near the Water” by Johnny Cash. Fast forward to 2011 and it seems the number of recording artists who have jumped on the eco-friendly band wagon has grown considerably.

Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s leading live entertainment company representing more than 250 artists, has taken note, which is why they contacted UPS to help their artists find more environmentally responsible ways to manage their concert tours. After several discussions betweenLive Nation and our operations, customer solutions and sustainability teams, the UPS sustainable touring logistics program was born.

As part of the program, UPS will work with each artist to measure their existing transportation CO2 output. We’ll then take that data to develop a comprehensive, customized plan outlining specific strategies to reduce emissions and waste while also providing the speed and reliability they need.

This is not unlike what UPS already is doing for other high-stakes customers that require complex logistical solutions, such as the healthcare and high-tech industries. While transportation is the foundation of logistics, it’s more than just moving things from one place to another. Ultimately, it’s about providing the right solutions for our customers so they can focus on what they do best – in this case, bringing live music to the world.

You can read more about this partnership from Billboard, Digital Music News and GreenBiz.

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To keep you motivated, the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition hasplenty of two-wheeled activities happening all week (as part of a bigger roster of activities happening all month, in fact). From Tuesday morning's Blessing of the Bicycles at Good Samaritan Hospital to a Wednesday morning ride through downtown (meet at Union Station at 8:00 a.m.), there are lots of ways to show your support for biking in L.A. Plus, Thursday is Bike to Work Day, and if you pledge to ride to work online you can be entered to win prizes like an REI cyclist kit or a gift card to Target.

To reward you for your cyclicious commute, LACBC has set up severalBike FROM Work happy hours around the city this Thursday night where food and drinks specials will be extended to those who arrive on bike. GOOD LA will be heading to Angel City Brewing in downtown from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for locally-produced craft beers, food trucks, and a free bike valet. RSVP via the Facebook event and ride safely. And if a week of biking to and from work wears you out, don't worry: Metro is offering free rides on all buses and trains on Thursday for anyone with a bike. 

Live in Los Angeles? Sign up for our one-good-L.A.-thing-a-day email and become a member of GOOD LA. You can also follow GOOD LA on Facebook and Twitter.

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She filled us in on how it all came together: “While attending the Wing Tip It launch party in the Meatpacking last week, I found a tee in Vince that is made of 50% modal (beech wood pulp, a sustainable fiber). I love the cut and knew it would go perfectly with my Stewart + Brown organic cotton cargo pants. Finally, I slipped on my favorite Allison Wedges from Cri de Coeur and viola- an eco-fabulous outfit for the weekend!

continue reading at Eco Chick

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In addition to building and construction tools, the site lists bike and bike accessories; baby gear; cooking stuff; craft & artist supplies; glue guns, carpet steamers, and lots of other useful household items. So before you go buying that ladder or paper cutter, poke around the site and see what’s available.

Another plus – you won’t have to store that only gonna use it once thing. Already own such an item and want to put it back in the use-stream? You may be able to make a donation to the library. Just contact Josh to test the waters. Wikipedia has an ongoing list of Tool Libraries located throughout the world.

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A number of studies have suggested that US workers waste between one and two hours a day web surfing, costing their companies billions in lost productivity. In response, some employers have banned private Internet use at the office, a practice that might come back to bite them in other ways, according to new research.

By banning web surfing, employers are essentially asking their workers to resist temptation until they can go home and surf on their own time. The rub: studies show that people asked to resist temptation in anticipation of reward become less productive and make more mistakes in their current tasks.

The research paper Temptation at Work, by Harvard Business School research fellow Marco Piovesan and colleagues, is believed to be the first study of the effects of temptation on work performance.

The idea for the study came from a conversation that Piovesan and his research partner Alessandro Bucciol of the University of Verona had with Daniel Houser, head of George Mason's Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science. Psychologists have long theorized that the energy spent resisting temptation takes attention away from other tasks, but no one had ever investigated it in the context of a work environment.

"Our idea was to investigate this theory that says when we resist temptation we use energy to control ourselves-and then this energy is not available for subsequent tasks," says Piovesan, who conducts much of his fellowship work through the Computer Lab for Experimental Research at HBS. "We were interested to see if this theory was true, and, if so, what were the implications for the work environment."

Marshmallow bait

To test the hypothesis, the researchers used a variation of the "Marshmallow Task," a classic psychological experiment in which children were shown one marshmallow, and told they would be rewarded with two marshmallows if they could resist the temptation to eat the first treat until the instructor returned to the room. Only 30 percent of the kids could hold out.

But instead of measuring wait time, the team measured the ability of children to complete actual work tasks—folding paper per instructions—at an Italian summer camp in 2008. Children facing temptation got less work done, even given the promise of eventual reward of candy and soda: They not only completed fewer tasks, but also made more mistakes, which downgraded their performance.

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Last year, despite raking in more than $16 billion in profit, Wal-Mart still had employees who lived below the poverty line. The big-box giant currently employs about 1.5 million Americans, more than any other company in America, and yet it pays much of its workforce peanuts. Two-thirds of Wal-Mart staffers make less than $12 an hour, while one-fifth makes less than $9 an hour. On average, Wal-Mart employees make about 12 percent less than other retail workers.

Most frustrating about Wal-Mart's paltry wages is that it doesn't have to be that way, according to a new study from the Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. With a couple simple adjustments, Wal-Mart could be paying its workers not just a living wage, but a good wage, and pulling families out of poverty along the way.

By paying all of its hourly employees at least $12 an hour, the study found, Wal-Mart would immediately boost the annual salary of any worker who'd been earning less than that by $1,670 to $6,500 (depending on whether they are full- or part-time). The study also found that more than 40 percent of this new income would go to households at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

At $3.2 billion in additional payroll costs, Wal-Mart could easily afford to increase wages starting immediately. But assuming the chain would want to pass off the extra costs onto customers, well, that could be arranged rather quickly as well.

If Wal-Mart wanted customers to pay for the inflated wages, the store would only have to increase overall prices by 1.1 percent on its cut-rate goods. A lot of Wal-Mart customers don't have money to burn, of course, but the average cost to consumer would only be an additional $12.49 a year.

For context, four members of the Walton clan, the family behind Wal-Mart, were included in Forbes' list of the top 10 richest Americans last year. If Christy Walton alone gave up just one-eighth of her wealth, she could fund the wage increase by herself.

photo via Flickr user sashafatcat

original source: http://www.good.is/post/how-wal-mart-could-easily-pull-thousands-of-its-emplo...

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One of the keys to the power of smartphones is the ability of users to customize them with apps, acting as co-creators of their own individualized mobile computing device.  And there’s a lot more to smartphone apps than Angry Birds.  Many apps are being developed that try to bring us together and mobilize the power of smartphones for positive change.  The iPhone app “Crazy Weather” tells a story for kids that helps them learn about climate change, and the “Happy Planet” app is an environmental game that teaches as well as amuses.  The eco-app “Green Outlet” helps you find which appliances are draining your energy and your budget, and “Solar PV Installer” is handy for homeowners and installers both to make quick calculations about the cost and payoff from solar installations.  And more environmentally friendly green apps, “Eco Apps”, are coming out all the time. 

One of the dilemmas for app developers is whether they should have a free app, to get the greatest number of downloads, or charge for the app.  A free app will have to earn its way through ads and upgrades.  I’m sure eco apps face the same challenge.  EcoAppsFree from Fullcircle Innovations, a startup based in Tokyo – Japan, helps developers and eco app fans to have it both ways, leveraging the power of Eco Apps with the power of free. 

EcoAppsFree allows app users like you to download one of the eco-friendly apps available on a particular day (there’s a list on their site of previously featured eco apps), and use it free for 24 hours without worrying so much about whether you’ll like it or not.  If you like it, great you can keep it knowing it’s worth the small price.  If you don’t love it, then there’s no harm done. 

Developers have already reported great success by having their apps featured on EcoAppsFree.  “We reached new markets that previously seemed out of reach,” reported Cyndi with the Green Outlet app.

“I still can’t believe the results! In only 24 hours, the app has been downloaded 7K times!” reported the team that created the Pro Alarm app. “Before that it was downloaded about 20-30 times a day.”

“More than 15,000 downloads, number one in five countries, top ten in thirty countries, all in 24 hours,” confirmed Alejandro developer of iSleep Space.

“EcoAppsFree enables smartphone users to make the sustainable changes that our planet needs while they’re on the go,” said Flavio Souza, Fullcircle Innovations Founder and CEO.  “Our EcoAppsFree motto ‘where greening the world goes mobile’ defines our distinct vision, distinguishing us from PC-based green websites that expect users to do those changes while sitting at their desktops.  We also give app developers a channel straight to eco-conscious individuals that are their most likely users.  It is a win-win situation for everyone.”

Fullcircle Innovations has more in the works as well as part of their overall goal of harnessing the power of IT to promote environmental action, protection, and innovation. “We are building a global system that will in the end go fullcircle in our care of our planet,” concluded Flavio Souza.

It’s time for a change, and having the right tools helps bring that change closer. One little tool likeEcoAppsFree opens the door to many different possibilities, breaking down the walls that might hold people back from giving green a try.  One app and one person might not change the world, but millions of people and hundreds of apps might change quite a lot.  It might even change the people themselves, inspiring more people into action to be a part of much-needed environmental solutions.

Glenn Croston is the author of “75 Green Businesses” and “Starting Green”, and the founder of Starting Up Green, helping businesses to start green and grow green.

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You are invited to join Media Impact for a workshop and program launch party:

Storytelling for Sustainable Development
Tuesday, May 10^th, 8:30am-5pm
 
Learn how Entertainment-Education can strengthen your work.  This interactive one-day workshop targeting communications and sustainable development professionals will discuss the history, impact and potential of Entertainment-Education to generate community support for and involvement in sustainable development work around the globe. 
 
Participants will:

• Explore the history and theory of Entertainment-Education and examples of how it has been successfully used to encourage sustainable development around the world;

• Discuss challenges and opportunities for incorporating Entertainment-Education programs into larger sustainable development programs; and,

• Network with other communications and sustainable development practitioners interested in partnering to launch new Entertainment-Education initiatives.

 
My Island – My Community Caribbean Launch Fiesta
Tuesday, May 10^th, 6pm-8pm
 
Help us celebrate the launch of Calalloo, our new 12-country Caribbean program, and exciting new partnerships with a cocktail reception and live broadcast. In 2010, more than 50 regional and local partners from the Caribbean came together to launch My Island – My Community, a multi-tiered communications initiative to promote community-based adaptation to climate change across the Eastern Caribbean, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
Join us at this cocktail reception to hear the first program broadcast and celebrate new and exciting partnerships. 

Space for these free events is limited - reserve your seat today!

For more information or to RSVP for part or all of the day, please e-mail Lindsey,lwahlstrom@mediaimpact.org, or call 212.687.3237. Both events will be held at the Church Center of the United Nations – 777 UN Plaza (corner of 1^st Ave. and 44^th St.), 2^nd Floor.

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As part of the Herman Miller Education team’s recent book drive, our dealership,Workplace Resource Southern California, collected books for some very deserving children.

After collecting the books, we delivered two Herman Miller Meridian red bookcases to the volunteer organization School on Wheels. The bookcases arrived full of children’s books ranging from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to Harry Potter.

The books were barely out of the boxes before the kids started chattering in anticipation. They chose their favorite book, flipped through pages, shared stories, and pointed out the funny and bizarre pictures. Then silence filled the room as the stories engulfed them. The eagerness in these young faces was enough to evoke a single word – awesome!

School on Wheels’ volunteers tutor homeless children, give them school supplies and backpacks, help them file necessary paperwork, and even offer each child a dedicated phone number so the child can meet the school board’s requirements for enrollment. The organization is determined to end the cycle of poverty by “shrinking the gap in their education and by providing them with the highest level of education possible.”

Herman Miller collected almost 8,700 books in its national book drive. If you would like to make a book donation, check out Better World Books for more information.

Images courtesy of Juan Luis Garcia

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