Do you ever get asked "what is sustainability?" or "how do you define sustainability?"

I sure do and those are not easy questions to answer in under a minute, much less in a few sentences.  So I have put together my best quick response...my elevator pitch.  So if you ever do get caught in the elevator (or the grocery store or at a backyard cookout) and get those questions, please feel free to borrow from this: 

The generally accepted definition of “sustainability” is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising...

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Earlier this year I presented a talk at the local public library on the benefits of buying local.  I know these benefits are three-fold: environmental, social, and financial, but I needed to find examples.  So I started perusing films, books, and articles to find real-life illustrations on which to base my talk.

I decided on using an example from the film The Economics of Happiness, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, and John Page (note: the tagline for the movie is “Going local is a powerful strategy to help repair our fractured world – our...

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Guidance on The Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides

Established in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) principle mission is the promotion of consumer protection. It is no surprise that they establish Green Guides for companies to use in evaluating their green marketing programs. The FTC's Green Guides look at all advertising from the consumer’s perspective. They examine the underlying messages that advertising actually conveys to customers, and explains how customers are likely to interpret environmental marketing claims so that marketers can avoid...

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Wildlife Habitat Council - Under the Radar but Getting Things Done

I just returned from the Wildlife Habitat Council's annual symposium - held at the Waterfront Marriott on Baltimore's beautiful Inner Harbor.  You may be asking yourself "the Wildlife Habitat who"?  You're not alone.  After having worked on several WHC projects in the past year, and telling people about these projects, I have found that very few people know of the WHC.  That is disappointing.  They are doing GREAT work.

Did you know - that the WHC helps large...

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Thanks to everyone for the great responses to last week’s post! I received some helpful feedback, and quite a few “that sure made me want to go out on a hike” comments. Me, too. I went for a hike at Percy Warner Park later that day. (Did you know that Percy Warner Park in Nashville is the largest municipal park in the state?)

Now, on to this week’s topic: sustainability at Coca-Cola Enterprises. This past Friday the Vanderbilt Graduate School of Management (Owen) hosted John Brock, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, for a luncheon at the...

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In economics, positive and negative incentives are often referred to as "carrots" and "sticks". A carrot is a colorful, nourishing food and is the symbol for positive reinforcement. A stick is a drab object and capable of being used as a low-grade weapon, thus a symbol for negative reinforcement. These ideas are probably not new to you.

What is also probably not new to you is attending a "green this" conference or "sustainable that" conference. They are everywhere and one could spend every hour of every working day attending these get togethers of environmental pundits and...

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Today is June 1st. The first day after the Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial first day of summer. It's hot and sticky here in Nashville, which leaves me wanting something cool and crisp. Luckily for me, and for the thousands of other Jack Johnson junkies out there, today also marks the release of Jack's fifth studio album. It's called To The Sea and is a tribute to his father, Jeff, who passed away this past year. It is cool and crisp, just like jumping into the sea on a hot June day like this.

To The Sea. It's the direction of where a lot of my thoughts, and...

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