Posted by Ryan Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:41:00 GMT
If you haven't seen it yet, you have to check out The Story of Stuff. It's about 20 minutes long, but fun to watch and very well done. This should be mandatory viewing for all students. It shows just how harmful our over-consuming habits are to the environment and the global community.
Posted by Ryan Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:57:00 GMT
Ok everyone, it's time for New Year's resolutions! Here is a suggestion -- try to live a more sustainable life by reducing the amount of CO2 produced by your lifestyle. Not sure how to do it? Well, the great folks over at YouSustain can help you out! Start by reading their great article on the Top 10 Easiest Ways To Become More Sustainable For 2008. Then, check out their Sustainability Challenges (there's even one for Borrowing durable goods instead of Buying.)Posted by Ryan Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:53:00 GMT
At a conference a couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Bill Bass, the CEO of Fair Indigo, speak about his fair trade clothing company. (I even got to meet him afterward.) Fair Trade is social movement that is still in its infancy, but beginning to gain popularity. The essence of fair trade is to pay a fair price to the people who make goods, and to respect the environmental and social situations in their communities.Posted by Ryan Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:54:00 GMT
We are very excited to announce that we’ve been able to remove transaction fees from Loanables! Sharing your stuff has never been easier! We’ve been offering Loanables for Teachers at no cost since its launch, and instituted the Green Neighborhood program to reward neighborhoods who appreciate green values. We have now put this into effect for everything on Loanables.
This is an exciting milestone because our goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to loan their stuff out to others, and this simplifies the process to be purely between the Loaner and the Borrower. Both parties will still benefit from our Rental Agreement, which clarifies the responsibilities between Loaner and Borrower. And we have lots of enhancements in the works, including electronic facilitation of the security deposit and a new mobile-messaging system to speed up communications between Loaners and Borrowers.
Like what we’re doing? Please let us know ... or better yet, help us spread the word!!
Posted by Ryan Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:06:00 GMT
On NPR today, I heard about this great website called Consumer Consequences. Basically, you answer a bunch of questions about your lifestyle, and it tells you how many earths worth of resources it would take if everyone in the world lived like you do. What a wake-up call!Posted by Ryan Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:58:00 GMT
Yesterday we applied to become a B Corporation. This is a new type of corporate entity whose mission is to create benefit not just for shareholders, but for the community, environment, employees ... the stakeholders. A traditional Corporation has a legal mandate to maximize shareholder return, which often comes at the expense of these stakeholders. B Corporations are a new community of companies that seek to be good stewards of our natural and human resources, while still providing a return to their shareholders.Posted by Ryan Fri, 25 May 2007 04:01:00 GMT
A friend of mine whose wife is a teacher shared with me an interesting tidbit of information. School teachers (who are among the most underpaid members of our modern society) often end up spending their own money to buy materials for their classrooms. Perhaps you can give an adequate education using public funding. But I can understand how those who are driven to be great educators would be willing to sacrifice a bit to give their students a superior educational experience.
Let's help them out!
I ran across a great charity called DonorsChoose (http://www.donorschoose.org). It allows teachers to submit project ideas that require funding, and donors can pick out specific projects that they wish to support. Brilliant!
We are also considering adding a special Teachers section to Loanables, whereby teachers can share these materials with each other, track who is borrowing what, manage security deposits for valuable items, etc. Watch this space for more news, and let us know what you think!
