Empowering children and parents who call garbage dumps home By Christina Hernandez Sherwood

As a child, Ryan Integlia learned about the plight of people in some developing countries who worked — and lived — in garbage dumps. Now a recent graduate of the Rutgers-Princeton Nanotechnology for Clean Energy IGERT PhD. Program, Integlia launched a nonprofit to help. I spoke recently with Integlia, co-founder of [em]POWER Energy Group. Below are excerpts from our interview.

What’s the problem you’re trying to solve and what’s your solution?
People are living in garbage dumps. The majority of the communities are children. They live in or directly in relation to garbage dumps. They’re mainly dependent on the garbage dump for their livelihoods. It might be a source of food. Generally, the structures they live in are made from materials gathered from the garbage dump. They work by sorting through the garbage dump to find recyclables. Most of the time in these developing countries, by the time the garbage gets to the dump it’s already been sorted through by multiple parties. There are no constraints on what’s in there. It’s dangerous. In some cases, the garbage dumps are on fire.

We focus on existing schools or clinics built in or adjacent to garbage dumps. We focus all our efforts there to create a renewable resource process. [The process consists of] sorting the garbage, gathering the recyclables, composting the organic material. The organic material can also be used in the biodigestion process. That would capture the methane and burn it to create electricity to power the school or the clinic. It could power a computer or a sewing machine. It’s basically upcycling the garbage.

Right now, we’re at the digester stage. The parents of the children are members of our co-op. We try to have them work directly adjacent to the school where their children are going. It’s incentive for them to allow their children to go to school and to keep them in close, safe working conditions. We try to provide them with gloves, shoes, ways to clean themselves. We try to enhance the resources there both in Bangladesh and Pakistan and other areas where we’re trying to start projects. The innovation we created years back was merging community infrastructure inside the garbage dump with the renewable resource process. One is supporting the other directly. Children go to school instead of wandering the garbage dump. Their education process can allow the people associated with these communities to leave that environment, especially when you have access to ways to start small businesses.
What technology do you use in this project?

We try to use technologies that can’t be patented. People can’t exert intellectual property control on them. That would introduce additional barriers to people who have zero resources. Biodigestion technology has been around for a long time. No one can patent composting or sorting recyclables. We can anticipate technologies that can enhance this, but first the groundwork has to be laid. The community has to see a benefit from working together in close quarters with the school or health clinic, so they can protect their families while having a better economic situation than before. There needs to be economic stability, so the school and the clinic will also grow. Within that, we can start inventing these technologies. The area is underdeveloped.

What roadblocks have you faced so far?
The roadblocks are significant. That’s probably why the communities in these conditions haven’t been remedied — the problem is enormous. It’s at the intersection of so many issues. Aid organizations want to take on projects they can have success in. You don’t take on a project that’s so difficult that you can’t realize success to show people their money and resources were put to good use. That’s why this problem was left to an organization like ours.

What’s next for this project?
Our next step is to make sure the sorting and composting and biodigesting steps are moving forward and that the community is involved. The co-ops of parents should be linked to the school and incentivized enough to make sure their focus is 100 percent on doing this work — which they’d be doing anyway — in safer conditions and to support the school. That’s our immediate next step. After that, we need to make sure there’s proper electrification and lighting resources. Once you have energy, you can do a lot.

We’ve connected with another nonprofit that can provide economic resources. According to our charter, we can only provide physical resources. We had to bring in another nonprofit to do that. I was just at the Social Good Summit and one thing I noticed there, which is something we were trying to do for a long time, is the merging of many nonprofits. It’s about finding synergies between nonprofits. We’ve been trying to do that as much as we can. It revolves around social networking. There are a lot of people working on that.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We’re in serious need of funds. We’re a small organization. We’ve been studying this problem. We spent a long time learning from these communities. We’re at a point now where we could make good decisions and facilitate change if we had the proper funding. We’re now looking, for the first time, for significant funds. We’re also looking for organizations to partner with.

Source: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/pure-genius/empowering-children-and-parents-who-call-garbage-dumps-home/7230?tag=nl.e662

Amory Lovin's House

June 23, 2009 10:00 AM PDT

The Snowmass, Colo.-based Rocky Mountain Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting sustainability in three main areas: energy, transportation, and buildings. At about 8,000 feet, RMI founder Amory Lovins' house, which is the nonprofit's original headquarters, serves as a showcase for the kind of ultra-efficient housing that is possible today.

Though it was built years ago, it has recently been renovated and now includes a new, large set of solar panels--on top of a set of panels it already had--that allow the building to produce more energy than it uses. The house is filled with a series of systems designed to get the most out of the building and to make the space as livable as possible.

As Lovins is apparently fond of saying, people who live in energy-efficient houses need not skimp on hot showers or cold beer.

As part of Road Trip 2009, CNET News' Daniel Terdiman toured the home. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10270909-52.html

Source: http://news.cnet.com/2300-13576_3-10001089-1.html?tag=mncol;txt

Successful Christian Businessman Gives Away Fortune

A down-to-earth, anti-consumerism Christian businessman is fighting poverty by donating all his company’s profit – totaling millions – to help low-income people.

Hal Taussig, 82, is the owner of the travel agency Untours, which seeks to provide travelers with a private home as an alternative to touristy hotels. The company’s goal is to help tourists better learn the people and culture they visit.

While helping others avoid falling into luxuries, Hal and his wife Norma are themselves examples of living in modesty.

The Taussigs has given away $5 million in profits over the past 15 years to the Untours Foundation which loans money to low-income people trying to start new businesses or improve their lives.

“It wasn’t a vow of poverty, I didn’t do anything like that,” said the Taussig, according to the United Methodist News Service. “I said I’m never going to have any money in the bank … or have anything in my name. And whatever’s left over at the end of the month, whatever’s left over, I get rid of it,” he said.

Similarly, he got rid of his car giving it to a hitchhiker; Taussig has not had a car since 1971 and has traveled using his bicycle.

Hal and his wife Norma live a modest life in a “narrow wood-frame” home in Media, Pa., according to UMNS. Instead of a drying machine, the couple dries their laundry from a clothesline on the back porch.

“I have a mission to fight this consumerism,” said Taussig. “I think the direction we’re heading in is catastrophic.”

The Taussig’s Untours Foundation began five years after the Taussigs founded the Untours business in the mid-1970s. Becoming more apparent to Taussig was the rising gap between the rich and poor, which he believes can only be remedied by economic means.

“My idea is to get capital to poor people rather than charity,” he explained.

The foundation has made hundreds of loans to small businesses, including to Home Care Associates of Philadelphia. The company provides health care services to patients who want to stay at home rather than be treated in the hospital. Many of the company’s employees were once on welfare.

“Paul Newman and JFK Jr. had given me this award – Most Generous Business in America – and we had $250,000 in award money,” Taussig recalled. “We decided to loan that to Home Care Associates, and they doubled their staff that first year and from that year on they’ve made a profit. There are 50 people who came off welfare and they get dividends now.”

The Taussigs attend First United Methodist Church in Media. Their son is a United Methodist minister and a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. One of their daughters is an ordained Lutheran priest, and the other is an artist who works for Untours.

“You talk about your heart breaking for homeless people and [how] the church should be outraged about poverty, hunger and war,” said Taussig’s pastor, the Rev. Maridel Whitmore.

“Here’s a person doing what we preach and I think he’s made us all straighten up a little bit and look at ourselves…If this is what Hal’s doing, maybe we should be following his example.”

Yet Taussig is hesitant to be put in the spotlight or seen as a role model.

“I don’t particularly like being made the center of attention as I am right now,” he said, according to UMNS. “I’m only doing this [interview] because I like to have people discuss the problem of poverty – world poverty I find so disastrous – and finding a new way to solve it.”
Jennifer Riley Christian Post Reporter Copyright ? 2006 Christianpost.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070719/28527_Successful_Christian_Businessman_Gives_Away_Fortune.htm

Jantzi-Macleans 50 Most Socially Responsible Corporations

These top companies are making Canada a better place
Click on a company name for more details:

5N Plus Inc.
ARISE Technologies Corp.
Ballard Power
Bank of Montreal
Bank of Nova Scotia
BCE Inc.
BioteQ Environmental Technologies Inc.
BMW
Brookfield Properties Corporation
Canadian Hydro Developers
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.
Cascades Inc.
Catalyst Paper
Dell Inc.
Gap Inc.
General Mills Inc.
Gildan Activewear
Great-West Lifeco Inc.
H.J. Heinz Company
Hennes & Mauritz (H&M)
Hewlett-Packard Company
Honda
HSBC Holdings
IBM Corp.
ING Group
Innergex Renewable Energy Inc.
Johnson Controls Inc.
Kinross Gold Corp.
Loblaw Companies Ltd.
Manulife Financial
Nexen Inc.
Nike Inc.
Novelis Inc.
Petro-Canada
Plutonic Power Corp.
Rio Tinto Alcan
Royal Bank of Canada
Stantec Inc.
Starbucks Corporation
Sun Life Financial
Sun Microsystems Inc.
Suncor Energy Inc.
Talisman Energy Inc.
Telus Corporation
Toronto-Dominion Bank
Transalta Corp.
Transcontinental Inc.
Westport Innovations Inc.
Xerox Corporation
Zenn Motor Co.
For the related article and methodology, click here.



http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/18/jantzi-macleans-50-most-socially-responsible-corporations/


Source: http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/18/jantzi-macleans-50-most-socially-responsible-corporations/

Checklist for well prepared board meetings

Annual preparation
• Have we consulted with our board members about dates and time of the day/week, before setting our meeting schedule for the year?
• Once decided, have we informed all board members of the annual schedule?
• Do we have a system for ensuring annually recurring items are brought forward at the right time?

The meeting agenda
• Have we prepared the agenda at least two weeks in advance of the meeting to allow time to prepare the board package?
• Is there purpose for every item on our agenda? Do we know what we want to accomplish? (see sample agenda resource).
• Is the agenda designed to provoke involvement?
• Have we put the important items up front on the agenda?
• Have "information only" or "update" reports been included in the board package.
• Have we set realistic time limits for each item?

Board information packages
• Have we organized the information so that it links to agenda items at the front of the board package? (Some people use a binder with dividers).
• Do we routinely send the board package at least five working days in advance of the meeting?
• Have we done a 'reality check' in terms of what we are expecting board members to read? (ie have we overloaded them unrealistically?)

© CharityVillage Ltd. & Judith Angel www.charityvillagecampus.com

Source: http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/learn/board_meetings.pdf