Mapping Power Links Within the Environmental Movement
Just read a great article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review by U of Michigan professor Andrew Hoffman. Interested in narrowing down the type of environmental organization with the most potential to influence large-scale systemic change in the private sector, he mapped out the top 6500 environmental ngos in the US, their ties with each other, various stakeholders, and corporate networks, to pull five specific types of NGO ‘personality types’ with regards to corporate partnerships.
Is it more influential to be engaged with a corporation in the periphery or core of their network? What kind of ties can a corporation and NGO sucessfully sustain in the long run to achieve sectoral shifts towards sustainability without compromising an NGO’s mission and values? Nothing like a little network mapping to clarify an organization’s positioning in an overall movement… Great read.
Intelligent City Network Addresses Smart Grid Challenge
March 24, 2009, 1:58 pm
Filed under:
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urban developmentSmart-grid project groups at Accenture have created a critical link between municipal leadership and the utilities industry, launching the Accenture Intelligent City Network this week. Participating municipalities from the US, China, Russia and Europe are already deep in infrastructure re-engineering. The Intelligent City Network connects utility executives and metropolitan leaders to exchange knowledge and practical experience on the planning, challenges and advantages of smart-grid technology. The Network will help create blueprints for the deployment of smart grids, including the integration of smart grids with broader investments in intelligent infrastructure.
Are You an Eco-Connector?
Porter Novelli’s recent 12,000-person study on market drivers revealed that a small but powerful group of consumers — “Greenfluencers” — are driving trends and shaping purchasing decisions in the mass market.
Unlike their counterparts in earlier environmental movements, Greenfluencers are not third-party experts or full-time advocates with a laser-like focus on advancing a specific agenda. Rather, this new highly influential group, roughly 4 percent of the U.S. population, is young, racially diverse and outspoken on a variety of social and political issues. And while Greenfluencers are more eco-savvy than their peers, they are still relatively mainstream in their lifestyle choices (e.g., big-box retail shoppers and heavy TV watchers). This accessibility combined with a high level of social connectivity has enabled this group to become the voice of authority on the sustainable lifestyle.
- Greenfluencers are asked by friends on a regular basis (almost every day) for expert advice.
- Compared with the general population, almost three times as many Greenfluencers read blogs, post comments and participate in online chats and discussions (20 percent versus 7 percent).
- Within the past 12 months, 41 percent of Greenfluencers contacted their senator or congressman.
“The majority relies on Greenfluencers to sort through the messaging clutter and ‘greenwashing’ to determine which corporate claims are truly credible,” said David Zucker, partner and director of CauseWorks, Porter Novelli’s corporate responsibility and sustainability specialty. “Consequently, Greenfluencers have significant power to positively or negatively impact sales and/or corporate reputation.”
Generation Innovation
The Innovation Network for Communities published an excellent paper on creating an ‘innovation culture’ within your community, company or organization. As an organization’s culture is a function of both social capital and the networks connecting its members, it ideally emerges organically from personal relationships, shared values and worldviews. But not all organizational culture is necessarily supportive of innovation. What are the key characteristics of an ‘innovation culture’? INC includes the following:
• A tendency to “scan the horizon” for key trends that will affect the community, positively or negatively
• A sense of urgency and excitement about the need to change
• Civic pride in being a “leader” and an “innovator”
• A shared sense of group identity
• A commitment to inclusion and the breaking down of barriers created by race and class
• A willingness to take risks and a tolerance for failure, as long as it creates authentic learning
• A long-term view and willingness to think in terms of decades
• A sense of curiosity and exploration; seeing challenge as opportunity
• A culture of both collaboration and competition
Mapping the Power Elite
They Rule is a website that allows you to interactively explore and map the interlocking directorships of the most powerful corporations in the world. Find out who is on the board of any of the largest publicly held corporations, choose two firms and find the connections between their boards (ala six degrees of separation). (Disclaimer: Data was collected from their websites and SEC filings in early 2004, so it may not be completely accurate. Database also primarily US-centric.)
Hello World, Let’s Talk: Global SRI Collaborative Launched
Intertek just announced the launch of OpenSRI, the first collaborative web platform on Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at www.opensri.com.
OpenSRI offers a new approach to CSR rating, based on real involvement by stakeholders who will rate the social and environmental performance of companies. This web platform will serve as an innovative and interactive tool to foster dialogue on CSR issues between companies and their stakeholders. OpenSRI will enable industry watchdogs, non profits, shareholders and stakeholders to share information on best and worst practices in the sustainability arena.
The web platform will be accessible free of charge for stakeholders, allowing technical and non-technical users alike to freely post comments on listed companies with the assurance that the highest standards will be upheld by the community and experts participating. (CSR Wire)
Hello world!
January 24, 2008, 7:46 am
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welcome | Tags:
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sustainable developmentThis site is a piecemeal assortment of news and writing on anything related to sustainable design, international development, innovative leadership, biomimicry, social entrepreneurship, sustainable business, and other new ways of looking at old problems: All aimed at shaping a future that hasn’t yet arrived. If you have a post to contribute, news tidbit, or comment, please drop a note and say hi. You can also find me on linkedin. Welcome!
“Here’s to the trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and have no respect for the status-quo. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
