I've been sending myself thoughts to post... this is a great idea...
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Trash
Wouldn’t it be cool if I could do something about the amount of garbage we produce? (We being me and Chad). We took our garbage out and we have to-go food boxes, paper towels, junk. We compost about 75% of our compostable food scraps – so that’s SOMETHING, but really, we eat a lot of prepackaged foods. New Seasons had a bin at the front of their store for plastic bags – that was cool.
Reforestation effort through tea...
Chad and I bought Guayaki Yerba Mate from New Seasons, in both the bottled and loose tea variety. The company replants the Atlantic Rainforest (South America) and employs indiginous tribes in the process. It's a pretty cool business model (Market Driven Reforestation), and the tea itself is interesting. I prefer the sweeteneed stuff in bottles, but it can get spendy (at least it serves a social mission), so we've been making a french press full of the loose stuff in the mornings, and after my blueberry pancakes this morning, it was halfway enjoyable! ;o)
Put the pan-handlers to work!
I take a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood when I'm feeling particularly spunky. I am amazed at the amount of trash that collects against fence lines. The city doesn't have the money (I assume) but I'd be willing to pony up some cash, and maybe collect it from my neighbors, to fund a neighborhood cleanup. Why not put the homeless to work picking up garbage along the streets? Payment could be in food kitchen vouchers, food coupons, or clothing vouchers (to avoid perpetuating addiction). I'd fund that mission...
Cool article about planting an extra row...
From last week's paper - about those who plant an extra row, and those who use the food...
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
One positive note. Everyone in my work group goes to coffee every morning. I've been bringing my travel coffee mug for a few months now, and today, my coworker asked about it. He said he's noticed me carrying it with me, that he's heard me talk about sustainability, and that he's going to look for one. When we got back to the office, I sent him a link to the company that makes it (OXO - it's a leakproof stainless steel travel mug). So I'm feeling gratified that he is now thinking about making this one small change in his life. It's all about baby steps...
Saturday, July 4, 2009
It's July 4th, Saturday, the middle of a three day weekend, and it is *HOT*. We run 2 fans constantly through the day and evening - not sure what that's going to do to the power bill. The next step, assuming the hot weather continues, is to put the air conditioner in the window. When we bought it, we got an energy efficient model, but it feels like I am betraying a cause when I consider installing it. Wish the house was built into a hillside like a hobbits, but it wasn't.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
My nose is NOT sustainable!
Chad took a picture of 2 kleenex boxes in the house. I have allergies, and last week, I got a cold which created an increase in my demand for soft tissue. My method, when I reach the bottom of a box at home, is to keep it around, open a new box, and push the freshly used tissues into the first empty box. I had 2 of these in 2 days, and my loving husband snapped a photo for HIS social opportunity journal. This means there's REAL opportunity here.
So what about my kleenex habbit? I probably go through a box a week - maybe even more if I include my work AND home usage. Dare I switch to a pack of handkerchiefs? THis week, I'd have a soggy pocket. Ewww!
So what about my kleenex habbit? I probably go through a box a week - maybe even more if I include my work AND home usage. Dare I switch to a pack of handkerchiefs? THis week, I'd have a soggy pocket. Ewww!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
If a country is judged on how it treats its weakest citizens...
Social Opportunity Journal.
Two gentlemen live in the duplex behind ours. Mike is a single, older man with a physical disability that manifests physiologically with a lurching gait and slurred speech, and mentally with sever paranoia. His neighbor, Laddie, is 68 years old and has cerebral palsy. Laddie drives a red scooter 4 blocks from his house to Fred Meyers and back, stopping by my house on occasion to banter politics, though we are both staunch democrats. Laddie's speech is impaired and his condition has deteriorated over time, so that now he has trouble grasping small objects and is unable to fully extend his arms and hands. His house is retrofitted with handles and bars on the walls so he can grab onto them and maneuver down the hallway. A pole in his kitchen braced between the floor and ceiling, allows him to grab it and swivel around, and he uses a walker and rolling chair to get around inside.
Joy comes over in her minivan almost every day to take Laddie to doctor's appointments, manage his social work visits, and help around the house. Laddie met Joy on the bus a few years ago and somehow convinced her to get into home health care. On his urging, she became his home health care provider and has been his advocate ever since. He seems to have a team of doctors and social entities provided through the government to help him get by on social security, but he's definitely seen better days. Just this year, his regular dentist of the past 8 years died or retired, and a new doctor in the office took a look at Laddie's decrepit mouth. For the past 8 years, he's been suffering from a painful mouth infection that has systemically affected his health. The old doctor told him he'd just have to live with it. Laddie's new doctor took one look in his mouth, gave him a thorough cleaning, and told Laddie he'd have to start flossing or he could die of the infection. In about 2 weeks Laddie was a changed man, to the point that he asked me to come over to his house so he could show me the pictures of the disease in his mouth - so he could warn me about the dangers of not flossing. He asked me to warn my husband too, and I promised I would carry the message.
Before the Bush administration he was an advocate for the disabled. On his wall is a picture of Ted Kulongoski with Laddie smiling proudly. In his past, Laddie used to give police presentations on the best way to interact with people with disabilities. With the Bush administration came cuts to human services, and Laddie lost a lot of funding, and a lot of hope. A committed political watch dog and commentator, Laddie and I had a lot of over the fence conversations and commiserations about the Bush Administration, and we were both thrilled when Obama took the White House. But in the economic climate of the new American Era, Laddie's livelihood, at a very basic level, is threatened. The combined Federal and State budget crises threatens to eliminate or severely reduce Joy's funding. If she loses her job, or is forced to cut hours, how will she make ends meet, and an even more important question - how will Laddie manage?
The silver lining in all of this is Laddie - he is a dynamic, commanding personality who was able to recruit a home health care worker that he trusts, and endear a neighbor who is now challenged to think of a way help him continue to get the care he needs. This is a huge opportunity for a social solution, how to do it is the question....
Two gentlemen live in the duplex behind ours. Mike is a single, older man with a physical disability that manifests physiologically with a lurching gait and slurred speech, and mentally with sever paranoia. His neighbor, Laddie, is 68 years old and has cerebral palsy. Laddie drives a red scooter 4 blocks from his house to Fred Meyers and back, stopping by my house on occasion to banter politics, though we are both staunch democrats. Laddie's speech is impaired and his condition has deteriorated over time, so that now he has trouble grasping small objects and is unable to fully extend his arms and hands. His house is retrofitted with handles and bars on the walls so he can grab onto them and maneuver down the hallway. A pole in his kitchen braced between the floor and ceiling, allows him to grab it and swivel around, and he uses a walker and rolling chair to get around inside.
Joy comes over in her minivan almost every day to take Laddie to doctor's appointments, manage his social work visits, and help around the house. Laddie met Joy on the bus a few years ago and somehow convinced her to get into home health care. On his urging, she became his home health care provider and has been his advocate ever since. He seems to have a team of doctors and social entities provided through the government to help him get by on social security, but he's definitely seen better days. Just this year, his regular dentist of the past 8 years died or retired, and a new doctor in the office took a look at Laddie's decrepit mouth. For the past 8 years, he's been suffering from a painful mouth infection that has systemically affected his health. The old doctor told him he'd just have to live with it. Laddie's new doctor took one look in his mouth, gave him a thorough cleaning, and told Laddie he'd have to start flossing or he could die of the infection. In about 2 weeks Laddie was a changed man, to the point that he asked me to come over to his house so he could show me the pictures of the disease in his mouth - so he could warn me about the dangers of not flossing. He asked me to warn my husband too, and I promised I would carry the message.
Before the Bush administration he was an advocate for the disabled. On his wall is a picture of Ted Kulongoski with Laddie smiling proudly. In his past, Laddie used to give police presentations on the best way to interact with people with disabilities. With the Bush administration came cuts to human services, and Laddie lost a lot of funding, and a lot of hope. A committed political watch dog and commentator, Laddie and I had a lot of over the fence conversations and commiserations about the Bush Administration, and we were both thrilled when Obama took the White House. But in the economic climate of the new American Era, Laddie's livelihood, at a very basic level, is threatened. The combined Federal and State budget crises threatens to eliminate or severely reduce Joy's funding. If she loses her job, or is forced to cut hours, how will she make ends meet, and an even more important question - how will Laddie manage?
The silver lining in all of this is Laddie - he is a dynamic, commanding personality who was able to recruit a home health care worker that he trusts, and endear a neighbor who is now challenged to think of a way help him continue to get the care he needs. This is a huge opportunity for a social solution, how to do it is the question....
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship...
Despite the year lag since my last post, I am indeed still alive and kicking - and taking a class on Social Entrepreneurialism and Innovation to boot. Part of my grade for the class is to make two posts to socially 'aware' sights such as http://www.socialedge.com/ etc. every week.
We also have a major load of reading to do, so I read an assigned article "Rediscovering Social Innovation from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and wrote a comment - which the page would not accept! Argh!
But never fear - I am determined to have my say on this, my global platform. So for your reading pleasure: here is the article,
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/rediscovering_social_innovation/
And here is my comment:
We also have a major load of reading to do, so I read an assigned article "Rediscovering Social Innovation from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and wrote a comment - which the page would not accept! Argh!
But never fear - I am determined to have my say on this, my global platform. So for your reading pleasure: here is the article,
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/rediscovering_social_innovation/
And here is my comment:
The article attempts to elevate social innovation and separate it from social entrepreneurialism and social enterprise. But at the same time, the authors endorse tearing down the silos that isolate business, government, and NGO sectors so that shared knowledge and resources can be harnessed to solve our social problems. From my limited view (MBA graduate student with a desire to do good while making a good living) social entrepreneurs and social enterprise are valuable tools that deserve a place in the existing belt of public, private, and not-for-profit agencies. And while it might be ideal to involve all of these tools to improve social issues, each tool is suited for its particular use. It’s easy to identify that problems exist, e.g. poverty, hunger, aids, sexual exploitation, drug addiction, etc. Coming to agreement on the best solution is not so simple. I believe it is in our best interest to unleash, unfetter, promote, provoke if necessary, and support players in any sectors who bring social improvement to bear. And here is a point where I agree wholeheartedly with the authors: hero worship does not contribute to social improvement. Just as there is no one person that can lead every individual toward social innovation, there is not one methodology that will enable every individual to enact social change. So during this classification process, while the field is being defined and classified, I hope that players in all sectors, be you activist, innovator, bean counter, entrepreneur, student, teacher, or volunteer, will continue your efforts to effect change, and not be entangled and slowed by the discussion.
So chew on that for a while. There will be more coming, I'm sure of it...
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About Me
- Misha
- With a BS in Anthropology, a job title of Software/Applications Analyst, and a not so closely held secret dream of being a writer, this blog will be an outlet, motivator, and hard truth teller about my writing. But as you can see, things have been a bit sparse in the last year. I'll chalk that up to getting into PSU's MBA+ program - that's right, I'm an MBA Candidate. Look out world, here I come...