Goodwill Seattle’s Annual Glitter Sale Boosted by New Blog November 12, 2009

Glitter Sale

Seattle Goodwill, now in its 86th year, is a non-profit that provides free job training and education programs to help low-income and disadvantaged people in the community. Its retail stores generate the necessary funds to run these important programs. A really great annual event, The Glitter Sale, is coming up this weekend, November 14 and 15. This famous two-day sale features racks, rows and cases of glitzy and glamorous Goodwill bargains, all in one place. Quality merchandise is collected year-round for the big sale, including gowns, men’s formalwear, jewelry, shoes, purses and much more. The event raises vital revenue for Goodwill’s mission. The newly established blog is a great example of how to really pump up excitement about an event in advance - check it out!

Transition Movement: Coming to a Town Near You July 31, 2009

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the Transition Movement, or “Transition Towns” — a concept popularized by British environmentalist Rob Hopkins. The aim is to “equip communities for the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil.”  Peak oil is defined as “the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.”

From Hopkins’ website comes this bit of history: “My background is in the teaching of permaculture for many years, giving people the tools to create more sustainable ways of living in their own gardens and families. Since I found out about peak oil, I have become fascinated by how we apply these principles to whole towns, whole settlements, and in particular, to how we design this transition in such a way that people will embrace it as a common journey, as a collective adventure, as something positive…How can we design descent pathways which make people feel alive, positive and included in this process of societal transformation? My own thoughts led me to develop an approach I call ‘Energy Descent Action Planning (EDAP)’, which works with a community to vision how they see their town 20 years in the future, in a positive way, and then backcast from then to now.”

Hopkins’ idea was applied to his hometown of Totnes with success and today there are over 100 communities recognized worldwide as offician Transition Towns. There are several great websites on this concept;’ I invite you to start your exploration here.

One Square Inch of Silence April 14, 2009

The One Square Inch Red Stone Marker

Pretty much every summer during my childhood my family went to the Olympic National Park for our big vacation. You might think, EVERY YEAR? Didn’t you get sick of the same place? If you are thinking that, then you’ve never been there. We usually stayed at Mora Campground near Forks (an area now internationally famous because of those stupid Twilight books, but I digress) and one of our favorite day trips was to walk the Hall of Mosses Trail through the Hoh Rainforest. Well, how excited do you imagine I was when I found out about One Square Inch of Silence, the so-called “quietest place in the United States,” located in the Hoh Rainforest and marked by a single red-colored stone placed on top of a moss-covered log (the GPS coordinates of which can be found on the website).

The website for this concept states, “Olympic National Park was chosen for One Square Inch because it has a diverse natural soundscape combined with substantial periods of natural quiet. Unlike other national parks, such as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon or Hawaii Volcanoes, air tourism is undeveloped and roads do not divide park lands…One Square Inch of Silence was designated on Earth Day 2005 to protect and manage the natural soundscape in Olympic Park’s backcountry wilderness. The logic is simple; if a loud noise, such as the passing of an aircraft, can impact many square miles, then a natural place, if maintained in a 100% noise-free condition, will also impact many square miles around it. It is predicted that protecting a single square inch of land from noise pollution will benefit large areas of the park.”

 Check out the website for information on the new book co-written by the founder of the OSI concept, acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, One Square Inch of Silence (Free Press, 2009), and a CD of the natural sounds he recorded at Olympic National Park. If you haven’t been to this place already, I don’t care where you live — you need to visit. But remember to be very, very quiet.

Not ROI but ROS! March 20, 2009

We’ve all heard the phrase “return on investment” – a popular buzz term that refers, essentially, to financial returns for your business efforts. With the increased interest among businesses in “triple-bottom-line” (environmental, social and financial) operations, a new financial model is necessary. A new book called “Return on Sustainability,” by sustainable business consultant Kevin Wilhelm, provides a compelling demonstration of the financial return on sustainable business practices. It presents a new financial model (ROS) which builds off triple-bottom-line performance concepts to provide a more tangible framework for business leaders to address climate change and realize increased financial returns and brand value. It makes a great case for “green” as smart business thinking that focuses on efficiencies in energy waste and processes. The book has received an endorsement from several luminaries, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It includes real world examples from over 40 companies as well as excellent step-by-step guidance on using the ROS process. The Parsons Public Relations team highly recommends this valuable resource. For more information, visit www.returnonsustainability.com.

 

New Year’s Resolutions – Pick a Word January 6, 2009

President Elect Obama is currently working on a new economic stimulus package that he is considering publishing online as a part of his pledge of “unprecedented transparency.” Transparency, one of the big buzzwords of the past few years, is an exciting concept for our government to embrace, a powerful word to live by. It made me think of a practice we have at Parsons Public Relations, where we start out every meeting with everyone sharing their gratitude – for a co-worker that really helped them out with something, a particularly satisfying experience with a client, or something else from their personal lives. We do this because we decided that cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” makes our lives much richer and more purposeful. It lends a focus to our decisions, allows us to remain in integrity during stressful situations, and, best of all, starts every work week off in a very positive way. It’s amazing what one word can do. I also have a personal word, “intention,” that I used throughout 2008 to keep me focused on my own goals, both professional and personal, so that I used my time as consciously and purposefully as possible. I haven’t settled on my new word for 2009 but when I do I will again tape it to my computer somewhere as a reminder. Perhaps it will be “patience” or “listen” or “surprise” - we’ll see. Just one word – I invite you to try it yourself and see what happens.

Gifts of Giving: Charity Gift Cards December 4, 2008

We all know that this is the season of giving. And most importantly, it’s about giving to those in need. A Seattle-based philanthropic organization called TisBest is offering an exciting new option for a holiday gift — charity gift cards, described on their website as follows:

“TisBest Charity Gift Carts give others the opportunity to give — and that, we believe, “TisBest” of all! That’s how we got our name.”

Cards are available in any denomination. All the recipient has to do is to go onto the website and select from a list of charities, all of which have gone through a careful screening process before being selected for the site. TisBest Philanthropy was founded in 2007 and today has over 20,000 satisfied Charity Gift Card donors and recipents and have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities. For more information, visit www.tisbest.org.

I want it NOW! October 17, 2008

Most of us can identify a little with the obnoxious Veruca Salt from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” (The Gene Wilder version rules!) We see something cool and we want to have it – an iPhone or the new Flip digital video recorder, or a Kindle, or a faster, better version of the computer we currently own. But we also know that for the most part, everything we buy today is likely bound for tomorrow’s landfill.

 

When I was a kid, in my family, cars and appliances were bought to last – and my parents meticulously maintained them to prolong their lifespans as much as possible. We didn’t waste food, we recycled everything we could, we didn’t get new clothes until we outgrew our old ones or they simply wore out, and we shared tools with neighbors. That’s why when something I have falls apart quickly, or even worse, requires an upgrade not because it’s broken but outmoded, it bugs me.

 

When my dad passed away 15 years ago, I gave a refrigerator (a GE product by the way) that he had owned since his bachelor days to a good friend of mine. It is now in his garage as a beer fridge. I know, it probably wastes energy sitting there humming away, but there’s something lovely about a 50+-year-old fridge.

 

Planned obsolescence is a term first developed in the 1920s and ‘30s when mass production of goods was becoming more fully established. It refers of course to the practice of designing a product to become obsolete or non-functional after a certain period of time, the rationale being to reduce the time period between repeat purchases. On the one hand, this can be seen as exploitative; on the other, it is a way to exist competitively in a fast-changing market – if a product lasts too long before requiring replacement the company may be slower in introducing innovative improvements, or a competitor may do so and lure customers away. Today we are used to thinking we need a new computer every two years or less – and a new mobile phone even more frequently than that.

 

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune was about a company that recycles old mobile phones. Here’s the big statistic from the article:

 

“According to industry estimates, nearly 200 million cellphones will be sold in the U.S. this year. A large number of these buyers are already wireless subscribers with handsets, so more than 100 million phones will be retired. If improperly dumped in a landfill, they can release toxic materials from their batteries, small fluorescent lights and other parts.”

 

The article goes on to recite lots of compelling data to show that this is an important issue that must be addressed, and it provides some great information on companies that will take care of recycling your mobile phone in a responsible manner.

 

That said, next time you buy something you’ve bought lots of times before, ask yourself, Is there a better way? Can I buy something that will last longer? Is there a way to responsibly dispose of this when it does finally crap out? If not, can I do without it? Remember what happened to Veruca Salt (in the Gene Wilder version of “Willy Wonka” she gets dumped down the garbage chute).  I guess that’s a kind of recycling, eh?

Purposeful Vacations September 25, 2008

“Va-ca-tion, all I ever wanted…” Yeah, I like the Go-Gos. I also like this concept of doing something really purposeful while you’re on vacation. We’ve certainly heard the portmanteau term ”ecotourism,” as well as the more recent ”staycations” people are taking close to home because of skyrocketing fuel prices. Some others I ran into recently include ”voluntourism” and “vacations with a purpose.” Like how we eat and what we buy, the choices we make for time away from work has become yet another way to define ourselves and the values we hold most dear.

“Vacations with a purpose,” refers to short-term mission trips. A long-time church-group tradition, the concept now also includes a broad range of service organizations offering volunteer opportunities to individuals and families. These saw a huge surge in popularity after Hurricane Katrina. According to the Travel Industry Association, 2.1 million Americans will take “vacations with a purpose” this year, contributing the equivalent of $6 billion in labor.

Voluntourism, a nearly identical concept which has its own website, offers the following definition, “In the broader sense, voluntourism represents voluntary service experiences that include travel to a destination in order to realize one’s service intentions. In a more refined and balanced approach, voluntourism is the integrated combination of voluntary service to a destination with the traditional elements of travel and tourism — arts, culture, geography, history and recreation — while in the destination.” 

As readers may know, Parsons Public Relations’ long-time employee, Pam Perry, is currently on what would be termed a “voluntourism” trip. She is on a one-year-long sabbatical to a variety of countries beginning with Nepal, where she is working with Answer-Nepal, a U.S. based organization that sponsors “needy, bright kids with parental support” and pays for their private school tuition. She is keeping a blog of her experiences – check it out!

Readers may also be aware of Parsons Public Relations’ ongoing work with  Leatherback sea turtles, where we have partnered with ecotourism company EcoTeach to plan educational expeditions to Costa Rica and to raise awareness of the plight of these amazing animals.

Purposeful vacations offer a particularly enticing potential – a return to work even more invigorated and refreshed from an experience that opens the heart, mind and soul to the power of compassion.