Sustainablog

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

So, I was all ready to pick a new video to feature this week, and went over to the Think Green Live Green Challenge page on YouTube to enjoy the latest offerings. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there were none! Did everyone’s video camera crash at once? Or, were the initial week’s offerings just too intimidating? C’mon, people, this is your chance: online video fame awaits you!

Seriously, though, this is a great opportunity to make your voice heard on green living. If you don’t think you’re doing some eco-unique things in your own life (and I’ll bet you’re wrong), you’ve certainly got questions about the barrage of information out there on green living. Juntoventure’s contest stands out in that it’s asking you not to simply make a video, but to join a conversation… and we can all do that. Get those cameras a’rollin’…

Also keep in mind that Juntoventure has pulled together a pretty impressive list of prize sponsors for the contest: Sierra Designs, Timberland, Pacific Outdoors, Buck Knives, Burt’s Bees, Mountainsmith, Mission Playground, and Lonely Planet. Certainly you’d like a shot at some of the swag they’re offering… Read the rest of this entry »

The videos are starting to roll in for Juntoventure’s “Think Green Live Green Challenge,” and organizations and individuals are answering the call to discuss their green activities and questions on YouTube. While the collection of videos is fairly small one week into the entry period, several of the submissions could easily be contenders for the prizes Juntoventure and Challenge sponsors are offering to winners.

I had a tough time making a choice for our first “Think Green Live Green” video of the week: several of the entries were well-shot and edited, and told compelling stories. Given the contest’s purpose to create “a community of dialogue about the challenges of eco-friendly living,” I didn’t use professional presentation as a criterion, though. Rather, I asked myself which ones really engaged me in such a way that I wanted to respond. Ultimately, while I enjoyed almost all of them, I found some of the least polished videos to be the most appealing. My choice for this week’s featured video came from YouTube user MattG124. Here it is: Read the rest of this entry »

User-created video contests are all the rage lately, and Juntoventure, a non-profit organization dedicated to “sustainability education through digital media,” has joined the fun with its “Think Green Live Green Challenge.” Starting tomorrow (Friday, January 18th), the Challenge invites participants to do a little bit more than just make a video about green living practices they’ve adopted: Juntoventure and the contest’s sponsors ask entrants to create videos that contribute to “a community of dialogue about the challenges of eco-friendly living.”

“A community of dialogue” is one of those phrases that comes out of my former academic life, but the concept is simple: make a video that contributes to and advances the conversation about sustainable lifestyles. In this spirit, Juntoventure starts the discussion with a video collection of its own that provides some great examples, and also frames the conversation. Your task: join the dialogue by contributing a video with your perspective. The contest provides some questions to get those creative juices percolating:

• What are the biggest challenges you face in becoming more eco-friendly?
• What questions do you have about eco-friendly living?
• Are you taking any specific actions right now to be more eco-friendly, and if so, do you have a way to do it easily and conveniently?
• What changes would you like to see happen from companies and the marketplace? Read the rest of this entry »

What do you get you when you put four experts in a San Francisco energy camp called OpenEco 2008? You get something between a bar brawl and poetry recital. Actually the opening segment for yesterday’s Sun Microsystems sponsored-UCSF based-camp began with Dave Douglas, VP of Eco Responsibility at Sun Microsystems leading a spirited discussion panel of L. Hunter Lovins (tough to miss in her black cowboy hat), president and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions; Ted Nordhaus, Chairman of the Breakthrough Institute; Michael Shellenberger, President of the Breakthrough Institute; and Adam Werbach, Founder and CEO of Act Now.

Even when you get a panel of so-called experts, there tends to be disagreements. In fact, when asked about all the controversy among what to do about the energy crisis and sustainability and alt energy Adam Werbach blurted, “First thing that we need to do is to kill all the experts,” which got a laugh but also made a good point. Lovins showed some lovin’ for her case that innovation comes with healing. In her case, she argued that investing in sustainability rather than armies would work in places like Afghanistan where she’s off to teach, not how to shoot an M-16 but of course, sustainability. Like political pundits, the talk shifted to taxes (like a carbon tax) versus subsidies. We, like most of the crowd pondered the thought of adding a “carbon tax” to various products and services. But we all know how much this country loves its taxes. But then what about subsidies? It’s no shock that dirty energy like coal and oil look relatively cheap because of the subsidies. Green foodie Michael Pollen of Omnivore’s Dilemma fame, dedicated numerous book pages talking about corn and soy subsidies, and here the group and audience did the same. That subsidized corn ends up as high fructose corn syrup in so many cheap processed foods. We don’t see any spinach subsidies. Balance the energy scale. We think that it’s time for more Green energy subsidies (not just solar). People don’t want their dirty energy taxed so we need to make clean energy cheap. Read the rest of this entry »

Meant to get this one published much earlier in the week… life (or, more appropriately, administrative tasks) does (do) get in the way…:P

Today, at UC-San Francisco’s Conference Center, Sun Microsystems will be hosting OpenEco.org’s “Energy Camp,” a free one-day event that focuses on bringing together environmental leaders and software developers to discuss “coding for the environment.” Speakers will include L. Hunter Lovins, Adam Werbach, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. The event begins at 9 am PST.

Now, you may be thinking, “Wow, Jeff, that’s kind of lame to announce an event on the day it’s happening.” I agree… but, you don’t need to move your schedule around (if you’re in the Bay Area), or even catch a quick flight (if you’re not): you can participate from anywhere through a Ustream webcast at either sun.com or OpenEco.org/energycamp. There’s also a wiki that will be available at http://www.openeco.org/wiki/Energy_Camp_2008.

This looks like it will be a great time, and we will have a GO Media writer there covering it. Additionally, we’ve heard there may be some video clips available of some of the speakers; if so, we’ll share those with you at Ecoscraps. If you go, please let us know how it went (or, how it’s going, if you’d like to comment during the Camp).