Disqus - Friends of JeffMowatt

Re: United Airlines Demonstrates How to Lose Customers: Death by 1000 Cuts

Elizabeth Krueger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:35:06 -0000

I'm still a loyal United customer when I fly, for a few reasons:
- I fly out of San Francisco, a United hub
- United is one of the few airlines that will accommodate pets in the cabin, and I travel to visit family several times a year, with my dog
- there is a legacy loyalty aspect (at one point, I was a 1K flier with them)
- when I had to spend 30 minutes on the phone getting a schedule changed after they made a schedule change that left me with a longer-than-necessary connection, the customer service agent was so apologetic that it took that long, she issued me a $150 flight credit - without me ever complaining
- on a recent flight from O'Hare to SFO, the flight crew did a great job keeping us informed of a delay when a mechanical issue was discovered during an aborted takeoff, and they did a nice job of keeping us comfortable during the 2-hour delay
- I'd rather not wait in cattle holding pens to get my seat (a la Southwest)

I also hate the add-on sales on the website, though.

Re: Apple Snubs Green Shareholders, Refuses Sustainability Reporting

Elizabeth Krueger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:42:02 -0000

I am a shareholder, and agree that Apple should get credit for being more sustainable than other manufacturers, whether or not they currently produce a formal "sustainability report".
I haven't read the proposals yet, but I will before voting.
I'd rather see Apple start linking their website reporting to the GRI framework, and incorporate important metrics into their 10-Ks, than have them develop a report "similar to" another company's.

Re: For a Crash Course in Sustainable Business, What Are the “Must Read” Books?

Elizabeth Krueger — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:53:29 -0000

Thinking in Systems: A Primer
by Donella H. Meadows
Readable description of what it means to think about whole systems - quite different from the way many actors in our society operate today. This study should be required for all business programs. Understanding this approach will help all of us make better decisions with fewer unintended consequences.

The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat
by Catherine Friend
Easy read - approachable on topic of sustainably eating meat, with good coverage of issues, with touches of humor.

Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered
by Woody Tasch, Carlo Petrini
Very interesting perspective on the need for a new form of investing in sustainable practices for the sake of our food system and our future.

Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
by Daniel Esty, Andrew Winston
Good airplane reading for any senior executive - pragmatic on why and how to incorporate environmental concerns into your business plans.

Sustainable Value: How the World's Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good
by Chris Laszlo
Next step beyond Green to Gold, this covers a broader view of sustainability, including a description of a process for implementation.

The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-in (Conscientious Commerce)
by Bob Willard, Hunter Lovins
Excellent reference for building the case for sustainable business practices, with easy-to-find reference material for overcoming objections, and backing up generalities with data. Also includes a section highlighting the particular challenges and opportunities for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Re: Focus on Product Stewardship Shifts Waste Disposal Responsibility to Manufacturers

Elizabeth Krueger — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:00:17 -0000

Cory, I looked for the Waste Management article you mentioned, but can't readily locate it. Can you provide your citation?

Re: Too Small to Fail: The Role of Micro-lending in Economic Recovery

Elizabeth Krueger — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:17:28 -0000

It is good to see support for small businesses, and I'm glad to know that Chevron is backing Opportunity Fund's good work. I admit I'm a bit puzzled by Chevron choosing this as (presumably) one of its charitable investments, as it has little, if anything, to do with Chevron's actual business.
I'd love to see Chevron focus charitable/community investments on clean energy - directly aligned with its "energy company" mission. Better yet, focus meaningful R&D spending on clean energy and maybe do community investment in smart grid projects with municipalities. That would start to make the current Chevron ads credible.

Re: The Only Thing You Need To Do To Be Great At Networking

Elizabeth Krueger — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:09:49 -0000

The golden rule as networking. As another commenter said, it's what I've always been most comfortable doing, but hadn't really thought of it as networking, per se. Thanks for this elaboration.

Re: A Sustainable Degree

Elizabeth Krueger — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:58:17 -0000

Presidio Graduate School, Bainbridge, and Dominican are all big misses from the list. The list is loaded with traditional business schools which have added courses on sustainability, rather than MBA programs in sustainability.

Presidio Graduate School (which has both an MBA and MPA program), is a program built to teach sustainability from the ground up. Students learn traditional skills, and either add to or critique them from the sustainability perspective. We need significant change, not tweaks on the margins, to transform the business community and push for a sustainable future.

Re: God Bless Donald Trump and the Birthers

Elizabeth Krueger — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:50:06 -0000

Thank you for putting so eloquently what I have been struggling with.

Re: My Thoughts on Sojourners, Coalition Building, and LGBTQ Rights

Elizabeth Krueger — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:13:02 -0000

This all makes sense, until I re-read the Sojourner's mission statement:
Mission
Our mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring
hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the
church, and the world.

Apparently, the mission is social justice for some, or has been changed to focus only on poverty?

Re: Citizen Cane

Elizabeth Krueger — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:53:22 -0000

Tree,
So glad the Free Farm & Farm Stand got $2500 to further the mission! Congratulations!

Re: How Starbucks’ Jobs Campaign Missed the Point

Elizabeth Krueger — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:07:35 -0000

Mr. Godelink makes a good point that Starbucks should continue to enhance its corporate social responsibility by sourcing locally. That said, he's missing an important point that is the focus of the Create Jobs for USA fund. The money is going to non-profit development organizations (not banks) that train and lend to low-income entrepreneurs who don't have access to other sources of credit. These folks are generally going into business for themselves, and with the right support, will be able to employ others as well. Helping increase employment will also increase demand, and reduce the demand for unemployment and other government transfer payments.

Re: How Starbucks’ Jobs Campaign Missed the Point

Elizabeth Krueger — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:10:12 -0000

Ryan,
If you look at how Create Jobs for USA fund works, you'll see that the funds go to non-profit organizations who lend to entrepreneurs in low-income areas, most of whom do not have access to credit through traditional banks. Create Jobs for USA doesn't help the "too big to fail" banks - it helps the little guys.

Re: Open Letter to McDonald’s and Walmart on Entrepreneurship in Low-Income Communities

Elizabeth Krueger — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:52:20 -0000

Just got a press release from @OppFinance that Google Offers will be running a special promotion and Banana Republic will, too, generating more donations to Create Jobs for USA Fund. Glad to see they're on board. See the press release here: http://www.opportunityfinan...

Re: Open Letter to McDonald’s and Walmart on Entrepreneurship in Low-Income Communities

Elizabeth Krueger — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:13:12 -0000

And a news report of how the fund is creating jobs in San Jose ... http://sanfrancisco.cbsloca...

Re: AIG's Miller: Obama Hurting U.S. Competitiveness

Elizabeth Krueger — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:35:04 -0000

How can the reporter listen to this and not call the AIG exec on the carpet? AIG didn't understand what it was doing, raked in profits but needed a bailout and now complains that we don't trust the business sector?

Re: Businesses Serving the Poor Need to Get Over Their Unease About Profit

Elizabeth Krueger — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:52:34 -0000

What strikes me about this post that is not already well rebutted by previous comments, is the examples used.
Water purification is not abandoned as a solution, but as a profitable solution relative to first-world shareholder expectations. As a first-world resident, I would also challenge the author to support why having clean drinking water should not be a public good, rather than a source for profits. Using business innovation skills to develop a solution makes sense, but then transitioning it to a more appropriate mechanism for providing a scalable solution for people is also needed.
The example of providing snack food for nutrition is also distasteful, and sounds like a solution that was seeking a profit-making problem. Rather than focusing on changing eating habits, a better solution might have been to help boost the ability of people to feed themselves through local agriculture or other practices that fit with their culture.
So, I don't see that either of these examples does a good job of illustrating the author's point - quite the reverse, in fact.

Re: 10 Rules for Brilliant Women

Elizabeth Krueger — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:41:36 -0000

Currently, 7-10 hit me most.

Re: Muni Turns 100

Elizabeth Krueger — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:00:46 -0000

One of my favorite Muni episodes is getting on the J Church at 30th Street to head downtown for weekend classes at around 8 AM on Saturday with the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa's order). One day in particular, about 20 nuns got on the train and settled around me, smiling and praying rosaries as we headed inbound. They got off at various points en route to head to their assigned work for the day. I felt as though all of us on that train must have received extra blessings that day.

Re: Can Financial Markets Be Good?

Elizabeth Krueger — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:50:39 -0000

Excellent - focus on the primary goal - creating the better world, and use innovation and other enterprise tools (which includes profit) to make it happen.

Re: Instructing for Impact: The State of Social Finance Education in the United States | Blog | Social Finance

Elizabeth Krueger — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:04:00 -0000

Ryan, 2 programs that integrate social/sustainable impact across the entire curriculum: Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco and Bainbridge Graduate Institute in WA. Truly multidisciplinary.

Re: Lower River - Brown Bear & Salmon Cam

Elizabeth Krueger — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 23:21:01 -0000

which one is Otis?

Re: Lower River - Brown Bear & Salmon Cam

Elizabeth Krueger — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 23:34:28 -0000

saw it, but who was it? 402 and 856 and ?

Re: California Weighs New Water Conservation Rules as Devastating Drought Persists

Elizabeth Krueger — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 12:23:44 -0000

Yes, I support restrictions. That said, as a homeowner, I've never been a water waster. I even empty dog dish water into watering can to water houseplants.
I support requiring big ag to install drip irrigation - no more flood irrigation. We need funding for small and integrated/sustainable farmers to upgrade to lower-water usage, as well. We don't want to put them out of business when cutting back water hogs like mono-cropping big ag.
I also support limiting landscape irrigation to 1-2x/week at most. There does need to be an exception for those using yards to grow food - I need to water my raised beds/food plantings according to where in the growing cycle they are. Seeds need to be kept moist, established plants can get by with a couple of waterings a week, as long as temperatures are "normal" (i.e., not during a heat wave or cold snap).

Re: Will Social Impact Bonds lead to “skimming”? | Blog | Social Finance

Jessica Leifer — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:09:19 -0000

Thanks for your thoughts, Jon. The ROI is an incentive for investors to finance a new program that they would not have funded anyway. If the funds are already available, the need for a SIB is more limited. Hopefully, we'll see the model bring new funds to the sector if Peterborough and other early SIBs prove successful.

Re: Will Social Impact Bonds lead to “skimming”? | Blog | Social Finance

Jessica Leifer — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:22:40 -0000

Thanks, Jeff. Of note, though, is the significant benefit to service providers that SIBs create: that service providers, who do not profit from the arrangement and are held to their own performance standards, are enabled to focus entirely on service delivery. The funding guarantee (usually for a minimum of 5 years) relieves service providers of fundraising duties and accompanying mission drift pressures. Service providers can put their energy into growth, innovation, and improvement of their social service. In this way, SIBs may motivate the "social aspects of social business."