FOOD IS THE NEW FUR FOR CELEBRITIES WITH A CONSCIENCE

Actors, designers, pop stars have all got behind the hot new ethical campaign: food. From saving species to investigating conditions for pigs, star quality is pushing it to the foreground

It is, by anybody’s standards, an arresting image: a truly beautiful photograph of a luscious, radiant creature, all shiny eyes and silky skin. And Greta Scacchi, who is pictured clutching the cod to her naked body, doesn’t look bad either. In the months and years to come, this picture, flashed throughout the British media last week, will doubtless come to be seen as the seminal image for a particular moment, when the gruelling, knotty business of campaigning around food issues finally became sexy. The use of celebrity skin to push an ethical issue is nothing new, of course. In the 1990s, Peta – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – convinced a bunch of supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, to appear in the buff under the legend “I’d rather go nude than wear fur”. But fur is just so passé. And, in any case, Campbell proved just how fickle the modern celebrity can be by soon deciding that actually, come to think of it, she would much rather wear fur than go nude, and did so on the catwalk in Milan.

Where celebrities are concerned, it seems, food is the new fur. The current set of images featuring Scacchi alongside actress Emilia Fox, director Terry Gilliam and actor Richard E Grant, were launched to back the cinematic release of The End Of The Line, a film about the threat of overfishing – but they are only a part of it. Tomorrow, Paul McCartney and his daughters Stella and Mary are launching a campaign to convince the public to go meat-free for one day a week. Another movie, Food Inc, which looks at the excesses and foul side-effects of industrial food production has just been released in the US and will shortly arrive here. Plus there is a major investigation by environmental campaigner Tracy Worcester into the dark underbelly of the global pig-rearing business which is about to be screened on digital channel More4. Food, and more importantly, really bad food, is hot.

What marks out these campaigns is their sophistication. It began a couple of weeks ago with the news that Nobu, the global high-end chain of Japanese restaurants favoured by the glitterati, was still serving bluefin tuna despite it being an endangered species. The restaurant had added a note to its menu pointing out the threat to the magnificent bluefin and inviting diners to ask for an alternative, but had refused to stop serving it, unlike big-name chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

This was an old story; it had first been reported in September. It reared its head again because it features in The End Of The Line, the film version of a book by respected journalist Charles Clover.

Cue a letter from a familiar roster of celebrities – Jemima Goldsmith, Trudie Styler, Elle Macpherson – demanding Nobu remove it from their menus so they could eat at the restaurant with a clear conscience. Stephen Fry took to twittering about the issue. “It’s astounding lunacy to serve up endangered species for sushi,” he later said. “There’s no justification for peddling extinction, yet that is exactly what Nobu is doing in its restaurants around the world.” For its part, Nobu has refused to change its policy; apparently it feels it can do without the custom of Trudie and Stephen.

The producers of The End of The Line weren’t finished, though. Clover had been discussing how to publicise the film with Nicholas Rohl and Elizabeth Bennett, friends of his who run the highly regarded ethical London sushi restaurant Soseki and who have helped pioneer sustainable fishing methods. “It was they who suggested getting celebrities on board,” Clover says. “It was basically using celebrities to shame other celebrities and I’m rather keen on that.”

Nicholas Rohl, who as well as co-owning Soseki is a screenwriter, has long known Scacchi. “I contacted her and she opened up her address book,” he says. “It took us two or three weeks to set up. We sent out hundreds of emails and made hundreds of calls, but eventually we got the names together.”

The photographer Rankin agreed to take the shots. Richard E Grant, pictured bare-chested with two feet of lovely, silvery, long-snouted fish, says he was motivated to get behind the campaign by his 30 years of scuba diving. “Commercial sea-floor dredging is an abomination,” he says. “And free celebrity endorsement is the cheapest way to publicise an issue without wasting valuable funds, which are better spent on the cause itself.”

Clover agrees. “The fact is that if you want to put an issue into the popular mind you have to get it into Heat magazine,” he says. Scacchi even appeared on the Today programme to argue the case. “She’s much better suited for doing something like that than me, and catches people’s attention in the way I can’t,” Clover adds. But isn’t it frustrating that, because of the way the media work, an actress who knows almost nothing about the subject is favoured over the man who literally wrote the book? Clover says not. “When you start hearing what you’ve been saying for five years in the mouth of someone who didn’t know anything about it until five minutes before, it’s awesome. It blows your mind.”

Food writer and television cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has used his shows to argue for improvements in the way cheap chickens are raised in this country, sees nothing intrinsically wrong in non-expert celebrities getting involved. “What matters is how well they carry the message and whether they are in it for the long haul,” he explains.

Nevertheless, there are bound to be some complications with celebrity-driven campaigns, not least the way they are, by habit, completely micro-managed. For example, Paul McCartney has sent letters to people in the media inviting them to a lunch tomorrow to launch his meat-free Monday campaign.

“Livestock continues to have a greater impact on climate change than the combined transportation sector,” he writes. “This industry amounts to a huge 18% of the global warming effect – a terrifying statistic … Help us to encourage the nation to reduce their meat intake by cutting it out just one day a week.”

It sounds like an eminently sensible idea, but no more can be said about it, because the McCartneys have agreed an exclusive interview deal with another, unnamed newspaper and so will not talk to us, or anybody else for that matter, until tomorrow.

So why are all these campaigns happening now? Fearnley-Whittingstall believes the current burst of interest around food is a direct response to government inaction. “I certainly thought it was worth doing something like the chicken campaign, because government wasn’t doing enough,” he says. “If you want to save fish stocks or improve conditions for livestock, do you take it to politicians or do you take it to television and cinema? The latter seems the better way to work right now.”

He credits Jamie Oliver with paving the way for campaigns like his, both by his efforts to improve school meals and his project to recruit jobless youngsters for his restaurants. “His shows marked a crossover for campaigning TV from dry documentary to more mainstream popular TV,” he says. “The crunch question is to what degree the audience are converted.”

It is a question Food Inc tries to answer. The feature-length documentary digs deep beneath the glossy, groaning piles of fresh produce in US supermarkets to reveal the less than appetising methods used to produce them – which have been held responsible for fatal outbreaks of e. coli and salmonella. The film is designed to be a wake-up call, its creators say. They include Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Michael Pollan, author of In Defence of Food, who narrates the movie. “A lot of it is hard to watch,” Pollan has said, “but I think people are ready to take a good, unflinching look at how their food is produced.”

Naturally it comes with celebrity endorsement from the likes of US chef Alice Waters and lifestyle guru and sometime jailbird Martha Stewart, for no food campaign would be complete without that. But perhaps more intriguing is the 300-page book published alongside the film, full of essays on issues surrounding climate change, the environment and agriculture and offering advice on what consumers can do to make a difference.

“This is one of the most interesting social movements afoot right now,” Pollan told Newsweek last week. “The politicians haven’t quite recognised it yet. Hopefully this movie will be a part of the change.”

Those who regard issues around food, which affect everything from the environment to healthcare and economic sustainability, as one of the greatest challenges currently facing the developed world will hope that he’s right. They will also hope that no well-meaning celebrities have a Campbellesque change of heart and are caught feasting on bluefin tuna sashimi with a side order of baby panda rissoles any day soon.

They are what we eat

• Jamie Oliver has campaigned on many food issues. He caught public attention with his Jamie’s School Dinners TV series in 2005 which campaigned to improve the standard of school meals. Jamie Saves Our Bacon this year highlighted the plight of many pigs reared in the UK and abroad.

• In 2008 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall presented Hugh’s Chicken Run in which he created three chicken farms, one intensive, one free range, and a community farm staffed by volunteers.

• Eric Schlosser examined the global influence of the US fast food industry in Fast Food Nation, published in 2001. The book was made into a 2006 film, including graphic footage from a slaughterhouse.

• American film-maker Morgan Spurlock, above, demonstrated the health effects of McDonald’s food in his documentary Super Size Me by eating nothing but the chain’s meals three times a day, every day, for 30 days.

Source: Guardian.co.uk Caroline White

VENTURE-STYLE INCUBATOR FUND FOR SOCIALLY-CONSCIOUS ENTREPRENEURS

A new Philadelphia-based “venture-style incubator program” is being formed for socially-conscious entrepreneurs. The program is called GoodCompany Ventures.

The press release elaborates further:

GoodCompany Ventures, a team of social finance investors and start-up experts, today announced the launch of a business incubator targeting entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to unmet social needs. The program will provide facilities, mentoring and access to a network of capital sources to qualified entrepreneurs whose business models offer investors an attractive mix of financial return and social impact. The program will culminate in a venture fair where companies will pitch their ideas to investors.

Applicants will be recruited nationally via venture capital, social finance, and academic networks. A pool of eight to twelve candidates will be selected to participate in the 2009 incubator program that begins in June.

It’s exciting to see a new accelerator program focused on promoting socially-conscious ventures and even moreso that this program will be based in Philadelphia.

 

Source: PSU Start Ups Written by Robert Shedd

INCUBATOR OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (INSTEAD OF PRODUCT VENTURES)

I just read about Virgance on Worldchanging’s write-up and insights from the Sustainable Brands International Conference, just past this June in Monterey.  Virgance is truly an icon of Service Thinking and Post Consumerism: a business incubator set-up not to establish highly branded consumer products, but instead to focus on companies whose product is “good” and to create value from movements and collaborative business models. Virgance is a business that creates ventures that create value through social movements and networks. It used to be that producing a beautifully designed product and selling social (product) status was a route to both success and fame (think Apple, Method, One Laptop Per Child, Toyota Prius an on..); today, there are emerging markets which value by building community and creating change.

In their words:

“Some companies make car stereos or scented candles or frozen tater tots. But how might a company produce “positive social change… What if activism is an emerging market? If a for-profit company did the type of work that non-profits often do, but did it more efficiently, would people trust it the same way they trust non-profits? What if everything the company did was completely transparent? What if it was open source? If we can create this kind of company, and succeed, how many other companies would follow our example? Along the way, could we change the face of the business world itself?”

These are the guys behind Carrotmob, which does the opposite of boycotting and instead brings together “mobs” of shoppers that influence socially responsible purchasing by literally mobbing areas and being loyal to these type of businesses. It’s a bit like the IKEA sale, but driven not by cheap furniture and cut prices but instead by social values and sustainability. And also One Block Off The Grid, with the tagline “Consumer power meets solar power”. IBOG brings groups of consumers together who want to get solar energy and reduces the cost. This is something we talked about at live|work forever, with ourselves and to our clients (some of whom were energy companies), but we never did make it happen. At OZOlab, also a business incubator for sustainable ventures, we applied service thinking and service models to our consumr product businesses, (such as a cleaning product that was actually a refil service system), but we were never as pioneering as to drive a wholly new paradigm of value creation. Our investors would not have understood it.

A big shout out to Virgance for truly seeing that the world needs new types of business models and ways of building brands, which do not emphasis the need to OWN something pretty. There is money to be made in community, movements and collaborative business models.

Source: Tamara Giltsoff, Sustainability Strategist and Innovation leader

SO COOL, AND SO ETHICAL

Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, have launched their own socially conscious fashion label

Not long ago, ethical fashion had an image problem. No one wanted to wear baggy-bottomed Thai fisherman’s trousers or an ecru smock top. Unflattering and unappealing, eco-fashion was best left to eco-warriors.

But there has been a definite swing over the past year. Ethical consumerism – from buying products made from recycled or renewable sources to supporting companies that adhere to fair trade principles – is on the rise. It is now cool to care.

So cool in fact, that the latest edition of Vogue has devoted 10 pages to ethical clothing. And London Fashion Week, which starts next week, will include an exhibition space dedicated to 13 ethical labels.

But it’s the celebrities behind the movement who are really making a difference. They’ve made ethical consumerism sexy. One is Bono. Last year, along with his wife, Ali Hewson, and designer Rogan Gregory, he launched Edun, a socially conscious fashion label.

Its clothes are made in locally run factories in Africa, South America and India and the company promotes trade rather than aid. The range is brilliantly designed: this autumn there are beautiful Art Nouveau printed silk dresses, elegant tie-neck chiffon blouses, urban skinny jeans and denim trench coats.

This year Bono also launched Project Red, a collaboration between Armani, Amex, Converse, Motorola and Gap. Each brand markets covetable and ecologically sound products under the Red banner; profits are donated to a fund fighting Aids, malaria and TB in Africa.

Project RED’s unofficial face is Scarlett Johansson, who appears in October’s issue of Vogue wearing Armani’s designs for the charity. The actress told the magazine: “We don’t have to live in a teepee and wear a hemp skirt to be conscious about what’s going on. Maybe somebody thinks, ‘It’s cool that she’s wearing the Red T-shirt, I’ll hop over to Gap and pick one up’.”

Gap, which launched the T-shirts in the spring ( parkas, hoodies and jeans will follow) isn’t the only store turning out fashionable and ethically produced clothes. Last week saw the launch of Adili, a website devoted to the top 25 ethical fashion labels, including Ciel, Patagonia, HUG and People Tree, which has a concession in Topshop, Oxford Circus.

People Tree has given the movement a boost with Trudie Styler as its new face. It has designed T-shirts in conjunction with Action Aid; 10 per cent of profits will go to help raise Fair Trade awareness in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Small, independent fashion labels have also furrowed the green path. Brighton-based Enamore sells everything from pretty hand-made kimono tops to delicate hemp knickers ( far more appealing than they sound).

Chic shoes can be found at ethical boutiques such as Terra Plana, which designs shoes with recycled materials. And rather than squeezing into jeans made from cotton cultivated with pesticides, consumers can now choose brands such as Loomstate, whose eco-friendly designer jeans are sold at Harvey Nichols and Urban Outfitters.

Larger companies are catching on. Timberland, which sells eco-friendly footwear made with vegetable tanned leather and recycled rubber soles, is launching a reforestation project – it will plant one tree for each pair of boots sold.

And Marks & Spencer, which recently commissioned a survey that found that 78 per cent of shoppers wanted to know more about the way products were made, has just launched its own Fair Trade line.

Tesco, meanwhile, is to sell a range of organic clothing designed by Katherine Hamnett, a long-time crusader for ethical fashion.

Of course, it can be argued that eco-fashion is an oxymoron. How can eco-friendliness fit with so ephemeral an industry? The most significant progress should perhaps come from consumers: buying less, and more ethically, could be the most ecologically sound way to shop.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, Author: Clare Coulson

CELEBRITIES SET UP ETHICAL SHOP

We’ve seen Kate Moss knock off her own designer wardrobe for Topshop, had M, Madonna’s money-saving ranges for H&M, and “Lily [Allen] Loves” a bargain at New Look. But cheap-as-chips celebrity collaborations are looking old hat compared with a new wave of tie-ups that have more than just self-promotion and the retailer’s bottom line in mind.

Natalie Portman, the star of films such as Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and the Star Wars prequels, is going one step further by designing her own vegan-friendly shoes for a New York boutique. The collection, for the Manhattan shoe emporium T Casan, goes on sale next month although keen shoppers can place pre-orders from 15 January. The vegetarian actor’s designs will sell for about $200 (100), making them a cheaper alternative to Stella McCartney’s leather-eschewing shoes which sell for at least 295.

So far eco-minded celebrity alliances have been few and far between, but retail experts predict that Portman’s shoes are the future of high street fashion for 2008. Leona Lewis, the X Factor winner turned pop diva and a fellow vegetarian, last week said she would “love” to create her own range of affordable non-leather bags and shoes.

Meanwhile, Debenhams has allied itself with Sir Steve Redgrave, the Olympic oarsman, who has put his name to a clothing range made with Fairtrade cotton that will go on sale for Fairtrade fortnight next month. And Katharine Hamnett, the fashion designer, is searching for a new high street partner after axing her nascent alliance with Tesco for her range of T-shirts made from organic cotton. Even Pamela Anderson, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has done her bit with a cruelty-free clothing line.

Richard Hyman, who runs Verdict Consulting, a retail consultancy, said shops ploughing the well-trodden celebrity endorsement route would not be enough of a draw for saturated shoppers. “This year shops will have to find the right endorsement that is sympathetic to their marketplace,” he said, adding that tapping into the consumers’ blossoming ethical consciousness with targeted tie-ups was one option retailers would choose. “Retailing today needs to be about offering a genuine point of difference,” he added.

Lauretta Roberts, editor of the trade fashion magazine Drapers, said eco-fashion was the “number one cause at the moment”, predicting more collaborations. “I don’t think we’ve had Lily Loves Organic Cotton. Not yet, anyway.” But she cautioned: “Whoever does it, both in terms of the celebrity and the fashion brand, would have to think very carefully. It would need to be a credible pairing on both sides, as you’re just asking for people to scrutinise your behaviour and business practices if you style yourself as an eco-warrior.”

Anya Hindmarch, the luxury handbag designer, knows this only too well. Despite being for an ethical cause, her limited-edition “I’m not a plastic bag” cloth bag, sold by Sainsbury’s, hit the headlines for the wrong reasons after it emerged it was made in China using cheap labour even though the supermarket said the factory pays double the minimum wage.

And although McCartney makes vegetarian-friendly shoes and clothes, Ethical Consumer magazine, which advises consumers where to shop on ethical grounds, points out that the designer’s eponymous label is owned by PPR, the luxury fashion giant behind several other lines that use furs such as fox, badger and mink.

Portman’s shoes will be made without animal ingredients: leather, fur and feathers are all off-limits. T Casan has said it will donate 5 per cent of the range’s profits to charity.

Natalie Portman

The most glamorous of the new wave of ethical fashion champions, the actress has designed a collection of red-carpet-ready shoes that are fit for vegetarians such as herself. Now all she needs is an Oscar nomination

Sir Steve Redgrave

An unlikely eco-fashion warrior, perhaps, but the multiple Olympic gold medallist rower clearly has principles to protect. A range of Fairtrade cotton clothing bearing his name goes into Debenhams stores next month

Katharine Hamnett

The organic cotton pioneer may have terminated her contract with Tesco to produce environmentally friendly T-shirts, but her sentiment remains. Expect to see more of the same from the designer soon

Anya Hindmarch

The handbag designer sought to do her bit for the planet with a highly covetable reusable carrier bag. How many of the limited edition run ever made contact with the weekly shop, however, is another matter altogether

Pamela Anderson

The ex-‘Baywatch’ star, an ardent vegetarian, has turned fashion designer with a range of “cruelty-free” clothing, which debuted in 2004. A percentage of the profits went to Peta, the anti-fur animal charity

 

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TIMBERLAND: A MODEL COMPANY

Too often corporations disappoint us with their lack of environmental concern or disingenuous green washing. In my recent research, however, I have found one global retailer standing tall above the corporate crowd. For the record, I’m not trying to sell you anything . . . simply, I like this company’s look, discovered they are environmentally conscious, and think you should know about it.

Unlike most corporations trying–just now–to hitch a free ride on the “green bandwagon,” The Timberland Company maintains a long history of environmental stewardship that began by partnering with the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) in 1993. Today, 240 of Timberland’s global retail stores are completely carbon neutral; the company’s Ontario, California distribution center receives approximately 60% of its energy from solar power, while employees receive $3,000 toward the purchase of a hybrid. The list goes on to include 170 earth-day service projects, 40 hours paid-employee community-service, and the company’s, “Plant One On Us” promotion that plants a tree for every $150 in sales revenue.

Most notable of all is Timberland devotion to customer and industry education. Whether through public facility reports, labels outlining the impact of specific products, or national conferences held to educate the retail community, Timberland is committed to sharing their initiatives with consumers and competitors alike.

Case in point, Timberland produces a publicly available facility-level sustainability report that details baseline performance information in the areas of global human rights, environmental stewardship and community involvement. The report is available in English and Spanish on the company’s website.

If looking up the data is too tedious, consumers can read information printed on the company’s recycled-paper shoeboxes and soy-based hangtags. Shoeboxes sport a simple label (matching “Nutrition Facts” found on food packaging) that provides corporate-specific information such as the average number of kilowatt-hours and percentage of renewable energy used by Timberland.

Similarly, some Timberland outdoor performance products include a “Green Index” hangtag, which measures and reports on the product’s environmental impact in three key areas:

o Climate impact: measures emissions produced from raw material extraction through manufacturing.
o Chemicals used: based on the presence of PVC and solvent adhesives.
o Materials used: measures the use of organic, recycled or renewable.

With the “Green Index,” the lower the rating, the lower the environmental impact. Zero (0) indicates the smallest environmental footprint; while ten (10) means there’s work to be done. The rating is partially determined by the GaBi software program’s analysis of raw materials used and energy dispelled during production. The company plans to have a Green Index for every product across the brand by 2009/2010 and is currently working with other retail chains to create a universal measurement system.

This effort to share information with customers and competing retail conglomerates is what makes Timberland a true environmental leader and corporate exemplar. In 2007 Timberland won Backpacker Magazine’s Editors’ Choice Green Award. Upon receipt of the award, Timberland humbly responded, “our hope is that other like-minded companies will join us in developing an industry-wide index for comparing the environmental impacts of our design choices and we also hope to inspire consumers to ask questions, and make informed decisions about their purchases.” With this goal in mind, Timberland is currently working with Levi’s Strauss, to share information, conduct joint assessments and communicate remediation. According to Betsy Blaisdell, leader of Timerland’s environmental stewardship program, “the goal behind all of this cross-brand effort is to spend less time policing and more time encouraging improved environmental performance and workplace conditions.”

Going forward, Timberland has devised an ambitious plan to maintain their environmental leadership. Their goal: “all Timberland owned and operated facilities and employee travel is carbon neutral by 2010.” Audacious and unrealistic? I don’t think so! As seen from the examples above, they are well on their way.

Source: Huffington Post, Author: Follow Olivia Zaleski on Twitter: www.twitter.com/oliviazaleski

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: CSR ADDING THE SUGAR

It’s a tough proposition for company’s to engage with their employees. Non HR experts might argue otherwise… I can just hear them now: “If you want to engage with staff, why not offer them flexible working, or ooh wait, subsidized gym memberships? Or the coup de grâce … performance bonuses…a no brainer really!”

HR professionals, however, will quickly tell you that the soft fluffy stuff, although it looks and sounds great, is not likely to keep employees engaged for very long. Think tassels at the end of a very long tablecloth. A quirky initiative is no silver bullet and all that.

Speaking at the Employee Engagement Summit in the City earlier this week, Jane Sullivan, senior consultant at the Work Foundation warned HR delegates against taking a quick fix approach to employee engagement. “There is no quick fix, its more a holistic and fundamental approach,” she said, adding that there is no one size fits all model, but rather a model that works for each individual.

Mike Conder, UK HR director at financial services firm, KPMG, bigged up the value of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a tool to engage with employees. “Its an added opportunity to communicate with employees, and to demonstrate your care attitude.

“CSR is something most employees really care about: ‘It impacts me personally, my family, and its something I can get my head around'”.

Conder said that if used in the right way, CSR can change the perception of an organisation, while good management will also change employee perception giving them the opportunity to participate in something meaningful. “Logically it makes sense, and statistically, it’s absolutely true,” said Conder.

Source: Personneltoday.com

CELEBRITY CAUSES: USING FAME TO PROMOTE AN ISSUE

Celebrities have long endorsed products, and now many are using their fame to promote issues and causes. Shortly after becoming household names, many actors, singers and athletes establish charitable foundations in their names. They use their star power to increase public awareness of everything from diseases to political issues.

TV personality Rosie O’Donnell established the For All Kids Foundation, which gives grants to support the social and intellectual development of underserved kids. The foundation has awarded $10.2 million since 1997, much of it to established child care programs. eBay hosts a charity auction to benefit the foundation with the sales of celebrity items.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research hopes to find a cure for the disease by 2010. Television and film actor Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s, wants his foundation to increase public awareness of the disease and raise funds for research.

U2 lead singer Bono has been involved in many issues throughout the years and supports the work of Greenpeace, War Child and Amnesty International. His latest project is Project Red, a partnership with several large corporations to increase awareness of AIDS in Africa.

Daytime talk queen Oprah Winfrey used her celebrity to power Oprah’s Angel Network. With viewer donations, the network has built 200 homes for Habitat for Humanity and sent 150 students to college. Oprah also gives a weekly “Use Your Life Award” to a local hero who improves the lives of others.

The National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance was co-founded by Today host Katie Couric. The group hopes to educate the public about the cancer, which is treatable if detected early.

The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation supports research to develop treatments and a cure for paralysis resulting from spinal cord injuries. Reeve serves as chairman of the board and the foundation has raised millions of dollars for individual research grants and programs to enrich the lives of people with disabilities.

After directing the Oscar-winning “Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. The group’s mission is to chronicle eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust. Spielberg is also chairman of the Starbright Foundation, which works with seriously ill children.

As more athletes achieve celebrity status, they are also promoting their causes and issues. Soccer sensation Mia Hamm set up her foundation to raise money for bone marrow disease research and programs for young women in sports. The Mark McGwire Foundation For Children works to prevent child abuse. The Tiger Woods Foundation works to help children accomplish life goals.

Many athletes promote awareness of diseases. The Mario Lemieux Foundation raises money for Hodgkin’s disease research. Buffalo Bills quarterback Doug Flutie and his wife Laurie established the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, in honor of their autistic son. The Lance Armstrong Foundation helps people survive and manage cancer.

Beginning as a vehicle to help sufferers of HIV/AIDS, the Magic Johnson Foundation now awards scholarships and grants to inner-city students and communities as well. Basketball superstar Michael Jordan set up the James R. Jordan Boys & Girls Club and Family Life Center in honor of his late father.

Source: Givespot

SAVE THE WORLD? CELEBRITIES TO THE RESCUE

Using Hollywood to promote philanthropic causes is an old story.   It’s not clear whether the new batch of Brangelina do-gooders and N. Portman-causes are that different from celebrity charities of yesteryears.  Still, this NYT piece dissects the celebrity-charity industrial-complex as it stands today.

An entire industry has sprung up around the recruitment of celebrities to good works. Even an old-line philanthropy like the Red Cross employs a “director of celebrity outreach.” Oxfam has a celebrity wrangler in Los Angeles, Lyndsay Cruz, on the lookout for stars who can raise the charity’s profile with younger people. In addition to established figures like Colin Firth and Helen Mirren, Oxfam is affiliated with Scarlett Johansson, who has visited South Asia (where the organization promotes girls’ education) and is scheduled to go to Mali. Cruz notes that while “trendy young people” are attracted to the star of “Match Point” and “Lost in Translation,” Johansson had “great credibility with an older audience because she’s such a great actress.”

The stars themselves have their own retainers to fend off the celebrity recruiters and to screen and sift charitable opportunities; publicists say their major clients get dozens of requests every week. The more deeply committed figures, like Angelina Jolie, retain firms like the Global Philanthropy Group, which, according to a representative, offers “comprehensive philanthropic management.” This includes establishing and staffing foundations, bringing in subject-area experts or even helping the novice philanthropist figure out what he or she actually wants to do. A similar organization, the Giving Back Fund, works with athletes like the quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the basketball players Jalen Rose and Shane Battier.

Both the stars and the causes, in turn, depend on corporate sponsorship. It is the sponsors who pay for the galas at which the stars raise money for their causes; sponsors normally pay for the stars’ first-class air tickets and hotel suites. Corporations need causes as much as stars do. Like the stars, they understand that they must shape and protect their brand identities; and they understand that those identities will be judged by the broad public, through public acts. As Howard Bragman puts it, “Celebrities, sponsors and a cause: it’s the golden troika of branding.”

The costs are small compared to the good will. Thus Alicia Keys’s Keep a Child Alive, which provides antiretrovirals to victims of AIDS in Africa, has 78 “corporate partners,” including CBS, Continental Airlines, Condé Nast and Chanel, to pick a few from the C’s. And just as stars have philanthropic managers to help them with causes, corporations with a cause can turn to celebrity recruiters to find just the right star. Thus Rita Tateel, who describes her occupation as recruiting and coordinating celebrities for “cause-related marketing and public relations,” recently hooked up Purina, which wanted to support “small animal-rescue organizations,” with Emily Procter, a star of “CSI Miami,” who, Tateel says, “lives and breathes animal rescue.”

Source: Now Public, Author: Cynthia Yoo

THE CHALLENGES FACING GREEN JOB GROWTH

There is mounting evidence of a green jobs revolution that promises to transform the workplace across the nation.  Media pundits, business leaders, activists, and politicians claim that the Green Economy will create millions of new jobs, lead us out of recession and, in the process, transform our economy into a 21st century engine of prosperity.

On the other hand, there is also a great deal of rhetoric and hype about this phenomenon and we should stand back and analyze what is really happening. The truth is that a massive economic transition doesn’t happen overnight. Training and hiring millions of people for green jobs demands time, financial investment, and an adjustment of expectations about the very look and feel of a 21st century labor force that is fostering sustainable change.

I have worked in executive search and recruitment sector for over 20 years and in the environmental sector for 10 years. So I am very excited by the growth in Green Jobs and, in 2007, my partners and I founded a search firm called Bright Green Talent, which places environmental leaders and professional in green organizations worldwide. Our understanding of the hurdles we’ve yet to overcome in this field comes from the daily conversations we have with environmental and socially conscious companies about their needs and challenges.

As specialist recruiters in San Francisco and London, every day we see and wrestle with the emerging realities of the green labor market. For example, we see how America’s lack of investment in engineering talent has left it short-staffed of renewable energy modelers and LEED Certified HVAC professionals to fuel this green labor revolution.

Indeed, there are a number of barriers to the development of the Green Economy and its creation of new employment. When we are able to overcome these barriers we will make major progress in our search for solutions to our most pressing environmental problems.

1) The Impact of a Recession. Sean Martin, a Principal at Blu Skye Consulting, a sustainability consulting firm in San Francisco, says that their clients are adapting quickly to the troubled economy: “The nature of the requests [we receive] are getting much more focused on cost savings.  While that element has always been there, it seems to be louder as of late.”

Going green can lead to greater organizational efficiency and long-term costs savings, though it’s often perceived as an added burden in a tough economic time. Companies that are driven by green missions are especially challenged to prove their worth and excellence. Credibility and long-term relationships are essential to encourage green innovation and, in the process, demonstrate to skeptics that green business practices truly do deliver a measurable return on investment.

2) Talent shortages. The lack of qualified workers is impeding the growth of many green industries, and there’s little sign of relief. Bright Green works with Silicon Valley solar companies that have received tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars in venture capital funding, but, even so, can’t find experienced businesspeople to put that money to good use. The capabilities and knowledge needed to be successful is so new that even seasoned executives, brought into companies, often need a crash course in the art of effective, green business practice.

To make matters more difficult, organizations are applying 20th century hiring expectations to 21st century industries. As recruiters we consistently have to address the gap between the perceived skill set necessary to succeed in a position and the reality of the marketplace.

People simply don’t have a dozen years’ experience in solar system design or cleantech venture capital. These industries didn’t exist back then, and even having five years experience often means you’re an old hand. As a consequence, employers are turning to candidates who have a track record in the general business, even if they have neither environmental experience nor even values. Ultimately, these folks may negatively impact their corporate culture as they may not care about the planet, and will end up harming a firm’s credibility in the marketplace. The very people who are needed to grow these businesses sometimes risk compromising the mission of their new employer.

The green jobs movement will need to invest millions in training programs — and at times take calculated risks — in order to bring on board green employees who can both do a good job and help keep a company’s reputation clean and green. Activists and policymakers who have long lobbied to see legislation passed that supports these programs (as Bright Green recently did with California Senate Bill 1672) still have a lot more to do.

What’s become obvious from a human capital point of view is that credibility is the key to attracting not only consumers, but employees. Indeed, on many levels, it’s the main competitive differentiator for both the consumers and employees in choosing a brand or company.

3) Greenwashing. Companies are now having to be more accountable and authentic to maintain their green reputation.  Many are seeing the green opportunity as a short-term branding opportunity and face mounting consumer and competitive pressure. The recent influx of “green” products in all categories makes it difficult for consumers to sort out who’s green and who’s not. Prospective employees also want to be reassured by the organization’s green credentials.

Many graduates, as well as experienced professionals and executives, are looking to join a new hybrid organization that combines the entrepreneurial energies of a business with the compassion and impact of a non-profit.   These green social enterprises should flourish and help to develop a distinctive, emerging green workforce. There seems to be a profound passion and commitment to doing things differently, and many employees are looking for more than just a paycheck or a career. They see themselves as change agents, promoting more sustainable business practices, and “green jobs” seems to represent an exciting new labor market. Whatever it is, it’s a new system that’s inherently different from our current labor force.

Greenwashing ultimately hurts both industry and the planet and incongruent businesses will likely suffer over the long haul. Genuine talent will either look elsewhere or leave once the initial allure fades.

4) The Need for Government Regulation. Underpinning — and at times unlocking — these challenges is the need for increased government policies, subsidies and laws. Without these it will be difficult for sectors like renewable energy to prosper.

Currently, fossil fuels receive enormous subsidies and many solar, wind and other technologies are still in their infancy and need local, state and, above all, federal support to flourish.

A clear and tangible commitment from Washington will be critical to ensuring the long-term viability of the Green Economy. Thankfully, 2009 promises to see more progressive regulation with both candidates embracing a forward-looking domestic energy agenda. Internationally, agreeing on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol and creating an international authority for carbon trading and investment will be positive next steps towards an integrated, stable global economy that properly accounts for carbon and guards against damaging environmental practices.

Indeed, change is afoot, and it’s keeping both our hopes alive and spirits high.

As for the talent shortages, MBA students are integrating the need for the green business skills into their core coursework, with many programs now offering a “green business” track in sustainability to prepare their students for multi-faceted, 21st century leadership roles. The Aspen Institute reported this year that the percentage of MBA programs requiring their students to take courses focused on business and society issues jumped from 34 percent in 2006 to 63 percent in 2007.

Having built a business on the belief that our economy is capable of becoming truly sustainable, we’re optimists. Despite the challenges, we’re driving towards a green economy more quickly than anticipated. Green companies that focus on creating meaning in the work place while delivering excellent quality products and services will continue to find the bright, talented people to lead their green teams in pursuit of greater market share and a greener planet.

Source: GreenBiz.com, Author: Paul Hannam