Carol Pierson Holding

Why isn't technology solving our energy problems? As venture capitalist Elton Sherwin discovered, you have to get people to buy the technology first.

Sherwin invested in energy efficiency devices that had huge potential, only to see them flounder in the market. That's why he got involved...

An Atlantic Cities blog posed a question that consistently bedevils environmentalists: "How do we break Americans' love for the automobile?" A love enhanced by auto makers who have used design and advertising to reinforce the link between sex and cars.

The blog was inspired by...

In a much-anticipated move, the EPA has called in the Army Corps of Engineers to review plans for West Coast coal ports. Finally, alarmed environmentalists and frightened local residents are getting help from the federal government.

In December 2010, I first heard about a proposed...

As has been widely reported, Facebook -- the social media company about to go public and possibly become the world's 5th largest company -- has no female board members. Putting aside moral objections, why is this so terrible? Because it limits the company's profitability, curbs innovation and, scariest...

Shell is suing 12 environmental organizations to preempt legal challenges to exploration in the Arctic Ocean. The environmental groups include, among others, the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Audubon Society, Oceana (full disclosure: Oceana is a source for CSRHub ratings) and the Sierra Club. Crazy...

Bill McKibben, the environmentalist, prolific author, former New Yorker writer, and founder of grassroots green organization 350.org, wrote a review of two books and a film on hydraulic fracturing for last week's New York Review of Books. Until I read this piece, titled "Why Not Frack?" I shared...

Image Source: Michelle Landwehr (permission granted)

Last week, someone posing as a Heartland Institute board member persuaded one of its staff members to send to a "new email" a board package, which he then released to environmental activist websites. The package...

Harvard Business School just released its first study of US competitiveness, reporting that almost two-thirds of US businesses will locate their new plants outside the US. President Obama addressed the issue in his State of the Union address, citing the same blocks to US competitiveness the study does,...

In this election season, we're hearing a lot about reducing the role of the federal government. Letting the states decide the issues. Turning national legislation like Roe v. Wade back to the states. Even shuttering federal agencies like the EPA. The cry for smaller government runs through both Republican and...

Image Source: Nalco Corexit 9500 MSDS sheet from http://www.msds.com

BP is putting a lot of money behind a TV commercial that opens with "This was the Gulf's best tourism season in years." In the sixty-second spot, businesses in Gulf...

A Tacoma-Pierce County WA Task Force just sent its recommendations to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency about how to reduce soot in the air to meet EPA standards. The soot is created partly by diesel vehicles and industry, but the most (53%) is from wood burning stoves...

When a friend sent me this photo of a giant inflatable rat wearing a sign "Asbestos Kills," the first thing I thought of was Bahar Gidwani's March 2011 post on CSRHUB blog (full disclosure: CSRHUB is my...

Banks are big proponents of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). They give extensively to charities, pay their employees generously and contribute to the environment with LEED certified buildings and sustainable operating practices. They measure and monitor the results of their CSR investment, keep close tabs on their brands and reputations. So...

"Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do."
- Wendell Berry, Author and Activist

Berry's belief in nature's influence was powerfully validated on October 29, the day that Occupy Wall Street's...

In the early 2000s, car sharing was a small-time counter-cultural service offered by community organizations in liberal and university markets. You heard about bigger companies tip-toeing around the market. Enterprise quietly started renting its cars by the hour to local residents in 2007.

Then suddenly, in the...

Countries around the world are working harder than ever to save their forests. Brazil's 80% Amazon deforestation reduction target will be met by 2016, four years earlier than promised. In 1998 China banned tree cutting to preserve its forests after the loss of trees caused flooding along...

In the past ten years, environmentally-friendly cars have become a fixture in advertising. First came the Prius. Then BMW claimed its electric batteries boost performance, great for boosting the entire BMW brand. Chevy Volt, an electric hybrid, hypes range, innovation and American values, trying to minimize its differences from traditional...

The U.S. consumer society is built on a slew of deeply imbedded cultural norms, from keeping up with the Joneses to the idea that shopping makes you feel better to President George W. Bush's exhortation after 9/11 that shopping is patriotic. So it is puzzling that, despite the fact that...