The ocean is a great equalizer, inspiring love not linked to geography, race, nationality or socio-economic status. A noteworthy ocean worshipper who has the talent, contacts, resources and desire to not only love our oceans but try to save them is Susan Cohn Rockefeller.

My first memory...

PARK CITY, UTAH -- The glaciers are melting, temperatures are rising, nuclear disaster is just around the corner, the sky is falling. Most of us have read and studied environmental topics enough to understand that many of these oft-repeated epithets are true. So, why would I want to sit through...

When I bid on an "Eco Resort Experience" last March at the Christie's Green Auction, I thought we were probably headed to a typically exotic deluxe vacation spot on the other side of the world. It turns out that I was in store for one of the most...

LOS ANGELES - "Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now..."

Think of the Red Hot Chili Peppers hit song, which preaches love not materialism. While co-hosting last week's successful Opportunity Green conference held at Los Angeles Center Studios downtown, I couldn't help but think of this song...

When Netflix CEO Reed Hastings raised prices dramatically to discourage use of mail-in DVD service in favor of internet streaming, all holy hell broke loose with both customers and investors. The company has lost nearly half its market value since July and nearly one million customers...

So I guess I've started the great downsizing debate.

Which is a great thing, really, because it focuses attention on this important sustainability issue. To downsize, or not to downsize, that seems to not be the question. The point of contention is how much to downsize...

ORANGE COUNTY, CA -- I spent Saturday morning at one of the world's best car museums, viewing a mind-blowing collection of classic automobiles from the 1930s -- arguably the modern era's high point of car design as art. These cars are owned by General William Lyon, an octogenarian renaissance man...

Let's face it, the Great Recession has not been a plus for the green movement overall. Most ordinary Americans are still sympathetic to the cause, but their willingness to spend even a penny extra for environmentally friendly products has been dampened by four dollar gas, five dollar cereal and loss...

A recent New York Times article, in classic "all the news that's fit to print" fashion, declared that the bevy of green consumer products introduced over the past five years is going the way of the buffalo and Circuit City, i.e. headed for extinction. It should be noted...

LAGUNA BEACH, CA - "FORTUNE Brainstorm Green" is probably the number one environmental business conference in the world. A host of top CEOs, heads of NGOs, and a variety of consultants, private equity investors, venture capitalists and journalists descend upon the spectacular Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel each April -- this was...

Over the past few years, most charities have been challenged, to say the least, on fundraising efforts. Many previously flush donors have been forced to cut back on their generosity. Asking the remaining contributors to dig deeper is not the answer in most cases. What's a nonprofit to do?

One...

Over the past 12 months, we've had caved-in coal mines, underwater oil spills and now compromised nuclear facilities. What does it take for us to accept that renewable energy is the way to go, both from a safety and ultimately a cost effectiveness viewpoint? We are quick to forget the...

You just received your new credit card, and have to destroy the old one. Good luck, the darned things are seemingly indestructible. Better have industrial-sized scissors. Too bad these are not recyclable; I just learned this after having dropped them in the recycling bin for years.

If you think...

PARK CITY, UTAH -- Sundance to the film industry is like the NCAA championship in collegiate basketball: the best of the best in what is designed to be a purist format. It's about the film makers and directors and actors, the writing and the plots, not unlike the two best...

Somewhere over the Grand Canyon at 30,000 feet -- I was sipping from a plastic cup of cool water. The flight attendant swept by in short order with a plastic bag to collect the "trash." Not an hour later, along comes the metal cart (keep your knees and elbows in...

I'll bet many of you have heard rumblings from friends and relatives or colleagues at work about the premature death of the green movement, and how the economic recovery must first occur before we even address climate change. This rhetoric is a groundswell among otherwise rational people, not just climate...

I have been anxiously awaiting an alternative to conventional electric power and the economic benefits that follow. Of course solar comes to mind, and while I love solar power, it can be expensive and because of the space requirements for panel installation, it is not for everybody.

My prayers were...

A relatively new phenomenon is the E-Reader, be it Kindle, iPad, or a number of other new competitors coming into the marketplace. When you think about it, these devices would seem to be more environmentally friendly than your typical paper and cardboard book, even a paperback. Should we be buying...

I remember watching the World Cup Soccer matches this summer, but I didn't last long because the constant humming of those plastic horns in the background drove me batty. Then, lo and behold, what do I see among the signage promoting the event sponsors -- mostly major consumer marketers who...

Think of the Gulf oil spill only a couple thousand miles longer. A loosely formed mass of plastic paraphernalia stretches from the beaches of Santa Monica, all the way across the Pacific Ocean, the other end of this unwieldy but deadly man made monster reaching the eastern Chinese coast. Thus...