Crooked Trails is a nonprofit travel organization based out of Seattle, WA. They provide group trips to different countries such as India, Thailand, Peru and many more. “Crooked Trails is a non-profit, community-based travel organization helping people broaden their understanding of the planet and its diverse cultures through education, community development and responsible travel.” I have traveled through this company and it was amazing. They set up stay with local community members bring in a steady income, without exploiting them and polluting their environment. For a closer look watch this video.

Coors has a zero waste policy. They believe all pollution and all waste are lost profits. In order to reuse the resources it had extracted it developed a closed loop policy. Coors developed the first biological water treatment plant to so it could reuse it’s liquid waste and offered to treat all sewage of the city of Golden as well. They eliminated solvent based ink from there cans. Most of all Bill Coors, is known as the grandfather of recycling. He began collecting cans for a penny, then forced his suppliers to use recycled aluminum. This led him to open the world’s first “cash for cans” aluminum recycling center. He has also made many innovations in the production line to reduce polluting emissions and waste.

The last company I want to talk about is Ben & Jerry’s. I know it is probably no surprise to you that they run a socially conscious business, but do you know why. Ben & Jerry’s brownies are baked by homeless people from New York. They created their blueberry ice cream to give the blueberry farms work all year long. They pay farmers above average for milk and other products. This is just a few things they do. Read the caps and you’ll find out more!

This blog has thus far been dedicated to alternative form of energy, which ultimately stemmed from my interest in the environment. Since we are all business student I would like this blog to be dedicated to our future in the business world. Are goals as business professionals will be to increase shareholders profit, cut costs, and increase profits. Is that really it? Today business and individuals are asking, “Is that all we should care about, and if so what does that entail?” In a previous blog I commented on the environmental and physical damage that Chevron-Texaco did when they decided to cut costs. As a business person we are going to be pressured to cut costs, we will have to make decisions that could be socially and environmentally damaging. Do you know where you will stand? Yesterday GM announced that it will be cutting 30,000 and closing nine factories by 2008. They can no longer afford to have such a large part of their production in the US and still be competitive. This is implying that if you don’t take that cost cutting opportunity and your competitor does, you will lose. There is however another option, and that is to change your companies goals. The triple bottom line is a new form of business thinking that includes more than just increasing shareholders profits. The triple bottom line considers both environmental and social capital as well as the economic profit of the company. It puts value in the community and world in which it operates. To me the triple bottom line makes perfect sense. Businesses use and consume resources from the environment. They should take responsibility for their actions and help to restore what they have taken. They also affect social capital, the workers needed to work in company, and every community in which they are located. I could probably due a an entire blog to this topic, so next time I’ll give you a few examples. Then you’ll be able to see what some companies are doing.

Well I have some good news concerning the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! The bill concerning the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not going through. It was stripped from the budget on Nov. 9th after intense pressure from active concerned Americans. It was stopped by 25 Republicans who refused to vote for a bill that contained drilling provisions. This is not the end apparently there is another bill that the senate passed which does…I don’t know all this politics just gets to confusing for me(Click here for more info). All I know is that we still have a chance to keep drilling out of the Arctic.

Anyways back to the energy. You may be asking yourself by now…well Samantha what should we do. Well there are more elaborate, educated and all around better answers but I will provide you with mine. I think that at the moment given the forms of energy I discussed, a combination between wind, solar and oil/coal/natural gas should be used. I think a combination of these energies will be the most practical and possible solutions for the current state of the world. Along with constant innovations in energy efficient products, we will be heading in the right direction.

Now where do we start, how do we convince individuals, business and government to start along this path? Making people not only change their ways, but asking them to spend money while doing it is extremely difficult. The only way for this to really work is for the government to get involved. Individuals and business may help to push them to do this by voicing their concerns, but for a mass movement the government needs to commit and invest. “Most of the modern technology that has been driving the U.S. economy did not come spontaneously from market forces," NYU's Martin Hoffert says "The Internet was supported for 20 years by the military and for 10 more years by the National Science Foundation before Wall Street found it." This is true for many technological advances in NASA, jet planes, satellite communications and computers were all supported and invested in by the government.
I don’t know what it will take for our government to begin it’s investment in alternative forms of energy. It may be increases in oil costs, pressure from other countries, pressure from within our country or increases in pollution that take more economical toll than just causing environmental damages. I just hope the change comes before it’s too late.
This is a photo graph of surf power I did not discuss this form of energy but it basically uses the movement of water to generate power. This powers 14 homes in Hawaii.

Off the topic of energy for a moment I would like to talk about Sustainability. All of the energy forms that I have talked about are promising, because they offer sustainable solutions for energy. Sustainability is a concept of meeting the needs of individuals, businesses and governments without depleting the earth’s resources, more than they can be replenished. Its focus is the long-term. It is the idea to operate in an efficient manner and to use/reuse/replenish resources, making them for the survival of future generations. Paul Hawken said, “To look at the world with heart and recognize all of it’s parts as inseparably complex.” We are ignorant to the fact that our actions have effects on the environment or society. Simply by eating a banana in the morning, you have contributed to polluting the water and topsoil in Ecuador, as well as exposing workers to highly dangerous chemicals and low wages (approx. 80 cents an hour). But don’t get down on yourself just yet, I am going to provide you with 9 simply steps that will improve your impact on the world, helping us to become more sustainable. These steps are a part of a movement called Turn the Tide that an organization called New American Dream put together.
1. Skip one car trip each week. Combine errands, ride a bike or walk, by cutting out 20 miles of driving you’ll save 1000 lbs of CO2
2. Eat one less beef meal a week. If a 1000 of us did this we would save 70,000 lbs of grain, 70,000 lbs of topsoil and 40 million gallons of water.
3. Shift your shrimp consumption. For every 1000 of us 12,000 lbs of sea life. (Why? Shrimp boats scrap the bottom of the ocean floor collecting shrimp. What about farmed shrimp? Shrimp farms destroy mangroves and chemicals are used, which pollute local ground water.)
4. Stop receiving Junk Mail. Simply go online and get your name off the lists. For every 1000 of us that do this we will save 170 trees, 46,000 lbs of CO2 and 70,000 gallons of water
5. Replace four standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. This will save you $100 dollars over the life of the light bulbs and nearly 5,000 lbs of CO2.
6. Move the thermostat 3F up in the summer and down in the winter. This will save 1,100 lbs of CO2.
7. Eliminate lawn and garden pesticides. Every year Americans apply 70 million pounds of pesticides on their lawn polluting the environment and killing wildlife.
8. Install an efficient showerhead and low flow aerator faucets. For every thousand of us this will save 8 million gallons of water and 450,000 lbs of CO2.
9. INSPIRE TO FRIENDS

Just take one minute out of your day and consider your impacts. Where was the computer you’re presently sitting at manufactured? Where did its parts come from? What resources were used to make these parts? Where will it go when you are done with it? Computers end up in Chinese villages, where every scrap of metal is salvaged. The acid needed to strip the tiny pieces of copper and so forth is extremely toxic.