Big Green Breakthrough

Senator Snowe Calls Women-Owned Businesses a "Beacon of Hope"

  In December, U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine and Chair of the Senate Committee on Business and Entrepreneurship had this to say (as reported by the Association of Women’s Business Centers): “Given the economic crisis our country is currently facing, it is imperative to highlight the success of women-owned businesses – a beacon of hope during [...]

Trying to use my left brain to jump start the green revolution

When I started my first companies, I relied on just three tools – a telephone, a word processor, and a copy machine. I wrote document after document, proposal after proposal, book after book. I played to my right brain strengths the way Yo Yo Ma plays his cello: with dedication, passion, and a commitment to be [...]

Interested in joining the Green Revolution? Look for my declaration…

I can’t give you all the details right now. But sometime soon, I’m going to be releasing a new “declaration” aimed at empowering, inspiring and motivating women businesses owners and entrepreneurs. All I can tell you right now is that it’s designed to help all businesswomen: CEOs, CFOs, people who work on human resources, wellness, and [...]

Maybe all it takes is a smiley face…

Inspiring employees to “go green” can be a tough job.  People don’t like to change their behavior, especially if they think they’re the only ones taking action. Maybe we can all learn something from a Sacramento, California utility that ran into the same problem with its customers. It was trying to motivate people to conserve energy, [...]

Are Women Better at Starting a Business Than Men?

Well, it's sort of like the directions thing. Women are better at asking for directions sooner...but do they get lost more? Karin Abarbanel, author of the new Birthing the Elephant: The woman's go-for-it! guide to overcoming the big challenges of launching a business, says women make three mistakes when they're feeling their entrepreneurial oats.

Organic Orange Juice Reduces My Carbon Footprint!

Once you get to know me, you'll realize I'm a HUGE fan of organic food. Mostly, that's because the thought of eating nasty pesticides and herbicides along with my fruit and veggies gives me the heebie jeebies. But now it turns out that organic agriculture offers another benefit beyond my health: it reduces the CO2 emissions that cause climate change, too. PepsiCo, which owns Tropicana brand orange juice, just completed an analysis of the carbon impact of producing OJ. What'd they discover? The biggest single source of carbon emissions came not from running their factory or shipping heavy juice cartons. It came from simply growing oranges, which, when done conventionally, uses a lot of nitrogen-based fertilizer. The CO2 connection? Nitrogen fertilizer is made from natural gas and can turn into a powerful greenhouse gas when spread on fields. Orange juice the old fashioned way, any one?

What Did You Take Away from Obama's Speech?

Here are my favorite snippets: “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord…” “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties [...]