Fair Trade is a movement that has existed for quite awhile now. You’ve probably heard about it in the news, and possibly at local stores and coffee shops. The movement was established in order to improve the rights of farm workers in impoverished areas of the world, as well as to improve communities and contribute … Continue reading
A current problem facing the world today revolves around the over-exploitation of natural resources and the self-interest of corporations. The manufacturing industry is a prominent consumer of a large amount of natural resources. It plays a large role in the exploitation of these resources. The exploitation has a variety of negative environmental and social impacts. … Continue reading
After listening to Elon Musk’s TED talk I couldn’t help but think how important it is that society looks at sustainability and how we can incorporate it into our every day lives. With Musk taking sustainability to heart he has been able to successfully develop companies whose future is limited much further than just the … Continue reading
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, shown above, is located between California and Hawaii. The majority of the garbage patch is composed of plastic, which cannot break down. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch exists due to currents in this area of the Pacific Ocean. It is here where wind patterns create a circular ocean current, drawing … Continue reading
In early September the Mexican fast food chain Chipotle released a short video entitled “The Scarecrow,” an innovative marketing tactic with an anti-factory-farming message. The video features a Scarecrow who works in an industrial food factory, but then returns home to his small farm where he decides to harvest his vegetables and travel to the … Continue reading
I first heard of the “sharing economy” concept two years ago in a first year environmental studies course. The class read chapters out of the book “Treading Softly” by Thomas Princen. Princen outlined is vision for a new economy that is driven by sustainable action. One of his main points was that communities are able … Continue reading
In this course thus far the class has grappled with corporate ideologies, practices, and goals. Stakeholder and shareholder ideologies debate over what the goals of the organization should be, and who should have the power to reinvest in society: upper management or the stockholders? Jensen proposes that focusing on long-range goals like sustainability will keep … Continue reading
