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New ideas come to me all the time. I always have a Google Doc up on the screen so that I can write whenever I’m inspired. I intend to get at least 500 words in a day to stay connected to the process.

I think Twitter is where it’s at! If you enjoy writing, use Twitter as a tool for expressing yourself in fun 140-character messages. Twitter is also a great way to engage with a larger audience and get feedback about your writing. If people are retweeting your posts, you can trust that the content is good. Follow other writers and people whose work you respect, interact with them, and get in the mix. You can learn a lot from Twitter if you want to! In addition, having a strong Twitter following will greatly benefit your book launch, since you have a built-in network of supporters who can help spread the word fast.

Gen X and Y readers want clear messages. They are used to reading cut-to-the-chase tweets and concise, 400-word blogs. The key is to get to the point, fast!

Google used to think if you linked to someone on the Internet they must have valuable content. Now Google seems to believe that if you promote content with social media it is more indicative of relevant content and less likely to be faked. Though many point out social can be faked as well. The bottom line is that all external SEO efforts are counterfeit other than one: writing, designing, recording, or videoing real and relevant content that benefits those who search.”

our public relations can no longer be about you, your company or your product; it must be about your customers.

Shaw Industries, an early adopter of cradle-to-cradle principles, is committed to making only C2C certified products by 2030. Currently more than 60% of its $4bn in total annual sales comes from certified carpet and hardwood flooring.

Numerous benefits accrue from values-first leadership. It clarifies and broadens, in the best way, how a company views itself. It changes how others view it. The products the company sells, its way of doing things and, indeed, its very existence, can be a living testimony to its support for a world of prosperity, social equity and environmental health.

most successful companies embrace good design by loudly and clearly stating their positive intentions.

t rests on the recognition that attention to corporate social and environmental responsibilities is generally in the long-term economic interests of the firm.

Managers have a responsibility to consider those affected by company actions; equally, however, those stakeholders are often able to exert pressure on a company if it does not—even to the extent of shutting down the business, as Coca-Cola found in Kerala.  This is particularly true for large companies subject to intense media scrutiny.

When companies implement “strategic CSR” they can find there are many benefits, including strengthened corporate and brand reputations and enhanced trust with key stakeholders (customers, employees, regulatory agencies, suppliers, and investors), improved risk management, increased revenues from innovation to identify new business opportunities, and reduced costs from efficiency improvements. 

It begins with an effort to communicate the business value of sustainability in terms investors already understand: the potential to drive revenue growth from sustainability-advantaged products, improve productivity (and margins) from sustainability initiatives and measurably reduce key sustainability-related risks to revenue and reputation.

Understanding how effectively a business is exploiting the new global force in business in simple terms may be a key indicator that every analyst needs to know.

n 2012, DuPont generated more than $10bn from environmentally advantaged products

VF Corporation — one of the world’s largest single purchasers of cotton, whose brands include Lee, Wrangler and The North Face — says much of the world’s cotton comes from areas that are expected to be impacted most by water scarcity and extreme weather  such as the Western US, China, Pakistan and India. The IPCC report makes firms’ risks associated with climate change even more clear, says Letitia Webster, VF’s director of global corporate sustainability.

“Whether in mountains or the ocean, our brands and our consumers are feeling the impacts of climate change,” which means less ski-related business for The North Face.  The company today signed Ceres’ Climate Declaration, calling on US policymakers to enact climate and clean energy policies that will benefit the economy.

However, research conducted concurrently by several different firms, including the Associated Press, suggests that while Harvard might have benefited well from its oil and gas investments in the past, the marketplace, with the world’s increased focus on climate issues, was changing. “Fossil fuel free” investments now stand to earn more

In 2005, in response to increasing pressure from student and human rights groups, the university announced it would be divesting from overseas companies like PetroChina and Sinopec that allegedly had ties with Sudan. However, two years later, the student-run paper, Harvard Crimson, reported that the university still maintained investments in those overseas companies.

What President Faust’s letter didn’t address was the relationship between investment and reputation. Harvard’s reputation is shaped by what it invests in, not just in what it teaches or promotes in research. So is its brand as an impartial, but forward-thinking institution that doesn’t want to be perceived as a “political actor.” But climate change is altering not only how we harness energy but how we view the political landscape. As a poet once told me, “everything is political.” It’s how we deal with that landscape and the choices we make that shapes how others view us.

The most effective way to affect change in personal ownership is a combination of education and guilt.  Guilt (and a little positive encouragement) changes behavior. It is known that guilt can be a great motivator for environmentally responsible behavior.  The Green Guilt survey also showed that 29% of Americans admit to suffering from “green guilt,” defined as the knowledge that you could and should be doing more to help preserve the environment. The findings also show that Americans increasingly feel an obligation to recycle.

The right combination of knowledge, access and personal responsibility is the foundation needed to move from apathetic to active participant.

The most challenging hurdle is apathy. When consumers feel disconnected from the benefits of environmentally responsible behaviors—or from the dangers present in its absence—it is easy to just not care