Start Good Blog

I could live without a TV, but I have one sitting in the same room that I am typing this blog. The $1000 I spent on that slick LCD TV could have immunized about 58 children from 6 major childhood diseases according to UNICEF. Is it wrong that I bought the TV? Peter Singer, a philosophy professor at Princeton, probably would say yes. He formulated that it was immoral to consume beyond a comfortable level when the same money could be used to save lives.

While it may be unrealistic to merely live at a comfortable level and to donate the rest to charity, in my opinion, it is insightful to contemplate the extremes of “being good.” It is complicated though since where does the extreme line start anyway? Does Warren Buffett qualify as being extreme? I could not imagine giving up $30 billion, even if that was “only” 60% of my net worth. He is still rich, but how much does that discount what he donated?

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The internet has been criticized as killing person to person contact and making people out of touch with the world. However the internet is also an amazing way to connect people in different ways. Stories don’t stop at the local neighborhood meet up, an article in the newspaper, a radio show or even on national TV. Big or small, a story can be read by nearly anyone, anywhere. In addition, art, knowledge and passion can all be passed through the wires of the world wide web. Although people of power and prestige still create much of the culture of our world, the internet has allowed each person to pass something onto a stranger or even a million strangers. This mass exposure, this unraveling of distance is commonly called the democratization of media and it has touched me so greatly that I wish to contribute as I am doing here at SGB. With this in mind, I want to feature a few of my favorite sources of inspiration, interest, and awe that I have found online. I hope to have a few separate posts, focusing on different aspects of online media with this one starting the series by touching on a few favorite online videos. Below you will find videos I have collected over the years from all over the internet. Each touches on different things, but taught me something new.

See the videos after the jump:

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The documentary The Corporation, with its discussions of ways corporations end up hurting society, aided in my move towards becoming more socially and environmentally aware.  In it was a man I remember fondly and came across in the New York Times recently, Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, a carpet tile company.  He spoke from the heart about discovering how destructive his company was to the environment and how he has steered his company to sustainability with a pledge to be completely sustainable by 2020.  With $1.1 billion in annual sales or 38% of global market share, this is no small feat and is almost an experiment in our time of if the green of the environment and the green of profits can coexist.  There have been a lot of gains by big business moving towards being more socially and environmentally friendly, however being completely sustainable, meaning having no net impact on the environment in every aspect, is far from what they are trying to achieve.  So far Interface has been successful with their green approach, so much so that it spawned a consulting branch to help other companies switch to sustainable practices.To this end, Ray Anderson is onto something much bigger than growing the profits of his own company, he is showing corporate America what is possible with sustainability.  Being green is quickly becoming the popular method to help a company, not just be good but also, do better business.  Over time there has many methods that has changed business, everything from the Henry Ford’s assembly line to Japan’s quality philosophy.  I see sustainable business as the next marker in history for business.  A trend that makes sense economically and just so happens does the world some good.

Bringing this down a level, how can you make your office a little more green?  Although the focus is usually on making your home green, it makes just as much sense to carry that into the workplace.  If you can save your boss some money through making a green choice, then not only did you save the business some cash, but you just made yourself look better too.  So follow Ray’s lead by going green at home and at the office and encourage companies you interact with, either professionally or as a consumer, to follow the (green) leader too.  Even if someone does not care about the environment, they usually do care about the bottom line and so use that to your advantage… in a good way.