Archive for July, 2010
What goes around comes around
Matthew Leone is a musician who was raising money for an organization called “Keep a Breast.” He was on tour in Europe when his medical insurance ran out. I’m sure it was on his “to do” list to renew it. But the expired insurance wasn’t his first consideration when he saw a woman being beaten by her husband and tried to intervene. He was savagely beaten. As a result of the attack, he has sustained a number of very serious injuries and has required cranium surgery which removed part of his skull to reduce the swelling of his brain.
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If you like this then please subscribe to the Pitching “Green” to Businesses
The common wisdom these days is that green is good. No matter what your views, it’s hard to argue against efficiency or for pollution. In the grocery isle, organic produce usually carries a price premium that consumers are willing to pay for a product perceived as higher quality, or better for health and the earth.
Selling “green” to businesses is a harder proposition. The warm fuzzy feeling you get when you pick up a carton of soy milk can quickly dissolve when the staff accountant shows a graph of the yearly cost differential between your eco-friendly purchase and the cheaper conventional option. Most times, being green doesn’t hurt when pitching a service to a business, but you better have a convincing business case to back it up.
In the IT world, energy-saving options and virtual servers are par for the course. Tech Networks of Boston pioneered these technologies years ago, but they’re not particularly green – they’re just more efficient than the alternative. It’s not hard to sell 4 virtual servers – you just pitch a project with 75% lower hardware costs. These things make good business sense to the client, but in 2010, they are no longer the cutting edge of “green”.
So how does one convince potential business customers that supporting a socially responsible business is a winning value proposition? I wish I had a simple answer – it depends on the client’s culture, their values and their management. Someone struggling to green their own organization may have a sympathetic ear, but in any case, you’re going to need to convince the customer that a green option is the best option for their business.
Saving a Sycamore
We’re doing everything we can to keep this sycamore tree on the corner of Preble and Dorchester Ave. The sad fact of street trees in Boston is that they often don’t last more than a decade once planted. This tree has been standing for years, which means that it is likely to survive many more, providing shade and fresh air to [pedestrians in Andrew Square.
Plans originally called for it to be removed, but due to miscommunications between government departments and the construction contractor, it was not cleared for removal. We are hoping that crews can work around it for the remainder of the project and that it can continue to thrive.
The Legacy of the American Revolution
The American Revolution is part of the creation myth of the United States. It tells the story of heroic men and women who delt with injustices of an unaccountable political class by rising up and creating a new style of government. Through sacrifice and solidarity, they solved an ancient problem of over-consolidated political power and left the legacy of a more accountable government than had ever existed before.
Unfortunately, the problem of power consolidation did not end with the institution of representative government. Over the centuries that followed, economic power has eclipsed and usurped the power of the government. Now there is a new elite class whose power base is not accountable. In essence, the tendency of power to consolidate its wielders and increase its reach adapted to the constraints imposed by the Founding Fathers.
Today, as then, we need a revolution that undermines the power of the unaccountable economic elites and replaces it with a democratic system that empowers all people. There are a number of problems that make our situation more complicated than the one faced in 1776:
- Ecological problems and resource constraints are now becoming increasingly pressing issues.
- The world’s majority urban population can organize more easily, but they are reliant on distant food production. Additionally, the successful revolutions of the 20th century have all relied on significant peasant support.
- Our political system provides scapegoats and tools for marginal changes that prevent revolutionary movements from becoming widespread.
- Overwhelming military and police power make violent resistance a practical impossibility.
Romantic notions held over from the stories of the American Revolution emphasize battling a distant oppressor. Today we are bound to a system that provides everything we rely on – right down to our food and water. The problem with American politics is that movements are usually driven by who we oppose, rather than what we want to build. Our new revolution is not about throwing off the chains of oppression – we are caught in a system that is at once our oppressor and provider.
The solutions to our contemporary problems are not destructive, but creative. We, the people, must build our own base of power. Our declaration of independence will only be ratified when we can feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.