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Free Range Studios’ Jonah Sachs previews Opportunity Green 2009 panel titled Storytelling for Change
Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Jonah Sachs, Co-Founder of Free Range Studios, gives a video preview to the panel he will be speaking on with Story of Stuff‘s Annie Leonard. Through their panel at Opportunity Green 2009 attendees will uncover how our most ancient and fundamental tool of communication, storytelling, still holds tremendous power.
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Gervais Tompkin of Gensler Previews His Opportunity Green 2009 Presentation on The Next Generation Workplace
Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Gervais Tompkin, Design Strategy Studio Director at Gensler , uses ping pong balls and reused cups to preview his Opportunity Green 2009 presentation happening Nov 7+8 at UCLA.
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Opportunity Green dives in at Surf Class in Ventura
Posted on 30. Aug, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Surfs up in Ventura and Opportunity Green paddled out to catch the waves during high tide. Our Westwood-based team ventured up the coast to learn from Surfclass.com‘s founder, Chipper “Bro” Bell, and his team of surfing enthusiast instructors. Most of our team had never surfed before, but by the end of the day, we had at least two team members standing and riding waves into shore.
This isn’t your average surfing class, however. Andrew Fish, one of the surf instructors, spent time explaining surf topics like the importance of kelp and its nutrients and the basic elements of oceanography – how waves are caused and how the direction of the beach makes an impact on how waves are formed.
Surfclass.com’s commitment to the environment is taken very seriously. Chipper and his team participate in local beach cleanups every year and regularly engage in water testing efforts. Not only do they support local nonprofits like 4-H Club, Surfrider Foundation and the Groundswell Society, but they are also a member of 1% For the Planet, an organization that allows them to commit 1% of every dollar they make to nonprofit organizatons that promote ocean conservation, restoration and education.
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Lights, Camera, Re-Action: Entertainment and Sustainability in Los Angeles
Posted on 13. Aug, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Business professionals, along with leaders in the entertainment industry and sustainability, gathered Monday for a luncheon held by the Los Angeles Business Council at the historic California Club in Downtown Los Angeles. The topic at hand: How do we sustainably grow Los Angeles’ entertainment industry?
The event kicked off with Eric Garsetti, President of the Los Angeles City Council, who highlighted the movement of jobs in the entertainment industry to other states and countries. He also discussed his fight to encourage federal and state tax breaks that he believes will promote industry growth in Los Angeles. Moderated by Gretchen Lewotsky, VP of State & Local Government Affairs & Environmental Operations at FOX, the panel included:
- Sharon Keyser, SVP Real Estate, Government & Community Relations – Paramount Pictures
- Tom Smith, SVP West Coast Real Estate – NBC Universal
- Paul Audley, President – FilmLA
- Adam Gilbert, Director Corporate Real Estate – Asset Management – Disney CORE Services
Each of the panel members pointed to separate efforts their studios had launched in the last few years. NBC Universal, with its “Green is Universal” initiative, is redesigning how it sources its’ catering on production sets, revisiting how it reuses developed sets, and greening its’ events (such as high-profile award shows). Warner Bros. built the 21,600-square-foot Stage 23, which incorporates numerous sustainable elements including its’ use of sustainable, reused, and recycled construction materials and a solar electrical system is now being installed.
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Opportunity Green gets demo of GreenOps Recycling Tracking Stations at Whole Foods in L.A.
Posted on 06. Aug, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Looking for an alternative to curbside recycling? The Los Angeles based company, GreenOps, believes it has a viable solution. Focused on recovering the bottles and cans that are not making it into the recycling bin, GreenOps has partnered with Whole Foods to launch the first wave of its recycling program. Last week, GreenOps founder Anthony Zolezzi demonstrated the newly installed GreenOps Tracking Station in front of Whole Foods in Los Angeles to Opportunity Green Advisory Board Member Marc Alt.
The tracking station, with a similar look and feel to a Coinstar machine, offers consumers an easy method to recycle and receive incentives. Companies participating in the GreenOps program are given a new channel to engage their consumers via a direct message on the Tracking Video screen, creating an attractive avenue for product differentiation.
Nearly 7,000 products are able to be scanned by the GreenOps Tracking Station and more products are added daily.
How Does It Work?
Step 1: Scan your recyclable item at a local GreenOps Tracking Station, found at multiple Whole Foods market locations.
Step 2: Each time you recycle using the GreenOps Tracking Station, you receive a receipt indicating the number of items recycled and a deposit statement with a prize code redeemable for points at Greenopolis.com.
Step 3: Cash in on your points online at greenopolis.com and keep recycling to earn more!
Check out the video demo to learn more:
http://greenopolis.com/video/
Graphic courtesy of Greenopolis.com
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Opportunity Green strikes exciting partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review
Posted on 23. Jul, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Opportunity Green has forged a new media partnership with the esteemed MIT Sloan Management Review. The MIT Sloan Business School, one of the top ten business schools in the country, publishes the periodical four times a year, focusing on management research and practice, and emerging trends in management from around the globe.
Michael S. Hopkins, Editor-in-Chief of the MIT Sloan Management Review, will be speaking at the Opportunity Green conference this fall. Hopkins is bringing a fresh perspective about collaborative innovation and the management implications of sustainability. In order to preserve the themes of knowledge and education beyond November, all Opportunity Green attendees will be granted a one year subscription to the MIT Sloan Management Review.
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Opportunity Green Rolls Out the Green Carpet for the New York City Debut
Posted on 22. Jul, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Who would be bold enough to take over one city block of Manhattan on Bastille Day? Opportunity Green and MINI E, of course. Last week the Opportunity Green team went bi-coastal and headed to New York to host over 300 guests for a night of metropolitan mingling. As guests strolled into the three-story Environment showroom, they were able to catch a glimpse of ten electric MINI E vehicles, proudly driven by a diverse set of MINI E Pioneers.
Notable guests in attendance included Graham Hill, Treehugger Interactive Founder & CEO; Julie Gilhart, Fashion Director & SVP at Barneys; Rohit Aggarwala, Director of New York City Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning nd Sustainability; and Helen Walters, Innovation Editor at Businessweek. Movers and shakers in the clean tech space included Micah Kotch, Operations Director of NYC Accelerator for a Clean & Renewable Economy and Lex Heslin, MINI E Pioneer & CEO of Beautiful Earth Group.
Party attendees interacted with other executives, artists, designers, and academics from around the Tri-State Region. In between conversations, many guests indulged in organic delights from Sage Events and fruit cocktails splashed with natural mixers and organic vodka. In true Opportunity Green fashion, a NYC Photobooth was set up on the second floor of Environment to capture guests up close and personal. As the night started to wind down and the NYC humidity went up, guests left with new connections and a fresh taste of California cool.
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10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media
Posted on 14. Jul, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
This post is a collaboration between Mashable’s Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell‘s “10 Ways” series. The post is being simultaneously published across more than 100 blogs.
Social media is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation. That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That’s one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite charity or causes you are passionate about through social media.
Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help charities via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you’d like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.
1. Write a Blog Post
Blogging is one of the easiest ways you can help a charity or cause you feel passionate about. Almost everyone has an outlet for blogging these days — whether that means a site running WordPress, an account at LiveJournal, or a blog on MySpace or Facebook. By writing about issues you’re passionate about, you’re helping to spread awareness among your social circle. Because your friends or readers already trust you, what you say is influential.
