This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to spend two days at the Global Green Expo 2008 sponsored by PSEG. (Below are my take-aways from Saturday’s events. Tomorrow will be Part 2 covering Sunday’s events.)
The event took place at the majestic Liberty State Park in Jersey City, from where you can see a coming together of the park, the Hudson River, with grand views of the New York City skyline, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty.
The venue was simply set up with outdoor tents for the featured speakers, and many boothes for local “green” businesses to supply information. It may not have looked fancy at first glance, but the information and education that I received was priceless and didn’t require any unnecessary glitz and glamour.
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In this new “era of social media” (as per PNI), we are being given the opportunity to show up (as per Mari Smith):
- consistently
- transparently
- authentically
- genuinely
- with a win-win attitude
- adding value
- as a thought leader
This is occurring in social media which has its own ‘unspoken rules of conduct’, or ‘etiquette’, and ‘protocols’…one that isn’t open to aggressive marketing tactics and is more about trust and relationship-building.
Could this new social media era have an influence on the more traditional business world?
I’ve put together my thoughts on the subject in the following article: “Building a Business That Customers Can Trust“.
Take the Business Ethics Pledge
Become An Influencer for Ethical Business
I pledge allegiance, in my heart and soul, to the concepts of honesty, integrity, and quality in business. I recognize that the cornerstone of success is treating all stakeholders fairly, with compassion, and with a commitment to service. Working from abundance, I recognize that even my competitors can become important allies. I will not tolerate crooked practices in my business, from co-workers, direct or indirect reports, supervisors, managers, suppliers, or anyone else–and if I encounter such practices, I will refuse to go along with them and report them to appropriate authorities within and outside the company. I pledge to support the “triple bottom line” of environmental, social, and financial responsibility. And I pledge to participate in a serious effort to focus the business community on these principles, by sharing this message with at least 100 other business leaders.
What do you think? If these Pledge organizers are able to get 25,000 Influencers to sign and live this pledge, what difference do you think that might make? I’m sure we wouldn’t want to limit this to just business either. Let’s include government officials and the
medical community in the mix, too!
I thought the phrase, “with knowledge comes responsibility”, would make an interesting concept to write about.
Finding the source of this phrase has been a challenge. I didn’t find much in Google, then as per the Yahoo! Answers site and also then confirmed through the ChaCha.com question-answering service, I was surprised to get back the following:
It seems as this is a bit of common sense that has become commonplace speech. It was last popularized by Spiderman.
I certainly expected a more prominent citation, such as the
Quoteland forum references to similar quote with ‘power’ and ‘responsibility’ said by Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln.
While I have never been much of a Superhero fan, maybe those characters portrayed a more positive sentiment that I realized. Similar to the theme of: “Truth, Justice and the American Way”, as Superman was known for, maybe we need a new Superhero for our current economic, financial, and political environment.
Clearly we are losing our way. For example:
How is it that a politician’s patriotism can be questioned because he doesn’t where a flag lapel pin? And, how can anyone even question that as being a potential political vulnerability?
Is that the American Way?
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
-Edward Everett Hale
Water may be considered a generic commodity by some, or a profit-producing product to others. In the end, it is simply a necessity for everyone’s existence.
A recent video snippet that I came across by Katie Couric on “World Water Day” succinctly points out the need for awareness to the larger issue of the 40% of the world’s population that does not even have access to clean water or proper sanitation. Water is definitely something that we need to be concerned about.
Too bad that the World Water Day website is so uninspiring…I think we need to get some good social media marketers to help them out. Want to see some interesting coverage of the water issues? Check out the entertaining (and irreverent) “reporting” on water on the Colbert Report and how related coverage is nicely compiled on one of the show’s fan sites: The No Fact Zone.
Back in the land of plenty, in the news, almost like a politician being criticized from all angles, water has become a controversial topic in the media for other reasons. How apropos and timely does this make the recent Ziggy cartoon posted here?
We’ve heard of the reports that suggest that prescription drugs are finding their way into the nation’s drinking water since the water treatment plants don’t filter them out of wastewater that it treats.
That works out as a nice coincidence for the latest news story which reports that there should not be a pseudo recommended daily allowance of water intake (of eight 8oz glasses a day)…at least that’s what two kidney experts are claiming in a national medical publication.
From the news coverage that I’ve seen, you’d think there was more support behind their claim, and that the dangers were more severe than actually is the case. Let’s look at the language used to conclude that “there is no clear-cut scientific rationale”:
- the only source they found that supports the benefits of water-drinking is: “the complementary and alternative medicine worlds” (I guess those worlds don’t count.)
- water-drinking myths were debunked based on the: “review the scientific literature on the benefits of drinking water” (I guess it can only be true after someone writes about it.)
- they concluded that “there is no rational basis for the widespread belief….it is unclear where this recommendation came from.” (I guess if there’s no proof then it can’t be true.)
- their claims that it can actually be dangerous to drink too much water is solely based on extreme examples.
So, what are we to conclude with these different reports on water. I would conclude that we need to look at the facts behind the messages. What do you think?
This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to spend two days at the Global Green Expo 2008 sponsored by PSEG. (Below are my take-aways from Saturday’s events. Tomorrow will be Part 2 covering Sunday’s events.)
The venue was simply set up with outdoor tents for the featured speakers, and many boothes for local “green” businesses to supply information. It may not have looked fancy at first glance, but the information and education that I received was priceless and didn’t require any unnecessary glitz and glamour.
