EcoTalk's Archives

Keep EcoTalk on the air with Beantrees Organic Coffee!!!

Beantrees Organic Coffee founder Barrie Gromala tells us about the coffee that has won over celebrities like Oprah's chef and Aerosmith, and announces a great deal for all of us and our planet: order coffee from Beantrees.com, and Beantrees will donate one dollar per bag to keep EcoTalk on the air!
LISTEN (9 min)

Verdiem makes computers more energy efficient.

The city of Boston has cut its PC energy use by an astonishing 44 percent with the help of power management software company Verdiem. With power management something we need in every city, Verdiem Vice President of Business Development Dave Harvey tells Betsy what they can offer to any City or Company in the land. LISTEN (8 min)

PG&E's Nancy McFadden

PG&E Senior Vice President Nancy McFadden is the perfect candidate to serve as one of the new faces of energy giant PG&E-- now the type of energy giant that helps the San Francisco Giants go solar. Betsy remembers when PG&E wasn't exactly eager to do sustainable business, and thus she is thrilled to sit down with Nancy and talk about her background working for Vice President Al Gore and California Governors Davis and Schwarzenegger, and everything that PG&E is doing to run a business that internalizes its effects on the earth and its resources, and that now refuses to take its central position between citizens and resources for granted. LISTEN (11 min)

Clif Bars GreenNotes Program

We've often highlighted Clif Bar as a company that defines values-driven business, but it must also be mentioned that if it isn't fun, they aren't doing it. LISTEN

Home Depot's New Eco Options

Home Depot has really come along way since the late 90's: their latest in a determined push to operate more sustainably and help their customers do the same is their Eco Options program. Walk inside your local Home Depot, says vice president for environmental innovation Ron Jarvis, and you will find products with the Eco Options label given prominent shelf space, and accompanied by information on the impact (or lack thereof) of the product you're buying. Stop by April 22nd, and you may leave the store with one the 1 million CFL lightbulbs they're giving away for Earth Day. Thanks, Ron! LISTEN (8 min)

Fortune Magazine: The Coolest Companies on the Planet

Fortune Magazine Assistant Managing Director Cait Murphy offers a broad view of how mainstream corporate businesses have warmed to the environment just in time to help us address climate change with ingenuity and capital investments. Their cover model? Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. Nice choice!
LISTEN (12 min)

Tim Little and the Rose Foundation: Toxics in your Portfolio?

As Betsy says here, awareness is starting to take hold with regards to toxics in a wide range of our everyday household products, and while some companies have responded with healthier  solutions, others, as the Rose Foundation's Tim Little tells us, may need to hear from their own investors. He's recently co-authored a report on Shareholder Activism at companies that are too toxic for your own good. LISTEN (8 min)

San Francisco: Paper, not Plastic (plus Sharon Rowe & EcoBags)

EcoBags founder Sharon Rowe joins Betsy to celebrate San Francisco's decision to ban plastic bags from all supermarkets, which I predict will come to be seen as a shining example of responsible governments (and local governments at that-- forget about Bush, contact City Hall!) setting the table for practical, innovative businesspeople to feast on the opportunity to make a sustainable living. Practical, innovative businesspeople like Ms. Rowe, who saw the writing on the wall (or the plastic bags in the trees) way back in 1989. LISTEN (11 min)

Bank of America invests Green in Green

Bank of America's Director of Public Policy James Mahoney joins Betsy to break down the finer points of their just announced $20 billion investment in environmental sustainability. Among them are a green credit card, less paper used on a daily basis, green home loans, green business loans, credits for employees who buy hybrids, and increasing the percentage of green clients in their investment portfolios. Greener homes, greener businesses, more hybrids, and more green investment are exactly the type of things that corporations the size of Bank of America can put into motion. Some might question the inherent sustainability of such large corporations, but this might be a matter of going green with the businesses you have, and not the ones you'd like to have. LISTEN (10 min)

Jeff Cleary & Blue Water Laundry

Jeff Cleary of Blue Water Laundry tells Betsy about the dirty business of dry cleaning, particularly the practice of using perchloroethylene (perc, for short), and the three alternative methods (GreenEarth, CO2, and Wet Cleaning) that do the job without harming groundwater, air, or your body. Ask your dry cleaner for one of these options, and if they respond with a quizzical look, send them our way. If they give you stubborn disdain, let them know what the market demands, and that you'll take your dollar to where you can find the supply. LISTEN (10 min)