In the past several weeks, I have mainly been focusing on how environmentalists have been using the digital medium to promote awareness and action. There are always two sides to a coin however.Do a search today on the environment or global warming, and websites like Climate Depot or CFact, claiming to provide a “balanced view” on the hype of environmentalism, will pop up as well. Perhaps environmentalists have been doing such a great job with promoting their cause through online petitions, social media, and mass e-mailings to promote changes in attitudes and even governmental policies that many businesses feel threatened and are forced into action using the very same online techniques to promote environmental awareness.
Thanks to the Internet, a quick search will reveal that I am not jumping to conclusions on who the real sponsors of such sites trivializing the environment are. According to Wikipedia, ClimatDepot.com is funded largely by the “Committee for a Better Tomorrow, a nonprofit in Washington that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues,” which in turn receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil giant ExxonMobil. About a third of their funding comes from other sources which they will not reveal (See Wikipedia article).
At any rate, the aim of such sites like ClimateDepot.com or CFact.org, to put it frankly, is to neutralize the efforts of green groups, often by making them sound like cult groups or freaky religious movements. ClimateDepot.com's online campaign for example, involves a Facebook page with almost 500 fans, a twitter feed to over 800 followers, and a website with over 168,000 visitors monthly. Their Facebook and website pages aggregate news stories, pictures, charts and graphs, links, exchanges of opinions from members, and other call-to-action features like e-mail sign-up and an online petition to provide “evidence” and a compelling narrative in the case against environmentalism. With the viral effect of social media and the ease with which provocative new stories and videos can be emailed and shared online, I have no doubt their statistics and fan base are growing rapidly.
Another interesting case I want to point out today is the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf area. According to This article from Social Media for Life, BP’s PR department has bought up keywords in both Google and Yahoo for dummy profiles in social media like Facebook and other online sites to “diffuse” the magnitude of their catastrophic errors that led to the massive spill. See this picture to get a better idea of their shenanigans. George from Social Media for Life however, has a fabulously easy solution for us to mitigate this problem. He suggests in the video posted below, that concerned citizens can create a social media “bait ball” – essentially making use of social media like Youtube, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. to create as many blogs, videos, and pictures with strategic headings and titles similar to BP’s dummy sites to impact search engine searches. The end result is if someone searches in Google for something like “BP Oil Spill” – they won’t just get positive PR dummy sites from BP; the searches will be “balanced out” with search results to blogs, pictures, and videos that give the other side of the story as well.
While the digital media have largely been helpful for the environmental cause, it is most unfortunate that “the other side” can so easily harness its power for their own agendas. While some of us might see through their motives, many might find their messages both easy and tempting to believe. After all, who wants to change our habits? It takes effort to recycle and watch what we do and use. For those of us running businesses, going green involves being more vigilant about our business practices, and sometimes perhaps even not selling certain lucrative products that are environmental hazards. In the short run, we might make fewer profits, but are the repercussions in the long run worth the small profits we save today?
The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch poses as large a problem for the Earth as its size. According to this Wikipedia article, its real size is still relatively unknown, but is estimated to measure anywhere as large as Texas to the continental United States. It is unfortunate that many are still completely unaware of this particularly insidious problem, which is why it is the topic of my blog today.
I first read about this environmental crisis in the book by Alan Weisman – The World Without Us a few years ago, but it really wasn’t until I saw the “cause” in Facebook, that it really started to hit me. The graphic pictures, videos, peoples’ opinions, and links to other blogs and websites aggregated in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’s Facebook page really highlighted the magnitude of the problem and drove me to further research and action. Be sure to check out these images from Google Images.
Through my research, I discovered Project Kaisei (whom I am currently volunteering for), an impressive non-governmental organization dedicated to bringing about a solution and cleaning up the massive mess of marine litter that is threatening to choke up the ocean’s life completely.
Project Kaisei was founded by Doug Woodring who currently resides in Hong Kong. While there are other groups that dedicate themselves to this cause, Project Kaisei is unique because they are the only group that has organized expeditions to study and clean-up the patch. According to Mr. Woodring, they are also constantly in communication with a number of large organizations about converting the collected trash into commercially viable products like clothing or blankets for use in passenger aircrafts.
Below is a transcript of my recent interview with Mr. Woodring. The interview reveals more about Project Kaisei, their goals, and in the spirit of my blog, how technology and the digital medium, especially social media have helped and will continue to help them achieve and fulfill their aims. A big THANK YOU to Mr. Doug Woodring for taking the time to talk with me!
How did you first learn about the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?
At a technology conference in Hong Kong in late 2008. I was surprised that I had not heard of it before, as I have worked with environmental technologies and issues for many years. So, I thought that someone should at least make a documentary on it.
Why did you decide to get serious about it, and what drove you to action?
Through some mutual friends, I met Mary Crowley and George Orbelian (both co-founders) from San Francisco, all in the same weekend. None of us knew each other, but we are all from the Bay Area, and we all had similar ideas and interest to do something about the issue, since no one really was doing anything yet. This is a case of the Tragedy of the Commons – it is international waters, but there are no governments who “own” the problem, and therefore, no one you can call on directly to clean it. We have all contributed to the issue, from all countries. I then met experts in the plastic industry, and some had solutions for turning plastic into fuel or other secondary products, so we quickly moved from thinking of just a movie, to actually being the organization that could bring together a collaboration of technology, science, solutions, education, policy, etc.
How was project Kaisei started?
The three of us started it, but a lot of the momentum and push came from here in Hong Kong. People who heard about this issue were so amazed, that we could see there was a lot of interest and energy to support this type of project.
How did it get to where it is today?
Lots of work, but we have a compelling story, and an issue that the world’s press likes to follow, as this problem has snuck up on us over the past 50 years, and no one really saw it coming. It also helped that we got recognition from UNEP, Google Earth, were the first NGO to work with Scripps Oceanography, and a few other things that showed that we were working on some big things.
What role did technology and the social media play to help you get it to where it is today?
We created an iPhone application so that we could send videos via satellite to a map on Google Earth of our expedition. This meant that the world could follow us on our trip, and learn from afar. We were Google Earth Heroes as a result. The video is on our site, or you can Google it – Google Earth Hero Project Kaisei.
How do you make use of social media for Project Kaisei and how successful have they been for you?
Between our two Facebook pages, we have well over 5000 fans and about 1000 on Twitter. Fans and followers have posted very encouraging notes on Facebook especially, and even shared their own environmental endeavors. We do read everybody’s posts, and many share their own opinions, observations, and ideas that have in turn led to other good ideas, which we have enacted.
We have accrued so many fans in less than a year, and it is completely due to the viral effect of social media. One friend tells another, another friend sees his/her friend is a fan of Project Kaisei and “likes” us. Facebook has also been helpful to a certain extent with several fund raising events. For example, earlier this month, we had a fundraising match from Jack Johnson, and fans of Facebook have been extremely helpful in spreading the word and getting donations in. We do have some options for donating through Facebook, but to be honest, we have not made use of Facebook for fundraising efforts as aggressively as we would like to. We are building a new Facebook application however, that will be directly aimed at increasing donations, and this should be in place soon.
For a non-profit organization like us, social media like Facebook is invaluable and very effective advertising on many levels. It also does help that what we do is current and provocative to a certain extent, and people do like advertising the fact that they are supporting such a “sexy” cause in their Facebook profiles.
We also have in the pipeline a plan to build new platforms on Facebook, which will be more interactive than our current page.
Have you managed to generate huge publicity using social media?
Yes, as you can see from the stats I just gave you. But publicity for us goes in spikes, as it depends what we are doing to raise the PR level. Expeditions can cause big spikes and a huge influx of comments from our followers on Facebook. That being said, we are a small team, so it is hard to keep the stuff updated all the time, and we do not always have something going on that is worth public fanfare. When the comments and the words of encouragement do come in, it really does help more than you think. It is nice for us to know that people appreciate the hard work we put into this cause.
Govt Action - What sort of Govt aid/intervention have you received?
We have not done anything with the governments yet. As I said earlier, this is an international issue, and it is outside of the 200 mile limits of all countries.
Do you have any plans to drive them to action?
We are working on creative, market changes, that would be driven by other industry groups, or by consumers. We are planning a second Facebook application that will hopefully help to impact some influence on policy decisions for recycling, but I’d rather not elaborate on that at this point as we are still in its early stages.
What are your plans for the future of Project Kaisei? What do you hope technology can help you with to achieve these goals?
We are working on some pretty neat things, including an IPhone app at some point if we find a sponsor, the two innovative Facebook apps that I mentioned earlier, and a global application that would allow for community reporting on the world’s oceans/rivers, overlaid on a global map. Technology is key to getting information out to the public on environmental issues. Often they do not have the information, and if you can give it to them, now with images/videos, it can really help to tell the story and get critical mass on an issue in a short period of time.
Last week I blogged about telecommuting and how it has the possibility of making our work lives not only greener but more productive. This week, I want to focus on an entirely different issue and turn to how activists are increasingly turning to social media and other digital media outlets to push for a greener and more environmentally aware world.
Research about the use of social media for businesses has been equivocal on whether they help improve sales and brand awareness.It seems like most businesses, big and small, are jumping on the Facebook and Twitter bandwagon because everyone else is doing it. The fact that it can be done freely and near effortlessly probably helps too. Environment issues, on the other hand, seem to gain much more traction from social media. Take a look at this article, for example: “How Climate Activists are Warming to Social Media.” According to the article, environmental groups like 350.org have achieved some resounding successes using social media and other digital devices:
In 2007, using the power of the internet, 350.org rallied tens of thousands of people across the US in 1,400 locations and managed to pressure Presidential hopeful Barack Obama to revive the US Climate Bill that had recently been killed in the Senate;
Using Skype, chat, text messaging, and activist social networks (such as Change.org), 350.org managed to organize 5,200 events in 181 countries for an “International Day of Action” on Oct 24, 2009. See this impressive video.
Just last week on Oct 10, the same team did another massive mobilization with 7,000 registered events worldwide across 188 countries to press governments from their countries to pass strong climate policies to promote clean energy and reduce emissions. See this video.
Social media have also offered Greenpeace a more peaceful channel of promoting their agendas. Formerly on the US terror watch list, Greenpeace has now turned to social media for “non-violent direct-action campaigns,” according to the same article. One of their biggest success stories was their campaign against Nestle’s contribution to deforestation – “After Nestle made YouTube remove the grisly campaign ad, the environmentalists protested at its headquarters, jammed its phone lines with complaints, and plastered its Facebook wall with negative comments until the company announced a ‘zero deforestation policy’” (Article: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/10/how-climate-activists-are-warming-to-social-media281.html ).
So how is it that environmental issues have such enormous successes with social media? Perhaps it has to do with the subject itself. Global warming, pollution, and the depletion of resources have a very real and direct impact on our lives, and environmentalists have done a great job with provocative videos and other digital campaigns to prove just that. They appeal to our senses and emotions of needing to be “part of the solution and not the problem.” We are called to simple action—at the very least, pass on the message— to post the videos to our Facebook walls, to “like” them in Facebook, or to forward their message for fund-raising or online petition efforts. These actions are easily achievable with a few clicks of the button; we feel like we are doing our part, and as a result, awareness is raised.
Another good case in point can be viewed from this other article—“Jordanian Youth Learn to Use Social Media to Preserve the Environment.” A creative initiative by 7iber.com shows the country’s youths how to use their cell phone cameras and other digital tools to make a difference. In such media workshops, participants are taught “how to mix still photos with audio to produce an audio slideshow that focuses on environmental violations at construction sites,” or produce “short videos with messages about the environmental impact of the soda cans thrown in the streets of Karak province.”
Here is a good example of the impact of this initiative—see the pictures and be sure scroll down to view some of the comments.The couple of pictures taken of the garbage left behind after a political campaign has clearly struck a nerve in some Jordanians. One of the comments reads: “Name and Shame! You should publicly announce who is this candidate! If this is the way he treats his street then he has no respect and should be shamed!!”
I have long wondered about working from home. The digital age has made it possible for virtually anyone to telecommute now. The internet, e-mails, virtual faxes, electronic drop boxes, instant messaging, and especially video teleconferencing have rendered our physical presence in offices less critical. In many ways, telecommuting may even be more beneficial for both employees and employers – convenience and flexibility, cost savings, time savings - just to mention a few.
I have been working from home for the last seven years and have on more than several occasions pondered what sort of impact (whether positively or negatively) I and millions of other telecommuters have onthe environment with our working situations. Is telecommuting good or bad for the environment? What are the pros and the cons? Does one exceed the other, or do they eventually weigh each other out? Let’s examine this issue today!
On the surface, telecommuting appears to be a good friend of the environment. If we Google “telecommuting” and “Green,” we get dozens of articles touting the benefits of working from home and how it helps save the environment. This is indeed undeniable—technology like video conferencing and instant messaging do such a good job of simulating face-to-face interactions that it has eliminated our need to travel to and from work and meetings that help cut down on air/rail travels. For those of you who are interested, this article from Environmental Leader details how a study sponsored by AT&T has underscored the positive impact video conferencing has on the environment.
In short, the article mentions that in the US alone, teleconferencing will save a company (with over $1 billion in annual revenues) over 900 business trips, or the equivalent of taking 434 passenger cars off the roads for a year. This other article from SFGate provides information about our daily commute to work. Basically, about half of Americans travel 20 miles to and from work, 22% 40 miles or more, and 10% 60 miles or more. According to a report by American Electronics Association quoted in the same article, if every American worker telecommutes even just 1.6 days a week, 1.35 billion gallons of gas will be saved, which will in turn prevent 26 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from getting released into the environment.
These are some interesting facts and statistics. The reality however is how much of these alleged “savings” are true savings? For example, the first article cited talks about reduced business trips – but a company cutting down on business trips won’t really matter much to the environment if the trains and aircrafts continue with their schedules. Also, if this article by Forbes actually goes so far as to say that telecommuting is bad for the environment! The article observes that telecommuting actually causes “cabin fever” which in turn causes more travel to lunches with friends, run errands, shopping, etc. On top of this, telecommuting causes increased use of electricity and gas for heating/cooling that might not otherwise be used if we went into an office.
I recently talked with three friends who telecommute. I realize that this is a small sample, but this will at the very least, give us a glimpse of how three typical Americans use technology for work and their work-at-home habits.
Jackie K. lives and works in Virginia Beach, VA., Chuck H. in Brooklyn, NY, and Nate J. in Westchester County, NY: two suburbanites and one urbanite. Here are their responses to a few of my questions:
Questions
Jackie K.
Chuck H.
Nate J.
Occupation
Staff Trainer
Researcher
Publishing Sales
How long would you have to travel if you went into your office?
Emails, digital drop boxes, and occasionally video conferencing.
Emails, WebEx, video conferencing
What sort of power source(s) do you use when you work from home?
Air/Heat, laptop, turn on TV or radio sometimes,
Air/Heat and PC.
Air/Heat and PC.
What sort of errands do you run when working from home? And how do you run your errands?
Drive to the mall and grocery. Meet friends for lunch about 1-2 times a week.
Walk out to grab coffee.
Run occasional errands, but not much. Am out meeting customers about 1-2 times a week.
Would you run these errands if you were in an office
Probably not.
Yes.
Probably not or after work.
Do you think telecommuting has helped you reduce your carbon footprint?
Yes. Can train staff members using Webex and video conferencing now. Had to reserve a location in the past, and about 10-20 staff members would travel to meet at the location.
No difference. I actually save on heat/cooling bills and electricity if I work at my office.
Yes. Webex and video conferencing allows for presentations to be done online. Webex even allows for Nate to manipulate customers’ computer screens so they get to see what is on his screen, e.g. his PPTs. This cuts down on travel extensively, as he would otherwise have to drive up to 200 miles sometimes to meet clients. His clients can also see the presentations from the comfort of their own homes instead of having to travel to one location just to attend a presentation.
Although this is not a scientific survey, we can still clearly see that a city dweller telecommuting doesn’t make much of a difference. In fact, he would use electricity and other power sources at home that he wouldn’t otherwise have used if he were in an office. How green telecommuting is also seemingly depends on one’s occupation. For example, in the cases of Nate J. and Jackie K., telecommuting makes a lot of sense and has helped them reduce their carbon footprint significantly. Video conferencing and Webex has made virtual presentations and trainings possible, and it not only eliminates their need for travel exponentially, but also the customers and staff members involved. Both Jackie and Nate also noted that WebEx trainings and presentations even betters face-to-face meetings sometimes, as it allows the sessions to become more interactive – for example, participants who are normally shy in group meetings can send instant private messages to the presenter. In Nate’s case, he also likes turning control of a presentation over to any one of the participants to let him/her trial the product he is selling.
In the end, I have to say that the digital medium has a humongous potential to help us become greener citizens. The reality, however, of what is “saved” currently remains hazy. It all boils down to the choices we make when we work from home. How can we conserve more? Even though telecommuting in and of itself is considered to be green, we still have to make a conscious effort so that we end up consuming less when telecommuting than when travelling to work. Since we have the luxury of working from home, perhaps we can cycle to run our errands instead of drive? Perhaps walk to a nearby Starbucks if we get claustrophobic at home and work on our emails there instead? What do you think? I would love to hear your comments!
The Advantages of Green Marketing over Traditional Marketing
Like me, I suspect many of you probably get bombed daily with a ton of junk mail. From mass mailings from credit card companies to furniture catalogs, my mailbox gets inundated with unwanted mail that frustrates me and overwhelms my recycling bin! Yes, that's where such mail goes instantly - into the recycling bin that accumulates too quickly. I conducted an informal survey with 10 friends over the last week on what they do with their junk mail, and all 10 expressed the same frustrations with junk mail. Inevitably, the vast majority of us toss our marketing mailings almost immediately into the trash, and a few who are more environmentally conscious recycle them. The rate at which we receive such mail, sometimes two or three per month from the same companies, begs the question: "Why are these companies not engaging in more cost-effective (and incidentally more environmentally friendly) methods like e-marketing?"
Effective or not, the truth is junk mail is an environmental hazard. According to this article by the Wall Street Journal, a staggering 5.2 billion pieces of direct mail were sent out to US consumers in the third quarter of 2009 alone. To add to this, the bulk of mass mails are also printed on thick glossy virgin paper, as opposed to recycled paper. Despite these facts, the same article, much to my dismay, states that many companies are "holding fast" to mass mailing efforts because "swapping snail mail for email" has resulted in sales declines. While sales might have declined going from traditional marketing to e-marketing, have these companies surveyed by the Wall Street Journal thrown in the towel too quickly? Did they send out emails too frequently or worded them in such a way that triggered spam filters? Have they explored other more sophisticated means of e-marketing such as using Social Media like Facebook and Twitter? What about other online advertising means like using Google AdWords or AdSense?
E-marketing (or more recently known as green marketing) much like direct mailing is a business tool, and its effectiveness depends on how companies use it. In many sense, green marketing offers much more flexibility, just to name a few - it is way speedier, more cost effective, can be more targeted, and allows for a variety of ways to track customer responses. With such enhanced features comes the need for companies to learn and educate themselves, and many unfortunately jump in blindly and give up too soon. To prove my point, see this study conducted by Environmental Leader on the effectiveness of green marketing. In general (contrary to the Wall Street Journal article), more marketers have seen improved results from green marketing - 28% as opposed to the 6% who have seen a decline. Here are also some additional statistics on social media to offer reasons as to why companies should go green marketing:
Facebook: Over 500 million users as of July, 2010
LinkedIn: Over 60 million users as of Feb, 2010
Twitter: Over 105 million users as of Apr, 2010
Can traditional direct mail marketing offer such numbers? Imagine the costs incurred with direct mailing to reach just 10,000 consumers and compare that with reaching the same number electronically. I know the bottom line for most companies is profits, but what about the environmental costs saved as well from e-marketing?
As issues on the environment come to a head and as the world gets increasingly networked through social media, it is only to companies benefit to embrace change and move with the times. There may be challenges and perhaps apprehension about adopting social media marketing efforts, but if used effectively and creatively, the rewards could be immense. Consider the example of Whole Foods from this article by Environmental Leader:
Social media is also a cheap and easy way for companies to conduct promotions. Whole Foods is running a contest on twitter wherein its twitter followers are encouraged to tweet philosophies in five words, reports Supermarket News. The people with the ten most creative philosophies will earn a $50 Whole Foods gift card and a five-pound bag of quinoa. For those who wonder why anyone would “follow” a supermarket chain on twitter, consider this: Whole Foods has more than 1 million followers.
I’m Jit Teo, a graduate student in the School of Communications and Information Science (SC&I) at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. I’m currently pursuing an MA in Communications because I have a deep and abiding interest in mediated communications. It is truly dazzling if we think about all the ways the internet has permeated our lives – from the number of hours we spend on it to what we use it for—work, shopping, dating, news source, making connections with friends… the list is almost endless. While television may have captivated us in its heyday, it is certainly no exaggeration to say that the internet has us even more firmly in its grip. It has gone from being something we want to something that we absolutely need (yes, I dare say that for many of us!).
While there are tons of possibilities to explore regarding the internet and how it has changed our lives in a million different ways, I am starting this blog today because I want to examine an issue that is important to me—the environment. So what is the connection between the digital media and the environment, you might ask? The connection is even closer than you might think. I can safely say that 90% of my environmental awareness and education has come from online sources—from reading news articles, watching videos warning of impending doom, partaking in conversations through the many “environmental causes” in Facebook, and doing research on matters from the best and most fuel-efficient car to buy, to how to unclog my toilet without releasing toxic “Draino” into our water systems. From the big things to small things in our lives, we can find and learn information to help us lead greener lives quickly and efficiently, which was hardly possible before the advent of the internet.
I digress… My aim is to continue to encourage greater awareness about the environment through this blog, and hopefully spearhead a better exchange of ideas between all readers in the spirit of our new interactive digital media. Specifically, I would like to explore how the internet has helped to impact the environment - what direct and indirect changes it has brought about (both good and bad), and how environmentalists have harnessed it to enhance education and awareness and change attitudes. I would also like to talk about the movers and shakers in the eco movement today and examine how they have effectively made use of social media to solicit funding for their causes and even to effect important changes in environmental policy. Finally, it would also be interesting to examine how the new media is shaping the future of this social movement by exploring the most innovative environmental projects going on right now and observing what directions they are headed for in the future.
To start us off, here is a link to Yahoo Green. This website is a great example of the use of digital media to promote greater awareness of the environment. Yahoo started this website in 2007 as a "green space" that "converges" news on the environment, tips on how to live and shop green, blogs for like-minded readers to exchange ideas, a question and answer section, and even fun animated tools and questionnaires to gauge our carbon footprints. Until the next time, happy surfing!
