This coming week, I’m going to devote this blog to a series of stories about people who, working inside their companies, helped make them more sustainable. The series will be called The Power of One, but that’s a misnomer–making change happen inside companies is, above all, a matter of collaborating well.
Justin Yuen
Justin Yuen, who is the founder and president of a company called FMYI, has thought a great deal about collaboration and sustainability. He worked on sustainability programs for Nike in the early 2000s. His company creates online collaboration software — think of a private corporate social network — that helps people work together. Most recently, working with colleagues at FMYI, he started a blog/website called Change Agents Unite to share stories and news about people making change.
“We’re all about empowering people to make a difference,” Justin told me, when we met recently in Washington. FMYI — the initials stand for For MY Innovation — is based in Portland, Oregon, where Justin lives, but it’s a virtual company, with employees in Orlando and New Orleans, and it uses its own software to run the company.
Justin, who is 36, started FMYI in 2004, thinking that social networking would be most valuable for spreading ideas about sustainability–his personal passion–through companies like Nike that have people working all over the world. [click to continue…]
William Clay Ford Jr.
Before I head to Copenhagen this week for the global climate extravaganza, I want to bring you the latest news about Brainstorm Green, FORTUNE’s conference about business and the environment. I’m delighted by the caliber of leaders and thinkers who have agreed to speak at the event, which will be held April 12-14 in Laguna Beach, CA.
Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor, who was a huge hit last year, will be back in 2010. Ford (the company) is one of the few bright spots in the U.S. auto industry, as you know, and while it took a long while coming, the firm seems committed to hybrids, electric cars and other environmentally-friendly technologies, including wheat-straw reinforced plastic and other bio-based materials. Hybrid sales are taking off, as the company recently reported:
- Ford Motor Company’s year-to-date hybrid sales are 73 percent higher than the same period in 2008, fueled by the introduction of hybrid versions of the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan
- More than 60 percent of the sales of Fusion Hybrid are by non-Ford owners – with more than 52 percent of those customers coming from import brands.
Stewart Brand
One of the best books that I’ve read in a long time is Whole Earth Discipline: An Eco-Pragmatist Manifesto by Stewart Brand, so I’m thrilled to announce that Stewart will be featured at Brainstorm Green. In the book, he brings a fresh perspective to nuclear power (he’s for it), geo-engineering (he’s intrigued) and megacities (they are both green and engines of economic growth). You can be sure he will challenge conventional wisdom at the conference.
Three powerhouse leaders of the enviromental movement–Frances Beinecke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense and Mark Tercek of the Nature Conservancy–are also planning to attend. Fred and Frances have ben at the event before, and they both plugged into the Washington scene, which will surely be a topic this spring, while Mark, formerly of Goldman Sachs, will be able [click to continue…]
