If, like me, you were a television-obsessed kid in the early 90’s, you no doubt remember a cartoon called Captain Planet and the Planeteers. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, here’s a short synopsis: five teenagers from around the world work together to stop the evil forces of industrialization and pollution from destroying the Earth. Each teen has a ring that corresponds to one of the four classic elements—Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water—along with a fifth one called “Heart” (and if you’re singing the theme song to yourself right now, you’re not alone), which when placed together summon a mulleted blue superhero named Captain Planet. If this all sounds stupid and heavy-handed to you, it’s because it is—and it certainly hasn’t aged well—but it was good-natured “edutainment” that taught me a lot of valuable lessons about our human duty to the planet and each other. Read the full story

OMG, I have no time this week! Looks like we’ll have to blaze through an abbrev.’d ed. of WSF!

G.R., G.S., K! Read the full story

Kids these days! What do they know? What with their RSS feeds, carbon credits, nanotechnologies—who understands any of that? We, the tycoons of yesteryear, the proprietors of good ol’ Small Business USA, the gas-guzzlin’ folksy types who still think we control the world, sure don’t get it. And why should we? It’s not like attitudes are changing or the rest of the world matters, no sir! We have our old money and our clunkers and those always be secure! The economy’s booming right now! We control Washington! We’re not in complete denial! Read the full story

The Chicago Tribune reports Wal-Mart is set to unveil its new program to create a sustainability index of sorts for green products. The goal of the project is to simplify the varied environmental labels on merchandise into a rating system similar to the Nutrition Information markers on the back of food packages. Detractors argue that this initiative is mostly an image booster for the retail giant and that Walmart’s growth has a major negative impact on the environment. This sustainability index is the latest step in Wal-Mart’s four-years-long campaign to appeal to green interest groups. Former practices the chain has adopted in the past include reducing trucks’ carbon emissions and powering stores with solar panels. Read the full story

The air you breathe is hazardous to your health. It’s a sobering thought, but it’s one we’ve gotten accustomed to over the years, doing the best we can to cut down on smog and stop using ozone-harming chemicals. But while most people are aware of the health dangers of outdoor air pollution, you may not realize that air pollution in homes, offices, and schools also can have significant health effects. Read the full story

If you’ve been looking for a go-to list of blogs about small business, look no further: BlogRank is here. The site, which compiles top 100 lists of the most-read blogs in (as of July 2009) 112 different categories, was launched last week after being in development for eight months. Data is pulled from nearly 20,000 different sites about baking, hip hop, and venture capital, to name a few types of blogs polled. Of particular interest to our readers is the list of small business blogs, which also includes direct links to each site’s RSS feed and usage statistics. Right now there is no “Green” or “Environmentalism” category, but BlogRank has a lot of room to grow. Time will tell if it becomes a useful tool. Read the full story

On the way to get pizza with my younger son, my wife noticed a squirrel running around the street. (See picture below.) The squirrel stayed near the car and at first we thought he was carrying a potato chip bag. Then we noticed the bag was covering his head. Baghead as my son called him, stayed near the tire and wouldn’t move. Poor Baghead. Read the full story

Now more than ever, investors are paying attention to the impact of their investments on the global environment and the well being of people around the world. As this trend has increased, so has the demand for investment choices that demonstrate not only financial soundness, but also a concern for quality of life. This investment philosophy, known as socially responsible investing (SRI), has a special appeal to many individuals concerned with the future of our planet. Because it’s no longer politically correct to disregard socially and environmentally conscience investments, more investors are putting their dollars into SRI. Read the full story

In order to help you better identify the benefits for your company offered in the Stimulus Package, we’ve prepared the following summary. Please feel free contact us with any questions! Read the full story

This site focuses on small business (though we hope to be relevant to all). Our interest in small business is driven by our passion for entrepreneurship, and our believe that it is through small business that we can see the best opportunity for the kind of change that is required to improve sustainability.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing statistics from the SBA, a small business is one that employes fewer than 500 employers. This represents 99.7% of all companies and these companies employ about half of the U.S. workforce. 60%-80% of new jobs come from these companies.