Chandran Nair: Consumers Cop-out

Back in 2006 I studied under Chardrand Nair while at HKUST. During his course we tackled many corporate responsibility issues, and I was always impressed by his nuanced understanding of the issues. Mr. Nair is now sharing his expertise with a wider audience as a columnist for Ethical Coportation.

In his article Ethical Corporation: Columnists - Ethical consumers – Cop-out at the checkout Mr Nair calls out the green consumer as figment of our imginations. People love to say they would do the right thing , but when it comes down to it they don't come through. (Like the Bradley Effect, but for consumers) However, this doesn't mean that ethical companies are screwed, quite the opposite infact. Not only are ethical companies better able to avoid or handle negitive PR. They are in the position to capture the benefits of sourcing ethically as regulators continue to increase the price of externalities.

Best Buy opens up

A recent article Open beats Closed: Best Buy & new APIs - O'Reilly Radar discusses how Best Buy is leveraging information to creating value. In this case is Best Buy is opening all the data that drives www.bestbuy.com for anyone to create their own personalized Best Buy stores or mash ups or whatever. The cool thing is Best Buy is using information to develop a potentially transformational business model.

Chrome Your Industry

If you think social media has shaken things up wait until Google takes things to the next level of collaboration with their Chrome platform. How to Chrome Your Industry, by Umair Haque details the transformation aspects of this potentially ubiquitous operating system. Be preprepared for the largest knowledge circuit the world has ever seen.

Guatemalan Eco-House

Matt Panetiz, of Long Way Home, just sent me the following update on their eco-house.

"We just finished the the inside of our prototype rammed earth tire house. As you can tell from the photos we have set the foundation for a kitchen to be built with earth bags. We are going to combine these two construction styles to build the vocational school on the new land. Combined with an improved cooking stove, a dry composting latrine, water harvesting gutters, water harvesting tanks, and solar heated water we have quite the eco household...Mateo"

You can see photos of the house on Kodakgallery.com Slideshow

If want to know more about building structure from tires and other recycled materials check out Earthship

Flickr: kkhelgeson's Photostream

The other night I help my mom post a few photos of her paintings. Check out her artistic talent at Flickr: kkhelgeson's Photostream