Blog posts by Jeffrey Hollender,
featuring posts about sustainability,
social responsibility, entrepreneurship,
and more.
Recent Posts
The First World Trends Forum, Riga, Latvia Held April 10 & 11, 2014
Honestly, if you asked me to find Latvia on a map, name its capital, answer whether it was or was not part of the EU – I’d have had no idea. Latvia is a Baltic country, bordered by Lithuania, Belarus, Russia and Estonia. Norway and Sweden are just across the Baltic...
Women and Condoms
Ok, as a man, this is a subject I only know a limited amount about. But what I do know is, it’s a damn shame that our culture has glorified the purchase of condoms by men and made women feel ashamed of doing the same thing. Men are assumed to have gotten lucky...
The Charitable-Industrial Complex
Several months ago I posted about “The Poverty-Creation Industry, so I was fascinated to see Peter Buffett’s (son of Warren Buffett) New York Times Op-Ed on the “The Charitable-Industrial Complex.” Peter starts by discussing the unintended consequences of well...
The Secret to a Successful Business: Radical Transparency
I talk a lot about the concept of “radical transparency” - in fact, it was one of the guiding principles in creating Seventh Generation - so I’d like to delve a little deeper into what exactly it means and how it can be a powerful tool to transform ordinary...
The Poverty Creation Industry
Recently Joe Brewer, Alnoor Ladha and Martin Kirk had the audacity to describe what they call the “Poverty Creation Industry.” http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15726-its-time-to-shine-a-light-on-the-poverty-creation-industry They write that, “Poverty is human-made....
Making Way for Worker Co-ops
Guest post by Taliesin Nyala, a co-owner of the Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA), a worker-owned cooperative based in Massachusetts created to democratize education and the economy while furthering the cooperative movement. TESA designs curriculum and...
Business profits are an illusion, based on a slight of hand.
If business stopped externalizing its costs it would stop making money! I’m somewhat obsessed with the concept of “externalities” and its companion concept developed to capture them, “full cost accounting.” “Externalities” are the costs and negative impacts imposed by...
In Defense of Millennials
This is a guest blog post written by Nassy Avramidis, Junior Partner at Jeffrey Hollender Partners The other day, I threw a paper cup in the trash. There was no recycling bin in the vicinity and I was in a rush. Normally I am pretty conscious of the environment, but...
HSBC Funds Suspected Terrorists and Gets a Slap on the Wrist
Have you heard about HSBC’s terrorist funding scandals? How about the many banks involved in LIBOR rigging, essentially playing games our money? If you’re an ordinary person, hearing these things was shocking. But let me be clear: it’s not shocking that banks have...
Corporate America: Killing us slowly
Recently the Michael Moss in a New York Times Magazine cover story on "The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" examined how food companies have known for decades that salt, sugar and fat are not good for us in the quantities American’s consume them, and yet...
So, how are the Millennials doing?
Not terribly well. According to a Fall 2013 survey conducted at Rutgers University, the recovery still isn’t so great for the bottom 99% and particularly those under 35. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of all respondents to the survey were laid off from either a full-time or...
Let’s start to recognize this: we are all interconnected.
We’ve all seen the news: droughts in the south, fires ravaging our forests in the west, hurricanes on the east coast. North America has been affected by significantly more weather-related extreme events in recent decades, especially in the year 2012, than may other...
America, now a less equal society than Egypt & Yemen
We’ve almost all seen the video that went viral this week, the one that illustrates the gaping wealth inequality that we have in the United States (If you haven’t yet, watch it here). Now that we can grasp the true depth of the problem, what do we do about it? If...
Rating America: 16 things we’re not good at.
This month the World Economic Forum released "The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013,” that ranks 144 countries, on everything from “Organized Crime,” to the “Quality of Overall Infrastructure,” and the “Protection of Minority Shareholders. #1 represents the best...
For-profit Business Innovations impact tropical forest biodiversity
Guest Blog Post by Perzen Patel of Ennovent, a global organization that accelerates innovations for sustainability in low-income markets. Tropical forests are critical global ecosystems. Not only do they represent an incredible wealth of biodiversity, play an...
A sustainable economy: it’s not only about the jobs.
Recent research indicates that a green economy is a strong and inclusive one that will help the shift to an economy that is fairer, more sustainable and resilient. Author Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute outlines the benefits of a green economy in his...
It’s time.
In his inaugural address, President Obama finally acknowledged publicly that when it comes to climate change, it’s time to act. Yes, it’s time for the government to act. We knew this already. But did anyone else feel like the President was asking us, the citizens, to...
The Relationship Between NGOs and Big Business
We’ve come a long way from the time when NGO leaders and businesses stood at opposite ends of the spectrum, with little collaboration or compromise. Now, with the realization that issues are interrelated, that big problems such as climate change, fresh water...
How Multi-National Business Holds the US Economy Hostage
In Jeffrey Sachs’ new book, The Price of Civilization, he states in no uncertain terms that the US economy is held hostage to a narrow group of corporate interests. ''Corporate wealth translates into political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and...
The Startup Playbook
Fantastic new book out today that I highly recommend by entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author David S. Kidder called THE STARTUP PLAYBOOK: The Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups From Their Founding Entrepreneurs. Kidder shares the raw experiences of...
Fair Trade sales increase rapidly despite economic downturn
The Ethical Consumerism Report 2010 was produced by The Co-operative Group, which has tracked shopping trends in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, found that, “despite the economic downturn, sales of ethical goods and services have remained resilient, going...