While most college graduates dream of climbing the professional ladder and making the big bucks, not our client Dan Parris of Speak Up Productions, he is preparing to live on $1.25 a day or less. In these economic times there’s frugal and then there’s extreme documentary film making. According to the World Bank 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, the subject of the documentary entitled Give a Damn. St. Louis suburbanite filmmakers Dan Parris, Rob Lehr, David Peterka, and cameraman Tim Peterka are packing their A/V equipment and hitchhiking to Africa, voluntarily, to experience poverty. Starting from St. Louis on July 4, 2009 the documentary team will film their journey from America through East Africa living on $1.25 as they document the truths, causes, and whether Americans should Give a Damn when it comes to extreme poverty.

Watch the Give a Damn documentary trailer

Experiencing the privileges of a St. Louis, Missouri West County life Parris and Lehr grew up in Ballwin, Marquette High School grads while the Peterka brothers lived down the road in Manchester graduating from Parkway West High School. In their undergraduate pursuits all four graced the halls of St. Louis Community College at Meramec. After separate trips to Africa Parris and David Peterka returned home searching for answers. Why is Africa the most impoverished nation and why Americans are apathetic toward resolving the underlying causes? Lehr met their concern for extreme poverty with extreme skepticism “Why should I give a damn about poverty in Africa?” And thus, over coffee at Denny’s the film plot was born. Three friends, one skeptic and two activists, hitch to Africa to discover the truth about poverty and why they should care. From that conversation trailers and production information was created and posted to giveadamndoc.com. The rest will soon be documentary history.

“Our hope is to make a humorous, adventurous documentary compelling the next generation to make fighting extreme poverty and injustice a priority in their lives,” said Parris a graduate of the Biola University film school, the film’s producer, and one of three main characters.

In preparing for the film, the team has been interviewing noted African and poverty experts as well as conducting “man on the street” interviews with the average American to include in the documentary. When they depart on July 4th, they will hitchhike across America to New York City, fly to London, England on to Athens, Greece jumping a ferry to Cairo, Egypt, before flying to Kenya. Once in Kenya the team will hitchhike through East Africa with planned stops in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Aside from the flights into Africa, the mission is to live in extreme poverty in the U.S., Europe and Africa connecting the experience of poverty worlds apart through travel. The trip is expected to take four months.

The team has spent a successful year focused on raising funds for gear, and flights as well as poverty fighting project contacts to film during their journey. Additional donations to the project in the form of contacts working on poverty issues, locals on the ground, and lodging along the team’s travel path, in addition to monetary donations, are still needed.

For more information about the upcoming feature length film Give a Damn, the production company Speak Up Productions, the documentary team, or to make a tax deductible donation visit giveadamndoc.com or e-mail giveadamndoc@gmail.com.

There is a fair trade boil-over brewing around the entry of corporate giants into the fair trade market place. The latest entry is chocolate giant Cadbury. Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, McDonalds and Nestle’s entry into fair trade have stired the pot as well. Cadbury’s deal to certify their Dairy Milk bars as fair trade continues to raise complicated questions about fair trade and who is a fair trader. A slope that can be made slippery to be sure, and one with an outcome sure to affect the lives and wallets of many.

The Guardian Newspaper’s Bibi van der Zee nut-shelled the problem this way:

“What is the problem here? As far as the Fairtrade Foundation is concerned there is probably no problem at all – they want to increase demand and now, hurray, they have. But the fairtrade movement is a broad one, which long predates the existence of the Fairtrade Foundation and its label, and many members of that movement will be feeling some of the unease over this deal that they felt over the deal with Nestle. There are two central problems. Firstly the Fairtrade chocolate producers like Divine have been slowly but surely carving out this market for a decade or so now. And here come great big Cadbury with their massive distribution, their hierarchical structures, their huge marketing budgets … and possibly blows them all out of the water. Is that fair?” Full article and reader comments.

The Fair Trade movement with its many leading organizations struggles to unify efforts to mount one powerful and cohesive message/campaign, thereby diffusing the momentum. The current standards most Fair Traders follow are defined by the World Fair Trade Organization, – formerly International Fair Trade Organization – are focused on transactions with producers in the “developing” world to marketers and consumers in the “developed” world. Brief on the 10 standards.

No doubt with 75% of the world’s population living on less than a dollar a day mainly residing in the “developing” regions of the world (World Bank), and an estimated 27 million living in slavery due to improvised circumstances (Kevin Bales), the bulk of our attention as fair traders should be on leveling the playing field of opportunities for those with the least and the least opportunities to get out of poverty. That is what Fair Trade is about, eliminating poverty through fair trade.

However, we can not lose sight of the need for fair trade in the “developed” regions of the world. To be a fair trader means the entire process is transparent, all are receiving a fair and living wage, there is health and safety in the work environment, gender equality exists for all, and practices and materials healthy for the environment are in use. With the global economic crisis pushing on all of us, and pushing the “developing” world further into poverty, fair trade in the “developed” world would go a long way to eradicating the greed, corruption, and inequalities jump starting the cycles of poverty in the first place.

I challenge those of you in the “developed” world to be the tipping point by choosing to adopt the 10 fair trade standards in your place of work and by voting for fair trade with your dollars when you shop. The benefits to people, your profit, and the planet are enormous. Conscious consumerism is rising even faster in this time of economic crisis. If you are going to part with your money it difficult times, you want it to go as far is it can. What could be farther than a living wage for the producer and a better environment? As a company adopting fair trade and green strategies increases productivity, reduces costs, and provides real news for PR and marketing campaigns. This is our mission at P3 Strategies, transitioning organizations from single to triple bottom line success for people, profit, and the planet (P3) through successful green and fair trade organizational and fair trade models. For daily fair trade and P3 ideas join me and many other fair traders and socially responsible business thinkers on Twitter.

Fair Trade is a movement designed to eliminate poverty and practices erosive to social and environmental responsibility. The movement focuses on the facilitation of Fair Trade between producers in economically challenged regions often in the Southern hemisphere and more affluent marketers and consumers primarily in the Northern hemisphere. Through collaboration and implementation we have found the standards can be applied to any organization resulting in a triple bottom line for people, profit, and planet. As a sixty- plus year old movement, Fair Trade has many participants, governing bodies, and voices expanding, and sometimes contracting, the Fair Trade experience.

The International Fair Trade Association defines Fair Trade with ten standards. These standards serve as a guide of operational practices for producers and marketers alike.

Paraphrased Fair Trade Standards:

1. Opportunities: Create opportunities for producers disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system.
2. Transparency and Accountability: Transparent management and commercial relations.
3. Capacity Building: Develop producers’ independence.
4. Promoting Fair Trade: Provide consumers with Fair Trade education and honest marketing.
5. Payment of a Fair Price: A fair price in the local context agreed through dialogue and participation.
6. Gender Equity: Women’s work is properly valued and rewarded.
7. Working Conditions: Safe and healthy working environment for producers.
8. Child Labor: Children’s well-being, security, educational requirements and need for play are key.
9. The Environment: Encourage better environmental practices and responsible methods of production.
10. Trade Relations: Advance payments are made when possible, and profits are not maximized at producers’ expense.

– the International Fair Trade Association

I began to work with this model specifically in 2002. As a volunteer I founded The Fair Trade Market, a yearly Fair Trade bazaar in Manchester, Missouir, in 2003 with the Justice Advocates. As the market continued to grow over the years into the largest of its kind in the U.S., I began to experiment. I applied the ten standards in my practice, P3 Strategies, other business and volunteer ventures, and with my clients.

From the experiments I developed a guiding set of socially and environmentally responsible principles we adopted as our core values in 2005.

Our work, speaking, and writing contains definitions, news, examples, resources and how-tos of the concepts of Fair Trade and other socially and environmentally responsible models for life at home and at work. All of my learning has been collaborative through conversation, experiments, or the study of existing work. Collaborative additions to our ever growing collection of socially and environmentally responsible models is always welcome.

Gain the treasures of a triple bottom line found in the standards of Fair Trade, Green, and Corporate Social Responsibility for success in people, profit, and planet. Let us prepare a tailored P3 Strategies treasure map for you, be your tool and experience rich guide on your journey to more, or bring the treasure right to your door.

'TV Wall' Best Buy 2008

T’was five nights before Christmas and all through the house
Creatures were stirring and rockin’ out.
Santa’s cool def jam blared on the non-digital TV,
As lights twinkled on our LED-lit, ecologically-forested, Christmas tree.
I wrapping presents with recycled paper all a glee,
Amazed by the next commercial announcing an ‘Eco TV.’
I am such a boob! I am!
I ordered a flat, digital TV that now does not seem so glam.
In the store the picture was all a glow.
The holiday deals so wonderfully low.
I never gave a thought, not one.
Where would my old TV go when it was done?
Into the trash full of mercury, plastic, and lead.
Oh! Visions of tainted water and growing landfills dance in my head.
But just at that moment a happy reprieve.
I heard rain deer hooves and a “Ho, ho, ho” as I saw the red sleeve!
Down the chimney he came in a flash.
All rosy in red organic jeans and zip-up, organic, alpaca-wool hoodie to match.
The jolly voice whispered, “you’re not a boob!
You know what to do. First, things first, recycle that old tube.
Save the environment repair, recycle, repurpose, reuse,
While providing jobs for others and low cost electronics too.
Then call up the store and cancel the mercury and lead.
Get something still flat and glowing, but greener instead.
Vote with your dollars; use your green voice!
It’s conscious consumer pressure spurring companies to make a green choice.”
“Thank you, thank you,” was all I could say
As I thought, ‘why is he here on this day?’
“A test run for the new bamboo reins my dear,” he said with a wink.
“And after, taking the gang for a “bio diesel,” organic, switch-grass drink.”
Giving a smile, he pulled on his beard.
Up the chimney he disappeared.
Jumping in his post-consumer recycled aluminum sleigh, they flew out of sight.
While departing he said “Green Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”
With a flip and a flutter a curious paper floated down to the hearth.
Green TV Recycling and Green TV Buying, A Santa Guide it said with a flair of Elfish art.
~

'Recycling on the Small Screen' WITS 2008

'Snow in Bloom' Texas 2004

I am green with laptop envy but, Greenpeace is harpooning Mac’s spouts about being green.

The new Mac Notebook family has gone green, and its not just the color of the unibody enclosure.  To give the new notebook family a smaller carbon footprint Mac is striding forward with the following improvements:

• Arsenic-free glass
• Mercury-free LED-backlit display
• Brominated flame retardant-free internal components
• PVC-free internal cables
• Highly recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure
• Up to 41 percent smaller packaging
• The MacBook, can run on just one quarter the power of a single lightbulb.

See this Apple ad.

Greenpeace is not exactly waving the flag of endorsement. “Apple is getting greener, but not green enough,” said Rick Hind, the legislative director of Greenpeace’s toxics campaign. “The Macbook Air has less toxic PVC plastic and less toxic BFRs, but it could have zero and that would make Apple an eco-leader,” he added. (source: Wired Magazine)

My thanks to Greenpeace for their call to action and pressure for change. And, my congratulations to Mac for taking big steps that would not be an easy overnight change in the supply chain or manufacturing floor.  Here’s to more of both!  It is a brave, greener new world out there — one in which a green laptop should be standard issue.

To learn more about what sustainability steps Mac is taking to reduce their carbon footprint in their workspace and products browse their Environmental Performance reports for 2008.

Visiting Peruvian Fair Trade Artisan to Launch 2008-2009 Social Justice Speaker Series

The second annual Social Justice Speaker Series, launches Tuesday September 16, 2008 at 7 p.m. with the first of four no-nonsense speakers making dollars and sense of today’s economy. Topics in this year’s Economic Justice theme include Fair Trade, poverty in Africa, Health Care, and Green Business. The series is free and open to the public for seating at 6:30 p.m. with the program beginning at 7 p.m. in the sanctuary of Manchester United Methodist Church, 129 Woods Mill Road, Manchester, MO 63011.

With all indicators predicting difficult financial times ahead for these United States, how does the average American make dollars and good common sense of today’s economy?  Is it time to tighten the belt and forget the rest? Or, can we make choices good for people, the planet, and our wallets?  Four speakers will share their unique perspectives on how to make dollars and sense of today’s economy: Dionisia Ramos a visiting, fair-trade artisan from Peru September 16, Speakup Productions filmmakers Dan Parris and David Peterka October 14, Sr. Mary Jean Ryan of SSM Health Care February 10, and a Green Business Open Mic Night April 14.

Tuesday 7 pm September 16, 2008

Is Fair Trade a Just Approach to International Development?

First person perspective on how lives change with fair access to the global marketplace.

Peruvian Artisan, Dionisia Ramos, with Carrie Hawthorne, Executive Director, Partners for Just Trade. www.partnersforjusttrade.org

Tuesday 7 pm October 14, 2008

Will the next generation fight injustice?

How to turn young people’s apathy into activism.

Dan Parris, Filmmaker, Speak Up Productions, and David Peterka, President of The Global Justice Project. www.giveadamndoc.com

Tuesday 7 pm February 10, 2009

Why is Eliminating Health Care Disparities a Moral and Societal Imperative?

Views from the leader of the largest Catholic health care systems in the United States.

Sr. Mary Jean Ryan, Franciscan Sister of Mary, President and CEO of SSM Health Care. www.ssmhc.com

Tuesday 7 pm April 14, 2009

Is Green a Marketing Spin or the New Economy?

Sustainable, Green Business Open Mic Night

Stepping up to the open mic, St. Louis metro area green businesses share what they do, how it affects the planet, and the economy. www.manchesterumc.org/sjss/april14.php

The Justice Advocates, a group of volunteer social justice activists, focus on providing opportunities to learn about and become active in addressing social justice issues locally and around the globe through positive action.  For more information about the Social Justice Speaker Series, Justice Advocates, Manchester United Methodist Church, and other upcoming events please visit www.manchesterumc.org or 129 Woods Mill Road, Manchester, MO 63011, or call 636-394-7506.

Link to forward the related press release and bios

Link to brochure Outside

Link to brochure Inside

Link to Social Justice Speaker Seriesweb www.sjss.manchesterumc.org

My company has launched several new enewsletters for: clients, socially and environmentally responsible business, conscious consumers and a media wire for reporters interested in those topics.

Go to the opt in page for P3 News Wire to select to receive one or all of the following enewsletters via e-mail.  New options will be added as they are requested.

Boutique Chartreuse ~ The first Green Boutique in St. Louis focused on fashionable, ecologically, and ethically made apparel and accessories.

Green Box Solutions ~ Sustainable building materials for the architectural, design, and building community creating commercial and residential environments.

Magnamite ~ Magnamite, a greater St. Louis area company, offers the most earth-wise, green, and human friendly, termite and mold protection.

P3 News Wire ~ Press releases and news for the media and friends of the fair trade, green, and socially and environmentally responsible business communities.

Pioneer Technologies Consulting ~ Developing strategies for businesses focused on elevating profits and people while diminishing their impact on the planet (P3 strategies) in the practice areas of entrepreneur and executive coaching, business strategy development, marketing, and expansion of the conscious consumer marketplace.

The Conscious Consumer from PTC ~ Information on the fair trade, green, and socially and environmentally responsible business products and services for conscious consumers from Pioneer Technologies Consulting.

Plowsharing Crafts ~ Where your purchase makes a difference. Fairly traded handicrafts from artisans around the world.

REDRESS: U R WHAT U WEAR
Schlafly Art Outside Fashion Show by Boutique Chartreuse 7PM Friday, September 5th at the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, MO

Forecast: partly cloudy, dry and 75 – perfect for a late summer evening outdoors!
It is Boutique Chartreuses’ second annual fashion show for Art Outside and they are doing a little wordplay with their theme.

Starting off with a short slide show, U R WHAT U WEAR, to challenge the audience to redress followed by a runway full of sleek modern fashion for fall.

Redress means to correct or reform, to set right (abuses or injury).

Commonly, we think of redress as simply meaning getting dressed again, i.e. After the mess was cleaned up, I redressed for the party. Boutique Chartreuse asks, why get dressed again if you don’t “redress.” How do you begin to think about a redress?

Here is the Boutique Chartre top 10 list of how to Green Your Style.

Slides of last year’s Back to Eden Fashion Show

Boutique Chartreuse is a green fashion boutique devoted to ecological and justly made fashions with style. The Boutique is a client of Pioneer Technologies Consulting.

It’s not too late to register for a 3-part Fair Trade class with yours truly and other amazing experts and special guests hosted by the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

The Basic of Fair Trade – Thursdays 7-9 pm September 18, 25 and October 2, 2008 Tastings of Fair Trade Chocolates, Coffees, and Teas

Learn how Fair Trade works and how it can help create a greener environment, develop sustainability, and lead to greater social justice. In this series of classes we will explore the workings of Fair Trade and sample a selection of Fair Trade products.

September 18 In the first session social entrepreneur Kellee K. Sikes will explain the basics of Fair Trade and we will sample exquisite chocolate from around the world. Special guests Peruvian Artisan Dionisia Ramos, and Carrie Hawthorne, Executive Director Partners for Just Trade provide first hand Fair Trade artisan stories. (Dionisia and Carrie will also be speaking September 16 at the Social Justice Speaker Series.)

September 25

In the second class, chef, commodities broker, and coffee entrepreneur David Hilgeman will take us from coffee bush to cup on a journey of a coffee bean. You will learn and taste what makes coffee the world’s most complex drink through aromas, flavors, and a coffee tasting. David will also instruct us on how professionals conduct a coffee cupping.

October 2

We will conclude the series with Lori Allen a green boutique owner and green fashion guru as we learn the differences in social and environmental costs between conventional and green fashion and how Fair Trade clothing is helping to change the world. You will see, feel, and marvel at some of the luxurious and surprising clothing being made from sustainably grown bamboo, recycled, post-consumer plastic bottles, and other materials. We will sample some of the many fine Fair Trade teas available in St. Louis.

Cost for all three evenings is: $25 for Missouri Botanical Garden members or $30 for non-members

Registar online today or call (314) 577-9441 to reserve your spot!

Be The Green, the first article in my green Vital Voice newspaper column debuted this week.  Pickup a free copy if you are in the St. Louis metro area.

Is green a new economy fact or marketing spin fiction?

Read the article and let me know what you think.