I'm going to be in Chicago on November 6th (hopefully still able to feel the aftermath of an Obama hometown victory party...) and I'll be speaking at the MTO Summit, an industry learning event for Trade Show producers and marketers. The topic is one that's very close to my heart-- web 2.0 tools, social media, and technology PLUS the green space.
I'm going to do a little bit of background on Climate Change, from my Climate Project training sessions with Al Gore in Montreal. Just touch on some of the big factors contributing to climate change, and highlight the science that's not in dispute. The climate part of my presentation also has a bunch of great 'myths' taken from Wired magazine, that are great talking points.
The rest of the presentation will be about Web 2.0 tools for connecting people with a single cause, in this case, climate change and the green space.
I posed the question to my LinkedIn network recently and got some great answers:
What are some examples of web 2.0 tools being used in the 'Green' space?
What causes have been the most successful?
What tools work for:
A) Getting attention to a green issue
B) Engaging and sparking action
C) Soliciting and collecting donations
On another note, a variety of 2.0 tools can be used inside your business to green operations. For example, blogs, wikis and social networking tools can be used for effective paperless communication with staff and especially in recruitment. For green company initiatives, engaging employees through education and training is one of the most effective ways to connect with potential employees, and facilitate employee socialization and intra-company learning, all of which will improve retention rates as well as facilitate recruitment especially among Gen Y employees. An Aberdeen Group study found that 52% of organizations that utilize these kinds of Web 2.0 tools achieve a significant improvement in employee engagement. I know this doesn't answer your exact question, but its an important example of 2.0 tools being used in the green space
Jennifer Kaplan
A great example of an online application for green business is greenfly. It is a resource that helps designers and engineers assess the 'greenness' of a product they have designed by assessing the impact and 'recyclability' of their material choices. This last example is a web 2.0 application. As online tools continue to evolve we will continue to see such online applications with a related support community of professionals assisting one another in finding sustainable solutions to the problems of today.
Jason De Perro
This, in itself, is a neat example of Web 2.0 being used to solve a problem. Not a climate problem, but an information one. I used a social network, posed a question to friends, but also strangers, and got answers within hours. This could be a slower tool like a wiki, or a faster one like Twitter, but the ultimate end result is the sharing of interesting information and the engagement by those who care enough to share their insight. Imagine if I had that question in 1978?
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