social marketing & corporate responsibility (CSR) & business and human rights
It’s this time of year again. Are you searching for last minute Christmas presents that don’t cost the earth?
Here are 10 ideas for last minute presents which don’t cost the earth, boost local, small businesses and won’t end up in landfill within a short time after Christmas and might even be good for the planet.
It’s this time of year again. We search for last minute Christmas presents.
More and more people celebrate the ‘Festive Season’ formerly known as Christmas: a holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who, in the eyes of Christians, is the son of God.
Why is Christmas so popular and reaches beyond religious boundaries? Because it sells just about everything and is therefore loved by business owners around the world AND it allows us to express our love for each other. This makes for a great consumer festival where everybody wins – except the planet!
Or can it? The saying ‘money can’t buy happiness’ isn’t always true…
If you live below the poverty line money will ensure you can buy yourself physical security and feel emotionally better due to the reduced stress that lack of money brings with it.
Disposable income can also be used to help others. Research suggests people who help others are happier than people who spent all of their money on themselves. Spare income allows us to donate to causes close to our hearts and leads to happiness.
Once we pass a certain threshold, namely $75,000US according to Economists Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, we won’t be any happier when we earn more and upgrade existing and add more possessions to our own private empire.
The things that bring long-term satisfaction and contentment can’t be bought with money, on the contrary, instant gratification particularly can actually have the opposite effect. [Read more…]
Happy 10th Anniversary Earth Hour!
Congratulations Earth Hour to one decade of persuading the world to turn the lights off for an evening or even the night. What commenced as a simple gimmick has turned into a world wide phenomenon stimulating debate about climate change and environmental issues.
Initially I viewed Earth Hour as a soft campaign making it easy and comfortable for people to indulge in a small gesture and feel good about themselves as they are ‘fighting’ climate change. [Read more…]
There is a day for absolutely anything you may think and yes, naming a national day for a cause is a frequently employed marketing strategy. Why? Because it can be a very effective to raise awareness – hopefully it will work for the National Eucalypt Day as well!
Ghost Gum a painting by Albert Namatjira
The National Eucalypt Day is an initiative of the Bjarne K Dahl Trust. It aims to raise awareness of the iconic gum tree and celebrate the important place they hold in the hearts and lives of Australians.
Eucalypts are the epitome of the Australian landscape:
Eucalypts, commonly known as gum trees, form an integral part of the Australian identity with the bush. From the children’s song Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree through to the distinctive smell of eucalypts to iconic paintings and photographs, eucalypts are an essential part of Australian culture, featuring in art, music and literature. Quoted from http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/eucalypts
Koala and Gum Tree
The gum tree is essential for the Australian landscape and for many animals – including the equally iconic Koala. We need to preserve eucalypts and there was a symposium about this very issue, read more here: http://www.eucalyptaustralia.org.au/conserving-eucalypts-symposium
The Australian Koala Foundation has released a tree planting list – of course, to be useful for Koalas, trees have to be planted in groups and need to be connected to other Koala habitat.
Let’s celebrate the Australian gum tree today and ensure they are here for future generations.
Further information:
Eucalypt Australia is a grant making Charitable Trust that focuses on eucalypts – a significant aspect of Australia’s natural environment and biodiversity. The Trust would like to inspire the public to appreciate eucalypts. It used to operated under the name of Bjarne K Dahl Trust as it was set up by his estate.
Some say that emphasising happiness actually makes us unhappy because we can’t be on a high all the time and might be putting too much pressure on ourselves. However, the definition of happiness is much broader than a particular feeling and relates to how content we are with our life.
“Happiness is about our lives as a whole: it includes the fluctuating feelings we experience everyday but also our overall satisfaction with life. It is influenced by our genes, upbringing and our external circumstances – such as our health, our work and our financial situation. But crucially it is also heavily influenced by our choices – our inner attitudes, how we approach our relationships, our personal values and our sense of purpose.” quoted from www.actionforhappiness.org
“Happiness is neither a frivolity nor a luxury. It is a deep-seated yearning shared by all members of the human family.” – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2014
This year, International Women’s Day is getting a bit more attention in the industrialised world, especially in the USA, due to a certain President whose name I don’t want to mention as he is getting enough attention already… it’s a bit like certain reality TV personalities whose name I don’t utter because I am hoping they’ll go away sooner rather than later…
It is estimated that up to 4.6 million women marched peacefully on the streets of America for their rights: rights gained over centuries and not to be taken for granted anywhere in the world.
Rights to enjoy in some countries and not others; rights constantly under threat and rights never to be taken for granted.
Compost is an essential resource in any garden. Even in a small space, container gardening will be easier when you can create at least some of your own growing medium. In larger gardens, compost is a necessity. It can help you make sure that your soil remains healthy and capable of providing high yields. Fortunately, you can create compost even in the smallest of spaces.
A worm farm is a great way to create compost and worm farms come in all sizes. Worms can help you to break down kitchen waste into a great soil-enriching material, full of nutrients that will help your plants to grow. [Read more…]
Sustainability education: How do we ensure that future generation are equipped to deal with the challenges they will face? Climate change consequences and overpopulation are two of the major issues forcing us to take a good look at the way we live including our diets: the production and distribution of food; land ownership; the nature of work and the entire economic system.
One of the greatest tasks for society then is to equip children with the attitudes, values, knowledge and skills necessary to rethink and change current patterns of action and to secure healthy, just and sustainable futures for all. (Davis and Cooke, 1996)
Knowledge and information about the world around us is more available than ever before. Society is finding ways of solving social and environmental problems and making the shift towards creating change. But practical change is slow. [Read more…]
There is something unifying about Mother’s Day that few other commemorative days have to offer – we all have a mother and wouldn’t be in this world without her (our fathers have played a minor role of course… but that is a story for another day.)
Mother’s Day is for all of us and, regardless of circumstance, is an opportunity to cherish women for what they bring to the world. Women, like men are diverse human beings and come in all shapes and forms. Women are not perfect by any means however, today is not about a balanced discussion about the complexity and diversity of women. [Read more…]