Featured Blog Posts (37)

My husband and I are repainting our historic Victorian home, and hold grand visions for what will emerge.  Today, the workmen came to put up the scaffolding necessary to get the job done. 

After a day of them erecting metal structures and laying down planks into strategic and stable configurations, I behold in amazement the result.  There now exist pathways and bridges providing access and support to the painters for every stage of their work to come -- whether removing…

This past weekend, my husband and I had the pleasure of hosting guests from London who came to town to participate in the annual San Francisco Marathon.  As a former three-miler (make that two) and a current hill-climber (the urban kind), I fell naturally into a state of awe and admiration. Twenty-six-plus mile-markers to be overtaken by foot in the terrain of the cable-car seems…

While musing about independence on the 4^th of July, I found myself inside of an unexpected but provocative question.  Asked then: “What is our modern tyranny -- the ‘arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power’ from which we seek freedom” today?

After sitting with this question for a couple of weeks, I…

With today’s spotlighted story,  I find myself thinking about myths.  What is a myth?  Myths are  powerful narratives, which both validate and guide human experience.  Myths are sometimes held as lies, and other times held as the things most true.  Dying myths tend toward the former, living myths enjoy the latter.   

With 4th of July celebrations just behind us,…

In Vinod Khosla’s tough-love speech, delivered to the electricity storage community at their own annual conference earlier this month, and expertly reported by GreenTechMedia, he focuses on the concept of Certainty.  



When it comes to energy in America, Certainty has most certainly become…

I’ll admit it.  I like reading.  In fact, at some level, you could say I’m addicted to information.  Books, magazines, newspapers, electronic publications … even TV and movies (especially documentaries) have their place in the data sieve that is my mind.

Maybe it’s that I find understanding complexity as ordered to be intrinsically gratifying. 

One of the books I’m in the midst of currently is…

Wisely, we are beginning to design new efficiencies and enlightened qualities into our systems.  From energy to water, from cars to buildings, from materials to business models -- these systems have all been enjoying a serious second look.  This is both essential and innovative in its own way.   But sometimes, to really change how things work, we need to turn a system on its side.

This kind of thinking is what today's highlighted story represents - literally.   Our featured…

Great title, isn't it?   This is the title on the email I received from Andy Billings, VP at Electronic Arts, and a manager of innovation and change who I admire.  Andy's full invitation can be found below.  Perhaps I'll see you there!



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From Andy:

Just a quick note on a one-day program that might be of…

While the "Three E's" of Equity-Economy-Environment** form the triangle that frames the terrain of the sustainability movment and of SMART innovation, another set of "Three E's" drives the InnovatingSMART project at this juncture.   The E's that define our challenge ahead:  Existence-Expansion-Excellence.

Existence.  Created from a simple idea and…

We love our food, don't we?

As I write this at the top of the week, it is Valentine's Day and my husband, ever the chef, is gifting me this evening with an especially artful meal.  Here in San Francisco in 2011, his creative options reflect an embarrassment of riches -- sources both local and global, fresh and preserved, and in vast variety once unimaginable.

Through innovation in the business of food, we have achieved amazing advances, and nowhere is it…

As an Iowa girl who began her career at the University of Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers were my first NFL home team.  I settled in to the 45th Super Bowl ready to let the Green and Gold make me proud.  After an impressive first-half Green Bay rally, followed by a comeback by the Pittsburg Steelers to make this the fight we expected to see, The Pack ultimately prevailed.  I was never so happy about a football game.

But even as Green was dominating on the field, "Green" was…

In times like these, when financial capital is often in short supply, we are reminded of the creative power of our social assets.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were approached by an indepenent film-making duo who had at one time lived in the basement apartment of our historic Victorian home.  Delighted to make the connection, and impressed by their creative vision and gracious manner, we were thrilled to receive a request to film an important scene in our living room. …

This weekend at the CompostModern conference on sustainable design, I got to listen to many inspiring speakers.  Among them:  Jonah Sachs from Free Range Studios, the story-telling genius behind Annie Leonard's brilliant (though not uncontroversial) illustration of our prevailing linear consumption model.   If you haven't already, watch "The Story of Stuff", which you can find on…

The world seems to be moving faster than ever. Already nearly a decade into the new century our leaders seem either oblivious or willfully neglectful towards the need to address the realities of global warming and climate change.

With stymied and unproductive summits at Copenhagen (2009) and…