2004

• English  
• Spanish  

Study reveals overwhelming rate of inaccessibility in Web sites

An investigation by the Disability Rights Commission reveals that more than 80% of Web sites are unusable by disabled people. The study shows that the Internet is become difficult or impossible to use for impaired users not because of technology shortcomings, but because of poor design and site construction. Moreover, the most common problems are likely to affect all users, not just those with disabilities.

BALLE Annual Conference

BALLE, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, is a network of local groups across the conference. The BALLE annual conference, May 20-23, is a conference for business and community leaders from across the US who are working together to increase prosperity and equity in our society, strengthen local communities, and preserve our natural environment.

Towards Sustainable Product Design 9 and ifPeople's FairSource Model

The "Toward Sustainable Product Design 9" conference will be held 25-26 October 2004 at Bush Hotel Conference Centre, Farnham, Surrey, UK. ifPeople's President and co-founder Tirza Hollenhorst will present ifPeople's sustainability supply chain business model and standard as an example of sustainable business.

ifPeople launches new site functionaility and content for Red Puentes

In its continued work with the international network Red Puentes to promote Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America, ifPeople has released a new set of features and content for the network's Web site RedPuentes.org. These include an English implementation of the site, a secure member area, a CSR document library, and in interactive area on CSR Tools.

Library of resources on sustainability and systems now available

Educators and others interested in sustainability have a new resource -- the Donella Meadows Archive. The Archive is an on-line library containing nearly 800 sort essays written by the late Donella H. Meadows.

ifPeople President Profiled as Social Entrepreneur in She Ventures

ifPeople's President featured as social entrepreneur in She Ventures - She Ventures's recently released guide to assist budding social entrepreneurs with a comprehensive list of resources and worlds of wisdom from fellow women social entrepreneurs profiled ifPeople President Tirza Hollenhorst. By providing resources, training, and investment, She Ventures empowers women ages 18-30 to create solutions to social and environmental problems through social ventures.

Report card on computer manufacturing reveals differences in responsible practices of producers

The Fifth Annual Computer Report Card for 2004 was released in May. The report is issued annually by the Computer TakeBack Campaign (CTBC) to document whether manufacturers are including environmental design concepts into their products and taking responsibility for the entire life cycle of those products, and to encourage consumers to leverage their buying power to foster greater corporate responsibility for protecting public health, worker safety and the environment.

ifPeople announces workshop at youth EmPOWERment Festival this weekend

Over 70 organizations, businesses, camps, churches, elders, youth, city and state agencies are cooperating as a community on June 27th and June 28th. ifPeople will be leading a workshop for the participants to develop understanding of human relations to the environment and how that affects our lives. Come see us on Sunday, June 27 at Brownwood Park in Atlanta.

Leading Web application technology, Plone, continues to thrive

Plone, the leading Open Source Content Management System (CMS), and part of ifPeople's preferred Web technology platform, has continued to gain momentum over the last few months with its adoption by major IT service vendor Computer Associates, the publication of a complete developer's guide, and the realization of the community's second annual conference in Vienna.

Technology for Non-Profits: "Building Successful Organizations and Virtual Communities: Best Practices and Free Software Tools"

The NTEN regional conference in Washington, DC, October 14, will feature ways that non profit organizations can leverage the Internet for their success. Chris Johnson, cofounder of ifPeople will present in the session on "Building Successful Organizations and Virtual Communities: Best Practices and Free Software Tools for the Internet."

International Design and Construction Competition Values Sustainable Practices

The First International Cradle to Cradle Housing Design and Construction Competition for excellence in building the highest quality affordable and market rate housing designs for a local community. The designs are to be developed around the principles and framework described in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough FAIA and Michael Braungart. The first in the anticipated series of nationwide and international implementation markets will be Roanoke, Virginia, USA.

ifPeople Announces Atlanta Workshop on "The Business Case for Sustainability" for May 26, 2004

"The Business Case for Sustainability: Benefits to business, case studies, and strategies," May 26, 2004 from 9am till noon, in Atlanta, GA.An interactive workshop that will show how business can, and does, benefit from improving social and environmental impacts. The workshop will focus on case studies, practical strategies, and understanding benefits to business from taking sustainable environmental and social practices as an operational strategy.

Seen & Heard at EnvironDesign8: A snapshot of trends, resources, and initiatives

ifPeople's Chris Johnson attended EnviroDesign8 in Minneapolis in April. This event featured many prominent speakers and participants. For those interested in learning more about what happened at the conference and sustainable building trends, we provide this review (not comprehensive!).

Green Festival to feature sustainable businesses. ifPeople in DC GF.

ifPeople will exhibit at the Green Festival in Washington, DC September 18-19. Please join us in this celebration of sustainable business, meet our team, and take advantage of the great speakers and activities.

ifPeople exhibits at Social Enterprise Alliance Gathering

[Feb 27, 2004] ifPeople will be exhibiting this coming week at the largest gathering of social entrepreneurs in North America. Read about our special offers for the event.

A new report on the Business Case for CSR

High performing businesses show a strong correlation between CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities and stronger performance in terms of productivity and profitability than other businesses, according to the analysis conducted by The Work Foundation and The Virtuous Circle. The report, "Achieving High Performance: CSR at the Heart of Business," argues that there is now a sufficient weight of empirical evidence to of the business case for building CSR activities into the heart of business strategy.

ifPeople hosts a booth at 7th Annual Earth Day Celebration

ifPeople will host a booth at the 7th annual Earth Day at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The event will draw the local university population as well as local business and community leaders. Activities include cell phone recycling, live music, a chalking content, a photo gallery and much more. The Earth Day Celebration will be held on Friday April 23rd from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on the Skiles Walkway and the Georgia Tech Plaza. Come join ifPeople and find out about our sustainability solutions and what we are doing do be a sustainable company.

Building Blended Value Event Series Fosters Crossover Between Sectors and Social Enterprises

The Building Blended Value Event Series explores ways of creating synergies among various sectors of related activity--business, social, academic, and government--in an attempt to spark interdisciplinary initiatives and to support those already working across "silos". The series will take place over the 5 months (March 23 to July 30) and will address a variety of related, cross-cutting issues such as the capital challenge, performance metrics, the regulatory environment and other areas critical affecting our work.

Latino Communities at Risk 2004 Report from Sierra Club

The Sierra Club's 2004 Latino Communities at Risk Report details the cumulative impact of the Bush administration's environmental actions on Hispanic communities throughout the country. The report looks behind the policy and the numbers to tell the stories of 12 individuals and families whose health and livelihoods have been directly affected by the Bush administration's environmental policies.

Free Software Conference in Brazil and Microsoft's Reaction

June 2-4, the 5th International Free Software Forum in Brazil, where nearly 5,000 people gathered, including an international selection of academics and technologists, top government officials, and a diverse group of technology developers. What they were so excited about has got Microsoft nervous. For more information and our growing story the conference and its repercussions in Brazil.

A demo for editors

Editors can create forms that are emailed to them (or others)

ifPeople at EnviroDesign 8 Conference, April 21-23

EnvironDesign is a celebration of all the good and positive things that are happening in many market segments in regard to the environment. It is one of the most well-respected symposiums dealing with the topics of sustainable design and business practices and their ability to be incorporated into mainstream America. Now in its eighth year, the EnvironDesign conference has been expanded to strengthen the dialogue between all business-to-business enterprises. During the two-and-a-half day event, participants will have a chance to learn from the visionaries who are changing the environmental landscape in the 21st century.

The Power of Technology for Human Rights: Event Nov 5-7

International Activists Meet to Explore Technology to Document and Prevent Human Rights Abuses, November 5-7 near Boston, MA.

ifPeople at Free Software Conference in Buenos Aires

ifPeople Technology Manager Matt Dorn will be at the Third GNU/Linux and Free Software Open Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 13th presenting on Plone, a powerful Free Software Content Management System built on the Zope application server. Attendees will see how Plone's object-oriented framework allows users to quickly and easily accomplish advanced content management tasks such as the creation of custom content types and the management of multilingual content.

Keeping Old Computers Alive

Is your organization looking to be responsible and wise about how it uses technology and money? If so, you can implement a strategy for proper lifecycle management of computers that extends the useful lifetimes for computers in your organization, bringing financial and environmental benefits.

ifPeople's President to address conference at Stanford

ifPeople's President and co-founder Tirza Hollenhorst will speak in the "Solutions for a Shrinking Planet" conference in Stanford, CA on October 2. She was invited to present ifPeople's business model as an example of sustainable business. The conference, the 2004 Engineers for a Sustainable World National Conference, will feature international participants and speakers in the three-day event.

ifPeople Exhibiting at Green Festival SF

ifPeople is pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting and Green Festival in San Francisco on November 6th and 7th. Green Festival is a celebration of green economy and social change through business. Listen to incredible speakers, eat organic food, and do your holiday shopping all at the San Francisco concourse. Please come see Tirza Hollenhorst, ifPeople President, and Brian Gershon, Technology Project Manager, at booth 736 near the book store.