Are we applying the same principles of environmental sustainability to people in the workplace? This was the topic for a recent panel discussion put together by the Sustainable Business Alliance at the Hub Berkeley. The panelists included: Matt Bauer, President of BetterWorld Telecom, Jennifer Freitas, Human Resource Manager at Clif Bar, and Dr....

What precisely is Clean Tech? This vague, hip and ever buzzing emerging field in and around Silicon Valley is not obvious to someone not already in the know. With terms like “sustainability” and “green industry” being used freely and indiscriminately in public discourse, this event was a breath of fresh air, bringing the vague and broad reaching dimensions of “Clean Tech” into focus....

Part of what makes us passionate about our work here at BetterWorld Telecom is our company commitment to use business as a lever for good and to give back to our communities through volunteering and donations. One of our donation recipients is Ashoka Youth Venture, an inspiring program that enables young people to learn early in life that they can lead social change....

BetterWorld was out with the wonderful people of Earth Policy Institute (EPI) last week. BetterWorld has collaborated with EPI on webinars, donated to them and currently proudly serves them as member of our customer family. EPI was founded by the former president of the Worldwatch Institute and renowned environmentalist thoughtleaders, Lester Brown....

President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that the US needs to out-innovate, out-build, and out-educate the rest of the world. To that end, members of the administration have been traveling around the country to meet up with business leaders in roundtable discussions and learn how best to support them....

BetterWorld is honored to support an organization doing so much for conservation and education about our natural environment right here in the Bay Area. Golden Gate Audubon has worked tirelessly since 1917 to preserve and protect local birds and their habitats. Recently, Audubon has been responsible for the agreement by the wind industry at Altamont Pass to shift their windmills over the next four years and avoid the death of 4,700 birds annually....

The BetterWorld Team was out at the Investors' Circle Spring Venture Fair and Forum in San Francisco yesterday and today. Investors' Circle is a network of over 150 angel investors, professional venture capitalists, foundations and family offices who are using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy. Since 1992, Investors' Circle has facilitated the flow of over $145 million into more than 220 companies and small funds addressing social and environmental issues....

BetterWorld’s Ali Gunertem was out for Earth Day at Ben Brenman Park in Alexandria along with thousands of others and the Mayor William D. Euille! Among the highlights: exhibitions, environmental display, food, jazz music, poetry, free parking, and a tree sale. BetterWorld’s Salem Kimble was out for Earth Day at Civic Center Park in Berkeley CA and test drove the new electric Chevy Volt....

How do we create social change and speed up innovation and at the same time, provide access and mentoring for young business minds with great ideas? William James Foundation tackles both of these challenges with an annual business competition for the world’s young sustainable entrepreneurs. BetterWorld Telecom is proud to support this project and serve as a reading judge this year for the William James Foundation Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition....

BetterWorld Telecom believes in giving back to the community, and that translates directly into volunteering hours for everything from house-building to helping out in schools. BetterWorld’s Ali Gunertem volunteered this past week at Hope Montessori School.”It was fun to help the youth at Hope Montessori School and interact with them and their parents, while helping the faculty of the school,” he said....

As part of Habitat for Humanity’s 2011 Earth Day Build-a-Thon, some of BetterWorld’s team was on hand for executive build day. We were joined by executives from many of the Bay area’s leading companies including Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab, Coldwell Banker, Chevron and Cisco. Habitat for Humanity is an extraordinary non-profit organization building simple, decent, affordable housing and organizing myriad events and opportunities for volunteers to have a hand in the process alongside Habitat families....

What if companies were evaluated not just by their profits, but by the way they treated their employees and the democracy of their workplaces? WorldBlu does exactly that by providing in-depth surveys for organizations and their employees to anonymously rate their workplaces on transparency. Working to create happy, engaged workplaces – their rating system creates standards for what would otherwise be largely intangible....

What does business 3.0 look like? How are successful companies reshaping the landscape and the workplace? With a packed schedule of speakers, TEDx Presidio was a heavy hitting dose of trailblazers from the Bay Area and beyond. Hosts Deb Nelson of Social Venture Network and Darian Rodriguez Heyman of Code Green Agency, started off the day with the question: What’s the difference between a dreamer and a visionary?...

Is it possible for corporations to be guided by and operated with a primary goal of creating benefit for society and the planet? B Corp says yes, and can back it up, with over 400 member businesses and $2 billion in collective member revenue. It was a diverse group of people drawn to Sustainovations B Corp event; everyone from Palo Alto venture capital folks and consultants to sustainability focused individuals connected with Slow Food South Bay....

BetterWorld Telecom President, Matt Bauer, went onsite this week with BetterWorld customer, South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center (SLTWC). SLTWC is up to great things, and we wanted to share a some of the important work they do with you in this week’s blog post. SLTWC is a committed group of people doing important work for women and families....

We were out and about this past weekend (March 5th) at the San Francisco HULT Global Case Challenge Regional Event. I was happy to have an opportunity to be a part of the crowd and present along with Water.org and the Clinton Global Initiative. The HULT Global Case Challenge commits to tackling the world’s toughest social challenges through crowd-sourcing innovative ideas and solutions from the world’s best and brightest business school students....

Bring together tech geeks and people focused on living mindfully and what do you get? An amazing discussion about the future of communication technology and how we can use it to enhance our quality of life rather than have it lead to distracted, fragmented attention and social connections.Wisdom 2.0 Founder Soren Gordhamer, Roshi Joan Halifax, Kevin Rose, Eric Schiermeyer, Chris Sacca, and Bradley Horowitz...

So, we decided to dig a little deeper. We found that there are some telecom recyclers that accept telecom, but only certain kinds of telecom equipment. Some recyclers will not pick up old phones or ask that you pay for the pick-up. We found there are very few locations that offer full-service telecom recycling and include pickup....

BetterWorld was honored to be a part of a convening of funders, corporate donors, social media experts, capacity-building organizations and the fulcrum of all of these amazing networks, TechSoup Global. The summit has focused on how BetterWorld and other participants can create greater impact through the extraordinary network of partners that comprise TechSoup’s global contributors....

In support of Telework Week (February 14-18), TechSoup Global graciously hosted a Live Webinar on February 3rd featuring BetterWorld’s President, Matthew Bauer: Is It Time To Upgrade Your Phone System? BetterWorld was given the opportunity on the webinar to help organizations better understand telecom services, systems and products and illuminate a key area that many have difficulty with today: “How to assess and evaluate your current phone systems and telecom services....

Some great news out of the gates for B Corps in 2011: BetterWorld helped launch B Corps for Non Profits in January, a group of companies that dedicated much or all of their time and energy towards helping to enable and strengthen non-profits around the country and world – here’s a great article on Guidestar about the group – http://trust....

As is our annual BetterBlog tradition, we mark the passing of each January 1st with some reflection and highlights of the previous year. As we make the turn into 2011, the BetterWorld team is excited as 2010, on almost every front, was our best to date – from new partnerships, to customers, expanding our mission and furthering our efforts to provide a concrete example and direction for how the telecoms industry can be a social and environmental leader, our pathway has never been more clear....

“There is no escaping the reality that we have evolved into a society in which electronic information represents the substrate of much of daily life…If we do not take this moment to secure our sovereignty over the choices that our information age has allowed us to enjoy, we cannot reasonably blame its loss on those who are free to enrich themselves by taking it from us in a manner history has foretold....

This past week, President Obama signed into Law H.R. 1722, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, into law. The House of Representatives passed the bill last Thursday with a bipartisan vote of 254 to 152. The Senate passed the final version of the legislation by unanimous consent on September 29....

The team at BetterWorld is excited to be featured in the first national ad campaign about the community of Certified B Corporations that launched today. The ad campaign is the work of the nonprofit B Lab which certifies B Corporations as having met rigorous, transparent standards of social and environmental performance....