K. Nicole Kindred – Sustainability Consultant

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend World Pulse LIVE at the Paley Center for Media in New York City.

World Pulse is an organization that strives to bring a voice to women around the globe using new technology and media. One example of this was in the My Camera and Me against a Regime video – a video that was uploaded from a mobile phone by a women who was arrested during a Sudanese protest. World Pulse allows for an online area where women can come together to find and share their success stories.

For World Pulse LIVE, Martha Llano from Colombia, Beatrice Achieng from Uganda, and Sarvina Kang from Cambodia were selected to come to the US to discuss how they are using new media and technology to facilitate them as grassroots leaders.

The women told powerful stories of how they found their voices. In Martha’s talk she spoke about the dangers of living in the Columbia cloud forest and how she had learned to overcome the dangers. When people told her she should carry a gun, she refused, saying “I will not take a gun to speak for me, because I have my own voice and words”. She emphasized the importance of thinking globally and acting locally.

Sarvina told her story of being the only literate individual in a family of 35. She was the only girl in her family and her village to go to college and now has her Master’s in NGO leadership. She emphasized the importance of education for women in creating change and preventing social problems like sex trafficking.

Beatrice told her story of growing up in Uganda and her emphasis on HIV prevention and education. She emphasized how if you give hope to one girl, a grassroots leader will emerge. She told the story of how when her last brother died of AIDS, her mother lost all hope because only men can own land in Uganda; however, after she told her story on the World Pulse platform, the World Pulse members emphasized that they were behind her and she stood up to her village for the land and was able to keep it.

When asked what the women thought would be most beneficial to their communities in spreading their voice, all three women emphasized that their was a lack of technology in their communities, and solar panels would be an easy remedy.

World Pulse LIVE is also available launching an online tour for individuals who are not able to attend the event in person.

In partnership with Opportunity Collaboration and in honor of International Women’s Day, World Pulse is inviting social entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders who work on empowering women and alleviating poverty to apply for the Cordes Foundation Fellowship. This fellowship provides a PulseWire member with the opportunity to participate as a Delegate in the Opportunity Collaboration.

Opportunity Collaboration is a four-day strategic and problem-solving retreat for nonprofit leaders, for-profit social entrepreneurs, funders and social investors. The aim is to break down the silos of unproductive competition and go beyond the boundaries of conventional poverty alleviation. The retreat takes place, October 15-20, 2010 in Ixtapa, Mexico

Fellows participate fully in all aspects of the Opportunity Collaboration. In addition, Fellows may earn a certificate of completion awarded by the University of the Pacific Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship. This on-site professional training symposium covers areas critical to the success of organizations and individuals creating social impact and combating poverty. The curriculum is designed in partnership with the Fellows and other Opportunity Collaboration Delegates.

To learn more about eligibility and the deadline for applying, please visit www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire/groups/17867.

Most of the world’s population lives in urban areas. In the developing world, these urban areas have been drastically increasing in population over the past 50 years. This has lead to higher density and resulted in urban slums as people look for affordable housing options.

A new vision of urban planning was presented in a study issued today.  The vision involves a flexible building design that would allow residents to expand their homes upwards by up to three floors – as and when their families grow – and create socially and economically successful communities that are as dense as, or even denser, than buildings that are up to six floors high.

The new design, which promises a brighter future for millions of the world’s poorest urban citizens, is detailed in a study and multimedia collection funded by the International Institute for Environment and Development and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Its launch today coincides with the opening of the United Nations Fifth World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, where thousands of delegates from governments, academia and nongovernmental organisations will discuss solutions to the
challenges of urbanization.

The following is a short film on the Karachi settlements and the study’s conclusions:

For more information, please visit www.urbandensity.org

Kate_A has put together a collection on Flickr of socially responsible design images called Design Ethics.

There is a growing recognition for socially and ethically conscious design and aims to integrate predictions of our future society. The images give examples of how designers have used their ability and creativity to create impacts on the world’s biggest challenges.

Visit the Design Ethics Flickr set to see some amazing ways that designers are approaching social responsibility.

Givology.org was launched nine months ago by a group of Wharton students as a way of using social networks to connect education with the developing world. The group has so far attracted more than 200 lenders and has partnerships in China, India, Uganda, Ecuador and Kenya with the goal of creating a global community of individuals connected through their belief in the power of education to change people’s lives.

What distinguishes Givology from other organizations is a philosophy of building lasting sponsor-student relationships and cross-cultural communication. Using messaging and blogging system, donors can send messages to a student, as well as receive updates on their progress. Each quarter or semester, student letters, progress updates, and academic documentation are all posted on Givology to allow donors to track their impact in the lives of an individual or a community.

Read an interview with the creators of givology.org at Knowledge@Wharton.

Let your computer do ethical stuff whilst it’s idle.

The World Community Grid aims to create the world’s largest public computing grid to tackle projects that benefit humanity. They have developed the technical infrastructure that serves as the grid’s foundation for scientific research. Our success depends upon individuals collectively contributing their unused computer time to change the world for the better.

The considerable spare capacity of our home computers is used to make lighter work of some of humanity’s most important calculations. The idea is simple: while you use a fraction of your machine’s capacity to go about mundane stuff, IBM’s World Community Grid runs calculations in the background pertaining to molecular mechanics in order to find the next generation of solar cells for Harvard University. Alone, it is estimated, it would take Harvard’s department of chemistry and molecular biology computers some 22 years to do the necessary calculations for the Clean Energy Project, but using our spare computer capacity, researchers hope this can be reduced to a matter of two years.

You can learn more, sign up and Install the grid in your computer at:

This morning’s Sustainability Community Breakfast explored the roles of culture and community in creating sustainability.

The first speaker was Sheila McKinnon, Manager of Arts at Surrey Parks. The City of Surrey was designated as the cultural capital of Canada for 2008 and Sheila discussed the theme of this year’s selection (Fusion-a catalyst for cultural sharing) and the various projects that Surrey participated in throughout the year which contributed to their selection. One source that she cited as her inspiration was the Creative City Network’s special edition on Exploring the Cultural Dimensions of Sustainability. Sheila also discussed the main points behind cultural sustainability including raising awareness, ensuring accessibility, planning a beautiful city, cultural events for tolerance and community pride among other aspects. She also stressed the power of the arts to motivate and move people to participate and create change.

Amir Ali Alibhai, the Cultural Development Officer for North Vancouver’s Office of Cultural Affairs discussed his experience as an art director at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre in Yaletown. He also stressed how art has the power to allow people and communities to shift perspectives and create change and that small individual efforts can make huge changes in the world. He also took time to define sustainability in the cultural process, citing it as a continuing process rather than a final end point that can adapt to change. His strategies to attain cultural sustainability included having all classes work together, participation with all levels of the community (children, elderly, etc.), partnerships with individuals as well as organizations and the creation of special events.

Sheila Hall is an Artist and Instructor at Emily Carr University and primarily discussed her work on her project To Connect. To Connect is a public art project with Metro Vancouver which attempts to engage different cultures with the community while recognizing Vancouver’s unique and diverse history. Sheila Hall also participates in a number of art projects that work with the global community towards sustainability. One of the projects she shared with the breakfast involved working with women in the Philippines to create dresses and fashion from fibers from leaves of pineapples.

Cumulus has created the Aspen Design Challenge – Designing Water’s Future competition for students and recent graduates.

”In March 2008, Cumulus adopted the Kyoto Design Declaration, committing itself and its members to sharing the global responsibility for building sustainable, human-centered and creative societies. As one of the first opportunities to demonstrate the strength and reach of design education and students in addressing global problems, Cumulus faculty and students have been invited to participate in the first of what will become one of the most prestigious annual global design events, the Aspen Design Challenge-Designing Water’s Future.”

AmEx Members Project was set up by American Express as a way to learn about and donate to community projects.

The site currently allows you to browse a number of different projects in different categories (community development, arts, environment, health, education) and nominate your favorite project for funding.

Not only is it interesting to browse all of the projects that people are involved in, but it is also an interesting example of corporate social responsibility and how a business is interacting with the local community and getting people involved in development projects.