Everyone knows when school is back in session when the office lunch room is scattered with catalogs of cookies, candles and gift wrap. It means school fundraising has begun. Luckily, there is now a better alternative called Greenfundraising (www.greenraising.com).

From their website:   Read more...

Notice I didn't say "cheap" living...being frugal doesn't mean becoming a curmudgeonly miser, hoarding your pennies in a corner. Frugal living, especially right now, means making smarter choices so that the money you work for goes a little further than it did before.

With today's headlines reminding us that things are probably going to get worse before they get better, now is a great time to review spending habits and figure out where you can save a little more here and there. And no, it's not about cutting out all the fun! It's about using common sense when it comes to purchasing. Want has replaced need in our culture - how can we tell anymore whether we truly have to have something? Let's recalibrate and start listening to those wise voices in the finance world who know that it's all about balance and making smart choices.   Read more...

Inmates in the UK are becoming conservationists as they use their time behind bars to help protect vital natural habitats that are home to rare species.

The work, which involves inmates and conservation volunteers, ranges from building bird and bat boxes to surveying bird species from cell windows and constructing purpose-built habitats, such as ponds. Their actions are aimed to protecting the nation’s biodiversity.   Read more...

New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (www.ywse.org/nywse) is hosting its inaugural event in its Breakfast Series in NYC on November 7, 2008 to ensure that women can find the help and resources they need to step up the sustainability efforts of their firms.

Corporate leaders confronted by the twin challenges of peak oil and rising environmental and social concerns have an ally in their employees, if they can just figure out how to help their employees harness their concerns in ways that bring benefit to the brand and company.   Read more...

Americans are the only ones who can elect the United States president, but the 2008 election offers a unique opportunity to harvest global commentary on America's politics and foreign policy and how it affects the rest of the world.

Voices Without Votes highlights conversations in non-American blogs and citizen media, with emphasis on the regions such as Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Their goal is to monitor global citizen media responses, illuminate the effect of US foreign policy abroad, and to enable readers to experience American events through the eyes of ordinary citizens from outside the United States.   Read more...

Xerox Corporation is unveiling its erasable paper to the public for the first time this week. The experimental paper can be printed on again and again, reducing paper use in the office and cutting back waste.

The erasable paper is coated with chemicals that react to light of a specific wavelength. When the paper is exposed to that wavelength, it creates visible text on the page. Within 24 hours, the paper erases itself and can be used again--good news in offices where 40% of all printouts are discarded the day they are printed.   Read more...

On this tenth evening of The Globalised Crystal Ball we will turn the discussion to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). What place do they have in the international system of the future? What effects will economic and political power shifts have for development cooperation? Some of the reasons behind development aid- equality ideals, unfair distribution of wealth, colonial history, white man’s burden- certainly carry less weight for the new future super powers. Will that hamper achieving the MDGs? Or does it offer the greatest possibilities, achieving the goals not through aid, but through growth? Has the time perhaps come for a shift from a ‘planners’ paradigm to a ‘searchers’ paradigm?

Wilbur Perlot will discuss these questions with international panellists Wendy Harcourt and Richard Kavuma.   Read more...

In response to people asking "what can I do," founder of the Genocide Intervention Network Mark Hanis created a program of three tools anyone can use to help fight genocide.   Read more...

October is Fair Trade Month, designed to educate others about the importance of fair trade and encourage them to buy fair trade products.

The goal of fair trade is to empower producers in developing countries, advocate for a fair price for their goods, and to establish social and environmental standards for the production of those goods. (Find out more from Wikipedia:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade).   Read more...

The founder of First30days.com, Ariane de Bonvoisin, shared some tips for getting through job loss with the New York Daily News that are especially timely. It's not your run of the mill "network, network, network" spiel.

Some interesting ideas include:

-Embracing transition. The next job you take may be a transitional one. Whether it's full or part time, embrace it. Every experience is a valuable one and you never know where it may lead. It's okay to freelance or find part-time work to create cash flow until you find a better position.   Read more...