Great Green Job of the Week: Executive Director, EarthSpark International

EarthSpark International is hiring an Executive Director who shares their vision and convictions. The Executive Director will be an entrepreneurial leader with a capacity for perseverance and innovation, both as an individual and as a team member. This individual will have an enthusiasm for EarthSpark’s mission and will possess the ability to persuade, inspire and motivate others…

Who We Are

Energy poverty is hardship caused by insufficient energy sources and/or their inefficient or deleterious use. EarthSpark International is a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the causes and effects of energy poverty and thereby empower communities in need. EarthSpark achieves this by developing local businesses and country-scale supply chains for clean and efficient energy technologies; providing technical education and training to farmers, students and small and micro-enterprise owners; and mitigating local environmental damage caused by energy poverty.

EarthSpark envisions a world where forests thrive; where schools, hospitals and businesses are reliably powered; where homes have safe, clean energy sources; and where all residents have the opportunities for advancement and health that robust forests and clean energy provide. This spring, EarthSpark launched its pilot Tree Nursery Business Project and Clean Energy Store Project in Haiti. Together, these projects are expected to have a significant impact on two towns with a combined population exceeding 50,000.

Please visit EarthSpark’s website to learn about its history, leaders, and current projects: http://www.earthsparkinternational.org.

Who You Are

We seek to hire an Executive Director who shares EarthSpark’s vision and convictions. The Executive Director will be an entrepreneurial leader with the capacity for perseverance and innovation, both as an individual and as a team member. This individual will have an enthusiasm for EarthSpark’s mission and will possess the ability to persuade, inspire and motivate others. The Executive Director will also be adept at solving the practical problems of daily operations in an entrepreneurial international organization.

Other qualities the Executive Director will possess include:

Collegiality: ability to communicate, listen, and collaborate with partners
Strong sense of self, ethics, and integrity
Ability to learn by doing and to adapt and respond constructively to challenges
Experience working in low-income neighborhoods in the U.S., a developing country, or in the international arena would be valuable but not essential
A willingness to work at EarthSpark sites in Haiti about 25% of the time
Proficiency in Haitian Creole or French would be valuable but not essential
Community organizing experience (e.g., grassroots coalition-building with networks of community leaders and partners) would be valuable but not essential

What You Will Do

Executive Director Primary Responsibilities

Executive Leadership:

Serve as an international ambassador for EarthSpark, strengthening its reputation and public image
Continually refine and improve organizational approaches that support EarthSpark’s mission
Communicate frequently with EarthSpark donors, partners and extended network contacts
Coordinate and lead EarthSpark’s fundraising efforts
Manage day-to-day operations and lead by inspiring and motivating partners, colleagues, and EarthSpark’s extended networks
Engage the Board to help EarthSpark achieve its programmatic, financial and mission objectives
Work cooperatively with the Board to complete and continuously refine EarthSpark’s strategic plan

On-the-Ground Duties:

Market research: requires survey design and analysis; strong familiarity with existing academic and institutional research in the development literature; strong familiarity with existing organizations working at the intersection of energy and development; strong familiarity with social, political and economic conditions of the developing world
Project development: requires cultural awareness; ability to conduct meetings with community associations with a translator; identifying strong, local liaisons and strong, local project managers; ability to set appropriate targets and goals for liaisons and project managers as well as to follow-through on targets
Project follow-through: requires site visits to project; coordination between international and domestic vendors, importers, distributors, and project manager via phone and e-mail

Community Organizing:

Seek out community support and build a base of support in Haiti among community members and existing local organizations in Haiti
Based on community needs and participation, develop projects and programs that further EarthSpark’s mission
Coordinate with EarthSpark partners in Haiti to provide tools and trainings that will allow partners to realize their goals and meet performance targets
Help to implement and evaluate programs that support EarthSpark’s mission and the goals of its partners
Collaborate with partners in Haiti to measure EarthSpark’s impact through rigorous monitoring and evaluation

Supervision and Oversight:

The Executive Director will have a high level of responsibility and autonomy in daily tasks but will collaborate with senior staff on important matters
The Executive Director will answer to the Board of Directors.
Evaluation of the Executive Director will be carried out by the Board and founders annually.

To Apply

We ask that applicants submit their resume and cover letter to info@earthsparkinternational.org by November 15, 2009.

Matt Damon’s Clean Water PSA Freakout

Does Matt Damon secretly have a wicked temper? The Bostonite has been captured on camera giving a verbal ass-kicking to environmentalist and actor Adrian Grenier while filming a PSA for clean water organization OneXOne as Grenier’s fellow Entourage star Jeremy Pervert Piven looks on.

Damon is set to appear in a cameo on Entourage next week promoting OneXOne, which is his real-life charity. Here’s the scoop, from US Magazine via Ecorazzi:

“The joke is that Matt is very passionate about his charity — almost in a stalkerish kind of way,” Adrian Grenier, who plays movie star Vince, said. “Vince becomes intimated by his intensity. He ends up bullying Vince into giving much more than he should.”

Costar Emmanuelle Chriqui, who plays Sloan, added: “Matt gets Vince to make a massive donation. He’s like, ‘Bro – whip out your checkbook!’”

So, of course it’s just promotional for Damon’s appearance on Entourage. But, it’s still funny to see this notorious ‘nice guy’ drop the F-bomb a dozen times in a two-minute clip!

Link [Ecorazzi]

Clean the World Saves Lives with Slivers of Hotel Soap

What happens to those little bars of hotel soap when guests use them a few times and then leave them behind? Too often, they get thrown away, but one organization is putting them to good use, recycling them to improve sanitary conditions in third world countries.

Clean the World partners with hotels to take unused remnants of soap and shampoo, transform them into new bars of soap and deliver them to places where soap is unavailable. As a result, millions of lives can be saved from diseases like acute respiratory illness and diarrheal illness.

From Clean the World:

In an effort to prevent these needless deaths from occurring, Clean the World distributes recycled soap products, along with appropriate educational materials, to impoverished countries worldwide, and to domestic homeless shelters.

CTW has an established international network for the delivery of soap where it is needed most.  Today, CTW leverages missionaries, mission groups, orphanages, and other stable, people-focused groups for distribution. It is important that all goods get into the hands of the people that need it most. In many impoverished countries, the governments are unstable and unable to guarantee distribution of our goods to their people.

Learn more about Clean the World’s recycling methods, statistics on how proper hand washing saves lives and what you can do to help at CleantheWorld.org.

Link [Clean the World]

Healing Help: Program Donates Medical Supplies to the Developing World

Climate change is a more pressing issue than ever, and in order to really tackle it, we’ve got to get the developing world on board. China has already outpaced the United States in greenhouse gas emissions, and India isn’t far behind. Developing countries have got a lot of work ahead of them to get their polluting factories in line with the fight against global warming – but it’s hard to make that a priority when they first need to deal with basic needs, like health care.

The Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) is an organization that sends medical supplies around the world, responding to the dire shortage of quality medicines and primary healthcare. CMMB receives generous donations of medical supplies from partners in the pharmaceutical and medical supplies industries, and distributes them to the places where they’re needed most, free of charge. Since 1928, Healing Help has distributed over $1.7 billion of product to people in need.

Simple items like rubber gloves, syringes, childhood vaccines and painkillers can save lives. This is real and immediate stuff that makes a huge difference for people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to quality medications and supplies.

Show you care – it’s easy to help support this incredible program. Just by adding your name to a relief package, we can build a movement that helps save our planet by starting with humanity. You’ll receive updates on your package’s status and impact.

Check it out today at PackedwithLove.org and tell your friends!

Link [CMMB]

San Francisco Zip Car Lets Charity Workers Drive for Free

Zip Car is giving Bay Area nonprofits a massive break by offering their cars to charity workers for free. This generous program is designed to help the organizations get through the current donation slump that has deeply affected their budgets. Among the workers who have gotten to drive around for free are volunteers who help seniors switch their analog televisions to digital, after-school art teachers, environmentalists planting trees and Big Brothers and Sisters who mentor kids.

From SF Gate:

“I believe it’s part of doing business; it’s part of being a human being,” said Michael Uribe, general manager of Zipcar San Francisco.

“We get to come to work and contribute to the larger social network. How cool is that?” he said.

Fees averaging $70 a day are waived for Bay Area artists with HIV who need to haul their canvasses to exhibitions sponsored by the nonprofit Visual Aid, employees who need to pick up supplies for author Dave Eggers’ 826 Valencia writing center, and to Meals on Wheels drivers bringing hot food to the homebound. In March, Zipcar will lend 10 trucks to Friends of the Urban Forest to plant trees throughout San Francisco parks and residential neighborhoods.

Zip Car, which has been around for nearly a decade, has yet to turn a profit – but growing demand in cities with a high parking-hassle factor like San Francisco and New York have helped position the company as a creative social entrepreneur.

Helping people in need, even when they aren’t rolling in cash themselves – now that’s something to be proud of. Let’s get the word out about Zip Car’s good deeds. Knowing that they are providing such an unselfish service to volunteers in San Francisco makes me want to help them become more successful themselves.

Link [SF Gate]
Photo credit: Frederic Larson / The Chronicle

Help Celestial Seasonings Plant 1 Million Trees

Enjoy a cup of tea, and help Celestial Seasonings plant up to 1 million trees. When you buy any variety of tea from Celestial Seasonings between January 1st and March 31st, you’re supporting tree planting around the world. The tea company is partnering with Trees for the Future to improve the standards of living of people in developing countries through beneficial tree planting and resource education.

From Celestial Seasonings:

You can help support Trees for the Future just by purchasing your favorite Celestial Seasonings teas. For every box of tea you buy between January 1 and March 31, Celestial Seasonings will sponsor the planting of trees all around the world—up to one million trees in all. You might say we’re planting trees one cup at a time!

You can also plant a tree in our virtual forest generated entirely by fellow users. For each virtual tree planted, Celestial Seasonings will sponsor the planting of one real tree, up to 50,000 more. Click here to get started.

With your help, we can help provide residents of developing countries with plentiful food, clean drinking water, and ample supplies of renewable wood for heating and cooking.

This is a great, virtually effortless way to help a good cause. Drink tea, and they’ll plant a tree for you. It doesn’t get much easier than that! You can also plant one ‘virtual’ tree on the Celestial Seasonings website, and for every virtual tree planted, they’ll plant a real one.

Link [Celestial Seasonings]

Andira Rain Tees: Supporting Education and Fair Trade While Saving the Rainforest

Help save Central and South American rainforests, one t-shirt at a time, with Andira Rain Tees. For every Rain Tee sold, a child living in endangered tropical rainforest land is given a tree to plant. Each tee features the thoughts and illustrations of children living in these areas of Central and South America – illustrations that show a love for their natural environment and a sadness about the rainforest destruction that they witness every day.

The Andira Rain Tee collection uses sustainable and earth-friendly fabrics like bamboo and organic cotton and supports fair trade practices. Andira, founded by Beth Doane, also offers a “Rescue an Animal” program through the charity Merazonia, located deep in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador – learn more here.

Andira Rain Tee designs are beautiful and playful and provoke thought about how important it is to protect and preserve the rainforests of the world – not just for the children who live there but for the good of the entire planet. The Andira Rain Tee collection includes six women’s t-shirt designs, 4 children’s t-shirt designs and a Rain Tee story tote. Check it all out at RainTees.com.

Link [Rain Tees]

Send a 1Sky Green New Year’s E-Card

Keep sustainability at the forefront of your friends’ and family’s minds by sending them e-cards from 1Sky, an organization that is working to build a diverse, society-wide mobilization to convince the U.S. government to take bold action on climate change by 2010. Choose from three designs including Obama’s New Year’s resolutions, ‘One Ball We Can’t Let Drop’ and one that illustrates a potential effect of global warming.

What 1Sky’s all about:

1Sky was created in 2007 to focus the power of millions of concerned Americans on a single goal: bold federal action by 2010 that can reverse global warming. The 1Sky Solutions are grounded in scientific necessity—they are the bottom line of what’s needed to dramatically reduce carbon emissions while maximizing energy efficiency, renewable energy and breakthrough technologies. They also represent significant economic promise. By pivoting to a clean energy economy, we can relieve our dependence on foreign oil, unlock the potential of sustainable industry and usher in a new era of prosperity and green jobs.

American citizens are building support for the 1Sky Solutions in key Congressional districts on a non-partisan basis, using cutting-edge communications, Internet and old-fashioned neighbor-to-neighbor outreach. To get our leaders to take action, the 1Sky community is bringing together an incredibly diverse range of individuals and organizations in a collaborative effort. With the help of many leaders and groups, 1Sky has already gained the support of elected officials, student and business groups, and faith-based institutions, as well as organizations focused on health, civil society and the environment—and now we need you.

1Sky wants to involve as many people as possible in their grassroots movement for change. That means getting the word out, so send these e-cards or invite your friends to join the 1Sky email list.

Link [1Sky]

Oxfam America Unwrapped: Give Gifts to the People Who Need Them Most

We’re in the home stretch as far as gift-giving goes – you’re almost left with no option but to see what’s still remaining on the disheveled shelves at Walgreens (sorry, but the answer to that is inevitably an Ove Glove, some candy and a Barbie pocket mirror).  If you still want to give a meaningful gift, however, we’ve got just the one: an eCard from Oxfam America Unwrapped.

Oxfam America Unwrapped allows you to choose a gift item that symbolically represents Oxfam’s work – like a goat, seeds, a bicycle, land irrigation, stocking a cereal bank or even starting a small business. If your recipient is a schoolteacher, you could choose to purchase school supplies for children in need, or if she’s a nurse, you could buy a medical kit.

The item you purchase is a contribution toward Oxfam America’s many programs throughout the world. You purchase an item, a printed card goes to your recipient and the gift goes to those who need it most.

Here’s an explanation of how it works:

As long as your recipient has an email address, you can send them notification that you’ve donated to Oxfam America in their name. A printed card will still follow, albeit a week or so after Christmas. To this, go through the regular purchase process on the Oxfam site and then click on ‘Tell a Friend’ up top. Choose an eCard to send, and in the message section, let your friend know that you’ve donated to Oxfam as a gift to them and to expect a card in the mail. You can also use these Oxfam eCards to spread the word to others about this great program.

Instant feel-good gifts, customized to the recipient’s interests. Instead of rushing around to buy someone a piece of crap they don’t really want, you’re really making a difference – and isn’t that what it’s all about?

Link [Oxfam America Unwrapped]

FreeRice.com: Improve Your Vocabulary, Feed Hungry People

When you’re bored – or avoiding work – it’s easy to get sucked in to reading gossip, playing games, and mindlessly surfing the internet. But, you can fritter away your time, improve your vocabulary and, amazingly enough, send rice to starving people all over the world instead. The website FreeRice.com donates 20 grains of rice for every vocabulary question you gaet right to the UN World Food Program.

From the FreeRice website:

Do I really make a difference by playing FreeRice?

The rice you donate makes a huge difference to the person who receives it. According to the United Nations, about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of them children. Though 20 grains of rice may seem like a small amount, it is important to remember that while you are playing, so are thousands of other people at the same time. It is everyone together that makes the difference. Thanks to you, FreeRice has generated enough rice to feed more than two million people since it started in October 2007.

The rice is paid for by the sponsors whose names you see on the bottom of your screen when you enter a correct answer. These sponsors support both learning (free education for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We thank these sponsors for their generous participation at FreeRice. For information about how you or your company can sponsor FreeRice, please email freerice.rep@wfp.org.

Give it a try! It’s really addictive. In getting sucked into Free Rice I’ve noticed that words do tend to repeat a bit too often, and as a former English major I find a lot of the words insultingly easy, but there’s a good mix of appropriately obscure words thrown in.

In addition to vocabulary, you can change subjects to instead answer questions about famous paintings, chemical symbols, geography, language learning and even math. Give your brain a workout and help Free Rice feed the hungry – it’s a win-win.

Link [FreeRice.com]

Schwaggin Wagon Collecting Donations on the Road This Summer

If you’ve ever been to a convention, you probably have some of this junk sitting around your office or home: mugs, hats, pens, calendars and other items emblazoned with corporate logos.  You may use some of them for a little while but chances are, before long they’ll end up in the trash.  The brains behind The Schwaggin’ Wagon, Michael Liskin and David Preciado, realized how wasteful that really is one evening over some Thai food, and decided to do something about it.  The Schwaggin’ Wagon, which runs on sponsorships, travels to conventions and takes all that schwag that no one wants and donates it to charity.

The Schwaggin’ Wagon will be at Twiistup4 and the Mashable Summer Tour collecting items and cash donations to benefit Operation Gratitude, a charity that sends care packages to U.S. troops abroad.  The troops love stuff like flash drives, hats and t-shirts, and they share the novelty items with local children in the communities they patrol as a means of promoting goodwill.

Both Twiistup4 and the Mashable Summer Tour are going to be hot events with edgy Web 2.0 companies, influential bloggers and other digerati in attendance.  Mashable’s 2008 Summer Tour will cover 7 cities in less than 1 month, with 500 to 900 attendees per event and will include networking, formal introductions to sponsors, music and appetizers.  Twiistup events connect people from technology, media and entertainment, featuring several startups chosen to show off their products and services to influential bloggers, techies, investors and the media.

Both events are sold out, but you can still contact Schwaggin’ Wagon about sponsorships to help them do what they do best – educate the public about conservation and sustainability, specifically in the recycling and re-purposing of branded schwag.

We love that the Schwaggin’ Wagon is not just making sure that all that junk doesn’t clog the landfills – they’re giving it to people in need.  What an awesome concept.  What we love even more is how they’ve chosen to get their message out – they promote eco-conscious behaviors and party like rock starts at the same time.

Link [Schwaggin’ Wagon] + [Operation Gratitude] + [Twiistup4] + [Mashable Summer Tour]