Consilience Productions
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Sites that are concerned with economic issues

Be The Cause - This all-volunteer organization has grown substantially since 2001, as their website states:
"What was at first a few friends, is now a network of individuals that inspire acts of compassion throughout their communities. By creating enriching opportunities of service, we benefit the community and change our own lives in the process. The entire organization is run virtually with no office space and entirely through the efforts of volunteers. No salaries are ever administered for the organization. Everyone gives freely of their own time." They sponsor projects throughout the U.S. and the world, including The Malaria Net Project, begun by three volunteers in Africa to purchase mosquito nets for $8.00 each to help prevent malaria.

Calvert Social Investment Foundation - Learn about their Investment, Research and Donation products that support community development organizations, across the country and around the world. Over the past 10 years, the Calvert Foundation has recycled more than $250 million in investments that have helped to create more than 119,000 jobs for low income individuals, built or rehabilitated 6,600 affordable homes, and financed more than 6,900 non-profit facilities, including daycare centers, community health clinics, and schools.

Center for a New American Dream - This organization helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance our quality of life and promote social justice. They work with individuals, institutions, communities and businesses to conserve natural resources, counter the commercialization of our culture and promote positive changes in the way goods are produced and consumed.

Center for Responsible Lending - The Center for Responsible Lending is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting home ownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices. CRL is affiliated with Self-Help, one of the nation's largest community development financial institutions.

Center for Science in the Public Interest - CSPI has long sought to educate the public, advocate government policies that are consistent with scientific evidence on health and environmental issues, and counter industry’s powerful influence on public opinion and public policies.

Charity Navigator - Not certain where you'll be donating some before-tax charity money? Charity Navigator, a non-profit itself, will help you decide. As their web site says, "We help charitable givers make intelligent giving decisions by providing information on over twenty-five hundred charities and by evaluating the financial health of each of these charities." What a great resource - and it's free, too!

Chelsea Green - Interested in learning more about this "new" concept of Sustainable Living? Basically an online bookstore, Chelsea Green lists over 100 books on Sustainable Living, from "Creating Sustainable Cities" to "The Slow Food Guide to New York City" to "You Can Farm." This site is a great resource!

Community Investing - If all socially responsible investors—people who invest with their values—put 1 percent of their portfolios into community investments, it would triple the dollars put into rebuilding disadvantaged communities, from $5 billion in 2000 to $15 billion. $15 billion to build more day care centers and schools. $15 billion to provide micro-loans to single parents or former welfare recipients wanting to start small businesses. $15 billion to help a low-income family build a home, save for their children’s education, or pay debts. Learn more about investing in your community at the Community Investing Center.

Community-Wealth.org - Few Americans are aware of this steady and continuing build-up of new and alternative forms of economic activity through the United States over the past several decades. Their goal is to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date information resource on state-of-the-art strategies for democratic, community-based economic development.

Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development - Consilience is a global online publication dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary dialogue on sustainable development. By providing a public platform for discussion, they hope to encourage a global community to think more broadly, thoroughly and analytically about sustainable development. And they have the same name as us!

The Corporate Library - The Corporate Library is the leading independent source for U.S. corporate governance and executive & director compensation information and analysis. They provide information resources and products that include the most comprehensive collection of corporate governance, executive/director compensation and company performance data ever assembled.

Dean's Beans - Can great coffee make the world a better place? These guys sure are trying! A family-owned certified organic, fair trade, specialty roaster located in New Salem, Massachusetts, Dean himself travels far and wide, from Sumatra to Peru to Ethiopia to buy direct from the farmer and co-op. Their web site is chock-full of information about the strange-but-true coffee industry (with all of their blends priced at $6.50/lb), while focusing on ethical buying and business relationships, progressive development projects, and sound ecological practices.

Dow Jones Sustainability Index - If you're looking to invest in an index of companies that are committed to sustainable growth, check out this web site.

EcologicInvestor.com - The founder of this site, Frank Morris, "wants to facilitate your access to companies providing entrepreneurial solutions to the tragedy of environmental degradation." Companies listed in the ECOLOGICINDEX include Honda, Interface, Ballard, and Horizon, to name only a few. A terrific resource for the growing movement of "Green Capitalism!"

Global Crossroad - Global Crossroad is one of the world’s fastest growing international volunteer organizations. Global Crossroad is committed to providing volunteers with several important elements:

* The opportunity to work with orphaned children, disadvantaged local residents, and rural women’s groups where volunteer efforts will certainly leave lasting, positive results in the lives of the less fortunate.
* Meaningful volunteer abroad opportunities, a caring host family, and the strong field support of a local in-country coordinator and professional staff members.
* The opportunity to travel, to participate in cross-cultural learning, to be part of an exciting expedition, and to experience the potential for earning in our paid English teaching positions.

Green Power Market Development Group - The Green Power Market Development Group (The Green Power Group) is a unique commercial and industrial partnership dedicated to building corporate markets for green power. Its members are Alcoa Inc, Cargill Dow LLC, Delphi Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, Kinko's, Pitney Bowes, and Staples.

Green Power Network - Your one-stop shop for all there is to know about the Green Power Industry. Nationwide, more and more consumers are demanding clean power. Since generating electricity is the number one cause of pollution in the United States, it's no wonder that the Green Power movement is finally catching on. Learn more about this exciting new industry at this incredibly comprehensive web site.

Hiroko Kurihara Design - This is the website of a fabulous textile designer in Oakland, CA, who has created her "blanket * shares * project" whereby she says, "With each item we sell, we donate a scarf or blanket to a member of your local community who is homeless. This act of giving requires no additional purchase…just responsible, ethical consumerism. So enjoy the warmth and the style and know you are also giving much needed comfort to someone else!" Read her story about sustainable consumption and buy her scarfs, blankets, throws, pillows, and hats...

HSBC Bank - In 1992, HSBC Group was one of the founding signatories to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) "Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment and Sustainable Development", the first UN-sponsored charter of responsible environmental conduct endorsed by financial institutions. Since then, the company has been committed to environmental concerns, teaming up with Earthwatch, for instance, by sending over 2000 HSBC employees to work as "junior" researchers on environmental projects around the world. Now here's a company that's investing some money into our preservation as a species!

Institute of Medicine - This highly respected organization has published a series of reports regarding the economics of the uninsured in our society. One finding is that up to 18,000 Americans die each year because of lack of health insurance - an incredible statistic! Another important finding is that the potential economic value to be gained in better health outcomes from uninterrupted coverage for all Americans is now estimated to be between $65 and $130 billion each year. We must find a smart solution to soaring health insurance costs.

Interface, Inc. - The largest commercial carpet manufacturer in the world is committed to sustainable growth in the economy. As their web site states: "Understanding sustainability requires an awareness of how everything we do, everything we take, everything we make and everything we waste affects nature's balance, and how our actions will ultimately affect our children and the children of all species." You go, Interface!

Kaiser Family Foundation - A non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the U.S., as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. They serve as a non-partisan source of facts, information, and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the public. The Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries. The Kaiser Health News site has all the breaking news on the health care industry today.

Media, who owns it? - Columbia Journalism Review's, "Who Owns What" site, details how only a few multi-billion dollar companies own all the media, including, TV, radio, internet, publishing, and film. A fascinating resource for every citizen. Concurrently, FreePress.net has summarized the findings in a concise, easy-to-read format here, detailing the "Big Six" and what they own.

Millennium Project - Millennium Promise’s mission is to encourage individuals and organizations to join the fight against global poverty, disease, and hunger through an unprecedented campaign that draws on the support of all parts of society—individuals, businesses, charitable organizations, faith-based groups, government—to ensure the success of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and the end of extreme poverty by 2025. As an example of a project the Millennium Project is associated with, click here to donate $10 for a mosquito net to save a life in Africa.

MoveYourMoney - The Move Your Money project is a campaign that aims to empower individuals and institutions to divest from the nation's largest Wall Street banks and move to local financial institutions.

New Society Publishers - New Society Publishers' mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

Responsible Wealth - Responsible Wealth, a project of United for a Fair Economy, is a network of over 700 business leaders and wealthy individuals in the top 5% of income and/or wealth in the US (over $200,000 household income and/or over $1 million net assets) who use their surprising voice to advocate for fair taxes and corporate accountability.

RTable.net - Over 80 of the most important economics commentators on the Internet keep you informed about the economic issues of the day.

Self-Help - The nonprofit Center for Community Self-Help provides financing, technical support and advocacy for those left out of the economic mainstream. Since its founding in 1980, Self-Help has reached out to female, rural and minority borrowers across North Carolina, in Washington, D.C., California, and many other states. Over time they have learned, and demonstrated, that low-income borrowers pose no greater credit risk than others.

Simplicity Forum - The Simplicity Forum is a think tank of academics and authors, activist and artists, educators and entrepreneurs who seek to promote simplicity in our work and practice it in our lives.

Social Investment Forum - (SIF) is the only national membership association dedicated to advancing the concept, practice, and growth of socially and environmentally responsible investing (SRI).

SustainableBusiness.com - SB.com is an Internet community for businesses that integrate economic, and social and environmental concerns into their core strategy. In short, they are in the business of helping green businesses grow!

The Ten Dollar Club - As the founder, Adam Roberts, states on this terrific "little" web site, "the $10 Club has presented the world a model of independent, small-scale philanthropy that all should envy."

In the summer of 2002, Adam attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, and realized that national governments move slowly, if at all, in tackling the problems of poverty. So he started this web site, which asks for a ten-dollar contribution that he puts directly into programs to increase educational opportunities, women’s empowerment, water and sanitation availability, health access, delivery of alternative energy, organic agriculture tools and food distribution, and bio diversity conservation across the globe.

One can’t help but be deeply affected at the knowledge that one billion people earn less than a dollar a day, and two billion people lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, or electricity. Learn more about Adam and his wonderful philanthropy at The Ten Dollar Club - you, too, can be a member of this elite society!

Transitions Abroad - This major tool is essential for independent travelers who need to find the timely facts when traveling -- where to go, who to see, where to stay, how to get off the tour bus and go beyond the postcards.

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse - This web site is a comprehensive, independent, and non-partisan tracking source for information about federal enforcement, staffing and spending. For instance, they track spending details for the IRS, FBI, DEA, and the Department of Homeland Security. Run by Syracuse University, you can also sign up for free email alerts when they post a new report.

WIFE.org - The Woman's Institute for Financial Education (WIFE) is the oldest non-profit organization dedicated to providing financial education to women in their quest for financial independence. Every woman needs a WIFE, who counsels and empowers, who listens and advises, and offers comfort when needed.

Woman For Woman International - Women for Women International mobilizes women to change their lives by bringing a holistic approach to addressing the unique needs of women in conflict and post-conflict environments. They are the only organization solely dedicated to women’s development needs that operates in the heart of conflict-afflicted areas in countries such as Congo and Iraq.

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