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Excerpted from BetterWorld Insights Newsletter.

Happy New Year!

Delancey Street Donation
On behalf of our customers, we’re celebrating this holiday season with a donation to the Delancey Street Foundation. Now in it’s 40th yr., Delancey is a community where people with nowhere to turn, turn their lives around. If every community had a Delancey Street it would truly be a BetterWorld.

BetterWorld Makes 2011 Inc. 500|5000
As 2011 comes to a close, we’d like to send a big shout out to you, our customers, who helped BetterWorld Telecom become the 3,531st fastest growing private company in the U.S.  BetterWorld and the other companies on this year’s list created 350K jobs over the past 3 years, and economic stimulus of 366B.

BetterWorld has teamed up with SalesForce.com to roll out their new industry-leading Customer Service Portal. This new online service center will be available to all BetterWorld customers by the end of the first quarter of 2012.

New Streamline CARE Features Include:

• Submit & Manage Trouble Tickets - Access to online trouble ticket creation and status
• Social Media Options -  Ability to submit tickets and connect with BetterWorld via Twitter
• Contact Info & Services - Ability to update key account data and manage your BetterWorld services

Net Neutrality
A free and open Internet is critical to modern society and business.  However,  large companies that own the highways of the Internet are seeking to centralize and control the content & put up toll booths.  This would follow the same pattern as telephony, movies, radio & TV and other media.  At BetterWorld Telecom, we support a free and open Internet with equal access for all, where innovation can thrive and are taking net neutrality up as one of our causes in 2012. Stay tuned for the first event of the BetterWorld Forum series, which will be held this January in San Francisco.

Telecom for Non-profits
BetterWorld donated 1000’s of phones to non-profits in 2011.  The BetterWorld - TechSoup program offers donations and discounts to U.S. non-profits. Now that’s Telecom for Good.

FishWise Case Study

BetterWorld in the Media
New Video - Our Customers and Partners speak out

BetterWorld featured on The Wendel Forum

“Keep the Internet Free and Open” by BetterWorld Pres in TheHill.com

New Resource Library
Make the most of your BetterWorld voice and data services with our Online Resource Center. From hardware to services, this is your one-stop for all information on BetterWorld Solutions.

Announcing the BetterWorld Bike Team 2012 - Stay tuned for more info & schedule.

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

The panels consisted of tech heavy weights like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and eBay alongside mindfulness teachers like Jack Kornfield and Jon Kabat-Zinn. This year’s conference even included a civic representative with Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio, discussing the benefits of bringing mindfulness into public schools. With a sold-out conference and over 288,000 views from all over the world on the online live video feed, it was evident this discussion about intelligent and mindful use of technology is timely and strikes a chord across professions and industries.

What does it mean that the next generation will grow up with continual connectivity? A toddler who knows their uncle by skype only. Teenagers with early onset repetitive motion injuries from texting continuously. Youth whose sense of self is closely connected with their ability to update their status to their social networks.
Technology is intimately twined in every area of our lives and it both super charges our effectiveness and creates the opportunity for endless distraction.

How can we use technology to make our work, connections and lives richer?

A few excerpts:

“Most internet companies have a five year life span of strong popularity. Knowing that everything will pass, being mindful is a meaningful long range goal.”   - Kevin Rose, Founder, Digg

“We have adopted the practice of requiring meetings to have someone who has ownership over the proceedings. If they are not fully prepared and the meeting is not useful, then attendees can walk out regardless of position or status. It has led to much more effective meetings.” - Bradley Horowitz, Vice President of Google

“Twitter allows for internal values to be externalized, which an external audience can hold you to.”
- Chris Sacca, Strategic Advisor, Twitter

“Meditation has three parts: 1) attention (calmness & clarity), 2) insight (self reflection) and 3) creating mindset (wanting best for all creatures), the only state that requires space alone is attention.
- Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow (Head of Personal Growth), Google

“Use traffic lights as an opportunity to breath mindfully.”
- Gopi Kalliyil, Group Marketing Manager, Google

“We function on an Ultradian rhythm, which means we have 90 min waves of concentration. We override this rhythm with stress hormones, sugar, and continuous connectivity, but we are less effective.”
- Tony Schwartz, Author, “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working”

The conference also included two case studies of mindfulness practices brought into a corporate setting with outstanding results.
Todd Pierce, Vice President, Genentech and mindfulness teacher Pamela Weiss created a year long Personal Excellence course at Genentech, which led to increased resiliency of staff in face of a later merger and overwhelming positive feedback from participants. Rich Fernandez, Head of Learning and OD, eBay, organized lecture series and ongoing programs on mindfulness at eBay  (inspired by last year’s Wisdom 2.0 conference), which continue to grow in popularity and attendance.

Using technology to increase mindful living can seem like a paradox (like tweeting about future plans to not tweet), but it’s helpful to remember that communication technology was created in service of our needs and not the other way around.

Videos from the conference will be available in the near future on the Wisdom 2.0 website.

In service,

Salem Kimble & The BetterWorld Team

In preparation for our recent webinar with TechSoup Global, BetterWorld was asked “What do we do with our old phones and telecom equipment?”  As always, we suggested GoodWill or Earth911.com and were faced with additional questions and concerns:  “Who will pick up the equipment?”  “Where do we drop it off?”  “This recycling company says we have to pay them to pick up our equipment.”

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.

Then there is the most important question, “Is the recycling being done in an ethical, sustainable, environmentally friendly manner.  We want to ensure that our customers and supporters are aware,  there is a difference in recyclers and we support ethical recycling practices.

We contacted a few recyclers and found that while many have not received a certification of any kind (due to cost, time constraints or other causes), they claim to practice ethical standards.  However, the only way to be certain is to follow them or contact one of the certification boards (link later on in the blog) to inquire into the reputation of the company.

Steps to find an Electronics Recycler (eCycler)

Web resources:
The Natural Resources Defense Council has endorsed this e-Stewards Certification program:

http://e-stewards.org/find-a-recycler/

The Environmental Protection Agency’s eCycling website has eCycling partners, lists and more:

http://epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm

TechSoup Global has also compiled a list:

http://www.techsoup.org/maintenance/page12738.cfm.

A note of caution - be careful not to search the internet for “Phone Recycling.”  This will lead you to cell phone recyclers…lots and lots of cell phone recyclers.  Search for the term “Telecom Recycling.”

Once you find a telecom recycler, the following questions are helpful:

1) “Do you pick up?”  If yes,  “Do you pick up old phones as well as the other equipment?”  Some locations will ask the make and model of your phones before picking up.  The reason for this is that some providers have agreements with telecom recyclers and in these cases, they may pick up your phones for free.  Odds are, you will have luck finding someone to pick up your phones at no charge if you’re persistent and patient.

2) “Is there a charge associated?”  If so, go on to the next recycler. You’ll find one that doesn’t charge.  There are national telecom recyclers as well and they sometimes have regular pickup locations.  You may need to travel to a location on a specific date.

3) “Are you certified?”  While certification is not a requirement in many states and not a federal requirement, this question helps illuminate recycler practices.  For more info about the issues surrounding electronic recycling, watch the Electronic Wasteland video from 60 Minutes or utilize the Basel Action Network (BAN) site:  http://www.ban.org.

Electronic Wasteland

There are several certifications available to recyclers.  Some of the most relevant for telecom recyclers can be found at the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board http://www.anab.org/accreditation/recycling.aspx.

We hope this post has helped to clarify telecom recycling options and we wish you the best of luck when (and if) you recycle your old telecom equipment.

- Robin Campos & the BetterWorld Telecom Team

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.

This is important because the combination of product donations, data services and human capacity has the potential to help build a truly resilient civil society.

Some of the topics for the summit include:

Communities of Practice in the Age of Facebook - Is there a place for projects like Idealist, Wiser Earth and Jumo to bridge the gap of activism out in the real world contrasted to the activism of Causes on Facebook?

Cloud Computing - Provides extraordinary benefits in new functionality and cost savings and is the direction that countries, corporations and non-profits are headed, but how do we address broadband access challenges, security concerns, and effective financial models in this new system?

Civil Society Resilience - How to support and reinforce community serving organizations and citizen engagement through global transparent databases?

We are excited for the 3+ projects (committed to ahead of time)  that will come out of this summit comprised of technology corporations, foundations, government institutions, grassroots catalysts and others.

Learn more on twitter at #tsg2011.

We’re proud to be a part of this extraordinary effort.

For a better world,

BetterWorld Telecom Team

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.”

TechSoup recorded the webinar and also provided a forum for questions or comments.

Many participants of the webinar wanted to know how to dispose of or what to do with their old phones.  While BetterWorld has always referred our customers to Earth911.com, local GoodWill stores or to Recycle.net, we decided to make some calls and research to better answer this question for organizations who want to know.  We found, interestingly enough, that it’s really difficult to recycle your old phones and telecom equipment.  Please look forward to an upcoming blog on the topic, Recycling Telecom, for more information about this subject next week.

To listen and/or view the recorded TechSoup/BetterWorld Webinar click here.

Please read below to learn more abou the BetterWorld/TechSoup Global national non-profit donation program from our earlier blog post or click here.

And, if inspired, please take a moment to pledge your support for Telework Week here.

by Robin Campos

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.

Check out the B Corporation Ad site here…

The campaign invites more than 17MM conscious consumers and sustainable business leaders to learn more about ‘a better way of doing business’ through media partnerships with Ogden Publications, publisher of sustainable living magazines like Mother Earth News, Natural Home, and Utne Reader, Care2.com, the largest online community of citizen activists, and Sustainable Industries, the business source for leaders of the new economy. The ads feature more than 60 of the 330 Certified B Corps in home and office settings with the unifying message ‘Better Companies Make Better Products.  B Corps are Better Companies.’

“On the heels of economic and environmental disasters, Americans are hungry for a better way to do business,” said Jay Coen Gilbert, co founder of B Lab. “The B Corp campaign makes it easier for Americans to find companies like BetterWorld Telecom worthy of their support,” Coen Gilbert added.

In research conducted for the campaign with values-driven consumers by brand innovation firm BBMG, over 90% said they’d look out for the featured B Corps the next time they went shopping, or at least want to learn more about them.  “The B Corp campaign resonates because consumers care about the companies that stand behind the products”, said Raphael Bemporad, partner at BBMG.  “Beyond the value of a trusted third party seal, the transparency requirements for B Corp certification enable consumers to do their own research to distinguish good companies from just good marketing,” Bemporad continued.

To earn certification, B Corporations must achieve a minimum score on the B Impact Rating System, which assesses a company’s impact on its workforce, suppliers, consumers, community, and the environment, and are legally required to consider the interests of these stakeholders, not just shareholders, when making decisions. To see BetterWorld’s Certification, click here.

Onward and upward B Corporations!

In partnership,

The BetterWorld Team

We were fortunate to be present and help sponsor last week the 15th Anniversary of Groundwire’s founding, originally started as ONE/Northwest.  Groundwire is a truly innovative organization with a storied history of impact and innovation for environmental non-profits in the Northwest and across the U.S.

A who’s who of environmental leaders from Seattle were on hand to hear co-founders and enviro rockstars Dennis Hayes (President and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, founder of Earth Day) and Paul Brainerd (President of the Brainerd Foundation, co-founder of Islandwood, Social Venture Partners) lead off the festivities at the beautiful Colman Estate in West Seattle with some historical perspectives and their pioneering efforts in the environmental movement.  They then handed the baton to Groundwire’s new Executive Director, Neil Myrick, who discussed Groundwire’s ambitious plans for the coming months and years.

Groundwire is focused on building online tools and strategies for environmental non-profits to create a more sustainable world. They are a nonprofit deeply committed to creating a sustainable society and believe their work helps bring about the change needed to sustain the planet for centuries to come. Because they are so passionate about getting people inspired and engaged in the building of a sustainable society – locally, nationally, globally – they are totally focused on making sure hundreds of environmental groups have the online tools needed to accomplish real social change.

Through generous funders and individual donations they are able to subsidize the cost to environmental nonprofits.  They are experts in tools used to build websites, databases, and email & social media tools.

Congratulations to the Groundwire staff and supporters for raising over $27,000 from this event and reaching their matching grant goals to help fund Groundwire Labs.  We look forward to working with Groundwire in the months and years to come & hopefully finding some amazing partnership opportunities to help bolster their critical mission.

For more information and how you can get involved: www.groundwire.org

In service,

Gina and Matt

Over the past week, the BetterWorld team has been so fortunate to attend a number of events around the 2010 Sustainable Industries Economic Forums featuring Architecture for Humanity founder and CEO, Cameron Sinclair.  Kudos to our partner and customer Sustainable Industries for continuing to lead the way in Sustainable media, with their newly redesigned website, magazine and pace-setting Economic Forum series, they are proving without a doubt that SI is a voice rising above the rest.

In a word, inspirational.  We witnessed Cameron Sinclair bring down the house in both San Francisco and Seattle and were able to attend the SI sponsor event in Seattle, held at the downtown campus of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, also BetterWorld customer and partner.

Here’s a great excerpt from the SI site reviewing the San Francisco event last week:

“Last time Cameron Sinclair was on a West Coast speaking tour was almost a decade ago. That time around, Sinclair dropped f-bombs about “starchitects” to university audiences.

On Thursday in San Francisco, the scene was considerably different, as the co-founder, executive director and Chief Eternal Optimist of Architecture for Humanity held forth for a hotel ballroom of sustainable business leaders at the Sustainable Industries Economic Forum, the first of four such events being held on the West Coast.

Sinclair had another bomb to drop, though: He’s been tapped by the Obama Administration to serve as an advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

That means bringing the expertise and energy behind Architecture for Humanity—a network of 40,000 professionals that uses architecture and design to tackle humanitarian crises—to the federal agency that provides economic and humanitarian assistance around the world.

Sinclair said one key to his organization’s continued growth has been its system of centralized-to-distributed management and diversified funding, which have allowed it to cut through red tape and mobilize grassroots resources for projects including widespread rebuilding efforts in Haiti, sports facilities that double as public health resources in Africa, and a community center to preempt favela development in Brazil.

[ Check out this great video on AFH on PBS’ Frontline - here }

Also indispensable is its army of architects, who he describes as “PhD MacGyvers,” who know when it’s time to “drop the pencil, pick up the blowtorch and build the damn thing.”

We look forward to supporting and hopefully partnering with Architecture for Humanity in the months and years to come, stay tuned!

Ready to serve,

Gina and Matt

…so the headline goes as two BetterWorld customers, Inc. Magazine/FastCompany and The Hub Bay Area come together in a recent online article on FastCompany.com.

Starting in the spring of this year, we began planing a voice and data solution for the new Hub SoMa in the Chronicle Building at 5th and Mission.  When the doors opened in May, it was literally a flood of attention and people as the new SF Hub filled up quickly, with both tenants taking office space and people making it their landing spot for their social enterprise work in the shared space within the Hub.

Between the constant flow of people working there every day as well as event after event hosted at The Hub, the response has been a sure success.  With the original Bay area Hub in Berkeley at the Brower Center and the downtown Hub in SoMa SF, the model has proven itself ready to scale and hopefully give lift to the other Hub efforts that are sprouting up around the country.   The model has been successful in Europe and other parts of the globe but has yet to really take off in other parts of the U.S. outside of the Bay area.

From the FastCompany post (click here for the full copy), this paragraph rings particularily true: “The Hub SoMa is part of a greater organization called The Hub, both a physical space and a virtual network now found in 12 cities and five continents worldwide. This includes two chapters in the Bay Area: A second Hub is located in Berkeley, in the supersustainable David Brower Center. Working as managing director for both Bay Area Hubs is Michel, an excitable multi-tasker dressed in a black zip-up top who peppers his sentences with detailed references ranging from Israeli history to molecular biology to Impressionist painting. Like many of the Hub’s members, he was born entrepreneurial, launching a company out of school for international student travel and going on to found development programs in Africa and Asia. His last organization before the Hub is what he describes as a “boutique Peace Corps” program.”

We look forward to the many days, months and years ahead at the Hub as it now serves as BetterWorld’s own Hub as well in downtown San Francisco - congrats to the Hub team, Alex, Eugene and Tim!

From the BetterWorld SF Team,

Matt, Jacob and Salem

Greenwise Sacramento is the initiative for the entire Sacramento region (6 counties, 22 cities) to create the most sustainable region in California and in the country. An ambitious goal, and we support it FULLY! Sacramento Sustainability Forum, the largest grassroots non-profit focused on cross sector sustainability discussions, which we founded last August has been coordinated with Greenwise Sacramento to increase knowledge, enthusiasm, and participation in the initiative.

The keynote speaker was BetterWorld friend and hero, Van Jones. Far before his position as the “Green Czar” in the White House, Van has had a history of incredible leadership, founding Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Green for All (both BetterWorld customers) and really birthing and bringing forward the concept of Green Collar Jobs. He wrote a book with the same title and has driven into the consciousness of the sustainability movement the essentiality of including the most underserved populations in our sustainable solutions as we move forward.

Van gave an incredibly moving speech to the crowd of 400, and I marveled at it from the closest seat in the house. That’s me on the right.

From California’s Capital,

Jacob