Google is wielding its worldwide clout with a new platform that subtly promotes its foundation and corporate citizenship work by shining the spotlight on worthy non-profits. The brand’s first Global Impact Awards were announced today, recognizing seven startups that are applying innovation and technology to the world’s most daunting human challenges.
Google is putting its money where its brand promise lies — “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” along with its unofficial slogan, “Don’t be evil.”
“From real-time sensors that monitor clean water to DNA barcoding that stops wildlife trafficking, our first round of awards provides $23 million to seven organizations changing the world,” stated Jacquelline Fuller, director of giving at Google, in a blog post.
The seven nonprofits winning the first Google Global Impact Awards:
Charity: Wateris receiving $5 million for water-monitoring technology at 4,000 wells across Africa to ensure better maintenance of and access to clean water for more than 1 million people. “Although our staff and local partners visit our programs frequently, it’s simply not possible to visit every project often enough to ensure that water is flowing all the time. Thanks to this Global Impact Award from Google, we’ll be able to go from hoping that projects function over time, to knowing that they are,” the non-profit stated in a blog post.
The Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital has taken holistic measures in their own hands by installing a greenhouse garden on their rooftop to grow produce, which will help to feed its patients. It also is the centerpiece to new community outreach programs, such as cooking demonstrations, gardening classes, therapy and yoga.
The garden cost approximately $1 million and will save the hospital $20,000 annually. It is completely self-sustaining and utilizes green forms of energy, including geothermal, solar and wind power – and the concept has become popular locally, with other hospitals working to create a healthier, sustainable food source and community resource.
Last week Billabong held its fifth annual Design For Humanity event at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, CA. Billabong once again successfully brought together three very separate elements of fashion, music and art and rose over $120,000 for The VH1 Save The Music Foundation.
The sold out fashion-music-art block party was a blow out with indie band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros playing an incredible set and Hanni El Khatib performing it on the financial district stage.
The passion for environmentalism is shown in the planning process. Interior designer Christophe Pillet, landscape architect Christophe Ponceau and hotelier Shahé Kalaidjian integrated the hotel into the lush surrounding nature and preserved nearly all existing trees on the site. “The luxury at Hotel Sezz Saint-Tropez is not about the usual bling bling you might expect at the Côte d’Azur. It’s about the unique natural settings of this resort. From the start our goal was to respect and preserve the surrounding nature, and to create a hotel that fits perfectly with it,” says Kalaidjian.
The film examines the profound claim that many of our most-debilitating degenerative diseases – such as heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and several forms of cancer – are almost always preventable, and in many cases reversible, through diet alone. The major storyline traces the journeys of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. The idea of food as medicine is put to the test. Throughout the film, cameras follow “reality patients” who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach these patients how to adopt a whole foods plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments – while the challenges and triumphs of their journeys are revealed.
Coca-Cola Israel tapped agency Promarketto help erect a unique pop-up shop featuring products up-cycled from Coca-Cola bottles and cans, as part of the brand’s “Give it Back” campaign. The shop featured clothing, jewelry and other goods made from recycled Coke containers. Customers were also invited to bring in their used bottles and cans to trade in for the products sold in the store. The shop’s main objective is to educate the public about the benefits of recycling through upcycled design. Merchandise available for purchase includes shirts, hats, accessories, handbags and furniture – all made from recycled Coca-Cola bottles and cans. The store also features information stations and an exhibit of the artists who contributed to the limited-edition collection of design, furniture and fashion pieces.The store opened during the Passover holiday, which also happens to mark regeneration in Israeli society.
Ever wished you could keep cold water ice cold and your morning tea hot till the end of day… all while saving the planet? Now that’s possible with the launch of S’wellbottles. The S’well bottle is a superior stainless steel bottle that utilizes a new advancement in insulation, which keeps drinks cold or hot much longer than its counterparts, and the best part is that S’well has teamed up with WaterAid, a non-profit organization that for the past 30 years has been working to deliver water solutions to world’s poorest communities. Every bottle sold provides a year supply of water for someone in need, and every five bottles sold provides a lifetime supply. Water is essential for life, but one billion people, one sixth of the world’s population, do not have safe access to it. To address this crisis, for every S’well bottle sold, 10% percent of the proceeds are donated to this charity. This year, WaterAid will reach 1.2 million people with safe water and 1.7 million people with sanitation.
The debate has begun!… can electric motoring deliver a true Rolls-Royce experience? Rolls Royce Motor Cars created 102EX as a working test-bed to get feedback from Owners, opinion leaders, enthusiasts and journalists on alternative drive-train technologies in ultra-luxury cars. In this film, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, introduces the car and the debate, encouraging contributions from all who are interested. Join the debate at www.electricluxury.com
Directed by photographer/environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand and narrated by Glenn Close, HOMEtakes you on a visually stunning, voyage around the world. It is a unique film that approaches the current debate about climate change from a whole new angle, giving the viewer the opportunity to see for themselves how our earth is changing. Going well beyond the scientific reports, charts and graphs, this film is an inspiration that speaks to our hearts and touches our souls.
“In the past 200,000 years, humans have upset the balance of planet Earth, a balance established by nearly four billion years of evolution. We must act now. It’s too late to be a pessimist. The price is too high. Humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend and change its patterns of consumption.”
Spanning 54 countries and 120 locations, all seen from the air, the film captures the Earth’s most amazing landscapes, showcasing its incomparable beauty and acknowledging its vulnerability. HOME is an emotional reminder of what is at stake: the Earth, in all its beauty, and the people who live on it. With this film, Arthus-Bertrand hopes to provide a stepping-stone to further the call to action to take care of our HOME.
HOME is the first film that has been made using only aerial footage. HOME the movie is carbon offset. This means that all of the CO2 emissions engendered by making the film are calculated and offset by sums of money that are used to provide clean energy to those who don’t have any. For the last ten years, all the work of Yann Arthus-Bertrand has been carbon offset.
Hosted by Anderson Cooper the tribute will honor the Top 10 Heroes and reveal the 2010 Hero of the Year on Thanksgiving evening at 8pm (EST) / 5pm (PST). This year’s Top 10 Heroes include community crusaders from across the globe, with accomplishments ranging from providing hot meals for the homeless in India to clearing land mines in Cambodia. The tribute, from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, will also include a special guest appearance by all 33 Chilean miners and five of their rescuers.
