The E3 expo at Emerson College was this past Saturday and New Leaf was excited to sponsor as always.  The E3 program is a hands-on immersive entrepreneurial program that takes students from concept to launch (read more here!).  The students are dedicated, inspiring, and always surprising.  The competition was tough this year and I do not envy the judges!

Congratulations to the Winners!

I sat in on a webinar recently where the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica spoke at length about the amazing opportunities for US clean-tech companies to exploit.  Given how gorgeous Costa Rica is and their ongoing strides to create an eco-tourism economy, why the hell not?! It is the perfect spot for expansion, plus a great employee perk. 

Inspired by the growing trend in Social entrepreneurship across industries, states are passing legislation allowing for new and alternative corporate structures.  The L3C has been growing in popularity and now we are starting to see “benefit corporation” legislation.  This legislation is inspired by the B-corp cer

The L3C or Low Profit Limited Liability Company is a relatively new form of the LLC (Limited Liability Company), that, for now, is only known about and talked about by its advocates, but is quickly spreading across the nation and becoming a revolutionary new way of doing business. 

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has recruited a member of our founding team for a special agent position! Beginning in 2009, the Bureau’s Boston recruiting team started investigating our Steven Shapiro’s credentials, character, and physical fitness in anticipation for this offer.  After a year of testing, the FBI adjudicated Steven, who will ship to Quantico, VA this autumn for five months of extensive training at one of the world’s best law enforcement training facilities. 

We left off last month at Enforcement.  The best part!  So if the green guides when applied can be pretty stringent and since we can probably agree that most companies, whether or not unwittingly, violate the standards, then why don’t we have FTC actions coming out our ears?!

So last month I spouted off about labels on food and the enforcement behind them.  The topic is a confusing one since there is very little regulation, which leads to consumer confusion.  There are however, guidelines with the FTC that prevent green washing in marketing under the banner of Truth in Advertising.

So, I was surfing the web yesterday and I came across the most fantastic invention to date: bacon stuffed hot dogs. (http://www.4505meats.com/shop/#) Oh. My. God. Yumm!

Last Month the IERG (International Executive Resources Group) held a panel on International Clean Tech. This was the follow up to their, equally good, presentation on Sustainable Operations practices in an International Business. Normally, I don’t write about panels, but several of the panelists brought up new issues that I wanted to share.

For those of you who actually needed a reason to drink beer, it has arrived.

Given the rise in consumer awareness when it comes to organic foods and the environment generally, there has been a surge in innovation from food and beverage producers to meet that demand. Beer crafters have actually been somewhat ahead of the curve. Microbreweries have been particularly active espousing both the “buy organic” and “buy local” movements.