If you live in Portland, the answer is yes. A recent article on the Atlantic Cities website profiles Portland’s public toilets that have attracted a cult following. The article is equal parts informative and funny, but gets across a key point: if a city is going to provide a service, it may as well be top notch.

Other examples are given of cities who can’t seem to keep public restrooms clean or serviceable. Somehow, though, Portland has figured out how to do it, mainly by limiting the amenities provided. And from the sound of it, the city may be able to actually earn money for its efforts as it sells its design to other cities around the world.

Cities provide many services for citizens, like fighting fires, educating students, and maintaining roads. Many citizens the world over would also love to see other things provided, like more bike paths, a better emphasis on recycling or composting, and more money and effort direction towards improving schools. So where on the list is providing great public restrooms?

It’s worthy of a discussion. We’ve all been there – we very much need to find a restroom but the only places we are near are stores who don’t provide a restroom to shoppers or restaurants that only let paying customers use the facilities. In one sense, then, a well-maintained and long-lasting public toilet is a godsend.

The bigger question yet to be discovered is whether these public restrooms help decrease or prevent the alternative: people relieving themselves where they may. Any of us who has run a 5k or half-marathon knows that when you have to go, you have to go, and if a port-a-potty isn’t nearby, then runners will seek whatever cover they can find.

Of course, people in communities (for the most part) don’t do likewise during the workday. All in all, then, a public toilet is mostly a matter of convenience rather than necessity. But, if a city like Portland can figure out how to provide that convenience in a way that increases usage and could help increase city revenues, then more power to them.

We can only hope, also, that Portlandia will parody this very soon.

What do you think?

Should a city provide public toilets? Have you used one in Portland? If so, do tell!

To start, see where you rank in the U.S. with this quick and easy calculator. Are you a part of the 99% percent? (Spoiler alert: if you make less than $500,000 a year, then yes, you are.)

But, to take a look at the bigger picture, see where you rank using the Global Rich List (which we profiled four years ago). It’s quite eye-opening to see the discrepancy. For example, $60,000 a year in earnings puts you in the top 1% in the world.

Where do you rank?

Higher or lower than you thought? How do you feel about that? 

The company has a commitment to people and the planet and lives this out with its BuyOne|FeedOne program, as well as in its operations and daily practices. We recently had the chance to interview Adrian Reif, the company’s founder and “Head Yumbutterologist” to discuss what it’s like to start a company that cares, advice that he offers aspiring entrepreneurs, and what his big dream for the world is. (And, be sure to visit our site on Monday, when we’ll have a very delicious Yumbutter giveaway!)

CPC: Tell us briefly about what led you to where you are now. Are you someone who has always had ideas or a desire to make a positive impact?
Adrian: I once quipped, “I’m blessed by luck and naivety. I’m cursed by ambition, ideas, and attention deficit.”

Luckily, it’s not clinically diagnosed ADD, just the one common to many entrepreneurs. I’ve always been excited by ideas, but the transition toward impacting the world as responsibly as possible with those ideas was (and still is) a journey.

The journey began, incidentally, while writing a business plan. While working for a large bank I spent many nights and weekends researching the ins and outs of starting a carsharing company. It turns out that carsharing is a social enterprise with many benefits outside of making a bunch of money. Slowly, the values I’d been reading about released into my bloodstream, opening my worldview to new perspectives.

I really started thinking about my role on the planet. Is it right for me, an average American, to need five times the amount of land and resources to live compared to the rest of the world (20 acres versus 4.4)? Especially when most resources are finite? Unbelievably unsatisfied sitting in a cubicle, I quit my job where I was making $60,000 a year. I began thinking about business in the terms of impact on the environment and began working as an environmental strategy consultant.

Then, in 2009, I took the opportunity to teach English in southern China for part of the year and travel around Asia for the following seven months. The travel itself taught me how to live simply and humbly, but I was also abhorred to witness the environmental degradation in developing countries. As I gazed out the window of the myriad buses and trains, I wondered, What will become of this planet if these countries develop into spitting images of America?

When my plane touched down on U.S. soil in late 2009, I walked off with only $80, but with more passion for starting a company than ever – only now I knew it would embody my values and desire to make a positive impact on the world.

CPC: Why peanut butter? Why not sell organic T-shirts or help people recycle?
Adrian: For two main reasons:

1. First, it’s freakin’ awesome peanut butter! When I began churning my own peanut butter in my kitchen in Nashville the flavor blew me away. Then, I experimented with different combinations and I knew peanut butter could be a platform for creativity, health, and fun.
2. Second, peanut butter allowed me to offer a consumable; something used daily that didn’t accumulate or end up in landfills. People need food and will always buy it. Why not buy it from the most responsible food company on the planet?

CPC: What makes Yumbutter different?
Adrian: Yumbutter is made unlike any other peanut butter on the shelf. It’s churned homestyle, giving it a deeper texture and richer peanut taste. We get super creative with the ingredient combos, from chocolately-but-not-oversweet Dark Chocolate Delishe to savory-spicy-whoa Asian Jazz. And whenever you buy a jar of Yumbutter you directly help to feed a malnourished child through BuyOne|FeedOne. Currently, we’re focusing on Haiti, the country with the highest rate of malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere.

As a company, we pride ourselves on being unconventional. For instance, our corporate priorities go above and beyond just measuring revenues and expenses and including the following as our Indicators of Success:

• Customers’ health and well being
• Employees’ health and happiness
• Social impact through our BuyOne|FeedOne model
• A new standard for our environmental footprint – aiming to be a closed-loop company
• Changing the status quo in the food system, i.e. bringing good food to more people and empowering farmers to grow healthy crops on healthy land the world over

CPC: What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
Adrian: When I tell someone about our BuyOne|FeedOne model and their mouth drops a little and they say, “Wow, that’s awesome.” It gives me hope that we as a society are moving in the right direction.

CPC: What’s been your biggest challenge?
Adrian: The size and scale it takes to play the food game. It’s extremely difficult to compete with the big companies that couldn’t care less about their customers’ health and ingredient quality. Yet, it’s exciting to see the rise of people who are willing to pay a little more to support small, responsible companies. It also motivates us to be able to compete with them someday.

CPC: What advice have you been telling people about starting a company that makes the world a better place?
Adrian: Do it. Now.

CPC: What’s your big dream for the world?
Adrian: That everyone has the basic necessities. Then, once they do, that they have the same opportunities as you and me. Then, once they do, that they wake up each day and think how cool it is to wake up each day.

Be sure to tune in Monday for a very yummy Yumbutter giveaway!

A recent report from Greenpeace tries to find out. This comprehensive report (PDF) looks at several data centers and all of the energy needed to keep them humming. It also attempts to determine how much power is being provided by nonrenewable sources of energy.

Even if you don’t have time to dig into the full report, the more things move into the virtual space, the more energy we need (currently increasing by 12% a year). As with all things, moderation is the key. Conservation will win the day, even as it relates to all of our digital tools and toys.

Not quite. When an economy shrinks, so do budgets, especially corporate ones. In many a recession, companies tighten their wallets, particularly when it comes to spending like direct donations or other gifts to nonprofits. So while this study indicates that individual households may spend less on luxury items during an economic downturn and divert that amount to a nonprofit organization, that shift in spending may be a small drop in the bucket compared to other, overall giving trends when the GDP shrinks.

The upside of this study is that it’s good to see our collective giving attitude shine through a bleak economic forecast. While not true for 100% of the population, it looks like we’re willing to help our neighbors when things aren’t good.

This is especially important for each of us to remember when things are bad. If things are still okay for you (like if you haven’t lost your job or your company or industry are still succeeding in tough times), then being generous is one of the best things you can do to help keep things moving. Sure, recessions indicate what is happening to a national or global economy. But, you can still be prudent while rightly assessing your personal state of affairs.

Of course, we should never root for a recession, even if studies show lots of us are willing to help others make do during hard times. In other words, feel good that we’re willing to help each other out, but a growing economy is still better for nonprofits than a shrinking one.

What do you think?

Do you agree with this study? Is this a good sign that shows the positive power of our world today?

Very few schools really focus on teaching empathy to students of any age, even though many now offer robust community service opportunities and volunteer programming.

But, a cool new contest is out to change that. Ashoka’s Changemakers is currently seeking submissions for creative ways to teach empathy in schools. As they point out:

Creating the future we envision demands we rethink our approach to school culture and curricula. By launching an online collaborative competition, Activating Empathy: Transforming Schools to Teach What Matters, we’re challenging teachers, principals, parents, students, and other innovators to share ideas—whether by a project, a program, or a new learning experience—for advancing empathy in education.

You can easily submit your idea online, which will be vetted, judged, and then voted upon. So if you think schools need to teach compassion and caring more, now is your chance to share your big idea that can make a world of difference.

And that’s why we’re giving away a hardback copy of Poke the Box by Seth Godin. This manifesto is sure to inspire you to try something new, take a different path, and change the world in the process.

From the inside flap:

We send our kids to school and obsess about their test scores, their behavior and their ability to fit in.

We post a help wanted ad and look for experience, famous colleges and a history of avoiding failure.

We invest in compaies based on how they did last quarter, not on what they’re going to do tomorrow.

So why are we surprised when it all falls apart?

Our economy is not static, but we act as if it is. Your position in the world is defined by what you instigate, how you provoke, and what you learn from the events you cause. In a world filled with change, that’s what matters – your ability to create and learn from change.

Poke the Box is a manifesto about producing something that’s scarce, and thus valuable. It demands that you stop waiting for a road map and start drawing one instead. You know how to do this, you’ve done it before, but along the way, someone talked you out of it.

We need your insight and your dreams and your contributions. Hurry.

Ready to give the rest a read? Then simply do any of the following and you’ll be entered to win this fantastic book. For starters, you can leave a comment answering this question:

What have you always wanted to start?

A relationship? A college degree? A nonprofit? Tell us what you dream of beginning below and you’ll have a chance to win Poke the Box.

Or, do any of the following for additional entries into this giveaway (be sure to use the handy widget below):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for entering! We’ll pick a winner when the contest closes this Friday right before midnight. Good luck!

That’s right – it’s CSA time! We’re big fans of community supported agriculture around here. It can sometimes be difficult to make sure you have a steady supply of yummy local produce, but buying a share in a CSA makes it easy. The website LocalHarvest.org is a good place to start your search. Or, do a wider online search with the terms “CSA” and your city name to see what’s close.

Or, if going to pick up your share every week is difficult, here’s a Treehugger.com roundup of some services available that deliver fresh, organic produce to your doorstep (not available in all areas).

Do you belong to a CSA?

If so, leave a comment below with your CSA name and a link so others can join in!

From the looks of this video, then, we’re mightily impressed. Watch the first three minutes of this video that shows how a Chinese construction crew completed a 30-story building in just 15 days. Even better, the structure can withstand a high intensity earthquake and it is five times as energy efficient as similar buildings.

They crew makes use of pre-fabrication, which in the construction world can reduce waste and ensure efficiency all around. Bravo!

(h/t: Inhabitat)

There is a common misunderstanding that “nonprofit” means “no money.” However, no money would mean no output by an organization. And if there were no output, there would be no reason for nonprofits to exist. What many people don’t realize is that a nonprofit is a business, and like a business, nonprofits produce a product. As an intern, you can have a stake in this, for the benefit of the community and your resume.

In the social sector, that product is positive change in the lives of people. Also like a business, nonprofits have hundreds of roles that are interrelated and essential to the organization. From cleaning the bathroom at an after school program to planning fundraisers that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, I have been involved in nearly every aspect of the nonprofit world. From my experiences at various nonprofits, I’ve discovered that most nonprofits are in desperate need of something, usually staff or resources. And this is where you come in.

Nonprofits typically don’t have money to pay interns, but that can actually work toward your benefit. This means that your unique skills and career goals can be used to fill or assist a role that the organization does not have.

Are you an entrepreneur? Then start an earned income stream for a nonprofit. Is it your dream to be a recording artist? Then give weekly music lessons at an after school program. Are you an accounting major? Offer to look over a nonprofit’s financials and give advice. Do you want to be the next big blogger? Then write daily blog entries or a monthly newsletter for an organization. If you’re going to be a music producer, contact local musicians and put together a compilation to benefit the organization. If you love PR and event planning, run the nonprofit’s Facebook page and help plan the fundraisers. The possibilities are endless and there is a nonprofit out there that can use you skills and passions, if you’re willing to search for it.

Of course, nonprofits are having a harder time locating regular volunteer help among the college crowd, as this USA Today article highlights. So, by offering to intern for the experience of it (or even class credit), you’ll stand above the crowd – now, and when you graduate.

The other benefit of nonprofits’ staff shortage is that the organization will need interns to wear many hats, as many nonprofit staff members must do, too. You will likely be given tasks or projects that you are uncomfortable doing and have never done before. I helped redesign the website for one nonprofit and ran the prompter for an event at another organization, two things very foreign to me. The payoff, however, is that you will gain skills, experience, and stories you would not have otherwise. Better yet, your résumé become better rounded. It also shows future employers that you can adapt to different roles and learn quickly.

Because of my volunteer work and internships in the social sector, I’ve been an administrative assistant, business manager, cook, camp counselor, volunteer coordinator, communications coordinator, coach, and countless other roles. The different jobs have strengthened my résumé dramatically and helped me narrow down the career path I want to follow. I can also say with confidence that by pursuing my passions at these nonprofit internships, I helped the organization fulfill its mission as well.

About the Author
Laura Cebula is a recent college graduate who at a young age has already worn many hats in the nonprofit world, learning the ropes while also hitting the books. If you’d like to see if she’s a good fit for your organization, contact us.