One Civic Act

Today, I attended the last day of the Unrig Summit . There were some interesting “down to brass tacks” workshops I took part in. Plus, a controversial fireside chat with Howard Schultz, the Starbucks chair who is on the precipice of running for president as an independent. He didn’t get a very warm welcome, which punctuated the fact that the general mindset of the conference is not quite as bipartisan as the organizers like to say.

Today, I attended day two of the Unrig Summit in Nashville. It was a long day of sessions, running into the night. There was a great morning plenary featuring six people who led successful campaigns to stop gerrymandering in Michigan and Utah, re-enfranchise Floridians, close the revolving door between lawmakers and lobbyists in Missouri, pass anti-corruption reform in North Dakota and pass ranked choice voting in Maine. Plus, there was this fantastic closing event.

Today, I attended the first day of the Unrig Summit , in Nashville. Unrig is hosted by Represent.US, which is an advocacy organization pushing a bi-partisan platform of fair voting (think ranked choice voting), getting dark money out of politics, and ending gerrymandering. Here’s Jennifer Lawrence describing that platform.

Today, I took part in a conference call about driving an effort to help smaller countries respond to climate change. Actually, the effort is to get Massachusetts residents to lead in fulfilling the country’s obligations. Let me explain. Climate change is a humanitarian crisis, and it is the poor who suffer the worst of the devastation. That’s why the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference agreed to establish the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) in 2001, to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries to better cope with natural disasters and make their societies more resilient. The United States has an obligation to provide capital to the LDCF. But it hasn’t fulfilled that obligation. So Oxfam and others have advocated for a bill in Massachusetts that would add a checkbox on tax returns to allow residents to voluntarily donate to the LDCF. No public money. Completely voluntary. A few of us in the Boston chapter Climate Reality ...

Today, I spoke on a panel in Rhode Island, called “ Rhode Island Ready! Growing Business Success with Conscious Capitalism .” Conscious Capitalism Boston partnered with a Rhode Islander to put the event on. Actually, he did all the work; all I had to do was show up and speak on the panel. And it was a great panel, with three interesting speakers from different sectors talking about different aspects of how they run their companies in a human way, with an eye toward being parts of their community.

Today, I dialed into another legislative briefing from the Massachusetts Climate Action Network . I heard from two state legislators, about one bill for carbon pricing and another to require the state to create a more comprehensive long-term implementation plan for state climate action, putting people at the center. And there was an additional discussion of municipal light plants and pending legislation that might affect them.

Today, I took part in our monthly Programming Committee call for Conscious Capitalism Boston. We’re working on some interesting programs for the second quarter, telling interesting stories from leaders running conscious businesses. Getting the details locked down is another trick, but we’re getting there.