Designer William McDonough, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, NASA Ames Center Director Pete Worden, and NASA Ames Center Associate Director Steve Zornetzer tour the NASA Sustainability Base.

Last Friday, Blue Practice was delighted to join our client, William McDonough + Partners, for the dedication day of their project, the NASA Sustainability Base at Moffett Field in Northern California.  The Sustainability Base, arguably the greenest federal building in America, is a highly intelligent and intuitive facility designed to anticipate and react to changes in sunlight, temperature, wind and occupancy and received it’s LEED® Platinum certification earlier this month.  The building is a testament to sustainable design and shows what is capable when functionality is combined with Cradle to Cradle design principles.

To prepare for the momentous occasion, Blue Practice helped to coordinate media attention and coverage for the pre-Dedication press day.  Media tours were held and architects from WM+P, including Alastair Reilly, David Johnson and William McDonough himself, who helped to lead the tour with Steve Zornetzer of the NASA Ames Research Center.  Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom also stopped by to see the remarkable building and discussed the importance of sustainable design.

The dedication took place on Friday and included a speech by William McDonough about the importance of pursuing solutions that are more good rather than less bad in sustainable design.  This thought process is shown throughout the building’s features, including the column-free interior, which enables more natural light and is supported by the building’s exoskeleton design that will allow for natural shading and will help to keep the building cool and comfortable during hot temperatures.

The NASA Sustainability Base is a beautiful example of Cradle to Cradle-inspired design that we at Blue Practice are honored to help showcase.

Below are a few interesting articles from the event:

“Inside Sustainability Base: NASA’s Space Station On Earth”

Fast Co., Ariel Schwartz

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679729/inside-sustainability-base-nasas-space-station-on-earth

“NASA’s New LEED Platinum Sustainability Base is the Greenest Federal Building in the US”

Inhabitat, Mike Chino

http://inhabitat.com/nasa-sustainability-base-awarded-leed-platinum-certification-set-to-open-tomorrow-photos/

“NASA’s greenest building unveiled at Moffett Field”

San Jose Mercury News, Dana Hull

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_20435325/nasas-sustainability-base-at-moffett-field-is-nations

The NASA Sustainability Base

There’s proof: people with a growth mindset are less prone to aggressive behavior than people with a fixed mindset. Sixth graders and ninth graders, as well as  Palestinians and Israelis, have been lab rats for some of the best social scientists in the world to confirm this hypothesis.

So how do we steer youth toward a growth mindset and thereby cultivate less aggressive people?  ”Is there some evolutionary value for a fixed mindset?” the stylish guy in the back row asks the Researcher and Prof of Psychology, Carol Dweck.  ”Sexual orientation,” she answers without missing a beat. “People with a fixed mindset on sexual orientation have been proven to have less anxiety,” she says. (She seems to have answers for everything. )

The Stanford Center for Social Innovation hosted a daylong conference on The Science of Getting People to Do Good, bringing in top social scientists and making me want to go back to graduate school. The main topic was what motivates people. Todd Rogers, who is an expert on voter participation and registration drives, talked about the two most important things that motivate people, and he is well worth listening to since his sample sizes were impressive- 700,000 people nationwide.

After years of trying to get people off their butts and to the polls, it turns out only two things do it:

1. Making pledges + planning. “It’s a logistics problem, not a voting problem,” he tells us.

2. Accountability. Threats to follow up with people to see if and when they actually voted move the needle.

I consider marketing a social science. We are, after all, trying to influence people to purchase products or services, right? The big question on my mind from 20 years of working on marketing is: what motivates people more, fear of reprisal or hope of gain?

Kate White, a Professor of Marketing at the University of Calgary, had answers. Gain is considered a motivator, if longer term, and more abstract.  Loss motivates in the short term. That is why negative campaign ads work- there’s a deadline. I guess people like their fear served up close and personal. Kate was looking at what motivates people to recycle in British Columbia, and the pounds of recycled materials goes up with ominous doorhangers vs. for the greater good message doorhangers.

For those of us who are in marketing, study up on the social science behind behavior change and motivation. We conduct experiments daily on behalf of our clients as we fight to build awareness, experiential feelings and positive branding associations for our clients. It’s all one big lab.

CODA's first customer-bound sedan

Last week we got to be part of an electric vehicle milestone moment as we helped CODA announce the first consumer-bound sedan to come off their production line. On a picture-perfect day at CODA’s final assembly facility in Benicia, CA, I joined with local officials, company executives, press and partners to watch the grey 4-door depart final inspection checks and spin into the sunshine. As supporters and collaborators in the EV space, it was a very exciting and long-awaited moment – followed just a few short days by the first customer deliveries. CODA’s mission is to help put an electric vehicle in every garage, and that’s exactly where the first three to wear a CODA Automotive badge were headed on Friday, at key hand over ceremonies in Santa Clara and Los Angeles.

More than 59 million media impressions for the events this week, including:

First Electric Car from CODA Rolls Off Assembly Line – ABC7 CODA

Begins Production of Electric Car in Benicia – AP

Coda Automotive Begins Car Production in California – FOX

It’s clear that the light of tomorrow will be the LED. With the rollout of dozens of new affordable, powerful, and efficient options, the whole lighting industry has been buzzing about the real potential for LEDs to replace lighting: not just household lighting, but all lighting.

What hasn’t been quite as clear, or bright, is what form LEDs are going to light our stores, restaurants, hotels, museums and other cultural touch points.  And this is what has made the last couple weeks so exciting here at Blue Practice.

Last week, Blue Practice had the pleasure of launching a truly disruptive company. Soraa, a formerly stealth mode solid-state lighting and laser company, launched their proprietary GaN on GaN (gallium nitride on gallium nitride) technology through the long sought-after Soraa LED MR16 at last week’s Strategies in Light conference. The MR16, most commonly found in commercial and retail settings in halogen form, has, until now, been an incredibly difficult replacement lamp to create with existing LED technology.

The MR16’s application calls for very bright, focused light—qualities that are hard to match given the compact form of the MR16. All this is now possible for Soraa thanks to their breakthrough GaN on GaN technology. While other companies grow their GaN crystals on sapphire or silicon carbide substrates, Soraa grows a pure GaN crystal on top of a GaN substrate. This crystal, which is up to 1000 times purer than those grown on sapphire, silicon or silicon carbide substrates, can produce more light per material, making Soraa’s the only LED MR16 that can out-compete a traditional halogen MR16.

The response was overwhelmingly positive and the aggregate result of launch coverage was a very well-rounded story about the promise of GaN on GaN technology, Soraa’s halogen-competitive light performance, its vertically integrated manufacturing facility and built to win business model, and its co-founder Shuji Nakamura’s storied past at LED manufacturer Nichia.

Here’s some choice coverage:

• The Quest for Cheaper, Better Lights by Don Clark for the Wall Street Journal
• Fremont’s LED startup says price point is right by David Baker for the San Francisco Chronicle
• Startup Soraa Launches LED Light For Shops, Museums by Ucilia Wang for Forbes
• Startup Soraa unveils game changing next-gen LED light by Katie Fehrenbacher for GigaOm’s Earth2Tech

The Soraa LED MR16 is a true breakthrough for the commercial lighting market, and we’re proud to have been a part of its launch. Stay tuned for more from Soraa.

Holly Kauffman, Congressman Inslee, Jessica Switzer and Felix Kramer

If Kennedy could put a man on the moon in 10 years, we can transition our energy dependence off of coal and oil.

Last night at a private home in Menlo Park I had a chance to meet Congressman Inslee, one of the few voices brave enough to champion clean energy and the benefits of a clean energy economy . Inslee’s book, Apollo’s Fire, calls for a Kennedy-scale goal for our energy challenge.  Just as Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon in 10 years, he thinks we can and must address a nationwide transition to a clean energy economy.

Congressman Inslee is a rare breed- a well-intended politician trying to fight the good fight. He thinks he can win the Governor’s seat, and I hope he’s right. I don’t hear anyone else sticking their neck out for energy alternatives on the same scale. Plus we had a Switzer Foundation Fellow, Holmes Hummel, working with his group on energy policy, and she’s one of the best policy analysts i know on energy. OK, she’s the ONLY one i know…but God is she smart. See her in action: http://www.govenergy.com/2010/Workshop/Presentations/HolmesHummel.aspx

You can be a BayLEAF too.

Ran into our friend, Cal Cars founder Felix Kramer, who told me about others of our kind: Nissan Leaf owners (I guess we are called BayLeafs’).  I carpooled down with my pal Holly Kauffman-an extraordinary environmental advocate, world-changer, and fellow-mom. Fellow or wanna-be BayLeafs can check out this little clique at: http://www.sfbayleafs.org/

At the crux of it all on the entertainment side, as the Wall Street Journal recently described, was the messaging problem on behalf of the entertainment industry – something admitted to even by the lobbyists themselves.  Why? Maybe in part because the RIAA and MPAA relied on a message of American jobs; and how this put American innovation at risk – a message that, as it turns out, didn’t pull the public heartstrings or extend so far as to draw sympathy to those with a reputation for squeezing profits from artists and suing single moms millions for filesharing.

The original SOPA ad:

Over the last two years, the RIAA and MPAA have had their sights on something like this, putting millions into traditional beltway PR: lobbyists, press releases, status quo, looking to Internet control as a jobs issue, some wedge to give better copyright control.

The entertainment industry put $279.5 million into beltway lobbying- piddly compared with the Silicon Valley crowd, who put in $29.3m over the same period.  For all that effort they may have courted their D.C. influencers, but that support didn’t help against a surging public outcry.

What took them years to build up, the web-based grassroots movement fought against in a matter of days with an outpouring of information and opinion on the same medium that they defended – through YouTube videos, Net celebrities, and email campaigns.  Instead of “jobs”, the opposition spoke of liberty, freedom of expression, and even a concern for the security of the Internet itself.  These messages are both universal and extremely personal – ones in which nearly everyone has some stake.

As a result, 13 million people participated in the protest on the 18th. 50,000 websites went dark. Congress received 3 million emails concerning SOPA and the loss of Internet freedoms.  A tremendous outpouring of support that ultimately helped break the momentum behind the bill.

Rather than an acknowledgement of their miscalculation, the industry complained that that they lacked a big enough mouthpiece and couldn’t control the communications cycle (a spooky complaint coming from the incumbent owners of broadcast media and distribution, one that sounds an awful lot like a push for censorship).

The next battle is already heating up, and I’ll be watching to see whether ACTA supporters recalculate, or pursue PR as usual.

What an honor to be invited as guests of Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability to the most advanced, energy efficient space for humans of any government building designed yet. The new NASA base, co-designed by William McDonough+ Partners, will support just over 200+ scientists studying earth-climate models, as well as a group of scientists for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an airborne observatory housed inside a 747, one of the most advanced astronomy studies underway.

The event was so top secret we can’t name attendees, but if you look closely you might recognize a few  of the most important names in sustainability design and leadership today.

95% of the building’s energy is sourced from renewables- solar, wind and on-site geothermal pumps. The site-specific location is incredible, with tons of natural light that follows the sun’s arc (only 40 days of the year will even require artificial light) and the ability for the ‘earth astronauts’ (I love calling them that!) to adjust the air/heat to their own individual comfort level.  I won’t steal my team’s thunder, so many more details will be announced soon, and a dedication ceremony is in the works.

For more on this spectacular achievement, please take a look at the NASA Ames Sustainability Base: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/sustainability-base/

Last weekend 2,500 Very-Serious-About-Sustainability-People (can we call ourselves ‘VSASPs’?) came together in Portland for the 2011 Net Impact Conference. About 100 conference participants came to listen to our panel ‘Marketing for Good: Creating a Career with Impact,’ which was tailored to give budding marketing and communications professionals insight into how to use their skill set to create positive local and global change. Our moderator, Jenifer Morgan, is the super-smart, well-written and well-spoken Digital Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Hopefully I, along with the rest of the panelists, didn’t scare anyone off because this was our career unrobed – the full Monty of Marketing!

I was there on behalf Blue Practice, representing the studio-sized agency’s perspective on the topic, and was joined by new friends Neha Gupta of the Community Housing Partnership and Rob Kaplan of Brown-Forman Corporation.  Jenifer’s questions were marvelous, full of spice, and went something like:

Jenifer) If you could go back in time and meet your younger self, what would you tell him/her?? What should you have known?

Jessica) First, it is all about who you know. My advice is to cultivate a personal network and get to know people who are important to your business, industry, professional growth, etc. It’s these people who have helped me in my successes, as clients, as co-workers, as advisors, as sources of inspiration, advice and…new business! Second, ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT. Don’t be shy or embarrassed to be very explicit in asking for support or help especially. And most importantly, work the two together. I wish I had figured this out earlier in my career. Years into a technology PR career, I was wondering out loud with Chris Shipley, who was then running the DEMO conference, what a girl had to do to get an invitation to the invite-only AGENDA technology conference, the ‘big deal’ conference in the tech sector. ‘Send me an email and you’re in!’ Chris said. So that was my ‘aha’ moment when I realized how important it is to ASK for things and not wait to be invited.

Other stories from the trenches included:

Jenifer) Your most surprising moment career-wise

Jessica) Getting fired from Tesla Motors and being escorted to the parking lot, and

Jenifer) What prepared you best for your current career?

Jessica) Hmm…I don’t know, growing up on a farm I guess…

(along with other more serious and meaty career pearls of wisdom)

All in all, Net Impact was a great opportunity to interact with both established do-gooding professionals and with a new generation of emerging social architects.  I was truly impressed with how savvy the attendees were and was left inspired and hopeful of what these many young change-makers will accomplish.

It takes courage, as a company, to stand up and lead towards a different way of doing business. At Blue Practice we are lucky enough to represent the kinds of change-makers that are willing to take that first step, and for that we are incredibly thankful!

For these and many more reasons, it was an inspiring week at Greenbuild 2011 when Blue Practice client Construction Specialties (C/S) unveiled the building industry’s first-ever ingredient label for building materials. C/S teamed up with leading design firm Perkins+Will to develop the label, which details the complete make-up of a product, highlighting critical lifecycle information and potential human health impacts. This intensive effort, launched at Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto, Canada, is a collaborative step toward market transformation through increased disclosure on the part of building product manufacturers.

As the industry stands now, no disclosure on the part of building product manufacturers is necessary regarding the chemicals and ingredients in products. However, with this label, C/S and Perkins+Will hope to transform the market and nudge it towards more transparency around the make-up of the materials that surround us every day. The EPA estimates that Americans now spend about 90 percent or more of their time indoors and so we are increasingly exposed to the chemicals in these products. If more companies disclose what is in their products, everyone who touches the product, from the architect / specifier to the person who is charged with removing the product at the end of its life will be able to make more informed decisions.

While there is a vulnerability that comes with being first, C/S believes there is a business case for offering the world the ingredient and product information they obtained through the Cradle to Cradle certification process. Their Cradle to Cradle Certified(CM) Entrance Flooring product Pedisystems PediTred® G4 has the distinction of being the first product to carry this historic label. The company plans to attach similarly designed labels to other entrance flooring products as well in the belief that C/S customers will value this information. Competitors may have new insight into C/S’ leading products’, but that is the price the company is willing to pay to lead the way forward towards a more transparent and healthy industry.

Leading also has it’s benefits. Blue Practice was able to secure some wonderfully in-depth and rich coverage for the company. No one could deserve it more. Please read on for the clips here:

Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/1784776/a-nutrition-label-for-building-products
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-mannle/new-ingredient-label-for-_b_995254.html
Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2011/10/05/new-label-to-promote-green-building-materials/
Contract Magazine: http://www.contractdesign.com/contract/PerkinsWill-Constr-6192.shtml
Inhabitat: http://inhabitat.com/top-green-products-found-at-greenbuild-2011-in-toronto/
Green Source: http://greensource.construction.com/blogs/thegreensource.asp
GreenBiz: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/10/11/nutritional-label-building-materials-other-tools-transparency