Archive for January, 2010

Better, Faster, Cheaper is Mayor Steve Goldsmith’s new addition to the wealth of information available through one or more Kennedy School venues, in this case through the acclaimed Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

czb has had the great pleasure of providing consulting services for the past several years to the Ash Institute, and we’re putting this link here to sure czb friends and clients take a moment to scan the vast array of good ideas Mayor Goldsmith’s new site makes available.

Steve Goldsmith is the Daniel Paul Professor of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He previously served two terms as Mayor of Indianapolis, America’s 12th largest city where he earned as a reputation as one of the country’s leaders in public private partnerships, competition and privatization.

As mayor, he reduced government spending, cut the city’s bureaucracy, held the line on taxes, eliminated counterproductive regulations, and invested over $1B transforming downtown Indianapolis. The Wall Street Journal has called Mayor Goldsmith a “pioneering privatizer of city services.”  Goldsmith was the chief domestic policy advisor to the George W. Bush campaign in 2000. His publications include: Unlocking the Power of Networks: Keys to High Performance Government;Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector; Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work through Grassroots Citizenship; and The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America. He is the author of the forthcoming book The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good.

http://www.bfc.ashinstitute.harvard.edu/

czb is a proud member of 1 % for the planet (http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/en/).  Since 2002, 1% for the Planet has inspired members of the business community to contribute 1% of sales to environmental groups around the world. In return, this growing alliance of companies is given the opportunity not only to see their self-worth rise, but their net worth climb as well.

This year czb made three donations.

First to Riverkeeper.  (http://www.riverkeeper.org/).  Riverkeeper is an independent, member-supported environmental organization founded on the premise that citizens themselves must roll up their sleeves to defend our waterways.  Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the ecological integrity of the Hudson River and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water supply of New York City and the lower Hudson Valley.  For more than 40 years Riverkeeper has been New York’s #1 clean water advocate. We have helped to establish globally recognized standards for waterway and watershed protection and serve as the model and mentor for the growing Waterkeeper movement that includes more than more than 180 Keeper programs across the country and around the globe.  czb supports Riverkeeper as it is perhaps the leading environmental group in the United States that genuinely understands what true cost is all about.

Second to the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) (http://www.malt.org/).  Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) was the first land trust in the United States to focus on farmland preservation. Founded in 1980 by a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists to preserve farmland in Marin County, California, MALT acquires agricultural conservation easements on farmland in voluntary transactions with landowners. MALT also encourages public policies that support and enhance agriculture. It is a model for agricultural land preservation efforts across the nation. MALT has so far permanently protected more than 41,500 acres of land on 64 family farms and ranches.  Point Reyes and western Marin County hold a special place in czb’s heart.  MALT’s effort to combine farming with community economic development and environmental stewardship is second to none.

Third to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (http://www.cbf.org/Page.aspx?pid=387) is the foremost organization working to protect and restore America’s greatest estuary.  Pollution and other harmful activities degrade the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) fights for strong and effective laws and regulations. CBF also works cooperatively with government, business, and citizens in partnerships to protect and restore the Bay. When necessary, we use legal means to force compliance with existing laws.

Since being created in 1967, we have achieved significant milestones to arrest the Bay system’s decline and to begin to restore its health. From the landmark EPA study of the Chesapeake Bay in the 1970s to the first interstate Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1983, from Maryland’s historic sewage treatment bond bill in 2004 to Virginia’s comparable legislative commitment in 2005, CBF has been saving the Bay.