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Infographics: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

You may have seen images and heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive swirl of plastic pieces off the coast of Hawaii. These infographics, one by 5W Infographics on Visual.ly and the other published by Good.is, break down what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, look closely at the plastics that comprise it, and examine the impact it has.Good.is also reports that Method, a maker of environmentally-friendly & sustainably packaged cleaners and home products, is releasing a new dish soap packaged in plastic sourced from the  Pacific Ocean. Reportedly, the new bottle is made of recycled plastic, 10% of which is from the Pacific Ocean.It’s a first of its kind—and shows the intersection of sustainability, innovation, and business.  By ‘commoditizing’ ocean plastic, the company has created a product that you literally cannot purchase anywhere else. Just like museums display parts of the Berlin Wall or rocks from the Moon, this bottle enables everyone to own ‘a piece’ of the massive gyre of plastic whirling in our oceans. It takes something that is undesirable waste, and makes it into something that people may covet partially because of its novelty.Scroll below to see Method’s video about the Great Pacific Garbage patch and visit their ocean plastic page to see additional videos, including one showing how the plastic was created and processed to create the new bottles.

 

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch infographic

 

 

Good.is infographic: Through the Gyre

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Infographic: Educating the Workforce of the Future

infographics.org

This interesting infographic designed by Hyperakt and published by GOOD and the University of Phoenix on Visual.ly is a telling snapshot on the kinds of education needed for careers in the past and future.

College is not for everyone—with under half of the U.S. population pursuing an Associate’s or undergraduate by the age of 27. But increasingly, college is what employers are looking for–with more than 60% of careers requiring at least an AA degree.

The look into the growing and declining careers and median incomes also gives insight as to kinds of roles and degrees that have a strong future.

With the infusion of technology, online learning, and focus on entrepreneurship—it will be curious to see what this infographic looks like  in 20 years.  There are new, emerging ways of learning that don’t yet fit into traditional buckets of education. And soft skills such as social media savvy and online commerce are creating new paths for careers.

Let’s check back in 20.

 

Educating The Workforce of the Future

Educating The Workforce of the Future infographic by Hyperakt.

 

 

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Infographic: Canada’s Social Purpose Business Defined

What Americans increasingly refer to as social enterprise to refer to companies that are guided by a mission of doing good as well as pursuing profit, our Canadian neighbors call social purpose business.

The infographic below published on Visual.ly by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation steps through the various components of what makes a venture a social purpose business.Though there is no official legal structure to support social purpose businesses in Canada currently, there is movement to create new types of legal entities to capture the for-profit + for-good model.The current entity structures available in Canada are: for-profit corporations, co-operatives, not-for-profits, and charities.

There are some great online resources to deepen an understanding of Canada’s social enterprise climate. Here are a few we came across:

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Infographic: Social Change is Not a Fad

This uplifting social impact infographic, published by Walden University, looks at the forces that pull social impact forward through individual action. It surveys public consensus about whether social change can be pursued, and looks at how people choose to pursue impact innovation in their daily lives–such as through monetary and in-kind donations, social media sharing, and volunteer work.Interestingly though we are arguably in a phase of digital 2.0 where crowdsourcing has gained ground as a way to get things done, most of the people surveyed seem to still endorse Margaret Mead’s sentiment to “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Social Change is Not a Fad

Social Change is Not a Fad infographic

 

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Infographic: State of Women in the World

The recent spotlight on crimes against women in India and around the globe has engaged a broad discussion about how legal and social infrastructures impact women‘s health, education, safety, and status.This infographic, published by Armchair Advocates and posted to visual.ly, gives a broad overview of education, career opportunities, and health of women in different areas of the world. 

The State of Women in the World

The State of Women in the World infographic

 

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Infographic On How Brands Use Social Media for Social Impact

on visual.ly

Wpromote published this illustrative infographic on how brands leverage social media to create social impact. Google.org, TOMS shoes, Pepsi, OneHope, and Acai Spirit are featured here.

These statistics can be a powerful tool in engaging supporters to champion brands not only through purchases but also through social media. The challenge can become articulating and distributing a compelling narrative that can connect the dots on how social media popularity results in actual social impact.

As of September 2010 TOMS shoes gave away 1M pairs of shoes—with over 1M likes on Facebook. There’s not a direct relation—but as a potential FB fan that is a compelling narrative for how ‘likes’ might be translating to action.

While TOMS has built a brand deeply rooted in a social mission, the infographic also serves to show how popular consumer-facing brands such as Pepsi may be committing more resources to social good projects than most people consider. With over 5M Facebook likes and 100K+ Twitter followers in 2010, Pepsi invested over $20M in improvement projects.

Social Good: Taking Social Media to Social Action
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Infographic: 2012 Sees Doubling of States that Passed Benefit Corporation Legislation

It seems like just yesterday there were  6 states that had passed benefit corporation legislation. That was over a year ago. In that time, B Lab and B Corp have successfully supported the passage of benefit corporation legislation in 12 states.Here’s an infographic from the B Corporation website that shows a map of the states that have passed benefit legislation, and states that are working on it. You can also view the B Corporation 2012 Annual Report, but note that it doesn’t reflect states that recently passed legislation.The Annual Report notes that over 500 companies have been certified as B corps, and the community is growing. (Note: B Corp is different from benefit corporation—though both distinctions indicate a commitment to creating a positive impact on society and the environment.)

http://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps/legislation

The 12 states that have passed benefit corporation legislation are:

  1. Maryland passed SB690/HB1009 in April 2010.
  2. Vermont passed S.263 in May 2010.
  3. Virginia passed HB2358 in March 2011.
  4. New Jersey passed S2170 in March 2011.
  5. Hawaii passed SB298 in July 2011.
  6. California passed AB361 in October 2011.
  7. New York passed A4692-a and S79-a in December 2011.
  8. Louisiana passed HB1178 in May 2012.
  9. South Carolina passed HB4766 in June 2012.
  10. Massachusetts passed H4352 in July 2012.
  11. Illinois passed SB2897 in August 2012.
  12. Pennsylvania passed HB1616 in October 2012.
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Infographic On How Americans Engage in Social Change

Did you know that 92% of Americans have took some kind of social change action in the course of a year?This infographic on Visual.ly, based on Walden University’s Social Change Impact Report (3/2011) and published by Mashable, gives a bird’s eye view on how Americans engage in social impact—with attention to participation based on generation—Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y (i.e. Milennials).Milennials are more likely to get involved in social change through traditional (versus digital media) methods….what do you think?

 

92% of Americans Take Action for Social Good
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Interactive Infographic on Social Impact Bonds

Here is a great infographic created by Abby Callard and Beyond Profit that explains the basics of social impact bonds, including organizations involved, pros/cons, and potential reach.These related posts may also be helpful in research on the topic: What is a social impact bond [3 min video], 15+ articles and multimedia posts on social impact bonds. 

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Great Infographic on the JOBS Act and Crowdfunding by Fundable

In case reading about the crowdfunding for investment legislation wasn’t enough to understand the field and the new law, Fundable and EarnMBADegree created this compelling infographic on Visual.ly.The part about the history of crowdfunding was especially interesting–ArtistShare entered the crowdfunding space in 2001—four years before Kiva, and eight years before Kickstarter! 

The JOBS Act & Crowdfunding

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