Social Ventures for Sustainability

09/15/2014

We're all about environmentally friendly consumer behavior. This fall, we're motivating college students around reusable coffee cups with the Kill The Cup University Challenge. Stay tuned for updates!

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 28, 2014 -- Campaign awards $5,000 in grants to students for green behavior

10/20/2013

Proud to be partnering with Bird Rock Coffee Roasters for our first "Show Your Mug" campaign! It's our first social venture in an off-campus setting. Follow along at http://www.showyourmug.com =)

10/15/2013

We've found some interesting articles featuring new insights about consumer outreach and environmental campaigns. Take a look!

A mentor recently connected us with some academics who are doing very interesting work at the intersection of environmental activism, consumer psychology, marketing, and culture. A few of these studies are available online, and we’ve included the abstracts here.

10/08/2013

What we've already done can have a big impact on what we do next -- and escalation of commitment can be a tool to help people make more environmentally friendly decisions.

Like Martin Shubik’s “Dollar Auction Game” and the life’s work of Herbert Simon, Barry Staw’s “Knee-deep in the Big Muddy” fits in our gallery of literature aimed squarely at rationality-as-profit-maximization:

10/01/2013

Today Social Ventures looks at the Dollar Auction Game, an economic trap that has ensnared more than a few MBAs, but also has implications for changing consumer behavior.

Martin Shubik’s dollar-auction game, an exploration of the human tendency to overcommit to a chosen course of action, is well known in business-school circles for its ability to humble MBAs. At UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, it’s part of the core curriculum, and one of the first exercises...

09/24/2013

Social Ventures looks back at one of the 20th century's great essays.

A political and economic mile marker in America’s response to environmental issues, Garrett Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons” created a game-theory brand that, along with prisoner’s dilemma, is broadly enough understood to make its way into everyday conversation. Hardin’s 1968 essay, published i...

09/17/2013

Social Ventures honors the late Ronald Coase, whose work on externalities shapes our concept of the true price of pollution and waste.

To honor the late Nobel winner Ronald Coase, an economist who greatly furthered our understanding of externalities — including the CO2 emissions and landfill waste Social Ventures concerns itself with — we take a look today at the Coase Theorem, one of Coase’s landmark observations.

09/12/2013

Today Social Ventures for Sustainability looks back at a 1955 paper in which Herbert Simon called out the human brain for being bad at making well-reasoned decisions, then called out economics for its failure to take our weaknesses into account.

:D

Herbert Simon paved the way to include psychological quirks in economic modeling. His work has had a huge impact on Social Ventures' campaign designs and strategy.

09/10/2013

Social Ventures is now on LinkedIn! Connect to get professional SV content as well as stay in the loop about jobs and internship opportunities. http://www.linkedin.com/company/social-ventures-for-sustainability

Welcome to the company profile of Social Ventures for Sustainability on LinkedIn. Social Ventures for Sustainability works with campuses and communities to encourage sustainable...

09/09/2013

New Blog Post: Drew and Mike discover how difficult it can be to measure carpooling behavior at a campus with a daytime population of more than 50,000.

Carpooling to UC San Diego: How do we measure traffic to affect carpool and ride sharing at UCSD?