The GOOD 100

The GOOD 100: Building Trains in Detroit

GOOD — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:00:42 PDT

Back on the Train Gang

By Michael Dukakis. Dukakis is a former governor of Massachusetts and served on Amtrak's board of directors. He thinks we need to use Detroit factories to manufacture trains.

After years of delay, during which both Europe and Asia enjoyed the benefits of modern trains that run at speeds of 200 miles per hour and beyond, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Congress have made an $8-billion down payment on what can and should be a national rail passenger system that will rival the ones our friends in Europe and Japan have been enjoying for years.

Unfortunately, our failure to invest in high-speed intercity rail has also led to the demise of what was once the world's biggest and best rail-car-manufacturing industry. While GE continues to make quality locomotives that it ships all over the world, the rest of the United States has been incapable of making transit cars and passenger trains for years. For that reason, U.S. metropolitan transit systems and Amtrak have been forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on foreign-made trains because our country has lost the capability to build them.

This must change. There is no reason that we can't revive and rebuild our rail-manufacturing industry, especially in places like Michigan that have taken the toughest blows during the current economic downturn. We have plenty of unused and underused industrial capacity, thousands of skilled workers who are currently collecting unemployment compensation, and auto-parts manufacturers who are perfectly capable of making the components of trains.

What's needed is a strong push by the administration, Congress, and states like Michigan to take advantage of what the new national commitment to investing in transit and rail now makes possible.

We have the people. We have the industrial capacity. We can certainly recapture the know-how we once had-another example of how an economic crisis can create new opportunities if we have the sense and determination to take advantage of them.

The GOOD 100: Cash for Clunkers

GOOD — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:00:52 PDT

In July, America's "Cash for Clunkers" program became a front-page news story. Championed by environmental groups, progressive think tanks, and the auto industry, the program, which gave consumers up to $4,500 when they exchanged an old gas guzzler for a new, fuel-efficient car, proved to be so popular that it exhausted its initial $1 billion in less than a week (it was later extended). In the process, it got 250,000 of our nation's most polluting cars of the road, slightly reduced our dependence on fossil fuels, and gave Detroit a much-needed boost. The long-term effects remain to be seen, but the outpouring of government funds and popular support for a plan to increase fuel efficiency was nothing if not inspiring.

The GOOD 100: Big Brands Bet on Electric

GOOD — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:00:53 PDT

Leading the Charge

A fleet of electric vehicles may seem like a remote reality right now, but if the corporate world is betting right, it is closer than we think. Besides the various car companies now falling over themselves to get electric cars into the market, other major American corporations are starting to get ready for a world in which people need to fill up their ride with a plug and not a pump.

Best Buy is starting its foray into electric-vehicle retail by offering an electric motorcycle called the Enertia. It can go 55 miles per hour, and costs less than one cent per mile to run. The price tag-$12,000-is hefty, but the idea of all-electric vehicles being sold at one of the nation's largest big-box stores is a good omen for the gradual acceptance of electricity as the new fuel.

McDonald's is also getting into the action, with free charging stations at some of its locations. Sure, most of those locations are in Sweden, to help the company comply with E.U. regulations (and because people actually drive electric cars in Sweden), but the fast food chain also debuted an experimental LEED-certified outpost in North Carolina this July, which includes two such stations. It shows both that McDonald's is willing to adapt and that if there is a need from consumers, our corporations won't turn down a chance to monetize it, even if the initial investment is high.

The GOOD 100: Bikes

GOOD — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:54 PDT

We Want to Ride Our Bicycles…

Bikes have been around for about a century and a half, and they're still awesome.

Because we dig the calluses on the palms of our hands. Because we actually kind of like when our legs feel like Jell-O. Because we crave the brisk wind on our cheeks. Because we recall with fondness fastening Topps cards to chain stays. Because today we actually prefer the non-motor bike anyway. Because it's the paragon of efficiency for personal transit and a perfect machine and a work of art.

There are more than 2 billion bikes in the world. Pick one up and ride it.

See more images and purchase bicycles from Spernicelli Biciclette at myoldbicycle.com.

Prints of the bicycle poster by Eleanor Grosch are available at pushmepullyoudesign.com.

Photographs by Spernicelli Biciclette.

The GOOD 100: Electric Cars

GOOD — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:00:45 PDT

Tesla

As evidenced by the flashy concept renderings all over the internet, every established car company out there, from Ford to Rolls-Royce, has a plug-in vehicle "in development." But the $109,000 Tesla Roadster is still the only highway-capable plug-in you can actually buy, fully assembled, in America. In July, Tesla accomplished something else car manufacturers should be jealous of: It turned a profit of $1 million.

The road's been bumpy, though. There have been the nasty legal disputes between CEO Elon Musk and Tesla's co-founder Martin Eberhard, conflicts with inflexible Detroit suppliers, a brief recall fiasco, and the bankruptcy rumors of late 2008.

This past summer however, with Daimler aboard as an investor, Tesla scooped up $465 million in low-interest government loans from the Department of Energy. With that money, it will begin producing the sleek $50,000 Model S sedan. In fact, this has been Tesla's plan all along: Gear an expensive, flashy electric car to the early adopters, establish a brand, generate some buzz, and then funnel that success into progressively cheaper models. Well played.

Coming soon to an outlet near you:

BYD F3DM

The F3DM, from car company BYD, is already available in China and is targeted to hit the U.S. market in 2011. At $22,000, it'll be cheap by electric vehicle standards.

Chevy Volt

The long-heralded savior of Detroit, the Chevy Volt, may finally reach U.S. markets in November of 2010, priced around $40,000.

Toyota Prius Plug-in

A plug-in version of the third-generation Prius is currently being tested in Japan, Europe, and the United States. It's expected to be in mass production by 2012.

Nissan Leaf

With a range of 100 miles and a price tag around $30,000, the LEAF will be introduced in 2010 in cities with an EV charging infrastructure.

Think City EV

The boxy City EV is shipping to customers in Norway now. Think is looking to build a factory in the United States to make 2,500 cars in 2010.

Fisker Karma

The exotic Fisker Karma is a 150-mph, $87,900 luxury four-door that looks like something James Bond would drive. Fisker is taking orders.

The GOOD 100: Ray Lahood

GOOD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:18:59 PDT

The Hottest Thing on Wheels (or Rails)

As the new transportation secretary, Ray LaHood has been tasked with remaking our transportation infrastructure into one that focuses more on sustainability than widening highways. It's a tall order but, so far, we're impressed with his approach.

1. For supporting high-speed rail.
When Obama squeezed $8 billion for high-speed rail into the recent stimulus package, LaHood got on board fast. His grant program for rail projects already has nearly 300 applications. They're being prioritized according to where they'll serve the most people. You'll find out whether your area gets quick, clean transport by the end of the year.

2. For looking for good models.
It's no secret that Amtrak is struggling. But high-speed rail is working in Europe and Asia. Last May, Ray LaHood took a fact-finding trip through France, Spain, Germany, and Japan to find out what they're doing right.

3. For joining up with the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Where we live, how we get around, and whether we destroy the planet with greenhouse gases are related issues. So it only makes sense for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency to work together. That's just what they're doing with the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which will coordinate their various programs.

4. For confronting George Will.
In Newsweek, the columnist George Will attacked LaHood's efforts to create "livable communities" as excessive government intervention. LaHood was unrepentant, responding, "We have to create opportunities for people that do want to use a bicycle or want to walk or want to get on a streetcar or want to ride a light rail. … Everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives."

5. For his commitment to bipartisanship.
LaHood-elected to office as a Republican in Illinois seven times-has conservative bona fides. And he's been using that clout with the Right to try to ensure that both sides of the aisle are working together.

The GOOD 100: Ending the War on Drugs

GOOD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:00:15 PDT

Finding a Better Way to Fight

It's pretty much unanimous, at this point: The war on drugs has sucked us all down with it. Each year it accounts for more than a million arrests and costs the United States tens of billions of dollars. The impact of the war's failed policies can be seen everywhere: There are arrest rates with their damning racial biases; the overcrowded state and federal prisons; and the fact that we spend a mint in taxpayer dollars to try to make a point. And that point has quite pointedly not being taken, as illegal drugs are bigger business than ever: Drug rings, by some estimates, control 8 percent of global GDP. The good news is that the movement to end this so-called war has more advocates than ever. No longer limited to fringe marijuana activists, Hollywood types, and oddball presidential candidates, the push to end the war is finally in the political mainstream. It's even being espoused by President Obama's drug czar, who said earlier this year that in order to create effective drug policy, we had to remove the world "war" from the mission statement. Mission not quite accomplished, but a good move nonetheless.

The GOOD 100: Cowpooling

GOOD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:08:16 PDT

Share Your Meat with All Your Friends

Because buying in bulk is always better

by Tamar Adler

Adler is the director of the Bay Area Meat CSA and Meatshare.org, which help hungry people buy wholesale meat directly from local farmers.

Optimizing a whole animal's value by buying all of its cuts isn't new-a half century ago, it was commonplace to buy a whole cow or pig from a neighbor and work your way through the meat over a course of a few months.

But cooperating with neighbors to absorb all of that meat in one shot-called "cowpooling," or meat sharing-is. Groups ranging in size from two to 20 people have begun sharing the burdens and the benefits of buying meat straight off the pasture. The groups contract with farmers for one whole animal, and split it up by the pound. The more people who are sharing an animal, the less meat each takes home: When 20 people buy one cow, each only ends up with 15 to 20 pounds.

As people become more intent on verifying their food's sources, we predict they will rely more heavily on alternative buying mechanisms like community-supported agriculture and meat-sharing to create critical links between those who want good food and the people who produce it.

To connect with neighbors interested in starting a local meat co-op, visit localharvest.org.

The GOOD 100: Fewer Streets

GOOD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:00:07 PDT

Blockade Parade

How closing streets can actually reduce traffic

As the city of Vancouver prepared to convert a car lane on the busy Burrard Bridge into a bike path last summer, some imagined impending anarchy. At the time, one cabbie, Jatinder Nijjar, predicted, "It is going to be chaos." In fact, the trial-and the traffic-has run smoothly so far.

Nijjar might have had different expectations had he read "The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks," a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters in August, 2008. The paper's authors, two Korean physicists and a researcher at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, showed that closing certain streets in Boston, London, and New York could actually reduce traffic. This counterintuitive result can be explained by Braess's paradox, a mathematical concept that describes how, when individual drivers make the decision to take the quickest route, they all try to squeeze onto the path they perceive as being fastest in the short term, and everyone's commute is longer than it has to be. Providing fewer driving options turns out to mean that commuters spread out their commutes more equitably among the routes available, making the average commute shorter for everyone-not to mention creating a more pleasant civic space.

The GOOD 100: The Great Electric Vehicle Race

GOOD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:00:35 PDT

Portland vs. San Francisco

Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco seem locked in an ongoing battle to become the left coast's left-most city. To stoke the competition, the blog Gas2.0 has launched a website to track each city's progress toward building an infrastructure for electric cars. We asked the mayors of both cities to explain what they're doing to win:

Mayor Gavin Newsom on why the Bay Area will win:

Bay Area consumers have been the early adopters of green vehicles. We have the highest concentration of hybrid-car owners in the nation, and in San Francisco, we have committed to reducing CO² emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

San Francisco has already reduced CO² emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels-a major accomplishment. But if we are serious about our goal for 2012, we must cut emissions from vehicles. The transportation sector accounts for roughly 50 percent of San Francisco's CO² emissions.

In our efforts to address climate change, electric vehicles are the game-changer. Some believe that hybrid-electric vehicles are the answer-I believe fully electric battery-powered vehicles are the quantum leap we need to make. Imagine cars with no tailpipes and no direct carbon emissions, powered by an electrical energy system that gets cleaner every year through regulations that requires the switch to renewable energy sources.

To accelerate our journey to an EV future, San Francisco has joined forces with the other Bay Area city and county governments to make our region a magnet market. We are organizing municipal fleet managers, permit and planning officials, and policy makers to guarantee that when electric vehicles start rolling off the assembly lines, we are ready.

In San Francisco, the city has installed EV charging stations in front of City Hall, partnered with car-sharing organizations to encourage and facilitate their use of plug-in vehicles, and worked with car companies to test their plug-in vehicles. We are also aggressively pursuing federal dollars to build charging stations and convert our hybrid fleet to plug-ins.

Since our electric-vehicle announcement in San Francisco less than a year ago, a lot has changed. Our neighbor to the north, Portland's mayor, Sam Adams, challenged us to an electric car race to see which city could build the world's first fully electric vehicle grid. President Obama has announced billions of dollars in federal grants to develop and mass-produce electric vehicles and batteries. Car companies have stopped trying to kill the electric car and have begun to embrace the technology. Every day, we hear of another EV that will hit the showrooms in the next two to three years, from the Chevy Volt to the Nissan LEAF. But if we are going to electrify and revive our auto industry, we are going to need continued federal support to build the infrastructure and make electric vehicles affordable. We need Cash for Clunkers 2.0.

Mayor Sam Adams on why Portland will win:

Long before green was cool, Portland was green. And, with all due respect to our progressive neighbors to the south, our clean-tech industries will lead the way in the coming years.

Clean-and-green technology represents a unique opportunity to expand our economy and improve the quality of life in our city. And few industries reflect the unity of economic development and sustainability like the burgeoning electric-vehicle industry. That's why Portland is kicking gas and taking names. Names like Nissan LEAF, Mitsubishi i MiEV, and Chevy Volt have rapidly entered Portland's vocabulary, joining the ever popular Prius. And we are ready.

Light rail. Streetcars. A world-class bicycle infrastructure. Car-sharing. Portland led the nation on these smart transportation innovations. And electric cars-the vehicles, batteries, and charging stations-are another step in reducing our carbon footprint and increasing our sustainable prosperity.

Portland is committed to reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050 as set forth in our Climate Action Plan. The plan calls for the city to reduce petroleum use 50 percent by 2030. We know transportation options are the key to achieving our goals. Electric vehicles are a primary tool to reach our target. We will make our ambitions a reality, and we will get there by making Portland a hub for the electric-vehicle industry.

The positive impact of the electric-vehicle industry is sure to reach beyond Portland and requires us to take a regional approach. Therefore, we are partnering with government entities, nonprofits, higher education, private businesses, and public utilities throughout our region to see the promotion and integration of electric vehicles in our transportation network.

We're leading the region to a cleaner future by leveraging funds that promote the use of clean technologies and expand our transportation options. We are strategically and aggressively seeking federal incentives for the deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in our city, region, and state.

In short, we're leading the nation and doing it the Portland way-creatively, collaboratively, and efficiently; and we're happy to let other cities follow our lead. We're at the head of the class on this one. Mayor Newsom, I'd be happy to share my notes with you.

The GOOD 100: Alex Steffen and Worldchanging

GOOD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:00:53 PDT

The Bright Green Hope

Alex Steffen, the CEO and executive editor of the website Worldchanging, is pushing the boundaries of environmental activism to better places. We salute him because:

1. He coined the term "bright green," referring to the modern school of environmentalism he helped found. Bright greens reject environmentalism as simply a lifestyle choice in favor of a more aggressive approach to sustainability, one that looks to technology and design as the bellwethers of change.

2. He was bold enough to call out the false promise of consumer-based environmental activism-like buying compact fluorescent lightbulbs for your home-as the meager stopgap that it is.

3. He has the ear of everyone from TED's Chris Anderson to Wired's Chris Anderson.

4. The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December, which he has called "the most important international summit of our lifetime," isn't likely to produce the results we need to get our planet's health on track. But Steffen has a plan, and he's telling people about it at four presentations in the city during the conference, in his forthcoming book (Bright Green: A Worldchanging Guide to Building a Future That Works), and through a speaking tour in the United States next year.

5. He was doing this before it was cool, doesn't care that it is cool now, and will be doing it even when it stops being cool.

The GOOD 100: PINC Conference

GOOD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:00:43 PDT

A Conference Within Reach

In the words of one attendee, PINC is "like TED, without the politics." The acronym stands for People, Ideas, Nature, Creativity, which are the themes of this annual under-the-radar conference. Held in the Netherlands, PINC brings together speakers from every imaginable discipline to share brilliant new ideas, stories, and visual presentations. They generally have little in common other than a passion for what they do, and an absolute faith in the power of innovation and inspiration. Here are a few of them:

Tiina Urm, Estonia Citizen activist

Urm corralled a team of 700 volunteers to scour the country for illegal trash-dumping sites using custom GPS mapping software. The completed map served as the guide for a national day of cleanup, on which 50,000 Estonians took to the streets to rid their country of garbage.

Hans Monderman, The Netherlands Traffic engineer

Monderman pioneered a school of radical traffic design that eliminates all signage at intersections. The counterintuitive system causes drivers to exercise more caution when approaching these unguarded crossings, resulting in fewer accidents.

Kevin Warwick, United Kingdom Professor of cybernetics

The last time you heard the word "cybernetics" was probably the last time you watched The Terminator. But Warwick wants to make that science fiction real, and wonders why we don't improve our experiences in the world by hardwiring our brains into computers and other machines. He had a microchip implanted under his skin to demonstrate the potential.

Ben Underwood, United States Student

After losing both his eyes to cancer at a young age, Underwood learned to navigate the world using echolocation-the same technique bats and dolphins rely on to gather data about their surroundings. Underwood would emit a series of clicks from his mouth, and create an accurate landscape in his mind based on the returning echos-so accurate that he could ride a bike, skateboard, and play basketball. He died in January at age 16.

The GOOD 100: Tehran Bureau

GOOD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:00:40 PDT

A Case Study

This past summer, as Iran was gripped by street protests and violent government crackdowns, the reporting in the U.S. media left much to be desired. How do you get news out of a country that barely tolerates reporters? For many, the answer was the Tehran Bureau, a scrappy website run by Kelly Niknejad that published reports from Iran alongside commentary from knowledgeable sources. Soon, the site was being quoted and cited across the news media, traffic was rising-and then the site was mysteriously disabled during the most intense days of postelection conflict (its been back up since). While Iran may have faded somewhat from the forefront of the news, it seems destined to have a key role to play in international events, and we'll need the Tehran Bureau more than ever.

Mission To be an independent source of news for Iran and Iranians around the world.

Vitals About 80,000 readers a month; more than 21,000 Twitter followers.

Accolades Quoted in The New York Times and on the BBC, ABC, and CNN, among others; now syndicated by Agence Global (Le Monde, The Nation); shut down by hackers, possibly the Iranian government.

Why it works Most media outlets have scant resources invested in reporting from Iran despite its position as a country that is often in the center of the news. Reporting from within the country is hard to come by due to government control of news and crackdowns on free expression. "Everything we did had an angle nobody else had," says Niknejad. "It had the authenticity of someone based in Tehran." The site publishes many stories without bylines for the safety of its reporters, but has cultivated an impressive network of writers in and outside of Iran, who can both break news and interpret it faster and more accurately than bigger news sources.

Plans for the future New contributors; video and audio submissions.

The GOOD 100: Creative Freedom in Corporate Media

GOOD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:00:05 PDT

The Grey Lady Lets Her Hair Down

Old-media companies are no longer the cultural gatekeepers they once were. Shrinking production costs and effortless distribution of new media have eroded their monopoly on great content. As feisty start-ups and armchair auteurs crowd the landscape, these publishing bulwarks are being forced to take more risks. Here are some of our favorite successful shots in the dark.

The New York Times

The otherwise-conservative editors at The New York Times send the illustrator and amateur historian Maira Kalman (1) to places like the Supreme Court, Monticello, and the Pentagon with nothing more than a set of watercolors. These same people let the artist Christoph Niemann (2) explore, among other things, his nostalgia for New York City through the medium of LEGOs.

Nickelodeon

Yo Gabba Gabba! (3) is a kids' TV show (in the same way that WALL-E is a kids' movie) with which Nickelodeon-read: Viacom-stretches the limits of creativity and imagination. Regular segments include beat-boxing with Biz Markie, drawing lessons with Mark Mothersbaugh, and a bit of craziness called Dancey Dance Time.

Cartoon Network

The clinically adventurous folks at Cartoon Network (parent company: Turner Broadcasting) let the people behind the Adult Swim program block put absurdist, boundary-pushing shows on the air like Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job (4)!

Photos: 1. Maira Kalman; 2. Christoph Niemann; 3. Ben Clark courtesy of Wildbrain; 4. Mike Piscitelli

The GOOD 100: Giant Gundam

GOOD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:43 PDT

Gun-damn

The city of Tokyo has embraced the spirit of cultural adventurousness. Their contribution: a 60-foot tall Gundam statue, based on the mechanized warrior from the eponymous anime series, which turned 30 this year. The giant toy is inexplicably, but awesomely, tied into a city-wide greening effort, and is part of a campaign to host the 2016 summer Olympics.

Photo by Tim Lindenschmidt

The GOOD 100: The Oil Drum

GOOD — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:00:41 PDT

Crude Blogging

We're running out of oil, but search for the phrase "peak oil" on the websites of 31 major U.S. newspapers, and you'll get a mere 941 hits, total. That's the kind of thing the Oil Drum would like to address. The online think tank, launched in 2005, is filling that void with grounded writing on natural resources and energy.

According to co-founder Kyle L. Saunders, a political-science professor at Colorado State University, "We started off like a relatively normal blog, but then, because of our complex subject matter, started discovering a lot of other people concerned about resource depletion and sustainability." Before long, the Oil Drum had attracted a roster of expert contributors that included engineers, physicists, and security analysts.

Posts on the Oil Drum-often supported with compelling charts and data-can be dazzling in their scope and depth. A recent post explored how reward pathways in the human brain have been "hijacked" by advertising and a status-obsessed culture to drive compulsive consumption, compounding the strain on our natural resources.

At its best, the Oil Drum is the perfect blend of blog, research journal, and newspaper. And it isn't alone. A few other sites-including the Baseline Scenario, which focuses on economics, and the Tehran Bureau, a source of news on Iran-are providing original, authoritative analysis on a regular basis. This could be a model for the future of media. If we can listen in on the discussions of experts, the landscape might not be limited to lazy bloggers and expensive, old-school reporting after all.

For now, however, Saunders is focused on a different goal: "We want to provide a comprehensive picture of what is going on with regard to our energy future-and try to sound a clarion call that steps need to be taken as quickly as possible to soften the landing."

The GOOD 100: Infinite Summer

GOOD — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:00:43 PDT

A Better Book Club

Your favorite cat video might have 11 million views on YouTube, but the chances that the person you meet at a party has also seen it-let alone has anything interesting to say about it-are slim. Still, the internet need not represent the death of a common cultural literacy. Take Infinite Summer: This very analog online project invited aspiring literati to read 75 pages of the late David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest each week, from June through September. Cities across the country have tried summer book clubs for years, but despite good press, participation remained low. The Infinite Summer site, meanwhile, featured essays and discussions on the parts of the novel scheduled for that week, helping drive and shape a conversation about the notoriously difficult tome. By inspiring the reading and discussing of literature, Infinite Summer is an intriguing model for bringing back a sense of communal intellectualism. And for participants, there is now the chance that a party conversation can consist of a mutually informed discussion of the precarious position of a certain P.G.O.A.T., not just a request to send the link to that cat video.

Summer Reading

Infinite Summer has plans to repeat next year with a new book. May we make some suggestions:

Me, Ulysses, and Everyone You Know
Reading James Joyce's Ulysses

The American Trimester
Reading John Dos Passos's U.S.A. Trilogy over nine months

The Crying of Lot 49 Days of Summer
Thomas Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 in only four pages a day

The GOOD 100: IDEO Social Impact

GOOD — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:00:39 PDT

When a well-intentioned initiative lacks the compelling storytelling needed to get its message out there, its chances of success-or of getting funding-are significantly hampered. But when an effort is bolstered by a bold, arresting visual narrative, its potential for success is boundless. In that department, the Social Impact arm of the design firm IDEO is without equal. Take the Ripple Effect, IDEO's Gates Foundation–funded partnership with the Acumen Fund that is working to bring clean water to 500,000 of the world's poorest people. The project, which went first to India, and is now in East Africa, is a perfect example of how IDEO's artful narration of an initiative is inexorably tied to the solution itself.