Green Tuesday

This holiday season, not-for-profit organization Green America floats the idea of "Green Tuesday" in the spirit of Black Friday or Small Business Saturday. It's an effort to inspire people to consider the environment as part of their gift giving traditions.

Following the thought of holiday giving I hope you'll consider making a donation to an organization I admire a great deal called Water for People. Water for People is the nonprofit arm of the American Water Works Association and they're tasked with helping developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education programs.

Around the world, 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion are without adequate sanitation facilities. Dotting the landscape are broken water pumps, filled latrines, and reminders of well-meaning solutions that didn't last. At the end of the day, any technical solution - whether it's digging a well, putting in a pump or installing a latrine - is only as good as its lasting impact. If it breaks and can't be fixed the effort is wasted.

Long lasting solutions are at the forefront of how Water For People plans, creates, monitors and follows up on our programs. In each of their program countries, Water for People activities are concentrated in specific regions, which enable them to create a climate of energy, synergy and motivation that fuels future success for the communities within that region. Water for People works in collaboration with local partners - the local government, local private sector, local civil society, and the communities to develop a strategy and priority plan. And finally the organization works to keep solutions local so that the tools and resources needed for maintenance and repair are never too far away.