The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF) appointed John Pilmer as its 2010 chairman.

As chairman, John oversees all Forum activities and management.

“This is an exciting place and time to be an entrepreneur,” Pilmer said in the official press release. “Organizations like Forbes and Inc. recognize Utah as a leader in aspiring businesses. As the economy turns around, investors and lenders are ready to put their money into promising ventures, and they look to Utah for compelling start-ups and exceptional entrepreneurs. UVEF is ready to make the most of this unique opportunity.”

John understands the challenges entrepreneurs face, and the strategies that can help them succeed. He founded PilmerPR in 2003, which specializes in small-business public relations. PilmerPR helped launch successful businesses like Mozy, ElectraTherm, iFollo and eComfort. PilmerPR, itself, has continued to grow and win numerous awards.

UVEF is a volunteer non-profit support group that helps entrepreneurs and small-business in Utah succeed through education and networking. John succeeds Roger Andrus, Executive Director of UtahAngels and Business Development Corporation of Provo, as UVEF chairman.

See the Official Press Release

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Watch John Pilmer explain the benefits of UVEF membership, and the state of entrepreneurship in Utah:

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Yesterday, I heard Louis Pope speak to the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF.net) as he received recognition as Social Entrepreneur of the Year. Louis thinks globally, about our back yard in Utah, about our back yard to the world. In his acceptance remarks, he said more than a billion people live in extreme poverty-less than $1/day. However, his comments were not gloom and doom. He spoke of the net reduction of that number over the past several years because of efforts to create jobs.

In PilmerPR’s work in social responsibility (CSR) we tell clients to first “be good, then talk about being good.” Louis and his company are the best examples of this that I know of. He could likely afford to retire to anywhere he chooses. What he chooses to do is lift people by the thousands and to inspire others to do the same. He, Yehu Microfinance, and US Synthetic have truly inspired me. Thank you Louis.

Great story about Louis Pope on KSL TV

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What does Wal-Mart and the United States government have in common? Answer: buying power. According to USAspending.gov, the U.S. government spends more than $500 billion in products and services each year from roughly 230,000 different companies. It is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest consumer products retailer, buying roughly $300 billion each year in products it sells in retail stores from more than 100,000 different companies.

The U.S. government and Wal-Mart’s buying power are influential in setting the stage for corporate social responsibility requirements. According to Information Management, the U.S. government and Wal-Mart will begin phasing in corporate social responsibility requirements for their suppliers and vendors over the next few years. Read more at Utah Business Magazine.

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Obama is talking about it. Gap, Hewlett Pack (HP) and Timberland are talking about it. Neighbors, executives and world politicians are also talking about it. What are they are all talking about? … Answer: Social Responsibility.

A recent article in Time magazine written by managing editor, Richard Stengel, introduced the idea of a new kind of consumer. “We are again entering a period of social change as Americans are recalibrating our sense of what it means to be a citizen, not just through voting or volunteering but also through commerce: by what we buy. There is a new dimension to civic duty that is growing in America - it’s the idea that we can serve not only by spending time in our communities and classrooms but by spending more responsibly. We are starting to put our money where our ideals are.”

Never in the history of capitalism has social responsibility played such an important role. Gone are the days of cheap talk and sparse metrics to prove the importance of corporate social responsibility. In fact, according to a recent poll in Time magazine, 40 percent of all respondents said they purchased a product in 2009 because they liked the social or political values of the company that produced it. From that same poll, 82 percent said they have consciously supported local or neighborhood business this year. Read more at Utah Business Magazine.

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Last week, Green Week in Review’s Bart King interviewed William C. Olson, Senior Vice President and co-founder of ElectraTherm–a company that has developed modular technology (the ElectraTherm Green Machine) to harness waste heat from a variety of industry sectors.

The United States produces enough industrial waste-heat (think smokestacks) to replace roughly 30 percent of the electricity produced by burning fossil fuels. According to the United States Department of Energy, there is more waste heat available in the United States than all other sources of renewable energy combined. Yet most of it goes to waste.

ElectraTherm has fielded interest from all over the world in the company’s fuel-free, emissions-free systems. The ElectraTherm Green Machine can produce power from a wide array of heat sources including industrial waste heat, engines, biomass, and solar thermal installations

Read more and hear the podcast.

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Hewlett Packard is feeling the heat from Greenpeace after a little roof painting. Greenpeace activists climbed to the top of HP’s global headquarters in Palo Alto, CA and painted the message “Hazardous Products” on the roof.

The painting on HP’s roof is in response to HP’s alleged backtracking on its public commitment to eliminate key toxic chemicals in its products by the end of this year. According to Greenpeace, ”HP continues to put hazardous products on the market despite promises made years ago to phase out these toxic compounds.”

In response to the claims made by Greenpeace,  HP said it “has a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability, with three main components: minimizing our impact, helping our customers to improve their environmental performance and driving towards a sustainable, low-carbon economy.”

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The secret to effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is planning. Integrate CSR into your organization’s business model for best results. The benefits from your CSR campaign may come in the form of increased profits, an increased positive company perception, or approval from the community through increased goodwill or an improved hiring pool.

Positive outcomes for your CSR campaign require leadership, not luck. A strategic look at organizational objectives and how you plan to accomplish them will greatly facilitate the tactics planning of your CSR plan.

When determining your socially responsible objectives, consider your organization’s roots. Don’t immediately look around the world. Look in your backyard, start local. Make smaller goals and think about the community around your organization. How can you be a responsible corporate citizen? Look at the community’s needs and sincerely think about how your organization could help. Continue reading at Utah Business Magazine

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“PilmerPR is pleased to announce the garnering of yet another honor for exceptional public relations results. Thank you to a great client, ElectraTherm, for accepting sound PR advice and thanks to skilled staff that holds up the standard of communications excellence at PilmerPR.”  John Pilmer - President and Founder

EarthTimes covers this Green PR news.

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is no longer the hot potato that is fun to toss around. Taken from big ideas and a sense of responsibility, CSR is now one of the standard side-dishes of the corporate offering. The Fortune 500 are doing it, and the small business down the road is talking about it. You may be surprised how many organizations have incorporated CSR into their strategic plans.

Coffee giant Starbucks is among the social responsibility leaders. A look at Starbucks’ global responsibility page reveals little content, but key CSR tools. First, Starbucks uses two elements of the triple bottom line, planet and people to immediately let their customers know they care about being socially responsible. Next, Starbucks ingeniously created their CSR reports that although extraordinarily long, can convince almost anyone that Starbucks truly does care for the environment. Read more at Utah Business Magazine

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The triple bottom line, CSR and social responsibility are all buzz words gracing headlines and the agendas of corporate meetings both large and small. But what do they all mean? And why is everyone talking about them?

Corporate social responsibility or CSR is a relatively new and increasingly large concern for corporations and small businesses alike. CSR is also known as corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, sustainable responsible business (SRB) and corporate social performance. Simply put, corporate social responsibility is self-regulation built into a company’s business plan.

In a perfect world, a company’s CSR policies would self-monitor in accordance to their obedience to laws, ethical standards and governmental regulations. In other words, the company would force itself to comply with standards before the government gets involved. Read more at Utah Business Magazine

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