Advocacy Campaigns Posts

Bamboo Charcoal: A Sustainable Energy Source for Africa

When we think of bamboo, we rarely think of Africa. Though most of us know the plant as panda food or as the backdrop of Chinese movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, it is also a source of alternative energy that can combat soil degradation and massive deforestation in Africa.

Tags:
no comments yet

Food and Farming at the Heart of Climate Discussion

Last week, a group of 14 international agriculture experts from around the world wrote an opinion piece in Science magazine urging the scientific community to address the importance of agriculture in the climate change debate.

Tags:
no comments yet

Sugary Drinks’ Not-So-Sweet Effect on Kids & Teens

The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity's Sugary Drink FACTS report recommends that beverage companies develop and market child-friendly products with less added sugar; make ingredient information more easily accessible; stop targeting teens with marketing for sugary drinks or caffeinated products; and remove nutrition-related claims from high-sugar products.

Tags:
no comments yet

Honoring Our Veterans with Better Skilled Nursing Homes

The Green House ® Project, a grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is focused on reinventing the nursing home experience for older Americans and is taking steps to improve the lives of those who have served our country.

Tags:
no comments yet

Announcing BurnessDigital

BurnessDigital is new, but we’ve been crafting online strategy for several years: we have told the stories of exceptional nonprofits in videos, brought attention to their ideas with social media campaigns and dynamic websites, and worked to “move the needle” by crafting online strategies that advance their communications goals. This launch is the next step in the evolution of our communications approach.

Tags:
no comments yet

Honoring Environmental Research That Could Change the World

This month, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement recognized two extraordinary conservationists grappling with precisely these issues. Dr. Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund and Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University will join environmental superstars like E.O. Wilson and Jane Goodall as Tyler Prize Laureates. (Burness works with the Tyler Prize.

Tags:
no comments yet

A Discussion with National Health Information Technology Coordinator David Blumenthal

“We have to start seeing health information systems as a mainstream technology that is part and parcel of medical practice, not something that is appended to it as an afterthought, not something that’s imposed on it, but something that will very soon be integrated into it and indistinguishable from all the other work that physicians and other health professionals do every day.”

Tags:
no comments yet

Making Gene Patents Work for Patients

Two decades ago, the controversial decision to allow patents on human genes sparked a genetic gold rush. Corporations and universities rushed to file a flurry of claims on genes linked to specific diseases like breast cancer and Alzheimer's. Since then, the patents themselves have invited plenty of criticism, but recently it’s the exclusive licenses often granted to companies developing diagnostics tests that have come under fire as anticompetitive – and damaging to patient care.

Tags:
no comments yet

A National Epidemic—and a Presidential Priority

Our nation is burdening Americans needlessly with disease— Americans who could be healthy if we tackled the factors that cause obesity: neighborhoods without spaces for physical activity, deficient access to healthy foods, high-calorie school lunches. It’s for this reason that the 42nd President called childhood obesity the “number one public health problem in the country”.

Tags:
no comments yet