BizVoice Interview with The Green Skeptic

A few months ago, I was interviewed by Tom Schurman for BizVoice, a publication of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, on the subject of clean energy, green jobs, and the difficult balancing act of the green movement overall.

Here is a link to a PDF of the BizVoice article "Balancing Act."

On Cramer vs. Stewart, Corporate Leadership, CNBC, and a Pivotal Moment

I'll admit that I find Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, entertaining. Cramer is entertaining in the same way as those old "Crazy Eddie" ads: "He's IN-sane!"

Cramer's enthusiasm and showmanship is fun to watch and his crazy antics are amusing -- throwing pies at CEOs on his Wall of Shame, punching buttons like a carnival barker to generate hoots, hollers, and recorded noises and phrases.

But as Jon Stewart said in his skewerview of the frenetic host, Cramer is a snake oil salesman.

To the extent that he taught folks how to think about investing, that was a good thing. And in his defense, Cramer often warned retail investors to do their homework, to only buy stock in companies they understand and whose products they use, and to be diversified.

That a majority of his viewers didn't take his advice and just bought when he punched the "Buy, buy buy" button or sold at "Sell, sell, sell," it's probably their own damned fault.

But it's the larger picture that really bothers me. CNBC's business model seemed to be based on the cult of the CEO, wealth-worship, and a hubris of growth. They forsook journalism for entertainment.

And this was clear from Cramer's response to Stewart's taunts on the subject: "CEOs lied to me." To which Stewart quipped something like "What happened to Journalism 101?" You don't take their word for it; you investigate further.

I stopped watching CNBC late last summer. I couldn't take it anymore. The smarmy hosts of Squawk Box every morning were two-headed beasts, simultaneously crying "The sky is falling," while licking the loafers of the parade of CEOs and other executives who were the proverbial wolves in sheep's clothing.

As it turns out, most of the CEOs were lying or at least not being entirely truthful -- or worse, they were really clueless themselves.

Our collective rage was unleashed by Jon Stewart on the nonplussed Jim Cramer. Cramer was our scapegoat and his mea culpa and pleas of I'll try to do better seemed genuine. I didn't see his show the day after the Stewart interview, but that would have been an opportunity for him to apologize to his viewers and begin to make amends. I understand that it was just more of the same.

It's too bad, because I really think we're at a pivotal moment. We have an opportunity to shift the way companies are run, journalism is practiced, and business is pursued. We should seize this opportunity to fire the bums and create a new standard of trust and transparency for CEOs, the journalists who cover them, and the consumers who buy their stock, products, or watch their programs.

Otherwise, this will be a missed opportunity and all that rage expressed by Jon Stewart will have been just another play for ratings. (Which I'm sure it was in part.)

A sustainable economy will require a new kind of CEO and a new relationship between companies and the media that writes about them. It will also require that we as consumers and viewers take more responsibility for doing our homework and maintaining a healthy skepticism.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

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Wallstrip Turns Two

Wallstrip celebrates its 2nd Anniversary today. One of our favorite, actually, the only "web tv" offering we watch regularly, Wallstrip looks at stocks, companies, and trends, especially those that are trading at or near an all-time high. Wallstrip is, as its website describes, "where pop culture meets stock culture."

Founded by Howard Lindzon, Adam Eland, and Jeff Marks, Wallstrip was hosted by the fabulous Lindsay Campbell (now the host of MobLogic.tv) and currently by the equally fabulous Julia Alexandria, who took over in January of this year.

Howard conceived of the idea in the Summer of 2006. He "wanted to create a show like Jon Stewart about stocks. Positive and simple." Eight months after launching Wallstrip, Howard sold it to CBS for $5 million.

Over the past two years Wallstrip has featured alternative energy and green stocks (see search list here), such as WFR, CLHB, and ORA.

Here are two episodes (one from each of Wallstrip's delicious hosts) on wind and solar energy:


Watch CBS Videos Online



Congratulations to the Wallstrippers, and here's to another fabulous season of Wallstrip!

Howard's latest play is StockTwits, which he is developing with Soren Macbeth. StockTwits is an open, community-centred investment idea and information service. Think of it as a "Bloomberg for the little guy."

Soren built it off the Twitter API as a way to track real-time conversations between people interested in stocks, trading, and sharing. Check it out: StockTwits

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Social Entrepreneurs: Acumen Fund Launches New Web Site, Fellows Blog

We like Acumen Fund's approach to "building transformative businesses to solve the problems of poverty."

Today, Rob Katz @ NextBillion.net points us too Acumen Fund's new, RSS-compatible web site. Here's Rob's take:

"In addition to being syndication-friendly, the new site is rich with stories, photos, videos and lots of dynamic content. I like how they've organized things around their three pillars: capital, knowledge and talent. For more on this three pillars approach, check out my post from the annual Investor Gathering last week.

While you're checking out the new Acumen site - be sure to read Jacqueline Novogratz's recent Pakistan and India journals, by the way - also add Immersion to your RSS feeds or bookmarks. Immersion is the title of the 2008 Acumen Fund Fellows blog. The seven fellows - with whom I met a few weeks back - are working in India, Pakistan and Kenya, and have been blogging regularly about their work and personal lives 'in the field.' I've enjoyed the early posts, and encourage NextBillion readers to check it out."

On first glance, I like the look. It's clean and easy to navigate. There are a couple of broken links, but that will probably be worked out in the coming days. I also like the links to video content, photo essays, and stories. Wondering why it's not so easy to navigate to Fellow profiles from the list or even find such profiles. But these are minor complaints; the content is rich and the look and feel is an improvement.

Clean Tech: Cramer's Mad Money Green Week

I'm a Cramer fan and was pleased to see he's hosting a Green Week series on his favorite Green stocks, including one of my favorites, First Solar (FSLR) and a surprising feature, Wells Fargo (WFC).

Check it out if you haven't already on CNBC (cnbc.com). (I'll update this post with a real link and tags when I get to my computer.)

And one of these days I'll post a model Green Skeptic portfolio.

P.S. Here's the link: Mad Green

Blogging & Media: Discovery Hugs TreeHugger

Discovery Communications acquired TreeHugger.com last week in an attempt to build its green new media offerings on the cusp of launching its Planet Green channel.

Discovery paid an estimated US$10M for the site, which "claims 1.4 million unique visitors a month and more than 50 writers around the world blogging about green news and products," according to the Washington Post.

TreeHugger is Discovery's first acquisition under chief executive David Zaslav, who began in January and is shifting resources into new-media products as part of "a housecleaning and reorganization that will end up cutting at least 25 percent of the company's workforce and closing the Discovery stores."

Nick Aster, one of the founders of TreeHugger, who now produces the Triple Pundit blog, wrote that the acquisition helps TreeHugger meet its goal of becoming "a real media presence and actually play a real role in 'mainstreaming' the basic principals of an ecologically conscious lifestyle."

Some of the principals, including Founder Graham Hill and COO Ken Rother, will continue to be involved. Certainly it will extend the reach of TreeHugger's audience (read more from Graham Hill.)

Personally, I've always found TreeHugger a bit cloying and precious, in spite or because of its award-winning design, my "booster alarm" sounds too often when reading its posts. (For more a more insightful critique of TreeHugger, see Bottleman's review.)

Still, it's a remarkable turn for the site, which started only three years ago. It certainly points to the growth in this space. What will this mean for green blogging and green lifestyle reporting? Only time will tell.

Global Climate Change: Art in Action, the HighWaterLine Project

Andy Goodman pointed me to Eve Mosher's HighWaterLine Project.

Like the Lennon Piano Peace Project I wrote about a couple of days ago, the HWL is a work of art rather than confrontation, but in its quiet statement it speaks volumes.

All over the city, Ms. Mosher, an artist with a background in environmental design, is marking with chalk the 10-feet above sea level line around Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. This is the potential high water mark resulting from a 100-year flood or worst-case scenario rise in sea level by 2020 due to global warming. She's backed up her concept with science and references to reports.

What's cool about this piece is its simplicity. The artist isn't preaching or haranguing passersby with her message. In fact, you have to ask her what she's doing. Then she'll offer an "action packet" featuring steps to reduce climate change.

Imagine encountering the artist in action: is she an errant grounds crew member from a local ballpark on her way home? A sidewalk marker who has forgotten to turn off her machine? I love the way this works, quietly insidiously, spreading like an urban legend.

As Mosher explains on the HWL web site: "Climate change is a silent, invisible threat - High Water Line gives voice and makes visible the affects of this threat. High Water Line is designed to engage the community and promote thoughtful, informed dialogue and action."

Look for her if you're in Lower Manhattan next week (10-12 August).

Wanna know where your high water mark is? Check out the Sea Level Rise Google Maps created by Alex Tingle

IMAGINE: John Lennon Piano on Tour with Mission of Healing and Hope

This sounds like one of those conceptual art pieces John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono was famous for over 30 years ago. The piano on which Lennon composed his anthem "Imagine" is touring sites of violent death in an attempt to bring healing and call attention to violent crime.

The Wall Street Journal (imagine seeing John Lennon on the front page of the WSJ!) reported this morning that the tour was organized by the current owners of the piano, singer George Michael and his longtime partner Kenny Goss. The pair bought the piano at auction from a private collector for $2.1 million.

Naive symbolism? Folly in the face of the prevalence of violent crime? The kind of thing John would have done in his post-Beatles activist youth? Maybe. But for the people who have experienced it, such as Alec and and Gabi Clayton in Olympia, Washington, whose son, Bill, took his own life at age 17 after he was attacked in a hate crime, it may provide healing and call attention to the types of violence that are all too common across America. (Read Gabi Clayton's blog)

The tour includes anniversary appearances at the sites of world tragedies, such as the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, New York's World Trade Center, the federal building in Oklahoma City, the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the 39th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination on the balcony of what is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

It all started last November at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. The tour was conceived after the piano was showcased at the IMAGINE exhibition at the Goss Gallery in Dallas last year.

"Imagine a world without violence, a world of peace. This sentiment echoes the lyrics to John Lennon’s 1971 song, 'Imagine,'" claims the Lennon Piano Tour website.

The Steinway upright is being photographed at each site for a possible book and documentary to "spread a worldwide message of peace, transcending time, cultures and boundaries."

Like the "Free Hugs Campaign," the Lennon Piano Tour is a simple act that touches people directly with a message that speaks louder than words of protest.

"This is about hopes and dreams and the world condition," Goss told the Associated Press last April.

The tour will likely conclude in December in front of the Dakota, where Lennon was murdered in 1980.

View a slide show of the stops along the tour: Lennon Piano. An RSS feed for updates is also available.

Watch the video of the Imagine Piano arriving at the Clayton's home and being played by proto-blogger and singer/songwriter Steve Schalchlin.



A moving tribute to a lost son.

Social Entrepreneurs: Games for Health Competition

I've been interested in the concept of using video games to explore solutions to social problems since the mid-90s, when some colleagues and I were exploring ways to use video games to do scenario thinking around the challenges of biodiversity conservation and complex planning.

Games for Change, led by Suzanne Seggerman, is one of the innovators in this space that has become a leader in expanding the platforms into a variety of social arenas, from education to climate change. They have their own (or associated?) competition happening: Games for Health.

Now Changemakers, an initiative of Ashoka, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is seeking creative solutions that merge computer and video games with health and health care.

Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care is a new competition designed to attract game developers from around the world into this emerging area.

All competition finalists will go to Baltimore, Maryland in May 2008, to present at the Changemakers Change Summit held in conjunction with the RWJF-sponsored "Games for Health" Conference.

Submit your entry by September 26, 2007 3:00 pm EST (21:00 GMT) (Requires sign-up.)

Read the current entries: Games for Health

(Disclaimer: While I am joining Ashoka in September, I have no direct affiliation with Changemakers.net or its programs.)

Innovation: Worldmapper Ecological Footprint Map

Worldmapper, a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest, has developed an "ecological footprint" map showing the area needed to support a population’s lifestyle.

Variables include consumption of food, fuel, wood, and fibers. Pollution, such as carbon dioxide emissions, is also counted as part of the footprint.

No surprises here: The U.S., China, and India have the largest ecological footprints.

Worldmapper offers a caveat: "Without knowing population size we cannot understand what this means about individuals’ ecological demands. Large populations live in China and India. In both territories resource use is below the world average. The per person footprint in the United States is almost five times the world average, and almost ten times what would be sustainable."

Check it out: Worldmapper Ecological Footprint

Also, there are 366 maps to choose from...have fun, poke around...check out the Botanical Gardens map or the map of Population or Access to Electricity.

The world as you've never seen it before, indeed.

Global Climate Change: TNC's Bill Stanley in "Plenty"

My Nature Conservancy buddy Bill Stanley is one of the smartest climate guys I know. Now he's been featured in Plenty magazine (love their tag line: "It's Easy Being Green") in an interview following on his recent bicycle trip across Montana, a kind of working vacation that allowed Bill to take the climate change pulse of real people.

Along the way, he explains why the Conservancy is focused on climate change and what they are doing about it.

And, while you're at it, check out the Conservancy's Climate Change calculator, recently featured on NBC's Today Show.

Read the interview: Plenty of Bill

Global Climate Change: Live Earth Poll Results Are In!

Readers have spoken! The results of my Live Earth Poll are in:

I asked, "Do you think Live Earth was a Success?"

70% of you thought that it was "Great entertainment, but won't move the needle."

The rest of the votes weresplit evenly between

"Dude, awesome success!" (10%)

"I'm blowing up my Hummer now." (10%)

and, sadly,

"What's Live Earth?" (10%)

One reader suggested an alternative question about "waiting for my neighbor to blow up his Hummer."

Thank you all for standing up and being counted. Look for more polls in the future on The Green Skeptic!

Microfinance: Does Microfinance Really Miss Its Mark?

"Are people going to be better off sitting all day in a pineapple canning factory?" asks Liam Collins of Green Microfinance, LLC, in response to my questions about Aneel Karnani's article in this summer's Stanford Social Innovation Review, "Microfinance Misses Its Mark."

"Not everyone is," Collins asserts. "And those of us who aren't deserve access to capital in order to pursue our dreams no matter how big or micro they may be."

Karnani, professor of strategy at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business, examines some of the failures of microfinance to argue that creating jobs not self-employment is the best way to alleviate poverty.

Criticism of microfinance is not new. The debate has been going on for decades within the development community. And no doubt some of the criticisms, especially about charging high interest rates to poor customers and questions about tracking and reporting loan repayment rates, are valid.

But is the question of scale missing the point?

David Bornstein, author of The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, writes, "The most common criticism aimed at the bank was that its loans were used primarily for small-scale, low-yielding activities that would ultimately lead to diminishing returns for villagers...borrowers were not 'scaling up' their activities."

Karnani suggests that funders should "reallocate their resources and energies away from microfinance and into supporting larger enterprises in labor intensive industries."

"A surer way to end poverty is to create jobs and to increase worker productivity, rather than turning to microfinance," Karnani posits.

Karnani makes some broad claims, but I'm not convinced he's made his argument.

For instance, he claims that the impact of microfinance on women may be overblown. "Overall," Karnani writes, "microcredit does empower women, but only in noneconomic ways."

But, as Bornstein notes in The Price of a Dream self-employment is advantageous because it brings "women into the income stream without the usual sacrifices required under wage-employment situations."

Karnani argues that creating jobs offers a better solution to alleviating poverty, illustrating "two alternative scenarios: (1) A microfinancier lends US$200 to each of 500 women so that each can buy a sewing machine and set up her own sewing microenterprise, or (2) a traditional financier lends $100,000 to one savvy entrepreneur and helps her set up a garment manufacturing business that employees 500 people."

I have concerns about these solutions, however. Is a wage-earner really better off than the independent entrepreneur? What happens when the woman can't show up for work because of a family illness or medical emergency? What happens to her spot on the assembly line when she must stay away from her job to tend to an issue at home? Will she need a union to help her keep her job? What about building equity versus the stability of a job in a factory?

Collins, who has over a decade of experience in development and microfinance in five continents, likens microfinance to the mortgage industry in the United States.

"Wouldn't it be easier for banks to give loans to large corporations to buy houses and then rent them out," Collins offers. "Instead we have an economy that makes getting a loan for a home easy for a large segment of the population."

For Collins, the debate really goes deeper, into economic theory. It's about "keeping things small [and] local, taking advantage of comparative advantage versus large, economies of scale and protecting industry through unfair trade practices."

So, does microfinance miss its mark? The jury is out.

As I was preparing this post over the past few weeks, I sought comments from Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and others from Grameen. They were preparing their own official response on Karnani's article and were unable to provide comments in a timely fashion. (I may continue this thread in future posts.)

I think it is safe to say that microfinance is a flawed system, but one of many effective, direct responses to help alleviate poverty. And it's too soon to be tolling the death knell for what is more than just an economic movement, but a social one as well.

"It is easier to give larger loans to larger companies to create jobs," Collins notes, asking, "does this mean a better quality of life?"

Global Climate Change: Take My "Live Earth" Poll

Do you think "Live Earth" was a success? Take my new poll and weigh in. See sidebar under My Twitter at right...

Global Climate Change: Fuzzy Math? Al Gore on "The Big Idea"

Al Gore appeared on Donnie Deutsch's "The Big Idea" last night to promote tomorrow's "Live Earth" concerts. He was passionate, funny, and direct. (Where was that conviction 7 years ago?)

Does anyone know whether Al's answer to Donnie's question about the human costs was accurate? He said "A one meter rise in sea level will create 100 million climate refugees."

I'm not in a place where I can confirm or check his math, but it seems worth checking...can anyone confirm?

Global Climate Change: Why Can't I Get Excited About "Live Earth"?

Two summers ago I was bemoaning the fact that the environment wasn't cool, not as cool as "Rock Star," the reality show to pick the new lead singer for the band INXS. Now that the environment is hot, especially climate change, why can't I get excited about "Live Earth" the first global concert for Planet Earth?

The 24-hour, 7-continent concert series taking place on 7/7/07 will "bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis."

I hate to be a party pooper, but it just feels like the "Concert for" format is tired and distracting. Make no mistake, there's some awesome artists performing this Saturday and if I had tickets I'd be more excited. Sure I can listen on XM satellite radio or watch on one of the various outlets. Some of the bands may actually bring their best chops.

But what then? It seems like ever since George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" over 30 years ago, holding concerts is the best response to crises we can muster.

The sponsors suggest this will be part of a year-long campaign to focus on solutions to the climate crisis. That remains to be seen. Thus far, I've heard one of the sponsors say they want to create a pledge that partners, supporters, and participants will sign onto. Great. Another proclamation.

If that's all the "Live Earth" concerts bring us, then this is just another exercise in hot air.

What we need now is to focus on solutions -- and quick. We don't need more awareness building, we need investments in innovative solutions. The time to act is now. Let's save the party for after we solve this problem.

Social Entrepreneurs: Philanthropy and the Changing Business of Giving

Over on the Enterprising Ideas blog, part of the PBS NOW series on social entrepreneurs, they are talking about the latest report on giving in America. According to the report, charitable giving by Americans rose 4.2% to $295.02 billion in 2006, setting a record for the third-straight year.

Great news, of course. But what really got my attention in this blog post comes from blogger Lucy Bernholz, who writes the excellent blog about the "business of giving" called Philanthropy 2173. I track Lucy's blog and am always intrigued by her observations.

The blog post begins with commentary from the Enterprising Ideas staff, following up on a description of "product and service innovation" and the "commercialization of philanthropy."

"Not surprisingly, social entrepreneurs —- entrepreneurs with a humanitarian mission -— are also behind many of the new projects that facilitate donations and investments. Bernholz said social entrepreneurs are playing a major role in how the tools and mission of philanthropy are changing:

'There’s this whole industry of giving that social entrepreneurism is a part of largely because very smart businessmen have entered the field and are very excited about it.'

The post goes on to say, "Now that it's becoming 'more and more possible to make money by doing good,' as Bernholz puts it, there should be more willingness to invest in social entrepreneurs and their projects. After all, the social entrepreneurs are the people who are creating financial opportunities for doing good, says Bernholz. Like Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and South Shore Bank in the Midwestern United States."

“'We’ve entered a period of philanthropy like no other,' explains Bernholz, 'because the federal government has gotten out of the business of funding domestic programs.' Foundations and individuals are picking up the slack by providing resources to projects—and many social entrepreneurs. Even if the government increases its commitment to domestic programs, Bernholz believes social entrepreneurship and its hybrid approach—drawing on strategies from the market as well as the public sector—to solving serious problems is here to stay:

"'The problems people are trying to solve are not caused by any single sector so no single sector can solve them.'"

Read the full blog post (and check out other posts and information about the program): Enterprising Ideas and Better Ideas.

And check out Lucy Bernholz's Philanthropy 2173 (You can also find out why it's called what it is...although Woody Allen fans can probably make a good guess.)

Social Entrepreneurs: David Bornstein Interview on "Global X"

I'm a big fan of David Bornstein. His book, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of Ideas is a powerful and inspirational work of journalism and the book I'd recommend to anyone interested in social change.

I've been reading his first book, The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank, which is an engaging look at Muhammad Yunus, how he fell into banking for the poor, and the idea of microfinance.

Global X, on the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge website, is posting short (3-7 minutes) interviews with leading social entrepreneurs telling stories about the significant impacts on their lives and how they see the world in 2017. The interviews were shot at the 2007 Skoll World Forum at Oxford from the Skoll World Forum.

Bornstein's interview is wonderful, especially the story about his Aunt Suzan, who told him to "climb the fence of the playground" and not follow the rules all the time. Good advice for anyone seeking social change.

Watch the interview here: David Bornstein on "Global X"

Global Climate Change: Summer "Warms" to Movies with Arctic Tale

There's a new movie coming out later this summer from the makers of "March of the Penguins." It's a live action "dramacumentary" called "Arctic Tale," narrated by Queen Latifah (really) and featuring polar bears and walrus rather than penguins. It just could be the sleeper film of the year.

Apparently, the Arctic setting for the film, which shows main characters Nanu and Seela facing life-and-death challenges, was affected by global warming during the filming, which led to the movie's theme of struggle in the face of climate changes, according to Adam Ravetch, who directed the film with his wife, Sarah Robertson.

"There was a time where we were discussing, should we address climate change or shouldn't we, and we felt a responsibility," Ravetch said at the world premiere of the film at the Silverdocs documentary film festival outside Washington. The movie opens commercially July 25 in Los Angeles and New York, and nationally in August.

Polar bears have become a sort of cause celebre in anti-global warming circles, especially after news reports last year that bears were seen swimming in circles 60 miles off-shore in a behaviour forced upon them by melting ice. The threat of Arctic ice melting reduces the feeding grounds and season for polar bears.

Robertson calls "Arctic Tale" a new genre of nature film, in which global problems are given a face -- Seela, the walrus, and Nanu, the polar bear, who are often cast in human terms and shown close up. Um, sounds like anthropomorphism to me; but my 11-year-old son says it's a must see for summer.

(By the way, the walrus turns 65 today: Happy Birthday Paul!)

Watch the trailer: Arctic Tale

Global Climate Change: "How business is starting to tackle climate change" - The Economist

This week's Economist features a cover story on "How business is starting to tackle climate change, and how governments need to help."

These days businesspeople are falling over each other to prove their greenness. That's partly because the politics of climate change have moved so fast in America. Five bills in U.S. Congress would introduce federal controls. Most of the serious presidential candidates for 2008 favour them.

California now has binding targets to cut CO2 emissions, and other states plan to follow. Many chief executives have come around to the view that federal controls would be better than a patchwork of state laws. And if federal regulations are coming, companies need to support them, in order to be involved in designing them. Hence the need to be seen to be green.

But companies are not driven purely by fear of regulation. Cleaner energy means new technologies -- and new money to be made.

Read more: The Economist: Cleaning Up