What do you think of the Cheeseburger Bill?

This week, a Minnesota House panel approved legislation that would block consumers from suing fast-food chains and other food companies for weight problems. The Civil Law Committee approved the Personality Responsibility in Food Consumption Act on a voice vote. The proposal is also know as the "cheeseburger bill."

The bill would prevent consumers for suing the food industry for weight gain, obesity and other health problems caused by long-term consumption of fattening foods and non-alcohol drinks such as soda.

The sponsor, Republican Rep. Dean Urdahl of Grove City, says the bill would prevent frivolous lawsuits. Urdahl has been pushing this legislation since 2004. So far, this bill has been passed in 24 states.

I'm a fan of the cheeseburger bill. I think it promotes personal responsibility and I agree, it prevents annoying lawsuits. McDonalds has been brought to court numerous times for being the problem for many consumers obesity, ever since their 2002 New York court case. It is still pending and I think it's silly. Eat something different, don't eat a cheeseburger and french fries everyday!

What is Klout?

I just learned of the website Klout, an online personal profile social media influence measurement tool. It's pretty cool if you're social media savvy and interact a lot using social media tools.

People are given an 'online score' which measures your overall online influence. The score ranges from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages.

Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100.

Network Score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale of 1 to 100.

The Klout Score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets. I recommend you check out your own Klout Score if you use social media a lot. Learn more: www.klout.com

Was the 2011 Super Bowl the Greenest NFL Championship Ever?

Just Energy, a green energy retailer supplying renewable energy certificates to Super Bowl venues, is claiming that "the 2011 Super Bowl will be the greenest NFL championship on record." Is this true, or is it just greenwashing?

Just Energy is contributing heavily to the Super Bowl's sustainability with a commitment to offset all direct and indirect carbon emissions from power generation at major Super Bowl venues, including NFL Super Bowl headquarters, the Super Bowl Media Center, the AFC and NFC team hotels, and even the NFL Experience Football Theme Park. For every megawatt of electricity used to power these facilities, Just Energy is purchasing one megawatt of renewable energy from Sweetwater Wind Farm in Sweetwater, Texas. This will be the largest renewable energy credit program in Super Bowl history.

and then there is Cowboy Stadium, the site of this year's game. The stadium, which was the first to be recognized in the EPA's National Environmental Performance Track Program, has targets to cut solid waste by 25%, water consumption by 1 million gallons, and energy use by 20% each year. All solid waste from the Super Bowl will be diverted to local recycling projects, and leftover materials will be sent to local non-profits.

This year is also the debut of the Super Grow XLV program, a partnership between the Texas Trees Foundation and the Texas Forest Service that planted over 6,500 trees in 12 north Texas communities, marketing it the biggest tree-planting effort in Super Bowl history (other Super Bowl-connected tree-planting efforts have been going on for years). The program is intended to offset CO2 emissions from Super Bowl events.

Do these efforts add up to a truly sustainable sporting event? Soft of. Just Energy's renewable energy credits are helpful, but they aren't sustainable as producing all that renewable energy on site. And this year's event will use 15,000 megawatts of power, or enough electricity to power 1,500 homes for a year. It would be more impressive if the NFL could cut that number in half, but the Cowboy stadium does, at least, have noble energy goals, and the NFL is doing more in the sustainability arena for this year's game than it ever has before. Let's just hope every year from now on features the "greenest NFL championship" yet.