Of Machines released a demo of "An Autobiography In Vivid Color Pt. 2". Their Kickstarter-funded and anticipated album Chroma Dreamcoat will be out this winter!
EDIT: The excitement of finding this gem at such early hours had me stating that Of Machines used Kickstarter to earn funds for the album; The band actually used a Paypal account linked on their website. Early morning reporting probably NOT the best.
Of Machines plan on recording a new EP, however they are asking for donations through a Paypal account, instead of making a Kickstarter account, which has gained popularity amongst bands such as Confide. You can donate to "Honor The Season" by clicking here, and check out a statement from OM by clicking "Read More".
"Welcome to the new headquarters of everything that is OM. From here on you will be able to access news, updates, media, and a plethora of more good things to come. On behalf of all of us (Jon, Mark, Bennett, Mike, Dylan) we are all so deeply humbled and moved by the overly amazing response of our return for this extended play. Your kind words and heavy emotion are inspiring and can only undoubtedly say that we have to best fans in the universe, to everyone who has kept us in your hearts and minds within our four year hiatus, we couldn’t thank you enough. We know there has been quite some speculation going around as to whether or not we’d be continuing on after this record and even though we cannot give a full answer at this point, we can assure you that we will be working hard to see that this can be a linear venture. Now to talk about what our mission for ‘Honor The Season’ will be and how it can affect the outcome of this record’s process. As you know, a good amount of musicians have been seeking funding for their projects through the increasingly growing website Kickstarter. Although we feel it could help with our record, we don’t feel like we need a whole full-blown funding page with a pretentious video of “how we need your money”, you already know we need your help within these hard times in the music industry. Even though we don’t have rewards to go with your donations, we will have a few surprises based on the growth of donations made to this record. The lack of the rewards is because we are simply putting forth all of our efforts into doing the extended play, instead of promotional items. We also decided not go through Kickstarter because we don’t have an initial goal, in that we want to see through our dedicated fans as to how much you think this EP is worth backing. What ever is donated and or the final accumulation of funding is received, is what we will be putting into production costs for the record. It will also be for the time writing and time taken off from our regular places of work. We want this album to go beyond the limitations of AIEWHIP and deliver something that we feel has been materializing this entire time apart. We all are very ecstatic about this and have been getting preparations made to bring you the greatest record we can make for you. We just need your help to get this done and who knows, there might be even a whole album within our midst later down the road. It all depends on you and your ever growing love for what we love doing for you. So please, even if it’s a dollar, it can help in honoring the season. Get ready for an amazing year and an even better beginning to the reunion of OF MACHINES!"
Bennett Freeman, Senior Vice President, Sustainability Research and Policy, leads Calvert's Sustainability Research Department and oversees its company research and analysis as well as its policy and advocacy work. From 2003 until early 2006, he led global communications and public relations firm Burson-Marsteller's Global Corporate Responsibility practice advising multinationals on policy development, stakeholder engagement and communications strategies related to human rights, labor rights and sustainable development. During the Clinton Administration he served in three positions as a presidential appointee in the State Department, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999 to early 2001.
“Calvert Investments has been working on the issue of climate change for quite some time,” said Bennett Freeman in his interview for the GAIN Insight series.
More specifically, Freeman said upwards of a decade has passed since Calvert began seriously including climate change as a part of the investment conversation.
Calvert’s climate change work began with a focus on mitigation, said Freeman. His team co-authored the well-known Carbon Disclosure Project S&P 500 Climate Change Report in 2006. Adaptation, or building resilience within communities, has become an even more relevant topic considering that in the past four years additional scientific evidence of greater challenges have arisen in the water, food & agriculture, energy and coastal protection sectors. As discussions have progressed on climate change, Calvert has also been involved with guiding investment policy to make adaptation and mitigation solutions more easily attainable.
In 2007, Freeman and his team at Calvert began talks with Oxfam America about their efforts to define the term adaptation and bring attention to areas facing the highest vulnerability.
Early on, Calvert saw “significant merit” in the adaptation agenda for several reasons:
1) “There were already demonstrable effects of climate change – physical impacts that should compel companies to take notice and adapt – not only from the risk perspective, but also opportunities in technology and services that allow companies to work in various industries in support of adaptation,” Freeman said.
2) “In 2008, it was our understanding that adaptation as a theme melds not only investment and environment, but also to longstanding social concerns of Calvert – we’ve always prioritize working on convergent issues of the social and environmental agenda, and
3) “The driver that kicked in acutely in 2009-2010 was the recognition that, despite efforts, the global mitigation agenda was not proceeding as rapidly as we had hoped in 2008-2009.”
The adaptation agenda achieves not only substantive merits in environmental and social efforts, but it is also a pragmatic context to help move the conversation of climate change in the U.S. and beyond, Freeman said.
Investment Opportunities + Adaptation
Calvert Investments, in recent studies, focused on a number of industries that are facing risk, including agriculture & food, gas, mining, oil, tourism, utilities and water. Following the studies, several reports were issued to provide more information to the private sector to help assess risk, make investments and be better prepared for the effects of climate change such as drought, flooding, resource scarcity and other global challenges.
View the two reports by clicking below.
1st report: Physical Risks From Climate Change
2nd report: Value Chain Climate Resilience: A Guide to Managing Climate Impacts in Companies and Communities
Other resources and tools are available to help prioritize and invest in solving the climate change challenge. The GAIN Index, a tool created by the Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) to help guide investment in adaptation, is one such example.
“The GAIN Index is a great tool for investors,” Freeman said. “This Index will help us evaluate how companies are adapting to climate change in their geographic market contexts and Calvert is proud to have been a part of GAIN’s Open Consultation process.”
Because there is uncertainty on how climate change will affect us long-term, there is an opportunity for business leaders to step up to the plate, and this is just what Freeman and his team at Calvert Investments have done since the red flag on climate change was raised.
Freeman suggests when companies begin assessing risk and opportunity to look at examples set forth by companies helping to meet some of the world’s greatest challenges. Calvert also applies this practice within its work; for example, the Calvert Global Water Fund invests in water infrastructure, water purification and water utilities.
“As we know, water is such an important issue in climate change impacts and how climate change will play out – globally, we are very dependent on water availability and water scarcity will affect us.”
The Global Water Fund investments have already inspired action. Companies are now developing products and technology around water efficiency, resilience in infrastructure and more to help build society’s resilience – “that fund is very well connected to adaptation and represents what we want to see replicated in each sector,” Freeman said.
However, there is a lot of ground to cover in building awareness among investors and the private sector. If done correctly, investors can approach solutions twofold, in a way that mitigates and adapts to climate change concurrently.
Calvert defines its adaptation investments strategy as it applies to sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) funds:
We drive investments towards adaptation and resilience-building throughout the investment portfolio of Calvert’s sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) funds. Through Calvert Signature Strategies®, we encourage companies to develop forward-thinking climate strategies that address risks and opportunities from climate change. Earlier this year, Calvert filed a proposal with the J.M. Smucker Company, owners of Folgers and other coffee brands, asking it to manage risk to its coffee business from the physical impacts of climate change. … The Calvert Solution Strategies® offer a unique opportunity to invest in adaptation through companies focused on alternative energy and water engineering and infrastructure, water conservation and re-use, and water treatment technologies. Finally, investments through our Special Equities program help spur innovations such as sustainable yield enhancing biopesticides and soil moisture monitoring for farmers.
