Turning Red And Blue States Green, With Some Help From A Rolling Stone

Joel Babbit brings new meaning to the term “power lunch.” One afternoon in 2008, the advertising veteran was dining with former Young & Rubicam chief Tom Bell and mentioned an idea he had: creating a media company dedicated to producing content related to the environment.

Bell was intrigued, and asked how much it would cost to start such a venture. Babbit suggested $10 million; Bell said he’d commit 20% on the spot. The duo then called Georgia-Pacific CEO Pete Correll, who signed up to contrib...