Al Gore recently gave a speech in Washington, DC that hasn’t received as much press as I thought it should for such a powerful message and brilliant plan for the future of our country. I believe Al Gore has been solidly planted in innovation and quietly working on making connections between some major issues in the world in order to map out ideas for real change. Because he has radical ideas, some of which are not popular, he may be perceived in a bad light. Please watch this video and decide for yourself.
GotVMail has enlisted Gary Busy is promote “the entrepreneur’s phone system,” which happens to be a very cool system for small business owners who have employees that work from home. With more people working from home these days, this is the wave of the future.Â
I think it is excellent that they have crazy Busy giving us his business ideas. His ideas are quite entertaining and a bit bizarre. I guess that is the point. These videos are posted on YouTube for a viral advertising effect and look…it is working.
Generation Investment Management (Generation) announced yesterday that it closed its Climate Solutions Fund at $683 million. This fund will invest in renewable energy technologies, building efficiency, cleaner fossil energy, sustainable agriculture and carbon markets.
David Blood, Managing Partner of Generation, said:
“Generation believes that sustainable development that addresses the climate crisis will be a significant driver of industrial and economic development over the coming decades. However, there is clearly a significant gap between the capital needed and the capital currently deployed to create enduring solutions to the climate crisis. As a result, investing in scalable solutions now is critical and our Climate Solutions Fund intends to do just that. I am particularly pleased that we have succeeded in raising this fund from existing clients which represents an endorsement of our research-driven approach, as well as our performance.”
It is important to note that US Vice-President, Al Gore, is the Chairman of this company, which formed in 2004. Al Gore may not have invented the internet, but he sure is smart and if you have any money to invest or you have an idea, I would say to watch this man closely and check out the Generation website.
Today, I updated the Business & Marketing links in the right column to include some additional trend spotting sites that I think are important to note.Â
With the changing landscape of marketing, keeping up with the global culture shifts can be overwhelming. Last week, I talked about “New Marketing” which focuses on cultural insights, sustainability, responsibility and innovation. Because of this trend, new types of design and marketing firms are popping up all over the globe.
One major player in this organization of thought is PSFK. Recently, the PSFK Conference was held in New York and Alan Chochinov from Core77 spoke about this issue.
Here is the video: The Dumbest Smartest Design Problem - (Why Shit Matters To Design)
“A new research based company created especially for today’s and tomorrow’s marketeers and innovators utilizing proprietary methodology filtered through the lens of experienced socio-cultural researchers and consultants.” - peep
Some people have asked me why I write this blog and mostly it is because I want to develop better writing skills, but I also have an insatiable appetite for knowledge and that includes understanding people, cultures, art, etc. With this information, I try to make connections. The benefit of this appetite is that I have a good grasp of marketing and advertising, which helps me in design and business. See … full circle, right?
It is obvious from the subject of my posts and the website links I have listed, that I am becoming more passionate about sustainability and what it means to us as a nation and throughout the world … but also, what does it mean to marketing and business? How are all the connections being made?
Ultimately, the marketing climate is changing and there is a need for products that appeal to people’s want of sustainable products so they feel like they are doing good for the earth, but feeling good and actually doing good are two different things. As design, marketing, advertising and business people try to sell you something, they really have the power over the truth. Right now, the need to advertise and market your product as a sustainable one is growing at an alarming rate. As consumers, we still have to watch out for frauds and as marketers, we have to be sure that we are actually giving good information to consumers.
I have found two good articles on this subject that I wanted to share. The first one is from Laurie Lamson, a professional writer and filmmaker, who emailed me her article titled, Cutting-Edge Marketing for Cultural Creatives. This article addresses the push versus pull style of selling that we have been seeing more of lately.
The other article is a free download from a management consulting firm called ReCourses. The title of this article is “The Sad Fade of Branding, and When Sustainable Isn’t.” To read this article, you need to sign up with your email address, but there are many other valuable articles for creative businesses to learn from here. Link to free position papers.
A friend sent this ultra hip website link to me today …Â Feel More Human.
I love the idea of combining a blog with a shopping site featuring well designed products. The site offers some eco-friendly products for home (lighting, furniture, decor) and life (jewelry, bags, health and beauty). On the blog side, there are resources for green living and even a place to sell your stuff in the classified section. Feel More Human also donates 1% of sales to a network of 1,469 environmental organizations worldwide with a program called 1% For The Planet: Keeping the earth in business.
Jill Stalowicz, a founding partner, really hit the mark on this one.Â
Crop to Cup Coffee Company allows you to see the farmers and know their story. Crop to Cup represents the farmer by providing technology and marketing services that will connect them to interested customers in the United States. The goal is to improve the quality and integrity of coffee served everywhere.
This is a good way to have full transparency in coffee farming and to make sure that the product is fairly traded. The great part of Crop to Cup is the availability for direct product feedback through reviews and ratings as well as message boards.
There are several coffee houses and markets in the New York and Chicago area where Crop to Cup coffee is sold or you can purchase your own online.
This video is presented by the Global Oneness Project and features Mathis Wackernagel, who is the co-creator of the Ecological Footprint (a data calculation method) and executive director of the Global Footprint Network. He has received the 2006 World Wildlife Federation’s Award for Conservation Merit and the 2007 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
So, Mathis is a smart guy. He knows what he is talking about. He is approaching the human demand on the Earth’s ecosystem in a systematic scientific way as well as helping businesses, governments, nations, cities and individuals understand their impact. This is really a business plan for the environment and the development of an education system that will allow us all to get on board in order to make this business work. The business being, of course, the partnership of humans and the earth. Up until now, the earth, for apparent reasons, hasn’t had a voice … but she keeps warning us and it is time to listen and understand.Â
The Global Footprint Network’s website is one of the most comprehensive information resources that I have found. They have several campaigns that they are promoting for nations, cities and businesses. The “Ten-in-Ten” campaign has a goal of adapting the Ecological Footprint in ten key nations by 2015. The aim is to make ecological accounting be equal to economic accounting. This is a common sense concept that is also a smart business concept.
Early adopters of the Ecological Footprint are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. There are also 70 organizations in six continents that have become partners in this effort along with many of the world’s largest environmental agencies and leading scientists and politicians.
There should be a Ecological Footprint calculator available for the United States soon and a world calculator launched later this year. Australia has the first interactive calculator and it is one of the coolest applications and the most thorough that I have seen in this sector. Check it out here:Â Australian Ecological Footprint.
 
