#SB10 - Biolite wins Sustainable Innovation award

11 June 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

We're stoked that Biolite won SB10's Sustainable Innovation award, announced on the last day of the conference. Jonathan Cedar, co-inventor and the nascent company's CEO delivered a great presentation that made clear the significant impact that could be achieved if Biolite (and stoves like it) replace traditional wood-fired stoves in the developing world. The Biolite stove reinvents stoves used for home cooking in Asia, Africa and Latin America by making the burning process more efficient. The greater efficiency the less fuel is used and less smoke is generated. Less smoke, the less harm to the health of the cooks. Biolite has an additional feature; they've developed a process that converts a small part of the thermal energy into electricity. This means that users can recharge electrical devices while cooking, and that's got to be good for developing world users facing regular megacity brown outs, or for those who are off the grid completely.

One of the strengths of the product design is that it's set up to be used in the same way stoves are used now; that is, if someone replaced their traditional cooker with a Biolite stove they don't have to learn new techniques, or use different fuels. Biolite has begun focus testing the product with uses in Guatemala and India. Part of their plan is to sell the stoves in North America to campers as a way of building up development capital, and to further prototype their design. Anya Kamenetz, a writer for Fast Company was also judging the Awards. Check out her take on Biolite.

#SB10 - Andrew Winston

9 June 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

Andrew Winston presented a cornucopia of information about the greening and redesign of business in the last 12 months. His thesis was that businesses are acting more for themselves and getting ahead, sometimes way-ahead of regulatory requirements. Perhaps the most compelling nuggets were his reference to the  US Climate Action Partnership which boasts an impressive membership all calling  on the US federal government to "quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions". As Andrew said, this makes the recent US Chamber of Commerce claims that emissions legislation is not wanted by business leaders hard to swallow. I guess that's why many notable companies quit the chamber last year. Andrew also referred to Walmart's push to sign an accord with Brazilian suppliers which included the resolution that they will not accept in their supply chain any beef or soy products sourced from any newly cleared Amazonian land (Andrew wrote about his in his blog last year and included reference to a related accord with Chinese suppliers).

This is a big incremental step beyond Walmart's intoduction of its Sustainable Product Index and it will be interesting if Walmart - who way back in 2000 was the world's 25th largest economy - pushes similar accords across all its supply chains.

#SB10 - Innovation Open

9 June 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

We were psyched to be part of the judging panel for the Innovation Open. Each of the eleven finalists, and they covered a wide range of ideas, industries and approaches, pitched to the Conference and the judges yesterday. You can see the finalists here.

Cityscape Farms has already been named as the popular vote favourite. The two final finalists, to be announced on Thursday this week, will re-pitch their company or concept. The winner will receive USD$10,000 from NIke, plus consultancy time from IDEO.

Study confirms Americans understand human behaviour is the major cause of greenhouse gases

8 June 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

Today's New York Times contains a fascinating and encouraging Op Ed by Jon Krosnick, a professor of communication, political science and psychology at Stanford University. Prof Krosnick makes a case that "huge majorities of Americans still believe the earth has been gradually warming as the result of human activity and want the government to institute regulations to stop it." Perhaps the most heartening aspect was that only 20 percent of respondents said they thought such initiatives would hurt the nation’s economy. Maybe the idea that something good for the environment will be costly to the economy is starting to break down? The article also challenges the accuracy of recent reporting asserting that Americans are doubtful about human component in climate change. Well worth reading the whole thing.

#SB10 - The Power of And

8 June 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

We're here at Sustainable Brands 10 in Monterey, California. The theme for this year's conference is "The Power of And". Bill Marquard was one of the opening event speakers. He clearly laid out his case for 'and' thinking. Bill noted how Milton Freidman had promulgated the singular obsession of businesses when he said that the only thing companies needed to concern themselves with was the return on investment for shareholders. That, he argued, created an either / or mindset - you can either run a profitable business, or you can be socially good. Obviously - and you can already see where this is going - SB10 is not about and/or, it's about and / and.

The intent, essentially, is to allow a platform for the intermingling of different disciplines around sustainability; design, business strategy, and communications in particular. Natural Logic author Gil Friend made an important disctinction. He reminded everyone that The Power of And is about innovation and possibility, not about concessions, or keeping everyone happy. Sometimes, he said, using images of oil-entombed penguins in the Gulf Coast, there is a clear line in the sand, no room for 'and'. You can follow the Conference vibe on Twitter #sb10

IBM & City One

10 May 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

IBM's Smarter Planet made a splash as an intensive advertising campaign a couple of years ago. It was a campaign that introduced stories about IBM partnerships with various clients. You can see the campaign site here, and we feature one example as a case study on our site here

Smarter Planet has now been extended into an online game developed and hosted by IBM called  City One. Due to be released later in the year, City One is to solve urban infrastructure issues . It's an Interesting idea and we're curious to see who engages with it, and how they use it.

And, it stands on the shoulders of people like Jane McGonigal, who followed up the excellent World Without Oil game from 2007 with Urgent Evoke, Urgent Evoke a game developed for the World Bank Institute that connected sustainably minded around the world to address sustainable development issues. Check out the webcast of a TED presentation featuring Jane McGonigal that makes the case for the value of games, and game-approaches to change the world for the better.

What does it mean for Seattle to be carbon neutral

23 February 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

We're fans of what they're do  at WorldChanging. I mean, who wouldn't love a bright green future? There's a great article posted on the site today about how to define a carbon neutral city. It's the best plain language discussion on issues surrounding the promises made by cities to tackle their carbon emissions and what it might take to keep the promises. Also, a citizen-led technical working group is forming, to help Seattle craft it's definition. Go read the whole thing.

Silicon Valley CleanTech

31 January 2010 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

Today's Mercury News has a great article about the growth of Clean Tech in Silicon Valley. A few things that caught my attention: an estimated 7,000 people currently employed in renewable energy and they're aiming for 25,000 new clean tech jobs; Morgan Stanley predicts that the current $USD 20 billion in smart grid revenue will rise USD$100 billion by 2030; The solar enery market is estimated to grow from a USD$30 billion global industry in 2008 to USD$81 billion by 2018; and, some nice info graphics about smart grids. Go read the whole thing, then clip and keep in your digital wallet.

NextPlays Hanoi

5 October 2009 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

I've just got back from a NextPlays workshop in Hanoi. Organized and hosted by the World Bank Institute, the intent of the workshop was to introduce a tool for building understanding and engagement about sustainable development in Vietnam - you guessed it, NextPlays. It was an amazing experience, not least for being in Hanoi, an energizing city that seems to be always moving at a frenetic pace, a little like New York with scooters instead of yellow cabs.

The workshop was an impressive group of people, including the new Director of the Hanoi School of Architecture, urban planners from Hanoi; the person leading the climate change / adaptation planning in Ho Chi Min City, leaders in the environmental scientifc community, the director of community planning , two leaders of an environmental program for students.

The program kicked out with a presentation about the 2030 Master Plan for Hanoi. Still in the refinement phase, the Plan will be formally launched in 2010. It's a far-reaching plan, on par with some of the bolder plans in the developed world. It proposes the creation of satellite cities in part defined by a green corridor that creates green spaces and environmentally light activities in more than 60% of the greater Hanoi area. Because the corridor follows the two major rivers, it will help alleviate the clash between a growing population and increasing flooding. There's an outline of the plan here. And, like any Master Plan anywhere, it's being vigorously debated.

The NextPlays workshop created personas of typical people in Hanoi, and combined these with plausible economic, social and environmental change factors to develop ideas for a more sustainable city that serves its citizens. We were pleased with the results, and with the effectiveness of some of the NextPlays tools to get the group developing more robust, and more ambitious project ideas.

Apart from the workshop, the highlight of the trip had to be meeting the students from the SIFE group at the National Economics University. Though though it was only formed recently, they are working on more than five community business building projects. Their Excavatus project helped them win the national SIFE competition and they will represent Vietnam in the global finals. Good luck in November!

Incheon: Sustainable City Master Plan

3 September 2009 - Posted by Bert Aldridge - 0 Comments

Yes, we're tweeting about this too, but if we blog about it, we get to include images! (below the fold).  Foster+Partners, the team that imagined and design Masdar City, has joined forces with PHA and Mobility in Chain to win a competition for the design of the Master Plan for the Incheon Free Economic Zone in South Korea, an island near Seoul.

Incheon will be bigger than Masdar, but like Masdar the concept serves two purposes: 1) to create a quality of life for its inhabitants using sustainable construction, energy and  transport systems, and 2) to create a hub for R&D in clean tech systems and alos provide the ideal testing ground.

Foster+Partners are globally renowned, for many other amazing projects, including the Hearst Tower in New York City, (word to the wise: you can get a great subsidized lunch in the foyer food court if you know some who works there...).