Influx

Americans have not really started saving yet, at least when compared to other periods of recession.Posted by Ed Cotton

While money is tight and the world seems to be stuck trying to work out where it's heading next, the conference industry seems to move forward always looking for new opportunities to bring people together to network and discuss. Despite the tight caps on travel and expense budgets, if the topic is...

Dan Goleman writes in the NYT, that data supply and provision might be leading to the death of the greenwashing ad campaign. "The blockbuster for ecological transparency was the announcement in July by Wal-Mart that they are developing a similar sustainability index with the help of an academic...

It seems that being local and organic is no longer good enough. In the escalating arms race for goodness claims, it now appears farmers have to pick and deliver their produce using bio-diesel vehicles.  Spotted at Rainbow in San Francisco.Posted by Ed Cotton

Wall Street and the Feds tells us the recession is done, but in Silicon Valley things are little different. Same day, different world."As one anonymous tipster told us, "The recession has finally caught up with the usually irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley." Indeed, the Demo...

Woody Tasch has emerged as the leader of a new movement, Slow Money. He's a man with a history in the world of finance and investment and has come up with a new vision and approach to funding small scale entrepreneurs who need funding to stay true to their mission and expand their offerings. This...

Most of the time creative competitions follow the typical blue sky approach to issuing a challenge; they don't tend to define parameters or any kind of real brief. Creatives then have the huge task of narrowing their thinking down to something meaningful and strategic. You see this a lot with...

A new documentary, "The Last Truck" from HBO Films, premiering tonight takes a look at the impact of the closure of a GM truck plant in Ohio.  Here are some comments from some of the workers in the doc.Among those interviewed in the documentary are: Kathy (body shop) - A 47-year-old mother of...

Colin Beavan is the author of a new book, "No Impact Man", where he describes his journey to try and find an alternative form of consumption. In a recent piece in Business Week, Colin suggests that a new consumer movement is rising around a new set of values that are based on honesty in...

The idea of producing less stuff, but better stuff is a hard one to grasp, but something that makes sense to people outside the marketing world.Nicholas Nova discovered this interview with legendary designer Dieter Rams, who lays the blame on marketing for pushing more stuff out there."no one wants...

Interesting concept from James Reynolds. Do grocery stores have a responsibility to own up to this stuff or should we all remain blissfully ignorant?Should we be asked to contribute some carbon credits when we receive our receipts? Posted by Ed Cotton

The consumer does not seem to think so...based on the latest ABC poll.Posted by Ed Cotton

Bruce Sterling gave the closing address at Reboot 11 where he talked about our future that won't follow the patterns of the C20th. According to Sterling, the coming future does not look or act like any future we've previously thought about. This new future is being defined by new theory which he...

It seems like bigger is a fundamental American right. While it might be hard to justify on environmental grounds, the big car and the big house are fundamental parts of the American dream. While the recession might be forcing people to restrain their desires, it seems likely that people will want...

There's a nice post on Core 77 by San Francisco designers Mike and Maaike where they discuss a recent car design project they worked on. What's great about the approach is they turn the problem on its head, break free of the conventional paradigms and come up with something not only fresh, but...