You might not expect England to be the site of a ‘revolutionary’ moment in surfing, but thanks to the staff at Eden Project, the massive bio-dome and ecology experiment in south west England, there’s a new wave of excitement: the sustainable surfboard! The new board started life as a giant balsa tree which fell to the ground in the Rainforest Biome at its site near St Austell, Cornwall. Eden team members discussed what could be done with the spare timber, and what they came up with just might change the sport of surfing. Collaborating with three other companies, Homeblown, Sustainable Composites and Laminations, the staff at Eden Project spent five years producing the board which is made from 50 % renewable materials.

Would we better off with boxed water? Over the past couple of years, a handful of startups like Aqua2Go ,  Plant It Water and Boxed Water Is Better have been making a solid case for their products as the greener option. Aqua2Go advertises their product as 96% water and 4% packaging compared to a typical 80% product and 20% packaging. Their Tetra Brik packaging is made from 74% wood (paper), 20% plastic and 6% aluminum. Plant It Water’s packaging is made from 60% renewable materials, but the company’s efforts go beyond that, offering to plant a tree for every box of water sold. Boxed Water Is Better’s packaging is made from 90% renewable sources and claim a much smaller footprint than competitors because they ship their boxes flat- taking 5% of a truckload to ship the same number of cartons that, in bottle form, would require 5 truckloads. The boxes are filled on demand, and, once used, can be broken down to be as efficiently shipped to recycling facilities. On top of that, as their site says, “we’re also giving 20% of our profits back to the resources our product is composed of- water and trees.”

But it’s not all bad news from the land of bottled water. As we’ve profiled here in previous posts, PepsiCo’s Aquafina is challenging the entire industry to rethink the plastic bottle. Its Eco-Fina bottle, made from 50% less plastic than normal bottles, will save an estimated 75 million pounds of plastic every  year, and, by removing the cardboard base pad from its 24-packs, Aquafina will save 20 million pounds of corrugated cardboard.

We love it when big brands think outside the box. But, it might be worth checking out what’s happening inside the box too!

The Skinny Pancake Project from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.

We’re kicking off One Degree TV, our series of webisodes that will focus on green innovation and simple change. We’re excited to highlight the efforts of companies and individuals moving the needle one degree closer to “better.”

“The Skinny Pancake Project” follows our collaboration with a Burlington, VT-based restaurant, The Skinny Pancake. When owner Benjy Adler asked us to develop a “sustainable take-out container,” the challenge was to find something that was cost-effective and practical but also consistent with the restaurant’s deep commitment to the environment. The first question was could we find a material that was leak-proof AND compostable? Once we had that figured out, the second question was could we make one container work for two shapes of crepes (rectangular and triangular)? The answer, thanks to our own Eric Li, was “sustainable origami.”

A story in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week caught our eye, both because of subject matter and the fact that we’re seeing this perspective in the Journal. In ‘Greener and Cheaper,’ Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder explain that, while conventional wisdom might suggest that a company’s costs rise as its environmental impact falls, businesses might want to think again. Rather than see ing green practices as extracurricular commitments, inherently important and good for branding purposes but separate from the main business strategy, Robinson and Schroeder suggest companies should see the win-win potential of greater efficiency, green and cost effective.

To illustrate their point, Robinson and Schroeder describe Subaru’s experience at their factory in Indiana, where re-engineering processes with green principles and greater efficiency in mind not only improved the company’s eco-messaging but increased profits and provided a clear competitive advantage. We profiled the same factory earlier this year.

Here’s the full article, including the writers’ reading list on the subject.

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It’s like they say, mutton ventured, mutton gained. Oh the ewemanity! Was this post solely an opportunity to go off the sheep end with bad puns? Possibly, but this video, made by the BaaStuds and quickly making the rounds, is great. Can it be real? Not sure, but if it is, it’s a great example of living, breathing art. If it’s not, it’s still good for a chuckle.

We don’t think twice now about seeing nutritional information on food packages. But prior to 1990, when Congress passed the Nutrition And Education Labeling Act, it may have seemed like a strange concept, onerous for manufacturers and, perhaps, irrelevant to consumers. These days, many of us rely on knowing how many calories, carbs and grams of saturated fat we’d be eating if we gave in to our Snickers craving- what? I love me some snickers! Once armed with that information- the theory goes- we tend to make more deliberate choices.  Following that reasoning, environmental advocates argue that adding “Carbon Footprint” labels will make us all more thoughtful consumers.

Labels showing a product’s carbon footprint are becoming more and more common throughout Europe- which seems to be the testing ground for these sorts of things- and it won’t be long before we see more of them here. But there are currently no governing regulations, like the kind provided by the FDA for nutrition facts, so consumers are often confused by differing measures and greenwashing. So, an influential committee of MPs in the UK is calling for a “robustly monitored system of environmental labels to show the impact of each product…so that consumers can make a more informed choice.”

As one committee member explains, carbon footprint labelling “may prove the single most important environmental measure in promoting behavioral change at home, at work and in business.”

In this country, PepsiCo recently announced a groundbreaking agreement with Carbon Trust, the UK government-funded company that helps companies measure and reduce the carbon impact of products. PepsiCo will provide consumers with lifecycle carbon data of the 64-ounce container of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice, clearly just a ‘dipping-the-toe-in-the-water’ measure, but an interesting step in this direction. Other big name brands, like Pepsi rivals Coca-Cola, are taking up the cause now too.

Nineteen years after the Nutrition And Education Labeling Act passed, it would be strange to see a label without nutritional information. By 2028, will we feel the same about ‘Carbon’ labels?

[sources: Telegraph, Guardian, CSR Wire]

Tata Motors, India’s largest automaker, has unveiled its highly anticipated new car, The Nano. Touted as “the people’s car,” the Nano will be available for under $2000 (100,000 rupees) and, according to Tata Motors, will revolutionize the way 1.1 billion Indians get around. While the global auto industry watches closely to see how this might reshape the car biz, critics suggest that for such a small car it represents a giant missed opportunity.

It’s a car, you say. A giant missed opportunity? And why are people calling it an environmental disaster? Normally, a car that gets 55.5 miles-per-gallon and emits less carbon than most motorcycles is welcomed as a good thing for the environment. After all, few of the cars being released this year in the U.S. get anything near 55 mpg. But this car is not so much a step forwards as it is a step sideways. Put another way, it’s being touted not for advancing the technologies of tomorrow but for making the technologies of yesterday ultra-cheap.

That’s the disappointment. If this is such an industry-changing event, it’s a double whammy. First, its success could spell a paradigm shift away from expensive alternative technologies in favor of making current technologies more affordable. Second, it might mean millions more cars on the streets of a developing country already plagued by pollution, congestion and an overwhelmed infrastructure.

Oh, and the Nano is expected to make its US debut in two to three years.

Ever seen Michael Wadleigh’s famous film of Woodstock? It’s a dizzying, mesmerizing look at a game-changing cultural event, the massive, mud-soaked, drug-induced gathering of 32 bands and nearly 500,000 people in upstate NY in 1969. The festival was a defining moment for the 1960s counterculture- its swan song- but flash-forward 40 years, and what was considered counterculture (’hippie activism’) is now, thankfully, firmly in the mainstream.

The Rothbury Festival, the new best music festival of the summer, is a reminder of that, with its identity as much about ‘green thinking‘ as its remarkable lineup (which includes Bob Dylan, The Dead, Willie Nelson, The Black Crowes, Martin Sexton, to name just a handful).

Tickets just went on sale for the festival. We’ll be doing a series of posts on Rothbury, it’s green ‘Think Tank,’ and the sponsors that are helping to make this a green ‘event’ and the one festival of the summer not to miss. 

From the Office of the Governator…

“President Obama and I share similar priorities right now when it comes to helping the economy rebound and creating a greener California and America,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “In California we will utilize federal economic stimulus funds and public-private partnerships to help stimulate our economy while initiating actions to improve our environment. Green jobs are exactly what our economy and environment need right now - and the California Green Corps targets that need while helping at-risk young adults realize a brighter future.” 

Read more here.

In his recent column, Nicholas Kristof asks whether the Web, flooded with information and ideas as it is, can actually trigger new ways of thinking or whether it will only serve as a tool for filtering out dissenting view points. “There’s pretty good evidence,” he writes, “that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber.”

Innovation, though, relies on diversity of thought. It needs the free-wheeling optimist and the brow-furrowed pragmatist, the pie-in-the-sky dreamer and the devil’s advocate. A multitude of voices. Piers Fawkes, of the always-compelling PSFK, reminded us recently of Linus Pauling’s great quote: “The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.” And it’s especially true in a conversation such as the one on sustainable design and green thinking, where political rhetoric and biases are everyday hurdles.

Activism too often devolves into a monologue, rather than a healthy and open dialogue. The driving philosophy of Love Tomorrow Today is the belief in the efficacy of ‘one degree of change.’ That’s not to say that we strive for half measures or that we turn away from bold thinking, just that we understand that real, lasting change is inclusive rather than exclusive.

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The Oregonian points us to a unique collaboration by brands in the outdoor gear industry. The likes of Nike, REI, and Keen have started the Eco Working Group, a collaborative effort to create a system to truly measure their environmental footprint, and combat the greenwashing in their industry.

The group’s chairman, REI’s Kevin Myette: “Let’s not compete on our language. But once we create it, let’s compete like crazy on reducing environmental impact.”

The Oregonian - Outdoors Retailers Band Together to Develop Eco-index

Four years ago, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger argued “that global warming was an unprecedented ecological challenge that would lead to the death of environmentalism.” That proposition sparked a heated debate, with many eco-activists quick to reject it as irresponsible and…well, wrong. But in an opinion piece in today’s SF Chronicle, the authors suggest that we are now living in a post-environmental era. The authors point to Obama’s recent “State of the Union address,” in which the president “called for the most far-reaching program ever proposed by an American president to remake America’s energy economy - with hardly a mention of the environment.” Check out the full article, it’s a fascinating read. Here’s a bit of their argument:

“today, environmental organizations have largely relegated images of polar bears and melting ice flows to the back pages of their magazines. Green jobs and clean energy investment are the eco-ideas of the moment.

It was never realistic to have expected pollution regulations and carbon taxes to drive a global energy modernization project of the scale necessary to transform the global energy economy. We did not invent the personal computer by placing a “market-based cap” on typewriters nor create the Internet by taxing telegraphs and fax machines. To the contrary, government investment was largely responsible for bringing these revolutionary technologies, and a raft of others, into our lives. This included not only funding research and development at universities and national laboratories but also directly procuring and deploying cutting-edge technologies that were not yet ready for broad commercialization.”

We love a glimpse into the future. The ‘concept car’ has long provided that opportunity- sometimes, we’re fascinated by what we see (as with Honda’s hybrid sports car from a couple of years ago), and sometimes…well, sometimes we wonder if we want to live in a future that has cars like that (remember Honda’s Fuya Jo, a cross between a zamboni and a party bus?).

A ‘concept scooter’ might not be as sexy, but the folks at NASA Tech Briefs were sufficiently impressed that the Movito nabbed top honors in their recent Create The Future Design Contest.

Designed by Tai Chiem, the Movito is the scooter for a greener, hipper future. Designed for the “young and elegant” in a “dense urban landscape,”  the scooter is for those who want to go “green without compromise on style.”  Among the cooler innovations: an in-wheel motor developed by Australia’s CSIRO and currently utilized in solar powered racing cars, reducing harmful emissions and boasting a 98% efficiency, higher than any other in-wheel motor; it is light weight with direct drive that eliminates drive train loss and has a component weight of 6kgs; the modular base system allows for multiple ‘bodies’ to be attached to a common base. Alternate ‘bodies’ can be attached to a single base, or, two bases can be placed parallel with a larger body positioned on top turning the scooter into a comfy two seater mini-car. (see photos below)

Previous grand prize winning ideas have included a low-friction gear set for electric vehicles; a portable, noninvasive bone and joint damage detection device; an improved fastening system for orthopedic splints and casts; a low-cost in-vehicle emergency warning device; an integrated motor/fluid pump that reduces size and weight while increasing performance; and a new long-lasting light source material for safety applications.

My scooter is out of storage (along with baseball spring training, one of the best signs that winter is behind us), and I’m glad to be back to 85(ish) miles-per-gallon, but, let’s be honest, my “hip, young and elegant” quotient could use a little Movito.

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Here’s a post from Planet Green about Honda’s announcement that it will begin offering the first hybrid under $20k. Honda’s touting this as the first hybrid “for everyone,” and, next week, the car maker will introduce the Insight with a sticker price of $19,800. Breaking the $20k barrier is a pretty significant step in the mainstreaming of hybrids. With Ford’s hybrid starting at $27k, and the base-model Prius available for $22k, this is move might be a game-changer. As  Planet Green suggests,

This is big news. There are two major obstacles hybrids have faced in gaining traction in the US market: a) an expensive price tag—that’s the obvious one. But also, there’s b) the idea that hybrids are only for wealthy liberal “elites.” Finally having an option that many Americans can afford could go a long ways in overcoming both hurdles.

Yet another example of how Honda just gets it. For more on the car, check out Honda’s site.

Someone recently pointed us towards Sanjeev Shankar’s site, along with a description of Jugaad, his recent art experiment in New Delhi. The project was part of 48°C Public.Art.Ecology, an art festival aimed at examining “the teetering ecology of the city through the prism of contemporary art.”

A suspended shade pavilion made out of 945 discarded oil cans, Jugaad was named for an Indian term that refers to “attaining any objective with the available resources at hand.”

As he explains, “by redefining the ubiquitous oil can, Jugaad takes recycling and reuse beyond a simply utilitarian measure into an exciting world of architecture and design possibilities.” The impoverished streets of New Delhi are a far cry from the upscale setting of a San Francisco yacht club, but the project reminds us of David de Rothschild’s catamaran made of bottles.

The festival’s name, 48°Celsius, is a “reference to the exigencies of global warming, which can be felt in Delhi’s continuously escalating summer temperatures, and also to its interconnectedness to a city in overdrive. Delhi’s feverish building activity…[forms] a glossy veneer to the crumbling ecology beneath.” Here are some more photos:

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We like a good symbolic gesture every now and again. Earlier this month, the first daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, began playing on their new, ‘green‘ playground set on the White House lawn. The “Green Friendly” structure includes overhead monkey bars, shimmy bars, swings, rock wall, step chain ladder, slide, binoculars, periscopes and chalkboard (holy crap! I want to play on this thing)- and it’s made by Rainbow Play Systems.

The company markets the set as “an environmentally responsible choice,” made from 100% North American Cedar and Redwood. The eco-credentials were apparently an important selling point for President Obama, who can now watch his daughters play from the Oval Office.

We’ll take more of these symbolic gestures, President Obama. We’ll think of it as top down greener living.

Last Friday, an article in the NY Times about the demise of print media sparked an interesting debate here. Is it such a bad thing? If newspapers go the way of the dodo, will we miss them?  If we turn to online editions, won’t that be a good thing for the environment? For many, the question itself is blasphemy. The ritual of reading a paper at the breakfast table, on the subway, at the cafe and wherever else is as important to some as breathing.

Beyond ruining people’s breakfasts and morning commutes, of course, print media’s demise will result in a significant loss of jobs (from journalists to delivery boys/girls and everyone in between). And while that might be an okay thing from the standpoint of the industry’s negative impact on the environment- cutting down trees, production, delivery, waste disposal- it’s not as clear cut as you might expect.

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We’ll drink to this! Actually, Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale is one of our favorites, so we’re glad to hear that the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is broadening its eco credentials.

One of the innovators of the craft brewing renaissance since its founding in 1980, Sierra Nevada recently completed construction on one of the largest private solar arrays in the United States. This solar project produces over 1.4 MW of AC power for the brewery. This—coupled with its existing 1.2 MW fuel cell plant—provides the majority of the brewery’s electrical energy needs with clean power produced on-site. Surplus electrical energy will be available to help supply the overloaded California power grid during peak power usage periods.

“With the addition of our solar panels, we are approaching our goal of providing 100% of our energy needs with clean on-site alternative energy generation,” said brewery founder and CEO Ken Grossman. “Sierra Nevada has a long history of environmentally sustainable practices.”

The company joined the California Climate Action Registry to annually track, report and certify its greenhouse gas emissions. The Registry, created by the California legislature in 2000, is a non-profit public/private partnership that helps companies and organizations throughout the United States to track, publicly report and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions

(the solar arrays at their Chico headquarters)

We noticed a few blogs link to Fortune Magazine’s recently released list of the ‘Most Admired Companies’ in the world. Some mainstays (Apple, Toyota, Coke and Pepsi) and some ‘whaaaaa?’ (Goldman? really?). At least AIG and Lehman Bros. didn’t make the list.

As one blogger suggests, it’s “worth noting that famously socially and environmentally responsible (crunchy) companies like Patagonia and Interface, Inc. and Seventh Generation didn’t make the list. Two years from now, I bet sustainability earns big respect.”

We agree, though it’s also worth noting that many of these ‘most admired companies’ already do blaze a trail on issues of sustainability. Exhibit A: Apple, Toyota, Google, Microsoft, GE, Wal-Mart, and Pepsi- many of which we’ve profiled on these pages.

…the indellible link between innovation and an appreciation for the sorts of things we’ll wish we’d thought of.

Today, there’s an estimated 1 billion cars on this planet. As Daniel Sperling explains in his book Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability, there’ll be roughly twice as many in 15 years, with that number expected to triple by 2050. You think there’s smog in Los Angeles now!?!

So, we welcome news of a joint international agency effort to produce a ‘roadmap towards greater global fuel economy’ that would halve greenhouse gas emissions from cars by 2050. The ‘50 by 50′ Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI) attempts to show how annual savings of six billion barrels of oil and 2 gigatonnes of CO2 is achievable through an ambitious world wide program.

The campaign is the result of a partnership between the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), International Energy Agency (IEA) International Transport Forum (ITF) and FIA Foundation- a British nonprofit which promotes environmental protection, road safety and sustainable mobility.

Jack Short, Secretary General ITF said: “We already have the technology and the means to get us on the road to making our cars 50% more fuel efficient – all that is needed are coordinated efforts and actions from both industry and governments.”

David Ward, Director General FIA Foundation said: “This initiative can have a huge impact on the motoring public. Through tax incentives and information campaigns it would help encourage consumer demand for more fuel efficient cars. This is not an agenda for some point far off in the future. Our 50% fuel efficiency target requires us to change direction and take important actions right now.”

Some good quotes, but not a ton of specifics. We’ll keep an eye on whether ‘50 by 50′ can convince governments and car-makers, as well as drivers, to rally behind these measures (whatever they are, exactly).

Branding where our stimulus dollars go.

(Via Swiss Miss)

Next time you buy a ticket on Continental Airlines, you may notice that, along with being able to select your seat assignment, you’ll be given the option to offset the carbon for your flights. My wife and I are flying to visit some friends later this month, and for our roundtrip journey the cost to offset was $3.11. That’s a bargain, when one considers that you’d be hard pressed to find anything that cheap in the airport gift shop, where a bottle of water, a newspaper, magazine and a Snickers- I’m a sucker for the Snickers- ends up costing $30. I’d be curious to know how many takers Continental Airlines is getting. For more info, check out Continental’s site.

We’ll be blogging about our visit at Brighter Planet this week where we had them ‘demystify’ the concept. Stay tuned.

With financial markets imploding around us, it’s easy to feel pessimistic about the implications for innovation. As venture capital shrinks and cowers, will tomorrow’s technology find the type of funding that it did these past 20 years?

Here’s a version of ‘Did You Know?,’ an amazing video that’s been kicking around for a while, researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman, highlighting the remarkable rapidity of growth and change in our lifetime. As the video-makers suggest, we live in “exponential times”, where population growth, technological development, inter-connectivity and information exchange are on a steep trajectory north. Anyone who’s read Tom Friedman’s recent books will recognize the themes here. It’s simultaneously frigthening and awe-inspiring. It will be interesting to see what effect the sharp economic downturn will have, but this video certainly gives the impression that few things can derail this fast moving train of ‘future thought.’