How is the internet changing the way you think? That’s this year’s question from Edge, a nonprofit foundation, modern-day salon and informal gathering of “some of the most interesting minds in the world.” The essays, from a range of contributors (college professors, technology analysts, scientists, artists and creative thinkers), are reliably thought-provoking. Will this access to information, our capacity for sharing, the relentless barrage of new ways to plug in…lead to a new age of Enlightenment or, as some suggest, a cultural Dark Ages?

One notable response is a piece by Clay Shirky, Social & Technology Network Topology Researcher and Professor at NYU’s Graduate School of Interactive Telecommunications. In ‘The Shock of Inclusion,’ Shirky writes, “The Internet has been in majority use in the developed world for less than a decade, but we can already see some characteristic advantages (dramatically improved access to information, very large scale collaborations) and disadvantages (interrupt-driven thought, endless distractions.) It’s tempting to try to adjudicate the relative value of the network on the way we think by deciding whether access to Wikipedia outweighs access to tentacle porn or the other way around.”

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“As you think, so shall you become.” No, that wasn’t Warren Buffett, it was Bruce Lee, but I bet the Sage of Omaha might agree. It speaks to the power of thought and perception in shaping how we live our lives. In its recent issue, Newsweek examines how future lifestyle choices are often determined by past experiences, in particular how difficult times can shape our core values.

We all know the type of person who came of age in the Great Depression. They are the grandmothers and grandfathers who can’t use a tea bag too many times, yet are enjoying comfortable retirements in warm climates. And we know what the children of the 1950s are all about. They are the optimistic boomers who embodied an age of continual upward mobility and possibility. They have often spent more than they earned, because for them it has been a truism that times can only get better. It’s no accident that the psychology of entire generations is shaped by the milieu in which they grew up; economic research tells us that our lifelong behaviors are determined in large part by the seismic events—good or bad—of our youth.

If consumer consciousness is shaped by the times, what can we expect from the generation coming of age during this period of economic uncertainty? Even among siblings, the experience that “shape our core values” can be very different- consider an older sibling who graduated in the late 90s. Opportunities seemed boundless, optimism dominated. For a younger sibling graduating in, say, 2005, the “milieu” in which they came of age was markedly different. During their first week of school, planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Just months after graduation, Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc along the Gulf Coast. In between, the U.S. began two wars. One family, two virtually opposing realities. Graduates in ‘08-’10 have faced- and are likely to face- even more uncertainty.

As consumer consciousness swings like a pendulum from good times to bad, consumer brands must adapt as well. Consider the “Hyundai Assurance” program, launched last year to restore confidence and minimize risk to the consumer. Other  car companies have followed Hyundai’s lead. Similarly attuned to the times, Pepsi recently made the remarkable decision to shift its Super Bowl ad campaign budget towards more Cause-Related forms of marketing.

This will be the first in a series of posts in which we explore this notion of evolving consumer consciousness and brand responses. What can brands do to help shape that consciousness in a positive way? How can brands inspire? During difficult times, creativity and hope become the currency of value that brands can offer. And, thanks to the power of Social Media, brands can listen and respond like never before.

[Sources: Newsweek, PSFK]

Skeptics of green innovation (and, yeah, somehow there still are a few of those) often point to the bottom line as a reason for questioning sustainability’s ‘bang for the buck.’ For those people, we present the following example; researchers in Scotland have engineered bacteria to detect land mines.

Data suggests that 20,000 people are killed each year by land mines, scattered in over 87 countries worldwide. Securing these land mines is a dangerous and painstaking process, but more dangerous is the fact that many of them remain hidden. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are modifying strains of bacteria that can detect the presence of explosives.

The bacteria glows green- so, this really is ‘green innovation’- in the presence of explosives, easing detection. The research team states that after a few hours of spraying affected fields, the bacteria starts to glow showing the presence of explosives.

[Source:Inhabitat]

The above video, a talk from TED by designer Stefan Sagmeister about “the power of time off,” is not really about green innovation at all. It’s a stretch, perhaps, to include it here in these pages, where we focus on exciting green ideas and trends. But the parallel Sagmeister draws, between innovation and “time off,” is a fascinating one, and it’s sparked a series of conversations here about the role of new experiences and new surroundings in inspiring new ideas.

Every seven years, Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh his creative outlook. As he explains in the video, he saw the conventional career timeline- working until one’s sixties, then retiring- and wondered how his work (and career) would benefit if he took seven of those retirement years and took one year off every seven years during his career.

As he points out, there are some compelling examples of successful (and, importantly, innovative) companies that value “time off” as a key part of their creative process. 3M and Google offer their engineers 15% and 20% “personal use” time respectively.

For more on Sagmeister and his “time off” theory, check out the piece on TED.

Another in Brighter Planet’s series of videos. It speaks to one of the central questions of the eco-movement, how to sell it. Is it enough to sell a product or an activity on the merits of it being ‘green?’ No. We all need to think more creatively about how to coax this cultural shift.

One of the great marketing campaigns of all-time is Nike’s ‘Just Do It.’ It accounts for the fact that exercise can be a drag (should I pull myself out of bed for a morning run?) and that competition can be daunting (will I fail? can I keep up?), but it offers, instead, a mindset that is as simple as it is empowering…just do it!

Skeptics who say the environmental movement doesn’t depend on creative minds and marketing wizardry don’t get it. The folks at Brighter Planet do, and we’re grateful.

A Reason to Bike from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.

Quickly taking the youtube/myspace/current realm by storm, here’s a clip of actress Julia Stiles talking about her “new line of eco-friendly clothes.” It’s Julia Stiles Styles! I’m wearing the ‘Save The Last Shants’ right now!

St Patty’s Day is still eight months away, but we’re all drinking green beer. Well, that’s the way it seems, as more and more beer companies broaden their sustainability initiatives. In the past year, we’ve done a number of posts on the trend (including MolsonCoors being named #1 most socially responsible brewer, MillerCoors providing beer-made ethanol to power vehicles at the DNC,  an Anheuser-Busch brewery getting 55% of its power from landfill biogas, and more). The trend du jour in beer packaging…the mini fridge keg. MillerCoors, for example, has begun testing the sale of $20 “Home Draft” system. They don’t seem to be marketing this as part of their green strategy- appropriately- but are their some distinct environmental benefits?

The 1.5-gallon recyclable “Home Draft” (Miller Lite and Coors Light) is being tested in places like Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego. Much like Heineken’s 5 liter (1.3-gallon) DraughtKeg, which enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome but has since been scaled back to holidays and special occasions, the Home Draft fits in the fridge, keeps beer fresh for about 30 days and sells for about 15% more than the 18-pack equivalent.

Is it intentionally eco-friendly? No. But it effectively reduces packaging waste by encouraging multiple uses before being recycled. It just might save C02 emissions from the car trips you would have otherwise made to the local bar (not to mention the risk of a dumb and wobbly drive home).

Regardless, it’s an interesting trend to watch, as other brewers roll out their own premium fridge keg. Earlier this summer, Heineken launched it’s Newcastle Brown Ale in draughtkeg form.

In case you missed it, here’s a weird and compelling spot about the DraughtKeg from Heineken.

During the recent Tube strike in London, one commuter decided to capture the thrill and convenience of riding to work on his bicycle. The youtube clips, from kmcyc, which have the feel of a real-life video game, provide a fascinating vantage point of how to beat the chaos caused by the underground strike. As kmcyc writes, “anyone want to see lots and lots of cars going nowhere? Well hop on your bike and cycle around the Tube Strike!”

I’m still mulling over Jennifer Boulden’s piece in the Huffington Post, considering that balance between advocating “green tweaks” or “green leaps.” As I mentioned in the last piece, Boulden is the co-founder of Ideal Bite. For those of you who haven’t read Ideal Bite- what’s wrong with you?- it’s a site that provides daily tips for living green, promoting the positive and empowering value of “incremental environmentalism.” In her piece for the HuffPo, though, Boulden reveals a more ambitious philosophy emerging, a call for bolder action and bigger leaps forward. Will baby steps get us to where we need to be?

At LTT, we think about this a lot. Are “greener products” only “less bad,” rather than actually “good?” Should we be moving with a greater sense of urgency towards a “sustainable future?” To a point, and yes. But while we don’t believe in half measures, we do believe in the efficacy of realistic alternatives. But maybe Boulden is right, maybe we now have the necessary ingredients for creating a new framework. Maybe we’re reaching that tipping point, where individuals, governments and corporations are absorbing the message.

Every major brand is addressing this in some way or another- there are a lot of innovative companies out there that get it and others that are starting to get it. But whether it’s the size of the slow-moving ship, the nature of their industry or the state of the economy, “going bold” sometimes gets watered down to simply “taking action.”

But, still, we look to those big fish to reshape the priorities of their own industry. PepsiCo , a company we admire (we’ve covered a number of their initiatives), is an interesting contradiction. On the one hand, it produces a staggering amount of plastic bottle waste, and, because of its global distribution, produces waste (in the form of emissions and landfill fodder) everywhere you can imagine. On the other hand, PepsiCo is among the most progressive Fortune 50 companies in terms of corporate social responsibility, recycling (check out Aquafina’s partnership with Keep America Beautiful), industry-changing innovation (Frito Lay’s compostable bag) and so on, and that global reach can bring a message of sustainability to unlikely places. Other examples, companies like Timberland, Green Mountain Coffee and Whole Foods, have shown the broad appeal of integrating responsibility into a company’s core identity.

Whole Foods is adopting some innovative practices, from exploring renewable energies at stores, banning the use of plastic bags, or pushing the entire industry towards responsible aquaculture guidelines. Their Mid-Atlantic region recently established a commitment to diverting 90% of its waste from landfills by 2009. We had a chance to speak with Mark Smallwood, Whole Foods’ Green Mission specialist, who says the company is well on its way. To achieve this remarkable goal, Whole Foods is working to minimize packaging, enhance its composting programs and further develop its recycling. After a recent garbage audit, Smallwood says, “we found roughly 60% of our waste going to compost, 25% was being reused or recycled (including pallets, totes, milk jugs and so on) and 15% was going to landfill, mostly packaging.”

Boulden’s right, it does seem as if the pieces are positioned to fall into place for a new (sustainable) economy. But it takes a confluence of understanding, energy and innovation. It takes not just consumers demanding greener products but companies anticipating (like Honda and Toyota did a decade ago with hybrid/EV technology) how their industry needs to evolve. Baby steps or big leaps, the scene is set for us to “cook up a new type of economy.”

For more on Boulden, check out her piece on the Huffington Post.

A teacher of mine in high school was famous for interupting himself (and others) mid-sentence to demand we all take an “aesthetic break,” a moment to take in the view, a second to think about the flutter of life going on around us. This spot, from the quirky and talented MK12 design team, is for Swiss International Air. It’s a bit of a dream-like tangent from our normal fare, but, as trend/idea aggregators, we like to see how brands develop their own distinct view of the world (and their place in it). And, anyway, it’s time for an aesthetic break!

Look, Liam Gallagher doesn’t care what you think. The Oasis front man and his brother Noel have made a career of not caring, offstage and on. Oh, I’m not an Oasis hater. Their first two records were pretty good, and I’m morbidly fascinated by their brand of hooliganism and self-adulation.

Liam has just launched “Pretty Green,” a clothing line “owned and designed” by the singer. He describes “Pretty Green” as an “up-front, straight talking, classic clothing range.” He explains, “clothes and music are my passion. I’m not here to rip anyone off, and I’m not doing it for money either. I’m doing it cuz there’s a lack of stuff out there of the things I would wear.”

But is there anything “green” about the clothes themselves? Apparently not. Is this green-washing then? Well, the name is taken from a song by The Jam, but, in an era when retailers and marketing execs are scrambling to meet consumer demand for greener products, greener manufacturing and corporate responsibility, it does seem a bit cynically misleading. I mean, heck, he just got ten minutes of my time.

Click here to watch the World Wildlife Fund’s effective (and affecting) new video. According to the WWF, 1,000,000 plants and animals could disappear within the next fifty years. Almost 1,000,000 square kilometers of ice field has melted in the last thirty years. 250,000 hectares (roughly 618,000 acres) of tropical forest disappears each week.

Aside from the vid’s message, we enjoyed director Matthieu Jacobs‘ aesthetic and sound production.

Microphone check. One. Two. [Ahem] Allow me to vent for a minute about buttheads and poop. There are possibly only three types of people in this world 1) people who think it’s okay to drop a (still smoldering) cigarette on the ground, where, by the way, my one year old may crawl by and pick it up and, as with everything he touches, put it in his mouth. 2) people who don’t pick up after their dogs. [these people are sometimes the same people]  3) people who would run for office in city hall if only to pass some ordinance that required the first two groups of people to serve 100 hours of cigarette and poop cleanup duty.

Admittedly, the issue of “not scooping the poop” is not necessarily an environmental one- someone prone to doing it might argue that ultimately it’s good for the soil, or it’ll be gone in a week so what’s the big deal, or “hey, I’m not using a plastic bag to pick that up because it’ll just end up in a landfill.” That person would be an idiot, but the argument could at least be made. But the larger point is, of course, it flies in the face of the type of self-responsibility we all expect from one another. The plastic bag argument, I suppose, raises an interesting dilemma for people who have, otherwise, successfully avoided using disposable plastic bags in their daily lives. For those people I recommend something like FlushEze, the flushable, biodegradable poop bag. And cigarettes… - smoke, don’t smoke, I don’t care, but would a person who recycles at home, is conscious of not being wasteful, etc…drop a cigarette butt into the gutter? And if he/she did, why that disconnect? Incidentally, a cigarette butt takes up to five years to biodegrade. On a walk recently, I saw a woman who, no joke, was wearing a shirt that said “Hug Your Mother Earth,” who in the span of two minutes, tossed her cigarette butt into the bushes and watched idly as her bulldog had a morning constitutional on the side of the bike path. It was the perfect trifecta of douchebaggery. I knew it was time for a post about buttheads and poop. Now…, back to our normal fare.

We saw this video on CR Blog, from Acne advertising, about a successful ad campaign they created on behalf of Swedish airport bus company (Flygbussarna). The project’s goal was to “challenge the status quo about what belongs on the road, the car or the coach.” The math is very straightforward- a car averages 1.2 passengers, while a bus can carry 50. Meanwhile, a bus produces the equivalent emissions of about 4 cars. The result was a 300 ton piece of advertising, a bus ’sculpture’ made up of crushed cars (see photos below). The campaign was so compelling, the agency explains, that the installation received unexpected interest from television and radio, and it caused major traffic delays as curious drivers along the airport road would slow down to get a better glimpse.

[images via CR Blog]

We enjoyed looking over this year’s Earth Day “List of Superlatives” from Grist, their fourth annual “take on the good, the bad, and the weird of the past year.” (And check out previous lists for 2008, 2007, and 2006.) It covers everything from “Strangest business-tycoon-turned-wind-activist” (T. Boone Pickens) to “Best recent use of Coen Brothers Time” (anti-clean coal ad). There are plenty of Sarah Palin jabs, however, “Hottest MILF” goes to Mother Earth.

Here’s the list from the good folks at Grist. more…

It’s an interesting dilemma when the things designed to keep us safer are also the things that make us less safe. I’m talking, in this case, about road salt. According to the EPA, around 11 million tons of road salt are sprinkled (dropped? placed?) on US roads each winter. Road salt not only helps cars find better traction in snowy conditions, but the chemical compound of the salt lowers the freezing temperature on the ground, limiting the build up of ice. But the EPA (along with other environmental advocacy groups) has identified ways in which road salt can contaminate rivers, lakes and other public water supplies.

This is not necessarily a new finding- the Department of Transportation sent an internal memorandum in 2003 acknowledging the risks but deferring action to future policymakers- and, since no one questions the need to make our roads safer, road salt is seen as a necessary evil.

But is it?

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This past weekend, the NY Times Magazine included its eighth annual ‘Year of Ideas,’ its list of ideas that “helped make the past 12 months, for better or worse, what they were.” As always, it’s an interesting mix, ranging from the brilliant to the bizarre, and we thought we’d provide some highlights, at least ones that were related to the environment. They include ideas about networked power grids,  a redesigned internal-combustion engine, eating Kangaroos, dog poop forensics and mini cows.

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I saw these for sale in Urban Outfitters about two weeks ago - they retailed for around $5 bucks, but I missed where they were manufactured. I recently noticed they were giving them away online to the first 500 orders of the day. At first glance, a bold move for a purveyor of disposable fashion (shutter shades anyone) but is this promotion because they don’t highlight them at retail enough and they are trying to move the stock? We’d like to know.

Pairing the right wine with your meal can save dinner. But what about wine that can save the planet? Well, that might be overstating things a bit, but, thanks to a new study about the carbon footprint of wine, we have some good guidelines for making the most eco-friendly choices. Tyler Colman, a wine expert and author of the wine blog Dr Vino, and Pablo Paster, brains behind the popular Ask Pablo blog, have published their findings for the American Association of Wine Economists, in a study called “Red, White and “Green”: The Cost of Carbon In the Global Wine Trade.”

Apparently, distance and size does matter. In general, transatlantic shipping is more carbon efficient than trucking long distances, which in turn is more efficient than transporting by plane. The authors identify the so-called ‘Green line,’ a geographic guideline for selecting wine, running down the middle of Ohio. For points west of the ‘Green line,’ the authors suggest, it is more carbon efficient to drink California wines. For points east of the ‘Green line,’ wines from Bordeaux will have a smaller carbon footprint, assuming bottle sizes remain the same. Speaking of size, buying larger bottles makes more green sense than half bottles, and, though many might shudder to consider this option, light packaging, such as bag-in-a-box wines (such as in the above photo), are much less carbon intensive than glass bottles. So, all those times in college you bought Franzia…you were secretly thinking about the planet.

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Time again to give thanks- should there really only be one day set aside for that?- and we’re certainly grateful for the tremendous feedback we’ve received since launching Love Tomorrow Today. As always, we invite you to let us know about programs and people making a difference or tips to incorporating simple change into our daily lives.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! This weekend, remember to reduce, recycle, reuse and…relax! Don’t forget, eating leftovers (delicious, food coma-inducing leftovers) is good for the planet!

Since the 18th century, farmer’s almanacs have offered their readers a host of useful tidbits, from tide tables to astronomical data, recipes to gardening tips, anecdote and quotes. But these almanacs are perhaps best known for their weather predictions. The Farmer’s Almanac (first edited by David Young in 1818) and the only slightly older Old Farmer’s Almanac (first edited by Robert B. Thomas in 1792) each rely on secret mathematical and astronomical formulae, including sunspot activity, tidal action, planetary position and other factors to predict weather years in advance. But lately, prognosticators are facing a variable that Messrs Young and Thomas didn’t predict: global climate change. In his piece in the Washington Post, Fogging Up Those Old-Time Forecasts, David A. Farhenthold examines the response (and in some cases the lack of response) of almanacs to the issue of climate change. As Farhenthold suggests, these almanac prognosticators eschew modern scientific technology and techniques, looking instead “for clues in the timeless rhythms of nature.” These old (and, let’s be honest, adorable) techniques, such as looking to see how high the wasps are building their nests this year, how vigorously squirrels are foraging for nuts and whether Puxnatawny Phil sees his shadow (who else loves Groundhog Day?), may be tested in new ways as these ‘timeless rhythms of nature’ are thrown out of whack by increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.

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One of the many environmental consequences of the fishing industry is the waste and broken gear that is often left in a boat’s wake- sometimes accidentally, sometimes not. Lobster traps break, ropes and nets tangle, plastic lines get snagged and are jettisoned, and, for many, this debris has long been seen as a necessary evil of the trade. This year, some New England fishermen have begun collecting the debris and using the waste to generate electricity. more…

Last month we posted a piece from WorldChanging.com on ‘Imagining A Post-Green World.’ Alex Steffen and the folks there asked their readers to imagine a world where sustainability had been achieved. At Love Tomorrow Today, we focus on how to equip people with products and ideas that can help them achieve a more sustainable future. We think our bag is a good start-  it’s made from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles (six 16oz. bottles to be precise), helping to chip away at the 45 billion plastic bottles that end up in US landfills every year and the 1 trillion plastic bags consumed worldwide each year. So, yeah, we think about bottles. A lot. Recently, we came across a this slideshow on plastic bottles by the artist Frank Yamrus. It made us wonder whether, in the post-green future that WorldChanging imagines, plastic bottles will be seen as just another link in the chain of true sustainability.

Norway is the latest in a growing list of countries to contribute to efforts to save the Brazilian rainforest. Japan, Sweden, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland are expected to follow soon with pledges of their own. Here’s a piece from the BBC about Norway’s $1B pledge to help save the Amazon!

Norway joins fight to save Amazon

Norway has pledged $1bn (£500m) to a new international fund to help Brazil protect the Amazon rainforest. The donation is the first to the fund which Brazil hopes will raise $21bn to protect Amazon nature reserves.

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There’s no going back. We live in a world that’s tuned in, turned on and wirelessly connected! We acrue gear- the Wii, the iPhone, the iPod, the remote control(s), the television, the DVD player, the computer, the printer, the fax machine (ok, that was just to check to see if you’re still with me) and the list goes on. And not because we want to- although, let’s admit it, we really do- but because this is our reality. It’s not a generational thing anymore either. My 69 year old father-in-law is as tech savvy as anyone I know. And when they stop working for us, just in time for Steve Jobs to unveil his newest gadget, how many of us recycle these used electronics? Recylcing our bottles and newspapers has become second nature, but most of us still haven’t figured out how to  effectively (easily?) recycle our other belongings. Now, at least, there are sites like MyGreenElectronics. MyGreenElectronics encourages the 4 R’s of responsible consumerism- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Rethink! The site also provides links to corporate recycling programs (so you’ll know where to send that HP Printer that bites the dust!). Increasingly, corporate recycling programs aren’t limited to electronics. Last week, we were lucky enough to have someone from Patagonia come in and talk to us about their garment recylcing program. Patagonia is an amazing company, and it has long been a leader on issues of sustainability and environmental stewardship. In 2005, Patagonia launched its Common Threads Recycling Program, through which customers could return their worn out Capilene baselayers for recycling. Patagonia has added fleece, Polartec fleece and cotton t-shirts to the list of recyclables. The long-term goal, according their site, is to make its entire catalog recyclable.

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