According to Ikea’s CEO, Anders Dalhvig, “there’s no longer any doubt about whether taking environmental and social concerns seriously is good for business.” They’ve banned plastic bags, power many of their stores with the help of renewable energy and can transport six times the inventory in one truck (saving time, money and emisssions) thanks to their flat boxes (disassembled furniture).

And now Ikea has launched a new program that offers used IKEA pieces online, with plans to extend this idea to foreign outlets. As Peter Agnefäll, CEO of IKEA Sweden, explains,

“It is about taking an environmental responsibility for how our products are used in the longer term and making it easier for our customers to do their part for their responsibility towards the environment.”

This isn’t necessarily a new concept. Apple, for example, has been selling “refurbished” products for years, but this move by Ikea could be another trend-setting moment for the innovative retail giant.

[Source: Time, via Inhabitat]

Related LLT posts:

IKEA’s Flat Boxes Actually A Good Thing?

Retailers Explore Renewable Energy

We spotted this post from PopSci:

You may not have heard about it during your local traffic report this weekend, but anyone negotiating the Beijing-Tibet expressway in recent days is painfully aware of the problem: a 62-mile jam that slowed traffic to a crawl between the Chinese capital and Jining city. But while such huge traffic jams aren’t unheard of, China’s traffic woes are unique in their duration – the current traffic snarl (it’s still ongoing) has been unfolding since August 14, making for nine days of gridlock.

This story provided welcome perspective this morning, after my 8 minute commute was stretched into a “maddening” 15 minutes (!!!), on account of the annual late-August arrival of anxious parents and excited college freshmen. I’m not gloating. The thought of a nine day traffic jam makes my brain hurt. But a story like that reminds us that “one degree change” is, by necessity, a relative concept. Course corrections throughout the day depend on the choices each of us face. The single greatest influence on what those choices may be is where we live. It’s easier here, perhaps, than other places to consider “pace, space, and interface,” that is, to take a moment to consider our pace of life, to connect with our surroundings and notice our interactions (with each other, with products and technology).

But we’re also lucky to travel, and we know that, while the choices that we can make everyday aren’t achievable by all, one degree change is realistic for everyone anywhere. We spend a lot of time in Asia, and we’re working to build a design community that uses LTT as a lens to develop products and practices to support the growing concerns of a new generation, living in the one of the most densely populated places on the planet.

Why “one degree change” is a relative concept, innovative solutions are often born out of the most challenging of situations. Somewhere in that 62 mile long traffic jam, there’s an innovative thinker saying, “how could we do better?”

According to PopSci, the Beijing-Tibet expressway traffic jam puts squarely into focus the global impact China’s car manufacturing boom is having. “While Detroit declines, China is quickly becoming the world’s largest auto economy. China is selling passenger cars to its own citizens at a pace that seems unfathomable during an overall global economic decline (last year China automotive market moved 13.6 million cars, compared with 10.4 million in the U.S.). China is also on the brink of becoming a major automotive exporter, meaning Chinese manufacturers and designers will soon be deciding what commuters drive in other parts of the world.”

Time to ride my bike to work!

[Source: Popsci]

Yesterday’s post sparked some interesting emails. The post- on Cleveland’s plan to monitor how much its residents recycle and to fine those who do not- raises the question ’should government force people to go green?’ We’ve examined this question from a few angles on this blog, but our focus has always been on individual responsibility. We seek to answer the question “what can I do, today?” We know “living better” begins with the countless little decisions we each make throughout the day. But is that enough? Should good intentions be ushered by good policy? Should individual progress be spurred on by legislation that rewards our better choices and punishes our “lesser” ones?  California legislators could be voting tomorrow on a bill that would do just that.

The proposed bill, AB 1998, would prohibit stores from providing plastic carryout bags to customers. Similar “plastic bag bans” have succeeded in places all over the world. China, of all places, banned plastic bags two years ago, a measure that has saved an estimated 100 billion plastic bags from landfill or worse.

For our California readers, here’s what the bill says:

This bill would…on and after July 1, 2011, prohibit a store, as defined, from providing a plastic carryout bag to a customer. The bill would require a store, on and after July 1, 2011, with regard to providing carryout bags to a customer at the point of sale, to either make reusable bags available for purchase by the customer or provide a paper carryout bag that is subject to the green bag fee that would be imposed by the bill. The bill would require a store to charge a green bag fee of not less than $0.25 for each paper carryout bag distributed at the point of sale. The bill would establish the Paper Bag Pollution Cleanup Fund in the State Treasury and would require a store to remit these fees, less a specified amount, to the State Board of Equalization for deposit in that fund.

Read more: http://plasticbagbanreport.com/ab1998-california-assembly-bill/#ixzz0xeX3ZpDJ

Starting next year, the city of Cleveland will introduce a $2.5 million hi-tech recycling monitoring system that has residents divided. Is it an example of forward-thinking city governance, nudging residents towards habits that serve the greater good? Or is it an invasion of privacy?

Here’s how it works, according to a recent piece in Fast Company; “chips embedded in recycling carts will keep track of how often residents take the carts to the curb for recycling. If a bin hasn’t been taken to the curb in a long time, city workers will go rummaging through the trash to find recyclables. And if workers find that over 10% of the trash is made up of recyclable materials, residents could face a $100 fine.”

According to Cleveland.com, the city has actually been testing the system since 2007. As Fast Company explains, “if the chip system works in a city as big as Cleveland, other small to medium sized cities will probably take note.”

What should a city’s role be in fostering better habits among its residents? San Francisco has made composting mandatory, for instance, and threatened to fine residents who don’t comply. What role should government play in making sure we love tomorrow today?

[Source: Fast Company]

It’s not quite how Jules Verne* imagined it, but teams from three continents have set off from Geneva in a race ‘around the world in 80 days.’ The ‘Zero Race,’ as it’s called, will see electric cars navigate the longest and greenest race of all time, traveling across more than 19,000 miles, from Geneva, through Moscow, to Shanghai, across the ocean by ship to Vancouver, down the west coast of North America to Cancun, board a ship once again to Portugal, returning across western Europe to Geneva.

As Louis Palmer, organizer of the race, explains, “We want to show that we have solutions, like electric cars and renewable energy.” Race officials say any emissions generated from the race will be offset through solar energy being fed back into the grid and other investments in renewables.

After 80 days, the cars will have passed through 16 countries, with 150 city stopovers, returning to Geneva by January, 2011.

See related LTT posts:

Solar Roadway Captures Energy, Heats Roads

Motivated By The Impossible- flying around the world on solar-power

Japanese Solar Car Wins Aussie Desert Race

*Jules Verne was quite a visionary. Known as the “father of science fiction,” he imagined scientific exploration (through space, air and water) before means of such travel had been devised. In 1865, for example, he penned ‘From The Earth To The Moon,’ a half century before the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, and more than 100 years before Apollo 11 touched down on the moon.

Not Far From The Tree - a slideshow history from Not Far From The Tree on Vimeo.

As the saying goes, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Really? What about crab apples? They have become the bane of my existence, thanks to a tree in our backyard that seems downright spiteful. Every morning, I find dozens of fallen apples littering my yard, more, somehow, than the previous day. And like Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the hill only to watch it roll down again, I’m starting to wonder if I’m bound to repeat this throughout eternity. Do residential fruit trees provoke rage-filled skyward fist shaking and overly-dramatic comparisons to Greek tragedy? Then you might also find a glimmer of hope in hearing about ‘Not Far From The Tree,’ a Toronto “residential fruit-picking program.”

Not Far From The Tree sends out teams of volunteers to pick fruit from neighborhood trees that would otherwise go to waste. “We help fruit tree owners make use of the abundance of fruit,” the group explains on its site. “One third goes to the fruit tree owners, another third goes to the volunteers for their labour, and the final third is distributed (by bicycle or cart) to community organizations in the neighbourhood who can make good use of the fresh fruit.”

Pounds of residential fruit picked in 2010 (so far):

3344 (includes sweet cherries, sour cherries, mulberries, plums, apples, crab apples pears)

Pounds of residential fruit picked in 2009:

8135 (includes sweet cherries, sour cherries, serviceberries, mulberries, apricots, plums, crab apples, pears, sumar, elderberries, apples, black walnuts and ginkgo nuts)

One of the great moments in urban planning came in 1853 when the New York legislature designated a 700-acre area from 59th to 106th Streets for the creation of the park. A decade earlier, Andrew Jackson Downing, the first American landscape architect, had campaigned for a public park like the Bois de Boulogne in Paris or London’s Hyde Park, and, in 1858, landscape designer and writer Frederick Law Olmsted, and English architect Calvert Vaux unveiled their winning plans for New York City’s Central Park. The park has expanded, now 843 acres, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963. It’s hard to imagine Manhattan without it, and yet it’s hard to imagine modern urban planners reserving so much land on such a small island to remain undeveloped.

Since LTT is focused on this concept of ‘place, space and interface’- how products and ideas can shape (and be shaped by) our personal ecosystem- Central Park is an interesting example of blended ideals. What could be more iconically urban than Manhattan? Central Park, with its miles of trails and Great Lawn and Reservoir…saves the city from being consumed by asphalt and high rises.

So, for our NYC friends, and anyone who happily toes that line- between urban frenzy and “tranquil restoration“- we spotlight “The Urban Picnic Boxsal,” from Three Blind Ants LLC. Three Blind Ants, a “team of designers, illustrators and creatives who care about design and the environment,” claims this picnic box “is for all of the graffiti artists, breakers, subway performers and inner city folks who…head up to the nearest roof top to pop a picnic.”

“The picnic,” they explain, “is a great form of entertainment that centers around togetherness, conversation, friends, lovers, family.” The box includes:

• 1x) BOXSAL PICNIC BOX
• 4x) COMPOSTABLE TRAYS
• 4x) COMPOSTABLE LARGE BOWLS
• 4x) COMPOSTABLE SMALL BOWLS
• 4x) COMPOSTABLE UTENSIL SETS
• 4x) COMPOSTABLE COLD CUPS
• 8x) RECYCLED NAPKINS
• 1x) COMPOSTABLE TRASH BAG

Colorado-based Green Garage specializes in “green-tuning” cars, finding ways to make cars run cleaner, cheaper and greener. Technicians at the full-service garage, nicknamed ‘carhuggers,’ offer a 53-Point Systems inspection that identifies ways to maximize engine efficiency, they use auto parts that help customers save money by improving MPG and recommend more than 60 sustainable car-related products, “chosen for their superior performance at solid waste reduction, CO2 emission, toxicity, water conservation, use of natural resources and social impact.”

Since converting your car to run on bio-diesel or turning it into a completely electric car (see our post on a 14 year old who turned his grandfather’s 1972 VW Beetle into an all-electric car) might be a few degrees of change more than you can afford right now, “green-tuning” might be your best option. In fact, experts tend to agree that anything you can do to make your used car more efficient is actually greener than throwing down for that new Prius. You’d need to drive that Prius more than 100,000 miles before the environmental impact of manufacturing a new (albeit greener) car is offset.

Green Garage, and places like it, are helping customers make those critical one degree changes. And, as they suggest, that should help increase your smiles per gallon.

Website: www.greengarage.com

With everything from mandatory recycling and composting to hybrid ferries to Alcatraz, few cities in America are so aggressively chasing innovation in sustainability as San Francisco. Now the city is testing a parking system that adjusts the meter price based on demand at that moment. Electronic sensors measure the number of available spaces in real time. If there are a lot of empty spaces, the meter could be as low as 25 cents an hour. Park during a busy time, the meter might ask for as much as $6 an hour.

It’s another innovative concept, and it’s another one that might encourage carpooling and/or alternate means of transportation. The first phase of the project begins with 190 new meters in the Hayes Valley neighborhood.

Check out some other reasons we like the San Francisco Bay Area:

Bay Area Becomes ‘Better Place’

SF: mandatory recycling & composting

SF’s Mayor Newsom Eyes Ocean Power

Places: San Francisco’s Green Rental Car Program

Hybrid Ferry To Alcatraz

[Sources: PSFK,SF Park,CognitiveCities]

Subways are so last century! Anyone who has considered the marvel that is New York City’s maze of subway tunnels knows it’s an immense feat of engineering. But the bones of that subway system has seen minimal changes in nearly 40 years. Given how complicated they are to update and expand (just ask New Yorkers on the eastside who have waited decades for the long-planned 2nd Ave Subway line), perhaps the traditional “underground transit system” is yesterday’s solution. A company in China, for example, has revealed plans for an “overground system” it claims is more practical and innovative.

The company, Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., has developed plans for what it calls the “3D Fast Bus,” that rides aboveground, straddling the traffic. TreeHugger’s Michael Graham Richard provided an English translation of the company’s pitch:

At present, there are mainly 4 types of public transits in China: subway, light-rail train, BRT, and normal bus. They have advantages and disadvantages, for example, subway costs a lot and takes long time to build; BRT takes up road spaces and produces noises as well as pollution to the air. How to develop environmental-friendly public transportation? Straddling bus provides a solution…

The straddling bus combines the advantages of BRT, it is also a substitution for BRT and subway in the future. As you all know, the majority vehicle on the road is car, the shortest vehicle is also car. Normally our overpass is 4.5-5.5 m high. The highlight innovation of straddling bus is that it runs above car and under overpass. Its biggest strength is saving road spaces, efficient and high in capacity. It can reduce up to 25-30% traffic jams on main routes. Running at an average 40 km/h, it can take 1200 people at a time, which means 300 passengers per cart. [...]

The bus can save up to 860 ton of fuel per year, reducing 2,640 ton of carbon emission. Presently we have passed the first stage demonstration and will get through all of the technical invalidation by the end of August. Beijing’s Mentougou District is carrying out a eco-community project, it has already planned out 186 km for our straddling bus. Construction will begin at year end.

While we can’t imagine a New York without its subway, could an “overground system” help update the aging MTA? New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg has done a lot to make his city run more efficiently- his “Smart” ideas include introducing a fleet of hybrid taxis, wind turbines on skyscrapers and bridges, a greener Broadway, making crosstown buses free and more. So, who knows. Who could have imagined Broadway would become the safest place to be in the city AND a pedestrian park?

[Sources; TreeHugger & China Hush]

We don’t often repost entire articles, but after we read Nature’s series ‘Can Science Feed The World,’ we’re doing just that. As the science mag explains, “more than one billion people go hungry today, and the vast majority of them are in low-income countries. Increasing yield sustainably — using less water, fertilizers and pesticides — is going to be a crucial part of the solution.” In the series- highly recommended reading- Nature asks what role science has to play in securing food for the future.

Thanks to Dan’s Plan for bringing this series of articles to our attention. And here’s an article entitled ‘Food: The Growing Problem.’

more…

The Chinese household appliance giant Haier has unveiled a new system at SinoCES that harnesses waste heat from shower water and transfers energy to the hot water tank. The PowerPad, as it’s called, captures 15% of the energy from the tap, which, according to the company, will be improved to up to 30% when it goes on sale 6 weeks from now.

Details of how exactly it works haven’t been provided, but observers say the 30% efficiency rating, though difficult to achieve, doesn’t seem to break any laws of thermodynamics.

Here at LTT, we love examples of harnessing wasted energy (see our posts on the dance that floor that captures the kinetic energy of dancers, the supermarket that captures the energy of cars entering and exiting its parking lot, and more). Solar, wind, geothermal, tidal…and now shower power.

The PowerPad is expected to hit the Chinese market soon at a price of about $600.

[Source: EcoFriend]

Pepsi is now leveraging its remarkable ‘Refresh’ Project to support communities affected by the BP oil spill. With the ‘Refresh Project,’ Pepsi has provided another powerful example of how a brand can “tap into the benefit of the greater good,’ diverting much of its advertising budget to go, instead, towards supporting community-based projects proposed and selected by consumers. So far this year, Pepsi has donated $1.3m for 32 grants each month.

Pepsi has committed $1.3 million towards ideas that benefit communities in the affected area (the five-state region of Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama). Applications were accepted between July 12 through the 16th, with online voting to begin August 2nd. Ideas/proposals with the most votes will be revealed online on September 22nd.

Last December, we suggested that if Pepsi succeeds, cause-related marketing could well be the next trend, a natural marriage of the corporate responsibility movement and the interactive power of social media. The campaign has won massive support from consumers and industry observers alike.

As Alex Hesz, client services director at ad agency Modernista, and author of Guilt Trip said:

They aren’t over-reaching or over-sentimentalising. There are no photographs of birds covered in oil or ruined beaches or stars and stripes.

We don’t mind if Pepsi enjoys a little positive consumer feeling if they do genuine, substantive good to earn it, and it feels as if this campaign is built on that principle.

It feels honest, and in CSR in general honesty is the single most important element of any branded work. Pepsi have got it right.

Pepsi Refresh Project

[Sources: PSFK, BrandRepublic]

Related LTT posts:

Pepsi Drops Super Bowl Campaign For “Cause-Related Marketing”

BP’s Re-Branding Failure

Brands: PepsiCo’s One Degree Changes

The (re) Rise of Odwalla

We’d like to see more creative interface with our surroundings- a hanging wall in a midtown apartment, “peel and stick” photovoltaics on the roof of a car, exercise bikes in gyms that help to power its TV screens, and so on. The recent unveiling of Strata SE1, the tallest residential building in London, is an example on a large scale.

The “Razor,” as it’s nicknamed, is the first skyscraper in the world to have electricity-generating wind turbines built into its core design. The building stands 42 stories high, and, at that height, 40 mph winds are a near constant. The building’s design also makes use of the change in airflow caused by nearby buildings, referred to as the ‘Venturi effect.’ The Razor’s 19 KW wind turbines use 5 blades instead of 3 to reduce noise pollution. The building is expected to generate roughly 8% of the buildings overall electricity demands.

The energy costs per flat are expected to be up to 40% less than Britain’s typical housing average. Smart living- made possible when sustainability is built into the fabric of the design aesthetic- is a trend we can get behind.

[Source: CleanTechnica, Wikipedia]

In our last post, LTT looked at the Bendy Bike, Kevin Scott’s new bendable bicycle that doubles as a bike lock too. It’s an innovative idea that isn’t likely to take the biking world by storm, but it’s the type of clever product that can help make the culture of cycling more accessible. It’s that culture, especially in cities like London and Boston, that is benefiting from the newest trends- bike sharing programs, newly designated bike lanes and bike cafes. London now boasts hotspots such as Rapha Cycle Club and Lock 7, and more recently, Look Mum No Hands, a cafe-bar-bike workshop that offers bike enthusiasts and commuters a one stop shop for repairs, catching a live screening of Lance Armstrong’s latest crash, hopping on the free Wi-Fi and grabbing some food and drink to recharge their (sustainable) tanks.

What’s your city doing to make the case for you to leave your car at home?

[Sources: NY Times, PSFK]

In April, we posted a story about how a UK Supermarket was installing eight ‘bee hotels’ on land around its new eco-store location in Gloucestershire. Sainsbury’s beekeeping efforts are aimed at helping to improve crop pollination in the area, one of Britain’s main fruit and vegatable growing regions. In another example of Europeans harnessing “bee power,” the Düsseldorf International Airport and seven other airports in Germany will use bees for help in monitoring local air quality.

By regularly testing the honey of hives placed on airport premises, researchers are able to identify what toxins are in the air and being captured by the flora and fauna. The first round of this year’s honey was tested earlier this month and showed that toxins were well below official limits. The honey was bottled and given away.

Local officials haven’t thrown away more modern techniques but find the bees an accurate and useful supplementary testing tool.

Apparently, the test results from the honey provide the public a more tangible way of understanding the relative health of the local environment and ecosystem. If the bees are thriving, and the honey is good to eat, people don’t need to see complicated read-outs of computer-generated air quality reports. According to Jaymi Heimbuch, in TreeHugger, “there is nothing like seeing healthy insects and food to know that pollution is low.”

As Heimbuch suggest, “if they prove to be accurate monitors of pollution, that could be a great push for getting more rooftop hives from major cities to small towns. Tiny, energy efficient sensors placed all over urban landscapes are certainly helpful, but bees serve more than just one purpose.”

[Sources: TreeHugger, NY Times]

It’s no coincidence that when billionaire Richard Branson launched the US edition of his Virgin Airlines over here he chose the San Francisco Bay Area as its headquarters. The brand’s philosophy and attitude make Virgin America more like its Bay Area cohorts (Apple, Google, Facebook) than the big carriers (United, American, USAir…) with which it competes.

Virgin America, the three-year old innovative airline “startup,” was recently named the most eco-friendly airline in the industry. And yesterday, standing alongside the Governator (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, Branson kicked off Virgin America’s inaugural international flight- from San Francisco to Toronto, with additional routes being added later this year. It’s growing- with style and brand innovation- at a time when the industry struggles.

The airline’s Burlingame-based headquarters was recently retrofitted to qualify for LEED Silver certification. In addition, it will become one of two “anchor tenants” in the airport’s new Terminal 2, the $383 million redesign and retrofit that will also meet LEED Silver standards. When completed in 2011, Terminal 2 will serve as California’s only airline hub. The new terminal will boast improved indoor air quality, reduced energy consumption, preferred parking for hybrids, a farmer’s market and will offer the first airport dining program in the country using Slow Food vendors.

The terminal will be “the greenest expansion of any airport in the United States of America,” San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom said. “We’re going to have a slow-food pavilion, a farmers’ market. All these values that everyone loves to mock us about are being put together in this unique, extraordinary environment.”

Newsom said that Virgin shares the Bay Area’s “values of sustainability, long-term business strategy, long-term branding strategy…(and have) an innovative spirit in their approach to the governance of an airline in an industry that needs a new spirit and an entrepreneurial approach.”

Offset your footprint in-flight

But it’s not just that the brand is moving a decidedly ungreen industry closer to green, it’s how it’s doing it. It’s throwing a party!

As Caroline McCarthy suggests,  Virgin America’s success has always been defined by “both tech-savviness and sex appeal.” Last year, it became the first U.S. airline to offer fleet-wide Wi-Fi access. At the launch yesterday, over cupcakes and champagne, guests were reminded that since its launch Virgin America has operated a brand new fleet that is up to 25% more fuel and carbon efficient than the average fleet flying domestically. The airline employs practices such as single engine taxiing, maximizing use of efficient ground power, utilizing advanced avionics to fly more efficiently, and cost index flying – the practice of regulating cruising speeds to reduce fuel burn.

Virgin America was also the first to offer guests the ability to offset the carbon footprint of their flight – in-flight via the touch-screen Red seatback entertainment through partner Carbonfund.org. Virgin America also voluntarily offsets its headquarters footprint on an annual basis. In addition, Virgin America has initiated recycling pilot initiatives and currently recycles in-flight waste from approximately 47 percent of its flight.

We’ll see how the rest of the struggling airline industry responds to Virgin America’s scrappy innovation.

Living walls allow a rural aesthetic to emerge in an urban setting. These vertical gardens, usually growing on the side of buildings, not only bring green into an otherwise brick and mortar realm but, in some case, help to filter clean air into the building in which they are growing upon. Or, as in the case of Japan’s latest atypical design, the vending machine on which they are growing.

This prototype from Fuji Electric is giving green vending a new meaning. The moss-covered vending machine is powered by solar panels located on top. The moss provides insulation during the winter seasons to improve energy conservation.

[Sources: Fuji Electric, ecofriend]

The plucky South Koreans were overwhelmed yesterday by Argentina, 4-1, under the incessant drone of the vuvuzelas. In South Africa, Maradona’s side is the class of world soccer. Eight thousand miles away, in Seoul, the Koreans are showing leadership in another area, urban renewal. The World Cup Park, built as the center piece of the 2002 World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea, is a shining example of urban transformation. Sky Park - one of five areas that make up World Cup Park - was once a garbage dump. As Jennifer Chen writes in TodayOnline, the area is no an “enlightened hilltop oasis.”

“Looking at the vast stretch of grass that leads the eye to pale, distant buildings,” Chen writes, “you wouldn’t for one moment suspect the park’s humble history.” Chen continues,

Having been converted from a landfill into a usable public space, the park is an example of up-cyling. What’s more, the area’s energy is supplied by a sustainable source - in this case, graceful wind turbines that meld into the landscape. Classical music is played from the sound system.

There will be more of these spaces as Seoul transforms itself into a model of green living. Spearheading the developments is the city’s newly-re-elected mayor and environmentalist Oh Se-hoon. In the long term, the city plans to replace all its buses and taxis with electric or hybrid vehicles. More parks and green trails linking major landmarks will be created.

One of Seoul’s premier green attractions, however, can be enjoyed now. Like Sky Park, Cheonggyecheon Stream works its magic slowly, and so best appreciated with a cuppa and snack in hand.

Cheonggyecheon Stream is much more than its name suggests. It’s not just a body of water, it’s a lush garden-cum-creek situated below street level that stretches for 5.8km through downtown Seoul. And like Sky Park, it exhibits a breezy loveliness that belies its dirt-filled origins.

The stream used to be polluted, so was covered with concrete to make way for roads. It was cleaned up and opened in 2005 by then-mayor - and now South Korea president - Lee Myung-bak. Lee received “Hero of the Environment Award” from Time magazine for the project.

Sky Park and Cheonggyecheon are pleasant diversions. So, too, a liberating bike ride along the banks of the Hangang, which divides the city into north and south. On a typical day, the stretch fills ups with locals indulging in all manner of activity - from rollerblading to jetskiing, to children splashing in the public pools.

The river area is set to change dramatically by 2030 as part of the Hangang Renaissance. When completed, there will be three artificial islands offering gardens, cafes and cultural venues; and eight waterfront towns connected by river taxis.

This year, [Seoul] was named World Design Capital 2010, allowing it to highlight its urban projects and design plans. The centrepiece is Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park by renowned architect Zaha Hadid which will merge architecture and nature into one seamless whole.

[Sources: TodayOnline, VisitSeoul]

Magnolia: Vermont’s first “certified green” restaurant from lovetomorrowtoday on Vimeo.

LTT’s One Degree TV visits Magnolia Bistro in Burlington, VT to see how Vermont’s first “certified green” restaurant is making it work. Co-owners July Sanders and Shannon Reilly talk about how they blend their own business interests with those of their community. “It’s not rocket science,” says Reilly, but “it’s really just a lot of thought behind little things” that makes the difference.

Kids, go play down near the old train tracks! Hardly sounds like good parental advice, but thanks to an initiative by a Spanish collective called Basurama, kids in Peru are doing just that. Basurama- derived from the Spanish word basura, meaning trash- has reclaimed some long abandoned industrial land in Lima and turned it into a re-purposed amusement park.

In 1986 a large strip of land was side aside for what was to be Peru’s new electric train. The project was halted and the partially constructed concrete columns became part of the sad industrial landscape of this neighborhood. That is, until Basurama came up with a way to turn this once forgotten urban space into an amenity for the people. And then earlier this year, the Ghost Train Amusement Park was born.

Says Basurama,

Our aim is to study those phenomena inherent in the massive production of real and virtual trash in the consumer society, providing points of view on the subject that might generate new thoughts and attitudes. We find gaps in these processes of production and consume that not only raise questions about the way we manage our resources but also about the way we think, we work, we perceive reality.

UPDATED 10am, 6/10/10:

From the Associated Press:

GRAND ISLE, La. (AP) — The financial toll of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico escalated Wednesday as BP’s stock plummeted to a 14-year low and fishermen, businesses and property owners who have filed damage claims with the company angrily complained of delays, excessive paperwork and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under.

The containment efforts played out as investors deserted BP amid fears that the company might be forced to suspend dividends, end up in bankruptcy and find itself overwhelmed by the cleanup costs, penalties, damage claims and lawsuits generated by the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Each day we’re met with new and more tragic images of the devastation caused by BP’s Deep Horizon oil spill. From dead pelicans to oil globs on beaches, it’s a real mess (to quote my two year old son). The disaster also provides an interesting case study in the do’s and don’ts of 21st century branding. And while BP’s issues go well beyond branding, the era of branding BP as ‘beyond petroleum’ must surely be over.

As others have noted, successful branding is about aligning your company’s business processes with its corporate culture. Jim Gregory suggests in TalentZoo, “BP provides a case in point of a brand that got way out front of its business process and culture to produce tremendous exposure to risk.” It wasn’t that the branding was not successful. In fact, the move to be known as simply BP (rather than British Petroleum) in 2000 was very effective. The company hired Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide to manage a $200 million re-branding effort, that introduced the new name, a new logo and the “beyond petroleum” slogan. The re-branding was aimed at differentiating BP from its rivals.

“Most assuredly the impact was positive at the time,” writes Gregory,  but “how can it contemplate building the brand before it has addressed the basics of the business? With thousands of rigs pumping oil in the Gulf today how could something as fundamental as a shut-off valve not be standard operating procedure?”

Ogilvy’s campaign helped improve BP’s ‘Brand Power’ in the US among business decision makers “from a score of 30 (on a 100 point scale) when the campaign was launched in 2000 to an all-time high of 50 in 2008.” Even before the Deep Horizon oil spill, that ‘Brand Power’ was slipping, partly due to the fact that BP has reduced corporate advertising from $75 million in 2007 to $53.5 million in 2008 to $32.8 million in 2009. The value of the brand also declined, from $19.9 billion in 2008 to $14 billion in 2009.

But, as a company like BP must now see, branding only truly works when it reflects the company’s genuine mission. As Gregory puts it, the branding “should be a way of life for the management of any corporation.” If a huge gap exists between how you brand yourself and how you actually operate, your brand equity is a ticking time bomb. Just ask BP.

If you’ve ever ridden Amtrak, the idea of a ‘train that never stops’ might seem like science fiction fantasy, but in Taiwan people are working to make it a reality. According to the concept, originated by Taiwanese inventor Peng Yu-lun, the train enters the station and locks into a “boarding” car filled with passengers, which is put into motion ahead of time. Passengers embark and disembark via the ‘boarding’ shuttle, allowing the train to never actually stop at the station, thus saving time and money.

Peng Yu-lun says that a train like the domestic Kaohsiung MRT has a maximum speed of 85 km/h, but due to stops, it achieves an average speed of just 35 km/h. If the train followed his concept, it would be able to maintain an average speed of 85 km/h throuout the entire trip.

[Sources: EcoFriend, SingularityHub]

It’s hard to talk about the excesses of our technology addiction without sounding like an old fogey. We love technology, and we love the future possibilities it helps us envision. But, as this video reminds us, inspiring our children to consider the natural world requires actually getting them out in it. As Charles Jordan of The Conservation Fund suggests, “what they do not know, they will not protect, and what they do not protect, they will lose.”

At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, PLAY AGAIN, from Oregon-based Ground Productions, unplugs a group of media-savvy teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure, documenting the wonder that comes from time spent in nature and inspiring action for a sustainable future. As the filmmakers explain,

One generation from now most people in the U.S. will have spent more time in the virtual world than in nature. New media technologies have improved our lives in countless ways. Information now appears with a click. Overseas friends are part of our daily lives. And even grandma loves Wii.

But what are we missing? And how will this impact our children, our society, and eventually, our planet?

American kids spent 90% of their time indoors, and 63% of their weekly activities are spent behind screens. Play Again investigates the consequences of a “childhood removed from nature.”

For more info, check their site and find them on Facebook.