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

Some brands are known almost as much for the packaging as for the product itself. Think of the familiar Heinz Ketchup bottle, Tiffany’s robin’s egg blue box, the shape and feel of a Dom Pérignon glass bottle. These iconic packages reassure the consumer of quality and tradition, and changing a winning formula can be a risky proposition. Conversely, every brand feels a powerful push to update to packaging that reflects its forward progress and innovation while maximizing efficiency and minimizing the footprint.

When Tropicana debuted its “new and improved” packaging last year, for example, the apparent goal was to update the box to fit the age of iPods. There was widespread consumer confusion. The $35 million redesign was so different that customers couldn’t find Tropicana on the shelf anymore. They missed the familiar orange-with-a-straw picture. The ‘crazy genius’ of brand guru Peter Arnell, the man behind the move, now seems, well, just ‘crazy.’ One blogger called Arnell “the Bernie Madoff of brands,” while others evoked the 1985 New Coke disaster. Less than a month later, Tropicana announced it would revert to the old packaging.

But Tropicana’s packaging ‘misadventure’ had been an effort to modernize the brand’s aesthetic. What about when a brand is trying to modernize its efficiency and environmental impact? Heinz literally turned its packaging tradition upside down, changing from its iconic glass bottle after more than a hundred years. The ketchup maker’s Top-Down™ and Fridge Door Fit™ bottles have won awards for packaging innovation and rave reviews from consumers. According to Heinz, the packaging’s lighter weight “reduces the overall weight to transport them, saving fuel and improving efficiency,” reflecting the company’s concern for it’s “impact on the environment.”

We spotted this piece by Liz Alderman in yesterday’s NY Times about the Champagne industry’s “drive to cut the 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide it emits every year transporting billions of tiny bubbles around the world. Packaging accounts for nearly a third of Champagne’s carbon emissions, with the hefty bottle the biggest offender.” But the industry must balance its mandate to lower its environmental impact with its  ”the luxurious image and ritualistic traditions of Champagne.”

As Alderman explains, that luxury and tradition has “been symbolized for centuries by the bottle, ever since Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk, thickened the glass in the mid-1600s to contain what was often referred to as “the devil’s wine” because its vessels exploded so often. Over time, the bottle was recalibrated until 900 grams, or about two pounds, became the standard weight in the early 1970s.”

Alderman writes,

Designing a new bottle was no small feat. The container still had to withstand Champagne’s extreme pressure. It would also need to survive the four-year obstacle course from the factory floor to the cellars to the dining table, and fit in existing machinery at all Champagne houses. And it had to be molded so that consumers would barely detect the difference in the bottle’s classic shape.

Alderman suggests progress is being made. The director of St Gobain, the factory where most Champagne bottles are made, claims “using less glass lowered the carbon emissions necessary to make each bottle by 7 percent, and allowed about 2,400 more to be placed inside delivery trucks, reducing the number of trucks on the road.”

As brands heed to the call- from within the industry and from consumers- to be “new & improved,” big questions loom large. Can a brand’s packaging evoke ‘luxury’ and ‘green?’ Can ‘tradition’ survive ‘forward-thinking?’ The ones that do it right will save money, strengthen their traditions and, if we’re lucky, help in saving the planet.

[Source: NY Times]

Related LTT post:

LTT Opinion: greening life’s little luxuries

WSJ Scrutinzes Bamboo Couture

Better living starts with “better know how.” That is, you have to know how and why to make those one degree changes. That’s why we like the EPA and Department of Transportation proposal this week to overhaul fuel economy labels to reflect how electric and alternative fuel vehicles stack up against gasoline passenger vehicles. The agencies propose grades for cars, ranging from A+ to a D. Apparently, there are no failing grades, though we suspect the Hummer might qualify if it was still in production. The grades will be based on mileage, greenhouse gas contribution and other types of polluting emissions. Consumers will be able to compare cars against all other vehicles, not just cars in the same class.

This type of grading system will, we think, have a profound effect on how cars are perceived. It’s one thing to know, on some level, that you car isn’t as fuel efficient as other cars. It’s another entirely to know you’re driving around a D+.

What grade will your car receive? Hybrids such as the Ford Fusion, Honda Civic, and Toyota Prius will get an A-minus, with a MPG rating between 40 and 58. Fuel-efficient cars such as the Nissan Altima, Toyota Corolla, and Volkswagen Golf will be given a B-plus for mileage between 30 and 30 miles per gallon. (Click PDF to see the full list of mileage and grades.)

Any Ferrari drivers out there? You’d get a D rating, where mileage is 12 miles per gallon or lower.

Officials expect to be finalized with new rating system early next year and used in 2012 model year cars. The published labels will be available for public comment for 60 days.

[Source: CNET]

In the late 1980’s, Kelly LeBrock starred in a series of Pantene print and television ads* with the slogan, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” We didn’t. And now Proctor & Gamble, which makes Pantene, could run with “Don’t hate me because I’m sustainable.” The beauty giant has announced that beginning next year, the company’s Pantene Pro-V, Cover Girl and International Max Factor product lines will feature packaging made from renewable sugarcane-based plastics. The new packaging will be made by Brazilian plastics manufacturer Braskem, consisting of sustainably grown Brazilian sugarcane. The plastic will also be 100% recyclable.

According to Gina Drosos, Group President, Global P&G Beauty, “As we talk with women around the world, they tell us that they want to make themselves more beautiful without making their environment less beautiful. With this new packaging innovation, women can have confidence that their favorite brands are helping to make a difference.”

[Source The Living Principles via PSFK]

*By the way, everything is on YouTube these days.

Related “sustainable packaging” posts from LTT:

Brands: Curtis Packaging

When a company “goes green,” does motive matter?

Brands: Frito-Lay’s Compostable Bag

Dupont’s Awards For Packaging Innovation

Pre-Consumer Sustainability?

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

We’ve talked a lot about ‘eating local’ foods- see our video on locavore legend Pete Johnson- but here’s a functional product designed to make it easier to ‘buy local’ foods. Betabrand’s Cornucopia Bag is another clever creation from this San Francisco-based clothing company better known for introducing the world to Cordarounds, horizontal corduroy (”the quietest cords in the world”). The Cornucopia looks and feels like the logical evolution/improvement of the shopping bag. After all, plastic bags and local farmer’s markets are now as incongruous as a smoker in an airplane lavatory- it’s possible, but I wouldn’t recommend it- and the landscape of canvas totes is crowded with few really good designs.

The Cornucopia has two modes- as a picking bag slung over your shoulder or as a backpack-and has three shelved pockets, a main compartment, a laptop sleeve and a built-in change pocket.

The $120 price tag is pretty steep, and it’s only available online, but this could seriously improve those farmer’s market outings.

[Source: Gizmodo, via PSFK]

Researchers at New Mexico State University are trying to figure out whether simple modifications to shopping carts could translate into profound modifications to consumers’ diets. (NMSU photo by Darren Phillips)

Could better shopping carts help us make better decisions about what we eat? Researchers at New Mexico State University are studying whether simple tweaks to shopping carts could profoundly change the way we eat. In one trial, Collin Payne, an assistant professor in marketing at NMSU’s College of Business, and his research team placed a yellow line across the width of shopping carts with a sign designating one side of the cart for fruits and vegetables and the other for everything else.

“We showed a 102 percent increase in people buying fruits and vegetables, without showing a decrease in supermarket profitability,” he said. “Allowing retailers such as supermarkets to maintain their profits is important in achieving buy-in for these kinds of tools. Whether the profits of food manufacturers are affected remains to be seen.”

“It would be a sad day if companies ever stopped making candy bars, but consumers need better tools,” Payne said. “There’s been such a dramatic decrease in the consumption of fruits and vegetables over the past few decades, which corresponds to an increase in certain cancers, diabetes and other ailments.”

If we are what we eat, we’re also what we buy. Even within one broad event- such as ’shopping for food’- there are countless small decisions. Type of food? Brand of food? Organic from New Zealand vs. non-organic from just around the corner? Payne’s research may help us to make those decisions more thoughtfully. One degree…changes everything.

[Source: NMSU via Dan's Plan]

These days, going green is fashionable. Literally. In recent years, an increasingly vocal segment of the fashion industry has been quietly experimenting with innovative design techniques with the aim of achieving ‘zero-waste design.’ The idea is to create clothing patterns that leave “not so much as a scrap of fabric on the cutting room floor.” Last week, Stephanie Rosenbloom profiled this “fashion-forward” trend for the NY Times. “This is not some wacky avant-garde exercise, Rosenbloom explains, “it’s a way to eliminate millions of tons of garbage a year. Apparel industry professionals say that about 15 to 20 percent of the fabric used to produce clothing winds up in the nation’s landfills because it’s cheaper to dump the scraps than to recycle them.”

From Fashion Tries on Zero-Waste (NY Times), on these innovative ideas that are “starting to penetrate the mainstream’:

Next month, Parsons the New School for Design — which inspired a generation of would-be designers through the television series “Project Runway” — will offer one of the world’s first fashion courses in zero waste. The book “Shaping Sustainable Fashion: Changing the Way We Make and Use Clothes,” by Alison Gwilt and Timo Rissanen, zero-waste pioneers, will be published in February by Earthscan. And an exhibition of zero-waste fashions, curated by Mr. Rissanen and another zero-waste designer, Holly McQuillan, will be held in New Zealand next spring and in New York the following fall. Also in March, an exhibition, “No Waste/Zero Waste” will open at the Averill and Bernard Leviton A + D Gallery in Chicago, part of Columbia College Chicago.

“Clearly this is an idea whose time has come,” said Sandra Ericson, founder and director of the Center for Pattern Design, which studies and educates about historical and current trends in pattern making, in St. Helena, Calif.

One way to eliminate waste is to create a garment pattern — with gussets, pockets, collars and trims — that fits together like a puzzle. Such designers favor certain cutting techniques with names like the “jigsaw cut” (from Mr. Liu) and “subtraction cutting” (from Mr. Roberts). Mr. Rissanen put his on a blog, zerofabricwastefashion.blogspot.com. Another method is to simply not cut the fabric at all, but drape it directly onto a mannequin, then tuck, layer and sew.

Click here to read more.

When we launched Love Tomorrow Today, the idea was to either create or find ‘things’ that would make it easier for people to live better. It’s true, life does come at you fast, and ’living well’ relies on a series of ‘good choices’ made quickly. What we eat, what we buy, how we get where we’re going…,these are decisions we make everyday, and, frankly, sometimes we choose the path of least resistance. Take, for instance, the choice to ride a bicycle. You don’t have to try hard to find a reason to drive instead of ride. Time- “I’d like to ride, but my car will get me there faster.” Weather- “it’s sunny now, but what if it rains later.” Business- “I probably should make a phone call or two.” Space- “where am I going to store the bike?” At least for that last excuse, Graham Hill has a simple solution- his flat-folding ThinBike that can fit into just about any slim space.

Let’s face it, whether you live in a studio apartment in Brooklyn or a house with a garage in suburban Vermont, finding a place to store your bike is a pain. As consumers, we tend to collect stuff, and however much space we have to fill, we do. The ThinBike was built with “the space dilemma” in mind. Working with Schindelauer, Graham- who is the founder of TreeHugger- created the custom bike that will fit into the tightest of spaces. With just a simple twist the handles lock to the side when not being used, and the bike’s pedals fold down to avoid any pant snags. In place of a greasy chain, Hill and co. went with a carbon belt drive. The ThinBike weighs 18 lbs, so “it’s just so heavy and unweildy” is no longer an excuse either.

Happy trails.

[Source: Treehugger via Inhabitat]

Patagonia basically invented the concept of “corporate social responsibility.” Founder Yvon Chouinard built a brand that blended quality lifestyle products with a commitment to improving the quality of that lifestyle, investing in ways to make things better and at a lower cost to the environment. From its Footprint Chronicles, which tracks the life-cycle impact of its products, to its partnership with Bluesign Technologies in promoting higher environmental standards for dyes and finishes in the textile industry, Patagonia leads the pack in almost every area.

We also highly recommend its blog, The Cleanest Line, where you’ll be able to find the company’s first interactive “environmental initiatives booklet,” which highlights that impressive example of “considered” business.

Patagonia’s Environmental Initiatives Booklet 2010

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]

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…

In the video above, Sheena Iyengar discusses her groundbreaking research on ideas of choice- how we make choices and how we feel about the choices we make. In this TED presentation, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, as well as cultural influences that affect how we view those choices.

In this country, for example, individual choice is celebrated as the principle expression of freedom- think of Burger King’s slogan “Have it your way!” or of Starbuck’s “happiness in your choices.” But those assumptions, she argues, don’t always hold us in my countries and many cultures. In many Asian cultures, for example, being true to one’s self may rely as much on satisfying key figures (or a collective) as it does about addressing one’s own preferences. “It’s a mistake to assume,” she cautions, “that everyone thrives on the pressure of choosing alone.”

At Love Tomorrow Today, we’re thinking a lot about choice, and about this balance between the individual (as in, ‘individual choices,’ ‘individual responsibility,’ etc…) and the collective (as in, ‘community initiatives,’ being a part of a ‘movement,’ etc…). And because we also spend a lot of time in our home away from home (Taiwan), we think a lot about cultural influences. In an ever-increasingly “flat world,” part of the challenge in finding “better products” that help us “live better” is in navigating cultural assumptions that are sometimes at odds. But, in our experience, simple ideas and one degree changes make sense in any language.

[Source: TED]

Iyengar just published her first book, The Art of Choosing, which shares her research in an accessible and charming story that draws examples from her own life.

A couple of years ago, there was a flurry of stories about how the planet would be better off if we all bought used cars instead of new hybrids. It seems counter-intuitive, but actually, if you were to buy a ‘98 Toyota Tercel that averages 27/35 mpg, for example, that new Prius would have to go 100,000 miles to achieve the same carbon savings. As fully electric vehicles hit the marketplace, that argument will hold less weight. And in Ontario, Oregon, 14 year old Ashton Stark and his father have managed to merge the past and the future. They spent a year transforming Ashton’s grandfather’s 1972 VW Beetle into an operational electric vehicle.

The car runs on nine separate 8 volt golf cart batteries-  “Interstate battery made a deal with us,” Ashton explains, “to test their new line of golf cart batteries and collect data on the batteries”-  and can hit a top speed of 45mph. The range is about 50 miles which will cost about 10 cents in electricity costs. The entire transformation process cost around $4000.

At 14, Ashton will be getting his learner’s permit soon. For now, he has to rely on his Dad to know how the car handles on the open road.

[Source: EcoFriend, from: The Argus Observer]

Designer Tim May is asking ‘Can Cardboard Cut it?’ That’s the name of his recent project, which includes an innovative furniture design made of 100% recyclable and already-recycled corrugated cardboard and stainless steel threaded rods and bolts. The chair and the stool/coffee table fits together, and all are covered with a clear varnish to enhance and protect.

As much as we love the Taiwan Cardboard Restaurant, this may be our new favorite ‘cardboard fabulous’ design. Can a place on the Ikea showroom be far off?

[Source: Yanko Design]

Other LTT cardboard-related posts:

Taiwan’s Cardboard Restaurant

Thinking inside the box: Is Boxed Water Better?

The story of Burt’s Bees is a remarkable one, from humble beginnings in the backwoods of Maine where apiarists Burt Shavitz and Roxanne Quimby slept in an 8′x8′ turkey coop…to today’s success as one of the leaders in natural personal care products. The company has helped shape a movement, along with the likes of Seventh Generation, Tom’s of Maine, and Ben & Jerry’s (interestingly, all born in New England), that saw social responsibility as central to brand identity.

That brand identity was pummeled by skeptics after Burt’s Bees was purchased by Clorox in 2007 for $913 million. But just as Ben & Jerry’s has tried to stay true to its roots after being purchased by Unilever, Burt’s Bees is, by all accounts, still driven by its founding mission: “to create natural, Earth-friendly personal care products formulated to help you maximize your well-being and that of the world around you.” Only now, thanks to deep pockets and Clorox’s distribution machine, it might push the industry towards ‘all natural’ even faster.

Among its recent innovations is a line of six natural toothpastes, all formulated with real Cranberry Extract, known to block bacteria from adhering to teeth and gums, helping prevent plaque formation. The Natural Multicare Toothpaste With Fluoride contains no sodium lauryl sulfate and no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives. Never tested on animals, the products are also free of petrochemicals and synthetic ingredients such as Phthalates. According to the company, the percentage of natural ingredients in the toothpaste is 99.2%.

The Cloroxes and Unilevers of the world, “faceless multinational, bestriding the globe, selling detergents and cleaning products” may, in fact, be using companies like Burt’s Bees and Ben & Jerry’s as “socially responsible fig leafs.” But that assessment tells only a fraction of the story. As Burt’s Bees CEO, John Replogle, told the NY Times not long after Clorox purchased them, “Don’t judge Clorox as much by where they’ve been as much as where they intend to go.” As Replogle explained then, ”Burt’s Bees’ 380 employees have an opportunity to influence the direction of Clorox, a company that generated $4.8 billion in sales last year and employs 7,800 people.”

To wit, the 2010 ImagePower Green Brands Survey named Burt’s Bees “the #1 Green Brand,” and the company’s green initiatives include an impressive list of achievements. In April, Burt’s Bees accomplished its goal of producing zero waste to landfill, years ahead of schedule. In the last year, the company reduced its energy consumption by 15.3% and saw a 5.5% decrease in non-product water use.

Mr. Replogle and co. hope to reinvent business with an idea they call “the Greater Good,” based on the premise that if companies are socially responsible, profit will follow. Employee bonuses are tied to performance metrics that include meeting sustainability goals.

See some of our other “bee-related’ posts:

German Airport To Use Bees To Monitor Air Quality

UK Supermarket to keep bees

The New York-base design firm, The Way We See The World, has developed a new version of the edible, disposable cups called Jelloware. Made of agar agar, a type of gelatin derived from algae and used in desserts, the Jelloware cups can be made in a variety of flavors to match the beverage.

The idea of an edible cup may strike some as a step into the fringe of the “loving tomorrow today” movement. But if you’ve ever spent time at, say, Ben & Jerry’s, you’re unfazed by the question “cup or cone?” The cone is the precursor to the Jelloware cup, the container that’s not just edible but central to the experience. Will we soon see bars offering Mojitos in mint flavored Jelloware cups? If bottled cereal milk can make it, anything can.

Especially in the summer, the season of the plastic cups at BBQs, we’d like to think the Jelloware cup has a future!

[Sources: The Way We See The World, PSFK, Treehugger]

Just like everyone, LTT enjoys reading about ‘high concept’ innovations- you know, the breakthrough in a lab somewhere that will make it possible to (fill in the blank) someday, the kind we can look forward to a generation from now. For instance, I’m holding out for that all-in-one solar-powered wrist watch cell phone personal computer GPS hair dryer. But what really excites us isn’t the reinventing of tomorrow’s wheel, it’s making today’s wheel better. And when it comes to that, the low-hanging fruit is very often improvements in the supply chain, including the packaging, which is usually the first thing to end up in the trash.

Yesterday, LTT met with Don Droppo Jr, President & CEO of family-owned Curtis Packaging, based in Sandy Hook, CT, to learn more about the ways they are blazing a trail in green packaging. “We’re a true testament to the idea that green business makes economic sense,” Droppo has said. At a time when the U.S. packaging industry has been steadily losing business to overseas competitors, Curtis has seen its annual sales double, thanks in large part to its focus on sustainability.

When cosmetics maker Estée Lauder asked Curtis to package its Origins natural-products line in “the most environmentally friendly paper out there,” Droppo’s research led him to shift the company’s entire business model. “I started to learn about sustainability and asked what my company could do so that we could be as environmentally conscious as possible,” he recently told Fortune magazine.

Curtis began by working with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to certify the paper in its packages was only purchased from FSC endorsed paper mills. Next, Droppo says, “we converted all of our energy needs to clean, renewable energy.” Curtis will be buying a total of 4,524,800 kWhs of renewable energy per year for the next 3 years, with the majority sourced through wind power and approximately 30% of the purchase will be a blend of renewable sources including locally generated wind and hydroelectric.

Initially, as you’d expect, Curtis saw its costs rise. But Droppo viewed that extra 10% to 15% in costs as a marketing expense. “Not only are we doing the right thing for the environment, but we’re getting a tremendous amount of exposure because of this.”

The innovations from Curtis now go well beyond “green paper.” The company’s R&D has led to innovations in materials and processing that have lowered cost and reduced environmental impact. “We have signed up new customers because of our ‘green’ commitment,” Droppo explains. “Hopefully after hearing the positive impact this has had on our business, other business owners or corporations may follow suit to do their part to help sustain the environment.”

Companies like Curtis Packaging are, in many ways, the unsung heroes of the sustainability movement. An innovation in screen-printing on compostable foil isn’t quite as sexy as a breakthrough in photovoltaic technology, but its measurable impact on our lives is considerably larger, at least today. We’ll continue to keep our eye on Curtis and other leaders in this space.

Some other recent posts on eco-friendly packaging:

Eco-Friendly Packaging Replaces PVC With Cardboard

Aveda’s New Bottle Cap Recycling Plan

Pulp Lamp: when packaging becomes the product

Brands: Frito-Lay’s Compostable Bag

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]

Innovation at its most satisfying is often about presenting a new idea in the simplest of contexts. We spotted this product, from miniwiz, that does just that. The Solarbulb screws into any plastic bottle, and, voila!, you have yourself an upcycled lamp. The Solarbulb allows you to repurpose that plastic bottle (remember, 45 billion plastic bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year). All you’ll need is three or four hours of sun, and the solar bottle lamp thingy will provide up to five hours of uninterrupted LED illumination.

More info: secure.ultracart.com

Ahhh, July 4th weekend. If you’re lucky, you avoided traffic, ate an entire watermelon, didn’t blow a finger off lighting a bottle rocket and- if you’re really lucky- didn’t have to look at your watch once. For most people, having a vague sense of the time- as in, “I think it’s roughly 11-ish”- is directly linked to feeling relaxed. Here’s an interesting design, from Andreas Dober, that manages to capture that “approximate time,” while blending a mechanical art aesthetic with a spirit of sustainability.

The Catena Wall Clock is literally upcycling. A vertical bicycle chain, attached with brass numbers, rotates in a clockwise direction. At the top of every hour, the time appears at the zenith of the rotation. As the picture shows, you’ll know when it’s “roughly 11-ish.”

The only drawback to the Catena- which, incidentally, gets its name from the Latin word for “chain”- is the price tag. This clock can be yours for a cool $2300.

[Source: Spot Cool Stuff, Unica Home]

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]